Limp Bizkit's 'Chocolate Starfish'

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Come on people, where's your r'n'r heart?

a) The great thing about Florida bands is they're completely rootless, they'll just mix in anything that sounds cool and pump it full of steroids. Think of LB as part of a continuum that includes Expose, 2 Live Crew and Miami Sound Machine, and they'll start to make sense.

b) Why all the complaints about one-dimensional mookery? "My Generation" is a knowing wink in the direction of all those snot-teen anthems of the past - Durst updating Leiber/Stoller, or Sonny "Laugh at Me" Bono! "My Way" fits right in the leave-me-alone-no-come-back blues-confessional tradition, and "The One" is puppy-doggy in a Farelly Brothers kind of way. As for "Full Nelson", everybody would love it if the Coup had done it, but then, it wouldn't have that 'Incredible Hulk' (TV show as opposed to the more serious comic) vibe.

c) Hard rock has now split into the 'serious' end (Creed, Stained), and the 'silly' end (Bizkit, ICP etc). Anyone who can find anything nice to say about Creed and Staind, please come back to me after you've grown up a bit. (This must be a hard-rock thing, abnd what maybe distinguishes it from 'other' gtr muzik - just like in the early 70s, the 'silly' i.e., great, metalheads [Zep, Purple] were the ones who could 'actually play', while the really dull plodders [Foghat, Humble Pie etc.] couldn't. Creed and Staind and Silverchair play simplistic campfire dirges made to sound 'metal' by having overbearing 80s drums and gtrs downtuned to the point where nothing's distinguishable anymnore, whereas Bizkit is actually a collaborative effort (Borland, Rivers and Otto each contribute idiosyncratically as opposed to the utilitarian post-grunge straitjacket), plus there's the electro touches, silly spoken asides etc., that most of the worthless bands in the 'nu-metal' category are far too 'serious' for.

d) Durst may look like the thug you try to avoid - but that's GOOD because it means he DOESN'T look like you would expect somebody in a band to look like! Well, maybe now, but that's only after people started copying. I imagine a lot of Rod Stewart fans hated David Byrne on first exposure because "rock stars aren't supposed to look like that!" Any good RS looks any way they damn please, and if it happens to look like somebody you don't like, deal with it, or don't as the case may be.

e) "My Generation" - I KNOW he's even older than me, but I think it still works because of my belief that Gen X is the most fucked-over in history and because of this I reserve the right to carry a massive chip on shoulder at all times and be entirely apathetic if not hostile to the endless bleatings of everybody else who claims to be suffering and oppressed etc. (I suppose the seeds of others' Bizkit-hatred can be found in that last statement, which I'm also recognising as contradicting my earlier statement about 'MG' just being a great "Louie Louie"-style party anthem, but so what? "Dancing in the Streets" was a common riot soundtrack during the 'Long Hot Summer').

f) "My Way" is my idea of a moving, bittersweet gem. (Then again, I always put too much weight ion the 'unexpected source' factor in my calculations, but for somebody who buys as many CDs as I do, that just raises the stakes and makes the game worth playing...)

― dave q, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

BTW, why do people think of Syracuse as the end of civilisation when Altamont is in the 'dark frisson of excitement' category? Memories giving everything soft-focus? Or is it, as I suspect, yet more fucking Baby Boomer shit? ("Yeah, but at least the Stones stood FOR something! We were trying to stop a war, you know! And if we all got divorced and left you kids to buy drugs from the babysitter it's cause we were trying to FIND OURSELVES don't you see? You're too busy getting your nose piercings to appreciate the GRAND QUEST our generation was on" die die die already)

― dave q, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The only thing I will give this album props for is the song "My Way". I actually like that one, bringing the total number of Limp Bizkit songs I like up to three (the others being the one with Method Man and "Break Stuff").

― Dan Perry, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

not that i don't think the boomers should die, but my beaten baby seal critique still stands here i think. also sorry but i really don't buy the 'he looks like a thug and that's good' and i have a feeling his handlers these days are too, cf. the 'i'm sick of watching people dying' verse in 'what's going on' coming not too long after that whole death in the moshpit in australia incident.

