Tones on Tail

Really into Tones on Tail again. Re-reading Sandman from the beginning and it'll surely be ToT, The Smiths, Joy Division and The Cure as a soundtrack.

The Walking Dead - Michonne Kills a Bunch of Zombies

Thanks to Bloodydisgusting for posting this. Awesome. I've been VERY hot and cold with this show but I am looking forward to tonight's season finale.

New Queens of the Stone Age track!!!

NEW QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE!!! With ... Like Clockwork due out via Matador in June it was only a matter of time until new songs surfaced. Of course there's no guarantee My God is the Sun is one of the tracks on the new album, but any new QOTSA is good QOTSA (as if there's any bad QOTSA - Ha!). Thanks to Brooklyn Vegan and Consequence of Sound who posted this performance - live from Lollapalooza Brazil - earlier today.

Author & Punisher

Another band my friend Tori introduced me to. Listen to this track, if you dig it buy it but first, check out what Author and Punisher looks like live:

Inhumanoids

Ahh... 80's toy commercials. Where the hell did these kids find smoking caverns to play with their toys in? Apparently I lived in the wrong neighborhood...

Eli Roth's Hemlock Grove

I've been looking forward to upcoming Netflix original series Hemlock Grove from Director/Producer Eli Roth. Now first, let me say that in the past I've been a little polarized on Roth. The guy definitely has the background; he interned for David Lynch and he's worked with Quentin Tarantino. As far as his projects, I really liked wry humor and nail-biting gore of Cabin Fever (the leg-shaving scene - oh my god!), but I absolutely HATED hostel. I've been told I should give it another chance, but I doubt that'll ever happened, I hated it that much. I ignored Roth's stuff for a couple of years after that.

Then came the Tarantino/Rodriguez Grindhouse flicks and Roth's Thanksgiving trailer, which I loved. Not too terribly long after that was news that Roth had embraced and would produce Jon Watts and Christopher D. Ford's movie Clown -  a movie that originated as a fake trailer the creators had posted online and attached Roth's name to. Roth caught wind of it and instead of getting upset at the use of his name took it for what it was - a compliment as well as a tactic two creative guys had used to get noticed - and reached out to the creators. The movie is now set for release this year. 

How Awesome is that?

Finally, late last year while in Vegas we visited Roth's Goretorium exhibit. I was blown away. I'm still probably never going to give hostel another chance, but the guy has earned his place in my "benefit of the doubt" book and when news trickled down about Hemlock Grove - especially because I kept seeing comparisons to Twin Peaks - I was interested.

Well, below is the first footage released from the Grove, which lands all-episodes-at-once, on April 19th. Taken out of context it's a bit wonky, until the end that is. As far as werewolves go my first love will always be Dog Soldiers, but this looks like it will be pretty damn awesome.




You should follow this link to where I procured this footage from as bloodydisgusting typically posts the best horror stuff around!

The Devil's Blood is No More

I've actually known about this for about a month. I wanted to write about it, however it really, really bummed me out. I started a post and never finished. When my friend Tori turned me on to this band it was late 2011, just after she'd seen them live opening for Ghost (now Ghost BC). I was supposed to go to that show but backed out at the last minute due to the ridiculously early waking time I have during the week (not sure why, but literally EVERY show I've wanted to see for the last two or three years has been during the week). Anyway, Tori said Ghost was great but she was really impressed with The Devil's Blood. She went out and found a copy of their most recent record The Thousandfold Epicentre and I made a copy. Within about a day I was hooked and listened to nothing but for about a month. The more I listened the more I became intrigued by the band. However, looking around online at the time there really wasn't much to go by. The only wikipedia article at the time was this one that I had to have google translate from German. Anyway, it's been a while since I've been on The Devil's Blood so hardcore, though it's not really ever left my musical vernacular for very long. Then a couple of weeks ago I fell back into their music pretty for a couple of days and during some down time at work googled them for the first time in probably over a year. This is what I found:

 The Devil’s Blood is no more. As of the 22nd of January 2013 The Devil´s Blood has returned into nothingness.It has been a while since the announcement of our disbanding was made and we feel now is the right time to convey our plans for the legacy that TDB will leave.Our music and artwork will remain available through both our own website and that of Ván Records as well as any other medium that will prove suitable.At the time of the group’s disbanding there were several projects ongoing, each in different evolutionary stages. These were the following: 


I'll stop there, but if you click on any of the text above - which I appropriated from the main page of the band's website - you can go there and read about the posthumous releases to follow. While I am most definitely excited about those, I'm really just still super bummed. I'm hoping guitarist/found SL or his sister, vocalist F. The Mouth of Satan will go on to do another project, but in the meantime I'm still in mourning.

Links from a better time:
 



And of course, one of the outstanding tracks from The Thousandfold Epicenter:

Hope Drone - Ambient Black Metal

Any time I see the words "Ambient" and "Black Metal" used in regards to the same band I take notice.

Hope Drone's bandcamp has their eponymous e.p. available at a "name your price" amount, so if you dig what you hear head on over and help support them.

