Sunn O))) Dømkirke Southern Lord OOOO It must be scary for the Grimmrobed ones to dare give a master to a pressing plant, or so is the way they are acting; after the almost unanimous acclaim they received for 2005´s (yes, three years ago, kids) Black One, attempting a new album that’s not twice as mindblowing would be considered shit in the eyes of the all knowing, all seeing dronefanhood, so they keep releasing stop gap records while they can. While last year’s Oracle was patchy at best, this year’s Dømkirke is a bit more flourished and developed, continuing to experiment with the drone metal formula borrowed from Earth but adding and substracting many elements, their m.o. for most of their career; opening with a grand organ dirge accompanied by Mayhem’s Attila Csihar’s pseudo-gregorian vocalizations, the band (playing here inside a massive Norwegian cathedral) goes to familiar, if quieter ground on the second side of the offering, with a trombone adding colour to the sustained guitar chords (yep, they have been listening to Robe.) while Attila and the organ re-enter the picture around halfway through. Side three, meanwhile continues with a little calmness over more sustained notes and feedback tones (and some sound processing thanks to noise wizard Lasse Marhaug) to scale into a murkier patch of sound that continues to the next side, letting go only to find Attila calming everything with his humming voice accompanied just by the organ to lull the visitors into it’s drone. With a journey that ebbs and flows like this, i’m not sure if it’s good or bad that Sunn O))) keep pushing expectations for their next studio album, considering the high quality of material like this
So big fucking news, "meh", the popular demi-word that expresses apathetic reaction to situations or exclamations, is already a word by itself.
I can't remember but perhaps there was a time when including a word on the dictionary was something relevant and even exciting to some; on the pre-internet ages, language, no matter what language, was something completely serious and erudite even, learning the correct uses and spellings of words was a matter that separated the boys from the men, the men from the animals and so on; it was something very strict and even pompous to many. Now, and this has to do with my first reaction to this "news" item, nobody gives a crap about language, as long as a word is accepted massively, it's not only well viewed but also accepted. This is the case with "meh".
I'm not here to preach about the days of old (the ones i wasn't yet born to have witnessed) or to say how shitty people speak and write today, but rather about how easy it is for words to become not only part of our daily lives but also part of our sciences and practices. Like i said, i can't remember when and if it was actual news that a word got included in the dictionary, but it seems now that if a TV character or an internet fad (that may be taken by a TV character later on) gives us a misspelled, misappropiated or plainly a brand new vocalization of a sense or emotion into a word, then a year or two later it's in the dictionary. Why? Is this really progress? Is it the way to go?
On the one hand, words are nothing other than things that allow us to communicate with one another in the easiest way possible, if by using a word we explain ourselves better, be it gramatically correct or not or existant even, then it's probably a good thing; and if many people use the word (with, exponentially, more people receiving and using said word) and you can universally express something with less effort, then that's the use of language in itself, right there.
On the other hand, this reeks of catering to the masses, having a dictionary being sold with words the common man can digest and understand, that he/she can relate because he uses them on a regular basis. "New Improve DICTIONARY!!! Now, with 'Meh' and many other of your favorite words!!! Only $19.99". I'm not saying this is something of grave offense or anything, but not because something is popular means it's something good.
I think words, mostly, are irrelevant to communication; as long as the message is clear, words, grammar and all that can take a back seat. But ignorance is bad and can be very dangerous, and giving license to be ignorant to people is just not right. As i said, communication should be clear.
I use 'meh' a lot, but i think the power of the word (a very strong power, might i add) has been losing itself; i'm not sure if it's good or bad, that remains to be seen (although, if less people have the power of using words, then it's possible that the few who still know the art and use of it might use them to their own advantages and get better results). All i know is that the addition of words to the dictionary is nothing to get excited about anymore; or, simply put, M-E-H.
The Yardbirds, or so do the almighty critics tell us, was the band that gave us the talent of some of the first guitar “virtuosos” in rock music, spawning no less than Eric Clapton (he of Cream, Derek and The Dominos and solo fame), Jeff Beck (he of...uh, the Jeff Beck Group fame and the main inspiration for Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel) and Jimmy Page (he of Led Zeppelin fame). Yet they are wrong if they think that’s all the Yardbirds were about.
Just listening to their music you get a feeling of exhilaration that few bands from that era gave, they possessed a sense of desperation and energy that made you smash your head to the wall or dance like a lunatic; sure, they had a very refined perfection to their playing but that counts for squat if it wasn’t for the way they played, like they meant it and with everything they had. No wonder most garage took upon their sound and it wasn’t until the slash-and-burn excesses of Blue Cheer, the Stooges and the MC5 that those levels of energy were exceded.
