Sadness Is Delicious

2011-03-21T01:01:00.002-04:00

Neko Case Q&A

Last week, indie-folk singer Neko Case held a raffle to win her 1967 Mercury Cougar (pictured below, which became the cover to her Middle Cyclone album) to benefit 826 National, an organization that helps with tutoring children and encouraging literacy. I interviewed her for the Sound of the City blog, and we talked about her car, tweeting too much, and the movie The Beastmaster. She retweeted it a couple of times and, personally, I find nothing wrong with her Twitter etiquette there.

2011-02-22T10:09:00.004-05:00

PJ Harvey, Gus G., and Kane Hodder

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had some articles published I want to share here. First is my review of PJ Harvey’s new album, Let England Shake, which I wrote for The Village Voice. In it, I talk about her transformation into a political commenter…sort of. I really love the album except for a few minor things. To check my review, click here.

Next up is an interview I did with current Ozzy Osbourne guitarist, Gus G. (pictured below), who played on the album Scream (an album that made my 2010 Albums of the Year for The Village Voice’s Pazz + Jop poll). I got a minor scoop about new music that he’s written for Ozzy and also he told me about how he gave Ozzy a farting pen. To read, click here.

Last up, is an interview I did with actor Kane Hodder (pictured below), best known for playing Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th Parts VII through X, and Hatchet director Adam Green. As a fan of the Jason movies, this was a lot of fun. Hodder is exactly what you’d hope he’d be. Also, look for more with these two in the next issue of Revolver out March 8. To read, click here.

PJ Harvey photo by Cat Stevens

Nick Cave, Rob Halford and Queensryche

2010-11-29T01:07:00.001-05:00

Nick Cave, Rob Halford and Queensryche, oh my!

Over the past month, I’ve done a few interviews with some of my favorite artists. The first is with Nick Cave for The Village Voice’s Sound of the City blog, and in it we talk about the new Grinderman album (the last one produced one of my favorite songs that year), the Birthday Party, his favorite Bad Seeds album and song, and the lyrics that anger his wife most. He was very candid and forthcoming and, given how he’ll sometimes take on the press, I was happy he felt comfortable speaking with me.

The next is with Judas Priest singer Rob Halford for Revolvermag.com. He’s currently on tour with Ozzy—for a show some refer to as the Prince of Darkness meets the Metal God—and he talked a little bit about his kinship with the Sabbath singer. We also discussed the new Halford album and Priest’s future plans.

The last is with Queensryche’s Geoff Tate and Michael Wilton, also for Revolvermag.com. Their album, Empire, was recently re-released so the interview covers the making of that, staging drug deals, S&M, and what Michael Kamen was like.

I have more stuff in the works, and the next Revolver contains a ton of interviews I did. I’ll post updates on those here has they happen.

2010-09-25T00:18:00.003-04:00

Recent Writings: Slayer, Cynic, Xasthur

I’ve recently written a few articles here and there that I wanted to share. First is a web-exclusive interview I did with Kerry King for Revolvermag.com. In it, we talk about Slayer’s 30th anniversary, playing the Big Four shows, raising snakes and more. It’s also a good bookend for my blog about going to Germany and seeing Slayer from Jeff Hanneman’s guitar pit at Wacken.

Next is an article I wrote for the Broward/Palm Beach New Times on death-via-prog metallers Cynic. The interview focuses mostly on vocalist-guitarist Paul Masvidal’s life growing up in South Florida (since that’s where the publication is) and gives a different perspective on why death metal blew up in Florida. The story was also picked up in the Miami New Times.

Finally, I interviewed underground black-metal firebrand Malefic, the “frontman” for one-man band Xasthur, about giving up on metal for Self-Titled.com. The feature, previewed in HTML here and presented in online magazine form here, also features amazing photos by Bryan Sheffield of Malefic both with and without his corpsepaint. In the interview, he was incredibly candid about everything from the pain he’s endured making his music to the betrayals he’s suffered from the music industry. It’s one of his final interviews (I thought I had his last one), and I’m honored he gave interviewing another go. Also, his final “metal” album, Portal of Sorrow, is actually quite good and I highly recommend it, especially to Ennio Morricone fans.

I’ve got a lot more writing that will be published soon, including pieces on Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, Nick Cave and more. I’ll post updates here as they come out.

Xasthur image by Bryan Sheffield

2010-09-06T22:36:00.002-04:00

On Stands Now!

The current issue of Revolver magazine—with Zakk Wylde on the cover—has an article I wrote on Iron Maiden in it. Bruce Dickinson was really open with me about how he first discovered that he could be a singer and the uncertainty in Maiden’s future. Up the Irons!

2010-09-06T22:20:00.003-04:00

All Yesterday's Parties

After Sunn0))) and Boris closed out All Tomorrow’s Parties fest last night with their Altar performance in upstate New York, DJ Kool Herc—the man who basically invented rap—did a DJ set. It was pretty amazing watching the master put together a perfect dance set, including bits of James Brown, Michael Jackson (and the Vincent Price poem from “Thriller”) and basically an encyclopedia’s worth of breaks on the best hip-hop records.

Partway into his set, in walked Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA, who had played a sort-of aggressive set at the same time as Altar (I went back and forth between the two.) He just kept riling the crowd saying, “You’re all looking at me like you’re scared. You guys can’t make eye contact for more than four seconds.” He performed great nonetheless. Anyway, in the presence of Herc, he was nothing but reverent. He nonchalantly stepped behind the turntables and said hello. Check out the pic above. It was one of those rare moments where you felt like you were seeing something rare and historic. GZA grabbed the mic and talked about what a legend Kool Herc was and thanked him before leaving. I’m glad I got to see it take place.

2010-06-25T18:57:00.002-04:00

On Stands Now!

The July/August issue of Revolver magazine, which came out this week, features an interview I did with Ozzy Osbourne, as well as his new guitarist Gus G. In it, we talk about his new album, Scream (of which I’m a fan), his Black Sabbath days, Randy Rhoads, religion, and a lot more. It’ll be on stands through August 16. I’m pretty proud of this one, so check it out.

Metallica

2010-06-16T10:13:00.001-04:00

I recently rediscovered this Metallica feature I wrote in 2008 and decided to repost it. Enjoy.

A Matter of Life and Death

by Kory Grow

Metallica’s fans will never know just how close their favorite headbangers came to disbanding. The group’s dark times and therapy sessions may have been aired publicly in the 2004 film Some Kind of Monster, which chronicled the genesis of that year’s exposed nerve of an album, St. Anger. But since the movie runs only two hours, their fans couldn’t see all the work the band did off-screen to heal as friends. “We got very close to experiencing life without Metallica there for a year, and it was pretty nutty,” says Lars Ulrich, the band’s exuberant Danish drummer, now 44. “I think we all realized that we were much better off with Metallica than without. We made the best efforts that we could to try and get beyond that. We put a lot of work into it.”

The work they put into reestablishing their friendships with one another is wholly responsible for the triumph of their latest album, Death Magnetic (Warner Bros.). Balancing the underground thrash metal of Metallica’s early ’80s work with the catchy grooves of ’90s blockbusters like their self-titled “Black Album,” the disc is their most vital work in nearly two decades. With ex–Ozzy Osbourne bassist Robert Trujillo onboard, Metallica’s core—vocalist-guitarist James Hetfield, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and skinsman Ulrich—plays just as aggressively as the myriad young metalheads still trying to ape their style after nearly 30 years. The band sounds hungry again.

To get to this point, Metallica needed to separate themselves from their recent past. The first step was to find a producer other than Bob Rock, still a close friend of the band, who had guided them since the Black Album. They chose Rick Rubin, the bearded Grammy-winning producer who made the careers of the Beastie Boys, Slayer and System of a Down and revitalized those of Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond. Rubin’s main objective was to get Metallica back into the mindset they were in when writing Master of Puppets. The question he asked them to ponder was, “What would you have done if it was 1985?”

“You’ve got to understand that for Metallica, for our fans, for everybody—…And Justice for All, Master of Puppets, Ride the Lightning—these records have been elevated by everybody to the icon stage,” Ulrich says. “These records are on pedestals and they’re so important. And they’re so ‘all this stuff’ that we even got scared of ’em. [Laughs] We were intimidated by the supposed greatness of these records.

“We spent the better part of the next 15 years running as far away from those records as possible to not do anything that would in any way belittle them or take any of the glory away from these records. Rick made us feel OK about circling back through that ZIP code again and checking out the neighborhood, listening to the records and being OK with adopting some of the same processes, some of the same ways of thinking.”

To make sure they got Death Magnetic right, the band took their time writing the album. They started writing in the spring of 2006 and composed at their leisure. As invitations to tour and headline festivals arose, the band obliged at will. The lack of pressure would later prove instrumental to the album’s success. In October of 2007, the band played an acoustic set for Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit charity concert. In April of the following year, they appeared at the Mountain View location of Rasputin Music, a San Francisco-based independent record store chain as part of Record Store Day, to sign autographs and meet fans. It was their first in-store appearance in nearly a decade.

“It just seemed like it was a good time to remind people of what a great experience just walking into your neighborhood mom-and-pop record store was, instead of walking into a mega building that’s the size of a small country or sitting and tapping on your keypad and getting music that way,” Ulrich says. “Nothing against either of those; I do both of those myself. But it’s like, you’re walking into a place that you feel the love of human beings. You walk around and you can check out some records and some shirts and some paraphernalia. It’s just a vibe.”

By opening themselves up to so many different opportunities and revisiting their past interests, the members of Metallica primed themselves for anything to happen in the recording studio. One of Rubin’s main demands was for them to have the album arranged perfectly before entering the studio. “It was basically just, ‘Learn the fucking songs ’til you can play them in your sleep standing on your head with your fucking eyes closed, while you’re saying the Lord’s Prayer backwards,’ or whatever,” Ulrich says. “That was the marching order.” Rubin was onto something, too: Metallica played Death Magnetic with unabashed hunger. “It’s still raw,” says the drummer. “It’s very in-your-face. It’s very aggressive and it still sounds like a bunch of human beings playing music. That’s probably what I’m most proud of.”

Nearly three decades ago, it was Metallica’s goal to take over the world. They’ve done that, and now their priorities have changed. “It’s really just four dorky big kids in their early 40s still playing the music that gets ’em off,” Ulrich concludes. “I guess Metallica’s mission is to provide the best music that we’re capable of for the people that are interested. It’s to give people a sense of escape. Something that can take them away from five-dollars-a-gallon gas and shit economies and whatever the fuck else it is that’s going on out there in the real world.”

2010-06-02T09:45:00.004-04:00

Hiatus

For those of you who visit this blog regularly—and I doubt there are very many of you, since my last post here was in December—I just wanted to check in. I’ve been taking a little hiatus, focusing my online energy on revolvermag.com. I’ve also been writing regularly for Revolver, Guitar World, The Village Voice, and Self-titledmag.com. I’ll post some links to things here and there from this point on, beginning with this bit I wrote for Popmatters.com on “Advice for Young Writers.” Scroll to the bottom to read mine. I’ll also post photos here from shows I’ve gone to, like the one below from the Quasi concert this past April. Anyway, that’s all for now.

2009-12-17T13:33:00.013-05:00

Marduk, 12/16/2009

Last week, a bar in Brooklyn hosted a "black metal theory symposium." What the hell is that? Black metal is such a visceral experience. The point of it is its mystery, the things left unsaid. It's about wolves and sheep, Darwinism. Enter Swedish black-metal group Marduk, who taught a lesson no academic could come close to, when they played last night at the Gramercy Theater along with Nachtmystium and French black-metallers Merrimack. This was a night of black metal, sans theory, sans pedagogy—just as it should be.

Merrimack played a good set, but the sound was too quiet. Nevertheless, frontman Terrorizt chided the audience and got some reaction from the stereotypically apathetic New York metal crowd. (At the end of the night, my friend Dave was complaining that no one danced during Marduk's set—he'd attended the Allentown kick-off show for the tour and said it was better, and he was even disappointed in that one for the most part.)

Nachtmystium were a crowd favorite and sounded great. Most of their set came from their latest releases, focusing heavily on last year's Assassins LP, which I reviewed for Revolver. Their sound guy kept on sticking his hands in the air in victory/"Black Sabbath Vol. 4" poses throughout their set. Obviously, this level of excitement came through the speakers. Marduk didn't have a soundman, and most of my friends told me that their set was feedback-laden; I was up front so I didn't notice. At the end of Nachtmystium's set, they played G.G. Allin's "I Kill Everything I Fuck," and Terrorizt came back out (sans corpse paint) to sing along. I think the fact that frontman Blake Judd did the show without a shirt is the reason they came across so well to the crowd—or at least for the ladies—since that's the band a lot of my friends were talking about afterwards.

Marduk's set, for me, was incredible and the night's highlight. Mortuus is a charismatic frontman and straddles the line between rock posturing (in a good way) and the vitriol you expect from a black-metal frontman. Guitarist Morgan mugged throughout the show, but mostly kept to the shadows. He's always been a mysterious character (having played in Abruptum) so it was fitting. The band's set seemed to include a song or two from each of their albums, which over well with the seemingly hardline/oddly sparse crowd. The mid-tempo "Materialized in Stone," off Marduk's third and arguably best album, Opus Nocturne, was a highlight, and the audience sang along. Throughout the night they played up their excitement to be in New York (they were here in August, though I missed that show), but it could also very well have been because it was the last night of the tour. Regardless, it was one of the best black-metal shows I've been to in a while. No lecture necessary.

Merrimack

Blake Judd of Nachtmystium

Judd with Merrimack's Terrorizt

Marduk

2009-11-04T01:05:00.003-05:00

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts, 10/29/2009 and 10/30/2009

I attended the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden last week. The lineup was incredible, not least of which were Metallica’s duets with guests Lou Reed, Ozzy Osbourne, and Ray Davies. I covered both nights in the press room, watching the event on closed-circuit TV and doing junket interviews with many of the artists, for The Village Voice’s “Sound of the City” blog. I’ve pasted the teasers for both below.

Bruce! Sam! Billy! Bonnie! Live From The Ludicrously Star-Studded MSG Rock Hall Extravaganza

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Celebration
Madison Square Garden
Thursday, October 29

The first half of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's two-night benefit concert and 25th-anniversary celebration lasted six hours, ended at 1:30 a.m. and featuring star-studded sets by curators Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash, with guests ranging from Billy Joel to Tom Morello to doo-wop legends Little Anthony and the Imperials. All these artists showed a real humility and gratitude for the 60-odd-year-old genre: "Everybody's got their own Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their hearts," as Springsteen put it. And no matter what you think of the museum itself or the state of rock at the moment (the closest thing to a hard-line rock album in this week's Billboard Top 10 is the New Moon soundtrack), the evening proved what a great emancipator the music still is.

Continue reading " Bruce! Sam! Billy! Bonnie! Live"...

Live: Even Lou Reed Gets Sentimental At Rock Hall MSG Blowout #2 (Featuring U2, The Boss, The Black Eyed Peas, And Some Dude Named Mick)

Ooooh plus "Iron Man"

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Celebration
Madison Square Garden
Friday, October 30

"When we were down, rock 'n' roll lifted us up," says Tom Hanks in his introductory remarks for the final night of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's benefit-concert extravaganza at Madison Square Garden. "Rock 'n' roll music was American," he later adds. "And it changed the world." Despite his use of the past tense, tonight is anything but a eulogy: Friday's slate features a wider palate of curators than the previous night, this time including Aretha Franklin, Jeff Beck, Metallica, and U2. The headliners' guests, a pop-music dream-team ranging from Ray Davies to Ozzy Osbourne to the Black Eyed Peas, also do a better job than last night's cavalcade of explaining how far rock has come.

Continue reading " Live: Even Lou Reed Gets"...

More videos:

Lou Reed and Metallica perform the Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat”

Jeff Beck performs “A Day in the Life”

Bruce Springsteen and Sam Moore perform “Hold On, I’m Coming” and “Soul Man”

2009-08-27T00:16:00.003-04:00

L.A. Times Interview

Recently, the Los Angeles Times book blog interviewed the authors of Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces. The book contains my “Hall of Fame” pieces on Napalm Death’s Scum and Obituary’s Cause of Death. For the blog, I contributed a story about meeting Gorgoroth in Norway, which became the basis of this article. Albert Mudrian and Adem Tepedelen also contributed stories, and the L.A. Times blogger was Christopher R. Weingarten.

2009-07-05T22:28:00.002-04:00

Sonic Youth, 7/3/2009

Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon has gotten a lot more freedom through the years as the band has added members like multi-instrumentalist Jim O’Rourke and now former Pavement bassist Mark Ibold. She’s had so much freedom that, after she puts down the bass at concerts, she has perfected a flailing dance that I call—without creativity, I admit—“The Kim Gordon Dance.” At their performance Friday at the United Palace, I caught it with my camera as best I could from where I was sitting.

Ladies and Gentleman, the Kim Gordon Dance:

Honestly, the set was one of the best times I’ve seen them. They mostly played songs from their new album The Eternal, but the oldies the group pulled out were great: “Tom Violence,” “Catholic Block,” “Pacific Coast Highway,” “Brother James” and, my favorite of the evening, “Death Valley ’69” (full set list below). This song made me especially happy because earlier in the day, my girlfriend, Lisa, and I had gone to MoMA and seen the “Looking at Music: Side 2” exhibit. There’s a video post there showing Richard Kern’s video for the song in it, so it was exciting to hear it twice in one day; the exhibit is totally worthwhile, by the way, with great no-wave and first-wave punk photos and artifacts, like a old Teenage Jesus 7-inches and a Patti Smith “self-portrait.” At the show, the band members were jokey with one another. At one point, when Moore was fiddling with a guitar strap, Ranaldo said, “Strap it on!” Moore barked back, “I’d like to strap it on you.” Ranaldo rejoined, “Again?!” Maybe this explains why Gordon dances…

Set list:

Sacred Trickster
No Way
Calming the Snake
Poison Arrow
Tom Violence
Walkin Blue
Anti-Orgasm
Leaky Lifeboat
Antenna
Catholic Block
Malibu Gas Station
Massage the History
World Looks Red
__
What We Know
Pacific Coast Highway
__
Brother James
Death Valley ’69

2009-06-08T02:41:00.004-04:00

Jane’s Addiction/Nine Inch Nails, 6/7/09

Tonight, Jane’s Addiction and Nine Inch Nails played Jones Beach Theater, along with Street Sweeper Social Club. One thing I felt fortunate about growing up in Colorado was seeing shows at Red Rocks, but I have to say, seeing concerts literally on the water—as with Jones Beach—feels special, too. And even though Jane’s frontman Perry Ferrell kept saying, “Tonight is a historic event,” it sort of was.

