Monday, March 31, 2014

Belgian Black Metal



Ridiculously heavy brutal black metal from Europe - this two-man outfit (the eponymous Pek on vox and guitar and Nefasto on drums) has released a handful of demos and random recordings, Preaching Evil is their only official full-length. A 30-minute assault of blast beats and sickening riffs spanning standard death metal (Incantation comes to mind) to Ministry-esque industrial loops, if it wasn't for the album cover (and typical frostbitten song titles) I would probably classify the band as brutal death. But nope, the spiked arm bands land ya in the black metal bin every time. While the band hasn't really done anything since 2010, there still exists a legitimate website you can order shirts and shit - check it here.


Sunday, March 30, 2014

I Wish I Was Deaf



Easily the worst record ever recorded in the history of mankind, this white femenists rapping acapella turd is pretty much on rotation round the clock in GG or Seth Putnam's hell right now. Some readers will be familiar with quasi-listenable remixed version of "You Suck" by activist electro-rockers Consolidated in the early 90's - once you listen to the actual source material you will be fucking amazed that they could pull a remix off. The rhymes are so completely unfunny ("Talkin' Shit" is so fucking terrible it almost justifies jamming pencils into your ears) and if you search out a picture of what the Yeastie trio actually looked like it will make your skin crawl imagining these trolls actually getting some. In short, this record is so bad I basically just uploaded it for some mean-spirited shock value, I included Consolidated's remix just to make the whole listen barely worthwhile. I apologize in advance.


Saturday, March 29, 2014

Kiss Me In The Gutter



One of the rawer, more mean-spirited releases in GG's extensive catalog was the 1993 No Room 7". Recorded with Mark Sheehan (possibly lifted from the Suicide Sessions rehearsals?) and utterly fucking brutal to listen to, this one is doing little to alleviate this morning's hangover. Try not to snicker at the Jim Crow-esque harmonica at the close of the title track though - clever touch Mr. Allin. Enjoy.


Thursday, March 27, 2014

Dropping Anchor



Aah... what a blast from the past. Passing around an ounce of blow while driving down to celebrate the millennial New Years in New Orleans and this was like the one CD we had in the car for the whole fucking trip. Man, that was a fun jaunt down I-85. Made it down in record fucking time, too. Anyways, JCS had a pretty solid following in Richmond (shit, they were only like one state away) and floated down to play the now-defunct Flood Zone a few times. While I liked their quasi-hit "High" (beaten to death by zillion hours played of BMX XXX), the opener "Dropping Anchor" is definitely my fave - a rocking fucking tune that takes me back fifteen years every time I hear it. The rest of the album is just as good - a bit of a foray into the nü metal world notwithstanding - pop this one in at your next party and I'm sure you'll get some smiles. Enjoy.


Riot Season



I was introduced to the mighty eight-piece(!) that is Hey Colossus thanks to an excellent split LP w/ fellow sludgers dot(.). Their first album, the aptly titled Hey Colossus Hates You is a commendable example of downtuned, riff-heavy sludge. Mostly good fuzzy grooves (without oozing to far into "stoner-rock" territory), a couple of the songs actually tread the waters of post-grunge. The monstrous "A Witch Is Born" chews up one whole side of the album, an 18-minute Electric Wizard-ish opus which coincidentally is the first song the band wrote together. Nothing like raising the bar straight out of the gate, guys. The band recently celebrated its eighth full-length release and still plays the occasional live show - they've got an occasionally updated blog that has some cool links and shit so check 'em out.


Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The Dregs...



OK, here we go again, cleanin' off the old hard drive. Up for today's displeasure is a limited edition, self-released split 3" MCD by a staple of the pornogrind cesspool, Brazil's one-man sleaze project Hemorrhoidal Anal Suffering. Most of the long four minutes are purely forgettable, standard programmed gorenoise with vocals so distorted it begs the question of why. Yet, halfway through there's a surprising diamond in the rough - there's a lot to like in the strange "Cult To Coprophagic Sex" - a cool grindcore riff with a completely appropriate rape/porn sample in the background. Too bad the guy didn't decide to go more in that direction - there's obviously some talent hidden there behind the vocal modulators. For those who care, he supposedly dropped H.A.S. to launch the similarly-themed Fecal Smear Test in 2009 but as of today it seems he's still releasing shit (ha!) under his old moniker. Along for the ride on the MCD split are the completely obscure Herpes Rectal Canal (a.k.a. HxRxCx) to whom I'll give credit for lifting the graphic style (and the actual "C") from Anal Cunt's infamous logo (hey Tim, time to call those lawyers!!!). As far as the "music" goes (I'm assuming it's another one-man sideshow), the lyrics are little more than bubbling gurgles dubbed on top of drum machine blast beats; with a few crunchy power chords here and there just to pretend it has some legitimacy. More shittily-edited movie samples than music on this one.


Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The $5 Slut



Named after the hilariously so-bad-its-great nazisploitation flick The Beast In Heat (trash cinema completists may recall the alternative moniker SS Hell Camp during its fleeting 42nd Ave. grindhouse run - as if the original title wasn't lurid enough) this backwoods Australian four-piece sounds like the retarded offspring of GG Allin and Sockeye. In a good way. Showcasing a singer (the venerable King Duey) that sounds like a mix between Johnny Rotten, Choke and Trey Parker and power-chord punk tracks reminiscent of the Scumfucs, The Real Fonzie is a real hoot. My favorite is the oddly titled "Pig! & I'll Fuck Her" - worth the download alone. While the actual band is long since gone, they just released a long-lost recording session with a shamefully hot upskirt album cover - pick it up here. Enjoy.


Monday, March 24, 2014

Oh Shit



Amazing debut album by the four vocal wizards known as the Pharcyde; my way-cooler-than-me brother was right on point when he presented this CD during a visit my sophomore year at college. Me and my few friends were knee-deep in all things either Ice Cube or Rap-A-Lot, i.e. The Predator, Guerillas In Tha Mist, Little Big Man etc. etc. while my brother was busy proclaiming Bizarre Ride as the future of hip-hop. And he was fucking right. OK, it may not of sold like The Chronic but I feel no shame in saying I like this album way fucking better. From the opener "Oh Shit" to the weirdly sadistic "4 Better or 4 Worse" and the hemp classics "Otha Fish" and "Pack The Pipe", almost every song on this one is a keeper. Sure, the record suffers from a few too many "skits" but I guess that was a right of passage when getting a rap album released in 1992. All in all, the humorous funk on Bizarre Ride was just what the hip-hop world needed, a welcome relief from the quickly-becoming-stale gangsta posturing so prevalent back then. The band lasted for another twelve years and three albums (albeit with different members) before finally breaking up in 2004. Enjoy.


Sunday, March 23, 2014

Y-Town's Stompcore Pimp Daddies



From waaay up north in Ypsilanti, MI (home of the EMU Eagles - thanks NCAA Football 09!) comes the working man's deathcore outfit Kitchen Knife Conspiracy. I discovered them many a year ago while desperately perusing the painfully now-obsolete mp3fiesta.com in search of any metalcore band I hadn't yet heard (little did I know my discovery of PtDB was only weeks away but that's another story). In comes KKC and their fourth (and final?) album, the witty A Friend In Need... Is A Friend To Kill. While some of the movie samples go on way too long, the album is a fun walk down death metal memory lane and stays pretty listenable today. I mean it's almost a decade old and completely derivative of Vision Of Disorder/Carnifex but who back then wasn't? The token humorous song titles belay the groovy breakdowns and tight riffs of generally good tunes. My only complaint is the low vocals seem to be mixed a tad high - the obvious overdub can be distracting. Other than that, a solid thirty minutes by a band stuck in a shitty college town worshipping My Chemical Romance and the Foo Fighters. They still seem to be around and are re-releasing remastered versions of their stuff soon so show some Michigan respect and keep up with 'em here.


Saturday, March 22, 2014

Are You Testin' Me?