Interestingly enough, "Hope Drone" was also the working title of  Godspeed You! Black Emperor's set-opener when my wife and I saw them at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall back in April of '12.

Alice in Chains - MTV Unplugged

As I come to the end of Mark Yarm's wonderful book Everybody Loves Our Town I find myself drawn once again back to my favorite band from that era, Alice in Chains. In that return I realized a major oversight in my record collection. I do not own the AIC unplugged.

Now, I know why I don't own it - its association with empty-v. However, Everybody Loves Our Town has made me re-think this.

The book is word of mouth - in other words it is comprised entirely of interview snippets conducted and arranged by Mr. Yarm and in the last chapters as those firsthand accounts address the death of Layne Staley there's a quote by AIC bassist Mike Inez that reads, "We discovered at that show that songs like "Sludge Factory" were even heavier acoustic. Layne that night was so haunting. His voice, especially his performance on "Down in a Hole," it still brings a tear to my eye. There was a couple times I had to pull my eyes off of Layne and remind myself, Hey, I'm at work. Instead of being a fan here, I better concentrate on my bass chords. He was just so mesmerizing."

I have a powerful relationship with Alice's music, and Staley's death was the first of two rock star deaths that have actually affected me (the other being Peter Steele's from Type O Negative). Staley reminded me of my best friend Jake, who died a looong time ago. Anyway, that quote from Mr. Inez made me really want to see/hear the performance in question so I went youtube.

Wow.

Nutshell, the second track off of 1993's Jar of Flies ep just kills me every time. But it's even more powerful here. All the tracks are fantastic, but that one and Sludge Factory - which since the first time I heard it has been one of my favorite Alice tracks - are just killer.

Yeah Yeah Yeah's Sacrilege - The Video

I kept thinking the 'video' I posted the other day for the Yeah Yeah Yeah's new song Sacrilege was a little... boring. But hey, I always figure, "who the hell am I to judge?" Anyway, thanks to Brooklyn Vegan I've realized I was indeed incorrect. The video is above, as I'm sure you've already gathered.

Jason Lescalleet - Friday Night in a Catholic Home

Believe it or not this makes me really want to hear the rest of this album. I love stuff like this - which Brooklyn Vegan posted earlier today.

MOOG SOUND LAB Season 3: Zola Jesus - In Your Nature

From Brooklyn Vegan.

Hammock - Departure Songs

Richard Kadrey and the Pandar Bros Web Comic

Richard Kadrey is awesome. I'm aware of but largely unfamiliar w/ the Pander Bros. I'm going to read the hell outta this!!!

The Knife - Wanting to kill

In anticipation of Shaking The Habitual (April 8th/9th), the new album from Swedish electro duop The Knife I was looking around online and found this track from the soundtrack to a Swedish film called Hannah Med H. I'd never heard of it before and really dug this track - it reminds me a bit of Vitalic. I intend to look into finding a copy of the ST.

Puna - au dial

Heard this track earlier this evening on WLUW, the Rock Sin Anestesia with Roxyo program. Good stuff.

My friend Grez recommended the Independent Music with Ken N. show, which can also be found on WLUW on Wednesdays from 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM. I keep missing that show, but looking at the track logs it's great.

Henry Rollins - The State of Music Today

I Love this man. Thanks to my wife for finding this.

My Take On Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers

I wrote an article about Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers for Joup here.

M83 Scores Oblivion

This is old news by now and this first song released went up a while ago and then re-circulated earlier this week, however I'm not so much about breaking news as I am about curating the stuff I think is awesome from around the web.

I've tried to post this before, however each time there's been some issue with the embed code. I think it finally worked. Great track, as always. Not interested in seeing the film, although I suppose I don't know too much about it and it is possible that could change. I always want to be able to dismiss Tom Cruise movies but then often find myself actually liking them (Eyes Wide Shut, Vanilla Sky, Collateral, to name but a few). Plus, if you listen to people that have worked with him, he sounds like an amazingly talented guy.

Tomahawk - Oddfellows (Video)

You know, I could have swore I posted this last month when I first saw it, but apparently not. Special thanks to the always encouraging Mr. Brown who sent me a link and reminded me about it.

Hidden Track from M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

I tried to decode this one for some time, forgot about it and now ran across it on youtube. I did the work - I just couldn't get it to work.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Sacrilege

Ghost B.C. - Year Zero

6 second WOLVERINE TEASER

Get More:

Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

IT'S GOTTA BE BETTER THAN THE FIRST ONE!!!

Sunn 0))) - Grimm and Bear it

I've never heard anything like this before.

Big Black Delta

Pitchfork posted this earlier today. Great tune. Big Black Delta caught my ear on a mixtape (okay, it wasn't a tape but a playlist, but old terminology can die quite hard) a friend made me a few years ago. However, until about right now they had kind of fallen back into the ethers of my brain. This song has returned them (really 'him', as I believe BBD is the work of one man, Jonathan Bates)

Passion Pit

Initially I hated this song. Now I love it. Based on this picture that's been floating around the internet I think Passion Pit is probably pretty awesome aesthetically and that the radio-play is a fluke. Good for them. There's an obvious Flaming Lips correlation as far as live environment is concerned. Just looking at this makes me feel wonderful!!!

image courtesy of the always wonderful Brooklyn Vegan

Anyway, I listened to a bit more of their most recent album, Gossamer, and it sounds like a cross between Junior Senior and M83. Interesting...

GUMMO

Since the first time I saw it, back in 1999, Harmony Korine's Gummo has been one of my all-time favorite films. You can say it's exploitative, disgusting, morose. Whatever. It is partly all those things. But it is also a deep and fragile beauty that I feel it is good to be reminded of, as in reminded how to find that beauty in the often ugly and disturbing world we live in.

If you've not seen it, I strongly suggest watching it. Here's a link to the entire film on youtube:

Stereophonics - Indian Summer

Somehow my wife and I totally missed that Stereophonics' new record, Graffiti on the Train, was released about a a week and a half ago. Here's a review at drownedinsound.

Telefon Tel Aviv - The Birds

GBV - I am a Scientist/Everywhere w/ Helicopter

and my favorite GBV song (maybe):

Harry Howard and the NDE

Henry Rollins played a song by this band earlier this evening on his radio show and I immediately loved it. Harry Howard is of course the younger brother of the late/great Roland S. Howard. Harry and the NDE's bandcamp is located here. Drop by, it's cool. And if you don't know Rowland here's a little intro to a band he was in with a certain Mr. Cave:

Boards of Canada - Gyroscope

Watching Sinister for the 2nd time in a week made me have to post this. I loved the film anyway, but first time through the fact that out of nowhere one of my favorite BOC songs popped up was a wonderful little surprise that endeared it and the filmmakers to me forever.

Queens of the Stone Age Return in June

Of course the one day I don't check their website is the day it updates and they announce the release of their new record, apparently entitled Like Clockwork, will be in June. If you go to their website, here every time you hit the refresh you'll hear another snippet from the new record. But I do mean snippet. As in a couple of seconds worth. It's cool, but not nearly enough to get me through to June.

More info here at Antiquiet who "broke" the info last night or here at Pitchfork.

Savages - She Will

Looks like I picked a good time to discover this band, as their new album is out in May. This is the first song they've released off of it.

4 Minutes of Ninjas fighting from GIJOE 2

Ain't It Cool News just linked this. I know the first one wasn't a "good" movie, but I dug the hell out of it. Heck, it was like they made one of the old school cartoon episodes into a live action. This one had me the moment I saw this:

They got the mask right!!! And is that Firefly in the background? WOWBOBWOW, as long as they have that I'll even forgive the lack of sexpot The Baroness.

Death Grips - Lock Your Doors (No Hands #6)

This was JUST posted on pitchfork. As always, Death Grips continues to fascinate the hell outta me. go here to read about how the video was filmed abnd watch a pitchfork clip of them discussing plans for the future.

Kaiser Chiefs - On the Run

This is one of two brand new songs on the forthcoming collection of KC's singles, Souvenir: The Singles 2004-2012

Clown on Clown Violence Has Me in Stitches

Ah, how I love Bloodydisgusting. Earlier today they came through with not only the redband trailer for British clown horror flick 'Stitches' but they posted an exclusive clip that had me laughing (and gagging! Pulling a rabbit out of the ol' hat will never be the same again in my eyes!)

Go here to watch the redband trailer - it's awesome!!!

Mojo Walker: Big Blues Done Right!!!

Full Disclosure: This is a good friend's band. However, let that not dissuade you. These guys are GOOD. I'm not really a fan of straight up Blues, but this is Blues done right. The amazing thing is this friend of mine, who is the songwriter and 'orchestrater' of the project, had never played the blues before last April, when he just suddenly woke up one day and decided, "Hmmm, I think I'm going to make a Blues band".

They play the Hard Rock Cafe in Chicago tonight, if anyone is free I personally guarantee it will be a GREAT show.

Savages - Husbands

Oh, this is even better than the previous post. Nice.

Savages - Husbands

Kas Product - So Young But So Cold

Further proof that you can learn something new about music from the past everyday. I'd never heard of Kas Product or for that matter the scene it is associated with. My discovery began last week when I was skulking around the always awesome heavenisanincubator and found this:

I really dug Feurerbahn and went back today to buy the album. In looking at the tags on the bandcamp I saw a term I'd never seen before - Cold Wave.

Hmmmm....

So I googled Cold Wave. Apparently Cold Wave had a little lift off in the late 70's/early 80's and derives its name from a quote by Siouxsie and the Banshees, where they described their music as "cold, machine-like and passionate at the same time".

Next I found this discogs entry which led me to this allmusic entry. From there it wasn't far until I found Kas Product.

Good stuff.

