Spirit in Flesh: the only true “cult band”
It’s been a long, long time since the idea of “alternative rock” was anything other than a marketing scheme. So long that one could argue that it’s never been anything other than that, but the likes of Spirit In Flesh show that rock music from the true alternative underground did exist at one point.
Because the truth is that any supposed “alternative rock” band played the corporate game, no matter who they might be. Whether that’s REM or Geese, each of them sat down in meetings and discussed which demographic was most invested in their music and how best to expand to other markets, no matter how much they harrumphed about it to the NME. Never forget that no matter how much Kurt Cobain whined about the mix of Nevermind making it sound like a pop record, Butch Vig swears blind that Cobain was doing cartwheels about it in the studio.
This may sound like I’m sneering, and I guess I am a little, but honestly? There are much worse things than posers. In fact, there are much, much worse things that can happen when you actually source bands from the alternative underground rather than find a bunch of switched-on young prodigies with ambition. When you go searching from underground sources for the next great band, that’s how you get bands like Spirit in Flesh. One that, on the surface, sound like a pretty great rock band.
Active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, they played a slightly poppier, slightly harder-edged take on psychedelia. Joyous, noisy and entirely whole-hearted, one could easily imagine someone loving this band with all their heart. Y’know how you sometimes take one listen to a band and just know that they might not ever play a stadium, but they’ll have a devoted following for decades? Like a cult band? Yeah, that’s exactly what Spirit In Flesh sound like.
Turns out, there’s a very good reason for that.
Were Spirit in Flesh a literal cult band?
It turns out that Spirit In Flesh weren’t exactly a band per se, but the musical project of Michael Metelica. He was the leader of the Brotherhood of the Spirit, one of the largest and most enduring communes in the United States at the time, who might be better known today under the name they changed to in 1974, the Renaissance Community. What’s more, Metelica made no bones about the fact that he was a literal cult leader, showing them off in just about every way he could.
Their music videos feature the commune out in force, dancing along to Spirit in Flesh’s music and singing along to Metelica’s literal and metaphorical gospel. When Metelica was interviewed, he would talk freely about his people and his ethos of pure spiritual values, clean, community-focused living that accepted everyone. No drugs, no alcohol, just living for your fellows the way they live for you. Except, of course, this got a lot harder to do when Metelica’s behaviour started to spiral out of control.
Yes, it turned out the man who forbade his followers from drinking and drugs was an alcoholic and a drug addict. Once this became common knowledge, a few years after Metelica wound down work on Spirit in Flesh, there was a mass exodus from the commune. After all, why should one follow the word of a preacher who doesn’t follow it himself? Soon, it became clear that all of it, Spirit in Flesh, the Commune, all his ideals were nothing more than an act. Something to give Michael Metelica power and nothing more.
With all that in mind, yeah, I’d take a phoney cosplaying as a punk over a genuine cult leader any day of the week.