Episode 92: Prong "Snap Your Fingers. Snap Your Neck"

Review Prong's "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck."

Key Takeaways

• Prong's "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" is a definitive "one-hit wonder," with 33M Spotify listens—10x their next-most-popular song.
• Its success is due to a "less is more" groove metal style that influenced nu-metal (Korn, Sevendust) and features a clean, dry mix by producer Terry Date.
• The song's lyrics on working-class disillusionment resonate more with age, shifting its perception from angsty youth anthem to a relatable adult commentary.
• The song's longevity is credited by frontman Tommy Victor as the key to Prong's continued career, now spanning 13 albums

Prong: Band History & Context

• Origin: Formed in NYC (1986) by guitarist/vocalist Tommy Victor, the sole constant member.
• Early Career: Two independent releases (Primitive Origins, Force Fed) before signing with Epic Records (1989).
• Breakthrough: The 1994 album Cleansing featured "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" and "Whose Fist Is This Anyway?".
• Producer: Terry Date, known for his work with Pantera (Far Beyond Driven) and Sepultura, shaped the album's sound.
• Touring: Opened for Pantera and Sepultura, solidifying their metal credibility.
• Live Experience: The hosts saw Prong open for Danzig (~2003/04), where Glenn Danzig famously jumped into the crowd.

"Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck": Analysis

• Spotify Metrics: 33M listens vs. 3M for "Whose Fist Is This Anyway?" and 1M for "Rude Awakening."
• Musical Style:
  • Genre: Groove metal with thrash elements, characterized by a "chugging pocket" rather than breakneck speed.
  • Tuning: Drop C (guitar down one step, low E string to C) for a heavy, low-end sound.
  • Arrangement: "Less is more" approach → drums and bass drive the song, with guitar used for accents.
  • Guitar Technique: Plays on off-beats, creating a propulsive, driving feel.
  • Production: Clean, dry mix by Terry Date creates space between instruments, avoiding a "wall of noise."
• Lyrical Themes:
  • Core Message: Frustration, exhaustion, and disillusionment from working hard for an unfulfilled life.
  • Key Lines: "Expectations of my daily bread gives me the hunger to steal."
  • Evolution of Perception: The lyrics resonate more deeply with the hosts now, after decades in the workforce.
• Influence: The song's tonality and groove were ahead of their time, influencing the nu-metal sound of bands like Korn and Sevendust.

Other Music & Entertainment

• Movie Review: Project Hail Mary
  • Cost: ~$130 for 4 tickets + concessions.
  • Verdict: "Oscar-caliber good," praised for Ryan Gosling's performance and the practical effects (no green screen).
  • Comparison: Similar to Cast Away (solo space journey) and The Martian (problem-solving sci-fi).
  • Availability: An Amazon movie, expected on Prime soon.

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Thanks for listening and keep on rocking 

Transcript

Snap Your Fingers - March 23

@0:05 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Mandatory Music, baby, that's right, baby.

@0:10 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Oh, we're doing it.

@0:11 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

We're doing it. So 92.

@0:14 - skwapich@shaw.ca

92?

@0:15 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Sure. Okay. I think it's 92. Anyways, it's in the 90s. Good evening, sir.

@0:21 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Hi.

@0:21 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Hi.

@0:22 - skwapich@shaw.ca

How are you? I'm good.

@0:24 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

I do good. Um, we'll let this finish playing and then we'll start talking. Um, so I don't often, we don't often as a family go out and go to the movies because it costs got to take out a second mortgage to go see a movie with the entire family.

It a lot. So we decided everybody wanted to go see Project Hail Mary. Because- Gosling. Because it's Ryan Gosling and who doesn't love Ryan Gosling?

Except for men that are insecure with themselves and can't handle watching- I Ryan Gosling. He's amazing. He's one of my favorite actors.

@0:54 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Same.

@0:56 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Um, so I, I buy the tickets on the Cineplex app. Yep. So So Of course, it's in the A...

We don't have IMAX where I live. We're not that cool. Because if we did, we would have gone to IMAX.

So, Seb, if you want to see this movie with your lovely girlfriend, go to the IMAX. Seriously, it's so worth it.

@1:10 - skwapich@shaw.ca

I guess it's playing in IMAX, hey?

@1:12 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

I would hope so. So, I buy the tickets. It was $83 for four tickets. And then you buy junk at the thing.

@1:23 - skwapich@shaw.ca

we bought the popcorn combo. buy the popcorn for the kids.

@1:25 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

popcorn combo.