Sinister - Maybe the Best Horror Sound Design Ever

I finally watched 2012's Sinister last night. I missed it at the theatre last October and had been waiting to see it ever since. I'd heard a lot of good things about it from people whose opinions I trust and I am ALWAYS looking for genuinely scary horror movies so I had a pretty mean case of anticipation/expectation, which can be a dangerous way to go into a flick for the first time.

So what's the verdict? Well, the movie blew me away. There were a few little issues with the supporting cast*, but nothing that can't be overlooked based on how adamantly it was committed to be HORROR. The ending was awesome. But what was even more awesome was the sound design. Holy cow, this is probably the best sound design in a horror flick I've ever heard. I mean, granted it has an edge with modern technology over flicks like Halloween and The Exorcist, so we need to adjust for that, but seriously, it was fantastic. After watching the film I went immediately to purchase the score online and found this great blog The End of Summer that posted some of the tracks left off that album.

...........................

* Primarily the wife, played by Juliet Rylance. I donn't think it's Ms. Rylance's fault but her chaaracter was really nothign more than a plot device, acting the way the story needed her to act by constantly riding Ethan Hawke's Ellison and throwing down ultimatums to amp his character's arc's timeline up. Still, totally overlooking that based on EVERYTHING else about the film. Also, as long as I'm crituqing the 'bad' about the supporting cast I should give props to the fantastic. James Ransone - who plays Deputy "so and so" is absolutely fantastic as a cop who, against his sheriff's decree, wants to act as Ellison's inside information man just to get a thank you in the next book. I expect we'll see more good stuff from Mr. Ransone, he was just that good.

RIP Shannon Larratt 1973-2013

I don't know all that much about this man, or about the body hacking/grinding culture in general. However, since reading Warren Ellis' Doktor Sleepless - which originally exposed me to the movement in the first place six years ago or so - I've kept a periodic eye on some of what develops in those circles. As someone interested in the manner in which science fiction becomes science it seems to me this is where a lot of that is happening. I'd read a few posts about Shannon Larratt on Klint Finley's wonderful technoccult and that is where I learned of his death this morning. I don't know that I would have even written about this if not for the reaction I had to reading his farewell letter. It is remarkable. Sad, but remarkable. You can read portions of the letter here.

Rob Zombie on the Lords of Salem

Rob Zombie Talks 'The Lords of Salem' and... by DM-Exclusives

thanks to the awesome Bloodydisgusting for posting this.

SLEEP - June 19th, 2011 - Oakland, CA @ Eli's Mile High Club

Now for some metal before bed.

Jeffrey Osbourne ends all things... JK - just the drinking/posting

We Have Band remixed by Cage and Avairy

jay Lumen - Drop That

Rain Within Her Hands - Bella Morte

Evil Dead

It is OFFICIALLY maddening to wait for this any longer, but wait I will!!!

New Bibio and Let's Talk About Steerage from Scotland

Bibio first came to my attention about four years ago on the BRILLIANT Mario Cotto's program, Saturday nights on Los Angeles' public radio KCRW. I don't get a chance to listen to Mr. Cotto very often these days, as I'm usually in bed by the time his show comes on. Anyway, it was on Mr. Cotto's show several years ago that I made a primordial connection with one of Bibio's songs - it was so like I had heard it before, but I had no idea where or when. Here's the song:



Well, after some time I found out that my connection wasn't really to this Bibio song - I don't think it's this that I heard before, I just think that it invokes the same tone as the tracks I know by the band Steerage from Scotland. Unfortunately Steerage is no more - hasn't been for quite some time - and there seems to be nowhere on the web I can embed from. Instead, follow the link below to their last.FM page and check out their marvelously contemplative instrumental music!

http://www.last.fm/music/Steerage

I discovered Steerage on a whim while in Dublin and shopping at the now (tearfully) defunct Road Records, the same place where several years prior to the Steerage-discovering trip I finally found the Damien Frost record I'd been searching for since seeing them at Whelan's.

Both Steerage and Bibio evoke womb-like inner thought from their music and it always sends me into a deeply contemplative mindset - especially like now, when I've probably had too many beers and have been functioning on very little sleep for almost an entire week now. Thus what I'm almost sure is babble by now. Babble babble. Babble. Babbledy babbledy bab.

Now, Babble.

Morgan Page feat. Nadia Ali - Carry Me

Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers

Facts (according to Shawn):

1) Harmony Korine's Gummo is in my top five favorite films of all time. Because of this I see everything he does. It's not all good, but when it's good, it's good.

2) I'm fairly certain James Franco is the next Gary Oldman.

3) Next Friday my friend Michael and I are going to see Spring Breakers. I'm pretty sure it's amazing. I'm also pretty sure it's a lot weirder than the pop elements of it (disney girls going bad, Franco, skrillux, tits) would have the masses believe. I'm pretty sure it's going to alienate some folk.

Drinking and Posting

image courtesy of bythepint.com

what follows is essentially a drunken mix tape. I'm drinking and on little sleep and stream of consciousnessing this - except where I'm totally biting Jason Bentley of KCRW's style, as he's on the radio live from SXSW on LA's public radio KCRW and really playing some AMAZING music. I'm not posting it all here, but I'm reiterating a lot of it while jumping around to random associations my mind is taking me to.

