The Mentors any good?

I read in a few heavy metal encyclopedias they were the most targetted metal band by the PMRC and their popularity wouldn't of exploded if it weren't for that. I heard they invented a new sub genre called rape rock lol. What kind of metal are they btw and any good?

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNN-TOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRS!!!!!


Ummm, yeah, I kinda sorta like'em. A little. Though I think I'm one of their few fans here.

Genre-wise I'd say they were kinda like drunken, sloppy punk/metal. "Biker rock" if you know what I mean. The only one in the band who could really play was the guitarist ("Sickie Wifebeater"). The other two (El Duce on drums and Dr. Heathen Scum on bass) were adequate at best. El Duce's vocal stylin's were, shall we say, "interesting" to say the least.

When I first heard this band I was 15 years old and a college radio metal show had them in the studio as guests, they had me rollin' the entire time with endless gross jokes and toilet humor, so I went out and bought their album the next day.

So anyway...if you have a sick sense of humor, they're awesome. If you're easily offended, steer well clear. I obviously fall in the "sick sense of humor" camp.

Recommended listening: YOU AXED FOR IT! (1985, their masterpiece) and UP THE DOSE (1986) albums. 1991's TO THE MAX isn't bad either.

I will refrain from posting any video evidence cuz I don't want to offend the more conservative members of the board. Instead, I'm gonna suggest that you seek out their classic anthem "Four F Club" on YouTube. If you dig that track, then you'll dig pretty much anything else they've done.

Years ago my friends and I used to joke around with the idea of starting a Mentors tribute band. None of us can play instruments, but we figured that's OK cuz none of the Mentors (except maybe for Sickie) really could either.

I dig the MENTORS.....FF was correct...badly played very raw porno punkmetal....


I actually have a MENTORS shirt I wear frequently......

I thought they were funny as hell and if you are easily offended stay home, they couldn't play an instrutment to save their lives but these guys where funny as hell

My erection is over.

i like them in a comical sort of way. sorta like A.C..

hella funny and out to piss off everyone. They were awesome...just like GG allin.

They're OK in small does. But after a few songs you realize what El Duce is singing is probably actually what he believes. Then you get that sinking feeling in your stomach and your hairy orchids start to creep back into your body.

Stender wrote:

just like GG allin.

They weren't quite as fast, or as angry-sounding, as GG though.

The bass player was Scott "Wino" Weinrich by the way.....recorded during the same era he was in California with St. Vitus.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Stender wrote:

just like GG allin.

They weren't quite as fast, or as angry-sounding, as GG though.

yeah GG actually believed in all that stuff. That may be why he was more intense.

detuned wrote:

The bass player was Scott "Wino" Weinrich by the way.....recorded during the same era he was in California with St. Vitus.

That's a new one on me. Though I do remember a St. Vitus/Mentors tour back in the '80s. St. Vitus opened.

As far as I knew, Dr. Scum's "secret identity" has always been Steve Broy, who still runs the Mentors fan club to this very day.

Fat Freddy wrote:

detuned wrote:

The bass player was Scott "Wino" Weinrich by the way.....recorded during the same era he was in California with St. Vitus.

That's a new one on me. Though I do remember a St. Vitus/Mentors tour back in the '80s. St. Vitus opened.

As far as I knew, Dr. Scum's "secret identity" has always been Steve Broy, who still runs the Mentors fan club to this very day.

Well, it's a distinct possibility that it was a "session gig", he was never mentioned as a band member but his discography shows some recordings with them.

detuned wrote:

Well, it's a distinct possibility that it was a "session gig", he was never mentioned as a band member but his discography shows some recordings with them.

It's possible. I mean hell, it could be anybody under the black hood. I've read somewhere that more than one person may have been "Sickie Wifebeater" in the band over the years too. But all the Mentors stuff I have credits the songwriting to Hoke (aka El Duce), Carlson (aka Wifebeater) and Broy (aka Dr. Scum) though.

Do you know which stuff Wino played on? I checked his discog on Wiki and it doesn't mention any Mentors there.

*EDIT* Upon reading the Mentors' Wiki entry it does mention that Steve Broy was in and out of the band on a number of temporary occasions over the years and was replaced by a couple of different guys ("Spanky" and "Sneaky" being two names given)... so maybe Wino was one of those guys.

Never knew that about Wino. The Mentors are great, Sleep Bandits is such a classy song.

This isn't the same source I had seen previously (which I can't find now of course), all I could locate was this blurb on Wikipedia.

"Wino's musical career started out at T.S. Wootton high school in Rockville, MD when he started his first band, War Horse. He went on to form The Obsessed in the late 70s. This version of The Obsessed would release a 7" entitled Sodden Jackal in 1983 on Invictus Records and have a track featured on Metal Blade Records's Metal Massacre VI. They also recorded an album entitled "Live at the Wax Museum" in 1982. In the mid 80s he disbanded The Obsessed and moved to California to sing for Saint Vitus. During this time Wino also anonymously played bass for The Mentors and filled in on vocals for local doom band Lost Breed. "

Funny that this topic came up this week... a buddy of mine who lives in California just saw the Mentors live yesterday. He posted a video he shot at the show on his Facebook page. It was an outdoor gig in front of about 25 people ()

The punch line is that the venue (The Alano Club in Costa Mesa, CA.) is apparently connected somehow with a drug and alcohol rehab facility. The fact that they let the Mentors play there is pretty much the definition of "irony" if you ask me. (Wonder how the crowd reacted to "Free Fix?")

