Sideprojects

When Mettallica fired their loyal bassist whose name I can't even remember for wanting to deviate from Metallica and work on a side project it was a little over the top.
When Wes Borland a man I have profound respect for, largely for quitting Limp Bizkit because he was bored of it and thus burying Fred Durst in the halls of mediocrity where he rightfully belongs, talks about Big Dumb Face, his band he started as a side project purely and solely to test to see how much bullshit loyal fans would swallow I thought he captured exactly what I don't like about side projects.
Which is to say, I have no problem with side projects at all. This blog is more or less a side project for me. Its where I work ideas, record thoughts so that hopefully I can get progression, whereas I think I can get also get stuck grinding my axe on a very large wetstone or however the fuck it is spelt.
A side project is good space for any band member of note, 'that has made it' to work with different people, develope their abilities and get new ideas. What I have a problem with is a paparazzi element of fans that jump on bored through no real reason but loyalty.
A sideproject is not a solo album, that's for starters, its a project, its own organic endeavor. But it seems often to be greeted with the opposite reaction to when an existing band replaces a key member, and no surprise because its really like when a key member replaces their existing band.
Take the RATM transition to Audio Slave. I liked their first two albums and never bought the third which came out too soon after the second. But many RATM fans just couldn't let go of Zack De La Rocha, couldn't let Cornell create something different with the RATM lineup. Couldn't le the music stand alone. They sold albums and DVDs and concert tickets thats for sure, but some fans actually went to the Audioslave concert and shouted 'bring back zack' and requests for RATM numbers.
Now my problem with sideprojects is the opposite, a minority of people jump on board the sideproject with out weighing up its merit, based purely on reputation of the key player alone, or they give some artistic piece of shit 2-3 listens to make an impression on them, something they wouldn't do for any other band. A form of confirmation bias.
I've never been in to spotting genuis where I want to see it. Thats why as much as I love Les Claypool, I have no Fabulous Flying Frog Brigade, Oysterhead or Sausage albums in my stack. As much as I love Mike Patton, I really only like his more accessable stuff which is Faith No More, Lovage and Peeping Tom, probably in that order and theres gaping chasms between the first one and the last two.
Which means I just don't have time for Tomahawk, Phantomas or Mr.Bungle. I've heard some Mr.Bungle but wasn't overly into it. There's albums I'd much rather spin.
But it's like me reading 4 maybe 5 books just to find one paragraph of good information, gold advice or particularly moving passage.
Which is I think Mettallica are dicks to have a no side project policy, and it sort of shows that of all the members of that band you'd thing the bass player would have been the easiest to replace and St Anger was amongst the worst albums I've ever heard in my life.
So in conclusion, not all sideprojects are bad, but not all sideprojects are worth supporting (financially) so much as with lip service, the odds of getting a good band together are against anyone, just like getting star employees together in one department, sometimes you can replace a band member and the band gets better (chuck mosley to mike patton) sometimes worse (zack de la rocha to chris cornell, herb alexander to brian montana) but that doesn't actually lower them to mediocrity by a long shot, Audio Slave's work and Primus' Brown album where still highly legitimate musical and commercial offerings. But sometimes side projects are just self indulgent crap.

mr John you tall dude, in response to your comment, I just sort of need an instant impression from my music which Mr Bungle didn't do. I might explore it after I get through all the Native Tongue groups which are what are impressing me now. I went to Peeping tom more to see Mike Patton than the band, but ended up real impressed with the band. I like Peeping Tom more as a fan of Handsome Boy Modelling School and I guess Gorillaz for hip hop influenced alternate-pop.
I write this mainly because my brother has annoying listening habits to me, like an honours student getting references he's a bigtime once I listened to the whole album 7 times it started to grow on me, whereas I the ever impulsive won't listen to 3 tracks on an album if it hasn't already started to grow on me.