Not only was this the original lineup of Jane’s Addiction’s first time playing in the New York area since 1991, but—if Ferrell’s memory serves correct from the way he introduced “Jane Says” at the end of the set—this is also the band’s 25th anniversary. The group played a hit-filled set, including (going by memory and not in order) “Had a Dad,” “Mountain Song,” “Ocean Size,” “Ted, Just Admit It…” (accompanied by a canopy depicting sex and violence and Natural Born Killers footage, see below), “Stop!” “Ain’t No Right” and “Been Caught Stealing.” (Why no “Classic Girl”?) Throughout the set Ferrell was swigging a bottle of wine in between poses and spouting off about grabbing his crotch, and how sometimes you’ve got to do it. (This was around the time it dawned on me that JA is pretty much an even split between the Doors and Led Zep, with a little Bootsy Collins thrown in.) At one point during “Ocean Size,” I think it was, Ferrell said, “I was just getting to the sexy part,” which had me in stitches because it was so non sequitur. It was nice to see original bassist Eric Avery back in the fold, but he seemed out of it for most of the show or upset. Nonetheless, they played a great set and—for not having seen them in 10 years—it was, I guess, historic, for me personally.

Tonight was the first time I had seen Nine Inch Nails live. What struck me most about about their show was that frontman Trent Reznor and the rest of the band hate instruments. Each member threw a guitar at one point (as my friend Reed said, “That acoustic guitar didn’t stand a chance, Robin Finck”), and Reznor threw several mic stands at drummer Ilan Rubin. “Burn,” from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack was a surprise, a cover of “I’m Afraid of Americans” was welcome, and “Wish” was fun, but I would have liked to hear even more stuff from the first few releases (especially since this year is the 20th anniversary of Pretty Hate Machine). I found it odd that they were playing in the middle—going on during daylight—even though they played a full set, including an encore of “Hurt.” The dichotomy between the NIN and Jane’s Addiction fans was pretty black and white, and many of the NIN fans seemed to leave during the Jane’s set. At the end of the night, there was a girl on the way to the parking lot with a “Free Hugs” sign, and we can only imagine which band she had come to see.

Openers Street Sweeper Social Club—a new group featuring Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and Coup rapper Boots Riley—were quite good, too. They came onstage to Darth Vader’s theme in Star Wars. Throughout the set, Riley kept saying, “We’re more than a band. We’re a social club.” Their novel feat, aside from Morello’s always incendiary guitar playing, was doing an almost note-for-note rendition of M.I.A.’ s “Paper Planes.” The music sounded better than the original samples. The band’s debut is out June 16, and I like it quite a bit. In a way, this band was the glue between DIW optimism and recession-fueled negativity that held together the other two bands tonight even though they played earlier. In fact the only drawback from the whole night—and detractor to the bands’ anti-consumerism ethos—was the venue’s high prices for drinks (and they don’t serve alcohol). It’s a good thing its on the water.

Street Sweeper Social Club

A swan on the harbor during Street Sweeper’s set
Nine Inch Nails

Jane’s Addiction

2009-05-21T22:53:00.006-04:00

True Norwegian Death Metal

There are a few countries have become well known, if not fetishized, for specific types of extreme metal. England has doom metal and grindcore, the U.S. and Sweden have distinct kinds of death metal and, of course, Norway has black metal. But as the world focuses on the black and white—or in this case just the black—it’s easy to overlook some of Norway’s pretty cool death-metal accomplishments. Although the country blazed into prominence (literally) in the early ’90s, when bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Burzum reignited music fans’ interest in black metal—and although their neighbor to the east, Sweden, has gotten far more credit for death metal—the country of corpse paint and fjords already had a sturdy foundation in great death metal. With that, I hope to draw some attention to some grievously overlooked, and unfortunately many out-of-print, “True Norwegian Death Metal” albums (ranked in order of quality). Enjoy these however you can.

1) Molested, Blod Draum (Effigy, 1995)
Between the violin, didgeridoo-type sounds, and mouth harp(!), Blod Drom is as intriguing as it is terrifying. Even when they stayed traditional, Bergen’s Molested created some of the best, most forward-thinking death metal of any country during the ’90s, bolstered by the relentless riffs and bilious growls of Borknagar frontman Øystein G. Brun and some breakneck, off-time blast beats by sometime Gorgoroth drummer Erlend “Sersjant” Erichsen. Utterly essential. (Ars Magna Recordings is planning a re-release of all of Molested’s albums this year, click here for more info.)

To read the rest at Revolvermag.com, click here.

2009-05-16T14:00:00.006-04:00

Melvins’ 25th Anniversary, 5/15/09

Sludge rockers Melvins celebrated their 25th anniversary at Webster Hall last night. As a special treat, before playing their classic 1993 album Houdini in its entirety, big-haired main man Buzz Osborne—dressed in his trademark druidesque robes—introduced us to the “original 1983 lineup”: Mike Dillard (“who just got out of prison”) on drums and Matt Lukin (“who also just got out of prison and needs a place to stay”) on bass. Thing is, it wasn’t the sometime-Mudhoney bassist Lukin, for whom they have ill feelings—it was 1984-to-present drummer Dale Crover, who kept the joke going, by saying “I have weed,” in his facetious angling for a place to stay. Talk about grudges.

The trio’s “1983” set consisted mostly of the sort of hardcore on Black Flag’s album from that year, My War, and consisted of songs available on the band’s Mangled Demos From 1983 CD. The music was far cry from the noise-rock and pseudo-soundtrack music the group is playing today, but was still pretty exciting. Reflecting on his career at one point, Osborne said, “Why the hell did I do this? I could have done anything. I could have been a fucking lawyer, like, three times over already.” Dillard played well, especially for having been off the grid for a while and for having to open for Crover, one of the greatest drummers ever. (Aside: With the exception of bassist-drummer Greg Hokanson and, uh, Kurt Cobain, all three of these musicians played in Cobain’s pre-Nirvana project Fecal Matter.)

At one point Dillard left the drum stool to play a snare that was set off to the side of the stage for Houdini’s all-drum closer “Spread Eagle Beagle,” which the band would play later, and Crover assumed the drum throne. Dillard then left the stage, and Buzz and Dale played sans drummer for a while, including an awesome cover of Alice Cooper’s “Ballad of Dwight Fry,” from Melvins’ Lysol album. (Incidentally, the band Big Business, two of whose members have comprised Melvins’ other half—literally—for the past three years, is touring as at the same time of this tour—so no two-drummer setup tonight; also, despite speculation, sometime Melvins bassist Joe Preston, who is in town, didn’t show up either, which is wise, because in interviews the band members still say worse things about him than they do Lukin.) There aren’t many bands who can open for themselves, since this was “An Evening With the Melvins,” and play enough styles of music that you felt like you’d seen three bands. During the middle, no-bass set, I got to thinking, For all of the duo’s bass-player changes through the years, when I was watching this I was wondering why they ever bothered with bass players at all, it sounded so raw and dirty.

Then, with no pause at all, sometime Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn, clad in his own camouflage druid robes, came out for the beginning of the Houdini set and put my supposition to rest. Dude flung his bass in the air and faceplanted the headstock right into the stage to make the loudest, lowest feedback I can remember (it didn’t hurt I was in the front row right in front of his amp). From there, it all made sense.

From “Hooch” to the over-10-minute drum extravaganza “Beagle,” the band made the record sound nastier than the studio versions. “Lizzy,” “Set Me Straight” and “Honey Bucket” stand out as three highlights, mostly because of Buzz’s petulant snarl. Feeding off that, at one point Crover was hitting the gong behind him so hard that it fell right over. During “Beagle,” both Dunn and Dillard banged on snares on either side of Crover (mostly not in unison) for an insufferable amount of time. Osborne just walked offstage and sat down during this song. Dunn and Crover closed the show with a drum-and-bass blues jam, during which Buzz came back and thanked everyone for coming out. “I want to thank your wives for letting you come out tonight,” he also said, as well as, “I want to thank your parents for not making you go to school tomorrow.” (“Tomorrow” is a Saturday.) With that, the band was done; it was 10 pm and time for Webster Hall to turn into a dance club. I left feeling like I’d seen something special—not just another Melvins gig. I’m looking forward to seeing what they do the next time they come through.

Dale Crover as “Matt Lukin”:

Mike Dillard on drums:

Buzz and Dale, sans bass:

Trevor Dunn:

2009-05-11T02:27:00.003-04:00

The Thermals, 5/9/2009

I got caught in a mosh… at the Thermals. The last time I saw the punky Portland indie-rock trio was at the basement of Fontana’s during a music fest, and while the audience pogo’d as if it was back in fashion, it was nothing compared to what I experienced Saturday night at the Bowery Ballroom. I was flummoxed to see the boys’ club take over the front, and it seems to have gotten to the band a bit, too. A friend told me that the night before, bassist Kathy Foster said, “Don’t make us go Fugazi on you,” since that band famously stops whenever things get rowdy (“Music is not a contact sport,” after all), and at the show I saw frontman Hutch Harris openly made fun of crowdsurfers and, bearing a snarl, even almost elbowed one when he got too close. While it came nothing close to a metal show, it got annoying quickly.

The band made up for it, though, and their wider audience is well-deserved (even the girl who wore a skull mask, below). Although they’ve gotten some criticism for their new album’s lack of politics, they make up for it with sweaty enthusiasm live, playing songs like “A Pillar of Salt” and “A Stare Like Yours” as if they were on the new album. (“When I Was Afraid” stands out as the best live-version song from Now We Can See, or at least the most memorable the next day.) Thank God the Thermals can surpass the audience’s adrenaline overload with their own hyperactive optimism.

2009-03-20T21:59:00.003-04:00

Spinefeast at Sea: The Best and Worst Things About Going to Finland for a Metal Cruise

Between cheaper prices for European beer and, uh, three-dollar cups of coffee, traveling is usually full of highs and lows without much in between. As such, when I went to Helsinki, Finland, for the Spinefeast at Sea 2009 concert cruise (repping Revolver, for which I originally wrote this blog) from Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia, the choppy waves in the Gulf of Finland weren’t the only ups and downs I experienced. Here’s his list of the best and worst things about taking a metal cruise:

IN HELSINKI

Best Signs on the Way into Helsinki From the Airport: TECHNOPOLIS (which I can only imagine is the most badass set of music cops around or the worst Greek-named city in Europe) and BAUHAUS (not the Peter Murphy-fronted goth-rock band, but something similar to Home Depot)

Best Place to Buy Deep Purple CDs (in Probably the Whole World): Music Hunter in Helsinki. The store had an entire fixture dedicated to Deep Purple-related CDs. Who knew Joe Lynn Turner was so popular?

Coolest Roadside Fake Store: God’s Gas (brought to you by the Blood Covenant Brothers). OK!

Most Metal (and, Incidentally, the Most Famous) Painting in Atheneum, the Art Museum: The Wounded Angel, by Hugo Simberg. Whether you feel shame from it or something more voyeuristic, you’re not feeling good. And what’s more metal than a “wounded angel”?

Most Pagan Metal Painting in Atheneum, the Art Museum: Aino Myth, Triptych, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Yo, is that the Korpiklaani dude accosting that naked maiden?

Most Metal Finnish Tradition: Bear claws, not of the pastry variety. In pagan Finland, parents put bear claws under sleeping children’s pillows to keep them from crying in the night. And, if that wasn’t awesome enough, young girls kept bear claws in their pockets to become “more amorous,” according to a pamphlet at the Finnish National Museum.

ON THE BOAT

Most amazing sight: Watching a couple thousand metalheads board a Titanic-sized sealiner.

Best Finnish Concert Custom: Gambling! At Dante’s Highlight, where I saw Amorphis perform, they had blackjack tables in the back… and teens played 21… while drinking beer. Less surprising was the blackjack tables in the cabaret on the boat, but the fact that people were gambling during the show then, too, was pretty cool by itself.

Weirdest MCs for a Metal Fest: A man in a moose suit and a man in a sailor suit. ’Nuff said.

Best Reason to Avoid Watching Prog-Metal Band Entwine: The 2002 Cuba-Gooding-Jr.-with-a-pack-of-huskies vehicle Snow Dogs, subtitled in Finnish, being broadcast upstairs on the lighting guy’s monitor. Hey, he seemed to like it.

Best T-Shirt on a Fan: Eternal Erection

Only Finnish (Curse) Word I Learned: “Baska,” which means “shit.” (Even though Abbath once told me never to drop names—cue rim shot—I have to credit Rotten Sound vocalist Keijo Niinimaa with teaching me this one.)

Best Bagpipers to Make You Forget Korn: Metsatöll. Thank God they don’t have nu-metal in Estonia.

Most Unpleasant Beverage Surprise: Gin in a can. Much to my surprise, this is not gin, the alcohol, but a Sparks-like fermented ginger ale, perfect for puking off the side of ships.

Most Pleasant Beverage Surprise: Vodka in a can. Sure, it tastes like shit, but it’s vodka! In a can!

Most Unpleasant “How Do You Do”: The light pouring into the cabaret the second day of the fest as Celesty and Kiuas play. Never have I seen so many hungover rock zombies.

Best Metal Trooper During Kiuas’ Sunlight-Drenched Set: Mikko Laime. This dude was not only wearing a crusted Manowar T-shirt and heavily spiked armbands, which he snuck in, but also pink furry handcuffs hanging from his rock belt. Why was he wearing pink furry handcuffs? “To piss these people off. It shows I’m soft on the inside.”

Best (Only?) Instance of Recognizable English Spoken by a Band Onstage: Kiuas’ singer as he introduces “Race With the Falcons”: “My money is on the falcons!”

Most Over-the-Top Performance by a Finnish Prog-Metal Band: Kiuas again. I’ve never seen more ball-grabbing, in-audience guitar solos, or audience-band chug contests in the middle of the afternoon on a boat in the Baltic before in my life.

Grossest Breakfast of the Trip: A ham sandwich and strawberry yogurt (not together). Still, it looked better than the green piece of pizza one of my metal-journo compatriots ingested.

Most Disgusting Canned Food: Is that fucking boar?!

Most Shocking Moment: The Finnish or Estonian or Whatever stewardess who burst in on me while I was changing in my cabin on the cruise. The relevant fact is that she didn’t speak English and she absolutely, without protest wanted me out of the room right then and there so she could change the sheets. I screamed, I gesticulated, I spoke slowly and she just continued to yell at me in her native tongue. Eventually she pulled out her cell phone, typed in “30”—which I took to mean “Get the hell out of the room in 30 minutes…or else!”—and left. I’ve never laced my belt and buckled it so quick. The room sure was clean, though, when I got back.

Best Way to Show Your Love for Mötley Crüe: Tattües!

Most Offensive Question a Finn Asked Me (While Very, Very Drunk): “Now that you have a black president, what are you going to do? Invade Finland?” Uhh…

Coolest Finnish National Concept: Sisu. The way the same drunk Finn explained it, it’s sort of like guts or balls: “Seeing someone assassinate your entire family right in front of you, and then when the killer points the gun at you, you flip him off.” Apparently years of being invaded by the Russians and the Swedes and the Germans can have that effect on a country.

Oddest Point of National Pride: Nokia is a Finnish company. Not Japanese. I don’t know how many people told me this, but now I know. Incidentally, the Nokia phone belonging to the one dude who told me this fact uncountable times didn’t work. Ouch.

Most Metal Way off the Ship in Case of Emergency: The VIKING Evacuation Chute.

Worst Disappointment About Taking a Metal Cruise From Helsinki to Estonia: The ship didn’t dock! Oh look, there’s Estonia. I’m still saying I made it to Tallinn, because my cell-phone company charged me Estonian rates ($1.99/min.!) for my calls on the boat.

BACK IN HELSINKI

Coolest Regular Nightclub Night That Should Be More Widespread in America: Heavy metal karaoke. At a bar called the Heavy Corner across the street from my hotel, every Saturday night, the Finns hold this ritual. They even have a Spinefarm-specific karaoke disc, which includes songs by Nightwish and Children of Bodom—which people choose to sing. Quite often. Best moment at heavy metal karaoke? The Finn shouting, “Scream or me, California,” midway through Iron Maiden’s “2 Minutes to Midnight.”

Most Metal Metal Statue at the Heavy Corner: This flying demon completing the perfect trifecta: Holding a pitchfork, holding a flying-V guitar, and flipping you off!

Shop in Helsinki’s Vantaa Airport That I Wish Was in Every Airport: Wine & View. Basically, for only a few Euros, you can taste some of the finest, rarest wines in the world. Granted, they serve you the drink in a thimble, but with some Brie cheese it’s a pretty cool experience.

Coolest Art Installation at the Contemporary Art Museum: This book floating in water. If only the security there looked away long enough that I could have snuck a Revolver in the tank with it.

