Radio Oscillator 11

After so long, it's finally here! A new episode!!

1. Devo - Mongoloid
2. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Colleen
3. Yoko Ono - Greenfield Morning I Pushed An EMpty Baby Carriage All Over The City
4. Caspar Brötzmann Massaker - Tempelhof
5. Dream/Aktion Unit - (Track 3)
6. Rotten Sound - Burden
7. Andrew Bird - Heretics
8. White Zombie - Shack Of Hate
9. Borbetomagus - One For Tram
10. Jazkamer - Friends Of Satan
11. King Crimson - 21th Century Schizoid Man (live bootleg 1969)
12. Reagan Youth - USA
13. Xasthur - The Eerie Bliss And Torture (Of Solitude)
14. Neurosis - Water Is Not Enough

Radio Oscillator 11.mp3

Subscribe, etc.: http://oscillator.podomatic.com/

Or listen to it on the player to your right

XBXRX, February 1, Centro Cultural Español.

First of all, i would like to take this opportunity and thank the promoters and organizers of this show for daring to take a risk and bring a band with virtually no presence in Mexico and have them play a free show, just doing it because the band is awesome. Everybody give a big round of applause to them.

One of my favorite things about gigs hosted on the Centro Cultural Español, besides that it's a nice place with art and fine architecture instead of the ratholes that usually host rock shows (which also have their charms, but i do think that the occasional change in setting is actually a good thing), it's that it has such a casual vibe that you can come early, hang around for the soundcheck and no one tells you anything: i arrived just as XBXRX were doing their soundcheck and saw that they were having some problems, like not having a proper drum stool and trying to fix it by having a chair with some bags on it so that the height could be compensated. The band were in their civilian clothes, with the vocalist wearing a blazer and a scarf and drummer Weasel Walter wearing an Immortal long sleeve shirt. The place was getting crammed with people (almost literally) and, actually, kind of started thinking that the people who actually attend shows at the Español are some kind of hybrid between hipster and emo kid, maybe some mutation going on although not everybody present was a poseur; when people started to arrived, they started to play Supergrass' greatest hits thru the P.A.which seemed weird, i would have thought that it would be more appropriate to put something like the Locust or the Blood Brothers or some Load or Skin Graft release, then a DJ got up and started to put a mixture of indie pop stuff that contrasted even more than Supergrass (i still think the idea was to contrast and not because they didn't know what kind of band XBXRX are...or perhaps they just judged them because of their hairstyles?). The DJ played everything from bossanova to i don't know what to call it anymore but very light and bland stuff, of which i only recognized a song from the new Of Montreal album, afterwards they started to play old but still lighter punk shit like the Clash's "Spanish Bombs" and the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks" to give way to the more predictable Joy Division and Smiths selections; the song i liked the most that got played was, without a doubt, "No Fun" by the Stooges, i'm beginning to think that the new super cool classic if you don't pretend to like them you're a tool and, therefore, they are going to get overburned by people (kinda like with the Ramones and the Misfits) are the Stooges, what with them releasing a new album in April; if that does happen, i'm willing to do a test to find true fans as opposed to poseurs by having them listen to "L.A. Blues" and see how they get horrified, without telling them who plays the song.

The first band to play were X=R7 who are from Mexicalli and, i understand, are a side project of Maniqui Lazer, who are pretty cool. X=R7 (i can't stop thinking how derivative their name is) are a drums n' synths duo, they played a really long set (or so it seemed to me) which consisted of monotonous riffs with simple drumming being repeted for 2 minutes at a time, i also can't stop thinking they sounded like if the drummer and the keyboardist from the Locust decided to come up with riffs one at a time and being incredibly lazy in the process; the band was enthusiastic but, throughout their set i kept wondering how many spazztic bands does it take before they all start to sound the same. I love Plague Soundscapes a hella lot too but you have to try and add something new to the mix and not just try to approximate that sound just because it's so crazy.

