Rage Against the Machine, self-titled album cover featuring Thich Quang Duc, 1992.
Outside of Howard Beale from the classic film Network, nothing in the popular culture’s consciousness conveys “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” like the photo shown here, depicting Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc setting himself on fire to protest his government’s oppression of his religion.
So it’s fitting that Rage Against the Machine, a band whose music embodied large-scale protest — on the corporation’s dime, much like Howard Beale! — would employ the image for its eponymous debut. Rage weren’t Buddhists, but they knew that this photograph might make their already-long band name worth at least a thousand words.
In fact, the image turns out to be worthy of a $40,000 grant. After the jump, via Bates College: the story of Thich Quang Duc, and of Trian Nguyen, the Bates professor who hopes to more fully discover the monk whose 1963 self-immolation was not only one of the defining acts of the Vietnam War years, but one of the most significant images of the modern age.
Fans of the Horse and of metal might wanna check out my new roundup of Buddhist-influenced heavy metal album covers, over at my blog on Shambhala SunSpace.
The article, called “Heavy Metal Dharma Thunder,” features eleven examples of this surprising but time-honored trend. Check it out here.
Yes, there’s a rock band from England called The Dharma, but this “Dark/gothic metal” outfit is simply called Dharma.
What’s the Dharmic connection (besides the forced pose in their promo photo)?
Well, they describe their music as “Modern Metal, Ambient, Folk with soul-searching lyrics [in] an Oriental Dark Metal style” — and I guess I can kinda hear that — but other than that? Not a clue. (And seriously, someone tell them to ditch that word, “Oriental.”)
If this sounds like your bag, hear ‘em here.
Thanks yet again to reader Ben H., who sends this, which is at least a Dharma-Burger of sorts:
“Hey, I read an article on this on pitchfork. Prince’s new 3 disc album will be released exclusively at Target. The title is Lotusflow3r and the image is below. He also bought the domain name: http://lotusflow3r.com/
“I just love prince’s weird embrace of the new age vibe.”
The site is nearly as odd as the cover graphic — but if you look around you’ll at least hear a little music….
Here’s a band to check out if you like your music on the noisy/sludgy/drony side — and I know some of you do.
Queen Elephantine has a new album called “Kailash,” named for the famed mountain of Buddhist and Hindu lore. You can hear it in entirety on their MySpace page — just select the second player (not the top one, though that one’s good if you want to hear older tracks).
So is QE Buddhist or Hindu? Can’t say, but they certainly seem interested. With song titles like “Search for the Deathless State” and previous releases called “Surya” and “Yatra,” they at least have a sympathy. Whatever their deal — if you like this kind of music, you’ll like them.
Also: good ol’ Konchog Norbu reminded me to give the band Hayagriva a mention. Named for the horse-headed deity found (again) in both Buddhism and Hinduism, they have a totally different thing going on — kinda theatrical black metal.
If that sounds like your kinda thing, you can hear it here.
Is it, in fact, “very Zen”? Head on over to Shambhala SunSpace and see it!
You’ll find a bunch more Buddhist-inspired album covers — here, and in the Dhama-Burger archives, here and here.
A cute new Christmastime tolerance ditty from Mason Jennings and Jack Johnson, found via this blog.
You can hear it here.
Yes: this is a real cover for a real album (Karma. Bloody. Karma.), by a real band — the notorious Cattle Decapitation.
With a name like that, you might think that these guys, who play metal in the death-metal/grindcore vein, are insensitive, bloodthirsty goons. But nope. They’re actually really quite concerned with such things as animal rights, vegetarianism, and the ecology.
The cover depicts a six-armed, knife-wielding, bull-headed figure that’s quite obviously a nod to the wrathful deities of tantric Buddhism (and also some of the gods of Hinduism).
It’s even levitating, in meditation, over the slaughterhouse drain. Strangely, it’s kind of a nice touch…
Q: What does this have to do with Buddhism?
A: Nothing! (Of course.) Though it might cause some of us to recall the third precept.
So what’s it doing here?
Well, it was found whilst stumbling through music blogs, and this album by exotica musician Martin Denny caught my eye… for some reason. Looking at the list of songs, two titles (titles, I said!) jumped out: “Burma Train,” and “Buddhist Bells.” So I gave it a listen.
Good fun, but there’s pretty much nothing Buddhist about it.
But browsing has its rewards, and other Dharma-Burger-rific album covers were found.
Here are some more:
This one’s the cover for Lotus, by Santana. This was a live album recorded in Japan and released in 1974. Recorded in Japan, so it gets a Buddhist-y cover? Sure, why not.
I don’t have anything to say about the music here because I can’t stand Santana. Sorry.
Next up is A Meditation Mass, recorded by the funky German psychedelic band (the term for this kind of music is, really, “krautrock”), Yatha Sidra. Haven’t heard it yet, but it sounds like it’s gonna be pretty nutty and fun.
(In case you can’t make it out, the album’s cover is comprised of a close-shot of the Buddhist Wheel of Life, with some seriously goofy text laid over it.)
You can here it here, where I found it.
Last up is the cover for an album called Karma, by a band called Buffalo. How much does it have to do with karma, much less Buddhism? Dunno yet. But my guess is that, since it’s being compared to metal bands like Kyuss, Slayer, Corrosion Of Conformity (all of whom I like) and Alabama Thunderpussy (whose name is one of the most embarrassing of all time), I don’t think it’s gonna be much like, say, going on a silent retreat. Hear it here.
Unless you’re one of the fabled Buddhist Baby Boomers, you likely don’t know of the rock band Uriah Heep. But they were kinda big, back in the day. Like, say, “Molly Hatchet” big. (Oh wait, you likely don’t know them, either…) But “the Heep” is back, and their new album “Wake the Sleeper” has a classic Dharma-Burger flavor:
Despite the art (and album title) it seems that the Dharmic Nutritional Value is pretty much an unsurprising zero.
The album’s website, too has a similar taste. You can hear samples there too — if big, raucous, absurd metallic prog-rock is your thing. (Hey, sometimes a little cheese can be a good thing. Especially on a Dharma-Burger.)
