New Pixies 4-Song EP

This morning I woke and found a fantastic email in my box - The PIXIES are releasing a new, 4-song EP... TODAY!!!

Way to keep that under your hats until the last minutes guys.

Go to Joup here and I've posted the first video and more information

NIN Hesitation Marks Tour Doc

Another in Vevo's Tour Exposed documentary series.

Ministry: From Beer to Eternity

Read my review of the fantastic new Ministry record on Joup.

Groovie Mann + William Tucker = Darling Kandie

While working on my review of the new Ministry record From Beer to Eternity for Joup I've been drudging up a lot of old school Chicago connections I'd either not known about or totally forgotten.

Ty Segall's FUZZ

This makes me wish that for this labor day weekend I had a garage. With an old, greenish-yellow refrigerator in it. And a lot of Hamms in that refrigerator. NO, scratch that. The Hamms fits aesthetically, but I wouldn't drink it so let's change that to something... Leinenkugel's, yeah. That'll do. And an older neighbor who notoriously stops by with joints of grass. Not good weed like we know it today, but certified grass. Like the stuff you could light up after a twelver and NOT get sick.

Listen to that glorious amp buzz around the 4 minute mark. This would have been a killer end of the summer album, but it's not out until October 1st (on In The Red Records). Oh well, there's enough advance stuff floating around for us to enjoy sampling it this weekend as most of the states kiss the summer goodbye (and we in socal continue to sweat our asses off as ours still builds to a head). Besides, it's not Mr. Segall doesn't have another album that just came out recently*.

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*

Grant Morrison Grant Morrison Grant Morrison

I missed a week of my comic column because I was locked in a recording studio with Mr. Brown working on the first Schlitz Family Robinson tracks in... a really long time. So Grant Morrison's Annihilator has become well-talked about news by now. Still, hearing him describe the new creator-owned book in this video made me so excited that I devoted this week's edition of Thee Comic Column  over on Joup to talking a bit about Morrison books I read before I knew who he was, and how they subsequently added a whole new level of appreciation to his work for me when I put the pieces together later and found that even before I knew who he was, Grant Morrison was writing comics that were among my all-time favorites.

image courtesy of legendary.com

Disappears

Chicago-based band Disappears recently released a new record via Kranky records. Minor Patterns is not from that record. It's from 2012's brilliant Pre Language. Upon first hearing the band last year via Mr. Brown I was immediately struck by the somewhat updated throwback sound. Now, I know "updated throwback" sounds ridiculous but it's something I've really come to like in another group, A Place to Bury Strangers. The meaning of the ambiguous and possibly even pretentious term is really just a nod to the fact that while doing their own thing - quite well in both cases I might add - there is a definite comparison in sound to be made of bands-gone-by. My two-second elevator pitch for A Place to Bury Strangers when I first fell in love with Exploding Head was, "Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste-era Ministry meets My Bloody Valentine meets Bauhaus. Ridiculous? Maybe, but it worked like a charm in selling more than a few records for the band when I had my retail job so I count it a success. Disappears is similar, in that just listening to the opening chords of Minor Patterns I get that same early-Bauhaus feeling of space within the song. Once the song gets going though, as with the rest of the album, there's an aesthetic comparison I feel can be made to both 80's Sonic Youth (or maybe that's just because Steve Shelley is in Disappears) and even 13-Songs Fugazi. It's that small club/loud amp sound and the knack for writing a song together, organically, as opposed to riff-oriented.  It's the definition of what indie used to mean. IT'S GOOD.

Anyway, don't listen to me babble comparisons at you, if you dig Minor Patterns, go buy the whole record Pre Language. Then buy the new one. I need to do that last part yet, but it's on the ever-growing list for sures.

Oh, and when you have a little more time to burrow into something, there's this: