2022-04-25 (All-Star Series: Free Dominguez Edition)

Eff you see kay the what is up, mother-, father-, second-cousin-once-removed-fuckers?! Emo-muthafuckin’-clew to another installment of the All-Star Series, the Free Dominguez Edition! “Free who? Who’s Dominguez, and why does he/she/it need freeing?” you may so unculturedly ask? Free Dominguez is the phenomenal vocalist behind the epic industrial rock act Kidneythieves! She also has a number of albums under her own name, feature appearances on a number of similar artists’ albums, and even a little cameo on the Metal Gear Rising Revengeance soundtrack. Sadly, I think the only track that many people may know of Kidneythieves is Before I’m Dead which played at the end of Queen of the Damned. Good fuckin’ lord, they’re so much more than that. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a flawless fuckin’ track, and it’s from the flawless album Zerøspace, but I’d be willing to bet money that anyone who enjoyed that would find tons more to love in their catalog.

 

Her solo stuff is more folk/indie rock, so there likely be a bit of a divergence in audience appeal from the Kidneythieves fans. Y’all know me though; I like anything that makes me feel something, and Free Dominguez has had me allll up in my feels countless times through the past two decades that I’ve been a fan. I actually first discovered them on an Alternative Press sampler CD which had S + M (A Love Song) on it. Most likely the radio edit, too. Kind of amusing to think of that track ever being played on terrestrial radio considering the lyrics, “Pound the love out of me, beat the love out of me,” and such. Fantastic song to fuck to, bee tee dubs.

 

Actually, a good portion of Kidneythieves tracks are prominently featured on my Sexy Time playlist on Spotify. As I recently said on a post of mine on Facebook, that playlist certainly isn’t everything it could be. My Fuckfest podcasts have shitloads more fucktastic stuff on them, and between all the chill-out, synthwave, witch house, goth/industrial and miscellaneous other fuckable music I’ve played on this podcast, shiiiiiiit, that Sexy Time playlist could potentially be days fuckin’ long. I don’t know if any of y’all out there have that kind of stamina, but I sure as fuck do not. Not to say I wouldn’t give it the old college try, but fuck, perhaps I ought to actually get back to talking about Free and Kidneythieves.

 

Apropos to fucking and Kidneythieves, Zerøspace is actually on in the background of one of my favorite sex tapes I’ve ever made. Truly, the difference between fucking and making love can simply be the music playing during the act, and that album can have you going back and forth seamlessly between the two. Anyway, I got to see Kidneythieves open for KMFDM a bajillion years ago, and I got to have a poster signed by them. I wish I’d enjoyed them then to the degree that I do now, ‘cause I certainly would have had much more to say. That signed poster isn’t even my favorite poster of theirs I own. When Kidneythieves released their EP The Invisible Plan, they had this badass glow-in-the-dark poster with a bunch of circuitry design all over it. Still one of my absolute favorite posters I own overall. If I recall correctly, that EP actually came in a biodegradable sleeve that had flower seeds embedded in it or something. I’m guessing that was the invisible plan? I dunno, but I thought it was a pretty awesome idea.

 

Speaking of Kidneythieves EPs, y’all most observant of perverts might notice that I only included one track from Phi in the Sky. Fraaaankly, I’m not a huge fan of the remixes on that. They really just didn’t raise the bar on any of the originals, and some were considerable steps down. I dunno. I don’t hate them or anything; I guess it’s just that if there’s something there, I haven’t found it yet, so we only have the one for this edition. Even still, I maintain that the original album version is better, but this one remix has some interesting melodic ideas. Speaking of remixes and such, you’ll definitely notice a number of remixes and variations on here along with the originals. In the cases of all those, I think they’re both absolutely beautiful and worthy of all our attention. I’ve separated the different versions just to keep shit fresh through the course of this edition, but I highly recommend you A/B compare & contrast for yourselves on your streaming service of choice.

 

As far as features go, I was delightfully surprised to learn that Free had done backing vocals on a couple Zeromancer tracks waaaay back in the day on their album Clone Your Lover. I’ve liked Zeromancer for about as long as I’ve loved Kidneythieves, but of course, there are pertinent differences between like and love. Frankly, the only Zeromancer album I know well enough to converse on it is Eurotrash. I wasn’t nearly as impressed with their other albums, but that’s not their problem. As I said before, if there’s something there, maybe I’m just missing it. That’s a far greater possibility than the music itself having anything wrong with it.