2009-03-20T01:36:00.004-04:00

Spinefeast at Sea, 1/28/09 and 1/29/09

I just posted my review of Spinefeast at Sea 2009 on revolvermag.com:

The Baltic Princess cruise ship can carry roughly three quarters of the passengers who boarded the Titanic. Unlike on that fateful journey, though, the would-be mariners who held tickets for Spinefeast at Sea 2009—Finnish record label Spinefarm’s annual showcase, held on the Baltic Princess this year—can be thankful none of the eight metal bands providing the entertainment had to play their blast beats as the ship sank.

Traveling roundtrip from Helsinki, Finland, to Tallinn, Estonia’s harbor (the cruise didn’t dock) over two days in late January, the captive black-T-shirtted audience was lucky enough to have a diverse group of mostly Finnish bands to command its headbanging. With outside temperatures in the low 20s, the likes of pagan metallers Moonsorrow, grindcore group Rotten Sound, and suicide rockers Entwine, among others, provided warm respite from the frosty climate outside.

Read the rest here.

2009-03-13T02:48:00.003-04:00

Throwing Muses, 3/12/09

Tonight, after a great set by Screaming Females, Kristin Hersh performed twice at the Music Hall of Williamsburg: Once with 50 Foot Wave (whose music you can download, guilt-free, for free here) and then with the original screaming females, Throwing Muses. Even though there was a break, her bands were practically the same since bassist Bernard Georges plays in both bands (drummer Rob Ahlers, who harmonizes quiet well—on the higher parts—no less, is the personnel distinction with the punkier 50 Foot Wave).

Despite the anxious nature of her music, Hersh is relaxed all night, laughing and making jokes. When Throwing Muses came on—timekeeper David Narcizo being the distinguishing factor—she drolly said, “Now we’re marching to the beat of a different drummer.” The band’s set contained a lot of fan favorites (though I would have liked to have heard “Hate My Way”") including “Limbo,” “Vicky’s Box” and “Pearl.”

The room was pretty full and she and the band seemed genuinely surprised with the reception the audience gave them. “This is great,” Hersh said at one point. “We could have been playing Brooklyn for 100 shows.” I guess the one thing that surprised me somewhat about the show was how immobile Hersh was. Granted, she’s playing guitar and pulling off some pretty amazing vocal feats—and her voice still sounds great, especially when she growls—but I expected her to sway somewhat or emote some other way. The emotion came through in her delivery, though, that’s all I can really ask for.

Also, as I said before, I was entertained her charming demeanor. Before she played “Pearl,” the last song before two encores, she said, “Thanks to Screaming Females and [pauses, then laughs] 50 Foot Wave.” When she came out for her encore, she told the audience “Y’all are sweet as pie. Thank you.” Hey, I don’t think I’ve ever been called sweet as pie before. Maybe that’s why I left happy tonight.

2009-03-01T18:07:00.003-05:00

Satyricon, 2/27/09

Satyricon frontman Satyr remains one of the most perplexing old-school black-metal figures. This is mostly because lately he seems just so… normal. Honestly, a lot of this has to do with his new haircut (and the fact he’s, like, six-feet tall and wafer-thin). You have to admit, he looks a bit like the German guys in electro-gods Kraftwerk.

Throughout Satyricon’s performance at the Nokia Theater, a 50-minute slot sandwiched between Greek death-metal openers Septic Flesh and English boy-band Cradle of Filth, Satyr’s lanky, metrosexual visage made him stick out like a sore talon. Not that that’s a bad thing or even an unwelcome one; the black-metal community has been sorely missing some variety from the corpse-painted clichés that have been populating the scene. Just three years ago, I saw Satyricon play Norway’s Hole in the Sky festival, and Satyr seemed more like a rock star, with his long hair and cut-off shirt, holding out his fists in a way that made him look a bit like Danzig.

In great contrast, tonight at the Nokia he did a great job of visually contrasting the synchronized-headbanging champs playing in his band (including drummer Frost, who hasn’t toured the US previously due to legal snafus); whether it was Cradle’s crowd or simply a new audience interested in the band’s well-refined black-and-roll sound, he really connected with the audience. During songs, he even did the “yeah, yeah, yeah" thing where the concertgoers chanted along with him. It worked.

If anything, I think this is all part of some grand scheme Satyr has concocted so he can enjoy the best of both worlds. In a recent interview I did with him for Revolver, he said he had created a new routine for the road to keep the band from atrophying, literally and metaphorically. That means no alcohol in the dressing rooms and working out at the gym every day. Bands change their aesthetics all the time, to varying degrees of success (looking at you, Cryptopsy), but for Satyricon, it seems to have been working out for the better. Even his onstage banter was unusual for a black-metal band. In addition to saying how much he appreciated his fans (the usual), he said it was an “honor” to be playing New York City (most metal bands don’t care, unless they’re playing Madison Square Garden—or play it off as such). Satyr’s gregarious nature led to some of the best unplanned dialog of the night, though, was when he introduced the band’s drummer by saying, “From the mountainous cities of Norway… Frost!” Having been to Norway, I can assure you, New York has ’em beat for “mountainous” cities. (Maybe I’m just mincing words here.)

Playing the Nokia amplified these inconsistencies. The TV screens, which show the performers up-close to the fans too lazy or uninterested to stand in the pit, focused often on handheld cameras and phones snapping pics of the band. (No, none of mine made the big screen.) And after the band played “Mother North” (setlist at the bottom), the night’s most black-metal song, the big screen faded to a promo for an upcoming concert by “Red Red Wine” singers UB40.

Sometimes it’s painful to watch an artist you’ve followed for years (decades?) change so much. Satyr is not the same artist I saw in Norway at Hole in the Sky. But while I’m not totally used to his new look, I think it’s working out for Satyricon, the band. As a fan, I would have liked to hear (a lot) more old material but, honestly, I don’t have a problem passing the torch to a new set of fans either.

Oh yeah, he jumped in the audience once. Don’t the kids just love it?

Satyricon setlist:

1. Repined Bastard Nation
2. The Wolfpack
3. Now, Diabolical
4. Black Crow on a Tombstone
5. K.I.N.G.
6. Die by My Hand
7. The Pentagram Burns
8. Mother North

2009-02-26T23:34:00.003-05:00

Repost: Song of the Year 2007: “No Pussy Blues” by Grinderman

Since Paper Thin Walls proved too thin in 2008, I've decided to repost some of the reviews I wrote for them. This one's about Grinderman’s "No Pussy Blues," my song of the year in 2007. It was mentioned in Best Music Writing 2008 in the section, “Other Notable Music Writing of 2007.” If you want to hear the song, click this link to watch the video (or watch it at the bottom).

GRINDERMAN -
“No Pussy Blues”
from Grinderman (Anti-)
by KORY GROW

This is not just another song about some geezer being denied his sexual druthers, it’s a bittersweet declaration of age, masculinity, frustration and, well yeah, not getting any. Yes, Nick Cave, now aged 50, has become a mustachioed dirty old man (dig that Fu Manchu). Thinking about sex is his preoccupation. He’s compulsively doodled women’s nether regions on anything he can find for ages (see his King Ink books). The 7”’s for both Grinderman’s “Get It On” and “(I Don’t Need You To) Set Me Free” contained his illustrations, etched into side B, and wittily, “No Pussy Blues” did not, instead featuring the emasculated Rhesus monkey also gracing the album’s cover. It’s true he and his Grindermen―electric bouzouki player Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey and percussionist Jim Sclavunos―likely have done and will do anything for a little lovin’.

Casting himself as a haggard Rodney Dangerfield, Nick Cave revels in rejection with the same excitement that inspired a 15-minute yarn in 2003 in the opposite direction―“Babe, I’m On Fire.” Whereas that song’s linchpin was an infectious chorus with a seemingly never-ending list of one-liners―this is a wounded-animal Beefheart squall; Cave’s previous shock techniques are no longer effective (hence the “Damn!” exclamation point he looses between “no pussy blues” blurts at the end) and he’s only left of his own devices. This is Nick Cave―the quirky guy who loves W.H. Auden and collects locks of ladies’ hair (this is fact) and lives down the street, baring all, just like how you or anyone collects comic books and reads Hot Rod magazine. As he’s said in interviews, this is an everyman. But moreover, this is the cry of the helplessly tortured everyman. Anyone whose been laid off as a result of George W. Bush’s (the biggest cockblock of all) and Tony Blair’s foolhardy conquests. Anyone living in fear of suicide bombers. Anyone whose wife makes them watch Project Runway instead of football (or vice-versa). Anyone who was gifted Led Zep reunion tickets only to find out the purchaser is the only valid entrant. Anyone who’s shown up too late to meet Mr. T at the mall (anyone whose life is Homer Simpson’s). Every man, woman, child, super-intelligent gorilla―Everyone! This is your song!

In turn, this song has inspired sort of a world pussy-pleading shockwave. Who, really, hasn’t followed some temptation, only to be denied? The first song released from Grinderman, it quickly became blogger fodder (because who gets less action than the terminally online, err, alone?). Snoop Dogg expressed his fondness for the song on Late Night With Conan O’Brien. And of course, this song predicted―well, kind of―French mime Marcel Marceau’s death (on Nick Cave’s 50th birthday, no less!) this year with the lyric, “I felt like Marcel Marceau must feel when she said that she just never wanted to.”

It’s no secret why it’s so universal―it’s on most people’s minds. And that’s part of Cave’s problem. According to a 1994 Kinsey report, 54 percent of men think about sex every day or several times a day (that’s only 19 percent of women). Men’s sexual fantasies tend to be more explicit than women’s, and men tend to be more concerned about whether his partner is enjoying her/himself than they do their own pleasure. Also, just less than half the married couples polled have sex on a monthly basis, and only seven percent have it more than four times a week. Statistically speaking, she just doesn’t want to.

Cave’s struggles with the opposite sex―objectifying or glorifying them, depending on the day―have inspired his songs since he began playing music. Just a quarter century ago, Cave was “Nick The Stripper,” or at least that was a character he sang about with his band the Birthday Party, “a fat little insect… [that] dances on all fours.” “From Her To Eternity,” Cave’s first “hit” with his Bad Seeds explicitly dealt with his need to possess the girl who lived in the apartment above him―but if he does, “to possess her is, therefore, not to desire her.” Although he recast himself as somewhat of a modern romantic for the two decades leading up to Grinderman, his innate need to beguile women never ceased. Just this year, he practically gave a girl a lapdance while doing his best Beyoncé, singing “Bootylicious,” though in fairness it was for charity.

As if to demonstrate the psychology of his frustration, the lyrics suspiciously follow the five stages of loss outlined in Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s model of grief―usually it’s applied to death or divorce, but isn’t the death of Cave’s sex life worthy, too? This four-minute song begins with a typewriter pounding away (perhaps the song really is fiction), and after Cave’s speech about performing, he says, “I must above all things love myself.” This is probably the most important lyric in all of “No Pussy Blues.” Not only does it imply Cave’s denial (Kübler-Ross’s first stage) that he has problems getting laid, but it reinforces his inflated ego and foreshadows the masturbation that will console his tears later. His denial continues as he sucks in his gut to be met with rejection. Then, stage two, the bargaining begins as he indulges humility (for the first time), fixing up her house and doing her dishes. The third stage is anger, highlighted by colorful bouts of misogyny (“I petted her revolting little chihuahua”; “I called her my little ho”) and the fourth is depression (drinking a liter[!] of cognac, the Marcel Marceau quip). His power, significance and virility―the delusions he began with onstage―have been replaced with submission, inconsequence and puerile whining. The final stage, of course, is acceptance, which is when he admits, “I got the no pussy blues.” While the song appears to be a macho comedy, it’s actually quite depressing at its core. Thankfully it doesn’t end in rape, like many Cave songs have in the past.

Musically, too, Grinderman represents a new middle-age for Cave, the songwriter. Now half a century old, he’s letting go of the bombast he’s clung to for the past two decades, which is most noticeable on “No Pussy Blues.” For his past few releases, he had confined himself to his study, working a 9 to 5 on the Bad Seeds’ macabre cabaret ditties. He wrote this album with the other musicians in person, playing guitar for the first time; the lyrics are simply off-the-cuff jokes he made for the band’s other three aging, hairy men (dig up a recent picture to see Ellis’s new mountain-man beard and the towering Sclavunos’s own bib). The tales are so funny because they’re truth and pain (Cave’s rejection) working together. Naturally, the album’s other songs have the same dark humor. Deep into his “words of wisdom,” “Get It On,” Cave sings, “He drank panther piss/And fucked the girls you’re married to.” Then there’s “Depth Charge Ethel,” about whom he says, “People come and bathe in her lake/And I do, but lately it’s gotten out of hand.” This acerbic misogyny are the words of a man who’s gotten his fair share through the years, which only rankles him more on “No Pussy Blues.” On the song, the bass plays a mostly static line throughout―not a I-IV-V7 or a I-vi-ii-V7, like most blues―and when Cave jumps on the wah-wah for a static-laden guitar attack, it’s clear these particular blues run deeper than muddy water. If longtime Cave associate (dude produced the Birthday Party’s “Release The Bats” single) and Grinderman producer Nick Launay did anything, it was merely pressing record.

This isn’t some revamped Birthday Party cakewalk, either, as so many other critics have asserted. Granted this is the first time Cave has played with a “band” since then, but “No Pussy Blues” seems cut from a different stone, as judging from Prayers On Fire and Junkyard’s gritty caterwauls Cave sounded like he had no troubles scoring after a show. Grinderman is also his first full-time band that doesn’t feature a member of the Birthday Party, and it in no way resembles his alma mater’s tortured art-punk. Nor does it resemble the dark Leonard Cohen/Paul McCartney-like singer-songwriter romanticism of songs like “Straight To You,” “I Let Love In” or (his “Let It Be”) “Into My Arms” that have enticed so many ladies and guys to hop in the sheets. No. This is the sound of a man who cannot take it anymore. Denied, defied and defiled. And too old and wise to turn his back in the event she does say, “Yes.” She’s got him where she wants him (and it’s probably there he should stay).

Grinderman’s Nick Cave and Jim Sclavunos on “No Pussy Blues”

Your lyrics seem more preoccupied with sex this time. Did this come from playing as a group?
Cave: I don’t know about you, Jim, and if this is the place to be discussing this sort of thing, but what the fuck? When you’re younger, you walk down the street and your eyes, they’re drawn towards a beautiful young girl. But the older you get, the more free-roaming your [eyes] become. So that grandmas…
Sclavunos: The possibilities become manifold. But on the other hand, you have to restrain yourself because you’re in a relationship, so there’s all these tantalizing possibilities, but they’re all completely off limits.

Where does “No Pussy Blues” come in then?
Sclavunos: Everybody’s been in those shoes at one point or another, younger and old. I think some people take it as a young man’s song and some people take it as the song for [the] everyman.
Cave: I was lookin’ at TV… and everybody on TV looked like they were getting it. And then I was going onto the street and everyone on the street looked like they weren’t. So I mean “pussy” in the broadest sense of the word. In all the things you can consume that might make you happy. And so, I thought I’d write this song for the everyman.
Sclavunos: And girls like it, too. We’ve gotten a very good response from ladies. They want to comfort us. They reach out to us. [Cave scowls]

You look incredulous.
Cave: He’s been on the internet again. [Laughs]

2009-02-12T03:14:00.003-05:00

Lykke Li, 2/3/09

Last week, I checked out Swedish indie-popper Lykke Li at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. As much as I like Lykke Li, the real draw for me was the opening band, Wildbirds & Peacedrums (check out “Doubt Hope” first). The drummer plays tribal rhythms while the singer plays a variety of instruments (including plucking a dulcimer) and wails soulfully. It’s experimental and unique and best experienced live. To give you an idea of their sensibilities, here’s a story the band submitted to me for Paper Thin Walls’ “So Tell Us a Story” column:

A couple of years ago, we were living on an island off the coast of Gothenburg. We shared an old, big house with a ex-alcoholic artist-couple we didn’t know before, and it all seemed very nice in the beginning: late-night saunas, early morning moped drives and fresh fish dinners! After a while, the couple started to make a fuzz (sic) about old spirits that kept them awake during the night—we hadn’t noticed a thing, but they insisted that the house was haunted.

The guy, who was a man with big words and a strong hand—he collected cowboy boots and Hitler documentaries—decided to deal with the problem the old-fashioned way. He called for some monks from a monastery to get rid of the lost souls and to push them back down to where they belong... They came with hoods and smoke, and the ghost was released. The problem was that it got stuck inside of the girl instead, and she got possessed! The only thing to do was to bring her to the monastery for some good old exorcism for four days straight. It all ended happy with them breaking up. She acted like nothing had happened and he changed his artist career for a studies in Catholic soul care and found a new, 10-year younger island girl. We moved the next week.

Wilbirds & Peacedrums

Lykke Li (seemed to) come out late and, strangely, play her hit songs early. Knocking “I’m Good, I’m Gone” and “Little Bit” out of the way in the first five songs is a gutsy move, but as her performance proved, she had more than enough to back it up. Stomping around the stage in big black boots, banging on the cymbals of either one of two drum kits with a drum stick, and flailing her body possibly uncontrollably, Li commands audience attention like few artists. Midway through the set, she stared into the audience and said, “It's a whiskey voice and Doc Martins for you, Brooklyn.” And that is exactly what she delivered.

Li’s set was mostly originals, but as she said at her gig at the Bowery last October, she’s a “debut artist” and needs to play some covers to fill in the gaps. At that show, she did an incredibly moving cover of Ray Charles’s “After My Laughter Comes Tears.” Among Lykke Li’s covers in Williamsburg were Kings of Leon’s “Knocked Up,” Lil Wayne’s “A Milli” (simply called “Lil Wayne” on the setlist below and was really more of a sample than anything) and what seems to be her perennial, A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It.”

Throughout the show she chided the audience, made lovably ridiculous statements about how daring she is to have a good time and, well, delivered good times. Lykke Li is one of the best live performers I’ve seen in a while in that she communicates with the audience the same way Metallica did a couple of nights before, by pacing the stage and wholly embracing hubris. Unlike a lot of other “indie” bands I’ve seen in the not too distant past who seem to go through the motions, I’m looking forward to seeing her again.

