3. “Do You Remember The First Time?” – Pulp: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

3. “Do You Remember The First Time?” – Pulp 

(From the album His N’ Hers)

1994

Pulp didn’t do anything in the normal way or standard order. Jarvis Cocker had fronted one version or another of Pulp for more than a decade before the band had found any success. And when Pulp did finally have a Top 20 UK hit with “Babies” it was with a song that had already released as an unsuccessful non-album single two years earlier. All of these “out of order” happenings makes telling the story of Pulp feel out of place and out of order. “Babies” would ultimately find success when it was released as the third single off of their fourth album His N Hers, but it was the second single “Do You Remember The First Time?” that became Pulp’s first UK Top 40 hit. Released in the aftermath of Suede’s self-titled debut and Blur’s Britpop-defining Modern Life Is Rubbish and just before Oasis’ Definitely Maybe,  “Do You Remember The First Time?” helped secure Pulp’s place as part of the emerging Britpop scene. The song draws heavily on British influences like The Jam, The Kinks, and The Smiths, and helped to set up the bigger success the band would soon have with “Babies”. “Do You Remember The First Time?” also finds Cocker more firmly establishing himself as a witty and observational storyteller. “Do You Remember The First Time?” spins the tale of a couple having an affair where both parties long for what the other has. The woman resents that she has to go home to a loveless relationship and is jealous of the freedom her lover has. Meanwhile, he is lonely, depressed, and jealous that she has someone to go home to; someone to talk to and spend time with. Both characters see the affair as an escape from the boredom and loneliness of their lives, but Cocker is able to make the listener realize that their affair is making them both feel more lonely and isolated, not less, even if they don’t. This sense of growing frustration with life and each other is perfectly supported by the band’s slowly building intensity which becomes more joyless and tense over the course of the song. While not a huge hit, “Do You Remember The First Time?” became one of the foundations for the Britpop movement.

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2. “Babies” – Pulp: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

2. “Babies” – Pulp 

(From the album His N’ Hers)

1994

Pulp had recorded their third album Separations in 1989 but due to issues with their record label, the album didn’t see release until three years later in 1992. While this was obviously very frustrating for the band the timing of its eventual release meant that Separations was released just as the Britpop scene began to emerge as a popular style. This earned Pulp some notice alongside bands like Suede and Blur as an early part of the scene. The long delay also meant that the band had several new songs ready for release as singles. One of these new songs was “Babies”, which was released in October of 1992 as a non-album single. “Babies” moved away from the dance-influenced textures of much of the music on Separations like “Countdown” and instead updated the arch-British observational story songs of bands like The Kinks and The Smiths. “Babies” wasn’t a successful single in 1992 but it became a blueprint for much of what Pulp would do moving forward and the band was pleased enough with the song that it was included on their fourth record His N Hers when it was released in 1994 even though the song was almost eighteen months old at that point. His N Hers proved to be a success in the UK and Pulp finally achieved some long-awaited success as part of the Britpop scene (aided by Jarvis Cocker becoming a notable personality in his own right due to a series of controversial interviews and publicity stunts). The album’s first single “Lipgloss” was a minor hit and its follow-up single “Do You Remember The First Time?” was Pulp’s first Top 40 hit in the UK. However, it would be the re-release of “Babies” as the third single (as part of The Sisters EP which saw a re-recorded version of “Babies” combined with a few outtakes from His N Hers) that would finally really propel Pulp into full-blown star status in the UK. The re-release of “Babies” became a Top 20 hit, peaking at #19 in spite of being a two-year-old song that had been previously available as a stand-alone single in 1992 and on the His N Hers album a few months earlier. 

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1. “Countdown” – Pulp: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

1. “Countdown” – Pulp 

(From the album Separations)

1992

Pulp is a very difficult band to place in a project like this because they formed many years before they made a creative or commercial impact. Indeed, the original version of the band formed around singer Jarvis Cocker in 1978 when he was just fifteen years old. Furthermore, the band released their first album It in 1983, almost a decade before the Britpop scene that they helped to shape and popularize swept Britain and the world. In its early days Pulp went through a dizzying array of styles and line-up changes but was able to score a session with John Peel in 1981. However, this line-up of Pulp soon fell apart leaving Cocker to start over. This new version on Pulp came onto the scene in 1983 with the release of the band’s debut record It (the title being a pun as when combined with the band’s name it made the word “pulpit”). This second version of the band had a folky, acoustic-based sound quite different from their better-known later work and there are few of the synths or dance textures that Pulp would become known for. More stylistic changes happened following the failure of It and it would be yet another new line-up of the band around Cocker that would record 1987’s Freaks. And while it would take some time it would be the core of this new line-up that would become the version of Pulp that would eventually find success. New members Russell Senior and Candida Doyle would help move Pulp in a more experimental and arty direction and Cocker’s lyrics would increasingly become dark tales of social outsiders. In other words, Freaks began to lay the groundwork for Pulp’s later success but it still doesn’t quite all come together and the album was yet another commercial flop. Pulp briefly dissolved following the failure of Freaks but the band soon reunited with a lineup of Cocker, Senior, and Doyle, along with a new rhythm section of Steve Mackey on bass and Nick Banks on drums. This next new line-up of Pulp would record the third Pulp album Separations in 1989 but label and legal issues kept the album from being released until 1992. About a year ahead of the album’s release though two singles were released. The first of these, “My Legendary Girlfriend”, became NME’s Single of the Week and earned Pulp some long-awaited attention. While the second single, a song called “Countdown” which combined Cocker’s dry and witty observations with sounds borrowed from the rising dance trends of the time, scored Pulp some notice with the mainstream and pointed the way toward where they would take their music in the future. Pulp had taken a long and winding route but success finally seemed like it was just around the corner.

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7. “N.W.O.” – Ministry: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

7. “N.W.O” – Ministry 

(From the album Psalm 69)

1992

Following the success of the lead single “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” Ministry released the accompanying album Psalm 69 in July of 1992. It is both a testament to how far alternative rock had penetrated the mainstream and the quality of the songs on Psalm 69 that Ministry was able to have two more hit singles from the album despite the music’s harsh and aggressive sound. Psalm 69 opens with the pummeling riffs and naked aggression of “N.W.O.”, which serves as a vicious attack on the policies of the first President Bush in the waning days of the Cold War. The song uses vocal samples from President George Bush to evoke the fears of an emerging shadow state/world government led by the elite few. It is a powerful single that is a more directly logical successor to the sound of The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste. “N.W.O.” is followed up by the third single “Just One Fix”, a furious and chaotic attack on addiction (an issue that Al Jourgensen was all too familiar with at the time). These two songs, along with “Jesus Built My Hot Rod”, serves as the core of the album but Psalm 69 is Ministry’s deepest album with little to no filler. “Scare Crow” is a punishing midtempo track that sounds like Ministry’s take on the grunge rock that was ascendant at the time (and possibly should have been released as a fourth single) and the title track is an apocalyptic epic. Psalm 69 is the undeniable peak of Ministry’s career (unless one prefers the early synthpop version of the band). That said, addiction, infighting, and a strange obsession with both Presidents Bush would mean that much of the rest of Ministry’s career found the band (or really just Jourgensen and whoever was playing with him at the time) trying to recreate the sound and success of Psalm 69. The more metal-oriented misstep that was 1996’s Filth Pig was a creative and commercial disappointment and its follow-up, Dark Side Of The Spoon, which added back in some of the band’s more synthetic/industrial textures was only marginally better. However, neither album came close to approaching the success of earlier albums and that fact, combined with changing musical trends, led Ministry to be dropped by their label. This proved to be a low point for Jourgensen and the band. Continued legal issues with their old label Warner Bros derailed a series of planned live albums, Jourgensen almost lost an arm due to a venomous spider bite, and his crippling drug addictions finally were becoming an issue that had to be dealt with. Jourgensen would manage to clean up (with help from his old friend and new wife Angelina Luckacina) and pull through this dark period and Ministry would release Animositisomina in 2003. Ministry followed up Animositisomina with a trilogy of albums attacking President George W. Bush with Houses Of The Molé, Rio Grande Blood, and The Last Sucker. This trilogy was billed as the end of Ministry and the band broke up following the release of The Last Sucker in 2007. A series of live albums, remixes, and compilation albums followed though and Ministry (to the shock of few) reunited in 2011 and has released several more albums in the years since.

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6. “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” – Ministry: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

6. “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” – Ministry 

(From the album Psalm 69)

1992

After creating the sonic assault of “Burning Inside” and The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste album it could have seemed like Ministry had boxed themselves into a corner. Instead, they created a song that took the aural attack of “Burning Inside” and made a song just as sonically intense while also drawing on rockabilly to give the song a melodic hook and a touch of humor. That song is “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” and it became a Top 20 alternative rock hit in the US (#19). Written by Ministry along with guest vocalist Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers, “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” is psychotic, infectious, ferocious, groove-oriented, and fun. The song manages to connect Ministry’s industrial metal back to rock and roll’s rockabilly origins without losing the power and impact that Ministry had become known for. The juxtaposition of Ministry’s propulsive and aggressive musical attack with Hayne’s nonsensical, yet intense lyrics creates a unique song both in Ministry’s catalog and in the history of rock music. “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” is an alt-rock classic. Originally released as a non-album single in November of 1991, the song was still included on the next Ministry album, Psalm 69, when it was released eight months later in July of 1992. While nothing on Psalm 69 sounded much like “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” (how could it?), the quality of “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” was an indicator of the high quality of music that Ministry would make on Psalm 69. 