The next band to play were the much awaited XBXRX, already in uniform with pastel blue bowling-like shirts, who right from the beginning started to do as they usually do, with the singer dude and the guitarist going into the slam dancing with the crowd, without missing a note in any of their instruments; at around the fourth or the fifth song, they did the one where they ask the crowd to get down which title i'm forgetting at the moment, the crowd in front of the stage kind started to follow suit but were still not very convinced, even the singer got off the stage to pull people to the floor; the fact that there was so many hipsters trying as hard as they can to look uninterested didn't help, but, eventually, most of the crowd on the front of the stage (including me) was on the floor, the vocalist said that when he said thrice, he wanted everyone to jump up and down and scream but Weasel signaled him to count to four with his hand and corrected; when he counted to four, the pit exploded to all sides, i even got into the slam action (which i haven't gotten into for a long time now) and the truth is that it was pure classic slamdancing, no Kung Fu-like kicking or any of that shit, it was chaos, it was, like Exodus used to say, "good, friendly, violent fun"; i got into the floor until i got tired and returned to the calm flank (i did return to the pit towards the end). Their set successfully combined material from their latest Sixth In Sixes with their older songs, displaying a slight sofistication on their most recent stuff as opposed to their rawer, earlier shit, even though the difference was just a hair. The band, after hurling themselves to the Mexican crowd, getting on the bass drum, striking the structures over the stage with their guitars and spazz around onstage in general, ended their performance after some 25 minutes since they started, they didn't do like on videos i've seen of them from past shows, destroying drums and guitars in an orgy like the Who on crank, they just finished playing, high fiving and smiling to the crowd who congratulated them for a brilliant, if very brief, set.

In between XBXRX and the next band, my editor Marcelo pointed me to a celebrity among us, it was Chino Moreno from the Deftones (ED: as i was typing "Deftones" i started typing it as "Deer" and i made me think, what if there was a tribute band called Deertones? or how about Defhoof? they would play something like "Dog on the DRIIIIIIIVE/Away/I don't care where just on the sidewalk" or "COOOOOOOOOOME!!/PANDA PANDA PANDA!!!"), Most likely trying to score himself some indie points with his attendance, although he wasn't on a rockstar trip or anything, he was really laidback, talking to people and stuff. He's also lost tons of weight recently, so much so that he can't get confused with the guitar player anymore; well, that's the celebrity gossip part of this review.

Afterwards, Roc & Robots got up onstage, some dudes wearing garbage bags, angular haircuts and keytars (you know, those synths you strap on like guitars); they played a mixture between Wire or Magazine-style post punk and Devo-like new wave, with songs ranging from faithful renditions to the style to stupid shite. Listening to them, i couldn't stop thinking how this was a free show and that it was a good soundtrack for drinking a beer, but they didn't really offer anything, the had nothing going as far as a show was concerned and, had the band gotten together 28 years ago, they most likely would be afraid to try to play this style of music, it's just that now it's fashionable and retro; we actually walked out from the place before they finished playing, we then got to listen to the time-defining classic Ass Cobra by Turbonegro, on the way back home.

Bands like XBXRX don't come play here every other day and it's even better that there's support for gigs like these and we hope to see more of these, that XBXRX come back soon to play a longer show and that, fingers crossed, Weasel Walters decides to bring the Flying Luttenbachers here to give some lessons, because people here need to learn.

Alice Coltrane (1937-2007)

I still think it's the complete opposite of rock n' roll

But the new inductees to the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame have been announced, i reserve my comments about rock n' roll , being something that breaks with dumb traditions, eliminates barriers between audience and performer and in general, takes no bullshit has to have a museum and ceremonies to make it overblown like some kind of crap ass sport.

The artists who will enter the biggest joke in music history since MTV will be a selected group of very different from one another groups and it only makes me ask myself, and i redirect the question to you, dear reader, can you imagine a jam between all of them?

The Ronettes



They haven't gotten the Ronettes in until now?! This is an even bigger and stupidier joke!!!! If this garbage of Hall of Fame thing meant anything in reality, then Ronnie Spector would have helped cut the ribbon the day they opened the place.


Patti Smith



Totally deserved (actually, i don't have much complains whether people were worthy of recognition or not this year, in general) Lenny Kay should have been induced years ago seperately, just for compiling Nuggets.

R.E.M.



Do i think they are that good? No, but there was a time where they could write a mean tune and later on, used this skill in bursts (like with that song "Lotus"), some good tunes nonetheless, they are totally overrated. I picked one of their few songs i like.