Lykke Li

Midway through the set, Wildbirds & Peacedrums joined Li for a song.

Obligatory artsy-fartsy shots:

Brooklyn Vegan snagged the setlist:

2009-02-09T12:06:00.009-05:00

Separated at Birth?

Special thanks go to my mom for drawing this conclusion during last night's Grammys.

2009-02-07T17:43:00.004-05:00

Metallica, 2/1/09

Last Sunday, Metallica played the final date of their US Death Magnetic tour at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ (“where it all began,” according to Lars as he was hamming it up after the encore). My friend, Chris Weingarten, and I had seats in the 21st row, which is the perfect to be at a big concert like this. The Super Bowl was also that night, but really, Metallica or Super Bowl, what would you do? I’d much rather hear “Master of Puppets” and take iPhone shots like this:

The band was as big-rock as it gets, not that I expected anything less. They had coffin-shaped lighting fixtures. They had lasers. They had fire you could feel in the 21st row (which Jaymz understandably avoided—at one point he just got on Larz’s drum riser with him until the fire was done.) Perhaps the biggest rock aspect of the show, though, was the fact the band played in the round. This made each member prowl the stage like animals looking to find a home every 15 seconds (save Lars, whose drum riser gradually rotated a full 360 degrees).

Song highlights included “Creeping Death” (during which Hetfield wryly said, “Creep on, Mr. Hammett” right before the solos), “Blackened” and “Breadfan.”

During the closer, “Seek and Destroy,” about a hundred black balls fell from the ceiling, each emblazoned with the band’s logo like a spherical “Black Album” cover… sort of. Watching fans smuggle these giant beach balls out of the place was a post-show highlight. When everyone was clambering to squeeze on the PATH and NJ Transit trains home, fans were struggling to deflate these balls to take them home. You know you’ve had a good night, when you don’t know what to do with your balls.

Here’s the setlist:

That Was Just Your Life
The End of the Line
Creeping Death
Harvester of Sorrow
One
Broken, Beat & Scarred
Cyanide
Sad but True
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
All Nightmare Long
Kirk Solo #1
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Blackened
Kirk Solo #2
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
----Encore-------
Die Die My Darling
Breadfan
Seek and Destroy

Oh*, and here’s a video of the opener…

*With apologies to Machine Head

2009-01-23T02:12:00.003-05:00

The Top Metal Albums of 2008

As I've said previously, 2008 was a weird year for music, and that goes double for metal. The underground kind of disappointed me this year. The big death-metal, black-metal and grindcore releases sounded like genre archetypes, not really doing anything different or even well. The bigger, more established metal bands had more of a stake than usual in metal in 2008 (uh… Metallica, AC/DC, Guns N' Roses [if it sold better], Slipknot, Disturbed [pbbbt], and so on). Tons of older bands reunited (Carcass, At the Gates, Brutal Truth… well, not totally but they played their first NYC show in 2008), saturating the market. There just wasn't much to latch onto.

My favorite extreme release was a compilation for a change. This Comp Kills Fascists contains everything I want in a grindcore CD: Tons of bands and tons of songs, but it still seems short. Producer Scott Hull should be proud; I'm looking forward to hearing Vol. 2 sometime soon. For what it's worth, the below represents sort of what I cared about, metallically, in 2008. This year is looking much better than the last (the new Cannibal Corpse is especially good), so let me just acknowledge these before I get totally distracted by something else.

Various Artists, This Comp Kills Fascists
Gojira, The Way of All Flesh
Aura Noir, Hades Rise
Nachtmystium, Assassins: Black Meddle, Part 1
Trash Talk, Trash Talk
Melvins, Nude With Boots
Black Mountain, In the Future
Jesu, Why Are We Not Perfect?
Dismember, Dismember
Opeth, Watershed
Toxic Holocaust, An Overdose of Death…
Phobia, 22 Random Acts of Violence
Harvey Milk, Life… The Best Game in Town
Metallica, Death Magnetic
The Haunted, Versus

2009-01-23T01:09:00.007-05:00

The Top Releases of 2008

Since it's still January, I figure it's not too late for an obligatory "Best of 2008" lists blog. You know, since you've already read (and scoffed at) everyone else's, why not add another notch to your belt? This is Pazz + Jop week, so it's the perfect time. Specifically to me, this is the week when I learn that I was the only person to include Scott Hull's totally excellent tribute to power-violence comps, This Comp Kills Fascists, on my list. (Between Brutal Truth and Wasteoid, it was a shoe-in for me.) That's OK, I'll continue to biliously scream its praises. And don't get me started on how good the Hank III is (even if he has said he hates it.)

All in all, 2008 was a pretty weird year for music. M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" was voted song of the year on Pazz & Jop, even though it came out in 2007 and was part of the promo machine for a movie that the general public thought largely sucked. That's OK, because it made my list last year. (My pick this year, as I've said before is Be Your Own Pet's paean to teenage homicide, "Becky.") The pop and rock releases that were supposed to be big weren't (looking at you, Axl.) Big-box metal was more ubiquitous than ever and the much-touted indie-metal releases (ahem, Torche) weren't really that groundbreaking. As you can imagine, I had a really tough time making these lists—for the worst! Anyway, after months of work compiling these lists, the below represents what I liked most in 2008, critically speaking. And yes, TV on the Radio is as good as everyone says it is.

Top 10 Albums of 2008, Regardless of Genre

Be Your Own Pet, Get Awkward
Hank III, Damn Right, Rebel Proud
Various Artists, This Comp Kills Fascists

TV on the Radio, Dear Science
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges
Portishead, Third
The Breeders, Mountain Battles

Magnetic Fields, Distortion
Gojira, The Way of All Flesh

Top Singles/Tracks of 2008

Be Your Own Pet, "Becky"
Music Go Music, "Light of Love"
Lykke Li, "Little Bit"
Katy Perry, "I Kissed a Girl"
Lil Wayne, "A Milli"
My Morning Jacket, "Highly Suspicious"
Magnetic Fields, "California Girls"
Metallica, "My Apocalypse" (Guitar Hero version)

Estelle, "American Girl"
Guns N' Roses, "Shackler's Revenge"

2009-01-23T00:10:00.005-05:00

Repost: Song of the Year: "Becky" by Be Your Own Pet

Since Paper Thin Walls proved too thin in 2008, I've decided to repost some of the reviews I wrote for them. This one's about "Becky," my song of the year in 2008. If you want to hear it, click this link to watch the video (or watch it at the bottom).

BE YOUR OWN PET - "Becky"
from Get Damaged EP (XL)
Punk // Out Now // Rating 9.5

Witness the awesome power of double standards. Just weeks before the release of Nashville punkers Be Your Own Pet's sophomore album, Get Damaged, the lawyers at their U.S. label's parent company, Universal, deemed three tracks too violent for domestic audiences and removed them from the album. Even considering the subject matter, the doo-wopping, tongue-in-cheek teen melodrama of "Becky"—a song about a girl killing the BFF who dished her secrets—seems an unlikely target. No one got hurt in real life. Apparently, libidinous teens with litigious parents comprise an audience too scary for even the same label that released Godsmack's "Awake" and "Sick Of Life," both used in US Navy recruitment commercials. (Not to overlook the oft used, ahem, bullet points that the company also distributes 50 Cent, The Game and Marilyn Manson, among others; even M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" holds more violent content than "Becky" does.)

Thankfully, XL released the violent troika as the Get Awkward EP. After all, "Becky" was not only the best song on Awkward but it might also be the most enjoyable benign punk song successfully removed by a label since "Carbona Not Glue." And despite the media's desperate attempts to link music as inspiration for school shootings (Klebold and Harris hated Manson, and Collective Soul lyrics surely couldn't have dictated the violence at Virginia Tech), "Becky" is not "Cop Killer."

Be Your Own Pet seem like the least likely of censorship targets. When they formed in 2004 as teenagers, they were a Stooges-influenced Yeah Yeah Yeahs clone. The lyrics on their self-titled debut contained the sorts of insolent boasts high school students are known for ("I'm an independent motherfucker, and I'm here to take your money" on "Bunk Trunk Skunk"), so those on "Becky" don't seem like too much of a stretch. "Adventure" could have been the posthumous blood B-side to "Maps." In fact, Be Your Own Pet's raucous nature seemed to define them. Now 21-year-old frontwoman Jemina Pearl, daughter of Christian artist/photographer Jimmy Abegg, can shriek biliously (Iggy would marvel at her vomitous howls on the also banned and also terrific "Black Hole") and admits to puking onstage. Guitarist Jonas Stein (musically this band's Chris Stein), whose dad manages Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil, has said the Buzzcocks are his favorite band and complements Pearl's yelps with catchy chording when he isn't bleeding or nursing a black eye himself. Bassist Nathan Vasquez, son of Latin jazz guitarist Rafael Vasquez, plays with a foolhardy confidence that probably makes his dad's skin crawl. (Original drummer Jamin Orrall, whose pops produced Reba McEntire, split for college and was replaced with John Eatherly, who plays with Stein in Turbo Fruits, which only tightened up the band.) From their legacy status alone, the band should have avoided being scapegoats. (Irrelevant to "Becky," the group has disbanded as of late August.)

By the time Get Awkward was released, the group could no longer be called wunderkinden. They were all college-aged and had enough experience to know what they were doing. Inspired no doubt by the critical praise their debut received, the album was the first that the Thurston Moore-co-owned Ecstatic Peace! would upstream to Universal. The aggression of young adulthood may have fueled Get Awkward (incidentally produced by Redd Kross bassist and teen-culture enthusiast Steven McDonald), but, lyrically, their interests were still pubescent. Of the non-censored tracks, "Bitches Leave" is about sodomy-loving scene groupies, "The Kelley Affair" about sex-indulgent Valley-dwelling drug fiends and "Zombie Graveyard Party" about romantic cerebrophagia. Perhaps someone finally took George Carlin's advice about media emphasizing lovemaking over killing one another? Still, this isn't the difference between and PG-13 and an R. If anything, "Becky"'s deletion shows an incomplete picture of high school life. If we've learned nothing else from Freedom Writers, Dangerous Minds or High School High (or, uh, life) it's that graduating high school has nothing to do with academics.

What the label suits missed, moreover, is that "Becky" is a perfect teen-violence parody. Pearl's rhymes of passion aren't so much about literally stabbing some girl to death as much as the hormones that cause her to feel that way. In May, Pearl told the Denver Westword that writing "Becky," specifically, was her way of turning negative experiences with other girls into something humorous. She also said playing in Be Your Own Pet helped treat her violent temper. (Likewise, one could argue "Becky" would be the perfect album single since, with label support, it could become a talking point about violence for parents and teens the way Tipper Gore expected "Papa Don't Preach" to be received.) Between Stein's stuttering Mickey & Sylvia-like guitar strumming and the chorus's distorted wallop, how couldn't she feel some release?

For the most part, Pearl's lyrics are sharp and tell a taut, funny story: Girl blabs to friend about crush, friend informs school of crush, girl feels betrayed, girl kills friend. Simple. Funny. Mostly implausible. It's an amalgamation of Heathers, Mean Girls and the 1994 made-for-TV Tori Spelling vehicle A Friend To Die For (a.k.a., Death Of A Cheerleader—yes, Spelling was the cheerleader). The kicker is that, in the end, Pearl doesn't feel any remorse for knocking her enemy off, "'cause in the end it was fun." This practically underscores the song's lack of seriousness.

On a macro level, "Becky" is about self-entitlement as much as it is about trust. Pearl sounds genuine only because she's been through this in real life (within limits). The lyrics are written in the only perspective she knows: her own. What's more adolescent than the inability to see beyond one's own nose? It's the same blind obsession that has fueled songs from "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" to Polvo's "Flowers Of Forgiveness." It seems her adversary's only offenses were telling Pearl's secrets, finding a new friend and the catchall of becoming "lame." Pearl doesn't miss her clothes so much as her dignity.

The song's only remaining mystery is about who Becky is. While the band pretty much establishes that they don't like her, the rest of the lyrics leave some question as to which role Becky plays in this sordid tale. The problematic line is "It was great how you made me a friendship bracelet/But I didn't know you made one for Becky 'Facelift.'" While Becky seemed like the betrayer at the beginning, it now seems as if Becky is the new friend of Pearl's former BFF, the one who blabbed. The "Becky" video portrays Pearl murdering a girl with a "B" necklace, but that doesn't prove anything, really. While what role Becky plays in this drama remains unresolved, a greater moral quandary arises when Pearl posits that she and her new friend will kick the betrayer's ass and wait with knives after class. It's doubtful that Pearl could so soon find a co-conspirator in murder. But it's that shadow of a doubt that sends shivers up spines.

If anyone would rise to the occasion of murder—as depicted in the video, this time—it's her loyal bandmates. The way the song plays out, as well as songs in the rest of the album ("Bitches Please," "Black Hole," "Food Fight!"), Pearl comes across as a tomboy with her stereotypical band of boys following her around. Bolstering Pearl's vocals with gang choruses the way Jonathan Richman's Modern Lovers and the non-Verlaine Television personalities once did ("Did you feel low?—Huh?!"), the band screams "Becky!" with even more fervent bloodlust than the frontwoman. When they sing, "We don't like Becky anymore" at the end, they've become full-fledged lemmings, forming a parade through the halls from the science room to the commons.

But the band isn't lemmings. "Becky" is one of the more evolved songs originally on Get Awkward. No longer a gritty garage band, the group shows a wider spectrum of influences on the song. Sure, they're as transparent as the band's past influences, but the conviction with which Be Your Own Pet plays makes up for any stylistic bites. Placed between "Heart Throb" and "The Kelley Affair," as it was on the original tracklisting (intact on XL's UK edition), it makes Awkward less awkward, not to mention knocks it over the half-hour mark.

If anything, removing "Becky" and the two other songs on Get Damaged only hurt album sales. The chasm between Be Your Own Pet's actual and perceived audience is vast. They're more loyal than the label gave them credit for and at least some of their fans purchased the import version, if they didn't download it. One commenter on songmeanings.net, MyUnderstatedAnger, said, "This kind of dumb shit makes me glad that music piracy is really sticking it to the corporate side of the industry. Hopefully one day the listeners will finish the job and we can get these silly fuckers out of the recording studios for good..."

The fact "Becky" got any proper domestic release, though, at least shows some 20/20 hindsight. Get Damaged's cover, which parodies Awkward's, proves the band has a sense of humor about it, and the EP itself is a fitting epitaph for a band that just seemed to be finding itself. But after graduation, life goes on. Even if you're stuck in Cell Block Two.

2009-01-19T04:16:00.009-05:00

The Fluid with Jemina Pearl, 1/17/09

I was already eager to see reunited Denver proto-grungies the Fluid at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, then I found out that ex-Be Your Own Pet vocalist Jemina Pearl would be opening up, playing her first post-BYOP show, which made me more excited. (BYOP’s “Becky” is my 2008 song of the year and, at one point, I had a lengthy review of it posted on Paper Thin Walls, but since that site’s since bitten the farm, ~~I’ll re-post it here soon~~ click here.) When Pearl eventually came onstage, I was surprised to see the place was sparsely populated. Pearl’s solo material sounds a lot like (surprise, surprise) Be Your Own Pet. Her band is composed mostly of Nashvillians and a Brooklynite drummer, and they play some pretty gritty ’60s-bubblegum inspired garage punk. In between songs, she spat and blew snot. She apologized a couple of times for not sounding her best since it was her first gig in a while, but her voice was pretty much on point. All in all, it was fun but predictable.

Jemina Pearl

The Fluid, however, came out hungry. Although they were the first non-Northwestern band to sign to Sub Pop (a cred-worth footnote, if ever there was one), they never achieved the success as their labelmates Nirvana, Soundgarden and Mudhoney. There aren’t even any Fluid records in print right now! (Their merch tonight was shirts that featured a Ford-like logo for their name.) They reunited for Sub Pop’s 20th anniversary fest last year and, from what I heard, came off as surprised at the positive reception they got. Tonight, they played many songs from their classic Roadmouth as well as a favorite of mine, “Cold Outside,” from Clear Black Paper. Frontman John Robinson bounded about the stage, though the band seemed more comfortable sticking to the back. Nonetheless, they lived up to their legacy. Now all they need to do is to get their records back in print.

The Fluid

2008-11-23T13:05:00.003-05:00

Chinese Non-ocracy

This morning, I woke up early and went to Best Buy to see what mobs turned out for the 13-years-in-the-making Chinese Democracy. Guess what? Nobody was there. First off, it was nearly impossible to find the display housing the LP and CD versions of the fabled album (below). Second, the customers at my local Queens branch, whose CD section has shrunk by half over the past five years, were more interested in the "first time we've ever discounted MacBooks." Uh, yeah. In the time I was there, I saw only one other person go up to the stand. Judging from the first few minutes, Axl may have his work cut out for him after all. Then again, maybe most GN'R fans are nursing their hangovers right now. (BTW, don't forget to get your free Dr. Pepper.)

2008-09-09T00:12:00.000-04:00

Carcass, 9/6/08

2008-08-20T23:25:00.000-04:00

Brutal Truth, 8/17/08

Brutal Truth

Macabre

2008-08-20T23:22:00.000-04:00

All Points West, 8/8/08

CSS & Mega Mite

Radiohead

2008-08-20T23:17:00.001-04:00

Metal Masters Tour, 8/10/08

Judas Priest

Motörhead

2008-08-20T23:07:00.001-04:00

Mayhem Festival, 8/6/2008

View from Walls of Jericho's stage

View from Mastodon's stage

Ladder Up an Ass (sounded just as stupid as this looks)

Disturbed

Slipknot's drums

Slipknot's Sid Wilson in a wheelchair

Slipknot

2008-08-20T23:04:00.000-04:00

Siren Festival, 7/19/2008

Stephen Malkmus And the Jicks

2008-03-14T18:30:00.000-04:00

BORIS AT THE KNITTING FACTORY LAST WEEK

I took some pictures to show I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Great show. Michio Kurihara showed up! Read a full review here.

