Customer Reviews
Simply amazing 
2008-07-31
I don't review music typically, but this album is spectacular. After owning it for 3 years, I still love it. If you are new to MSI, as I was at the time, this album will grow on you even more as you get into it. The songs are so hard, the lyrics are funny and mean spirited. The title track describes absolutely how I feel about whiny emo kids. The subsequent album "If" doesn't draw me in immediately like this one did. If you are new to them, buy this album. If you can't get enough, you'll probably like Frankenstein Girls which IMHO shares the same general feeling. I've heard people say they are embarrassed to play this album around friends, I do it all the time. This group has more talent than most, and the tracks are in-your-face nonstop just plain hard. They are short because they were done at the end and didn't drag them out with filler to make them more "standard".
Admit it... They're Good 
2007-11-10
After the first listen, MSI seems highly obnoxious, but that's probably because you can't understand the lyrics. Listen to them again. MSI is groundbreaking. They're like Nine Inch Nails on crack. They're intelligent, entertaining and creative. I'd recommend this album and all their old ones to anyone who can appreciate pure wit spit out without any frills.
I like my coffee black - just like my metal! 2007-08-17
Mindless Self Indulgence certainly has its own sound and, when first listened to, I really didn't "get" what Frankenstein Girls was trying to do. A third and forth listen had many of the songs growing on me, and by the fifth listen I was hooked. There were well over twenty tracks to choose from, and all of those were songs - there wasn't an instrumental to be found. Combine that with the fact that every song had energy, lots of it, and it went from invasive to impressive when I drove around and we became friends.
Sadly, it took years, lots of them, to see something else come out.
More merrily, the album that came out, You'll Rebel to Anything, was something that really took to me right away.
One of the first things you should do to understand Mindless Self Indulgence is to look one of their videos up online or, better yet, to find a snippet of concert footage. I say that because they aren't really electronic or nu-punk or any of the other labels that are applied to them. Instead, they are a performance band and, during their sets, you can see every sound and accusation step out and come alive. The hyper pace of the album is good, too, and the new album is more refined and has far less songs. Still, what it does have are songs that really get the energy in motion and the mind clicking.
Seeing them perform really taught me how much I liked them; until then I only cast my gaze to the album passively, finding four songs of the ten that I really liked.
Granted, MSI is an acquired taste for a lot of people and the label, Metropolis-Records, doesn't help when trying to understand what they are. In some ways this possibly even hurts people; when you look at the label you think "EBM" and this is not the same thing that has been coming out forever. That said, you can easily find a video for Shut Me Up if you want to see if they are your type of band or not, and Metropolis-Records has snippets you can check out as well. The band is also really accessible - they have a home site, a page on almost every major venue online, and they give a lot back to their fans. This means you can always find more to see if this is what you want to listen to or not.
Personally, I recommend the band and the album on the condition that you check the out first. They have some pretty funny things to say, are really high energy, and do things that a lot of bands have forgotten along the way. The fan interaction alone, coupled with the ability to actually piece together something interesting, makes them more interesting than most of the supposedly grand bands in the now.
this cd is awful 
2007-01-08
this band sucks i bought this 2 months ago it,s bad very bad i like static x and minstry but thesse people suck to high heaven only 3 songs are any good . Besides mars volta they suck too Deadsy verison of rush,s tomsawyer was great either but it was better than mindless verison .
i did like track 3 and track 6 and track 7. the rest really bad deadsy new cd is better than this cd so much better i am not PUNK ROCK FAN I DON,T HATE IT . it just not my style today punk from 2000 to now i like A.F I BUT I i like more of prog metal that is my main foucs if going to be alt rock it got to be some goth/ industrial this band is awful .
Dang, shut up and like it will ya? 2006-07-25
Okay.... gotta say it... SHUT YER COMPLAINING ABOUT THE 'TIME TOTAL' OF THIS RECORD!!!!! You are all giving me a headache! Now, lets talk about HOW GREAT THIS ALBUM IS!!! Its what got me into MSI. Before I heard them, I DIDNT EVEN LIKE MUSIC. But when I took this cd from my friend and downloaded it to my comp, I literally fell in 'like'. Sure, it took me a few listen(s) to really get into it ((regarding the fact that I never really listened to a specific band before)) but ever since, I cant stop obessing! 'Shut Me Up' (the first song) is rawsum and to this day I can still listen to it twenty or more times in a row.
So, basically, this must be a GREAT/AWSOME/RAW album if someone like me ((like one of the pickiest people out there)) got into it. MSI is truly an addiction for me. After listening to them, I got FGWSSS, Straight to Video Single, and most of their other songs from cds like 'Tight' you cant find in most stores. Heck, Im listening to 'Thank God' right now. In fact, the other day I went to their concert!!!
All in all, if you are looking for something disturbingly freaky and original you can find it with MSI. Check this cd out dispite what other 'picky' people say. Who cares, I WOULDNT BE WRITING A REVIEW IF THEY WERENT THIS GREAT!!!!
this band sucks 
2006-07-10
MSI's music is a hybrid of Atari driven electronics with a venomous splash of ADD punk rock. There are three different versions of this release: a 10 track explicit version with a video for "You'll Rebel To Anything", an 11 track clean version with a video of "Diabolical", and an 11 track extra heavy double vinyl version. The clean and vinyl formats have two entirely different bonus tracks and all three have their own individual artwork, so true collectors will think nothing of owning them all. "MSI are, to me, how punk rock should sound in the 21st century: abrasive, brilliant, and sounding like no one else"--Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly). "...one of the most creative and genre-swirling outfits on the scene"--Serj Tankian (System Of A Down).
