Suicidal Tendencies: Smash It! – new video

 

 

Directed by Jay Schweitzer and Mike McEntire of Powerband Films, the new SUICIDAL TENDENCIES video, ‘Smash It!’, features multiple Metal Mulisha riders including professional FMX riders Larry Linkogle and Jimmy Fitzpatrick, who actually appear as backup singers on the song. Filmed over two days at Larry Linkogle's O.G. Mulisha Compound in Temecula California, “the production features the band showcasing their signature live performance styles, with an onslaught of energetic, musically enraged fans throwing elbows and fists in the pit, and Metal Mulisha team riders throwing down giant heart stopping action the entire time”. Some extras reportedly flew in from as far away as Europe, and some were picked up “down the street” to join in the action. ‘Smash It!’ comes from SUICIDAL TENDENCIES thirteenth album simply called ‘13’ which was released (thirty years after the band's debut self-titled album and thirteen years since their last original material album ‘Free Your Soul And Save My Mind’) in April 2013 through the band's own Suicidal Records. The thirteen “cathartic, thrashy hardcore [tracks] the band is known for”, produced by frontman and SUICIDAL TENDENCIES founder Mike Muir and Grammy-nominated engineer/mixer Paul Northfield, sold approximately 3,200 copies in the USA in its first week of release and debuted at position number 187 on The Billboard Top 200. So, you know, head to your local record store or search for ‘13’ on Amazon, iTunes etc.

 

Founded in 1981 in Venice, California, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES had managed to get themselves voted as the “Worst Band/Biggest Assholes” by the Los Angeles punk rock fanzine “Flipside” already in 1982, before rising to fame with their 1983 self-titled debut album which produced the single ‘Institutionalized’, these days widely considered to be the song that defines the hardcore punk genre. Controversial from their early beginnings (even rumored to be involved with local gangs), ‘Institutionalized’ brought acclaim to the band, being featured in the 1984 Emilio Estevez film “Repo Man”, in a 1986 episode of the TV show “Miami Vice” (along with an appearance by the band themselves), and in the 2008 film “Iron Man”. Not much was heard from SUICIDAL TENDENCIES until 1987 when their second album, ‘Join The Army’, came out, bringing forth such classics as ‘Possessed To Skate’ and ‘War Inside My Head’ (that led to even greater following among skateboarders). On 1988's ‘How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can’t Even Smile Today’, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES abandoned the punk influences in favour of thrash and speed metal-oriented sound; the album peaked at number 111 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, eleven places lower than its predecessor. Originally released between 1987 and 1989 as two separate vinyl EPs, the band's fourth LP, 1989's ‘Controlled By Hatred/Feel Like Shit... Déjà Vu’, became the band's first release, of three, to be certified Gold. “A disc that no SUICIDAL fan should be without”, ‘Lights... Camera... Revolution!’, followed in 1990, featuring INFECTIOUS GROOVES/METALLICA's Robert Trujillo on bass “whose penchant for funk added a new element to the group's sound” (Greg Prato, AllMusic – more here) resulted in what many considered to be their “experimental” album, 1992's ‘The Art Of Rebellion’, and which debuted at number 52 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. This '90s lineup, consisting of singer Mike Muir, guitarists Rocky George and Mike Clark, bassist Robert Trujillo and drummer R.J. Herrera, re-recorded SUICIDAL TENDENCIES' debut album, issuing it ten years after its original under the name ‘Still Cyco After All These Years’. Next album in SUICIDAL catalogue, 1994's ‘Suicidal For Life’, turned out to be their last issued on Epic Records:

“The label's inability to introduce any of the group's groundbreaking albums to a significantly wider audience certainly didn’t sit well with ST main man Mike Muir, who decided to run through the motions while being as gratuitously offensive as possible on this contractually necessary release,” [commented the split Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic – more here]

The label had fought back though, issuing a greatest hits compilation, ‘Prime Cuts’, in 1997, apparently against the band's will. SUICIDAL TENDENCIES took a prolonged break between 1994 and 1997. Muir and Clark returned in 1999 with ‘Freedumb’ and 2000's ‘Free Your Soul And Save My Mind’, both albums issued through Suicidal Records.

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES features: Mike Muir – vocals, Dean Pleasants - guitar, Mike Clark - guitar, Steve Bruner - bass and Eric Moore – drums