@1:26 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Wait, wait, wait. Do they all want their own popcorn, too?

@1:29 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

No, that was the same. I was only saved grace, but they all wanted their own drinks, which I guess may, it's not as bad enough.

So then another $50 in food. So you're into it for almost $130 to go see a movie. Like you go to a concert for that.

And Stan, you step through the door. Whatever. Anyways. So we went, I haven't read the book yet, which I'm going to read the book now.

@1:50 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Oh, was done by the guy that did The Martian, right? Yeah, it's anywhere.

@1:54 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

So it's a little more sort of not... Wow. I guess family-friendly, because The Martian isn't, like, it's not like watching Alien or something, space movie where there's and violence.

@2:07 - skwapich@shaw.ca

No, but it's not a family movie, though, either. No, Project Hail Mary, the movie, is very much a family movie.

Okay.

@2:16 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

So it sort of goes in, like, two ways. It's got, like, Ryan Gosling, present time before he goes up into space, and then he's on the ground doing some stuff, and then he's of space.

@2:27 - skwapich@shaw.ca

spoilers coming?

@2:28 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

No, no, there's no spoilers. I'm not saying. And then it sort of goes back and forth of him back on Earth as the journey gets closer to going into the ship, because he's having trouble remembering how he got in there, like, how he, so that sort of goes in with the story.

@2:43 - skwapich@shaw.ca

sure that's a story point at some point, where you...

@2:45 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah, it's a bit of a story point, but my God, it's like E.T. of this generation, dude. So it was good?

. It was one of the best movies.

@2:57 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Oscar-caliber good?

@2:58 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yes.

@2:59 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Really? Really?

@3:00 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

I think Gosling, it's the best I've ever seen him do. Dude, he's such a good actor, man. Well, you can do anything.

it was ironically cast away a little bit. Oh, okay. Because lot of it's Ryan Gosling in the spaceship. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

And there's another person, an entity, an alien, that it's in the trailer.

@3:19 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Rocky, yeah, I've seen him.

@3:20 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah, so you've seen Rocky, and he, Rocky is the best.

@3:25 - skwapich@shaw.ca

He is literally the best.

@3:27 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

And it's a puppet.

@3:27 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It's not CGI, it's a puppet. Yeah, heard there's no CGI at all in the movie. Or no green screen, I should say.

@3:34 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

no green screen. If there's no CGI, I don't know how they pull off all the space stuff.

@3:38 - skwapich@shaw.ca

No, sorry, sorry, I was mistaken. There's no green screen.

@3:40 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

There's no green screen. the entire set for real. So then I think it's easier for someone like Ryan Gosling to get into, you know.

Character and stuff. and being close to a rock person and all this. It's, dude, it's, it's so, like, Cooper's going to see it.

My son's going to see it again tomorrow.

@3:57 - skwapich@shaw.ca

So is that good, eh? Yes, to see it.

@3:59 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah. I want to see It's an Amazon movie, so it'll be on Prime probably next week or something, so it's so good.

@4:04 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Oh, okay, yeah.

@4:05 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

It's, oh God, it's so good.

@4:07 - skwapich@shaw.ca

I remember the first time I really fell, that's the wrong wording, fell for Ryan Gossing, but the first time I really was wowed by Ryan Gossing, I watched Crazy Stupid Love with Emma Stone and Steve Carell, and I'm just like, and then watching that movie, I'm just like, man, he's a really good actor.

@4:24 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

He's good.

@4:24 - skwapich@shaw.ca

And then I started, I watched The Fall Guy with Emily Blunt, also a great movie.

@4:29 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yes.

@4:29 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Loved it.

@4:30 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

He was so good in The Fall Guy.

@4:32 - skwapich@shaw.ca

He was so funny. Yes. he was just hilarious, right? What else did we watch from Ryan Gossing? I mean, Barbie, fantastic in Barbie.

@4:40 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

So you got to be good looking to be Ken. Like, come on, man. Anyways, that's enough of two guys oogling over Ryan Gosling, because maybe we're just jealous that we don't look like Ryan Gosling, but whatever.

Or maybe I am anyway, so it doesn't matter.

@4:52 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah, move over Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Gosling has taken your spot.

@4:55 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

I think, well, Ryan Gosling's 10 times as talented as Ryan Reynolds.

@4:59 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Both Canadian. Canadian. Both Canadian ones from Toronto. I actually, I don't know if Gosling is from Toronto, but I believe it's from Ontario.

@5:06 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah. But, uh, no, it was, it was really good. It was, uh, if you like the Martian, you'll like this.