Not only were the guitar players excellent in this band, they were all a classic case of the “sum is better than the individual parts” that most great bands have; one of their greatest achievements was the so called rave up part of their songs, a section where they would concentrate into playing harder and more intense until the sound exploded just to go back to where they left off and finish the song (almost 30 years before Daydream Nation), Keith Relf sang with such bravado and intensity but hardly ever letting his voice get out of control, he was not just making the blues standards they used to cover jump, he made them scream! I call bollocks on the reason why Clapton left the Yardbirds, he wasn’t offended by them abandoning their purist roots since they would inject those pure blues numbers with so much adrenaline that they turned them into something else, something that was almost beyond rock back then, something original and all their fucking own.
But yes, the Yardbirds sold out.
Clapton, then nicknamed “Slow Hand” and a little later being the subject of many a “Eric Clapton Is God” graffittis, quit the band as they hit the charts with “For Your Love”. The reason i think Clapton quit is because of this song, namely a) the song’s lead instrument is not the guitar and b) it was a smash hit, unlike all the blues songs Clapton favored; but “For Your Love” is anything but a poppy bland attempt at mass comercial success; in fact, it’s one of the best damn songs to ever be recorded in this Earth; seriously, from the first chords of the harpsichord to the backing vocals to Relf’s delivery to the impossibly heavy breakdown in the middle to the grand last chorus, it retained the rave up quality of their blues adaptations but did it in a picture perfect song format.
Replacing Clapton wasn’t hard, since he recommended a friend of his, Jimmy Page who was then, a studio session player who enjoyed his job and had good pay so he preferred not to join them, instead telling them about his friend Jeff Beck, who had played in minor garage bands in which he experimented with feedback, noise and distortion, something that expanded the band’s sonic palette tenfold coupled with their new found song oriented material, gave the world such blazing recordings such as “Shape Of Things”, “You’re a Better Man Than I” and “Heart Full Of Soul” (the later’s riff originally intended to be played by a sitar), as well as more blues versions like the absolute expressway to their skulls climax of “I’m A Man” that always gives me the chills.
Bassist Paul Samwell-Smith left the band some time after, giving them an opportunity to invite Page again to the band, with the extremely underrated talents of Chris Dreja leaving the rhythm guitar for the four string to have room for Jeff and Jimmy to really let loose. Problem was, there was almost no time since Beck fell sick and was soon after being falsely diagnosed, he was fired while on the road, ending a truly magical era of music when rumours would fly about him slashing his speakers or loosening the tubes in his amp to get his distortion and when bands, sometimes spearheaded by the very own Yardbirds, would experiment with raga forms or gregorian chants.
The band went on to have minor hits with Page but they mostly exploited their experimental side, extending their songs and obliterating them to noise onstage, using the studio as an instrument and not caring about the results or having fear; Jimmy introduced the band to his freak folkish song “White Summer” and the prog noise metal of “Dazed & Confused”, developed by Relf and the rest of the band, although they wouldn’t last very long after.
Today i listen to this band with immortal melodies, daring ideas and incredibly exciting executions and i wonder about what would it have been to be around when they were around and perhaps watching them live with anyone of their brilliant lineups. Often, people look at me funny when i talk about Clapton and Beck and Page and assure them i positively despise Cream, don’t feel like listening to Led Zeppelin most of the time or that i’m not terribly excited to look into the instrumental work of Beck, rather i refer to their early to mid-60’s selves, as much as Bob Dylan felt old newspapers were more relevant in the sixties than the rags of the day; those were the days when a simple blues standard could make you want to slamdance before you could even think about stuff like that, it was music that makes you feel alive over under sideways down, i’m not sure if then but i’m completely positive that they do now, to me at the very least, with a sip of muddy waters, a fuzzed out sitar line and a heartful of soul to make me feel alive.
The Toluca gig got cancelled because of an issue not concerning the bands. Monosodic apologizes to everyone who was going to the gig and we hope to play Toluca some time soon.
Like most current celebrities, i don't find Lindsay Lohan attractive; she's mildly interesting though.
Now, something that's real news (she's a lesbian? NO SHIT!!!); here's a new track by Monosodic that will be part of the GNO EP which, in case you haven't heard, will be released in three separate installments (two as part of netlabel compilations) with an extra song appearing on an other compilation; all the song titles are inspired by Miley Cyrus. Here's the first song from the set available for everyone to listen:
I wrote articles about Acid Mothers Temple and Cannabis Corpse (Municipal Waste member's death metal side project, in case you don't know) for this issue.