BORIS AT THE KNITTING FACTORY LAST

I took some pictures to show I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Great show. Michio Kurihara showed up! Read a full review here.

2008-01-03T02:12:00.001-05:00

National Misfits Day

About a year and a half ago, 6/6/06 to be exact, metalheads celebrated an International Day of Slayer. Well, Tom Araya is an admitted Christian (most Bible shredders are secretly Bible thumpers—not that there's anything wrong with that), so the coincidence really seems moot. So why not celebrate a band that kind of practiced what they preached—or at least to the extent any sci-fi/horror loving punk could? Today is 1/3/08, so why not wear a devilock or a skull shirt for the Misfits? "We Are 138" remains the second-best tribute song to a George Lucas movie, even if it is THX-1138. Plus, Glenn Danzig's early work was way more influential on metal as a whole than his post-'Fits career anyway, and I'd much rather listen to Walk Among Us than Show No Mercy as far as debut albums go, if you made me chose by putting a gun to my head (please don't). Also, there are a ton of goofy stories about what "We Are 138" means. In the end, though, I just tend to believe Danzig when he said, "It's about violence." Then again, maybe this whole post is my attempt to justify still using 138 in my AIM name for the last third of my life. Regardless, it's time to be an android, not a man.

2007-12-24T16:44:00.001-05:00

Top Five Metal Christmas Tunes

Christmas and heavy metal have always shared a bittersweet relationship. After all, should musicians whose sheer existence depends on the denigration of religion cop to being family folks off hours? So many have said over the years that they don't really believe their lyrics' words—that they're merely actors portraying characters (looking at you, Alice Cooper)—yet they won't lighten up their tunes. Anyway, a few artists have written Christmas songs (and anti-Christmas songs, but really what are we to believe?), and shockingly they're pretty good. So, without further ado…

King Diamond – "No Presents for Christmas"
The mother of all antichristian flagellation. But at the end he says he'd dreaming of a "white Sabbath." Isn't that self-contradictory?

Fight – "Christmas Ride"
Naturally, Judas Priest singer Rob Halford can write a great song about anything. Plus, I believe he really wishes he could go on a Christmas ride.

Download for Free

Spinal Tap – "Christmas With the Devil"
Who cares about sincerity? This song rocks. Plus, if they were serious about it, it would be better than King Diamond's Christmas song.

Bob Rivers – "I Am Santa Claus"
"Leave him cookies and beer/He'll be back to your house first next year." Neither Ozzy nor Kris Kringle himself couldn't have said better.

Twisted Sister – "Oh Come All Ye Faithful"
Who cares about sincerity? Dee Snider! Now this is a present I can get behind.

2007-12-19T00:52:00.001-05:00

The Top Releases of 2007

Yes, the top single of the year is a YouTube video. MP3s aren't really singles, now are they? And although I listen to the radio, they would never play this song. And don't get me started on MTV. Anyway, Ever since I discovered The Charlotte Church Show, and the former opera ingénue's duets with British rock's middle to upper class such as her infamous "Beat It" duet with Amy Winehouse, "Seven Nation Army" with the Brand New Heavies and a rousing "9 to 5" with Fergie. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wince with empathy. "When Doves Cry" stands out mostly because of the awkward moment where Church reaches out and claws Patrick Wolf's stomach during the line, "Touch if you will my stomach/Feel how it trembles inside." His reaction, moving from surprise to tension to "fight or flight" (when he delicately makes a windmill motion to move her away, makes their stiff reinterpretation of the Purple One's almost-purple prose (uh… "This is what it sounds like when doves cry"—maybe that's more emo than purple) that much better. You all already know how I feel about Grinderman, so I wanna jump to Unklejam. This is also a video. I watch it on my iPod way more than I would listen to it. How can you not watch this and just smile? For those who know me Soulja Boy might seem like an eyebrow raiser, but I gotta say, after my cell phone accidentally downloaded the ringtone because I forgot to put keyguard on it, I've grown to love this song, too. I do the Superman now and again, when people aren't looking. Shh, don't tell.

As for my albums, the Long Blondes released a perfect album this year. So what if other critics put it on their lists last year— prompting the American fans that would buy it at a regular price to pay twice as much, and thus skewing its success here? This is one of the smartest bands around from their narrative about aging women (written by a man!) to their interwoven cheerleader-ska-indie-rock anthems. Black Francis released an album that could easily double as a Pixies slab, if it weren't about a Dutch junkie painter and M.I.A. has more than replaced Bono as the social crusader for the 21^st Century. I defy anyone to find a better death-metal record than Obliteration's Perpetual Decay—written when the Oslo-based band was just 18 or 19 (better than any of the reunited deathsters' albums this year.) O'Death officially issued their goth-country masterpiece and Rufus Wainwright dabbled with Broadway crooning. When I first thought about making this list this year, my first thoughts were that it was a pretty uninteresting year for pop music. There weren't any major artistic statements (save Battles and the more-than-excellent Mayhem album), but looking at these lists, it was really a year of diversity. There was no one over-arching theme across music, and when you think about it, that's a very good thing. I'm looking forward to seeing what next year will bring.

Top 10 Albums of 2007

The Long Blondes, Someone To Drive You Home
Black Francis, Bluefinger
M.I.A., Kala
Obliteration, Perpetual Decay
O'Death, Head Home
Rufus Wainwright, Release the Stars
Baroness, Red Album
Mayhem, Ordo Ad Chao
Battles, Mirrored
Panda Bear, Person Pitch

Top Singles/Tracks of 2007

Patrick Wolf with Charlotte Church, "When Doves Cry"

Grinderman, "No Pussy Blues"
Unklejam, "Love Ya"

Jesu, "Conqueror"
Soulja Boy, "Crank That (Soulja Boy)"
Battles "Atlas"
M.I.A., featuring Bun B and Rich Boy, "Paper Planes" (Street Mix)
New Pornographers, "Myriad Harbour"
Animal Collective, "Peacebone"
Dude N Nem, "McDonald's"

Top 5 Reissues of 2007

Various Artists, Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration
Young Marble Giants, Colossal Youth
Pylon, Gyrate Plus
Botch, American Nervoso
Pink Floyd, Piper at the Gates of Dawn

2007-12-18T23:29:00.001-05:00

The Top Metal Albums of 2007

In terms of quality metal, 2007 has been a pretty diverse. There were the psych metallers, the black metallers (and unfortunately a few meddlers), the avant-garde experimenters, stoner rockers and even a small thrash revival. Strangely there weren't any really good hardcore/metal crossover acts (I will not admit to liking metalcore) like Converge, but the records that were good were great.

Jesu got top honors on this list mostly because of the strength of the title cut. Justin Broadrick's beautiful, non-metal croon seems as though it was coming from another plane. After that, there are some differences in ranking on this list from my general music list, mostly because I think about metal differently than I think about general metal—although if you're mincing where Obliteration falls versus Mayhem, then you're a metalhead after my own cockled heart.

Jesu, Conqueror
Mayhem, Ordo Ad Chao
Obliteration, Perpetual Decay
Neurosis, Given to the Rising
Watain, Sworn to the Dark
Byla/Jarboe, Viscera
Wolves in the Throne Room, Two Hunters
Dekapitator, Storm Before the Calm
Big Business, Here Come the Waterworks
Deathspell Omega, Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum
Obituary, Xecutioner's Return
Nadja, Radiance of Shadows
Baroness, Red Album
High on Fire, Death Is This Communion
Bergraven, Dödsvisioner
Gallhammer, Ill Innocence
Dälek, Absence
Hacavitz, Katun
Clockcleaner, Babylon Rules
Rotting Christ, Theogonia

2007-12-18T00:41:00.001-05:00

Song of the Year

Grinderman's "No Pussy Blues" is the song of the year, because, well, it's truth. And pain. Which really just makes it all the more truthful when you think about it. We've all been there. We do anything and everything we can to please someone just to be denied. Doesn't have to be sex, either—that's why Nick Cave's frustrated everyman lyrics resonate so well. And that's why I chose to write an essay on the song for Paper Thin Walls' 2007 Year-End Mixtape, which you can read hyuh. If you haven't heard the song, here's the video.

And since you so kindly sat through this post, here's...

the "No, Pussy!!" Blues:

2007-12-17T03:48:00.001-05:00

An Ode to Interludes

I was recently listening to the debut from reformed sludgies Baroness, the brilliant Red Album, and was floored by the instrumental acoustic piece "Cockroach en Fleur." Having interviewed John Baizley extensively about the album, I know that there was a reason why they put this interlude where they did in the album. They wanted to break up the heaviness on either side as so many bands have done before. Guitar solos, whether acoustic or electric, used to play such an important part in metal and hard rock that contemporary bands like Tool and Isis that don't play guitar solos have unwittingly begun lengthening their songs or including weird ambient tracks, acting as phantom limbs. The Grammy Awards have actually added a Best Rock Instrumental Performance award in the '80s, but it's mostly been awarded to primarily instrumental artists and, well, Paul McCartney. Frank Zappa got it once, though, which is kind of surprising. Anyway, in an effort for some historic fairness, I've made a Top 10 of my favorite metal interludes, airs and solos. They're not all guitar solos, but they contribute to the album's overall heavy sound. My criteria is that it has to serve its own independent purpose within the album and must mostly be performed on one or two instruments (hence, Judas Priest's "The Hellion" and Metallica's "Orion" don't count). Feel free to correct me on any omissions.

Top 10 Metal Interludes and Solos

"Dee," performed by Randy Rhoads.
Named after deceased guitarist Randy Rhoads's mother, Delores, "Dee" is a crisp, neoclassical acoustic tangent that comes in as track four on Ozzy Osbourne's solo debut, Blizzard of Ozz. It's beautiful and provides some insight into what a Rhoads solo album might have sounded like. In 1987, Ozzy included over four minutes of outtakes from the "Dee" sessions on his Tribute album. Not Surprising, one of Rhoads's replacements, Zakk Wylde, has attempted many acoustic guitar solos on his disappointing Black Label Society albums—save one, which is below. This is the ultimate in odes.
"Black Mountain Side," performed by Jimmy Page and tabla player Viram Jasani
Sandwiched between the poppy "You're Time Is Gonna Come" (the most Yardsbirds-y song on Led Zeppelin) and the blistering "Communication Breakdown," this hippy-dippy piece reflects the album's 1969 release year more than anything else on the album. This set the standard for metal interludes to come.
"Eruption," performed by Eddie and Alex Van Halen
Right after they hooked you in with "Runnin' With the Devil," the Van Halen brothers fired the finger-tapping shot heard round the world. In under two minutes, Eddie changed guitar playing forever.
"(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth," performed by Cliff Burton and Lars Ulrich
The best interludes are often the most off-the-cuff—the ones that people are doing just for a laugh. Burton never sounded serious on this ultra-distorted solo, and Ulrich's rushed drums only make it the more fun.
"Spanish Fly," performed by Eddie Van Halen
A year after he rewrote the rules for electric guitar on Van Halen with "Eruption," Eddie returned on II with this plucky acoustic number on side two between "Light Up the Sky" and "D.O.A." Although he uses his tapping techniques, it seems more derivative of influential jazz and flamenco like Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucia. According to Wikipedia, this is Steve Vai's favorite Van Halen song, and therefore it's probably crap and should have been omitted.
"Laguna Sunrise," performed by Tony Iommi
Programmatic music never suited metal well, but this ode to a beach in Orange County, California fit perfectly in the madness of Black Sabbath's 1972 album, Vol. 4. On their most straightforward "metal" album, "Laguna Sunrise" serves as a musical yin to side one's druggy "FX" yang. Plus, the major-key intro riff on "St. Vitus Dance" wouldn't make any sense without "Sunrise." Other notable Sabbath interludes include the harpsichord-driven "Fluff," their long-running concert opener "Supertzar" and "Children of the Grave"'s lead-in, "Orchid."
"T.A.Z.," performed by Zakk Wylde
I've included this as a reminder that moderation is best in small doses. Standing for "The Alcoholic Zakk," methinks Mr. Jeffrey Phillip Wiedlandt of Bayonne, New Jersey has bought too much into his southern biker rocker mystique. When He recorded this, it was pretty awe inspiring and the rest of this debut Black Label Society release seemed a refreshing change from the nu-metal that was still popular in 1999. Unfortunately, every album this group has released since has sounded exactly the same, and not in a cool AC/DC kind of way.
"Bourée," performed by Ian Anderson
Jethro Tull once won a heavy metal Grammy Award to the chagrin of Metallica fans everywhere, myself included, but since I've always rather liked Tull and this is my list, and hardly any metal bands have written a riff as thunderous as "Aqualung" in recent years, this flute arrangement of a J.S. Bach ditty in E minor makes the cut.
"And the Address," performed by Richie Blackmore and Jon Lord
From Deep Purple's debut, Shades of Deep Purple, guitarist Blackmore and organist Lord create a swirling psychedelic cauldron of heavy proto-prog and blues that predates Zep's "Black Mountain Side" by a year as an instrumental, but lacks the surrounding heaviness. Deep Purple was a different band then, still singing "Hush" and the Beatles' "Help," but not long after they would become one of heavy rock's greatest riff bands.
"Odens Ride Over Nordland," performed by Quorthon
This Bathory intro is one of the turning points of when solos and interludes started becoming soundscapes. Sure, there's a pretty creepy organ instrumental on this song that fits perfectly with the rest of Blood Fire Death's thrashy '80s black metal, but it's ruined by "mist" sounds and horses bleating. This album also contains an "Outro," but as a standalone piece "Odens Ride" sets more of a mood. After this, extreme metal started to become more modern and less bombastic. In my opinion, the bands could stand to take a break and pace themselves.

2007-12-17T01:57:00.001-05:00

Dinosaur Jr., 9/3/2007

Earlier this year, around the time I stopped posting, I got to see the reunited Dinosaur Jr. perform at Webster Hall. It was sponsored by Camel, who put up lights and displays and handed out cigarettes despite New York being smoke-free. They had a spin-art table and a place to take zany photos. None of this convinced me to take up smoking. Nevertheless, the band sounded great. Lou Barlow seemed agitated in a good way and J. Mascis was his usual laconic, bored self. Perfect for "Freak Scene." Oh yeah, Dr. Dog played, too. They were anything but memorable.

2007-12-13T13:39:00.000-05:00

THANKS, METAL SUCKS

Axl Rosenberg's post today is a good kick in the pants for me to get this thing going again. I'll post some new photos, interviews and other stuff you can all make fun of this weekend. And yeah, that forthcoming Genghis Tron is pretty awesome.

2007-08-27T00:20:00.000-04:00

NADJA/BARDO POND, 8/25/07

Performing in what looked like an abandoned warehouse down by the East River in Williamsburg, Brooklyn last night, Toronto-based, experimental-rock duo Nadja seemed to improvise two ornate, ragged songs. The atmosphere, which could best be described as a hipster-y crowd standing and sitting in a cleared-out room—much like you would do for a house party so your idiot friends don’t ruin your furniture—worked with the pair, which consist of composer/guitarist/noise manipulator Aidan Baker and bassist Leah Buckareff. Also, it was infernally hot outside, which seemed to add to the urgency with which they played. Both songs started with nearly quiet, static-laden noise, highlighted by occasional drum machine beating, and built to impressive heights of melody.

Although Nadja define themselves as doom metal (their email address starts with nadjadoom, after all), they cover too much ground to just qualify as doom metal. (Personally, I hear a lot of later Swans, Godflesh and My Bloody Valentine in their sound, although they might argue with the influences; also, my favorite Nadja album is Bodycage, which is one of their heavier albums.) Using violin bows on their guitar and bass, both members did everything they could to conjure new sounds from their instruments. At one point, Baker began picking the strings behind his fretting hand, making a really high squeaky sound, and spent time twiddling knobs on the guitar pedals he had on the big platform before him. Throughout the whole set, Buckareff kept her back to the audience, although she seemed to respond when the audience clapped. Neither sang during the set, but the music easily stood on its own. At the end of their second song, the music got louder and louder until it completely stopped cold. It was abrupt and was the perfect way to end their set.

After Nadja, dark, psych-rockers Bardo Pond took the stage. There were a lot more people watching them than Nadja, but they didn’t sound as good as their old records. It was just something about singer Isobel Sollenberger’s voice (although her flute-playing was spot on.) The band sounded great, though, and when in the adjacent room they sounded even better because it was less distorted, and Sollenberger sounded better as the night went on. The two bands were a perfect match and the warehouse atmosphere only made it better.

Nadja’s official site is turn.to/nadja, although Baker’s site seems updated often here: 206.123.101.29/~coldsnap/aidan/nadja.htm. For more on Bardo Pond, visit www.bardopond.org, threelobed.com/bardo/home or www.myspace.com/bardopond.

2007-08-25T15:12:00.000-04:00

XASTHUR INTERVIEW... HIS LAST?

Since 1995, a man who goes by Malefic has created noisy, minimalistic black metal soundscapes by himself with his group, Xasthur. With murky tones, repetitive motifs and almost instrumental-like vocals, it ranks among the most introspective yet scary music I've ever heard. Although he contributed to Twilight, a collective of US-based black metal musicians, which he recently departed (to be replaced by Isis vocalist/guitarist Aaron Turner), and has contributed to the groups Sick (US) and Mord (US), as well as vocals for SunnO)), he is music sounds like the work of an isolationist. Often, he has used drum machines, which gives his music even more of a less-human sound. For his latest album, Defective Epitaph (Hydra Head), he expanded his musical instrumentation to include cello and live drums.