Alien Sex Fiend - Clockwork Banana, Banana Moon

I like a lot of weird music. This is among the weirdest.

Contemplating Swamp Thing, Old and New

Posted an article here on Joup earlier about the end of Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette's run on Swamp Thing (issue #18 came out this past Wednesday and wrapped it up). This led to me beginning a re-reading of Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and John Totleben's Swamp Thing run from 1984, the run that basically introduced Moore to American comics (thanks to Karen Berger) and changed the industry on this side of the pond, almost single-handedly launching DC's Vertigo line and very clearly inspiring Neil Gaiman's Sandman. While re-reading I came upon this line, both in  the beginning of chapter #6 (originally issue #26). It is BEYOND mastery of language:

"I used to think I knew from fear... I didn't. All I knew were the suburbs of fear... and now here I am, in the big city."

Wow.

Afghan Whigs Joined By... Usher on Stage???

Well, the sound sucks and it would have been great to have a full song instead of this jump around crap, but this is still an anomaly worth posting. I don't care too much for Usher (not at all really, from the little I know. I'm more of a Maxwell guy) but I LOVE the Whigs, so the completist in me is posting this for the other completists out there.

Flaming Lips Live @ SXSW - Are You a Hypnotist?

This is awesome, but what's even freakin' cooler is Brooklyn Vegan's pictures of the Lips last night as they performed Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots live in it's entirety for apparently the first time ever.

I'm VERY hot and cold with the Lips. I got into them later than my friends (mainly Mr. Brown) - I always liked what I heard but not enough to actually become a fan. Brown saw them live way back when Tool was opening for THEM (crazy, right?) in like '93 or '94. He'd describe their awesome live show and it sounded great but somehow it never spurred me to accompany him (in my defense it wasn't always that I could get off work for shows back then - like now - so I had to pick and choose). Anyway, the first time I did see them was the Flaming Lips Boombox experiment at the Metro in Chicago, not sure what year but late 90's probably. It was awesome, but it wasn't them performing per se. They brought 50 folks out of the crowd, had 25 sit on one side of the stage and 25 on the other, then passed out 50 boomboxes and 50 bags of color-coded tapes. Wayne then 'conducted' the participants to insert and play various tapes at various times. It was pretty rad. I was closer to being a fan, but didn't take the first plunge until The Soft Bulletin blew my fucking head off - how was this the same band? That predates Radiohead's likewise similar change between OK Computer and Kid A (Kid A is my favorite Radiohead record and I wasn't really a fan until it's release) and was really the first time I'd seen a modern band pull such an massive evolutionary step. The only problem with the Soft Bulletin was it made me so sad I really had to be careful around it.

Flash forward to 2002 and on one of our first dates my then-girlfriend, now-wife brought me to see the Lips on their Yoshimi tour at Chicago's Riviera Theatre and it was the whole fabled spectacle - bubbles, stuffed animal suits, confetti, etc. When describing that show I've always said it was a celebration of being alive. It made me cry. Only other show to do that was Bjork at Chicago's Civic Opera house.

But I digress - What's my point? I dig this video, and the concept for this upcoming concept record The Terror. But I liked a lot of what I heard about Embryonic before it's release, even really liked the first single, but the record ended up falling flat for me. In fact, I haven't liked a lot of what the Lips have done since Yoshimi. Was this due to after waiting years for Christmas on Mars and then having Mr. Brown send it to me only to find that I loved it both visually and sonically but absolutely HATED the dialogue in it (I talk more in depth about my disappointment with that here)? I don't know. Then the band did Dark Side of the Moon and it sounded cool but fell flat for me when I heard it (though it may not have if I'd heard it live). Now the band is doing commercials and I'm weary of that. But this upcoming album again, like all Lips album's since I drank about half the glass of kool aid, has me really curious. Maybe it will be the album that finally does for their later career what Hit to Death in the Future Head and Telepathic Surgery did to their older stuff for me.

Maybe.

New Death Grips On the Horizon?

I find Death grips endlessly fascinating. And props to Pitchfork for always having great interviews with them. My favorite is here

American Mary

This is the theatrical trailer. The Red Band is a bit more... intense but I also think it gives more away. I have a good feeling about this one. I'm thinking something bitterly disturbing but worth it in the ballpark of Martyrs.

And in case you don't recognize her, if you're a Ginger Snaps fan like I am (part 2 RULES) that's Ginger -  Katharine Isabelle - herself, all grown up.

A Veronica Mars Movie?

This video reminded me just how damn awesome the show was and how attached I am to the characters. I didn't watch it when it was on, nor the first time through when my wife bought the DVD sets. However, about a year and a half ago something piqued my curiosity and we sat down over the course of however many weeks and watched the whole three season run, and it was fantastic, though it ends rather abruptly in season three and, like so many great shows do, leaves you hanging for something that's probably never gone come...