Cause it's in the same kind of really like the Martian. Yeah. So I think you'll really, really enjoy this.

Um, some of the, like the, like the ship, you know, how, like in space movies, the ship, sometimes it's like the enterprise.

You're like, really like, come on. Like, no, or like, you just, you just know, it's like, this isn't real.

Like these, this ship looked like something we could fathom it being now. Cause it still looks like something from our generation.

It's not super fancy. got solar panels on it. Like, it's just not, like, it's not fancy. Like it's just, it's a, it's a spaceship of today.

It's not the enterprise E or anything.

@5:46 - skwapich@shaw.ca

read something about that. And there was a comment about like how mishmatch the spaceship look, but that is logical because you're buying different components from different companies and it's all going to be looking different, right?

@5:59 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

The whole, the whole, whole. The world's in on this, so it's everybody putting their stuff on it.

@6:02 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yes.

@6:03 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

And it's just like this patchwork of different types of stuff. Yeah, it was amazing. It was absolutely amazing.

@6:10 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah, that's on our list.

@6:11 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah, you definitely have to go see it.

@6:14 - skwapich@shaw.ca

All right.

@6:14 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah, and I want you to report back to me to let me know how you liked it.

@6:18 - skwapich@shaw.ca

We just watched the Iron Claw with Zac Efron, the wrestling movie about the Von Erics.

@6:24 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yes, sir.

@6:25 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Very good movie.

@6:26 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yes.

@6:26 - skwapich@shaw.ca

I mean, it is about wrestling, but it's not really about wrestling.

@6:29 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

It is, but it is. Yeah, it's about the family, right?

@6:32 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It's very good movie. Highly recommend. But yeah, outside of that, we're going to snap back into today's topic. Yes.

See what I did there.

@6:42 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

See what you did there. So we had the brilliant idea of, which this is sort of an idea that can have some legs to it, is like when bands put out songs, sometimes they put out one, like one hit wonder is the wrong word, but they put out a song that's like so good.

@6:56 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It's clearly miles ahead.

@7:00 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Miles, they've ever done, and it's just, the one we're doing today, it's a metal song, but it's catchy, it's kind of disco-y, it's Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck by the band Prong.

@7:14 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Okay, so for context, looking on Spotify, Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck has 33,763 and change. If she listens to it, okay?

It's respectable, I mean, you know, 100 million is kind of the breakpoint of like, okay, you're a star now, like your band's a star.

The next highest song after that? Let me try and guess what it is. Okay.

@7:42 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Is it Rude Awakening?

@7:45 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Oh shoot, I'm in the, hold on.

@7:47 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Oh boy.

@7:48 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Let me go back to the proper, let me go back to the band, actually, because it was not, it was at their album.

awesome. That was... Uh, it is not Rude Awakening.

@8:04 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Okay.

@8:05 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Uh, so the next highest song with listens is Whose Fist Is This Anyway?

@8:11 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

It's the one you recommended, what you told me about before we started.

@8:13 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah.

@8:14 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

There you go.

@8:14 - skwapich@shaw.ca

So Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck has exactly 33 million and change listens. Whose Fist is 3 million.

@8:23 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Okay. Well, there you go.

@8:24 - skwapich@shaw.ca

So it's like one-tenth of the listens.-tenth. And, yeah, so Rude Awakening only has a million views. Yeah, I keep calling views, but listens, views, same thing.

@8:34 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

And same thing. So who is Prong anyway, Seb?

@8:36 - skwapich@shaw.ca

I'm going to tell you who Prong is. Tell me, because this is a 90s band.

@8:40 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Well, they were formed in New York City in 1986, fronted by guitarist, vocalist, Tommy Victor, who we know Tommy Victor with a still, um, he plays guitar in Danzig.

And he has, he has for many, many years is sort of like his, his other gig. Um. Yeah. Yeah.

But back to Prong, he's been their only sole member the whole time since 86. They're still a band to this day.

@9:07 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah, they have a long list of past members, actually.

@9:10 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

know. Yeah, they do. They have two independent releases before they got signed, Primitive Origins in 1987 and Force Fed in 88.

Then they got signed to Epic Records in 89, and they put out Beg to Differ in 1990 and Prove You Wrong in 91.

And then, you know, 1994's Cleansing was with, I was going to say, Whose Fist Is This Anyway? I'm just got this, is that what it's called?

Yes, that's on there as well. It just reminds me of this TV show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?

@9:40 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Great show, by the way. Great show.

@9:42 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Who doesn't love improv?