Earlier this year, Malefic answered some questions I had for a feature I was writing for CMJ. He wanted the original, unexpurgated interview to appear so he could not be misquoted, which I completely understand. At the end of this interview, he says that it will be his last, but only time will tell if that's not the case. Nevertheless, in this interview, done via email, he is candid, thorough and witty. I especially like his Pumping Up With Hans & Franz reference near the end (or maybe I'm missing something). Nevertheless, it was an honor to do an interview with Malefic.

Why are you including drums and cello on your forthcoming album? Will you be playing the instruments?
Yes, the drums and cello have been performed by myself. It’s time to try different things, to get a different sound and to present a challenge to myself and anyone else who might be listening. To be specific enough, at least five of the songs will have real drums and three will have cello. I’ve gotten something unexpected out of the cello. It not only came across sounding more eerie in the music, but it simultaneously comes across with this slight industrial drone/undertone, so it’s catching my interest in many ways.

Other than flaky musicians, why do you feel it’s hard to collaborate with others on your music?
I don’t think that I would be able to convey to another person what I’m trying to do or to explain it. Also, I don’t think of myself as a very good musician. I don’t “shred” on the guitar, for example, but I have many ideas, and this is the strength in what I do. But I’m not so “technical,” which is the weakness. I’m better at writing music and recording it myself than I am playing it with others, and this is one of the reasons why my “collaborations” don’t last for very long. Being on my own is what has worked best, but the future might have something else in store.

I’ve read that you played in death metal groups in the ’90s, and I figure it was a natural progression, but what originally attracted you to black metal?
Yes, I did temporarily until I became sick of the death metal scene. All around me, it was starting to become a party scene with the same mentality. There was plenty of “gore” behind it, but once the shock value wore off, I realized that there was nothing dark, deadly or hateful about it. And it became something urban and was something I grew out of.

Once I discovered black metal, the transition came naturally, and it was more in tune with the way I felt and looked at life. Many years ago, I viewed black metal as the opposition and adversary to everything, including death metal, thrash, head-banging heavy metal and also things like life, love, society and hope. Unfortunately, I’m beginning to see black metal turning into the opposite of what drew me to it in the first place, which I’ll admit is hard to deal with, but I will deal with it soon enough by just letting go. Being “into something” doesn’t mean a fucking thing to me.

I don’t care about many death metal bands of today, but sometimes I still listen to some bands from a special era like Sepsism, Demilich, Shub Niggurath, Hardware (Mex), Autopsy and Rottrevore for old times’ sake.

Xasthur has a very different sound from more traditional black metal groups, it’s more morose. What do you feel separates your music from Scandinavian bands or other more-traditional groups?
There is a lot more of a funeral doom influence in the music I create. It’s not strictly winter-y and majestic black metal. Being untraditional is about the only thing that sparks my interest anymore.

You’ve previously expressed an interest in possibly doing a non-metal album, something more symphonic. Who are your primary non-metal influences?
This is an option that I consider, but I would want the sounds and ideas to be endless. With black metal, the possibilities are many but not endless. So far, I haven’t depended on keyboards as the main and only instrument, but with something non-metal or ambient I would more or less have to. There’s a difference between using this when in the mood to and using it as the whole mood. It sounds easy but it’s not. When I’m able to get a higher quality keyboard I’ll consider this more strongly. I have very few influences, and that’s what makes this idea appeal to me.

You’ve mentioned Steve Roach in interviews. How did you first discover ambient music?
The Magnificent Void was the album. I discovered it by someone who had made a CD-R of it for me. I had put off listening to it for a while, and then one night I was in the right time and space to truly discover it. I got the feeling that the earth was fading away, and it was the epitome of being lost in a galaxy of infinity, forever. The title fits very well. I’m not really sure how or when I discovered ambient music. I don’t categorize the non-black metal stuff I like. As long as something is atmospheric, sad or dark sounding I’ll take an interest in it.

You’ve also cited the Who and Boston as influences, both of which come across more in your production. In what ways do you feel rock comes into your music?
No, I’m only a fan of their music and listen to it during times when I’m fed up with black metal. There is no influence from rock music in the music I make.

You’ve expressed anger at the music industry and the internet for exploiting black metal. How do you keep a balance between your art and business?
Many bands and fans are blinded and manipulated by the music industry. Both can certainly be loyal to the wrong people! The more and more the “music industry” milks out of a band, the less and less respect and gratitude they’ll show and give to the band and in time. They’ll think they “own” the band. Supporting the music is fine, but why support the crooked labels? Does some label (if not the music) give the sheep some kind of identity? They don’t support you or the music, only themselves. Cult labels are a thing of the past. Wake up and get over it.

There are some highly respected bands in today’s scene that’ll sacrifice all their beliefs and give up their art to some businessman that does not give a shit about their music just for a few measly dollars more and, in the end, it’ll be quite a few dollars less. Hear me now, believe me later. There are labels out there that will disagree with your views and philosophy and not even listen to (or like) your music but will try and get you to sign a contract immediately. These are the same labels that will look you in the chest and not in the eye while telling you there’s no money in black metal. Meanwhile, these pricks are laughing all the way to the bank. I have seen what a joke this scene is, and I’ve had the disgust of seeing labels sign and work with bands that they’ve insulted and mocked behind their backs. I’ve witnessed labels call bands on their roster “shit.” I will and have rejected things like this once I began to encounter it. So think about that the next time you want to call me a “sellout,” as a sellout would just bite the bullet and tolerate it.

Black Metal can do just fine without this social crutch known as the internet. Few use it, many abuse it. Personally, I take care of my emails, and that’s worked well enough for me. None of this other bullshit has any meaning. No thanks to the internet, mouths and opinions have become more significant than contributions. There couldn’t be any other subculture or subgenre scene that relies on the internet as much as black metal does when it should have been relied on the least! The internet is the same thing as a television or a tabloid that gossips about movie stars, and this has no place in black metal. Yet, the bands that aren’t playing the music for themselves (or because it’s within them to do so) means that they’re doing it for this internet acceptance.

Naturally, when black metal became very big on the internet, that’s when the businessman stepped in.

The balance is a good question, there have been times, not long ago, where the business part of things felt like it was becoming a distraction and a frustration, but I made it through all that. Being on a label that’s sincere and isn’t trying to sneak something past me or rip me off gives me one less thing to stress about, and that means some more time spent focusing on the point and what matters: the music. On a more positive note, I believe a couple labels like Hydra Head and Total Holocaust Records have had my best interest in mind and seem to have a grasp on where I’m coming from.

You’ve said in the past that when you started Xasthur, you only wanted to self-release albums and not deal with labels. Why has that changed?
Probably getting too caught up in the actual making of the music to have the time or patience of releasing it myself. Contrary to popular belief, I’ve never had very much money, and it takes more time and money than I could afford to release my own music. But still, looking back and even with these great excuses, I should have found a way. I should have not solely benefited others with the music since it was never their creation. As much as I hate playing the role of businessman or people person, it’s a mistake and for a while I paid for it.

Why did you decide to leave Moribund and Southern Lord?
I buried the hatchet with this one already. It’s time to move on…

Are you disappointed by some of the people just discovering black metal through your music alone?
No, I’m not disappointed by that. If anything, I would be fortunate if that’s really the case. If someone is new to black metal they should see that not all black metal music, structures, ideas, lyrics and people behind those things live up to the same typical stereotypes they may have had before deciding to get into it. For example, there has never been a need for me to make a song about a fucking goat, and there are different ways to express misery, hatred, evil, emptiness and darkness, but more on a personal level, personal attack and affect. No, I’m not so concerned with geographical locations; I just happen to live in the US.

Why do you often mention mirrors in your lyrics and in interviews?
I see my music as a mirror to see a horrific hidden truth within your very being, to reflect fear, to reflect weakness and ugliness within and expose denial. Mirrors are the voices in your head that you thought no one heard, but someone did. There are many human beings that can’t see themselves, and when they have the audacity to think their life means something or has worth, there are mirrors to run from that will tell otherwise and exploit mortality. Tormenting human beings with mirrors is more fatal than cracking their head open or sticking a knife in them. You could hate me for everything I’ve had to say (even in this interview), but don’t hate me, hate the mirror. The sound is a picture of what I see around me, within me and within human beings. I want depression, a void and oppression to be an experience or a soul-drain through music and more than just a word. Pride, denial and lies are another part of human nature that I despise. Mirrors can be a key to reducing human beings to NOTHING! I will leave you with nothing to idolize and show you that nothing is sacred and I want you to know the pain of what it’s like to hate everything you loved.

Your lyrics aren’t typically about time-worn subjects like Satanism. What are your views on black metal artists whose goal it is to spread the word of Satan?
True, my music doesn’t spend much time dwelling on “Satan.” Some other bands who spread the word as a philosophy that they believe or have even adapted into their lives is something I can respect of course, but there are also fools who are confused and don’t know any other ways or emotions to express individuality, hatred, opposition or evil. It’s empty words and it bores me. The shock value has been lost for years and besides, a true Satanist doesn’t walk through life dressing the part.

Unfortunately, politically correct labels and listeners have made Satan and the devil something safe now and will accept these themes from a band in their music and interviews because it isn’t an offense or an attack of hatred toward specific religions, stereotypes, genders, races, wars, political stances, sexuality and most importantly, characters. Therefore the businessman doesn’t have to stand on either side of the fence, and it only equals money with no risk. Provoking an audience in other ways may not be acceptable, or… doing something different all together may not be either. Ironically, as these new “open-minded” people discover black metal, it means that black metal has to remain closed-minded by sticking to the same old thing. Go figure.

I’ve read in interviews that you hate everything in LA. What has kept you there for so many years?
Basically lack of money has kept me here, not to mention, this place is sort of expensive, so it’s easy to spend more than a person can save or make. Some laziness might be a factor as well.

What do you feel people misinterpret most about you?
Instead of giving a real long answer, I’ll say just about everything. Just about everything I say will be intentionally misunderstood, because there are many things people want and don’t want to believe and it’s easier for them to do this. It would crush your little world to believe me but at the same time, that’s why I’m here and that’s what the intent of this music is for me. It’s all a mindfuck, where reality is the rapist… if not yourself. Your crutch will fail you and then you’ll be lost. I think I’ve made myself clear enough here.

Thanks again for taking the time to do this interview.
Thanks for the interview. I will not be doing any more of them.

For more on Xasthur, visit xasthur.mercurous.net and xasthurnews.blogspot.com.

2007-08-25T14:22:00.000-04:00

VON INTERVIEW

Hypnotic, San Francisco-based black meddlers Von formed in 1989 and were arguably the United States' first contribution to black metal. With pounding drums, repeated lyrics and minimal guitar playing (save a few lead-motifs here and there), Von inspired many Scandinavian groups--most notably Burzum, whose Varg Vikernes once cited as an influence in an interview, giving Von's name an acronym: Victory, Orgasm, Nazi. This was incorrect, as the name Von was not an acronym at all, although its meaning remains mysterious.

At this point, most of Von's music remains difficult to find. Their only official, non-demo release was the 2003 compilation Satanic Blood Angel (Nuclear War Now Productions). Strangely, the only widely available Von release is a bootleg called Devil Pigs, released by Candlelight, which contains their Satanic Blood demo after Dark Funeral's first release.

Earlier this year, I contacted Von bassist Kill through Peaceville Records, which puts out records by his new group (Abscess), wherein he goes by his real name, Joe Allen. He was kindly enough to grant me an email interview, which he says will be the last Von interview. Portions of this interview were used in a feature I wrote for CMJ.

You’ve said that people didn’t understand black metal back at that time. What kinds of resistance did you get from San Francisco’s mostly thrash-metal audience?
I think people expected to hear something they could thrash to; they wanted more dynamics in the music. We liked the way it sounded in its basic form, and felt by adding anything else would take away from the sound we were after.

Have you found that that non-black/death metal people have started to understand your band?
No.

Why did you play such minimal riffs?
Von’s intent was not to compile riffs. It was mainly to reflect an intense image and pound it into you relentlessly.

What kind of music were you listening to around that time?
Sodom, Voivod, Slayer, Napalm Death, Misfits, Motörhead.

How did that affect Von?
We were into metal, but set out to isolate Von’s sound from any other influences. We never listened to other bands in our studio.

I read that Diamanda Galás was a major influence on Von. How did she affect you?
The Litanies of Satan sounded completely possessed, dark. We liked it.

Your lyrics were often ritualistically Satanic. How serious were you at the time about your message?
It was created in the music, and ended there.

How did you devise your live rituals (blood, candles and all)? Did you base them on anything?
Our stage presence was important to us but was limited with what little time we had to play. Our set lasted about 30 minutes. We made two, seven-foot-tall upside-down crosses to be placed at both sides of the stage, placed red candles at the base of the crosses, we wore stage blood on our faces and body, flooded the stage with fog when possible. The songs were played without much of a break. We would finish a song and immediately go in to the next.

How did you react when you read that Varg Vikernes attached an acronym to your name?
We laughed. We thought no one could have taken that seriously.

What are the origins of the name Von?
Goat created the name, as well as everything else relating to Von. It was accepted with the band and not many questions were asked about it.

What lead to your group’s demise?
I’m sure we each have our own answer to that one. As for me, I think it had mainly to do with the pressure of everyday life. We supported ourselves with the bare minimum. As time went on, it wasn’t enough to keep the band going.

What’s your fondest memory from Von?
Playing live.

What should people remember about Von?
Goat created Von’s sound, Von’s image, and artwork. It was his entity. He will not return to the metal scene for his own reasons, but as the bassist, I am glad to have been a part of it.

REMEMBER THE BLOOD OF VON!!!

For more on Von, and maybe to hear their music, visit www.myspace.com/von666, www.geocities.com/satanicbloodvon and satanicblood.cjb.net.

2007-08-23T01:46:00.000-04:00

COALESCE/DAUGHTERS, 8/17/07

Last Friday, Kansas City knuckle-bruisers Coalesce performed their first NYC "reunion" show in five years at the Knitting Factory (as if these guys have never broken up... repeatedly). Matched well with Provdence-based schizo-corps Daughters (a little too well, since Daughters remain one of the best live bands around right now), the groups tumbled through fan favorites and adrenaline boosters.

Shortly into Daughters' set, a fan yelled out, "Play all of your first album!" Singer Lex Marshall rejoined, "We already played all the best songs... all two of them!" In general, this was one of the best times I'd seen the band. Marshall did his spitting, scratching, fellating-the-mic thing (thankfully he didn't do this), and the band bounced off the audience like a rubber wall. This was also the closest I've gotten to the stage during one of their concerts--I mostly stuck to the back previously because of the aforementioned reasons--and it seemed, surprisingly, like Marshall was pretty sober. I got to thinking, This is no madman of rock at all. His sobering precision in when he performs his ridiculous acts and meticulous detail to the way in which he freaks out belies his persona. Well-studied in David Yow (and maybe aspiring to be G.G. Allen, if you clicked that link), he's pushed himself to become a great frontman. Of course, this is no slight at him since he does it so well. For all the moshing, crowd-surfing and screaming he shared with the audience, it will be hard for them to top this gig. There were a couple of girls there, obviously brought by their mother who bought them drinks and asked if she should stay, which speaks to Daughters' universality. Saliva and family make good friends.
Coalesce somehow garnered a mookier crowd than Daughters with their mangled mathcore. Perhaps nobody left after Daughters' set, but instead a bunch of bridge-and-tunnel violence-gang punks just showed up. It was nice to see guitarist Jes Steineger back in the ranks, as his fill-in on the band's 2002 farewell tour wasn't nearly as exciting to watch. He often writhes, screams, shakes his fist, shouts into a bullhorn, looks ferocious all in the course of a song. By the third song, the Kansas City troupe was playing cover songs, Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love," to be exact, and that seemed to win over any stalwart wallflowers. Throughout the set, vocalist Sean Ingram kept joking about how "I bet you didn't know we were really a cover band." Uhh... why don't you cover more of your own songs and not Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" and Fugazi's "Repeater"? Sure, a fun sing-along is good every so often, but for a band with so many albums and so many different styles, I was hoping the diversions wouldn't last long. They did play a song from their new 7", which sounded pretty good--very groove--oriented, after which Ingram joked, "You'll know this one next year." In the end, the group ended strong with Functioning on Impatience's "You Can't Kill Us All." The audience sang most of the lyrics while Ingram sat back and laughed. It's good to have you back too, dude.

2007-08-10T18:18:00.000-04:00

CAN YOU SEE SLINT?

I sure can't. Anyway, the re-formed post-metal group performed Spiderland at New York's Webster Hall. I tried taking some pics, but had no luck. I did review the concert, here.

2007-08-10T17:53:00.000-04:00

THE BLURRIEST IMMORTAL PICTURES ON THE NET!!

A couple of weeks ago , I caught black metal legends Immortal at B.B. King's in New York, but I forgot my camera. Thus, here are some camera phone pics. They're terrible, aren't they?

Anyway, I reviewed the concert for Decibel, so let's hope they got some better pics. Not sure when it's gonna run, but look for it.

2007-08-05T20:15:00.000-04:00

MIA, SIREN MUSIC FESTIVAL, 7/21/07

MIA stole the show at this year's Siren Fest. To read a brief interview that I did with her a couple of weeks before, click here.

2007-08-05T20:10:00.000-04:00

DON'T FORGET THE LYRICS (OR IS THAT SINGING BEE?) BONUS

David Johansen sure wouldn't win if an NY Dolls song came up.

2007-08-05T19:55:00.000-04:00

NEW YORK DOLLS, SIREN MUSIC FESTIVAL, 7/21/07

The New York Dolls are still at it, despite the fact that only a third of the original members are still alive (Buster Poindexter and Sylvain Sylvain). Nevertheless, their show was pretty decent, even though they did an odd cover of Big Brother's "Piece of My Heart."