Shite... 2006-04-18
If you like the whole new wave electro rock thing than listen to The Faint instead. Similar style of music without the crappy vocals.
Great album but very poor and underhanded marketing! 2006-03-12
I'll break this review in to three parts. First, the review of the album itself. Second, the review of the tactics used by MSI and Metropolis Records to sell this album. Lastly, my advice on getting everything that should have been included on one album.
1. The review of the album:
Simply put, if you like previous MSI albums, Babyland or stuff like Korn you'll eat this up. It's another top notch hybrid electronic, punk/metal, lofi quasi-hip hop, quasi-post-industrial genre-bending album. I suppose this would have fallen in to the label "coldwave" circa mid-90's post-industrial labeling. It's not exactly coldwave, not exactly anything other than the sum of its influences, which seem to be mainly hip-hop, post-industrial and punk/metal. The highlights of the album are definitely "Shut Me Up" and "Stupid MF", although there isn't really a weak track here. Another bonus is a positively weird cover of Rush's "Tom Sawyer". Be sure to put the CD in your computer as there is a video for "You'll Rebel To Anything" (it's a neat collage of old 50's propaganda footage mixed with weird cartoons, vintage stock film interspersed with just general weirdness.)
2. Commentary about questionable gouging of consumer by label/band:
There is absolutely no reason for there to be three different versions of this album except to rip off the consumer. Period. In an interview Jimmy Urine said they released a clean version for people who couldn't buy the album in places like Wal-Mart. Who cares about Wal-Mart? For someone so outspoken and inspired by punk, it bothers me that he'd cave to pressures to release an edited version of anything, let alone an entire album. That leads me to believe it wasn't an effort to cater to the imbeciles who buy music at Wal-Mart but rather a flimsy excuse to release a different version of the album, with different artwork and different bonus tracks.
When I used to buy a lot of electro/industrial (circa mid-90's) I remember this type of crap burning the hell out of me. I'd buy the import of a particular artist (say, someone like Haujobb) and then a year or so later a domestic version would come out with bonus tracks. And it'd cost LESS to boot! So all the "early adopters" and people on the cutting edge would get burned over and over. I can't tell you how many CDs I bought like that when I used to buy a lot of obscure electro/industrial music. It's a trick in order to separate you from your money, nothing more. If they cared only about exposing underground music to a new audience then they'd simply license the album and release it exactly as it was originally in Europe. But I digress.
3. My advice:
Buy this explicit version, then download the bonus tracks "La-Di Da-Di" (bonus track on vinyl) and "Mic Commander" (bonus track on clean version) off teh intarweb and say fsck you to Metropolis Records/MSI for forcing us to buy three versions of the same album in order to get two extra tracks, different artwork and a bonus video (the clean version of this album has a "bonus rehearsal video for 'Diabolical'"). Alternately, if you feel like giving MSI more of your hard-earned money, you can at least get the track "Mic Commander" on iTunes Music Store by itself.
In summation, MSI are a great band and if you like punk, electro-industrial, metal with electronic influences (Fear Factory), hip-hop, nu-metal, coldwave/aggro-industrial (Ministry) then you'll probably totally dig this album.
Also, check out Jhonen Vasquez's video for "Shut Me Up" on myspace (or just do a google search for it). The ex-Johnny the Homicidal Maniac/Squee/Invader Zim/etc. mastermind pulls off one of the funniest videos in a long time.
Refreshing and unique - my eyes have been opened! 2006-02-19
I never knew MSI existed until one day I was watching a video and heard a song with lyrics "...you're a failure played in stereo". I LOVED IT! So I went to lyrics.com (or something similar) and discovered it was by a group called Mindless Self Indulgence. The rest is history! I immediately went to my local record store and bought this album.
Wow, just wow! Eventhough this CD is a bit short (running time is less than 30 minutes) it's exactly what I was looking for! Is this defined as Electro-clash? It's an unusual blend of atonic bleeps and wizzes, blunt lyrics and great vocals. This disc moves along at an exciting speed and doesn't disappoint.
Straight to Video is a truly amazing song. You can tell from the first 10 seconds it was destined to be a hit. By the way, the Maxi-single is being released this Spring and I'll have it the first day!
I just purchased the Frankenstein Girls CD today. I'll review that as soon as I've digested it!
Of Course MSI is good... 
2006-02-05
...but a 3 year wait for THIS? seriously. i was thinking some huge 3 disc set with 30+ songs on each with that amount of time taken. then we get this 20 minute CD with some of MSI's most mediocre material ever. i am very dissaponited. its like you didnt try on purpose. come on guys, i know you guys made this in a week and just released it to fool us and now your going to come out with a huge CD this summer, right? please say yes, because this just makes me want to cry. theres about 3 good songs on the cd, thats the only reason it got 3 stars.