But now it might! Creator Rob Thomas has announced a Kickstarter campaign and shot a GREAT little video to introduce us to it - and to reacquaint us with the main characters and remind us what it was we loved about the show. Seriously - this video is fantastic.

And oh what a show...

The first season of VM especially is something I would put up with the best tv has ever had to offer. For me there's Breaking Bad, then there's Twin Peaks (it's only within the last two years that that order has emerged - I've been in love with Twin Peaks since the night the pilot aired and I just happened to watch it, waaaay back in what I believe was 1990) and then number three is probably season 1 of Veronica Mars. It's just that damn good; such a strong tone that runs through the entire thing, top to bottom, front to back. And so many great and complex characters, not to mention dozen of endearing little moments that stuck in my head only to re-surface on an almost daily basis (Vinnie Van Lowe singing Hall and Oats' Private Eyes to Veronica as a makeshift threat springs to mind immediately).

David Bowie - The Next Day

image courtesy of http://blog.kexp.org/

What does it say that two of the now most old school guys still making GREAT music released two of their finest records ever this year? First there was last month's marvelous Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' record Push the Light Away and now there's David Bowie's The Next Day. I'm planning on doing a joint review of both records on Joup in the next couple days but in the meantime suffice it to say that tonight I purchased The Next Day on iTunes specifically to receive their particular Deluxe Edition which includes three extra songs that apparently are not on the hard copy. This even though I look at that cover above and absolutely LUST after the Vinyl. Maybe at some point in the future I'll splurge, but for now I'm on my first pass through the album and it is fantastic.

Nothing -Downward Years to Come

This band is seriously awesome. $5 on their bandcamp for the album.

I allotted myself two albums to buy this week; it was originally intended to be the David Bowie The Next Day, which came out today, and last week's How to Destroy Angels. Well, I bought the Bowie but I decided to buy Downward Years to Come instead of the HTDA, which I'll buy soon anyway. I just really wanted to give Nothing my money.

New Song from The Ocean (Collective) means New Album!!!

One of my favorite bands from the last ten years is Germany's The Ocean (Collective). All the band's records are fantastic, and with the addition of singer Loic Rossettiand the release of their 2010 albums Heliocentric and Anthropocentric they became something even better. Now in April (geez, really? Again with the April? I will be freakin' broke in April with all the records being released that month!) The Ocean, AKA The Ocean Collective will release Epipelagic. Here's what the group's website had to say about the upcoming record, tell me this isn't amazing:


pe·la·gi·al [puh-ley-jee-uh l] – 1. Of, relating to, or living in open oceans or seas rather than waters adjacent to land or inland waters; such as, pelagic birds. 2. Living or growing at or near the surface of the ocean, far from land, as certain organisms. 3. Of or pertaining to the sea; marine

After 2 years of relentless touring in North America, Europe, Russia, China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and Australia, The Ocean have resurfaced with what could be their deepest and most trailblazing piece of work to date, Pelagial: a progressive musical journey, written, recorded, mixed and to-be-performed-live as one single 53-minutes piece of music. Mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, Witchcraft) at Fascination Street Studios in Örebrö, Sweden, Pelagial is set to be released on April 26th / 29th (Europe) and April 30th (North America / world) through Metal Blade Records.


The concept of the album is made evident in its title, Pelagial. Listeners will be further submersed as they journey with the band, beginning at the surface of the ocean and plunging through all five pelagic depth zones: epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathyalpelagic, abyssopelagic, and hadopelagic. In synch with diminishing light and increasing pressure as one dives or sinks deeper into the ocean, the album begins rather light and progressively gets heavier and slows as the band reaches the unfathomable depths of the hadopelagic zone, characterized by complete darkness and a thousandfold increased pressure as compared to surface level. What is remarkable about Pelagial is that this is not some detached conceptual idea; this can actually be heard and felt while listening to the album.



What has me perhaps even more excited about the band's new record is the idea that I might get a chance to see them again on tour. In 2011 while they were touring I was able to catch them at Pomona, CA's The Glass House. They were every bit amazing as I thought they'd be. I did a write up on the that show here. The only draw back to that particular show was that of the four bands that played, The Ocean came all the way from Germany just to open the night with a criminally short set (not their fault). Hopefully this time they'll play a lot longer, as they have so much wonderful material to cover.

New Low Album out march 19th, Stream it now...

...by going here to NPR:

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/10/173452523/first-listen-low-the-invisible-way#playlist

Here's the trailer for the album, which is titled The Invisible Way and is being released via Sub Pop.

New Dillinger Escape Plan Track!!!

Posting this from work, so I haven't even heard it yet. I'll bet it RULES!!!