2007-08-05T19:35:00.000-04:00

NEW PORNOGRAPHERS 7/4/07

Yes, I'm a month late. You like pictures, though, right? Also, check out my feature/interview with Carl Newman on Virginia record store Plan 9's website here and my review of their song, "Myriad Harbour," on PaperThinWalls.com here.

2007-08-01T20:35:00.000-04:00

PERVERTING METAL SINCE 2003

My friend Anthony at Decibel sent me the following email the other day:

Did you happen to read the recent issue of Metal Maniacs with Neurosis on the cover? In an interview with the guy from Dawnbringer, he responds to a question about Dawnbringer having a sort of idiosyncratic take on traditional metal by saying that he thinks he's exploring trad metal's limits, not perverting it. What IS a perversion of metal? Among other things, "Decibel comparing Nachtmystium to Missy Elliot with a straight face."

I didn't know comparing one of my favorite bands to one of the most creative, talented and successful artists of the last decade was so perverse.

2007-07-27T10:59:00.000-04:00

My review got reviewed! Click here.

2007-05-15T17:22:00.000-04:00

UNHOLY CONCERT ENDS AT UNHOLY HOUR: WATAIN

Last night, I went to see Swedish black meddlers Watain perform at B.B. King's along with the (mighty!) Nachtmystium and the (underwhelming) Angelcorpse. Doors were at 10 pm and Watain didn't finish until shortly before 3 am. All in all it was a pretty amazing show, although Watain chose not to use their trademark mix of real cow/goat/pig's blood and throw it into the audience. And here I changed my shirt for nothing! Related: I saw a fan come up to Blake from Nachtmystium after the show and made some comment about how he had come to the wrong show, and Blake was like, "What do you mean? We almost didn't get paid last night!" (referring to a show where the headliner had used the blood.)

Nachtmystium had a new band at the show, which included Goatwhore drummer Zack Simmons and Nile bassist Tony Laureano. They sounded incredible. It was easily the best time I'd seen them. Blake's taking more leads live now, and it's sounding even more like Instinct: Decay (still my favorite metal album of 2006!).

I didn't take any pictures of Angelcorpse, mostly because they didn't move me. Their death metal was too drum-heavy and had too many solos. Their singer/bassist also performs with the Canadian black metal band Revenge, which I like a lot, but his voice seemed overpowering for death metal in a live setting. He used his voice during the song breaks too, which lead me and my friends to joke about what it would be like for Angelcorpse to go to the DMV... "I WAS BLINKING WHEN YOU TOOK THAT PHOTO. TAKE IT AGAIN!" or "IS THIS THE RENEWAL LINE? I CAN'T BELIEVE MY LICENSE WAS REVOKED!" Would love to see that.

Watain was as alwesome as you would expect them to be, even without the blood. They mostly focused on music from their latest album, Sworn To The Dark, which musically seems like the next logical step from Dissection. The guitars were crisp and the band was able to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Everything vocalist/bassist Erik Danielsson has said in interviews about how his audience becomes possessed is true. Also, I want to point out that as the night went on, I noticed more orbs (those weird, fuzzy, white circular things) and other metaphysical phenomena creeping into my photographs. It seems they were literally summoning this stuff. I've never witnessed anything like that before. Maybe that's just what happens when you name yourself after a Von song. I recently did an interview with Watain for CMJ and Danielsson said a lot of interesting things. Maybe I'll post the whole thing here after it prints. If you can see 'em, do it!

2007-04-25T14:48:00.000-04:00

PATTI KNOWS ME

And here I thought I could quit my job after getting to play music with Ornette Coleman last year. Last night, during her second "Bowery Session," Patti Smith held up my cover story about her to the audience and read the cover of the magazine. Her label had printed it out along with her lyrics to give her some inspiration. It was one of those, "Wait, is this really happening?" moments. She went on to play "Free Money," one of my favorite songs on Horses as well as a touching cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit." I don't normally do gushy posts like this, so thanks for reading, but it totally took me off-guard.

2007-03-20T21:34:00.000-04:00

There Was A Music Conference In Austin Last Week?!

So, as you well know there’s a big music festival that happens in Austin, Texas every March. I attended this year and decided to summarize my trip with a list of bests and worsts. (And thank God I didn’t review the Best Wurst while I was down there… that place looked terrible.)

Best “File Under” I Thought Of While Watching Burning Star Core’s Violin Feedback Session:
File Under: Merzbore

Strangest Doppelgänger Spotting:
There was this kid in the airport on the way to Austin who looks just like that CMJ’s favorite Sha Sha singer. Long, shaggy hair, big cheeks and (gasp!) a green Ben Kweller T-shirt! This has to be him, right? Nope. At least that’s what he told my roommate. “I get that a lot. Sorry.” So why are you wearing a Kweller T-shirt, genius?

Best 50th Anniversary Concert Revue For A Label Celebrating Their 50th Anniversary:
The Stax 50th Anniversary concert. Present were Booker T. And The MGs, Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Steve Cropper and Isaac Hayes. Mr. Hayes wasn’t doing to well and only sang about a verse of “Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay.” Did we mention the label is turning 50?

Best Question I Didn’t Get To Ask Mr. Isaac Hayes Because He Left Early:
“Got any tips on how to be a better baaaaad mother-shut-my-mouth?” (Hey, I’m just talking about me!)

Non-Austin-Related Addendum: Best Question CMJ Didn’t Ask Elijah Wood In His Recent Industry Profile:
“How many records sold qualify as platinum in Middle Earth?”

Most Shocking Yet Equally Unsurprising Joke Told At The Austin Convention Center:
Daniel Johnston: To warm up the audience for some (excellent) new material, he says, “I hear all the Jews are having a pajama party in the concentration camp.” And then a few seconds later, “Heil Hitler.” Yes, I realize it’s not a joke, but we all know Daniel’s story. And by “we all” I’m not including the legions of record execs that had no idea who he was and just wanted to see the “next big thing” on Day Stage. Guess he blew his shot of signing to Maverick.

Best Band-Audience Fight:
Qui, the impressive, LA squonk-rock two-piece that just added David Yow to their lineup. Not only were they five hours late, but Yow incensed the audience off the bat with liberal usage of the N-word in a mocking Texan accent. After a few noisy, post-punk tunes (and a very drunk Yow stumbling everywhere), he looks into the audience at a woman in the front row and says, “You flipped me off, cunt!” Well, that’s actually when the birds started flying. Not only did she throw beer on him, but when he stepped off the stage to get in her face (he never hit her), she and her friends started accosting him. When he got back onstage he had blood coming down the side of his forehead. (See the interview below.) When I went to the bathroom after the show, a guy wearing a band badge for the Frantic who called himself Mitch (there’s no Mitch in the Frantic, liar) said to me, “This is the worst band I’ve ever heard and I hope they die from gonorrhea.” Well I’ve now heard the Frantic, sir, and the Frantic are no Qui. Sorry duder.

The Art Of Self-Defense: An Exclusive Account Of What Happened With Jessica B., From Southern Illinois (“Not Chicago!”) Who Fought David Yow
I came here with some people and wanted to hear music. This girl I took a piss with was up front and she had “Give me a beer” on her palm. She was like the smallest girl there. The band had this tub of beers onstage next to them. And dude was like “That fucking cunt flipped me off!” And I was like “Fuck you,” and I wasted my beer by throwing it at him. He came into the audience and I started punching him and scratching him and he pushed her. Fuck him. Quit.

A Quote From Jessica B.’s Friend From Austin Whose Name I Didn’t Get
So who was that band?
Qui. Do you know the Jesus Lizard?
Yeah, they’re good.
That was their singer.
Damn it. I used to like them. Now I have to hate them.

Best Factual Error (Kind Of):
The drummer/singer from Times New Viking saying, “Devo didn’t write love songs” before their song, “Devo And Wine.” As creepy as it is, Devo’s “Girl U Want” qualifies as a love song. Also, “The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise,” is about missing a girl only to be happy to find out she’s a boy.

Two Cover Songs I Didn’t Need To Hear:
1) The Mountain Goats with Pony Up doing Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town.” (Dude, John, how old was that girl you were hip-checking onstage?)

2) Daniel Johnston doing Wings’ “Band On The Run.” I never liked this song to begin with, and as much as I love Johnston do we really need the gooey keyboard part played on a violin? (This was the better of the two, though.)

Most Endearing Iggy Pop Moment:
At Austin City Limits after finishing new song “My Idea Of Fun” for KEXP’s broadcast of the Stooges, he said, “This concludes the scripted portion of our time together… There’s love. There’s money. Sometimes she took… fuck! Aw, damn!” And he thought he could keep from cursing.

Best Unscripted Producer Moment:
The idiot who told Lee “Scratch” Perry to go onstage during the Direct TV taping of his concert. He came out and said, “Today we are here to celebrate reggae!” The crowd went wild, and then the host told him to get back behind stage. And basically chased him off. Then the audience was asked to cheer another three times before Perry actually came back. Someone on the production staff needs to lay off the ganja herb, mon.

Best Band I Was Thinking Of Making Fun Of Until I Realized They Liked Jesu As Much As Me:
Aa. Like totally righteous drum circle man. Well, shit. I love Godflesh, too. I did kind of like you guys, too. I take it back.

Most Frightening Bouncer-Audience Fight:
Oxbow at Spiro’s Amphitheater Friday night at 1am. Anyone who’s seen San Francisco art-meddlers Oxbow perform in the 20+ years they’ve been a band knows one thing is true: frontman Eugene Robinson hates pants. I guess the bouncers at Spiro’s, who strangely all wore neon light necklaces, have never seen Oxbow before. As usual, Robinson started the show fully dressed, with his ears covered in gaffer’s tape. But when he got down to his undershirt and his underwear, I noticed the bouncer behind the stage wasn’t just looking uncomfortable, he was downright angry.

After their fifth or sixth song, Robinson said, “The constabulary has informed me I need to put my pants back on. This is our last song.” Guess what? He didn’t put his pants back on. About three minutes into the song, a guy walks to the back wall and cuts the band’s power. In a fit, Robinson threw the mic to the floor as hard ash could. Drummer Greg Davis kept playing and the bouncers started swarming him. Guitarist Niko Wenner and bassist Dan Adams picked up drumsticks and played along in solidarity. Some of the guys from Pelican ascended the stage to intervene with the bouncers and one made the mistake of spitting at a bouncer. That’s when the riot began.

The bouncers start fighting with anyone they could, and they tackled the member of Pelican, three of them swarming on him. I tried to pull one of the bigger guys off him and was successful but then he started charging me and I got out of his way. Everything seemed to calm down for a minute and I tried talking to Hydra Head co-owner Mark Thompson, who then pointed towards the stage. The bouncers were stampeding in a horizontal line towards anyone in their way and out into the alley. Again they swarmed the member of Pelican, who apologized for spitting, and that’s when I saw the cops starting to arrive. As with most riots, that was my cue to leave.

The next day I called South By Southwest’s office to no avail and have subsequently written them a letter about the hostile, fascistic, homophobic (were it a woman stripping, it would have been different) and shortsighted actions on behalf of the club’s security staff. After meeting up with some of the guys from the night before, I was relieved to hear no one was seriously injured, luckily. Oxbow performed again Saturday night and Robinson made a joke that he hoped there wouldn’t be two nights/two fights. Guess Spiro’s just isn’t ready for subversive intellectual types.

Update: Thanks to those fuckers at Spiro’s, my camera’s got something rattling in it now. They’re lucky it works.

Fight Songs: An Interview With Oxbow Vocalist Eugne Robinson
What do you remember about the “Oxbow Incident”?
I see the bouncers moving closer to us and having been a bouncer once I figure it’s to a) tell us we have one more song to play and they’re anticipating us not being that into this or b) there’s a curfew. Imagine my surprise when it had to do with the fact that I was pantsless. Not underwear-less. Just without pants. The police had purportedly told them to tell me to put my pants on. I thanked him for telling me but indicated that I would, of course, not be putting my pants on until I finished. Just like fucking. They cut the power. Greg and I, per our standard operating procedure, keep playing. They attack Greg. I stop them. The crowd flips out. Spit is thrown and then subsequently punches. Show’s over in the middle of our last song. People outside the club screaming, “Spiro’s sucks! Spiro’s sucks!” I walk out of the club, still without pants, and have someone take a picture of me with a local cop. The local cop was more than happy to oblige.

Has this ever happened before at your shows?
Of course… A similar thing had happened before when we played with the Red Hot Chili Peppers… The problem there was because some people came out onstage and got married during our set. And they took the time out of our set. I went insane and then we had a roadie and he was insane and so we beat all the bouncers and only stopped when police came onstage with their guns drawn. I tried to apologize to the Chili Peppers but they were not so prone to being that understanding. My point is this though: do not attempt to stop the fuck. Unless your building is on fire.

What did you say to the Spiro’s people after all was said and done?
Well the biggest bouncer came over and apologized. He said he was a performer as well and he hated to do it but the cops had told him to. I told him I was unlikely to listen to anybody but a cop but I complained about how he had treated our friends in Pelican even if the guys had spit on him. But then I said that when I was a bouncer if someone had ever spit on me I’d have broken his jaw in two places and then have rubbed mucus in his eyes. So in the scheme of things I was accepting his apology. The club owner, despite having given me free booze earlier, was a cock with his mewling about calling the police back to arrest someone for hurting/threatening his bouncers.

Why do you think they were so adamant about you putting your pants back on?
At a certain point it really isn’t about the pants at all, right? At a certain point it’s “just because I told you so.”

Was anyone seriously hurt?
My sense of decorum took a beating. Outside of that? And the bumps and bruises suffered by the valiant men of Pelican, no.

2007-01-11T00:37:00.000-05:00

And The Greatest Heavy Metal Song Of All Time Is…

So, I’ve decided the singular best heavy metal song of all time is Judas Priest’s “Tyrant.” Years of (imaginary) statistical proof have proven this. In fact, 1976’s essential Sad Wings Of Destiny is essential. Nevertheless, I went to see Enslaved tonight, and afterward, all I listened to was “Tyrant.” In fact, it’s my most played song on iTunes. It takes Cream’s heavy blooze to the next level, with their calculated harmonies and King-inspired guitar solos (B.B. or Albert, take your pick). And frankly, even compared to “Sunshine Of Your Love” and “Strange Brew,” it just takes it to the next level. BTW, Enslaved played stuff off of Hordanes Land, so check them out. (Best show of ’07 so far!)

2006-11-29T17:24:00.000-05:00

MAYHEM FANS READ THIS

A friend of mine found this (awesome) blog that has a demo from Euronymous's first band, Checker Patrol on it. It sounds terrible and the music is questionable. Anyone want to petition to get it listed on Mayhem's site and pressed on checkered vinyl in a limited edition of 666 retailing for $66.60 on eBay only? I hope you know I'm kidding. The site also has early Death demos and other '80s metal curiosa.

2006-11-16T18:03:00.000-05:00

INTERVIEW WITH JAY-Z ABOUT BIG L
The other day, I had the opportunity to interview Jay-Z for CMJ New Music Report for all of 10 minutes. Besides being one of the world's best-known rappers, he's also CEO and president of Def Jam, so dude knows how to crank out an interview as fast as possible; in those 10 minutes I got 1,500 words, way more than I needed for my 900 word story. Now you know I wouldn't let that opportunity go by without asking him about the Big L, the man that made it all possible for him in the first place other than Jaz-O. Jay-Z's contribution to "Da Graveyard," off Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous, was unparalleled at the time. Here's what Jay-Z had to say:

What's your best Big L story?
Oh, that night, of course. That night in the station [WKCR], with Stretch and Bobbito, when we were freestyling back and forth. He was like a little tiger, you should see his face while he was rapping. You could tell he wanted it really bad.

To hear their freestyle, click this.

2006-10-19T18:33:00.000-04:00

THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2006, REGARDLESS OF GENRE

Arab Strap, The Last Romance (Transdreamer)
Nachtmystium, Instinct: Decay (Battle Kommand)
Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love)
TV On The Radio, Return To Cookie Mountain (Interscope)
Mogwai, Mr. Beast (Matador)
Black Heart Procession, The Spell (Touch And Go)
Television Personalities, My Dark Places (Domino)
Isis And Aereogramme, In The Fishtank 14 (Konkurrent)
Ornette Coleman, Sound Grammar (Sound Grammar)
Burst, Origo (Relapse)
Oneida, New Year’s Eve (Brah-Jagjaguwar)
Jesu, Silver (Hydra Head)
Brightblack Morning Light, Brightblack Morning Light (Matador)
Mouse On Mars, Varcharz (Ipecac)
Boris, Pink (Southern Lord)
Converge, No Heroes (Epitaph)
Nadja, Bodycage (Profound Lore)
Craft, Fuck The Universe (Southern Lord)
Camera Obscura, Let’s Get Out Of This Country (Merge)
Mastodon, Blood Mountain (Reprise-Warner Bros.)
OOIOO, Taiga (Thrill Jockey)
Thom Yorke, The Eraser (XL)
The Coup, Pick A Bigger Weapon (Epitaph)
Ali Farka Toure, Savane (World Circuit-Nonesuch)
Love Is All, Nine Times That Same Song (What’s Your Rupture?)