@9:43 - skwapich@shaw.ca

I watch so much of that show.

@9:46 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

And then 1994's Cleansing, which has Whose Line Is It Anyway? And it's got Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck, which was produced because this will start to make a little bit of sense of who produced this.

Are you familiar? I with Terry Date, or Date, however you want to pronounce.

@10:04 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Am I supposed to be?

@10:05 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah, he produced Far Beyond Driven, and he's Pantera's guy for a long time. So this, the sound is, and I think he did some Sepultura, he's very big in the metal world, like he's a, he's like over those types of bands.

@10:18 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah.

@10:21 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

It came out in 94, and they toured, they opened for Pantera and Sepultura. That would have been a cool show.

Sepultura, Prong, Pantera back and Prong. Yeah, man. Pantera and Prong. It sounds fun to say. But unfortunately, after their fifth album in 1996, they broke up for a period of time.

Which...

@10:37 - skwapich@shaw.ca

We got to see them live.

@10:39 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Prong?

@10:40 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yes.

@10:41 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

We did.

@10:42 - skwapich@shaw.ca

They opened for, who did they open for? Danzig. Yes, that's right, Danzig.

@10:45 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

That's right. was that? That was 2000. When was it supposed to, because they were, let's see here.

@10:51 - skwapich@shaw.ca

That was the concert that Glenn Danzig jumped into the audience and started beating somebody up. No. then we found out that he did that in Seattle the night before.

Yeah, it's Like, so this is just a bit.

@11:02 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Right. So apparently he just played with Glenn Danzig for four years. So it was between 98 and 05.

@11:10 - skwapich@shaw.ca

So we saw him, them, and like, who knows, 04, whenever that was, 03. Yeah.

@11:14 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Who cares? But snap your fingers, snap your neck.

@11:18 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Let's talk about it.

@11:19 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Let's talk about it.

@11:21 - skwapich@shaw.ca

So do you remember that, like, from back in the day, do you remember that song? Yes, 100%.

@11:24 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

on, like, on, like, MuchMusic or, because that's the Canadian music on TV.

@11:28 - skwapich@shaw.ca

I to this a lot in the 90s. And the second you sent me Snap Your Finger, Snap Your Neck, I'm like, I know this entire song.

Like, I know it from, like, front to back.

@11:36 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah.

@11:37 - skwapich@shaw.ca

I think, okay, so let me talk about this real quick here. So, I mean, I urge all of our listeners to actually go listen to the song.

@11:43 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Oh, please.

@11:43 - skwapich@shaw.ca

So know what we're talking about.

@11:45 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

It's so good.

@11:46 - skwapich@shaw.ca

This is a great lesson in space in a song.

@11:49 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yes.

@11:50 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Right? Because there's not a lot to it. It's not like there's, like, a driving beat. And it's basically driven by the drums and the bass line.

And then the guitar comes in on accents, right?

@11:59 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

But.

@12:00 - skwapich@shaw.ca

There's a lot of space for certain things to resonate with. It's not like listening to the new Rob Zombie album or songs from Rob Zombie where it's just like 64 instruments all overlapped on top of each other.

It's a big wall of noise, right? So this is a good lesson in like, we don't need to put all this stuff in to make the sound.

We can just have a drum beat with a bass line underneath it and just let that breathe for a bar or two, right?

@12:27 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

So kind of like, don't you think that he sounds like some 75 year old man who's been smoking his entire life?

Yes, but yeah, it's just guitars and bass, right? Like it's just, yeah, and it's catchy because you could just sit there and literally snap your fingers to it.

@12:45 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah, but you're right, it's such a good, great song.

@12:48 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

And I, and I do love, like, there's like that industrial kind of little bit in there with that kind of weird, like metal sounds in between things.

@12:57 - skwapich@shaw.ca

In the open spaces. Yeah, they're classified as. It's thrash metal, but also groove metal in there, and like, they don't play anything at breakneck speeds, really, from what I remember, I haven't really, it's been a long, the song after that on Cleansing is fast, like, it's like, um, yeah, but you don't look at Prong and go, okay, this is like, this is like Megadeth, who play like a breakneck speeds the whole time, yeah, it's like, they've got a couple of fast songs, yeah, but a lot of them, they like to fit that groovy pocket, like that chugging pocket, right, so, where do you think this is tuned at?