The fucking stupid wife-beating stuff notwithstanding, I think the celebrity I would most want to trade lives with is Tommy Lee. Not only does the first 7 years of being in Mötley Crüe sound like the funnest time ever in the history of mankind (read The Dirt if you ever want the details), the guy was married to Heather Locklear and then goddamned Pamela Anderson. Jesus, any one of those factors would make for a great life. Regardless, tiring of reunion tours and discovering an affection for new genres of music, Lee finally quit Mötley in 1999 to create a nü metal hybrid band that released one much-maligned album, the eponymous Methods Of Mayhem. Now, don't get me wrong, the "single" from the record was the godawful "Get Naked" - the first signal that Fred Durst's fifteen minutes of fame was running out. That song aside, the rest of the tracks are pretty good - if not actually fucking awesome. "Anger Management" is easily one of the best songs the guy ever recorded - with or without Mötley - that song should be on any football team's pre-game soundtrack, just a white-knuckled rant against the paparazzi and tabloids. Of course Tommy was recently split from Pamela while this album was recorded so a lot of the songs have sort of a "listen to my side of the story" vibe. Crystal Method's Scott Kirkland contributes to the amazing "Narcotic" and "Crash" will forever remind me of the hours I wasted playing Gran Turismo 3 on the PS2. It's a solid album, some songs stronger than others but varied enough to keep it flowing. Evidently the band reformed in 2009 and actually released another album but I've never heard it...


Friday, March 21, 2014

Well Superman looked up at me...



They weren't kidding when the PR guys named this the definitive CD single. Clocking in at 67 minutes, you get more versions of "Jam On It" then you'll ever wish you knew existed. As far as the remixes go - there's really nothing notable to mention, I actually found most of them annoying as fuck. Hell, the CD even gives you the elements of what made the song, so you can remix the thing together in GarageBand to your own liking. All that not withstanding, the headliner 8-minute "Definitive Version" is really all we came for, a classic snapshot of proto-hip hop - I remember sitting by the radio for whole afternoons praying it would come on; just so me and my few friends could practice our half-ass breakdance moves like the sorry white boys we were. So flatten that cardboard box out on the driveway and get to it. Enjoy.


Thursday, March 20, 2014

Crust O' Christian



Don't get me wrong, I love Disrupt but they are somewhat guilty of sameness... as in every song sounding the exact same. While their full-length Unrest is really an amazing accomplishment, at 50 minutes it wears thin around song #10 or #11. So let's just say I like 'em in small doses - and a 3-song 7" is ideal. Like many other bands on the ol' blog, I first heard Disrupt on Ax/ction's seminal Apocalyptic Convulsions compilation (see here) and promptly grabbed the first record of theirs I stumbled upon. Well wouldn't ya know, this split actually has the song from Convulsions (the epic "Crock-O-Christian," albeit an alternate recording) so I knew I'd at least like a third of it. Little did I have to worry, the other two tracks are amazing slabs of furious as fuck New England crust. The opener, "Equalize," is a three-minute slow-paced breakdown - a refreshing change of pace to their manic riff-frenzies while "Trying My Trust" is Disrupt doing what they do best, packing a dozen grooves into 90 seconds. My favorite release by this sadly defunct band, enjoy. Oh by the way, I didn't bother including the other guilty party on this split, Finland's Tuomiopäivän Lapset. They suck.


Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Black Hole



Here's a fantastic three-song debut EP (well, I call it an EP but it runs almost 45 minutes) of doom-laden sludge from the south coast of England. Heavy-as-fuck drone riffs under weirdly echoing howls from hell. It calms down a tad for the 22-minute finale "Please Maintain" - an epic of pain and suffering. Highly recommended. For some more info on the band (as well as limited merch), get over to Riot Season Records' page. Enjoy.


Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Jezuz Chrizt



For whatever reason, everything associated with Eazy-E in the mid-90's had that annoying "Z for an S" substitution - I'm surprised his posthumous press release didn't say "he died of AIDZ." Regardless, what we got here are three mildly attractive ghetto hoes rapping over typical South Central gangsta grooves. You'll probably remember their 1990 debut Livin' In A Hoe House solely for the pretty hot ass shot on the cover (the rest of the album is pretty forgettable, trust me). Evidently it sold enough copies to get Eazy to notice, (plus, c'mon, it's three bitches) leading to his production of this EP four years later. While it sounds a hell of a lot better than House, Az Much Ass Azz U Want (Jesus, I feel stupider just writing that) is still pretty silly. Every song is about pussy in some form or another, even the token "skit" is basically listening to one of the girls blow a guy or get her ass eaten or whatever. The opener "All That" is pretty good for what it's worth, and I dig the familiar back beats in "Body Snatcherz." The liner notes promise the upcoming Hoez In Training but, alas, the trio broke up within a year of this release. Supposedly they reformed in 2012 (according to a Facebook post uploaded to an Eazy-E fan forum so... ya know) but who the fuck knowz.