TOP SINGLES

Jesu, “Star” (Hydra Head)
Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins, “The Charging Sky” (Team Love)
The Coup, “Laugh/Love/F**k” (Epitaph)
Turbulence, “Notorious” (VP)
Kevin Blechdom, “Me Saw Me Momma” (Chicks On Speed)
Gossip, “Are U That Somebody” (Kill Rock Stars)
Boris, “Farewell” (Southern Lord)
Asunder, “A Famine” (Profound Lore)
Johnny Cash, “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” (American)
Christina Aguilera, “Candyman” (RCA)

TOP UNSIGNED BANDS

O'Death
The Cummies
Team Tomato

2006-10-05T14:33:00.000-04:00

THE STORY OF YO LA TENGO

Other than Frank Sinatra and recently Kanye West, Yo La Tengo are easily Hoboken, New Jersey’s most identifiable, longstanding and proud claim-to-fame. And subsequently their Jersey shows have become the stuff of indie-rock legend, thanks to their commitment to playing almost-annual Hanukah in their burg’s similarly legendary Maxwell’s. But for their current album, the jammy, guitar-centric and especially excellent I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass, a title that allegedly comes from a threat made by Phoenix Suns ballplayer Kurt Thomas to New York Knick Stephon Marbury, they made one Hoboken-area appearance in nearby Jersey City (screw you, NYC!), which I was lucky enough to attend.

The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre is an old, elegant theater that now mostly shows movie screenings. But somehow, amidst the lofty ceilings and low-hanging chandeliers, it seemed like a fitting palace for a Yo La Tengo show. Openers Why? did their metaphysical indie-rock thing, but the fun started right after they finished.

As they were setting up Yo La Tengo’s stage, an announcement came over the PA in a big, echoey voice… “From Paramus, New Jersey… RRROOOOLLLLLLIIINNNNNGGGG THUUUUUUUNNDEERRRR!!!” And then the theme from Magnum P.I. started up. For the next 30 seconds, we watched two 40-something dudes roller-skating around one another (and the band’s equipment!) narrowly dodging amps and guitars. At one point they tried to skate through one another’s legs… and it worked once! The second time, they both fell over. It was fun and ridiculous, and the perfect preamble to the night’s show.

Yo La Tengo played an exciting, engaging set of classics and songs from their new album. Guitarist/singer Ira Kaplan flung himself around the stage with Hendrixian verve and, in some songs, he shook it in front of his amp to get more feedback. His wife, drummer Georgia Hubley, sang some songs from behind her kit and even switched with Ira near the end for a song. Honestly, “Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m goodkind,” from the new album, stands out as one of the best “indie-rock” jams I’ve seen in a long time, without becoming pretentious. For their encore, multi-instrumentalist James McNew thanked his parents, who were in the audience, for turning him onto cool music when he was young. He said that without them, they wouldn’t be able to play the next song, and they launched into the Rolling Stones’ “Rocks Off.” It surely didn’t sound like the Stones, without the horns, but it’s more interesting how it sounded like Yo La Tengo, with Kaplan and McNew singing the verses in unison. After their sleepy Summer Sun album, it’s refreshing to see Yo La Tengo get excited again.

After the show, my girlfriend Lisa and I walked around Jersey City a little and got back on the PATH back to Manhattan. There were fans admiring their new vinyl purchases from the show and basically just beaming about what a great show it had been. I couldn’t help but agree.

Setlist:

Sugarcube
Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind
Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1)
The Weakest Part
Sometimes I Don’t Get You
Winter A-Go-Go
Mr. Tough
Beanbag Chair
I Feel Like Going Home
Stockholm Syndrome
I Should Have Known Better
Watch Out For Me Ronnie
Tom Courtenay
Rocks Off
The Story Of Yo La Tengo
I Heard You Looking

2006-09-25T14:35:00.002-04:00

SADNESS IS DELICIOUS

If you are curious about why my blog is titled "Sadness Is Delicious," read my TV On The Radio cover story... or just read this quote:

This cues a story about Malone's daughter.

"Three years ago, Isabelle was pissed off about something, and we had a fight or a disagreement," says Malone. "She wanted something she couldn't have, and a lot of time passed and she was still just, like, pouting and walking around like a little baby girl... 'You're just gonna stay sad, little girl? The day's almost over, and you're still sad?'... She said, 'But sadness is delicious.'"

"She said, 'Sadness is delicious'?" asks Adebimpe, laughing. "She's really smart. Yeah, it is kind of delicious. I guess I can think of it that way."

"I've wallowed," says Malone. "I'll wallow again."

"That's true," says Adebimpe. "You can definitely wallow and wallow... There are a lot of people that are generally melancholic... And that doesn't mean they're gonna off themselves if it goes the wrong way."

"It doesn't mean that the cheerful people aren't going to, either," says Malone.

2006-09-21T12:25:00.000-04:00

CHICAGO'S ALRIGHT IF YOU LIKE SIDEBURNS
My Review of My Vacation to Chicago for Touch And Go's 25th Anniversary

Last week, my girlfriend, Lisa, and I visited Chicago to attend Touch And Go’s 25th Anniversary Party. You can read an article I wrote about the label here. Steve Albini and David Yow had some pretty interesting things to say in it, and it was partially from David Yow’s insistence that I come that decided to make the trek. He told me I’d regret it if I missed it and he was totally right. (Incidentally he also told me how excited he was that Kory Grow was interviewing him, not because he’d read anything I’ve written, but because he wanted to know if I would name my son Scotty, because of that old ’60s song “Watching Scotty Grow.” He even sent me the lyrics. That’s my boy…) I can happily say that Lisa and I saw all 25 of the bands in 2.5 days. Below are some pictures and highlights from my trip.

First off, it seems like every guy in Chicago has sideburns. I don’t know what’s up with that, but that was the impetus behind the title for this blog. Also, most of the Chicago girls don’t seem to have hair past their shoulders. Interesting… Maybe I’m just a dumb New Yorker.

Obviously seeing Big Black’s mini-set was pretty impressive, they played: “Cables,” “Dead Billy,” “Kill Pigeon” and “Racer X.” Albini joked about how everyone wondering about it should know that it was a lot cooler in the ’80s. I disagree. Albini, Santiago Durango, Jeff Pezzati and, ahem, Roland, which Albini had to reprogram, all sounded awesome. Also, Shellac were incredible. The set was identical to the one we saw in New York the week before, but still fun. They still did their Q&A session and they pulled people out of the audience to bang on the drums with them when the show was done. Albini, Weston and Trainer really owned the event.

Scratch Acid were amazing. David Yow was as animated as ever and all in all their set was a lot of fun. They remain one of music’s most overlooked trailblazers, even in the wake of the Jesus Lizard.

Killdozer played “King of Sex” and all their other “hits.” Someone even through around an huge inflatable penis during their set. Brilliant!

Tim and Andy from Silkworm did an acoustic with very haunting lyrics in dedication to their drummer, Michael Dahlquist. I don’t really remember what song it was other than it was quite moving. If anyone knows what it is, please do tell.

Ted Leo played mostly new songs. They’re really catchy and kind of more immediate than his previous albums (even more of a mix between Elvis Costello and the Jam than previously). His new album will be stellar.

Featuring the inimitable Johnny Temple, who runs Akashic books, Girls Against Boys played their entire Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby album in its entirety. They said it was the first time they’d ever done that. It took them a little bit to warm up, but they were easily the highlight of Friday night, save !!! campily egging the audience on.

When Sally Timms performed she kept on cleverly saying “Men and woman of punk rock,” which I thought was absolutely brilliant since she just followed Negative Approach’s memorable, fist-pumping hardcore set. Jon Langford came out and did a Mekons song with her, which almost made up for the fact that the Mekons reunite for the show in some form or another. Ms. Timms also kept saying something like, “Oh you’re just waiting to see David Yow’s penis. He has it in a jar backstage, he’ll put it on before he comes out.” Scratch Acid played after her. Earlier in the day, Langford played with Kat from the Ex, whose own set was worth the price of travel alone.

Lisa seemed to really enjoy The New Year as they reminded her of Death Cab For Cutie or the Postal Service in a distant way, which I can hear, too. Makes sense, since Gibbard is probably a huge Bedhead fan.

We got there early enough to see Quasi in the rain on Sunday, and their songs are still going through my head. It’s a shame that Sleater-Kinney broke up, but I’m glad there’s still Quasi.

The Black Heart Procession played a special version of Tom Petty’s “You Got Lucky” as part of their set, but changed the chorus to, “A good label’s hard to find.” It was totally cheesy and endearing at the same time. Not sure which element was stronger though.

And the last musical highlight of the event was Calexico’s closing set. They played their cover of Love’s “Alone Again, Or,” but surprisingly didn’t dedicate it to the just-passed Arthur Lee. It was a pleasant way to end the festival, and it left us wanting more music on Monday.

I do have two complaints, though. One, there weren’t any surprises in the lineup. No, “Oh my god, it’s Slint/Necros/Die Kreuzen!” moments. The other was that label owner Corey Rusk never got onstage to speak. As notoriously shy as he is, you’d think he’d have something to say, but who can fault someone for just wanting to sit back and enjoy what he started. And it was most certainly an event to be proud of.

In addition to seeing the people I know at Touch And Go, we saw Paul from Merge and hung out with Laurent and from Pelican and his wife during Girls Against Boys set. It was nice seeing them, and kind of a surprise. Later in the week, we stopped by Touch And Go’s office, and it is a huge, three-floor converted loft. Everyone was friendly. Jamie Proctor from Thrill Jockey was kindly enough to put us up during the event, so I want to thank him here, next to the picture of us posing outside “Shit Fountain” which is a block away from his house.

Onto the second part of this blog. After staying in Jamie’s fair abode for three days, we made our way to possibly the worst hotel in all of Chicago. Without becoming slanderous and calling it out by name (ask and I'll tell you which one it is), it’s right across the street from the Rock And Roll McDonald’s (of Wesley Willis fame) and they promised us a no-smoking room, which was basically a smoking room with a small little sign inside that they placed there that said “no smoking.” The place absolutely reeked. Also, we saw a guy with a gun trolling around the R&R McDonald’s and someone followed us back to our motel. We didn’t feel safe. Luckily, we only needed to be there to sleep, but it was the only game in town that wasn’t $500/night.

On Monday, we got brunch at Milk And Honey, and I had an amazing huevos rancheros casserole. After that, we did a little shopping on Milwaukee and I stopped by Reckless Records, picking up original versions of both Sonic Youth’s and Spoon’s respective debuts, and also found a record of Nachtmystium’s early demos. We also ate at Lou Malnati’s pizza, which was absolutely delicious. That night we went to the Midwestern premiere of Neil Labute’s Fat Pig play. The actors did a wonderful job, and the play is—in typical Labute fashion—both heartwarming and stomach churning. I recommend seeing it, if you can. That night we found an absolutely amazing bar in Bucktown called Danny’s, which is kind of like somebody’s house that they converted into a bar. There was a lot of smoke, but it had a vibe few New York bars still have: they had live DJs spinning rocky R&B, blues and soul and everyone was dancing. Did I mention the walls were plaid?! It was so much fun. This was one of the major highlights of the trip.

The next day, we went to the Art Institute and were upset to see that their modern and contemporary art wings were closed. Nonetheless we saw some great paintings, before going up to Touch And Go’s office. When we got back downtown, we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which had a lot of cool stuff, including some original Henry Darger illustrations. Plus Tuesday is free night there, so it was that much more fun. We found a great Italian restaurant on the magnificent mile got a little drunk and went back to our scary hotel room.

Wednesday, we did a little shopping and Lisa got some nice new boot-shoe hybrids. We bounced around on their subway—and if you’re planning on going to Chicago without a car, I recommend you pick your unlimited card up at the airport before you get into town as they’re very hard to find in the city—before we eventually headed to the airport.

Some other general thoughts about Chicago include the fact that it’s so incredibly expansive you either need to drive or ride a bike. Even with their “El” subway, the distance between blocks are much larger than those in New York, and it takes a lot longer to get where you’re planning on going. I also found it strange that almost anyone goes to any bar. One night when we were hanging out with Jamie we went to a club that would be more suited for guidos in New York, but it was dudes in band T-shirts sipping cocktails. It was very bizarre, but fun.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but if I didn’t live in New York, I’d want to live in Chicago. Everyone is very friendly, and in many cases hipper than the people who live in New York, at this point. It feels very conducive to creative types and it’s also cheaper to live there. I can’t wait to go back.

Blogger bonus:

For my Touch And Go story in CMJ I made a list of the 25 Most Important Records Touch And Go ever released. We unfotunately only printed images of each release, but here's the motive: Unlike other "Best Of" lists I've seen, this one contains only artists that Touch And Go either discovered or really "made" their career. That rules out Silkworm who made their name on Matador, Bedhead and Pinback, so no bitchin'! I hope you enjoy.

T&G04 - V/A - Process Of Elimination E.P.
TGLP01 - The Meatmen - We’re The Meatmen And You Suck
TG06 - Killdozer - Snakeboy
TG07 - Die Kreuzen - October File
TG24 - Big Black - Songs About Fucking
TG29 – Butthole Surfers – Hairway To Steven
TG36 - Rapeman - Two Nuns And A Pack Mule
TG51 - Didjits - Hornet Pinata
TG64 - Slint – Spiderland
TG76 - Scratch Acid - The Greatest Gift
TG78 - Negative Approach - Total Recall
TG86 - Urge Overkill – Stull EP
TG100 - The Jesus Lizard – Liar
TG117 - Girls Against Boys - Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby
TG141 - Shellac – At Action Park
TG143 - Don Caballero - Don Caballero 2
TG189 - Man Or Astro-Man? – Eeviac
TG216 - Blonde Redhead – Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
TG223 - Dirty Three - Whatever You Love, You Are
TG232 – Black Heart Procession – Amore Del Tropico
TG234 - !!! - Louden Up Now
TG238 - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
TG252 - TV On The Radio - Young Liars
QS52 - Calexico - The Black Light
QS54 - June Of 44 - Four Great Points

2006-09-15T17:42:00.000-04:00

CELTIC FROSTED FLAKES (and 1349!)

Last night at B.B. King's I saw the first Celtic Frost show in New York City in 17 years. Tom G. Warrior himself even mentioned that with an element of surprise. I was lucky to have seen them before everyone else on my Norway trip a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to compare the shows.

First, the stage was a lot smaller and the opening bands had to perform all in one line (drums on the left front of the stage). Sahg sounded awesome with their mix of Sabbathy doom and high-powered stoner rock. Their bassist, King, was taking all of his rock-star stances and was really getting into it. We spoke a little bit after their set and he said it was his first time opening and also his first tour in America. We joked about how we keep running into each other trans-continentally, as he was the one who had recommended I take the tram into the mountains in Bergen. I asked about why they weren't able to use the fire and explosions they used in Europe, and of course it had to do with hauling more stuff across the Atlantic as well as customs things, but he said that when he was playing in Gorgoroth they were able to use inverted crosses onstage with flames and torches. Of course they never toured America. One other main difference between this show and the Bergen show was that only about 100 people showed up early enough to see them. That was a festival, though. Apparently one person said, "Oh, that's the dude from Gorgoroth. I hope they don't play rock and roll." This made King snicker.

Next came 1349, who, as always, were amazing. The only problem was that the American audience- save the dude in the Asunder T-shirt up front- didn't really seem to know how to interpret it. Some people seemed to understand it and enjoy it, but others just looked confused. I found myself thinking, "What would happen if, during one of their breaks, the audience just started laughing? How would they respond?" Their singer Ravn just looked out at the audience during the breaks, and there was deafening silence. I wonder what would have happened. Nevertheless, they played "I Am Abominations" and it sounded brilliant. Their whole set was almost identical to the one in Bergen-six-inch-nails through their armbands and all-except they couldn't have fire onstage, other than a smoke machine (and subsequently didn't shut the show down because of "too much hellfire" this time.) They remain one of my favorite live black metal bands. I even caught a guitar pick that said "Archaon" (the guitarist's name) and had an inverted cross on it. Brilliant! If you have the chance to see them, go! (p.s.: all apologies to the dude I told that the drummer was sometime Satyricon drummer Frost, in actually, it's someone named Tony Laureano now.)

Celtic Frost's show was brilliant. They opened with "Procreation (Of The Wicked)," as they had done in Bergen and from that point on just played down-tuned, ultra-heavy, "uhh"-filled hits. Tom G. Warrior was wearing his corpsepaint as was the rest of the band, and despite being older, it didn't show too much. Halfway through the show, bassist Martin Ain, said: "Let me tell you the news… Well, this is New York, so you already know the news, but there is no god other than the one that dies with me." Then, they played a crushing version of "Ain Elohim," from their latest album, which I love to the chagrin of some of my more "metal" friends, Monotheist. Comedian and metal enthusiast Brian Posehn was in the audience, and he was clearly enjoying himself. There was also one non-celebrity guy who did some wild snake dance during some of the songs. That might have been the best non-musical thing that happened. This among the best metal concerts I've seen all year.

Celtic Frost setlist:

1. "Procreation (Of The Wicked)"
2. "Visions Of Mortality"
3. "Circle Of The Tyrants"
4. "The Usurper"
5. "Jewel Throne"
6. "Ain Elohim"
7. "Necromantical Screams"
8. "Dawn Of Meggido"
9. "Sorrows Of The Moon"
10. "Ground"
11. "Dethroned Emperor"
12. "Into The Crypts Of Rays"
13. "Synagoga Satanae"

2006-09-14T17:29:00.000-04:00

THE TOP 20 METAL ALBUMS OF 2006

Nachtmystium, Instinct: Decay
Burst, Origo
Wolves In The Throne Room, Diadem of 12 Stars
Jesu, Silver
Enslaved, Ruun
Nadja, Bodycage
Phobia, Cruel
Isis, In the Absence of Truth
Converge, No Heroes
Xasthur, Subliminal Genocide
Daughters, Hell Songs
Celtic Frost, Monotheist
Mastodon, Blood Mountain
Battle Of Mice, A Day Of Nights
Mogwai, Mr. Beast
Goatwhore, A Haunting Curse
OM, Conference Of Birds
Mouse On Mars, Varcharz
Wolf Eyes, Human Animal
Celestiial, Celestiial

Runners up:

Jucifer, Asunder, Suffocation, Mouth of the Architect, DragonForce, Gorgoroth, Slayer and the Melvins.