Sunday, May 31, 2015

We Will Cock You



I pretty much gave up on the Revolting Cocks with their banal Linger Ficken' Good which was simply too retarded and disjointed to pretend to like. Coming off like a "worst hits" of everything that was hanging around the studio after Al finished Psalm 69, LFG would have been completely forgotten if not for the lazy Rod Stewart cover and slavishly milking the Nirvana-driven William Burroughs beatnik renaissance the media world was jerking off to. And, to be honest, Beers, Steers + Qveers wasn't that good to begin with as well. OK then. With that bitter ramble off my chest, I only recently discovered RevCo (their hip new-millenium moniker) actually got back together, thankfully sans Chris Connelly whose brit-dancepop influence I have always absolutely hated on any Jourgensen projects. Honestly, Cocked And Loaded sounds way more like a classic Ministry album then anything else out there today. It's still terribly manic and over-programmed but every song fucking rocks and there is a refreshing sense of humor about it all (which is maybe all the 'Cocks were s'posed to be when juxtaposed against the über-political Ministry). Some of the usual suspects show up (Biafra and Haynes) but there are supposedly appearances from ZZ Top and Cheap Trick on this record as well. You'd never be able to tell - for all I know that was legal's way of clearing guitar samples. Even still, a solid 55 minutes of industrial metal from the guy who invented the genre, reinvented a dead side project and is still going strong today. 


Saturday, May 30, 2015

Still Wanted Dead Or Alive



A real hidden treasure from hip-hop's golden era, Kool G. Rap's sadly underrated Live And Let Die is significantly more akin to the West Coast style dominating the scene at the time than Rap's previous LPs. It comes as no surprise with Sir Jinx producing that Ice Cube managed to stumble into the studio for a few lyrics as do Geto Boys Scarface and Bushwick Bill. Labelmate Big Daddy Kane shows up as well. Some of the songs are a little akin to the fast-paced stuff Cube did on AmeriKKKA's but there are enough slow bass-heavy tunes (sounding much like Scarface's Rap-A-Lot debut) to keep it fresh. And his ode to cock-blocking is fucking hilarious. It's unfortunate that Warner Bros. balked at the record cover and eventually refused the LP's distribution (the bad taste of Body Count still in everyone's mouth) - Live And Let Die never had a chance at the recognition it deserved. Kool G. Rap has stayed on the scene since and has enjoyed a respectable (and respected) career but this is easily my favorite record of his - enjoy.


Thursday, May 28, 2015

Straight Outta Drummondville



Wow, give it up to fucking Québec people. The best French screamo nonsense from Canada since Despised Icon decided they wanted to quit and "raise families". Good for them. Back here on planet Earth I was happy to stumble upon the first LP from fellow countrymen Politess. Way less harmonic-heavy deathcore and much more screaming hardcore this record reminds me a lot more of what Eighteen Visions was trying to do back in the day. It drags at times but it's still the best heavy shit I've heard this week. Gotta love the saxophone overdubs as well - shades of Siege. Check 'em on bandcamp and enjoy.


Monday, May 25, 2015

Do It Like An Instrumental



Look, when it comes down to it, there's little I can write to further extol the greatness of the Geto Boys' Def American release. I came across these instrumentals of "Fuck 'Em" and "Do It Like A G.O." the other day and have been listening to them non-stop. Evidently the cuts existed as a 12" vinyl-only release back in 1990 but I'm pretty sure these were culled together from the original record samples by someone with a LOT more Audacity dexterity then me. A complaint? I just wish there was an instrumental version of the whole album. Enjoy. 


Sunday, May 24, 2015

Faith



Straight outta Finland comes another incredible slab of vinyl from some nameless four-piece playing the most desperate doomcore sludge. Regardless of what that says about my internet searches (or basic musical tastes in general), Usko has been on my playlist radar for the last couple years after their solid debut Kuusi LP which was admittedly a tad more dronish (think Loinen... Stumm... yeah you get it) than this 2013 single which mainlines the meth, turns up the gain and elevates the tempo to a resounding 4/4 with excellent results. Some powerviolence influences in there as well - it's an enjoyable 10-minute fix.


