Last night I stumbled into the interweb equivalent of a brawl. In one corner: the incomparable ladies of Reign in Blonde (Elise and Julia) and their cool new columnist Angela Gossowski. In the other corner, an infestation of whackjobs calling themselves members of the “Undead Army.”
Chapter 1: The whole thing started innocently enough about a week ago when Elise broke the story that a sometimes member of Hollywood Undead (Daniel Murillo) had auditioned for the new season of American Idol and apparently has made it through to the “Hollywood round” of the competition. Elise didn’t say much about Hollywood Undead other than to describe them as “that shitty rap/rock band that performs in MASKS.”
Now, RIB has a devoted legion of followers, but only a handful of folks post comments with any regularity, and those comments are usually articulate, funny, and — well — civilized. Elise’s story drew 10 posted comments. A few of the regulars popped in, but then (ominously) three commenters appeared with web monikers ending in “HU4L,” which I eventually came to learn stands for “Hollywood Undead for Life.” And one of those comments included this bit of witty repartee:
“Your are a pathetic piece of shit. Im not even kidding you. 1. You dont know one goddamn thing about HU. or where they come from. 2. You need to shut the muthafuck up before someone shanks your bitch ass. 3. Yes I know its your opinion whether or not your like them, so KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.”
Uh, what?? (more after the jump, if you have a strong stomach . . .)
Chapter 2: A few days later, Elise put up a second post. She reacted to the HU4L comments by saying, in a nutshell: “[L]et’s all agree to disagree here. Listen to the music you want to listen to and move on with your day.” She also did refer to Hollywood Undead as “a band that the majority of the metal community perceives as comically awful.” I figured that would revive the shitstorm that was starting to brew in response to her first post — but only 3 comments popped up, and none from the HU4L lunatics.
Chapter 3: Yesterday, RIB‘s new columnist Angela Gossowski posted a long piece in which she described “taking the Hollywood Undead challenge.” Attempting to take the HU4L protests with at least some level of seriousness, she listened to 7 HU songs and wrote her impressions in detail about each one, summing up as follows: “The fact is, they are a shitty band. They are NOT GOOD. I’m sorry, but I can say with 100% confidence that this “band”, is FACTUALLY TERRIBLE.”
She urged the HU fans: “You want to listen to good music? You want some respect for the things you listen to? Try educating yourself. You like metal? Listen to a band with talent, with technical skill. Listen to a band like Mastodon.” And she threw down a challenge to the HU4L-ers: “You will continously get ZERO respect from the metal community unless you can sit down and back up just what this band is supposed to be all about.”
Well, that poked the hornet’s nest one too many times. As of the last time I checked this morning, Angela’s post had drawn 101 comments. A few RIB regulars (including me) had early on posted generally supportive comments, but that was followed by an avalanche of invective spew from the HU4L crowd. Not one of those comments actually responded to Angela’s challenge.
You really don’t want to read them all, like I did, unless of course you like swimming in cesspools. Here’s a representative sample:
“[T[his hate on Hollywood Undead and their fans is bull shit. They have more fans than you ever will, who will love them forever and not for the moment like this gay ass blog. So in the words of Charlie Scene ‘you need to slit your wrists, get pissed and go jump off a bridge.'”
“Your just a jealous cunt. So instead of telling us to shut up; why dont you. We dont give a motherfuck about message boards. we got our own shit fool.”
“holy crap you are the biggest fucking dumbass i have ever heard of. you’re lucky i dont know where you live cuz i would kick your ass”
“like seriously you have know idea what you’re talking about. shut the fuck up you douche bag”
“Don’t tell me that because I’m a 16 year old who listens to this music, I don’t know shit about shit because apparently you are the one who doesn’t know shit about shit! And there is actually substance in these songs, I wrote a paper on one of them and it’s meaning, which my english teacher absolutely loved, (ever think that maybe you’re not smart enough to see that?) and it is relatable to us.”
“you know what’s funny? i had a friend who killed herself, actually. who used to cut herself. who was fucking IN LOVE with mastodon and didn’t particularly like undead. haha. i fucking love uninformed bitches.”
Yikes!
I listened to a few Hollywood Undead songs months ago just to see what the hype was about. I thought it was pretty bad, and really didn’t give it a second thought. There’s lots of talentless bands in the world with a gimmick, and hordes of screaming teeny-bopper fans whose lives revolve around their heroes. Hey, that’s part of growing up, and it will pass, and I really don’t care much about that either.
And I definitely steer clear of web sites, blogs, and message boards that include the kind of mindless blather that the HU4L crowd seems programmed to generate. Only because I’m an adoring daily reader of RIB did I get this creepy glimpse into their world. Kind of like peeling back the tent flap on a carnival geek show, or tearing a hole in a piece of rotted siding and watching a swarm of termites fall out. Reminded me of the “teabaggers” who swarmed congressional town hall meetings last summer and proceeded to shout down anyone and everyone who was trying to say anything with a modicum of intelligence.
I suppose this could be some kind of case study in pop culture sociology that we might learn from, but it’s not any kind of learning I want.
What I want is for RIB to call in a pest control company and get their nice, cozy metal home back in livable condition. Ick.
20 Responses to “HU4L”
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Joke’s still on them. Look how much traffic they got me!
Also, from the looks of these fans, this American Idol push is going to be even easier than I thought.
True on both counts! If only you could get the HU4L-ers the phone numbers of the Idol fans who vote for other contestants. Murillo would be a lock.
i kinda like hollywood undead 🙂
i know most of thier songs don’t have a lot to them other then sex, drugs and partying but a few actually have feeling to them.
i’m not some psyco-fan who’s going to try to threaten you or something, that’s just immature.
a lot of people genuinly enjoy their music though, it’s fun!