ACTION ITEM: Tune guitar to Drop C; learn Prong - Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck - WATCH

@13:29 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

We're like, because you're a guitar player, D, I think, oh, keep going down, baby, C, it's drop C, so, yeah, everything's tuned down one, one step, and then, bass line is so low, eh, I know, and then the, the, the, the low E is tuned down to C, and, uh, yeah, I gotta tune my guitar down to do that, and learn it, because it's not a hard song, I got the tab right here, it's not hard, no, it's very simple, which I think is the beauty of it, because you don't need complicate, you don't need complications, um, well, okay, so the, the, the rhythm line does a really good

@14:00 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It job of playing with dissonance and resolution, so like when you listen to the first introduction of the chords is like the root note, and then it plays like a dissonance note after that, and then it plays the root note, so it's like vroom, vroom, vroom, but it like allows you to come back to that clean resolution throughout that, so it's really masterfully done, like I really, really like it, God, might have just taken like five minutes to write the song, because it's not that complicated, well I'm not, I'm just, I'm kidding.

@14:27 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

I, oh, maybe, maybe 10, but, but I, I didn't realize, you might not have realized, like even this song is a huge, uh, influence on nu metal, because if you think about it, like, I can see that, Limp Bizkit Korn, it's all that, well maybe not Biscuit, but Korn, Seven Dust, those types of bands, they just, they must have listened to the hell out of Prong.

@14:47 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Dude, it has that nu metal 2000s feel, but it was written in like 94 or 90, or whenever the album was.

@14:53 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

came out in 90, it came out in 90, January of 94, so we're just past the, uh.

@14:57 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah.

@14:57 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

However many 32 year anniversary.

@15:01 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah, definitely it does sound like a song that's ahead of its time for tonality purposes, because you're right, it does have a very nu metal feel to it.

Like it's very slip knotty, very limpiscuity, you know, it's, it's sort of not how, you know, some of those bands kind of get toneless after a while, like they, you tune down so low, you can't sort of differentiate anything, you know, like it's, it's muddled.

@15:28 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

And this is like very clean. And it's, it's very, I think it's clean, it's dry. It's like, there's the whole space thing.

There's, there's air between every instrument.

@15:38 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Like you can hear like the drums, the guitars and the bass together. very well. It's layered together very well.

@15:44 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah. Massively produced. Cause I'm obviously I'm thinking when they wrote this song, they knew they had something.

@15:49 - skwapich@shaw.ca

I think so.

@15:50 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Right. Cause who, you write something this good. It didn't do very well in the charts, but that's okay. It's a metal song.

Metal doesn't, unless you're Metallica, Pantera at the time. Bands like that, you're not going to crack the top in anything, right?

@16:05 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Especially in 94, considering that was the birth of grunge too, so a lot of people were moving away from metal at that point, unless you were like Metallica or Plantera or Slayer or Megadeth, right?

That was still there, but a lot of the hard rock metal thing was kind of moving aside for alternative and grunge music at that time.

Exactly.

@16:27 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

And Tommy Victor has some quotes about the song, he says, this song enabled Prong to have some longevity, I look at it like this, it contributed to this career that I've had for so long, we've somehow got to preserve now, or we've got to, oh my God, we've got something to preserve now, man, speak English, buddy, we've got our 13th album, I don't know when this was written, but coming out soon, and just to be able to continue on, and it still gets added to Spotify playlists, and the song's catchy sound, it's a great It's song, it's a great running song, it's a great song to drive fast in.

Oh my god, it's like disco, man. It's literally like you just you strip away the guitars and the vocals.

It's a disco song. Yeah, like it's just so you're on the dance floor because he says something about he says we didn't want to do a thrasher crossover.

We didn't know what to do. But we do. We didn't want to do that. So we thought let's go back to the to the floor danceable metal, the kind of thing that people want to listen in clubs, regular songs rather than master of puppets, which makes sense, right?

It's just something you could you could have it on the background. You don't need like it doesn't need a lot of attention.

@17:37 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It's just an amazing. Yeah, amazing song. The one the one theory thing I want to highlight with the guitar in it is it plays a lot on the off beats between the drum beats, and that gives it a like a like a chugging motion where you're like driving, right?

Like it's like that one, two, three, four. like, yeah, yeah, It's like right between the beats where you're being propelled through the music.

@18:05 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Do you know what I mean? Yep, absolutely.

@18:07 - skwapich@shaw.ca

So that gives it this groovy quality where you're just bopping your head and chugging. Like, oh, this is cool.

The song's so fun. It's so fun.

@18:16 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

It's funny that you mentioned that they must have known this was a hit. You have to.

@18:23 - skwapich@shaw.ca

James Headfield, and sorry to reference Metallica, but it's familiar.