Oh, and in case you're unaware (I wasn't), the Mentors released a new CD in '09 called DUCEFIXION and you can get it via CDBaby:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thementorsq




Whoever the new guy is on vocals, he's a dead ringer for the late great El Duce. The last track on the album is an unreleased recording from '91 with El on vox, too.

Yeah after checking out this thread the first time I looked at metal archives page for the mentors and saw that new album. I kinda want to hear it..haha

The Mentors will always be remembered, in my mind, for El Duce's classic apperrance on Jerry Springer (along with GWAR). He played the heel of the gaggle of guests of that particular episode, alongside this horrified woman who was apparently a rape victim herself (she may have been an actress, being that this IS Springer). El Duce just kept on baiting her and she took it every single time.

Then of course there were the PMRC days and the infamous Senate hearings where then Senator Al Gore read, in his monotone robotic voice, the lyrics to 'Golden Shower'. CLASSIC.

As for music....I vote for 'All Women Are Insane' as their opus.

Angelcake Adonisus Fox wrote:

The Mentors will always be remembered, in my mind, for El Duce's classic apperrance on Jerry Springer (along with GWAR). He played the heel of the gaggle of guests of that particular episode, alongside this horrified woman who was apparently a rape victim herself (she may have been an actress, being that this IS Springer). El Duce just kept on baiting her and she took it every single time.

Then of course there were the PMRC days and the infamous Senate hearings where then Senator Al Gore read, in his monotone robotic voice, the lyrics to 'Golden Shower'. CLASSIC.

As for music....I vote for 'All Women Are Insane' as their opus.

The recital of "Golden Showers" lyrics during the PMRC senate hearings was hilariously re-created in the VH1 movie "Warning: Parental Advisory" some years back. I remember thinking, "if only El Duce had lived long enough to see his lyrics immortalized in such a manner."

That Springer/GWAR/Mentors show is on YouTube. I saw it when it first ran on TV years ago. Freakin' hilarious. El Duce's numerous appearances on the ultra-Right Wing talk show "Hot Seat with Wally George" are also mandatory viewing.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Angelcake Adonisus Fox wrote:

The Mentors will always be remembered, in my mind, for El Duce's classic apperrance on Jerry Springer (along with GWAR). He played the heel of the gaggle of guests of that particular episode, alongside this horrified woman who was apparently a rape victim herself (she may have been an actress, being that this IS Springer). El Duce just kept on baiting her and she took it every single time.

Then of course there were the PMRC days and the infamous Senate hearings where then Senator Al Gore read, in his monotone robotic voice, the lyrics to 'Golden Shower'. CLASSIC.

As for music....I vote for 'All Women Are Insane' as their opus.

The recital of "Golden Showers" lyrics during the PMRC senate hearings was hilariously re-created in the VH1 movie "Warning: Parental Advisory" some years back. I remember thinking, "if only El Duce had lived long enough to see his lyrics immortalized in such a manner."

That Springer/GWAR/Mentors show is on YouTube. I saw it when it first ran on TV years ago. Freakin' hilarious. El Duce's numerous appearances on the ultra-Right Wing talk show "Hot Seat with Wally George" are also mandatory viewing.

watching anything of wally george is so painful. Its a higher psychic price than im willing to pay man.

Stender wrote:

watching anything of wally george is so painful. Its a higher psychic price than im willing to pay man.

Just check out a clip on YouTube, it's freakin' awesome. Duce is like Woody Woodpecker and Wally George is the Walrus. Duce puts him thru the frickin wringer. Wally gets so red in the face that you'd think he would've dropped from a cardiac arrest right there on camera.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Stender wrote:

watching anything of wally george is so painful. Its a higher psychic price than im willing to pay man.

Just check out a clip on YouTube, it's freakin' awesome. Duce is like Woody Woodpecker and Wally George is the Walrus. Duce puts him thru the frickin wringer. Wally gets so red in the face that you'd think he would've dropped from a cardiac arrest right there on camera.

I just watched two clips. Awesome. According to wikipedia El Duce came on the show pretty often.

Though I usually talk smack about the trio of doofuses who host VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show," this week I got to give Don Jamieson some props... he's been sporting a Mentors t-shirt during all of the channel's various promos for the upcoming "National Metal Day" whoop-de-doo this Friday.

Too bad the only way the Mentors will ever appear on VH1 Classic is on that t-shirt.

I caught that too and thought of you Freddy.

I have a vauge recollection of these guys from "back in the day", specifically the '4 F Club' one of my friends used to play all the time.

I went and listened to some tunes on YouTube and I gotta say, what I probably would have thought as funny back then, I found them to be pretty offensive. And I'm not a guy that is easily offended. I guess having 2 daughters of my own will do that to a dad. Some of it was still kinda funny tho.