Saturday, May 23, 2015

Blues Man



A week late, I know. While I grew up vaguely familiar with B.B. King's oldies radio hits, I never actually listened to an album of his until way into the 90's. A co-worker/dope dealer friend of mine who was in retrospect a clear-as-day bad fucking seed surprised me one afternoon by dropping this CD on the boom box and insisting I teach him how to play a few of the riffs on guitar in exchange for some cheaply cut blow. I bit. What actually occurred that afternoon was us getting high as fucking kites while listening repeatedly to the wah-wah grooves of "Everybody Lies A Little" for ten hours. To this day I can't get that song out of my head and my buddy still can't play a lick of guitar. Rest in peace Mr. King.


Friday, May 22, 2015

Broken Lung II



Is there really anything more to say other than this band is without a doubt the second incarnation of Abominable Iron Sloth? While there are some subtle differences (mainly in the vocals), I can't help but be reminded of "I Am Your Carcass" while listening to this excellent slab of sludgecore. Pounding, sluggish downtuned metal to destroy. There are some slight stoner/Southern sludge-esque influences, especially in "There Was A Bloodbath" and "Take Back The Hive" to keep it interesting but make no mistake, this is textbook chugging riffage here. For those who care, the band is busy putting finishing touches on their second album (preview track here) and I posted a couple demo tracks from this LP a few years ago. Enjoy.


Thursday, May 21, 2015

The Dude abides...



Awesome record from Detroit one-man musical extraordinaire Dude. Shit, this motherfucker flies solo, dig? You only wish your home-grown 4-track recordings could lick the guava like this fucking guy. If you haven't realized, I was pleasantly surprised by Dude's amazing debut of which I stumbled upon after many drunken hours surveying the tripe on bandcamp. Influenced by a myriad of bands ranging from the Beatles to the Bee Gees (c'mon tell me you can't envision the "Spicks & Specks" chords during the opening to "In The Next Pocket"), Dude is channeling the vibe Ween and Beck brought to the forefront a decade ago. An easily listenable album worth some of your hard earned duckets. Enjoy.


Wednesday, May 20, 2015

loud. noisy. grating.



Sweet fucking debut EP from a bunch of insane Austrian grinders; this is not the same defunct post-metal Brooklyn, NY two-piece I raved about a few years ago. Instead Orphan blasts forth from the middle of nowhere (actually Linz, Austria) and are a blistering amalgam of metalcore (Burnt By The Sun maybe?) grind, and insane break-heavy hardcore à la the first See You Next Tuesday record. Of course the noisy nonsense is all over in about 15 manic minutes but it never gets tiring and most bands wish they could fit so many grooves into a single record. The band is actively touring around eastern Europe this summer so catch these crazy fuckers if at all possible. Facebook here. Bandcamp there. Enjoy.


Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Ted, Just Admit It...



I thought I'd switch gears real quick and upload what I feel is a rather important piece of out-of-print literature - the 1981 biography by Ted Bundy's ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer. Under the pseudonym Elizabeth Kendall (she was also known as Beth Archer or Meg Anders) she writes an absolutely compelling diatribe about living with someone who was at the time brutally murdering innocent women while appearing as an absolute snapshot of normalcy. He's as insecure and flawed as any of us - likes Mickey's malt liquor of all things! The book follows their relationship through the 1976 Utah trial for Carol DaRonch's attempted kidnapping and ends with some sporadic contact after his escape to Florida. Kloepfer is incredibly honest - her struggles with alcohol alone are almost worthy of a novel - much less living with a serial killer. Essential reading. I also included an audio recording of Ted Bundy's Fatal Addiction interview with evangelist James Dobson the day before his execution, January 23, 1989. Ted is annoyingly self-serving and indirectly absolves himself under the guise of blaming pornography and slasher movies for his actions. Yeah, I know he is scared of dying in 24 hours but have some self respect and take some ownership for shit's sake. There's a great moment where a phone rings in the background and he pauses. Nope, it's not the governor motherfucker, execution is still on schedule. He doesn't answer any specific murder questions - primarily 12-year old Kim Leach which is frustrating (he claims he "can't really talk about that right now") which would have satisfied the whole reason for the interview - instead he kind of tries to make it seem like the pain is a burden he's carrying. Fucked up shit. Enjoy.