Monday, March 17, 2014

42:19



There was a time a few years ago when I was really obsessed with long songs. Not necessarily random live jams (being a long time Hendrix and Ween fan there's more than enough familiarity with those) but in-the-studio recordings that could have simply been ambitious one-shot attempts or legitimate rehearsed epics. Japanese sludgelords Corrupted were the first band whose longer material I really enjoyed - it seemed cohesive and intentional. Other bands, mostly bleak doom and drone come to mind, Argentinum Astrum, Khanate, Otesanek, etc etc. I recently discovered this 2011 release by Jersey supergroup trio The Atomic Bitchwax. 42 minutes of back-to-back stoner riffs straight out of the late 1970's. Do I think it really needed to be all one track? No, but there's enough variety to keep it extremely listenable and if your attention starts to fade, have faith, you'll eventually hear something new to hook you. All your rock gods are paid homage to in this one, so grab your well worn bell-bottoms out of the attic and enjoy. 


Sunday, March 16, 2014

Ha Ha Holocaust



Terribly hollow VBR rip of a scratchy LP by thirteen bands that absolutely do not give a fuck if you are their biggest fan or hate their fucking guts. Anal Cunt (gee... ya think?), Kilslug, Eyehategod, Raunchous Brothers, it's a veritable who's who of homophobic, racist, queer-bashin' drunken antichrist hatecore that will clear out a house party faster than mustard gas. It's just too bad GG Allin was dead before this one came out. Enjoy.


Saturday, March 15, 2014

Perfect Is The Life Of King



One of my favorite crossover albums of all time - a weird thrash metal hybrid from the mid-80's by an obscure Canadian band that never really managed to go anywhere. I'm sure I wasn't the only kid in north Jersey sporting a DBC t-shirt but I am sure I was one of the three. Interestingly, I ended up with this classic while down at a record shop in in Palm Springs, FL visiting my well-tanned grandparents. I had purchased some random LP by a forgettable Thompson Twins-knockoff called Secret Society solely on the appeal of the album cover (and the fact they had a song called "69" - heyooo!) that was so terribly unlistenable that I forced my poor grandmother to drive my 13-year old ass back to the record store. Well, just like today, you were banned from returning audio merchandise that was already open but my German-scowling grandmother threatened the poor register jockey to the point that he offered this album as a trade. And there ya go. The album easily holds up to this day - especially my favorites "Monument," "Power And Corruption" and "Terrorist Mind".  Cool political vibe as the Reagan-era drew to a close, there's nary a bad song on this one. Unfortunately I never could quite get into the band's sophomore LP Universe, but this eponymous debut will always have a special place in my heart.


Friday, March 14, 2014

Corto y Bueno



Lo-fi grindcore out of L.A., this little oddity was released in 2005 as a split 7" with Madrid goregrind mainstays Haemorrhage. Not sure why they do the pseudo-Mexican thing on this release (who do they think they are, Brujeria?!?!) but I gotta say I really dig "Alarma!" Vocals are mixed a tad too high but all in all a solid day with the 4-track. Nothing you haven't heard before but there are definitely worse ways to kill seven minutes.