Van Halen



Fuck yeah!!!! I only ask myself how they will attend the ceremony. 10 bucks say Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony will be the only ones present; can you imagine a conversation between David Lee Roth and Patti Smith? Ten more bucks say he calls her "bearded lady" within 5 minutes.

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five



Of course yes, he only needs to get up and do a super turntable solo with his feet and everything.



Now here are the songs:

Van Halen - Unchained.mp3 from Fair Warning, 1981
R.E.M. - Driver 8.mp3 from Fables Of Reconstruction, 1985
The Ronettes - Be My Baby.mp3, 1963
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five - The Message.mp3 from The Message, 1982
Patti Smith Group - Pale Blue Eyes/Louie Louie.mp3 some CBGBs comp, 1976(?)

Their name is god (We hate ourselves)

I've been forgetting to post about it but i have had it in mind ever since i heard about it, coming out on March 20 thru Emetic Records will be For The Sick: A Tribute To Eyehategod; yes, a very deserving tribute to Eyehategod. This New Orleans' band's music resonates today more than anything, combining hardcore punk with crust and doom to birth some of the most oppresive sounds ever comitted to magnetic tape and whatever other media; this sound is everywhere today, in bands who demonstrate it straight up like Khanate (RIP), Corrupted and Kylesa, and on pretty much the whole avant-garde doom metal scene of late (everyone from Boris to Mastodon to Jesu to you know); more so that the band has just gotten over some of their worst moments, what with the huracan Katrina leaving vocalist Mike Williams homeless and landing him in jail; but now they are reunited, out of prison and (allegedly) rehabed from their legendarious heroin addictions.

My fascination with Eyehategod goes beyong simply liking their music, it's not possible for me to just headbang to their stonerific riffs and be done with it; for starters and just like black metal, the band is negative to the extreme, i mean you just have to look at their name! But it's not just simple negativity what draws me to this band either, it's more like their sense of hate, it's their sense of things being wrong and that they will get worse no matter what; maybe it's the heroin thing, since it's something i haven't experienced and don't plan to, it's something completely alien to me and watching it's effects has some kind of exploratory quality to me like so many things in life, you can say it's a socioanthropological thing (like people who observe the homeless). Overall, it's because their hate is not monochromatic, it's both inner and outer, it's outer in execution mostly, but it's inner in any other way; even giving titles to their songs like "I Am The Gestapo" and "White Nigger", these are not fingerpointing declarations or prejudicism aiming to harm third parties, these are screams for external hatred, since hating ourselves (and we all do, at different levels) has a limit, you are just one person and feeling disgusted of oneself only leaves us to feeling bad; but hatred rises, so much that it can no longer be contained in our own thoughts and this urges to burst out, that's when we start to long for the spit of a stranger on our cheeks or someone else's boot in our groins, we want to inform them that they are better than us but we don't want them to feel good about it, we want to bring them to our level, so they can have a first-hand look at it, a first row sit to feeling like crap and we want them to feel what it's like to stab oneself from the inside; also, we want to remind them that they are no better than us, they are just as bad and they also can't really stand themselves. This happens every day and closer than we would like to think, but we seldom hear about it, except on certain European films and with certain existentialist writers (and taken to overpretentious plains in most cases); that's why Eyehategod are as important as any folky singer-songwriter denouncing the horrors of war and totalitarian governments, they're as important as whoever is currently topping the charts singing about uncorresponded love, as important as anyone who are documenting the time they are living in, etc. it's because someone, or more like many someones, feel like that and are so caught up in their own situations that they can't express themselves as much as they would like to, that's why there's someone to put a beat over it and some chords in the back to be able to memorize them and be set free from deep within the soul; it's because it exists and denying it won't make it disappear, it only makes it grow larger, they are not pathetic like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park or Eminem, because they are not asking for sympathy and are not looking to be accepted; more so, they demand rejection and won't stop until they find it, they don't have an agenda, they don't manipulate people into their hidden plans, they are brutal and straight up. Eyehategod are not positive at all but they are vital, more than anything for their own well being because their hatred can't let them consume themselves, they need to submerge themselves in it and feel it as much as possible, feel it from someone else to validate themselves, secure their places in the world as scum, to vent (spew?) it from the stage with screeching voices and incredibly thick, southern fried riffs; Eyehategod are vital for us because they talk about our own little inner intolerant beings that eat us from the inside out, but by experiencing hatred from the outside in, we give them a little window for them to spit their vile and let them back into the attic where they spend their time they are not spending in our ears telling us how perfect we're not, because of course we're not, it's because of error that there's learning and learning is the reason there's practice and practice lead us into doing things again and again for enjoyment in part (and it also makes perfect). It's peace thru war thru peace and war, but it's just that it's my war.