― maura, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dave, your defense of the Bizkit is heroic, though I still can't stand them (Slipknot's way funnier and rocks much harder). And in re: Durst's looks: he looks like the guy from the New Radicals with a bigger clothing budget, and that can't be good. Third and final point: you are OTM about Staind, whose new video requires a thread all its own for the enumeration of its crimes against anything good in the universe, but there's pleny of playful fun silly non-mopey hard rock to be found without resorting to the Durst. Immortal's "Sons of Northern Darkness," for example, or High on Fire's "The Art of Self-Defense." Or anything by Eyehategod.

― John Darnielle, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

or aim of conrad, or the rye coalition, or or or ...

― maura, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

............

(just some personal thoughts on L.B.)

― WiLLeM, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

BTW, Staind are what Pearl Jam would sound like if they had any business sense. I say that as a mildly positive comment.

― Dan Perry, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Just... don't try.

― JM, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What does the title "Chocolate Starfish and Hot Dog Flavored Water" mean exactly?

Not that it needs to mean anything, I'm just curious if it does.

― oliver, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Blechh, it sounds awful. In fairness, I guess it's meant to sound awful.

― Sean, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What does the title "Chocolate Starfish and Hot Dog Flavored Water" mean exactly?

Probably something that implies being extremely closeted -- just like the other album titles.

― Brian MacDonald, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A friend of mine used to love this soup his mom used to make using the broth left behind after cooking hot dogs, except they called it "Ween Water Soup". I'm sure Limp Biznatch had some similarly- challenged cuisine, growing up as children, which would certainly explain a lot. I do have to admit that the phrase "Ween Water Soup" always made me think of water that had run off of the band Ween, which is a much more satisfying image, especially if it means they had been boiled to death.

― Sean Carruthers, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

As I understood it, the lengthy title was meant to mock the Smashing Pumpkins' MELLON COLLIE & THE BLAH BLAH BLAH. Some baggy trousered youth tried to explain the specific imagery to me, saying "chocolate starfish" means "feces" (I suppose) and "hot dog flavored water" means "urine".

Regardless, these things don't really warrant discussion in the first place as, ultimately, the music is bullshit.

― Alex in NYC, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

the lengthy title was meant to mock the Smashing Pumpkins

The level of inspiration stopped right there.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

From what I read,the title of the album was more inspired by the imaginary band concept of Sgt. Pepper's.

― Damian, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This should be in the paens to anal sex but...

A Chocolate Starfish = An Anus (1 + 1 = 2)

Hot Dog Flavoured Water = Some intestino-urinary reference?

So, it's a concept album then.

― David, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Just for the record, I don't really think it would be a good idea if Ween were boiled to death. I think they'd learn their lesson just from a good non-life-threatening and non-disfiguring scalding.

― Sean Carruthers, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I can't believe that people who'd actually bother to have an opinion about Limp Bizkit don't know what a Chocolate Starfish is, as well as being a Belgian sweet which makes the English laugh when they see its name. 'Hot Dog Water' is the unwelcome liquid which comes out of it, on occasion (the anus, not the sweet). 'Corgan is Shit, Like Me' would have been a much better title. The LBs are the only band I've ever seen blown off stage by the sheer Rawk power of the equally crappy Bluetones (a unique achievement, no?) They sounded like a man farting on the top deck of a 253 while yapping into his mobile.

― Snotty Moore, Sunday, 3 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Though, tastes are subjective and opinions may differ, the smell of rancid bullshit is unmistakable. Limp Bisquik is a Dud Dud Dud!

― Lord Custos, Sunday, 3 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

LB at one point claimed that they were band members nicknames as with Hootie and the Blowfish. They were probably lying.

― Sterling Clover, Monday, 4 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If that's true, anyone want to put any money on which one of them is Chocolate Starfish?

― Sean Carruthers, Monday, 4 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

eight months pass...

why bother with LB when you could get a bad dub of Faith No More and piss all over it?

― threemetalinsects (threemetalinsects), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 07:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Fun Fact: There was an Australian band called Chocolate Starfish who did a cover of Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain' sometime in the early-to-mid 1990s.

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 08:08 (twenty-two years ago)

i just like Wes Boland, and the intro to 'Rollin'

― blueski, Wednesday, 16 October 2002 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

COMPLETE SHIT

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 16 October 2002 12:00 (twenty-two years ago)

five months pass...