@18:27 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

What are we or something?

@18:28 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Metallica fans? I'm still surprised to this day that Master of Puppets is as popular as it is.

@18:33 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Like when they wrote that song in the day, they didn't expect it to be like the number one metal song that they've ever written.

No.

@18:40 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Right? And it's just like, he's like, I didn't know this was going to be a hit, right?

@18:43 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

It's anti-establishment. It's anti-everything, right? It shouldn't be.

@18:47 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It realistically should be. Well, that is a good question. I wonder how many artists are like completely shocked by like this.

Well, and or Sandman, for example, that wasn't even supposed to be on the album.

@18:56 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

No.

@18:57 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Well, I shouldn't say it wasn't supposed to be on the album, but it wasn't supposed to It supposed to be Holier Than Thou, and then they're like, no, we're going to do Inner Salmon instead, right?

So it's funny how they didn't even think that this was going to be the song to project them to metal stardom, right?

@19:18 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

But for a band like Prong, who really had nothing before this, like they had the indie releases and they had their record before, which Apple didn't have everything.

They only had like, they didn't have the first two, they just had the one before this and cleansing and moving forward.

But the one before this one was released in like 91 or something. And it sounds like it's, I'll prove you wrong, it was released in 1991.

It was like, it was almost confused. Like I didn't know if wanted to be like bluesy metal, like hair metal, metal metal, or like what they turned into for cleansing.

Like it was just sort of this mishmash of all these different sort of hard rock genres for a bunch of the songs.

forget was song. for it But, man, they sure nailed it on Cleansing. I've loved this song for 32 years.

@20:07 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It's a great song. It's a great song. And lyrically, it's fun, you know?

@20:15 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Nothing breeds more contempt for this world than the memories now formed. Every moment is a new seed grown. To no reason the trouble unfolds.

For the trials of today, I'm no jury, really don't care how you feel. It's just angsty. Love some good angst.

Snap your bingos. Snap your dick. And then, where is it here? The pleasant notion of miraculous change drifts into multiple jeers.

I love that line. It's so good. And then you want the good life, you break your back, which, you know, goes to any working man, right?

Snap your fingers, snap your neck.

@20:48 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah.

@20:49 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

It's just so much fun. The song is, I don't know, it's so cool.

@20:56 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Expectations of my daily bread gives me the hunger to steal.

@20:59 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yes. Expectations Brilliant. It's brilliant. That's absolutely brilliant.

@21:03 - skwapich@shaw.ca

my hands, washed of moments unborn, all the spaces between bleed, a tribute to sacrament never exposed.

@21:09 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah. And it's not like it's a song that it's not meant to be. It's not like, sure, it's pissed off in a way.

But I think maybe now that, you know, I'm not looking at this as a how old were we in 1994?

Not very old.

@21:24 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah, quick AI search will tell you that this is a heavy metal anthem about the frustration, exhaustion, and disillusionment of working hard for a good life that never arrives.

@21:36 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Exactly.

@21:37 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Right? So how many people can be in that boat of like, I've worked my entire life for a better life and it never came?

@21:43 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yep.

@21:44 - skwapich@shaw.ca

What's the point? There's a lot of people that think is the point? Yeah.

@21:47 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Right? So when we were 16, when that came out?

@21:50 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah.

@21:51 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Let's just say 16 going on 17. So we're still 16. We didn't know what these lyrics meant. I don't think we really dove that deep into lyrics when we were 16.

16, 17, I think we just listened to the music and this is looking bad at all. Yeah, but you know, now I don't see the song as angsty, angry, I see it as, it's groovy as hell, and the lyrics kind of, they don't hit home, but it's, you can understand, because we've been working.

get it so much more now than I did back then, Right, because the two of us, we've been working as grown adults for, you know, going on 30 years, and we get it.

Like, we just, we get it. So I think that's kind of cool, too.

@22:28 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah. Yeah, Prong is, yeah, it's, I'm glad you suggested this song, because Prong is a band that I haven't listened to for quite some time, and I realized I don't even have this on my metal playlist, which I immediately added after putting it on.

I'm just like, why is this not on my metal playlist?

@22:43 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Right?

@22:43 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It's like, let's, let's throw this on.

@22:45 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

You definitely have to get it on your playlist.

@22:47 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It is, it is, in fact, on there, so.

@22:50 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

In some other news, I think that, I think we're good for that song now, I think we're, okay, I know this is news, but Nickelback has a new song out today.

