Showing posts with label The Ocean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Ocean. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Druids - Shadow Work

 

 From Druids' 2022 Shadow Work, an album I just discovered and which is blowing me away. Released via The Ocean's Pelagic Records, these guys fit that aesthetic like a glove, although I'd say they're a bit closer in sound to super stoner group Shrinebuilder than the Post-Metal of The Ocean. Either way, this entire record is fabulous, so it was tough to choose a track to post. Luckily, Pelagic has a full stream up. You can order this one direct from the label's website HERE.




NCBD:

Another short but sweet NCBD. Here are my picks:


Black Tape
's fourth and final issue! I still haven't read three, so sometime soon I'll sit down and burn through the entire arc. Love that Shout At the Devil homage cover!


Still one of my favorite reads every month now that the status quo has resumed, Boss and Rosenberg's What's the Furthest Place From Here has to be the single most intriguing 'world' I've come across in a comic in a long time. 



Play:

Here's a hilarious little commercial Puppet Combo made for their summer sale, which began yesterday!

 

I can't play any of this stuff on my computer, otherwise, the "Buy All" for $25 would be a total no-brainer! The direct link to the sale on Puppet Combo/Torture Star's website is HERE.




Playlist:

The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro
Spotlights - Alchemy for the Dead
Druids - Spirit Compass (single)
Druids - Shadow Work
Final Light - Eponymous
Nun Gun - Mondo Decay
Ganser - Just Look At That Sky
          


Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


• Eight of Pentacles (Disks) - Transformation of Earthly materials/goals
• 14 Temperance - Art in Thoth, this often denotes a mixing of two or more different ethos to create the desired result. In this case, I'd read it as branching out from a safe routine/style.
• 17 The Star - Totality and fulfillment. 

I think this is a direct reference to something I just started working on. I'm taking an old collaborative project from 2018 and stripping it of the ideas that were created jointly with someone else, trying to extract the prose and rework it into a High School Giallo I've been thinking about for at least as long. There's a lot of good prose that I wrote in this - the other party was involved conceptually and with story, but not with any of the actual writing. There's a good 100k words - a lot of it was the product of what I since learned was overzealous 'word stuffing,' but a lot of it is good. So why waste it? Why not transform that Art into a lucrative project?

 


Wednesday, April 19, 2023

New Music from The Ocean!!!


It's been a minute since The Ocean released something that really blew me away. I think that has more to do with me than them, but it remains a fact. 

These guys have been spearheading new corridors of Metal/Post Metal/Whatever since the early 2000s. I got hip to them kind of on accident, back somewhere around 2008 when I picked up Fluxion on a whim. The frenzied fandom that album birthed reached its zenith with the 2010's twin releases Heliocentric and Anthropocentric. I still consider those records to be the pinnacle of what Robin Straps and crew have achieved, however, that is not to say I didn't love 2011's Pelegial, because I did. 

When the group returned from a five-year hiatus in 2018 with Phanerozoic I, I was in an entirely different headspace, so while I've listened to and liked that record as well as its 2020 companion Phanerozoic II, they haven't quite moved the needle with me the way some of the previous records did. Watching this video, however, I'm blown away by the production and feel like The Ocean has something great in store for us once again.

This video is a HUGE step forward, and I can only guess that, with as ambitious a band as The Ocean has become over its now 23-year history, Straps and Co. may have grown to harbor visual ambitions accompanying their sonic ones. 

What would that look like? 

Well, I'm not entirely certain, but it would probably start with what they have released for the new song "Subatlantic," harbinger of the new record Holocene dropping May 19th on the band's own Pelagic Records. Pre-order HERE.




Read:

Allow me a small if egregious addendum to my NCBD post yesterday. 

After acquiring and reading Nightcrawlers issue three, I was floored to find not only was the burning skull of Galactus in the issue, but my knee-jerk interpretation of the image was 100% incorrect! What we have in this issue isn't Galactus being destroyed in a swathe of cosmic fire, it's GALACTUS AS A SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE, or in laymen's, Galactus as a Ghost Rider!!!


Wow. Just wow. Hats off to writer Si Spurrier - the same guy who named the Black Knight's goat-headed servant Philip - and artist Alessandro Vitti for bringing this to life. Here's what I think is a preview pick from next week's Sins of Sinister: Dominion one-shot that appears to feature this awesome new version of the planet-eater front and center.
 