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5. “Burning Inside” – Ministry: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

5. “Burning Inside” – Ministry 

(From the album The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste)

1989

With 1988’s harsh and abrasive The Land Of Rape & Honey Ministry had somewhat unexpectedly created an album that was creatively innovative and quite impactful on the alternative music scene, while also being commercially viable. Despite there being serious dysfunction within the band at the time, in large part due to Al Jourgensen’s drug use, Ministry quickly headed back into the studio following the tour in support of The Land Of Rape & Honey to begin work on their next album The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste. For The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste Ministry pushed their sound in an even more aggressive and hardcore direction, merging elements of thrash metal with the sound of the more guitar-driven moments of their previous album. The result is an album in The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste that is a more guitar-oriented cousin to The Land Of Rape & Honey; an album that takes their hit song “Stigmata” and uses it as a blueprint for moving forward. This can best be heard on the album’s first single “Burning Inside” which is fast, intense, and rage-filled. “Burning Inside” also became another moderate hit for the group, peaking at #23 on the Modern Rock chart in the US. 

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4. “Stigmata” – Ministry: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

4. “Stigmata” – Ministry 

(From the album The Land Of Rape & Honey)

1988

When Ministry released their 1988 album The Land Of Rape & Honey fans of their previous work likely were in shock with what they were hearing. Starting with the album’s opening track and lead single “Stigmata” The Land Of Rape & Honey is much harder and more aggressive than anything the band had previously done; leaving behind synthpop and EBM in favor of heavy metal guitars, industrial textures, slamming beats, harsh synths, effective sampling, and Jourgensen’s distorted, corrosive vocals. In the process, Ministry helped to create the sound of industrial metal and scored an 80’s alternative rock hit with “Stigmata”, the album’s most punishing track. While it is quite shocking how quickly Ministry transformed themselves, the signs had been there for those paying attention. Ministry’s previous album Twitch moved the band away from synthpop and into the harsher textures and sounds of EBM music. Furthermore, Al Jourgensen, Paul Barker, and Bill Rieflin all were part of the noisy, menacing side project Revolting Cocks during the interval between Twitch and The Land Of Rape & Honey. Still, even for those paying attention, The Land Of Rape & Honey had to hit with brutal force and unexpected power. The amazing thing is that while the album sounds so much harder and more aggressive, much of that force is created the same way that their previous albums were. The massive, roaring guitars on “Stigmata” are actually sampled rather than played live, while the beat is created by looping a drum machine. Furthermore, outside of the opening trio of songs – “Stigmata”, “The Missing” and “Diety” – most of the rest of the album is actually created with minimal use of guitars, finding power in the beats, synths, and samples, similar to Ministry’s earlier work. Still, there is an undeniable anger, power, and harshness on The Land Of Rape & Honey that became the foundation for the rest of Ministry’s career. 

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3. “We Believe” – Ministry: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music: 

3. “We Believe” – Ministry 

(From the album Twitch)

1986

Having now signed with Sire Records Ministry, now officially consisting of only Al Jourgensen, went into the studio to begin work on their second studio album Twitch. While Jourgensen was the only official member of Ministry while making Twitch it was during this time that two of his longtime bandmates would join the group. Both drummer Bill Rieflin and bassist Paul Barker had played in a band called The Blackouts. Jourgensen had become acquainted with The Blackouts when he did some production work for them a few years earlier. The Blackouts had since broken up though and Jourgensen brought Rieflin and Barker into Ministry’s live band during this era. Twitch itself proved to be a transitional album for Ministy and sounded almost nothing like the synthpop that came before nor the industrial metal that came later. Twitch featured harder beats, aggressive synths, and clever samples to create a harsh, synth-based music that was similar in sound to groups like Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb. Ministry released the song “Over The Shoulder” as the only single from Twitch and it does a solid job of capturing the sound of Ministry at their musical crossroad between synthpop and industrial, but Jourgensen’s vocal performance on the song is both atypical and very strained. A better encapsulation of the synth-industrial sound Ministry explores on Twitch is the track “We Believe” which features a strong repetitive beat, a generally aggressive and dark tone, and lyrics and vocals by Jourgensen that are scary rather than strange.  “We Believe” is still rooted in synths and would be perfectly at home in a danceclub, but it also points the way toward the industrial metal Ministry would make on their next album with the robotic precision of its beats, industrial, metallic sound effects, and processed vocals. Ministry would soon take this basic formula, speed up the tempos, and layer in roaring guitars and harsher vocals to help pioneer the sound of industrial metal. As is though, “We Believe” is a unique sounding song that is a clear highlight of this transitional phase in Ministry’s career.

