Category: Culture

12 Embarrassing Albums That Everyone Owned Back In The Day

It’s difficult to explain the music industry in its prime to young listeners. First of all, it was participatory — ads and artists weren’t served to you, you had to go out, buy records, concert tickets, magazines. And if/when you did, you got inundated with what the industry had decided was cool, or what they wanted you to buy. These trends always stemmed from something they didn’t fully understand and couldn’t invent themselves — you should’ve watched the piranhas surge when Slipknot blew up — but the amount of money, effort, and forced style put into them was mind-blowing.

Maybe that’s how we ended up owning all these mortifying albums. Somehow, in an age where you still had to pay for physical CDs, every single person on earth owned a handful of albums that were kind of embarrassing from the moment you purchased them. Even if a few of them had a solid single or two — the compilation albums and soundtracks were especially cringe-worthy — they weren’t the sorts of records you were proud of your friends finding in your car.

Here are 12 albums that we all owned for some goddamn reason…

Full Devil Jacket, s/t (2000)

When your best song is titled “Mr. Wiggly,” you know you’re not going to top the rock charts. Full Devil Jacket were big for a hot second, playing alongside acts like Slayer on big bills like Tattoo The Earth. Maybe that’s why everyone owned this record, even though it was the most standard not-quite-nu-metal album out there. Definitely one where you didn’t want anyone to stop and read the band name.

The Misfits, Project 1950 (2003)

The Michale Graves Misfits albums were actually really solid, and before we knew Graves was a hardcore pro-cop nutter butter, the band were like, “Danzig who?” But their entrenchment in then-ultra-nerdy horror fandom resulted in this EP, which features Jerry Only taking over as lead singer for covers of “The Monster Mash” and “This Magic Moment.” The band’s renewed popularity ensured everyone bought it, but it quickly remained interred in your CD binder.

Various Artists, MTV: The Return of the Rock (2000)

Man, the cover of this compilation CD, illustrated by satanic garage artist Coop, probably wouldn’t fly today. What’s worse, though, is the general tone of this record – this embracing of rawk, but the lack of balls needed to put an actual nudie devil girl on the cover. Instead, you’ve got MTV trying to tell us that a red-skinned-but-hornless groupie in a pink tank top is somehow the height of contemporary rock and roll. You didn’t even need to listen to any of the tracks on here to cringe at this cash-grab.

KISS, Psycho Circus (1998)

For KISS fans, Psycho Circus was a big deal because it featured the original line-up, together again at last. So why the fuck did the rest of us buy it? Probably because between the cover art, the Todd McFarlane action figures, and the brutal promotion of the record that was repeatedly shoved down our throats, there was a feeling that this was somehow a monumental record. But it was just a KISS record, as we all learned spinning it and wondering why we spent $19 on this aggressive comeback attempt.

Rob Zombie, American Made Music to Strip By (1999)

Man, why the hell did we all buy the Rob Zombie remix albums? At least with White Zombie’s Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds, there was a feeling of novelty. Electronica and metal! Crossing genre border! But with American Made Music to Strip By, the statement seemed to be, I’m just doing one of these for every album now. That said, the “Dragula” remix was everywhere, so you kind of had to own it. Definitely what your aunt got you for Christmas.

Bleeding Through, This Is Love, This Is Murderous (2003)

This was just a perfect storm of crossing trends. You had your heartfelt metalcore, your HIM-driven love metal, your Cradle-based cinematic black metal – it all came together on This Is Love This Is Murderous. Bleeding Through‘s big album album managed to work its way into even death metal fans’ CD binders due to the gory cover art. But it also felt eyeliner-fueled and emotional enough that you still felt the need to explain it away.

Various Artists, Spawn: The Album (1997)

In a lot of ways, the Spawn soundtrack was the ultimate late-’90s crapfest. At the time, the cross-genre thing felt so powerful – Rock and electronic acts, together at last! This’ll be cool in the club! But the tracks were so ball-chain-necklace basic and the movie was such an overwhelming shitshow that the record quickly became a symbol of anger taken out at the Auntie Ann’s at the mall. Somehow, it was still the best thing about this flick.

Iced Earth, Horror Show (2001)

Horror Show had a phalanx of excuses going for it. Iced Earth were super old-school metal! It’s just about monster movies, so there’s nothing challenging or political about it! But it’s also some American power-chug, so it feels kind of manly and rugged! And yet together, that makes this album – a huge one for the band – a gem of total wackness. It’s too trad, too nerdy, too earnest. And now, of course, it shows that you’ve long been a fan of the New American Revolution or whatever the fuck.