@22:58 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Was it Bones for Crows? Crows? Do you know what that's for?

@23:02 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

It's for WrestleMania.

@23:03 - skwapich@shaw.ca

for WrestleMania.

@23:04 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

I was excited until Junior's like, oh, it's for WrestleMania. I'm like, I'm out. like, I don't care. Because I just put the song on because, you know, some Nickelback's kind of fun.

@23:12 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Like, it's just, you know, they're like a guilty pleasure. I actually like Nickelback.

@23:16 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

I don't mind some of their songs. Lyrically, they're terrible, but it, whatever. It, it's fine. I listened to, I think, 30 seconds of it, and I'm like, I'm good.

@23:25 - skwapich@shaw.ca

I don't need to listen anymore. Well, How You Remind Me has 1.67 billion listens on Spotify.

@23:31 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

That's a, that's a very famous song.

@23:33 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Actually, you want a really, you want to, you want a really good Nickelback song?

@23:38 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yes, sir.

@23:38 - skwapich@shaw.ca

That is often slept on.

@23:40 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

That is like a metal banger. Side of a Bullet?

@23:43 - skwapich@shaw.ca

No, Burn It to the Ground.

@23:45 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Oh, Burn It to the Ground's good.

@23:46 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It is so good. It's a metal song.

@23:49 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Side of a Bullet is really good, too. It's got a Dimebag Daryl Solo in it. It's, it's a, it's a tribute to him.

@23:54 - skwapich@shaw.ca

My favorite song by theirs is, uh, is, uh... A Leader of Men.

@24:01 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Oh, that's a good song. Yeah.

@24:03 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah.

@24:03 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah. Here's a little bit of side of a bullet that will...

@24:08 - skwapich@shaw.ca

When they want to do heavy... That bullet's also good, too. Yeah, it is. You know they have an insane pyro at the shows?

@24:16 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

I... Dude.

@24:17 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Like, they just go full out on pyro.

@24:19 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Why wouldn't you?

@24:21 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Low-key, I would go to see Nickelback. I've never seen them, but I would go see them. Apparently, their concerts are amazing.

@24:26 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

I think it would be a fun show. I think there'd be some beer breaks, though. Or go to the washroom breaks for songs for me.

@24:32 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah. Like, I'll go to the washroom and they play How You Remind Me.

@24:35 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

How You Remind Me, Photograph.

@24:37 - skwapich@shaw.ca

I heard so much of that song.

@24:38 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Oh, my God. Just whatever. I don't know. But hey, you know what? They're local guys to us, and they are...

@24:46 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Technically, they're from Calgary originally. They moved to Vancouver to be in the music scene. But yes.

@24:50 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Hey, whatever. Somehow, they made it in America. And how many other Canadian bands don't? Go figure.

@24:58 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah.

@24:59 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Them of all people.

@25:00 - skwapich@shaw.ca

We would have figured it would have been, you know, any plethora of other Canadian bands, like Tea Party, Tragically Hip, I guess Rush is big in the States too, but they just hit the right time.

They got that kind of, it's like, going to watch WrestleMania this year? No, I'm not. Okay.

@25:18 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

I don't think I watched it last year either. I think I gave up.

@25:21 - skwapich@shaw.ca

I watch it.

@25:22 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

It's too long. Who cares?

@25:25 - skwapich@shaw.ca

And it's totalitary. It's like eight hours.

@25:27 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

That's a lot.

@25:28 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It's four hours the first day, four hours the next day, give or take a little bit, but yeah.

@25:32 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Like we watched, what was the one I watched with him?

@25:34 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It was really good. I can't remember. I it was two years ago. Oh, WrestleMania 40 with Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns in the main event.

@25:41 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yes.

@25:41 - skwapich@shaw.ca

That's one of the best WrestleManias. Well, at least the main event. Yeah.

@25:45 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

But it was good from like, I'm not a wrestling guy at all. And it was good.

@25:49 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It was entertaining for you.

@25:50 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

entertaining. The whole thing. was a very, I was more entertained, I think, by day two than I was day one.

You know, to be honest, it's like a low key banger WrestleMania. Like every match was great. Yeah. Even like the.

@26:00 - skwapich@shaw.ca

There's a couple of average matches, but, like, everything was good.

@26:03 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Like, even, like, there's some, because sometimes, like, the women's matches can be a little just off.

@26:08 - skwapich@shaw.ca

They're better than the men's matches recently.

@26:11 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah.

@26:12 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Like, almost every pay-per-view.