I had no idea anybody else on ILM liked these guys. Dave q shames the flimsy review of the album I just put up on my site. I guess that's why God inveted the "edit" option on Blogger.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 03:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Heh. It is a mighty mighty Dave Q review and I lurve him for it. Still a crap record, though. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 03:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Ned, you know that part in every Limp Bizkit song where it gets really quiet as Fred moans about the pain and the song gets louder and LOUDER and LLLOOOOUDDEER?!?!?!?! How can you not LOVE that!?!

If you trust me, Ned, you'll download the track "Livin' It Up." You'll love it!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 03:10 (twenty-two years ago)

How can you not LOVE that!?!

Quite easily, trust me. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 03:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I like some of the music (not the whining, self-involved, rationalizing, lying personas), but I don't really agree with any of the justifications in dave's post (though some of the observations are good). Haven't bought the record yet tho it's been on my list for months. Greatest hits?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 03:13 (twenty-two years ago)

My friend does an uncanny impersonation of Fred Durst. I make him do it every time I'm down.

― David Allen, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 03:49 (twenty-two years ago)

five years pass...

TOUCH MY BALLS AND MY ASS

http://rcradmin.desjalogic.com/GalleryPics/Site32/fred_durst_sex_tape_1.jpg

― stephen, Sunday, 3 August 2008 20:32 (seventeen years ago)

their cover of "faith" is a laff.

― jeremy waters, Sunday, 3 August 2008 20:55 (seventeen years ago)

I always felt that the adage "People who live in glass houses..." was designed for Fred after he 'rapped' the following:

"You better get some better beats and uh...get some better rhymes".

― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Sunday, 3 August 2008 20:57 (seventeen years ago)

Horrible, horrible band. Stained and Creed, too, for that matter.

― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 3 August 2008 21:27 (seventeen years ago)

I had no idea anybody else on ILM liked these guys. Dave q shames the flimsy review of the album I just put up on my site. I guess that's why God inveted the "edit" option on Blogger.

-- Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, March 25, 2003 10:01 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

― Eisbaer, Sunday, 3 August 2008 21:43 (seventeen years ago)

Bah. This band takes screachy, tuneless, purposeless faux-angst, willful stupidity and frat/nu-rock banality to a (seemingly impossible) new low mark.

― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 3 August 2008 21:48 (seventeen years ago)

whatevs. had some student disco BANGERS.

― jeremy waters, Sunday, 3 August 2008 21:55 (seventeen years ago)

Marilyn Manson was right on the money:

"Limp Bizkit is a band made up of illiterate apes that beat your ass in high school for being a 'fag', but now sell you tuneless testosterone anthems of misogyny and pretend to be outsiders..."

― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Sunday, 3 August 2008 22:29 (seventeen years ago)

nine months pass...

NOW I KNOW Y'ALL BE LOVIN THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE

L. I. M. P. BIZKIT IS RIGHT HERE

http://dkpresents.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/limp_bizkit_chocolate_starfish_and_.jpg

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, 19 May 2009 04:34 (sixteen years ago)

Wow, that album art is even worse than I remember it being. Is that seriously the real font?

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 19 May 2009 04:43 (sixteen years ago)

There are some things that even ironic appreciation should never salvage.

― Cunga, Tuesday, 19 May 2009 04:57 (sixteen years ago)

that cover's a wes borland original, btw.

― borntohula, Tuesday, 19 May 2009 05:12 (sixteen years ago)

eight years pass...

Y'know, this would actually be a decent record in places if you removed all of Fred Durst's vocal tracks. I like the playing of Borland, Otto etc. and they come up with some pretty neat backing tracks but then Durst just shits all over 'em.

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 23 August 2017 19:38 (seven years ago)

"boiler" is a really good song despite durst

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, 23 August 2017 21:47 (seven years ago)

Some of the guitar work on this record reminds me of Andy Summers?

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Thursday, 24 August 2017 06:44 (seven years ago)

Hahahaha! As if there's a CLEAN version of 'Hot Dog' ... there's barely any vocal left!

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Thursday, 24 August 2017 10:26 (seven years ago)

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Limp Bizkit's 'Chocolate Starfish' - Classic or classic?