Amen, We Have Come For Your Parents (2000)

If you want to blame anyone for your ownership of We Have Come For Your Parents, you can blame Kerrang! and Metal Hammer. The UK press got behind Amen in a big way, touting their mixture of punk, thrash, nu-metal and the then-exploding emo-goth aesthetic as the next big thing. And while the record has some excellent moments of extremity, it just felt too petulant and fashionable to be really cool. By then, though, it wasn’t even worth returning to Sam Goody.

Drain STH, Freaks of Nature (1999)

Even we can’t remember how Drain STH’s Freaks of Nature ended up in all of our possession. Maybe it was that “Simon Says” was one of those songs that made it way onto a lot of bad soundtracks. Or maybe it was that an all-female Swedish aggro metal band was novelty enough to be touted by every magazine looking to promote diversity in metal. Either way, we all owned this disc, and it was never a favorite.

Six Feet Under, Maximum Violence (1999)

For a hot second, your average metal fan was convinced that Six Feet Under were rad. Look at the Paul Booth cover art! Listen to “Bonesaw” and “This Graveyard Earth!” So we all spent $17.99 on it, and then guess what, it’s just a lot of plodding riffs and RAA RAA RAA. Even before Chris Barnes lost his shit in front of the entire metal scene, this album was kind of a cuckoo’s egg. It found its way into our cars and discmen, but no one was proud of it later.

Kid Rock, Devil Without a Cause (1998)

We’re gonna blame this one on the singles – “Bawitabaw” and “Cowboy” were huge enough that we ended up owning this record whether we liked it or not. Kid Rock also was the favorite of kids who weren’t ready to go full metal, and enjoyed the rap-metal-country mix of the album. Hell, even Metallica got behind him. But for the record, none of us knew exactly what a dingus Kid Rock was at the time. I mean, we should have. Listen to this record, what a mess.

The post 12 Embarrassing Albums That Everyone Owned Back In The Day appeared first on MetalSucks.

This content was originally published here.

March 16, 2024
US Education Secretary calls on schools to increase parent involvement

He chose the Hernández School, where children learn in Spanish and English, to highlight the work of a Spanish-speaking family liaison and a program that trains Spanish-speaking parents to work as teachers’ aides.

“There’s a sense of community and sense of family here,” said Cardona, after visiting classes and speaking with parents.

One mother said she received crucial help in Spanish from the family liaison at the school filling out an application for Section 8 housing.

Another said the school and its psychologist had helped her family understand the mental health challenges her son, who had become hyperactive and aggressive, was having.

“Through talking with the psychologist, we better understand what motivates our children and how to incentivize them to do better,” she said.

Cardona, who grew up in a Puerto Rican family in Connecticut, spoke fluent Spanish with the group of parents and educators. He stressed that representation matters if schools want parents to get involved.

“We need more people in schools who can connect with families … especially after the pandemic,” Cardona said in Spanish, mentioning that his wife worked as a school family liaison.

Parent engagement has rarely gotten much attention as a national education priority, but the pandemic may have changed that.

“The pandemic has shown a huge spotlight on the fact that many schools do not have deep engagement with families, because many schools didn’t even know how to contact parents,” said Rebecca Winthrop, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a D.C.-based left-leaning think tank.

And online learning gave parents front row seats in the classroom, enabling them to watch their children’s online lessons, help their children troubleshoot technical problems, or teach them to read.

“Parents now realize how important their role is,” said Ivelisse Caraballo, the executive director of the Collaborative Parent Leadership Action Network, a parent training organization based in Boston, that focuses on immigrant and low-income families.

As Cardona solicited ideas Friday for improving parent engagement, parents pointed to a program started this fall at the Hernández K-8 to train parents to become teachers’ aides.

The initiative was modeled after the Parent Mentor program run by St. Stephen’s Youth Services, which trains parents and caregivers at four Boston schools.

School leaders were motivated to start their own program after hearing about the financial pressure some parents were feeling. Many mothers had given up their jobs to supervise their children during remote learning and hadn’t returned to work. The severe labor shortage also meant it might be hard finding classroom help, especially workers who spoke Spanish.

So, the school started a small program to train mothers to work in classrooms with young children learning to read. The mothers spend two hours a day working with children and are paid for their time using federal COVID-19 relief money, according to school leaders.

