by Frank Godla
I know right now your probably thinking "Dude, why!?" While I don't have a great explanation to that question, I do have a few personal factoids you might find interesting. For instance, despite my lack of excitement for most metal of this brand, I think Machine Head is a pretty sweet band, with pretty sweet dudes. I have a lot of respect for a band that really hones in on their own unique sound, and runs with it. Whether you love them or hate them, it's hard to deny you know them when you hear them, and that's saying a lot in a day and age where tens of thousands of metal bands exist. It seems like every band fights to be heard, I always thought it was better to be remembered. However, that doesn't mean I'm a fan of Machine Head's entire discography, especially when talking about the more Nu Metal induced releases like The Burning Red LP, which features this silly music video above. It's certainly no match when compared to the raw, and fierce tunes of Burn My Eyes and The More Things Change… or even their newer material found on The Blackening.
So why did I bother picking this video and not something off my more favored LP's? Well that's because of factoid #2 which is back in '99 Tommy Vext (ex-Snot/Divine Heresy) and myself were asked to come down to the video shoot as a pair of extras. Phew! I thought I'd bring that one to the grave, but as embarrassing as it may be, it's very true. It wasn't all bad/silly/embarrassing however, the video was indeed my first of many music videos I've been in or been on set to work over the past 10 years. If that wasn't enough to be nostalgic in itself, this video was also shot inside the base of the Brooklyn Bridge! (Full disclosure, I'm something of a NY history dweeb.) Immediately following the video shoot the band had run off to NJ to continue their tour with Slipknot, however Flynn forgot his sneakers at the shoot and asked us to do him a solid. He went on about how he'd pay for the cost of getting there, but he really needs the sneakers since they're his favorite pair. We ended up driving hours away to save the day, and ultimately had a pretty fun night hanging with the tour.
The funniest part of this story is that we were originally invited by Rob Flynn to attend the shoot, unaware of the production companies' casting call prior to the filming. We signed the necessary agreements, and did our thing not really thinking anything of it. However a few days later we get a call from the casting company informing us they "really like our look" and would like us to consider a regular position as extras on future videos. I can only imagine where we'd be today….
