Saturday, March 26, 2011

new TGOS

Decibel posted a track HERE.  FUCK YES. How do you dudes stay so prolific? nice creamy solo btw...
-pcm

sxsw...pcm part 2

Another brief sxsw post...I don't really listen to much HC these days unless its old stuff that comes up on my ipod whilst shufflin'. Doesn't mean i don't enjoy it, I just don't keep up. With that being said, I was pretty pumped to see Trash Talk at Emo's after I had heard snippets of their tunes. They're from Sacramento. I'm sure they are famous in HC circles and I'm just behind, but they fucking rule. Classic HC with short, fast songs, but with some added modern brootality, i guess? Just pissed and mean and aggro. Singer dude loves to use long microphone cables to go to the floor and all over. He must be checking the sound from the floor to make sure the audience can hear a good mix. Not sure why he feels the need to somersault off the stage though. And why do their fans hate each other so much that they hit each other while watching this band. Get along fellas! in all seriousness, I guess their guitar player got stabbed by some white power dude before they went to Austin so they had a fill-in. That's fucked up. Hope he is alright.


 Arson Anthem kid of sucked.  Hank III wasn't there, not like that would've saved them. Just a bit boring i suppose.

Go to The Hole in the Wall bar in Austin. Its like the melody inn of Austin i guess. the pic above is from there. -pcm

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

wolvhammer

Saw these dudes last night @ the melody inn. Good shit. peep their blog and get u a free download. punkish black metal for the depressed!  go to this link now!

-pcm

Saturday, March 12, 2011

POTAH @ sxsw 2011

So yeah, we are headed to Austin next week! It is a bit overwhelming in that there are so many damn bands i want to see and showcases i want to go to. Mostly because i want free drinks and BBQ. Anyway, I hope to bring back some cool pics and reviews. hopefully we will blog while watching King of Queens reruns in our hotel room. we'll see... I know i am stoked to see teh following, but there are some conflicting schedules so...

Saint Vitus
Slough Feg
eyehategod
KEN mode
Cough
Helmet
Crowbar
Kylesa
Weedeater
YOB
Dixie Witch
Sasquatch
Rwake and tons more.. jesus christ i'm gonna be sick of music.
-pcm

7.5 ?'s with Thorr-Axe


Thorr-Axe are a rad doom metal band from southwestern Indiana. Expect to hear a lot from these dudes in the future as they are on the upswing motherfuckers!


1. Give me a background on thorr-axe please.... who are you, how'd you guys meet, why did you start dooming, etc?
We all went to high school together. Travis (the drummer) and I had been wanting to doom it up since November of 2007, but the original incarnation of Thorr-Axe didn't come around until about that time in 2008. We wanted to play real, genuinely heavy music, since there really isn't any in our neck of the woods. Travis played bass and a friend of ours did drums for about two shows, and then we split. We reformed in August of '09, switched Travis over to drums and picked up Mitchell McKinney on bass, and recorded our first EP in January of 2010 at Basement Rage with Bob Fouts. Ever since then, we've been gigging out all over southern Indiana and seeking to expand even further. We just wrapped up recording our first full length album, which will be titled "Wall of Spears" at Basement Rage with Bob Fouts.


2. while recording at basement rage with bob fouts, did he ever fart so nastily that you threw up or almost threw up? if not, next time you see him feed him chili dogs. Did he do any dumb shit when you recorded with him?
Fortunately, we never had any toxic meltdowns during the recording process. He didn't do any dumb shit by any measure of the word, haha. He DOES make some balls-deep cookies, though...

3. favorite 5 albums or the moment?
Burzum - Filosofem
Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough
Reverend Bizarre - II: Crush the Insects
Warning - Watching From a Distance
Sleep - Holy Mountain


4. I just found banana peel by computer, that i forgot about... do you think anyone has ever really slipped on a banana peel? do you guys eat bananas often? How brown do you let them get?
My dumb ass has at least once, haha. So because of that, I have some PTSD about bananas, sou they're kind of a no-go for me. I don't know about Roach or Mitch, though.


5. You guys seem young but have some rad tones and tunes happening. What gear are you all using?
Tucker (Me):
Guitars: Agile Valkyrie 2 Floyd Rose (DiMarzio Super Distortion pickup in the bridge slot) and an Ibanez IC400 Iceman.
Amps: Live, I run in stereo. I run a 50 watt Laney Pro Tube AOR and an 80s Peavey Butcher, each with their own 4x12.
Effects: I boost both of my heads with one of the 666 Dragonfly BM-1 black metal pedals, and I use a Boss DD-3 delay for solos.

Mitchell (Bass):
Bass: Ibanez 90's TR50.
Amps: Peavey Mark 3 300 watt head into a Peavey 2x10/1x18 cab and an old off-brand 1x15 cab.