Playlist:

Jackson Browne - Somebody's Baby (single)
Ruby the Hatchet - Fear Is a Cruel Master
The Ocean - Subatlantic (single)
High on Fire - The Art of Self Defense
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
ZZ Top - Rhythmeen
Young Widows - Old Wounds
High on Fire - Snakes of the Divine




Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
 

Temperance is Art in the Thoth deck, and since the Bound Deck has become my staple and I've had to adjust back to the classic interpretation of the card, I've come to look at this one as a balance between Temperance and Art, Art being a more Bacchanalian pursuit. So looking at this spread, I'm seeing the balance between logic and heart as the achievement that will transform one of my projects (World often acting as nomenclature for the Worlds I'm creating, or Projects, to put a more definitive linguistic point on the matter).
 


Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Legions of Winged Octopi

 

I've been in the mood for some of the older albums by long-time favorite The Ocean, aka The Ocean Collective. This would be my favorite track from Precambrian, released on Metal Blade way back in 2007.

I love almost every album by these guys, and chief songwriter Robin Staps is a genius for my money, but there's something about the sheer assault of Precambrian and its precursor Aeolian, that the band has yet to capture again (not that I'm saying they need to).




Watch:

The long-unavailable in the States second film by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, Livid, hit Shudder last week and I was able to eek in a viewing over the weekend.

Wow. This one did not disappoint. Livid is, like Inside before it, further proof that Bustillo and Maury are just as interested in making beautiful movies as they are Horror movies. Comparisons to Argento are on the money and yet also a bit misleading, and while the dance academy from Suspiria is mentioned in Livid and thus, ties the film directly to Argento's "Three Witches" world, there are no continuity, character or place/plot overlaps. This means whatever tie was intended is more homage than actual DNA for Livid. But there is a definite tone here that feels at the very least inspired by, if not directly related to, Suspiria. The color pallette is quite different - Livid prefers grey to bold primary colours - however, there is a softness to the visual life of the film that smooths the horrific edges and helps make it feel like a fairytale, much like Argento's technique. Part of this may indeed be that both films deal with the world of Dance, and this makes them feel 'old world' and steeped in tradition, which is often the very element of the world fairytales seek to unmoor. 

 

There's also the element of what I call "Doll Discovery." Dolls play a big part in the visual fabric of the film, from a strange, anthropomorphic children's tea party to a penchant for extreme taxidermy. This also helps the viewer feel what the characters feel - namely that they've accidentally stepped into some "other" place, where time does not necessarily behave the way it does for most of us. 

I adore this film, and pretty much immediately set out to order it on Bluray. Now I really need to go back and give the filmmakers' other movies a spin, as I didn't connect with Among the Living upon first viewing, and I still haven't watched Deep House




Dollar Bin:

New feature. Every Tuesday, I'm going to post a comic I found in a dollar bin. What with hardcovers, omnibuses, trade paperback collections and even digital, old floppies just don't have the draw they used to. The Comic Bug is known for buying large collections and then placing the bulk of the stuff out as Dollar Bins, and I've had a lot of good times going through them, finding stuff that would be garbage to many. So here's where I highlight some of my finds.

I don't really know much about ROM Spaceknight except it was a toy I never had as a kid, and there was a Marvel Comic I never read. Later in life though, ROM began to pop up in weird places to remind me he existed, and once in a while over the last decade or so, I find a single issue in a dollar bin and pick it up. ROM is a book that has come to represent a certain era of comics and SciFi to me, and because of that, it's always fun to read. 




Playlist:

The Ocean - Precambrian
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
Mr. Bungle - The Night They Came Home
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
Ennio Morricone - Il Grande Silenzio OST




Card:


I wanted to do a three-card spread today, primarily because I haven't done much other than pull one daily card for quite some time. What I got feels very on the money, true to recent form.

Past = 4 of Swords: Truce. Focus and concentration undercut by a certain restless energy. I love this card. The "restless" aspect is not always one of the most clear-cut elements of this card. In fact, I would normally ignore it based on how the other images - all balanced and proportional, right down to the swords that meet perfectly in the middle of a beautifully centered cross and the 49 petaled flower in its own heart. But mixed with the next two cards, that hectic background cannot be ignored.

Present = Knight of Wands. This card is pretty simple. Energy and Passion. 

Future = Prince of Disks. More focused energy, but proportionate. Those concentric circles in the background tell of using the second card's Will to help corral the energy of the first card into a culminating experience. 

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Isolation: Day 187

Musick

Another track from the upcoming eight album by The Ocean. Love this video, and love the song. The Ocean is still one of the bands that carry the metal through the 00s for me, and one that still feels as though they are reaching to continually change the landscape of the genre.

The new album, Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic I Cenozoic is out on September 25. Pre-order HERE.




NCBD

Not a lot of books this week, but one, in particular, I've been waiting for his Dead Day #3.


I know I've talked a lot about this one lately, but it's worth the hype. I am also aware that for someone who has, consistently for the last nearly two decades, endlessly recited a speech that contains, "Zombies are a dead scene, man," and, "First three Romeros and a couple others are all that matters," I've been logging a lot of excitement for quite a few new zombie books/movies/comics. Well, I guess there's more on heaven and earth than dreamt of in my philosophy, at least when it comes to zombies.




Playlist

Slipknot - Subliminal Verses
Kendrick Lamar - Damn.
The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Paleozoic
Code Orange - Underneath
Electric Wizard - Let Us Prey
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City




Card


Healing and compassion, two things I'm currently working on. 

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Isolation: Day 123



Last week, Metal Blade Records announced the new album from Germany's reigning Post-Metal champs The Ocean. Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic drops on September 25th. Pre-order HERE.

I've followed The Ocean since I stumbled across 2007's reissue of Fluxion in the metal section of a local record store. The group is hot and cold for me, in that I have and love all their albums in theory, but not all of those records are practical listens for me. 2005's Aeolian and 2007's Precambrian have their 'I have to hear that song right now' tracks, but overall are so academically 'post-metal' that, although I appreciate their sonic integrity, I find listening to them for any extended length of time often cumbersome. That said, Fluxion and 2010's pair of albums Heliocentric and Anthropocentric are year-round go-to's, and 2013's Pelegial also easily fits into regular rotation. I'm not quite sure where last year's Phanerozoic I fits into my listening routine yet, primarily because the record kind of got lost amidst a ton of other albums that held my attention for most of the year.

**

A new episode of The Horror Vision Horror Podcast went up yesterday. I've added the handy little widget in the upper right-hand corner of this page where you can listen or follow over to our page on Spotify, since this is the service most of our listens seems to filter through. In this episode, Ray and I go Dynamic Duo and talk about Natalie Erika James' Relic, Jeffrey A. Brown's The Beach House, as well as a bunch of other cool stuff. Also available on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and Google Play.


**

NCBD - I messed up and posted this week's books here last week, so I'll be picking up those today.


**

Currently reading:


Last week I finished Mark Frost's The List of 7 - very good Victorian mystery novel. Thoroughly enjoyed, and although I was tempted to start the sequel, 6 Messiahs, instead I started Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country in anticipation of the upcoming HBO adaptation. At a third of the way in, the novel is as fantastic as the trailer looks, so I'm doubly excited now:



The book is very much not what I expected, and that's good. Reading it is a cathartic, as being a long-time Lovecraft fan - we're talking since '92 - I had built up a pretty big head of fandom steam before I ever realized HPL was a completely racist xenophobe. Through the mid-to-late 90s, as his personal correspondences were published, I made it a point to avoid them, as that's when the depth of his ignorance really became apparent (it's in the writing, but not exactly overt, especially not when you're younger and not as skilled at reading into things). Still, as more has come out, it remains more difficult to balance being a fan of his fiction with abhorring his personal philosophies. The first book I read that really played with this was Seamus Cooper's The Mall of Cthulhu, where the protagonists are accosted by a skinhead group who have adopted worship of Lovecraft's entities (great book and only $2.99 on Kindle at the moment). That was a comedy though. Lovecraft Country is not. A taut exploration of this country's racists underpinnings (that just won't seem to go the fuck away), the story is less about Shoggoths and more about human monsters.

**

Playlist:

The Birthday Party - Mutiny/The Bad Seed
Mannequin Pussy - Patience
United Future Organization: 3rd Perspective
Henry Mancini - Charade OST
Charles Mingus - Blues and Roots
Cypress Hill - IV
Raury - Indigo Child EP
The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucingen
Palesketcher - Jesu: Pale Sketches

**

Card:


"A temporary culmination of events or labors. A well-deserved breath." I'll take it.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

2019: August 27th American Horror Story: 1984 Trailer



Soooo... this season is an amalgam of a multitude of different slashers flicks from years past? The Burning, Friday the 13th, I Know What You Did Last Summer? Well, even if it looks pretty uninspired, it might be fun. I usually know within two episodes whether or not I want to complete a season of AHS, so I'll give it a try.

**

Originally, Wednesday the 28th I was slated to do a signing of my new book, Shadow Play Book One: Kim & Jessie at the Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach. Unfortunately, due to a production delay with the copies I ordered, I was forced to cancel. The event will most likely be re-scheduled for 9/11, but in the interim, Jonathan Grimm and I will have a table at Scare Faire, the annual Horror Event held in Scary Perry's Halloween Store and Hardcore Hearse Club in Chicago on Saturday, September 7th. Grimm will be selling art prints, magnets, stickers, and all the awesome stuff he does, and I'll have copies of Shadow Play and my first book, A Collection of Desires: 7 Tales of Modern Horror. If you're in the area, stop in and see us. Both of us love to talk all things horror.

**

Dead Milkmen Appreciation Week continues with another classic track, the James Brown-parody RC's Mom, from Beelzebubba. So good...



**

Playlist from 8/26:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
The Ocean - Heliocentric
The Ocean - Precambrian
The Ocean - 1.0 Ansia - EP*
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
High on Fire - The Art of Self Defense
Budos Band - Burnt Offerings

* Not sure this is actually same The Ocean as the other tracks. Researching it online has been frustrating to say the least. If anyone happens to know anything about this, please leave a comment.

**

Today's Spread:


I Love seeing this Spread! The juxtaposition of the intellectual refinement of emotion lends itself well  to the pleasures of completion. I have my assignment for the day, and I'll let the cancellation of the signing roll right the f--- off my back!

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

2019: August 21st The Ocean Collective's Permian



Yesterday, while driving around the South Bay with K and my cousin Charles, my iTunes shuffled up Epiphany, the eight track from Heliocentric, part 1 of the two-part album cycle The Ocean Collective released in 2010. Back when this came out, it was largely all I listened to; both Heliocentric and its counterpart, Anthropocentric, are fantastic records with big, philosophical themes and seriously intense musical arrangements. Hearing the penultimate track from a former favorite album (tracks 9 and 10 are really one track, imo) reminded me how awesome The Ocean is, and that they released their first album in five years last November. Through no fault of its own, I barely listened to Phanerozoic I; Palaeozoic. Following all this up, I found that two months ago, the band released this awesome video. This is one of the things I dig about The Ocean - everything is art with them. Everything has meaning.

I guess it's safe to say I'm about to fall back in love with a band that really reintroduced me to metal in the late 00s.

**

NCBD:


Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips continue to put out one of the only must-read monthly monthly books. And look at that cover! Also, hoping that Transformers 84 #0 lands today, as when I originally posted about it a few weeks ago, I later found out the date I'd seen reported online was erroneous.

**

Playlist from 8/20:

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Tinderbox
The Ocean - Heliocentric
Har Mar Superstar - Bye Bye 17
Twin Temple - Bring You Their Signature Sound...

**

Spread of the day:


Interesting to note that despite not posting a spread in nine days, The Queen of Swords remains a diligent influence. This spread was specifically geared toward an issue with someone at work, and the spread directly mirrors events of the day, in a good way. Savagery must be clinical in order to bypass the Strife that can accompany getting what you want.

Thursday, October 25, 2018

2018: October 25th



I've read this video is awesome, however until the entire album is released, I'm playing it safe and not indulging in the any new songs from The Ocean Collective in five years (they had a split E.P. with Mono in 2015).

Last night's movie - Halloween III: Season of the Witch. SO good. Tom Atkins for president.