Thursday, March 13, 2014

Into My Hypercube



One of the better shows of my lifetime was nearly 24 years ago to the date - dragged down to the ol' defunct City Gardens in Trenton, NJ by a punk rock friend to see some depressing sludge band of whom he'd just grabbed their major label debut CD. That band was Soundgarden, opening for some weird Canadian prog rock (sound familiar?) four-piece called Voivod. Oh, by the way, the middle band on the bill was some unknown San Francisco alternative outfit called Faith No More. Needless to say, I stood with 6 other people to watch the two openers and was absolutely awestruck. I was also so drunk that by the time Voivod came on we were already out the door and heading home up Rt. 202. Post-show I actually felt bad I had missed the headliner, especially with such incredible opening acts (Soundgarden was especially awesome - Louder Than Love is just an epic album, hands down, and Chris Cornell was on fucking point that night), they had to be the absolute shit, right? I ran out the next day to grab the first Voivod album I could find (it happened to be Nothingface) and was instantly turned off by an overambitious quasi-concept album performed by musicians more interested in technicality than listenability. And gee, who went down in the annals of rock history over the next 5 years? Guess what, it wasn't Voivod. I foolishly pulled this one out of the dusty CD collection a few weeks ago with fleeting hopes that a more mature ear would hear something my drug-addled brain missed so long ago. Nope, it is still is as agonizing to listen to as it was 24 years ago. And I fucking hate Rush too.


Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Bahstun Screamo



Defunct Boston screamo. Nothing too original but you're usually guaranteed two or three solid songs on an album like this. "Stop Motion Aesthetic" and "Commotion Strange" are those songs. Manic, ear-splitting emo-core that all seems a bit silly when you stop and think about it. Still, in case anyone's paying attention, this is the 2002 re-release on Iodine Records with a couple bonus live radio tracks. Enjoy.


Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Wait Not...



My first introduction to legitimate funeral doom, I picked Thergothon's demo tape up from Wild Rags after the arguable catalog description "4 extremely long songs of brutal slow, dragged out depressive doom death metal, heavy as fuck" hooked me. Hailing from Finland (geeee... ya don't say...) and heralded as pioneers of the genre, I won't say I was blown away by the cassette but it's still a listenable 30 minutes, especially if you know you're stuck with no place to go for a while. Enjoy.


Monday, March 10, 2014

Noise Punk



Snotty punk from Leicester, UK. Fast, abrasive and annoying, the anthemic "Poundland" has definitely got one of the punkier choruses that I've heard in a while. The other songs basically sound exactly the same but for some reason the opening to "Fuckin' Bankers" has got me hooked. Keep up to date with the boys here. Enjoy.


Sunday, March 9, 2014

Land Of The Free



I actually knew the guitarist on this record - he was peripherally in my circle of friends junior year of college. Nice enough guy - we got along thanks to some musical compatibility (Lard comes to mind) and just usual college bullshit in general. He would regale us with the stories of recording this record (in Buffalo from where I am pretty sure he was native) and the subsequent release party in Chicago. According to him his little hardcore band was touted in true rock star fashion with the limo, party and various other perks which amazed (and envied) us to no end. As far as the record, both songs are basic hardcore with a proto-metalcore vibe, there's a strange echoing effect like they were recorded in some huge wind tunnel but maybe that was a completely intentional master effect. As far as my pal goes, he left Snapcase for Iceburn after this single was released and I've never heard anything from him or by those two bands since. Go figure.


Saturday, March 8, 2014

Shorter Vocal Chord Blues



Ear-piercing, doom-laden sludge from up I-95 in the D.C. suburbs, Salome's final LP is a quality bookend to a half-decade run in extreme music. A lot has been written about their lead singer, the relatively attractive Kat Katz (currently screaming for Agoraphobic Nosebleed) pretty much because, well, she's a relatively attractive blonde singing for Salome. I gotta be honest though, after the initial visual she just doesn't do it for me. The music is fucking awesome, hands down. But the vocals just seem thin and no matter how I try I just can't get around being somewhat irritated by them. Some old school growler/screamer in there (Jacob Bannon from Converge comes to mind) and I think the band would have really been something else. But I digress from my petty (and aberrant considering the band's diehard fanbase) bitching, it's a quality album - every song is a keeper, even the twenty-minute noise/drone opus "An Accident Of History". Enjoy.


Friday, March 7, 2014

Hey, You Like My Boots?