Thanks for your comment. I do know there are non-psychos out there who like HU’s songs, and I also do get why the music can be fun if you’re in the right mood — and believe me, I’m a big believer in fun wherever you find it!
u can not kinda i like them or not so witch one do u choice
i like hollywood undead quite a bit, mostly because of how different they are, and how spot on some of their lyrics are. i dont think theyre one of those shit bands who have “teeny boppers” like worshipping them for no reason. maybe these people exist, but im nearly 18 years old and i know you can still want to defend this band without being a “teeny bopper”.
i genuinely believe that those people commenting on that message board must have seen all this criticism directed at hollywood undead and automatically wanted to defend them, because they like this music.
i think that’s fair enough. you’ve only listened to their stuff once. if you’d read lyrics, listened to it again, etc, you may change your mind.
but whatever, im not trying to make you like them. i just dont like seeing bands ( or ANYTHING for that matter), being judged by people who don’t really have a decent argument other than “it sounded shit to me”.
but yeah, everyone likes different shit. i just had to throw my 2 cents in because even though i dont listen to these guys like they’re a drug, i appreciate a few of their songs once in a while. i wouldn’t call them metal anyway…
“I just dont like seeing bands ( or ANYTHING for that matter), being judged by people who don’t really have a decent argument other than ‘it sounded shit to me’.” I definitely agree with that, and as you know if you read much else on this site, we generally don’t like ragging on bands, period. We’d rather say nothing if we don’t have anything positive to say. Except for the flood of nastiness from the HU4L-ers over on RIB, we would have just left HU alone. Throw your two cents any time . . . .
I agree. Sometimes I’ll hear a song and think its total crap, but a couple months later I listen to a song that I really enjoy and realize it was the same song I hated a few months ago. Peoples tastes change so there is no reason to judge them as a untalented band. They are playing for a certain crowd, and that might not be for the intellectual crowd, but the for the more common crowd, where you can just listen to theyre lyrics, let them sink in, and theyre beat of music. It might not sound good to certain people, but that is no reason to call them untalented and lacking technical skill, which is what RIB did.
i personally love hu, im not here to argue with anyone i jus ticks me off wen ppl judge the music others listen to. and jus because sum hu fans go ovr board doesnt giv anyone the right to call the band untalented and personally i dont giv a damn what the metal community has to say about what i listen to i mean come one i listen to nvr shout nvr too so hate on dat i dont listen to them so anyone wil think any way bout me i listen to em cuz i like em especially da song “Knife called lust”
Hey, kudos to you for standing up for the music you like and for putting it out there on this site. Now i’m gonna have to go listen to dat “Knife Called Lust” . . . Least i can do.
First of all, I’d like to say: HU4L! Second of all, HU is a good band. They’re are incredibly unique. They have their own ideas of how to make music, just like I’m sure RIB does. Thus it is useless for you to expect to be taken seriously when you say “they sounded like shit”, because what’s to stop someone from turning around and say that about RIB or any other band for that matter. Third:the point of their songs is to show the populace some of what actually goes on in the underworld of every town and city. Finally: there is somewhat of a HU group in my town, and yes, I’m a major part of it. And, people think of us as a criminal gang. We’re not a gang, nor do we aspire to be one, we are a family. Plain and simple. We all have eachothers backs no matter what. And yes, we party like crazy-ass muthafucks every week!
HU4L
-HerrBaltzell
“We all have each others backs no matter what. And yes, we party like crazy-ass muthafucks every week!” \w/\w/\w/\w/\w/
Every group, org, party, ect, has radicals. idc if you like or dislike HU. But they show how people think. Go to Youtube and look at the comments on there songs. People relate to there songs, like how some other people relate to other songs. HU has made it clear they are tired of people hating those who succeed. They take insult (just like anyone else) when they are told they suck, when they work very long and hard for something. I don’t like all of hollywood undeads songs, but with that said, I don’t like all the songs sung by ANY artist(s). My favorite songs are “This love, This Hate” “Pain” “City” “Young” “Paradise Lost” “Undead” “Christmas in Hollywood” Those are just the ones i like and recommend. I also recommend that you explore others to figure out what you like.
I hate anyone who says Hollywood Undead is shit itsnt shit its the SHIT! i love them and all you fags who dont well you can go and fuck urself cause anyone who doesnt like them isa ugly cunt! i know i am only 13 but i love them and so does my friends and all u haterz can KISS MY ASS. hollywood undead is the best and hatterz are just jealous cause ther so awesome. SO GO FUCK URSELF!!!!!!!!!! ( HATERZ )
YEA AND PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM ARE LIKE MY BEST FRIENDS 🙂 LOVE FANS HATE DOUCHE BAGS 🙂
i uderstand that hollywood undead aren’t to everyones taste, but ui think that opinoins should be kept out of it.
I personaly love hollywood undead with passion and i do get anoyed when people just slate them but have’nt heard any of them, if you have heard them and say you don’t like them fine, but give them a chance.
there the fuckin bomb how could anyone put them down!!!!!
i agree there are amazing and ppl need to stop talking crap
Hey it HU4L there an amazing group and thats all thet matters
Okay look I know that those guys didn’t exactly respond in great ways but you can’t just high-light the tactless points and phrases that don’t make sense be it most of the comment or not. HU has some good songs and if you can’t see the message that runs underneath the lyrics then you really shouldn’t be posting a blog that people actually listen to. If you just want to listen to constant metal chords and drums to bleed out your ears to be my guest. If I’m going to ruin my hearing by listening to a song too loudly I’m glad its ones that have meaning. I can’t stand songs that have no point where the singers constantly scream or say the same thing over and over. Not saying Mastodon has no meaning in some songs but really if you can understand what they say in half their songs without a lyrics sheet props.