Normally, Wake-Up Video celebrates significant moments in music history. But today is a little light on events. Sure, it's the anniversary of the release of Madonna's landmark 1998 album Ray of Light, but that was celebrated in this space exactly one year ago. Today also happens to be the 25th anniversary of the release of Metallica's Master of Puppets, but there will be a more significant salute to that legendary release later today. So rather than try to write something significant about the first indoor ice hockey game (which happened on this day in 1875), let's talk about Stabbing Westward.

Stabbing Westward exist as proof positive that having a silly name didn't have to get in the way of radio success in the 1990s. The Chicago-based industrial band first formed in 1985 but didn't release their first album Ungod (a workmanlike grinder that owed a lot to Ministry) until 1994. But it was 1996's Wither Blister Burn & Peel that turned them into modern rock radio staples and headliners. The single "What Do I Have To Do?" fell into heavy rotation in the early months of '96, and the band's loud, spooky sound and angst-ridden lyrics (the album opened with the couplet "I'm such an a--hole/ God, I'm such a stain") made them a perfect fit on radio.

For a band I don't consider to be one of my favorites, Stabbing Westward have made a strangely significant impact on various parts of my life. When I got cut from the high school soccer team during my freshman year, I cranked up "Falls Apart" to make myself feel better. (Actually, I wasn't even really cut, as the coach didn't have the stones to get rid of five of us and wanted to create a sort of reserve squad where we could earn our spots on the team on a game-by-game basis, a plan I still find staggeringly cowardly.) Later, my college roommate declared that Stabbing Westward was his favorite band of all time (he was particularly partial to their 1998 album Darkest Days). (Saying Stabbing Westward is your favorite band isn't necessarily strange, but it got weirder when he told me his second favorite band ever was Led Zeppelin.) And one of the clearer memories I have from going to radio festivals during the Wither Blister Burn & Peel era was when one of my best friend's girlfriends was singing along to "Shame," and when the chorus got to the line "How can I exist without you?" she sang, "How can I have sex without you?" We got into an argument about which lyric was correct, and it turned into a big thing.

Anyway, Stabbing Westward broke up in 2002 and the band members went their separate way. "Shame" remains a pretty solid anthem with a video that is more clever than it has any right to be.

show|null|video|10105