 

Anyway, Free also guested on a KMFDM track (because of course she did), a Conjure One track (nice), and a Beat Ventriloquists track. KMFDM and Beat Ventriloquists have both done a number of Kidneythieves remixes over the years, all good stuff, and Conjure One is kind of more in line with Free’s solo stuff. All those guest apperances however… meh. They’ve all done better work elsewhere, in my opinion. Again, nothing against Free, nothing against the artists, they just didn’t hit me hard enough to warrant inclusion in this edition. Feel free to check ‘em out yourselves if by some wacky-ass miracle you’re actually curious. Maybe I’ll go back to listen to them again someday and realize how full of shit I was; certainly wouldn’t be the first time.

 

Lastly, let me just call out a number of especially significant tracks here: Before I’m Dead (obviously), Pretty, Crazy (which was written and popularized by Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson respectively, believe it or not. Not too often you see an industrial rock band covering country tracks, let alone doing it so fuckin’ well), Serene Dream, S + M (A Love Song) (because that’s the first track I heard of theirs), Creature, Dyskrasia, Zerøspace, Silver Line (both the original and Static mix), and K. Those are some of my tippy top favorites right there.

 

Lastlier, I’d like to mention that once upon a time, Free put out a 5 song EP called Core: A Zone on iTunes, and all the files were m4ps; basically mp3s but with DRM bullshit encoding on them. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. That means that you’re only allowed to listen to those files using iTunes, and only on certain authorized computers. There are two tracks on there that as far as I know haven’t appeared on any of her other releases, and what’s super shitty is that I haven’t yet been able to get around that DRM to actually be able to listen to them in all the years since I bought it. I think I probably listened to the EP once shortly after I bought it, but haven’t been able to since. To be fair, I haven’t spent a whole lot of time trying, but I shouldn’t fucking have to. All this just to say, fuck DRM. Fuck DRM in its stupid fucking DRMey ass.

 

All that silly bullshit done did and said, let us commence ze yojne!

 

 

01 kidneythieves - Before I’m Dead (from Zerøspace) [00:04:30]

 

02 kidneythieves - Jude (Be Somebody) (from Trypt0fanatic) [00:09:05]

 

03 kidneythieves - Taxicab Messiah (from Trickster) [00:12:20]

 

04 Free Dominguez - A Stranger I Remain (Original Version) (from Metal Gear Rising Revengeance OST (and https://soundcloud.com/the-scp-foundation-ohm)) [00:16:37]

 

05 Free Dominguez - Questions + Lies (from (.UNEARTH.)) [00:21:56]

 

06 kidneythieves - S+M (A Love Song) (from Trickster) [00:25:03]

 

07 kidneythieves - Zerøspace (from Zerøspace) [00:28:35]

 

08 Free Dominguez - Truth Or A Lie To Believe (from (.UNEARTH.)) [00:32:23]

 

09 kidneythieves - Fist Up (from The Mend) [00:36:43]

 

10 Free Dominguez - Calling (from Volcano + The Sea) [00:40:22]

 

11 kidneythieves - The Invisible Plan (from The Invisible Plan) [00:44:22]

 

12 kidneythieves - Arsenal (from Zerøspace) [00:48:39]

 

13 kidneythieves - In Love With A Machine (Beat Ventriloquists Remix) (from In Love With A Machine (Beat Ventriloquists Remix)) [00:53:53]

 

14 Free Dominguez - Beautiful (from Volcano + The Sea) [00:58:09]

 

15 kidneythieves - Beg (from Trypt0fanatic) [01:02:33]

 

16 kidneythieves - Molten (from Zerøspace) [01:06:06]

 

17 kidneythieves - Black Bullet (from Zerøspace) [01:06:58]

 

18 Free Dominguez - Silence (from (.UNEARTH.)) [01:11:02]

 

19 kidneythieves - Creature (from Trickster) [01:14:49]

 

20 kidneythieves - Never and Me (from The Invisible Plan) [01:19:14]

 

21 kidneythieves - Dyskrasia (from Zerøspace) [01:23:10]

 