Nothing - The Dives (Lazarus in Ashes)

I LOVE this band!!! Buy this album here. I did and it's wonderful

Pete Swanson - Life Ends At 30

I'd never heard of Pete Swanson before I was strolling around the interwebs and saw this album cover on Pitchfork:

image courtesy of mexicansummer.com

The tone of this photograph struck such an immediate chord with me that I immediately did a little reading, saw the words "noise artist" and went straight to youtube where I found the above track. I love the way it makes me feel like someone has filled my head with rusty tacks and is ruthlessly shaking my head in a blue strobe-light filled nightclub located in a suburb of hell. I'll be investigating the rest of Mr. Swanson, it's been a while since I've fallen into a noise jag but after this I feel one might just be coming on...

Sapho - Carmel 12" [CJ Siouxsie Sioux Re-edit]

A Library in the Desert?

This is awesome.

Gwar Cover Kansas

And as long as I have Gwar on the brain now, let's do this too. Awesome! (and for the record I HATE the band kansas)

Lordi Lordi Lordi

This is funny as hell. I wasn't able to watch the entire interview, not much of it at all really, but I laughed my ass off just watching the every day mannerisms of these guys in their costumes. The guy on the couch RULES!!! Lordi obviously wear the Gwar influence on their sleeve but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I know nothing about Lordi, though I've seen their name a million times. I found this interview on Blabbermouth followed by the video for a track off their new album. Not too bad as bombastic anthem metal is concerned, though it's not really my thing. It seemed well worth posting though, just for the entertainment value:



And as long as we're doing this, let's go for some Gwar as well:



"How do you hide money from a Hippie? Put it under the soap!"

The Knife - A Tooth For An Eye

Another track released with another great video from The Knife's upcoming Shaking the Habitual (4/9). I love this trend of videos completely undermining expectations set by the tone of the track and this is a perfect example of just that! All hail The Knife!!!

Wire - Love Bends

I found this on Brooklyn Vegan this evening: Love Bends is a streaming glimpse into the unreleased material available on the upcoming (3/25) Change Becomes Us anthology album.

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Ozzy-era Sabbath (as if there was any other) is still a staple for me but I gave up on his solo career in high school. It's fun to go back and hear Tribute every once in a while, but I don't think most of that stuff holds up for me. 75% of the No More Tears album does though, including the title track which is simply one giant goddamn awesome rock song!!!

(interestingly enough I could ONLY find it on youtube with Spanish subtitles, but then again I'm not the most savvy of interweb searchers)

Begbie's Answer to EVERYTHING

There's pure Magic at 1:47.

FIDLAR - Max Can't Surf II: The Zuk Trip

Brad Anderson's The Call

I'm not a Halle Berry fan. Not at all. When I first saw the billboards for this one going up around town I grimaced and thought, 'there's a movie I'll never see'. Well, I was wrong. Did I change my opinion of Ms. Berry? No, not really. But what did happen is I found out that The Call was directed by Brad Anderson and any thing with him at the helm I see. Session 9 was fantastic, The Macinist was fantastic, and Transsiberian... well, that's just a masterpiece in my eyes*. So even though Ms. Berry's the star, I'm in.

.......................

* And looking through his imdb just now I realize I missed 2010's Vanishing on 7th Street, so now I have that to look forward to. Nice!

Rodney Dangerfield - No Respect

Dated yes, but how awesome is this?

Oh wait, I was trying to post this:



Now that's dated!

Ray Wise in new Beach House video!

Ray Wise is all kinds of awesome.

Primus - HOINFODAMAN

Awesome.

Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible + Fried

As I'm falling into an old school Ministry kick, let me cast this out there for those who might be interested: probably the best rock autobiography I've ever read is Chris Connelly's Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible and Fried: My Life as a Revolting Cock. I read it shortly after it came out five or six years ago, stumbled upon it by accident and was subsequently super happy to have done so, as it went out-of-print pretty damn fast. Currently the book is still out-of-print but well worth whatever you have to pay for it if you're a Ministry/Revco/Bells/Connelly fan.

Ministry - The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste (Full Album)

Easily one of the most influential albums I've encountered in my lifetime.

RIP Alvin Lee

Weird. I hadn't heard this song in years until this afternoon when the small radio that my boss keeps tuned to LA's resident classic rock radio station The Sound kicked it out and started us talking. John - who is extremely well versed in music of the 60's, 70's and 80's (dude has the BEST stories about seeing great bands in his native 70's NY) had always thought I'd Love To Change the World was Blue Oyster Cult. I corrected him and we had brief discussion about Alvin Lee and Ten Years After who I know NOTHING else about except this song and that I LOVE the guitar in it, the chord progressions and the lead.

