Nothing did more to further the cause of Alternative Nation-building than 120 Minutes, MTV’s Sunday-night video showcase of non-mainstream acts. For nearly two decades, the program spanned musical eras from ’80s college rock to ’00s indie, with grunge, Britpop, punk, industrial, electronica and more in between. MAGNET raids the vaults to resurrect our 120 favorite and unjustly forgotten videos from the show’s classic era.
#20: Helmet “In The Meantime”
We’re sure there’s a back issue of MAGNET somewhere that will tell you all about Helmet’s early days on indie noise label Amphetamine Reptile and the like, but for most of us this video did quite nicely as an introduction: Picture that old Maxell tape ad, where the guy is sitting in his chair, hair blown back by the speakers. Finally, there was a heavy-riffing band breaking through to the mainstream that wasn’t traditional metal (Slayer, Pantera, et al) or Soundgarden. Helmet’s 1992 Interscope debut was the perfect prescription: complex and dumb at the same time, interesting enough melodically but undeniably powered by big fistfuls of repetitive riffage. Could be wrong, but Queens Of The Stone Age’s first album seems way more influenced by Helmet’s Meantime than ’70s krautrock or Black Sabbath.