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Thursday, May 14, 2015

You're A Fucking Pussy



Man, I coulda sworn I had posted this snotty lil' EP ages ago but I'll just go ahead and blame the sixteen thousand Miller Lite's I've drank since its 2010 release for my lapse in memory. Sounding more akin to thrashy metalcore than straightforward hardcore, this Goshen, IN quartet blasts through six wonderfully anti-PC tracks in 12 frantic minutes. Rounding the token offensive bases from the requisite "Commit Suicide" to "Vegan Faggot" (my favorite) and "Beat Women" you can't help but smirk at the chorus to "Never Sober"... "Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink you faggot!" It doesn't seem like the band has done a whole lot since releasing this minor masterpiece but they still have a facebook page that gets updated once in a while. Enjoy.


Sunday, May 10, 2015

Lyrics Of Fury



Man, talk about shooting your wad too early. While undeniably an old-school classic let's be honest, the first two tracks of Eric B. & Rakim's sophomore LP Follow The Leader are the only real reason to own this album. The title single and "Microphone Fiend" (with arguably the most copied groove in rap history) are two of the tightest hip-hop songs ever - the kind of shit you'd give to an alien if you had to explain to it what rap was. Now as far as Eric B. & Rakim go, I was already a pretty big fan of theirs (primarily from the epic seven-minute "madness mix" of "Paid In Full" off the Colors soundtrack) so when the gangster-esque "Follow The Leader" video debuted on Yo MTV Raps! (yeah white suburbia!) I was fucking hooked. With a voice like no other, Rakim was easily one of the smoothest and most recognizable rappers of his time and while I never thought Eric B. could stop traffic as a scratch artist that guy could cut some fucking samples together. The rest of the recordis listenable, if not terribly overwhelming. There are elements of "Lyrics Of Fury," "The R" and "Musical Massacre" that I kinda like every now and then but pretty much I wore out my cassette rewinding the first ten minutes of side A over and over again. Enjoy.


Thursday, May 7, 2015

Whatever happened to Robert Deathrage?



I gotta admit, there is little out that offends me. Save for people killing kids and shit like that I am pretty much a drunk cynical curmudgeon when it comes to general human misery.  Still, there is something about the Meat Shits that actually irritates (dare I say "bothers"?) me twenty-five years after excitedly discovering them on Ax/ction Records' epic Apocalyptic Convulsions 10" comp LP. At the time it was their image more than the "music". Sick-ass song titles plastered on DIY 7" paper sleeves slathered together with shitty xeroxes of all the 1-900 ads you'd find in the back pages of Hustler. In a pinch you could almost jerk off to a Meat Shits record (for some reason the C-grade blowjob queen on the back of Make Me Cum was weirdly attractive but I digress...) Regardless, the schtick got old real fast; enticing song titles like "Golden Shower Girls" and "Gallons Of Cum" were just simple blasts of nonsense after an overly long VHS-ripped porno sample. So when lead man Robert Deathrage got his act together, reinvented the band and destroyed the scene with 1993's watershed Ecstasy Of Death, I figured he was doing what Anal Cunt was then aspiring to - leaving the 2-second noise blasts to the Germans and creating a legitimate noise/grind hybrid while not totally dismissing the noisy past. Without a doubt it worked on Ecstasy. Still, that CD red-flagged Rob's strangely over-aggressive (obsessive?) campaign against AIDS and gays. What followed over the years were such gems as Homosexual Slaughter and Sniper At The Fag Parade - completely derivative of the trend-setting Ecstasy but sadly lacking the innocence of the debut full-length and sounding just... hateful. I dunno, while I'm to this day still a fan of some really ultra-mysoginistic, homophobic, xenophobic, anti-Semitic musicians like GG, AxCx, Cunt Sludge, and their ilk; none of these bands were so intensely committed to being anti-something as the Meat Shits were towards gays (and women as well which is a totally inconsistent diatribe but this ain't no PhD thesis debate...) and without a fucking lick of redeeming self-serving humor about it. So where am I going with this rambling post? To me it is amazing that the strange life of Robert Deathrage and the various internet theories about his floating through the California metal scenes with a wrath of fucking everyone over behind him aren't up for more discussion. Shit, the guy has photos of himself with his newborn godchild for Christ's sake on his oddly still-working myspace page. Yet evidently he disappeared from the scene because he had cancer? At the same time Seth Putnam went into a coma? Who knows if we will ever hear again from the little brown noise metal outfit straight outta Modesto, CA but it is interesting that these days I'd rather listen to the kinda annoying shit noise blasts I heard back in the day then the "real" hatecore/grindcore band they/he eventually became. I'll take the former... à la their 1990 quasi-epic Genital Infection...