In this feature we do not discuss mucus oozing from your nose... we discuss a band that a surprising few people know or understand, but those who do love dearly - Snot.
Whether you know it or not, Snot is one of the most influential bands of the late 90's - informing and touching upon music including Korn, System of a Down, Incubus and Papa Roach. Bands that you listen to today pay homage to Snot on a regular basis and by their cult-ish following they have remained somewhere in the background, just on the edge of becoming an iconoclast of Rock.
In December of 1998, Snot's career was cut short when lead singer, James Lynn Strait was killed in a car accident on a California Freeway in which his car was struck by a large truck. Now 10 years later, Snot is returning to the stage with a new singer in tribute to Lynn and now we delve into the history of why Snot matters to your music.
Let us start at the very beginning. A time when Rap existed and Rock existed and their union was made by such Aerosmith and Run D.M.C. or Anthrax and Public Enemy - Blondie even famously dabbled in rap. In 1985, Mike Patton along with Mr. Bungle and simultaneously, the Red Hot Chili Peppers changed the face of things as they began incorporating Funk and Hip-Hop in Punk and Metal to create a genre that would later become one of the most loved and hated genres of music - Rap-Rock.
In 1992, Rage Against the Machine took it to another level placing an Emcee at the helm of a Hardcore band. Then a few years later 311 hits the scene with their own brand of surf-punk mixed with Rap and Reggae that makes me want to vomit.
It wasn't until 1996 when Korn began finding mainstream success from Life is Peachy, the follow-up to their 1994 debut self-titled album, that Rap-Rock became a household word. On the heels of Korn, Limp Bizkit, the Deftones rose - Limp Bizkit eventually overcame Korn as the eventual leaders of the genre before causing its ultimate implosion.
In 1996 a band formed in Santa Barbara, California called Snot. Faster and more aggressive, with a harder groove and more funk than hip-hop, Snot feel into a genre of their own. Like Incubus and Sevendust, they preferred to draw direct from Soul and Funk grooves than hip-hop and rap - while the Rock was directly from California hardcore and punk rather than the heavier, detuned Metal sounds of Korn and Limp Bizkit.
The result was once screetching and melodic. At once angry and fun, humerous and relevant, but more than anything it was unique.
In 1997, the band released their only album "Get Some" to critical acclaim but little commercial success. After some successful tours, including the 1998 Ozzfest, Lynn was killed in a car accident that cut the band's career short.
When Lynn passed, the band had already begun recording their second record, but Lynn had not recorded the vocals on most songs. Snot decided to complete the record using the band's closest friends as vocalists. These are names you may find familiiar - Jonathan from Korn, Corey from Slipknot, Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit, Brandon Boyd from Incubus, Ozzy Osbourne, Lajon from Sevendust, Serj from System of a Down, and many others on the record "Strait Up."
The resulting single, featuring Lajon Witherspoon and three other members of Sevendust, ironically found greater commercial success than Snot's own album "Get Some" - to the point that some Rock fans believed the name of the band was indeed "Strait Up" rather than Snot. To this day I often hear people make that mistake. The single "Angel's Son," a full dedication to James Lynn Strait, appeared as the 8th track on Strait Up as well as Sevendust's commercially successful and critically acclaimed album, Animosity.
Attending Sevendust shows in Los Angeles, you often see members of the Strait family or Snot. In 2007, in Anaheim, the surviving members of Snot joined the opening band, Invitro, on stage to perform one Snot song - for the first time in 9 years for the audience at the House of Blues. I was there... unfortunately I arrived too late to see InVitro's performance. Less than a year later the band recruited singer, Tommy Vext, to join the band and Snot reformed - playing one show in August of 2008 at Velvet Jones in Santa Barbara.
On Friday, October 10th, Snot begins their first tour in 10 years at the Key Club in West Hollywood, California. I am lucky enough to be attending this special show at such a small venue and I'll tell you how it is - after that they hit the road playing much larger clubs including 1-2,000 seat venues nationwide.
So why does Snot matter? Listen to Korn, Linkin Park, System of a Down, Papa Roach, Slipknot - the bands that are leaders of this generation of Rock. No, Snot is not Mr. Bungle or Faith No More... bands without whom Korn, Papa Roach and System of a Down would not exist or sound like they do. Instead, Snot has a deeper influence, an attitude, a love and heart that speaks to the core of what Rock is today. They broke ground by existing within the Rap-Rock genre but remainnig outside of the Rap-Rock hype.
I personally was introduced to Snot before Lynn's passing in 1997, when my best friend won an autographed copy of "Get Some" through a local college radio station (I was 14 at the time). He let me record it onto an audio-cassette and I listened to it until the tape fell apart.
Is there a degree of the Nirvana/Sublime type hype here? A dead lead singer means the band can never change and therefore gets put on a pedestal. Of course - who knows what would have happened had Lynn survived. But to all of those who speak of him, including some of my personal favorite artists, he was a man who represented what Rock meant in his time.
For that, we pay respect to Lynn and we pay respect to Snot. The new band, including Vext on vocals has recorded a new song, The Band Plays On, which is featured here on the Rockvine. If you have any questions or comments about Snot, please leave them here.
You can check out more information on Snot, including tour dates at their Myspace page by CLICKING HERE.
