Yeah, I know Static-X are not one of the titans of modern music, but I always had a soft spot in my heart for their amazing debut album Wisconsin Death Trip. Unfortunately, there was a slow and steady decline in the quality of Static-X's output, album by album, until the band's dissolution. While scouring the internet, I came across an alternate video of their 2000 classic song Bled for Days. How did I miss that?
Doing a minor amount of investigative reporting, I noticed the YouTube post was from Hungary. As soon as I saw Hungary, I knew there was some sort of copyright complications. The alternate video was from an obscure Static-X release called:
Where The Hell Are We And What Day Is It... This Is Static-X is a rockumentary DVD that was set to be released in 2001 by industrial metal band Static-X. It features behind-the-scenes and live footage, along with all of Static-X's music videos (at the time) and an audio-only concert. Due to the live footage being recorded at Ozzfest, Sharon Osbourne threatened to sue the band if the DVD was released. Therefore, it was prevented from ever hitting store shelves. It is very hard to find and roughly only 500 copies are in existence.
Welcome to the Record Business....
Original Static-X members today:
Wayne Static- Dead
Koichi Fukuda - Oblivion
Ken Jay - Oblivion
Tony Campos - Ministry
Sharon Osbourne, Ozzfest Founder - Worth about a quarter of a billion dollars.
Wisconsin Death Trip eventually went Platinum, but it didn't even break into the Top 100 albums on the charts. No single from Static-X ever cracked the Top 40. How can that be, the singles were everywhere from that album? Yeah, on multiple video games and soundtracks.
In case you were wondering how Wayne Static died, you can watch the last single from his solo album Pighammer and your guess would probably be pretty spot on.
Editor's Note: Parental Advisory VERY Explicit Content.
Static's wife in real life, who also appeared in the video, committed suicide shortly after his death.
Bassist Tony Campos is in France tonight touring with Ministry. It's safe to say he's moved on.