There's tons more that's worth reading (if you can read spanish), you can find out about that here: www.myspace.com/revista_nocturna
So the other day at the Sonic Youth Message Board, the discussion of the band signing to Matador started; now, i'm not really for or against any label, but i'm not into label worship or (undeserving) label hatred; that is, i don't love or hate labels, i like and dislike bands left and right, plus there's good years for any label and years that are not that good. People who automatically are into an artist because they are signed to a certain label seems myopic to me and it's something that gets on my nerves.
After someone pointed out that the label had released stuff by Cat Power, Bardo Pond, Cornelius, Guitar Wolf, Guided By Voices, Mission Of Burma, Pavement and Pussy Galore among others (pretty much all of which i agree are most excellent, i would also add Yo La Tengo and Belle & Sebastian), not to mention all the distro they do for smaller and/or international labels; i made the following remark:
Yeah, but they also have Love Of Diagrams, Lavender Diamond (granted, they only had an amazing EP i love dearly but the full lenght was awful), Mogwai who have gone pretty much downhill in my opinion since Rock Action, Brightback Smelly Hippie or whatever they're called, the New Pornographers, and i mean bands who are active.
The only one right now you mentioned that's still in the label is Cat Power (*of course, then i forgot to mention YLT, B&S, as well as Times New Viking).
Fuckers also dropped Bardo Pond (They didn't sell records, eh? NO SHIT!! You should have known that ever since you first listened to them!).
Anyhoo, independently of my personal feelings towards Matador, no label is god. Matador, Geffen, same shit for Sonic Youth.
(And don't get me the 'creative freedom' thing, Thurston is just goofing around as always...having released A Thousand Leaves, NYC Ghosts & Flowers and Murray Street on a major is pretty much the most freedom any band has enjoyed in a major since the 70's).
Now, this item was brought to my attention recently, and so to pinpoint it's relevance, i'll quote the part that concerns us:
We’ve been chit-chatting for a while now about adding a feature to the Matablog specifically devoted to a former Matador band and/or old moment from the label’s history, and such a move is long overdue. It just so happens this notion came up again a day or two after some rocket scientist posted on the Sonic Youth.com message board that Matador was a big heap o’ crud because we “dropped Bardo Pond.” Listen pal, unless your name is Darren Mock or Barry Hogan, you can fuck off. We put out 4 Bardo Pond albums and did the very best we could. Seriously, the web is Blame The Label Central. How about blaming some of the fans who aren’t interesting, attractive, charismatic or funny enough to get anyone to check out their favorite bands?* ... (* - we do genuinely believe the majority of Matador record buyers are extremely interesting, attractive, charismatic and funny. Especially when they are giving us money. Even when they’re griping on message boards)
I never said that Matador was a crap label and that Sonic Youth shouldn’t sign with them, nor did i ever said that the big meanie label was destroying artists; that’s besides the point even.
Any full time label does decisions, good and bad, for it’s own sake of business survival, that’s a fact; that’s why, to the eyes of artists and fans, sometimes they make “bad choices” we don’t agree with, and there’s periods when rosters change and staff gets drafted and the label gets re-structured, and some feel the “sound” of said label is lost or that the quality of the bands has dropped (all relative as taste is personal), that’s why no label is perfect. Not SST, not Atlantic, not Motown, not Drag City.
Labels bring the business side to the music, they are the ones putting the money to produce the records and they are the ones who take them to the shops (or to another company that takes them to the shops); a label isn’t a creative entity by nature unless they actually participate in the creative process of the writing and recording of the sound material and, more often than not, when the label actually gets their hands in the way of this process, the results are bad. A label head could be an artist, but then he’s being creative as an artist, not as a label; artwork and graphic design is also not a function of the label but a part of it.
I’m not decrying “sellout” or indie/punk purity, labels have a very important purpose and, yes, it has to do with money, which is a good thing when done right. Yet labels aren’t to be followed or admired just as bands since they are a mean and not an end, that’s why i think label worship is stupid. I might admire the conviction of a label (Crass, Industrial and Dischord, to name a few), their business strategies and their rosters, but never to the point of buying a shirt or favour them over a band since it’s not a creative entity giving us feelings and sounds like artists do; labels are the way in which we receive those feelings and sounds.