31 Days of Horror

10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly
10/06) Re-animator
10/07) Night of the Demons
10/08) Species
10/09) The Roost
10/10) The Convent
10/11) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10/12) George A. Romero's Day of the Dead
10/13) George A. Romero's Land of the Dead
10/14) The Apostle
10/15) Phantom of the Paradise
10/16) Candyman
10/17) Ghoulies
10/18) John Carpenter's Halloween
10/19) Halloween
10/20) Mandy
10/21) Satan's Playground
10/22) Flatliners
10/23) Jacob's Ladder
10/24) Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Playlist from 10/24:

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Wasteland
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Blood Lust
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Vol. 1
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - B-Sides and Rarities Vol. III
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Card of the day:


This one again, eh? Lately, when I do these readings I'm rushed, so I never really dig into the meanings. Emotionally honed intelligence? Twice in three days? To get a court card like this twice in such close proximity obviously indicates something largely than happenstance, larger than the normal nuts and bolts of things. Contemplating it now I believe it may be recommending I kickstart something I keep telling myself I'm going to and don't, namely meditating. I've been very splintered, distracted to the point of anxiety. I know I can get ahold on this if I meditate, so I believe I'll begin today. 



Wednesday, October 3, 2018

The Ocean Release Another New Track!



I'm still debating on whether or not I'm going to listen to this one before the album comes out, but that's no reason not to share it! These guys are such a great band, but I feel like not everyone that would like them knows about them. Hopefully that changes.

Pre-order Here for a November 2nd release!

Thursday, September 6, 2018

New Music from The Ocean - Permian: The Great Dying



I don't know what's more disturbing, the fact that it's actually been five years since the last album from The Ocean (they released a split 7" with Mono in 2015), or all the changes that have taken place in my life since. Either way, this track is MUCH anticipated and proves this band will never let me down. You can pre-order the new album, Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic on the Metal Blade Records site HERE. Release date November 2nd.

Props to my friend John for tipping me off to this release. Made my night!

Friday, September 27, 2013

The Ocean Has a Video and a Film (NSFW)



I totally missed out on the fact that there is a version of The Ocean's Pelagial record that comes with a film shot to the length of the album (a 53:13 long song they were unfortunately forced to break into pieces when I saw them live at Summer Slaughter). Apparently I also missed the fact that they released a music video a few months ago for Bathyalpelagic II. A big, hearty thank you to Metal Sucks for bringing all this to my attention. Read their articles here and here.

Friday, August 9, 2013

The Ocean full live set @ NY's St. Vitus!!!



Now this is the way I wish to see The Ocean! I totally agree with metalsucks' Vince Neilstein (whose article on the same you should link to from the above and read) that the twenty-five minutes on Summer Slaughter was just. Not. Enough.

This footage, which I'm just now sitting down to watch this now but I'm assuming it's Pelagial live in its entirety, the way it was meant to be played. Only a few seconds in and I can already tell that the sound is better here than it was both at HOB last month and at the Glass House when I saw them in 2010. Little clubs are always the best.

And apparently that's what this was - a surprise show at NY's Saint Vitus where they were billed under the name Pelagial (not a surprise to anyone familiar with them).

Thursday, May 2, 2013

The Ocean - Pelagial



So I've put down the Slayer for a bit (couldn't find my original cassette copy of Seasons in the Abyss so I had to walk away for a while) and started my first pass through the new album by The Ocean, Pelagial. It is incredible. The concept for the album is just mind-blowing, especially when you listen to it and realize they pulled it off. From their (awesome) website:

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.

Monday, April 15, 2013

New Track from The Ocean's upcoming Pelagial Record





Thanks to blabbermouth.net for posting these. I cannot wait for Pelagial - The Ocean (sometimes known as The Ocean Collective) became one of my favorite bands a couple of years ago when I discovered 2004's Fluxion. After chewing on that record for about a year I dove in and bought everything else the band had done. I loved all of it and constantly marveled at the versatility with which Robin Straps and crew turned any conventions associated with heavy music on their ear without ever sacrificing the 'raging slab' factor of the art. Then in 2010 the group put out two records - Heliocentric and Anthropocentric. They are an examination of religion, but not in the typical metal fashion. Both of those records - which saw the group with a new vocalist - are absolute masterpieces that transcend any genre trappings even more than the group already had. I can't say this enough, they are amazing. Fans of Mike Patton and Faith No More may especially want to look into them (they even had the amazing packaging for both records designed by long-time Patton art designer Martin Kvamme).


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

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.