Scott Ian of Anthrax

Scott Ian of Anthrax goes record shopping at Amoeba Hollywood in this "What's In My Bag?" episode. The guitarist, lyricist, and co-founder of the legendary thrash metal band  talks about Converge's heavy new album, the sheer brutality of hardcore band Discharge, and how he first discovered Tom Waits. Anthrax's 12th studio album, Cursum Perficio, is out September 18 via Megaforce.

Scott Ian's picks:
• Free - Fire & Water (LP) 
• Converge - Love Is Not Enough (LP) 
• Tom Waits - Rain Dogs (LP) 
• Tom Waits - Bone Machine (LP) 
• XCOMM - Time To Burn (LP) 
• Discharge - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing (LP) 
• Jay Glennie - The Making of Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (BOOK) 

Featured Artist: Scott Ian of Anthrax

Editor: Brendt Rioux
Executive Producer: Rachael McGovern
Producer/Director: Craig Miller
Assistant Director: Aaron Araki
Cameras: Derich Heath, Aaron Araki
Audio Recorded by: Patrick Emswiler
Assistant Editor: Patrick Emswiler

Watch Scott Ian's "What's In My Bag?" episode on Amoeba.com

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey friends, I am Scotty in from Anthrax, and I am at Amoeba here on Hollywood Boulevard, and this is What's in my bag. Let's start with the oldest. Free fire and water.

unknown 0:44

Baby, you got what it takes.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Just one of the all-time hard rock bands. You know, they've just got that great British swagger. There's so much soul in it. And even dare I say funk, you know, fire and water, and of course everybody knows all right now. Written by the bass player Andy Fraser when he was like 17 years old. People back then just looked older, I think, in general. But like for real, I think Paul Rogers, even here, was like 21 or something when they first put this band together. It didn't last very long. They were only around two, three years and it fell apart. But uh man, what a legacy they left. Of course, he went on to form Bad Company. I love this record so much, and I don't have it on vinyl. So win for me. Converge, love is not enough. They're a band that's certainly been on my radar for a very long time, but I never really went too deep into it. And when my son got way into them, I started hearing it and listening to it a lot more, and uh this came out this year. I'd have to say the song Bad Faith is the heaviest fucking thing I've heard in a really long time. The riff in that song, you want a good riff to punch something to? That's the one. You want a good riff to work out to? You know, more constructive than just punching things. Love is not enough. It's just so fucking heavy. It seriously is gonna make you wanna kick things. Oh, Tom Waits. When my band signed our first major label record deal in '84, we signed with Island Records in New York City. I didn't know who Tom Waits was until I walked into the Island Records office back like at our first big meeting with the record label people. It was right around when this was coming out, because this came out in '85. And I remember seeing this all over the office. Posters for this, ads for this, and I still knew nothing about Tom Waits. Nothing. Like what he sounded like. I thought that was Tom Waits on the album cover. Turns out it's not. It's just some dude that looks like Tom Waits on Tom Waits' album cover. I found out about Tom Waits from seeing a movie shortcuts by Robert Altman, and Tom Waits is in that movie. One of the many people in that big ensemble of that movie. I was like, who is this guy?

SPEAKER_00 4:05

What's that for?

unknown 4:06

I got a ball.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Are you such a bullshit artist? You're the one shipping, share of love, baby.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

I loved him so much, and then that's how I found out about Tom Waits, and then actually for the first time went and listened to a Tom Waits record, and then was really mad at myself because I was like, I could have been getting all these records for free all these years, and uh all the time I wasted not listening to Tom Waits. This record, which is a much different album, Bone Machine, he kind of got way into more obscure percussion sounds, and I joke sometimes that when I listen to this with my son, I'll it'll be on and I'll be like, it just sounds like somebody's breaking things in the background. Like it's but I and I love it. I mean Earth Dice Screaming, anything on this record is you you can't go wrong. If you're a fan of metal or you're watching this because of me, open your mind and listen, because there's songs on these records that are as heavy as the world in a different way than metal is. You hear his life and his lyrics and his his music. Amazing hardcore band from Los Angeles. They just finished playing Warp Tour, and uh I highly recommend this. Friend of mine who's a writer described it as they nailed this amazing balance of creating something that sounds familiar yet at the same time completely new. Amazing hardcore record will also make you want to kick things. I have this on vinyl, but it's been in my storage place, which I haven't been to in probably 15 years, so no idea if it's even playable anymore. And I'm going there next month finally to get my crap out of there, and that's where all my vinyl is. Fingers crossed, and all my CDs and cassettes and like everything. But this is, if you don't know this record, I mean when I talk about as heavy as the world, this is the most brutal hardcore record ever made. It's just this wall of terror. It's the sound of the apocalypse happening in real time. That's what this record is. I discovered this in probably '83. Couldn't get enough of it. Huge influence on me and my band and every other metal band from the 80s, whether you're thinking about Slayer or Metallica and Exodus, and we all worship this record. Sheer brutality at its finest. It's a must-have. Last, a really big heavy book. This is the making of Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Well, I'm all grateful that sweet life baby.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

I chose this sight unseen because I do love the movie so much. My whole family loves this movie so much. I actually kind of got this as a present for my wife because she is so in love with this film. For a guy that's made a pretty good string of films, to have your ninth one be arguably your best movie. I know some people, a lot of my friends are like, uh, you know, that whatever, they they kinda hem and haw about it a little bit, but I'm like, you're wrong. It's fucking brilliant. It's his love letter to Hollywood. He created a fairy tale and uh he made it all better after the horrors of I don't want to give any spoilers if you haven't seen it, but the horrors of 1969.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

I'm such a winter's day.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

It's just such a beautiful movie, and so many iconic, especially Brad Pitt's character, Cliff Booth. What an icon and what a mystery. Like, who is this guy? And lucky for us, there's a Cliff Booth movie coming soon. A whole movie just about him. That's really exciting. So anyway, yeah, I'm looking forward to taking the plastic off this and digging in. That's my pile of goodies here from Amoeba, and uh thank you so much. Got a lot to do when I get home.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Thank you so much for coming in today.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Of course. Thanks for having me.