Years after becoming emotionally attached to the song I realized it seemed to have a rather homophobic undertone (well, undertone might be a bit kind). I can't support that, but I also had some great experiences to this song as high high schooler, not paying attention to the words other than the chorus, more focusing on that wonderful guitar line. Whatever its meaning/politics I can't turn my back on it completely. Either way, Alvin Lee died today. Weird, eh? Rest in Peace

Meet M83 Video/Oblivion Soundtrack

I'm stoked on M83 again lately - the novel I'm working on is laregely inspired by their Saturdays=Youth record and since hearing that album I've pretty much been in love with their music (you can read about my religious experience at their live show last November here). Then this mornning I see on Pitchfork that the new Tom Cruise movie Oblivion has original music by M83 and a score composed by Anthony Gonzalez and Joseph Trapanese. Nice! Even though I'll probably never see the movie (I'm not against Cruise out-of-hand, I actually like quite a few of the movies I've seen him in and think he's a pretty damn good actor) I'm always up for new M83. Anyway, I went to M83's website and found a few things I'd not seen before, like the video posted above. And although it's locked from being embedded, if you follow the link to Back Lot Music's Soundcloud page here you can hear the first track from the aforementioned Oblivion soundtrack (or go here and hear it and read about it on Pitchfork)

And Now Some Slayer

Enough beauty, someone posted Haunting the Chapel in its entirety - Chemical Warfare!!!

LISTEN TO YOUR HEART ~ Mike Rowland, Film by Ruedi & Priska Abbühl

Okay, it's all well and good to be totally rock and roll all the time but sometimes you just gotta chill and indulge in beauty. For that I go to my Wife, my Cats or... penguins.

Enjoy, this is GRAND.

How To Destroy Angels The Loop Closes

Pitchfork posted a link to HTDA doing a Reddit Q&A earlier today. I don't normally go in for Reddit - the site always feels too crowded with text for me to discern what exactly I'm reading. However this one's worth the effort, as especially Reznor and Ross are fascinating as usual.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/19q0r9/we_are_how_to_destroy_angels_mariqueen_maandig/

Mike Patton Scores "The Place Beyond the Pines"

I'd almost forgotten about Patton's involvement in this. I'm curious about the flick, but MORE curious about the soundtrack, which was composed by none other than Mike Patton and is scheduled to be released on May 7th. I'm a big fan of Patton's other soundtrack work, most especially for the short film A Perfect Place staring Bill Moseley and Mark Boone Junior, which I believe is still available from Ipecac records as a DVD/CD set. Here's the trailer:

Sequestered

I hadn't checked my email in a couple of sdays and lookee here, the White House emailed me! I didn't even know they knew I was alive.

Seriously, I'm never going to go political with this blog, but I figured I'd post this, as since I don't know any rich cunts the sequester will probably effect people immediately around me, if not directly in my social circle (which is about ten people in diameter).

Morrissey says the Rhino is extinct because of: Beyoncé

Wow, he has been on a tear lately, but this is by far the best.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Kill Your Television

STILL waiting for my vinyl copy of MBV's first album in twenty-something years. STILL haven't listened to the digital tracks yet, as I'm holding out for my first listen to be an analog experience given that the band went so far out of their way to avoid digital (obviously you can't fully avoid digital, but you can read about it here). In the interim I ration my exposure to Loveless, but today I just had to get a spin on that one through. And at some point it made me think of Neds. Man, I miss Neds. Great, great band

Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence

Broke out Depeche Mode's record Violater today. I'm real hot and cold with this band, but I'll tell you what, if I was forced to come up with say a top twenty list of songs from the 90's, this would definitely be on it. Might even be on a top ten.

And the video is pretty damn cool as well. Oh, and I see now that I can't embed it, but it's worth following the link back to youtube for.

Deftones - Sextape

I don't think I ever posted this here before. I found this video, from the Deftones' 2010 album Diamond Eyes, about the time Koi No Yokan came out (which was my album of the year last year).

This video is fantastic.

The Cocteau Twins

This was my introduction to The Cocteau Twins back around late 90's. In the Napster days I'd pulls samples from all the different bands I'd never heard but always wanted to and make mix discs out of them. If I dug the stuff I'd go out and buy the record. I used to call those mixes Satan's Discoteque Volume whatever. Some of them were pretty good, I'll have to post a couple here at some point. Anyway, these were the two songs by Elizabeth Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Will Heggie that I downloaded first and totally at random. Talk about 100% accuracy, as not only do I still think these two songs - which open and close my favorite Cocteau Twins record, Heaven or Las Vegas - go great together, but either one of them would be strong enough to have make me a life-long fan, which I am.

Mick Harvey Has a New Record Coming Out

\
It's titled Four (Acts of Love), due June 11th according to mxdwn. I couldn't find anything to post from it, so here's an interview from last year I'd never seen before.

The Virgins - FMD (NOT the video!)

So I first encountered this group this morning. They have a new video for this song. This is another reason why I generally don't dig music videos (though I post an awful lot of them, eh?). I watched about ten seconds of it and in the same flash of realization knew I loved the song but hated the video. Oh how I wish my first impression of the song had been cerebral instead of visual. Sorry, but the 80's video mock-up's been dead (to me at least) for some time - it's just not funny on any visual level at this point. But enough criticism, because again, I really dig the song.

The Melvins w/Scott Kelly - Warhead (Venom Cover)

Chelsea Light Moving "Empires Of Time" Northampton, MA 2.24.13

Found a couple of these posted on Brooklyn Vegan today. Nice. You can see the others and read about the performance if you go here.