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2. “Everyday Is Halloween” – Ministry: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

2. “Everyday Is Halloween” – Ministry 

(From the single “All Day/Everyday Is Halloween”)

1984

By the middle of 1984 Ministry had managed to get out of their contract with Arista and had returned to Wax Trax! By the fall of 1984 Ministry was back out on tour and it was during this tour that the band was approached by Seymour Stein, the head of Sire Records, about signing a contract with Sire. Al Jourgensen initially turned down the offer, preferring to stay on the friendly Wax Trax! indie label, but ultimately signed Ministry to Sire Records when Sire agreed to provide resources and support to the struggling Wax Trax! label. During the course of 1984, before Ministry’s contract with Sire went into effect, the band released several non-album singles on Wax Trax! The most important and successful of these singles was the single for the song “All Day”. “All Day” is a strong single and a remixed version of the song would be included on Ministry’s next album Twitch, but it would be the B-side “Everyday Is Halloween” that would become one of Ministry’s (and goth music’s) signature songs. Built up from a creeping, pulsing synth beat Jourgensen spits and hisses his way through a vocal about living as he pleases that became an outsider anthem for generations of disaffected young people. “Everyday Is Like Halloween” has become a classic 80’s synth and goth track and strongly foreshadows the darker, more industrial direction that Jourgensen would soon take the band. It is also incredibly creepy and catchy at the same time; a deserved underground hit. Both “All Day” and “Everyday Is Like Halloween” would be included on 1987’s Ministry compilation album Twelve Inch Singles: 1981-1984 which highlights the non-album singles the band released during that period of time excluding their work for Arista Records.

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1. “Revenge” – Ministry: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

1. “Revenge” – Ministry 

(From the album With Sympathy)

1983

Future ministry frontman and centerpiece Al Jourgensen moved to Chicago, Illinois to attend university in 1978 and was quickly introduced to the local underground music scene by his girlfriend at the time. Jourgensen soon found himself playing guitar in the band Special Affect with future members of both My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and Concrete Blonde. Special Affect broke up in 1980 but by then Jourgensen had become a fixture on the local underground music scene. His connections there brought him into contact with the founders and owners of the Wax Trax! Records, an important local record store and indie record label. Jourgensen had also purchased a synthesizer and drum machine and had begun to write his own songs. When Jourgensen played a demo for Jim Nash, one of the owners of Wax Trax! Records Nash encouraged Jourgensen to put a band together and record a single. Jourgensen followed this advice and Ministry was born (although the other members of the group would be in almost constant flux around Jourgensen through the years). This early version of Ministry was not the industrial metal band that would become successful in the 1990’s but a dark-tinged synthpop group. Ministry’s first single “I’m Falling/Cold Life” was released on Wax Trax!, and ultimately hit #45 on the Billboard dance charts, helping Ministry earn a spot on tours with early new wave/synthpop groups like Culture Club, A Flock Of Seagulls, and Depeche Mode. This early success earned the notice of major label Arista Records, who ultimately signed Ministry to a contract. Jourgensen’s (and by extension Ministry’s) relationship with Arista was fraught with tension and disagreement almost from the beginning and Jourgensen has largely disowned the synthpop music Ministry made while signed to Arista (although his reasons for doing so, as well as his complaints about Arista, have changed repeatedly over the years). The fact is that With Sympathy, the dark synthpop album Ministry released for Arista in 1983, is actually an interesting, well-crafted record and that Jourgensen’s dislike of it probably has more to do with his bad feelings toward Arista Records and the fact that he changed the musical direction of Ministry away from synthpop soon after this. With Sympathy, which is similar in sound to British bands of the time like Human League, Depeche Mode, or Eurythmics (right down to Al Jourgensen’s faux-British accent), was a moderate commercial success. Ultimately, three singles – “Work For Love”, “I Wanted To Tell Her”, and “Revenge” – were taken from With Sympathy and the album itself hit #94 on the US albums chart. While none of the singles really sound anything like the music Ministry would be making in just a few years time, all are firmly within the synthpop style, the third single “Revenge” does have an underlying darkness and bitterness to it that Ministry would explore much more directly in their later work. Here, that venom and bile is married to a catchy, yet icy, synth rhythm that is perfect for dancing. Al Jourgensen may not like this era of Ministry’s catalog, but “Revenge” is among my favorite things he ever released. 

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