My only fear is that this will end up like the Melvins tribute, with lots of promising bands and (in the case of the Melvs one) collaborations but having, in the end more copies than real covers.

So here's the tracklisting with some comentary by myself where i felt like commenting:

Disc one:

01 - Dot(.) - Man is Too Ignorant to Exist (This band is good, i have their 12" EP, and this is an amazing song)
02 - Unearthly Trance - Shinobi (I have been hearing a lot about this band lately but i'm yet to listen to them, "Shinobi" is also an amazing song.)
03 - Cable - Pigs (No idea)
04 - Bowel - Run it Into the Ground (No idea)
05 - Alabama Thunderpussy - Godsong (ATP are good but i'm not fully into them for some reason, Jeff Gilbert (Metal Detector is still sadly missed) described them as Saint Vitus with coveralls and he's pretty spot on there.)
06 - Deadbird - Children of God (No idea)
07 - Kylesa - Left to Starve (This band is awesome and EHG's influence can be seen in their music, their records are nuts..)
08 - Rue - Blank (No idea)
09 - Brutal Truth - Sister Fucker (FU-Ckin-A; Brutal Truth is the shit!!!)
10 - Byzantine - Shop Lift (Never heard them but their on Kylesa's and Lamb Of God's label)
11 - Buried At Sea w/ Kevin Sharp - White Nigger (I haven't heard BAS yet but if Kevin Sharp is in it, it's probably great)
12 - Raging Speedhorn - 30$ Bag (These guys are Kerrang! darlings or something, the song is a classic though)
13 - The Unholy 3 - Take As Needed for Pain (No idea)
14 - The Esoteric - Crimes Against Skin (I have the feeling i have heard this band before)
15 - Total Fucking Destruction - Kill Your Boss (No idea)
16 - Triac - My Name is God (I Hate You) (n.i.)
17 - One Dead Three Wounded - Dog's Holy Life (I was going to say n.i. but the name rings a bell)
18 - Halo of Locusts - Dixie Whisky (Awesome song!!!)

Disc two

01 - Minsk - Ruptured Heart Theory (I need ginseng or something for my memory)
02 - Ramesses - Lack of Almost Everything (Fuck yeah!!!!! this is what's his face and what's his face from Electric Wizard!!!!!)
03 - The Mighty Nimbus - Zero Nowhere (n.i.)
04 - Lair Of The Minotaur - Peace thru war (Fuck yeah!!!! Thrash band with strong Venom/Bathory/Celtic Frost influences and one dude from Pelican plays here)
05 - Sourvein - Broken Down But Not Locked Up (Lady Sovereign? cool!!)
06 - Bloody Panda - Anxiety Hangover (Great name but n.i.)
07 - Mouth Of The Architect - Story of the Eye (Well known or something, i'm yet to hear them)
08 - Left In Ruin - Southern Discomfort (n.i.)
09 - Watch Them Die - Serving Time In The Middle of Nowhere (They got a spot in here because these used to be the dudes in Buzz*oven)
10 - Ozenza - Revelation/Revolution (n-i-)
11 - Swarm Of The Lotus - Blood Money (n.i.)
12 - Ichabod - Jack Ass In The Will Of God (n.i. although i think they are black metal)
13 - Kill The Client - The Confusion Machine Process
14 - Sow Belly - 99 Miles of Bad Road
15 - If He Dies, He Dies - Age of Bootcamp
16 - The Nain Rouge - I am the Gestapo
17 - The Unholy 3 - Torn Between Suicide And Breakfast



Now here's some songs for the band that's being paid respects:

Eyehategod - Masters Of Legalized Confusion.mp3 from the classic Dopesick, 1996
Eyehategod - Shinobi.mp3 from their live demo, 1989
Eyehategod - 30$ Bag.mp3 from 2000-???-?? somewhere in Europe.

For The Sick in MySpace (it has 4 songs from the tribute for listening): http://www.myspace.com/forthesick