The program started as was a way to give mothers professional training and take advantage of their skills. But the program has also become a powerful parent engagement tool.

“Now I feel like I can help my child with school work,” one mother participating in the program told Cardona in Spanish.

Bianca Vázquez Toness can be reached at bianca.toness@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @biancavtoness.

This content was originally published here.

April 1, 2023
Giving families resources and choices would stop the endless controversy and bring peace to public education

As we all know, public schools in Washington state tend to foster controversy. Instead of sticking to delivering a high-quality public education to every child, school officials and the powerful teachers union promote one politicized issue after another. The results are high drop- out rates, falling academic standards and more families leaving the system. November 2021 test scores show 70 percent of Washington’s students failed in math and 52 percent failed in English, and in the last two years over 40,000 families have pulled their children out of public schools.

Specifically, here are examples of what parents are concerned about:

● Long-term learning delays created by 13 months of closed schools, at a time when most private and charter schools were open and operating;

● Low-quality online courses forced on students at home;

● Mandated instruction in Critical Race Training (CRT) and other racialist ideas that pull kids away from the study of core subjects;

● Instructing children to separate themselves into “oppressors” and “victims” based on their outward appearance;

● Months-long mask mandates that hinder the cognitive and social development of children;

● Falling test scores at a time when schools are receiving $17,000 per student, and average teacher pay and benefits of over $100,000 for a nine-month school year.

Education scholar Andrew Coulson found that forcing diverse students into a one-size-fits-all government education program, one that dates from the 19th century, virtually guarantees endless controversy. The current education system is based on coercion, not choice, and does not account for the varying needs of children.

As a result, school officials create one controversy after another. The solution is to give parents education options. Giving parents choices would meet the learning needs of students, while reducing social conflict.

Four innovative bills introduced this session, HB 1633, SB 5205, HB 1215 and HB 1555, would give families $6,000 to $10,000 a year in public funds to pay for education, including tuition at a private school. These bills would have put families in charge of the education destinies of their own children.

These bills were blocked in committee and apparently will not move forward this session, but their practicality in reducing conflict remains valid. Providing resources and respecting the choices of parents is the best way to bring peace to public schools and, most importantly, provide the children in our state access to a great education.

This content was originally published here.

March 26, 2023
Media Mogul Byron Allen To Prepare A Bid To Purchase The NFL Denver Broncos

Source: PATRICK T. FALLON / Getty

Media Mogul Bryon Allen reportedly is preparing a bid to purchase the National Football League’s Denver Broncos. If successful, Allen would become the first Black majority owner of an NFL franchise.

In a statement, Allen spoke on the potential bid saying “NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft came to me in November of 2019 and asked me to take a good look at buying an NFL team. And after serious consideration, I strongly believe I can help effectuate positive changes throughout the league,” Allen said in a statement. “And for that reason, I will be making a bid for the Denver Broncos.”

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Founded in 1960, the Broncos are currently owned by the Bowlen Family. Pat Bowlen passed away in 2019, leaving the team in the hands of his children. After litigation surrounding the inheritance and the Bowlen family was setting in January, the team was put up for sale. The Broncos is reportedly worth 3.75 Billion but the sale price could be way beyond that.

To purchase “controlling interest” of 30%, a 1.125 Billion Dollar investment is required and a prospective buyer can’t have more than $1 billion in debt.

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Allen, 60 is the chairman and chief executive officer at Allen Media Group. According to The Grio, (which he owns as well), Allen Media owns 36 ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX network affiliate stations in 21 U.S. markets and twelve 24-hour HD television networks serving nearly 180 million subscribers. In 2021, Allen acquired more than a dozen local broadcast stations, including 10 local stations in seven markets divested from the Gray Television transaction with Quincy Media. Allen also owns The Weather Channel.

The NFL has dealt with issues around diversity and inclusion over the past couple of years. The latest is surrounding the Racial Discrimination lawsuit against the NFL, and 3 teams including the Broncos, filed by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. The lack of African American’s in coaching and front-office positions and ownership is at the heart of Flores’ class-action lawsuit. The NFL currently has one minority owner, Shad Khan of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

SOURCE | The Grio

RELATED: Civil Rights Leaders Confront NFL Commissioner About ‘Deceptively’ Used Rooney Rule: ‘Good Intentions Are Not Enough’

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This content was originally published here.

March 9, 2023