Prolific industrial overlord Alain Jourgensen just couldn't leave Chicago's Wax Trax studios alone after he and his cash cow Ministry signed with Sire Records. During the late 80's, the creative juices (and hallucinogenics) were a-flowin' and Hypo Luxa & Co. were spitting out side projects with serious aplomb. Released as a half-dozen 12" singles (and eventually as maxi-CDs), the material was generally more textbook "industrial" then the stuff Ministry was creating at the time, a decade ago someone finally got around to compiling all the stuff on one amazing record. We start off with Pailhead - a politically-themed side project comprised of circa-1987 Ministry with Minor Threat frontman Ian MacKaye on vocals. The band managed to release 3 singles worth of material - in my opinion the songs are hit or miss. Some ("Man Will Surrender", "Don't Stand In Line") are excellent but others seem to drag on forever. I don't hear the amalgam of industrial vs. hardcore that some claim the material champions. I mean, yeah there's guitar sampled in there but it sounds pretty much like what would end up on Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste as far as I am concerned. Next up is my favorite, 1000 Homo DJs. Created as an outlet for unreleased material from Land Of Rape And Honey, the band (once again) is basically Ministry with a couple friends dropping in to lend some drunken backing vocals. Their first single, "Apathy/Better Ways" is so-so; their 1990 cover of Black Sabbath's "Supernaut" is amazing (and has evolved into a staple of Ministry's live shows). That single's B-side, "Hey Asshole," is an epic 8-minute snapshot of being pulled over by a typical jock cop which I could just listen to forever; whomever did the cop's vocals was fucking on point. Hilarious. PTP's "Show Me Your Spine" is the only unreleased material on this compilation, a song from the RoboCop soundtrack. Programmed by Jourgensen with vocals by Skinny Puppy's Ogre (who evidently just happened to walk into the studio that day), the one-shot was nixed in the final film score. Evidently an abbreviation for "Programming the Psychodrill" (from a J.G. Ballard essay), PTP's other incarnation was as a collaboration between Jourgensen, Paul Barker and Chris Connelly of the Revolting Cocks, they managed to release the band's only other single, the traditionally industrial "Rubber Glove Seduction/My Favorite Things".  Acid Horse wraps up the compilation with a similar electronic house music anthem. Two versions of "No Name No Slogan" are presented, one mixed by Jourgensen and Barker, the other mixed by Cabaret Voltaire's Stephen Mallinder and Richard Kirk. All in all, a great record - solid material throughout. Enjoy.


Thursday, March 6, 2014

Drudgery



Solid sludgecore from Maryland mixes the better aspects of black metal and grindcore into a miserable mash of screaming groove-heavy noise. This 6-song EP barely lasts 15 minutes but it's a great ride - a gritty, lo-fi, feedback-heavy assault recorded by two dudes who are either musical virtuosos or fucking insane. "Cowards Of The New Age" and "Bleached" are my favorite tracks but I'm an aging sucker for fast fucking songs with cool riffs. The band is still active it so head north up I-95 and check the boys out. Enjoy.


Wednesday, March 5, 2014

I Got Somethin' To Say...



Ahh bootlegs, what would music afficionados do without them. For a band that had a fairly limited studio output and nowhere near the number of recorded gigs bands played during the tape-swapping boom years later, the Misfits have amassed an impressive catalog of unofficial releases (at least 131 and counting according to Discogs), all of the expected varying quality, rareness, and listenability that comes with the sorry one-shot bootleg. You gotta love this 1992 release from Spain's Decca label (in no way related to the official classic Decca label of the 50's that supported such acts as Bing Crosby and Patsy Cline), through the broken English and mangled/missing song titles (as well as the strange cut-and-paste band photo on the back) we get a "studio mix" of "Last Caress" (still the Misfits most then-famous song thanks to Metallica) and a couple of token live tracks. Interestingly, the record sleeve claims the live material was "recorded alive D.C. Space 31/2/1983" (sic); fortunately an astute historian has tracked down the real source: an '83 gig from the Michigan Union Ballroom in Ann Arbor, MI. For what it's worth, it all sounds fine, "Last Caress" is exactly like one of the many versions you've already heard and the other stuff is typical late Misfits live recordings - sounding like they were recorded on a shitty Walkman. In other words, enjoy.


Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Weencognito



Here's a random live show that popped on my iPod today bursting with all the quality that you'd expect from late-90's 56kbps mp3's. Ween was at odds with Elektra at the time - the major had just assumed control over a live album Dean had compiled; intended to be the first indie Chocodog release, the label quickly packaged it as Paintin' The Town Brown. In response, Ween "leaked" their quasi-album Craters Of The Sac to the internet as a free mp3 download, much to money-hungry Elektra's chagrin. All of this leads me to assume it didn't take much for the guys to play gigs under a pseudonym, especially on the tried-and-true stomping ground of the New Jersey shore. I'm sure there's a anecdote-laden back story as to who Michael Carbone is - without it, all I am left to say is that the band rips a solid 45-minute (opening?) set packed with lots of stuff forthcoming on White Pepper, a Beatles cover, the cooly obscure "Beacon Light" and everyone's favorite, "The Rainbow." Enjoy.


Monday, March 3, 2014

Footprints In The Snow



Ahh... another snow day to start the week off and just fuck everything up. Actually, it's more like a rain day since that's all it's doing outside (the gun-shy schools around here like to call it a "proactive" snow day) and they'll be cancelled again tomorrow due to the 10° temperatures forecast tonight. It's just cold people - put on a fucking sweater. Kids can deal with chilly hands for ten minutes at the bus stop, it's not like they're holding school in a fucking lean-to. But I digress. Up for your approval today is a remastered "lost" Hendrix album recorded during the mid 60's. I use the term loosely since it is primarily an Isley Brother's album and Jimi's participation has been part of his folklore since the tracks were originally released in the 70's. It is common knowledge that Hendrix played with the group but as to how many sessions he actually sat in on the 50-year old details have become somewhat hazy. A breakdown of the album is as follows. Tracks 1-8 are from the original Isley Brother's album In The Beginning (1970) (of which Hendrix plays on most, if not all of the songs). Tracks 9-13 are the single versions of those songs ripped from vinyl 45s; and tracks 14-21 hail from an obscure January '64 recording session. Debate ensues as to whether Hendrix actually participated in this session, he joined the band in 1963 so timelines potentially match. Take a listen and decide for yourself. Enjoy.


Sunday, March 2, 2014

Basement Split



Here is a curious little item courtesy of Argentina's Chainfuck Records. Two obscure Córdoba bands doing their best to keep the DIY lo-fi spirit going with an mp3-only split release. Starting this one off is a lo-fi grind/noise project (I assume it's just one guy) named Bisected. While the first track is pretty much a throwaway, I found myself really digging the second, "Kommandant Orgy." I can't remember what song it's completely derivative of (maybe something by Slayer?) but it still has a cool groove and kept me interested for the 46 seconds it runs. Aileen Wuornos is a self-described one-man "crust-grind-metal-lofi-cyber" project but I found his material wallowing more in the sludge/drone genre. A waaaay overused sample from Peter Jackson's Bad Taste opens the feedback-laden cacophony of howls - nothing too special but perfectly listenable. I actually enjoyed some of his other releases (particularly "Sonic Pressure") - check out another one here here and enjoy.


Saturday, March 1, 2014

The Real Deal



Growing up 25 minutes from Rahway State Prison (now East Jersey), I was well aware (and oft-threatened) with their Scared Straight program. For those who weren't rebellious teenagers, it was a program started in the 80's where "problem kids" would spend a day in the clink with real convicts trying to do some good behind bars. Say what you like about the concept - just driving by Rahway on Rt. 1 you can tell that place is no fucking joke. In 1991 some of the convicts got together and jumped on the hip-hop bandwagon, releasing a pretty respectable EP and bringing significantly more awareness to their message then the PSA's we had to sit through during Saturday detention. While the record boasts 9 tracks don't be fooled, only 2 are actual songs. In addition you get a couple radio edits, instrumentals, remixes and an acappella by "Crazy" Chris Deluise, entitled "The Nightmare Man" (astute samplers will recognize his quotes from House Of Pain's debut LP). For a prison production the songs are not bad at all, the beats are not particularly original but still bump - and actually have some real bass drops. The MCs show some significant skills and will leave you wondering "what if" they hadn't traveled down their criminal path. "Belly Of The Beast" is my preferred of the two - just a fucking cool song and lyrically sounding like something Rakim would have written. Solid shit. Of course these days it isn't anything you haven't seen or heard before on Oz or "Beyond Scared Straight" but 23 years ago it still packed a quite a punch. The group released a full-length in 1993 which is also worth checking out.