22nd January 2010

Audio with 12 plays with 2 notes

Shining - 21st Century Schizoid Man
Blackjazz (Indie Recordings)

Imagine a collaboration between early King Crimson, Graveland, and Peter Brotzmann.  Sounds fucking amazing, right?  Well, listen to Shining’s Blackjazz and be amazed.

The guitars move from droning chords to wailing tremolo leads, the drums are thudding and tremendous, the vocals are screaming and intense in the industrial-metal style, with none of the hilarious heavy-metal growlings a la Deth-klok that you find so much in metal.  And the saxophone… yeah, there’s sax.  And it’s fucking great, in full free-jazz style, reminiscent of Mats Gustafsson or Ian McDonald.

Right from track one, “The Madness and the Damage Done,” Blackjazz is overflowing with power and energy.  Their cover of King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man,” is the only one I’ve ever heard which rivals the original in aggression, intensity, and musicianship.  And I can easily imagine zombies rising from the grave and slowly consuming the town before ripping me to pieces to the song “Omen.”  Those tracks, along with the sax face-melter “Healter Skelter,” stand out, but I think the whole album is fantastic.

The record drops on January 25th, and that’s when you should get it.

Tagged: darkness and also there is metalgetting into a serious thinghonkers and squeakersholee shituraaaaa

15th December 2009

Audio with 41 plays with 4 notes

The Back C.C.’s - Stop Me

The Back C.C.’s are a garage punk group comin’ out of Brooklyn and pulling out the kind of low-fidelity, high-energy music that listeners of the Mummies and Teengenerate will really dig.  I dropped a line to these dudes, and asked them a few questions.  Check it out!

(picture via Brooklyn Vegan; hope they don’t mind)

First, make up your own genre.  What kind of music do you guys play?

Rock n’ Roll

How did you get started playing music?

Church Choir.

What keeps you going?

My Girlfriend, Mary Jane.

Who influenced you guys (musically and/or philosophically), and can you describe how?

The Mummies, The Gories.  They are Lo-Fi.

What are your favorite records of all time?

Thee Borders,  50’s and 60’s.

What are your favorite records of the past year?

Thee Borders, The Manikins ( from Sweden).
Who are your favorite under-rated musicians?

Thee Borders, The Back C.C.’s

When you guys opened up for the Mummies last summer, you really tore shit up (and so did the Mummies).  Do you have any crazy performance stories?

*There was an Atlantic Records Hip Hop show. We opened up. Gibby Haynes from The Butthole Surfers comes and introduced us. There was only 2 hundred Hip Hop People. We played punk rock songs and Gibby was gone before we were done. Nice.
*After a show in Detroit. An old lady who has 2 grown sons and the other a 40 years old prostitute with meth mouth approached and offered us rubber sex. Mmm„, Detroit Rock City, Baby I’m coming back„,.

Can you tell me about any new records you might be working on?

We’re working on an album earlier next year.

Can I get an mp3 to post on the blog to show people what you guys sound like?

No Problem. “Stop Me”.

Check it.

Thanks to the Back C.C.’s for taking the time to answer my questions.  If ya got the chance, check them out, they put on a super fuzzy, super fast, super loud show, and they’re cool dudes!

Tagged: stuck in thee garagemusical anarchistsuraaaaa

18th November 2009

Audio with 10 plays with 2 notes

Face Value - Holding the Grudge
Rode Hard, Put Away Wet: Clevo HC ‘89-93 (Smog Veil)

(Picture via Double Cross, as it was the biggest/best Face Value pic I could find.  Hope they don’t mind.)

Smog Veil’s been putting out some interesting stuff, and, while I think this is a cool release, it is unfortunately on the less interesting side of things.  Face Value was a Cleveland hardcore band, and this record is a sort of chronology of the highlights of their career in the “Clevo HC” scene, which is a cool thing to do, and I applaud Smog Veil for doing what they do, which is mostly underground and experimental rock stuff.  But if you’re wondering how this sounds, I’ll give you a hint: blast beats.  Wait, shit, I gave everything away.

There are interesting parts on the record, but once they take it back to the blast beats, and they always do, then it sounds the same as every other song on the record.  So, give this one a shot if you’re into quick repetitions, and, hey, give it a shot in general. I mean, seriously, have an open mind, would you?

Tagged: fuck youuraaaaawhite punks on dope