6. I notice that you guys covered Dragonaut. Bulletwolf also has done that song a few times. Y'all ever fuck up the song like we do? (i'm lying, Bulletwolf never fucks up..ha!)
The only fuckup we usually have is playing it too fucking fast, haha! It's this stoned-out song, and we just have to fucking blast through it for some stupid reason.


7. favorite pre-show meal besides hot dogs?
Shitty gas station taquitos and red bull!

.5  ....about tire pressure?
Fuck if I know what that means, haha.

-Tucker of Thorr-Axe

Sunday, March 6, 2011

...by the light of lamp i sit to type...


Primus/Pork Soda, had to dig out an old favourite.
I've also rocked some later Primus recently, Anti-Pop, Tales from the Punchbowl (good spins in their own rite),
but i don't want to talk about them, i wanna talk Pork Soda.
this came out in 1993, and it completely BLEW MY MIND!!
Man, what the fuck is going on here?!?!?!?!
I was way too young to understand what was goin on here.

...bass...
Never had i heard a bass like this, fretless, distorted, all these other effects.
The playing style?!?!  just so weird, different and out there.
If I had kept on my path of Claypool worship this album started me on, i'd be pretty whigged out right now.
The bowing bit on "Pork Soda" is simultaneously hypnotic and annoying.
A re-recording of the song "The Pressman" (first heard on their live debut) churns out a nice bendy bendy riff that the dude probably made up one day while tuning.
and of course there is the oh-so-interesting SLOP of "My Name is Mud."
man, when i think about how many times i have heard somebody try to do this.  just gross.
In a huge understatement, this album is covered with awesome bass work.
...guitar...
There isn't really any other guitar play to compare with Larry Lalonde.
He is doing such complicated things that really just sound like wankery.
I still can't wrap my head around this guys' style (on this or any other album he is on) but I like it.
The way he noodles around the basslines on "The Ol Diamondback Sturgeon" is just perfect.
Cut a track ahead and he is in perfect nu-metal swagger with the bass line on "Nature Boy"
(I would be first in line to admit that this generation of "rock" influenced the worst generation of "recorded material" thinkable)
There aren't really any solos or riffing, just a ton of texture coming from those guitar strings.
...drums...
Tim "Herb" Alexander is the last shove-as-many-notes musician I appreciate.
It's like dude is TRYING to make you think he is playing to much,
and, while i admit that he actually is, it seems to drop right in line where it should.
It compliments the bass just as the guitar lines do, excellent support roles.
It also helps that the dude obviously has drum chops that put him well above the level of "master" of the drum kit.
...voice/lyrics...
Nothing can be said about Les Claypool's voice to credit it that hasn't beed said before
also
Nothing can be said about Les Claypool's voice to knock it that hasn't been said before.
Like it or love it, it is what it is and it fits primus perfectly.
I mean, it's not like he's trying to pull off some Creedence Clearwater Revival or Sam Cooke golden sounding music, they are basically making loud, electric carnival music to show off what they can do with effects, polyrhythms and some damn good chops (the bonus of this, being that they pull it off pretty well becasue the songs hold up) and his near-catterwauling suits that theme just fine.
With lyrics as dark as "Bob" and "My Name as Mud" you get the sense that this guy might be a little too depressing to get along with.
With lyrics as ridiculous as "Mr Krinkle" and "DMV" you feel like you could get some doobies and draft beer and have a dance party.
Hell, a song dedicated to fishing is always gonna at least be interesting (Ol Diamondback Sturgeon).
I can pick any song on Pork Soda and my mind will automatically revisit the chamber I have buried that thinks lines like...
"a pack of mentholated cigarettes keeps my air nice and thick"
"I've been to hell I spell it...I spell it DMV"
"My genetalia and pectoral muscles aren't quite what I would like them to be"
&
"if sweatiness makes you horny, well darlin' I think you're in luck, 'cause all of this clever banter giver me the urge to F%^&"
...are brilliant
but is is the delivery that really makes it.
His voice is equal parts:  whine, nose, nerd & hick.
While the lyrics are equal parts: juvenile, scholar, nerd & hick.
an equation, that in Primus' case, works out just fine.
...
having this album turn me on to their earlier, "classic" (by psuedo popular definition) albums
[Frizzle Fry, Sailing the Seas of Cheese, and their live debut Suck on This]
is one reason i am proud to have been a part of the Phase One MTV Generation (before it became a reality station, it was pretty boss).
the videos for 'Mr Krinkle' and 'My Name is Mud' were damn radical.  go yuotube 'em

other things of note (for me) about this album...
- it is one of the first cassettes i just HAD to get on CD
- it is one the first digi-paks i remember ever seeing
- it is one of the first cds i remember tripping balls too
- i learned it note-for-note, forgot it, and now have fun in the fact that i convinced myself i actually used to know it.

-worm