@26:13 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

That's what the kid was saying. He was like, yeah, the women's ones are better than the men's now.

@26:16 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Dude, I watched the Royal Rumble. The women's Royal Rumble is way better than the men's Royal Rumble. Yeah. They got, they're dialed in.

They know how to tell stories.

@26:24 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

in.

@26:24 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Oh, my cat's about to fall off the chair. Come on.

@26:27 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Do it. Fall off the chair.

@26:29 - skwapich@shaw.ca

No, I, so, yeah, so that's, uh, go snap your fingers. Snap your fingers, snap your neck.

@26:34 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

But please don't snap your neck, because that would just be bad. That's not good for you. Um, that's, it's, it's, it's a banger.

It's great.

@26:40 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It's, it's a, it's a fun lesson. It's short. It is.

@26:43 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Get, you get in, get out. The solo is, like, all just sort of, just, it's just basically a melody.

It's, it's amazing.

@26:49 - skwapich@shaw.ca

The whole song's just amazing. And again, it's a, it's, it's a good lesson in less is more.

@26:54 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Less is more.

@26:54 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Like, you don't need to fill it with all these notes and all this stuff. I mean, you can, if that's what you're going for.

But like sometimes the space that you don't play in means more than the space you play in.

@27:04 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

But you know me, you know, with music, more space and sort of just keep it groovy.

ACTION ITEM: Listen to more Prong this week - WATCH

@27:08 - skwapich@shaw.ca

And I'm a happy man. Give that doom metal like one chord for like five minutes.

@27:13 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Well, I would go that. Maybe two, maybe two.

@27:16 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Let's go two chords. Maybe that second chord in, yeah.

@27:20 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

But I'm going to keep digging into prong this week. I'm going to listen to some more of their recent stuff and see how they've evolved over the last 7,000 years they've been around.

@27:28 - skwapich@shaw.ca

I've been listening to a little bit of Sabaton recently, so.

@27:31 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Hey, me too.

@27:32 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Great freaking band, man.

@27:33 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

They're coming to Vancouver.

@27:35 - skwapich@shaw.ca

How we should go.

@27:37 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

, when is it? It's like April 20th. Like it's soon. Like it's in like a month. They're playing the peony form.

@27:44 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Really?

@27:44 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah. It's them and all the band. I like them, what they're called. Oh, boy. Frozen Crown?

@27:53 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yep.

@27:54 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Frozen Crown?

@27:54 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know.

@27:55 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

They're a bunch of the, like, it's mostly a female band.

@27:57 - skwapich@shaw.ca

That's female singer.

@27:58 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Isn't it?

@27:59 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah. Frozen Crown?

@27:59 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Yeah. Yeah, and they just, they're, they rip. They're just, they're awesome.

@28:02 - skwapich@shaw.ca

You can go see Flor Janssen's drummer from Sabaton, husband drummer.

@28:08 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

There you go. Yeah, I've been listening to a lot of Sabaton's new record.

@28:10 - skwapich@shaw.ca

It's really good. Yeah, it's good. It's, it's like, it's like Viking metal, but it's not as, as intense as Amon Amarath.

No. It's more like power medley, more like fantastical, like it's kind of like a hybrid between Amon Arath and Gloryhammer, honestly.

It's like, it fits that middle pocket.

@28:28 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Like it's not, yeah, it's, it's like not opera metal, but it's, it's, it's, it's close.

@28:33 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Yeah. But it's also not as like heavy as like the Viking heart Viking metal.

@28:39 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

So no, the Viking, that's the, I can only handle so much Amon Amarath.

@28:42 - skwapich@shaw.ca

I would go see them just to see their boat that they have on stage. love them so much. You know, they got like the Viking boat.

@28:49 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Viking long boat. It's the, yeah, thank you. Long boat. It's the great, it's the greatest thing ever. So anyways.

Yeah. Don't go ahead.

@28:54 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Please speak. No, I'm just going to, the last thing to say is I do watch like the, I'm on or off of Valken.

Stuff from time to time, because I just like, I just want to get into that Viking metal space.

@29:04 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Oh, hell yeah.

@29:04 - skwapich@shaw.ca

So, yeah, that's it.

@29:06 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

That's all I wanted to say. That's it.

@29:07 - skwapich@shaw.ca

That's all he wants.

@29:08 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Okay.

@29:08 - skwapich@shaw.ca

That's it.

@29:09 - Mandatory Music (mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com)

Until next week.

@29:10 - skwapich@shaw.ca

Bye. Okay, go play WoW. I will. And actually, I can't. I'm.