22 kidneythieves - Freeky People (from Trypt0fanatic) [01:27:31]

 

23 Free Dominguez - Relief (from Freedoming) [01:31:11]

 

24 kidneythieves - K (from Trickster) [01:34:37]

 

25 kidneythieves - Velveteen (from Trypt0fanatic) [01:38:39]

 

26 Free Dominguez - Corridors (from Volcano + The Sea) [01:42:39]

 

27 kidneythieves - Layers (from Trickster) [01:46:17]

 

28 kidneythieves - Dead Girl Walking (from Trypt0fanatic) [01:50:03]

 

29 Free Dominguez - Back 2 Me (from Freedoming) [01:54:01]

 

30 Free Dominguez - Indigo Blue (Josh One & Beat Ventriloquists Remix) (from Indigo Blue (Josh One & Beat Ventriloquists Remix)) [01:57:04]

 

31 kidneythieves - Spank (from Zerøspace) [02:01:16]

 

32 kidneythieves - Lick U Clean (from Trypt0fanatic) [02:05:35]

 

33 Free Dominguez - Wolf (KMFDM Remix) (from Wolf / Darkest River Remixes) [02:09:12]

 

34 kidneythieves - Serene Dream (from Zerøspace) [02:13:23]

 

35 Free Dominguez - Silver Line (with STATIC mix) (from (.UNEARTH.)) [02:16:53]

 

36 kidneythieves - Pleasant (from Trickster) [02:21:18]

 

37 Free Dominguez - Weightless (Alain Johannes Remix) (from Weightless (Alain Johannes Remix)) [02:24:48]

 

38 kidneythieves - Underneath (from The Invisible Plan) [02:29:28]

 

39 kidneythieves - Glitter Girl (from Zerøspace) [02:33:58]

 

40 kidneythieves - Amnzero (from Zerøspace) [02:38:04]

 

41 Zeromancer - Houses Of Cards (feat. Free Dominguez) (from Clone Your Lover) [02:40:10]

 

42 Free Dominguez - Wicked Times (from (.UNEARTH.)) [02:44:07]

 

43 kidneythieves - Migration (from The Mend) [02:48:05]

 

44 Free Dominguez - Glass Walls (from Indigo Blue) [02:52:16]

 

45 kidneythieves - Placebo (from Zerøspace) [02:56:58]

 

46 kidneythieves - Floating Angels (from The Invisible Plan) [03:03:30]

 

47 kidneythieves - Zerøspace (DJ Merritt & Darren D Remix) (from Phi In The Sky) [03:07:50]

 

48 kidneythieves - Before I'm Dead (Acoustic) (from Trickstereprocess) [03:14:51]

 

49 Kidneythieves - Lick U Clean (Beat Ventriloquists Remix) (from Lick U Clean (Beat Ventriloquists Remix)) [03:18:37]

 

50 Kidneythieves - In Love With a Machine (from The Mend) [03:22:34]

 

51 Free Dominguez - Indigo Blue (from Indigo Blue) [03:26:36]

 

52 Free Dominguez - Corridors (Bonus Original Demo w/ STATIC) (from Volcano + The Sea) [03:31:42]

 

53 kidneythieves - Pretty (from Trickster) [03:35:08]

 

54 kidneythieves - Crazy (from Zerøspace) [03:40:22]

 

55 Free Dominguez - Silver Line (from (.UNEARTH.)) [03:43:38]

 

56 Free Dominguez - That Day (from (.UNEARTH.)) [03:47:37]

 

57 Free Dominguez - Darkest Rivers (from (.UNEARTH.)) [03:49:03]

 

58 kidneythieves - Tears On A Page (from Trypt0fanatic) [03:53:37]

 

59 kidneythieves - Anchor (from Anchor) [03:57:50]

 

60 Free Dominguez - Recurring Dream (from (.UNEARTH.)) [04:02:04]

 

61 Free Dominguez - A Stranger I Remain (Maniac Agenda Mix) (from METAL GEAR RISING REVENGEANCE Vocal Tracks Selection) [04:06:16]

 

62 kidneythieves - The Solution Is in the Trees (from The Mend) [04:08:36]

 

63 Free Dominguez - Clear (from Volcano + The Sea) [04:12:06]

 

64 kidneythieves - World for Us (from The Mend) [04:15:19]