Trying to do “the very best you could” to “help” Bardo Pond (or any band like that) is a defeating point for an independent label, since the whole point of independent and underground music is about having a way other than that of big business and mass culture. Artists like that are made to stay underground since they are not built for everyone to like; if not, i’m sure Bardo would be playing something more palatable and not long psychedelic dirges. There’s, of course, other artists who are playing music that can be liked by more people if they get a fair push, like you know quite well having Interpol, The New Pornographers and Cat Power on your label, to name a few. Making a band “as big as Interpol” isn’t the only meaning of “success” (by the way, why are you referring to Bardo Pond in past tense?).
So, i want to clarify:
1) I don't think Matador is "a big heap o’ crud", i also don't believe it is the absolute paradise of labels; no label is either, at least not forever if it's a real label and not a one-off part time operation or a boutique kind of deal.
2) Concerning Bardo Pond, it was great that you released four albums by them and backed them all the while they were on the label; my point was, they are not a radio band, not a singles band, not a band that sells tons of records; they weren't when you signed them and they didn't become one by their fourth album with you, you should have realized that. I (myself personally) think that a band like BP are more a band that has their fans who support them but won't become the next big indie craze leaders; i feel like Bardo Pond benefits from a label that supports them while not expecting sky-rocketing sales. Of course, businesswise, that might not have been possible and some decisions had to be made. Gerard, while you invited me to "fuck off"; i, in turn, would like to interview you so you can explain to me and others how you have handled two very successful labels (i write for about four music publications here in Mexico plus another one from the UK, i'm sure any of them would be delighted to print the interview). You can contact me by sending me a private message through the SY Board if you like to or through here.
01. Motörhead - Rock Out 02. Thank You - Embryo Imbroglio 03. Tsuyama Atsushi - Rock N' Roll White House 04. Sonny Sharrock - Blind Willie 05. Vivian Girls - Going Insane 06. Carcass - Cadaveric Encubator Of Endoparasites (Peel Session) 07. Original Silence - A Sweeping Parade Of Optimism - Blood Streak (excerpt) 08. Gal Costa - Cinema Olympia 09. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See A Darkness 10. Usurp Synapse - When Good Pets Go Bad 11. Hank Williams - Your Cheatin' Heart 12. U.S. Girls - Mutate Machine 13. Nachtmystium - Your True Enemy 14. Ice Cube - Endangered Species (Tales From The Darkside) [Remix] 15. Los Llamarada - The Very Next Moment 16. Keith Fullerton Whitman - 21:30 For Acoustic Guitar, Part 2 (excerpt) 17. Mad River - Amphetamine Gazelle 18. Upsidedown Cross - Batallion Of Rats 19. Growing - Lens Around 20. Joy Division - She's Lost Control (Peel Session)
For starters, the venue was sold out, and this is a big place, mind you; totally amazing how packed it was. And Carcass hardly disappointed.
Billed to start at 7:30 (which i didn't know until way after the show) i arrived to the venue to find tons of people outside and inside already packing it on the ground floor which made me go to the top seated area where i found a place where i could see the stage and everything very well; the stage had two cloth-screens in each side in front of some amps with drawings of a slashed human torso, on top of the drums there was a screen that had the image of their third album, Necroticism. The crowd was conformed by tons of people representing the old guard as well as your usual metalheads.
At about 7:45, the lights went out, the screen changed it's image and an intro tape was played, a narration of some sorts after which a droning note started to fade into it; after a few minutes of this, the band came onstage and started things with "Inpropagation" followed by another album opener, "Buried Dreams" from their Heartwork album which informed most of the set. The crowd on the floor weren't moving too much on the accounts of there not being much space to move but there was some crowd surfing; the crowd's response, however, was enormous. On the third song, "Corporal Jigsore Quandary", one of the most well received ones of the set, the projection of the screen showed various body parts being dissected and ending with an eye being implanted on a brain.
The band looked good and dominated the stage with a balance of calm coolness and rocking still intensity with some movement to here and there, Jeff Walker was handling his Les Paul-like hollow-bodied bass with authority and a bit of struggle wearing a Rotten Sound shirt, while Michael Amott was playing a very big Dean Flying V, possing around the stage for a bit; at the other side of the stage, Bill Steer stood there like a guitarist straight out of the 70's, with slightly bell bottomed jeans, a tight brown shirt and his long blonde hair, extracting impossibly low ended heavy riffs of his very vintage looking Les Paul. The band sounded tight and clear (except for the vocals, the microphones were a bit muddy, soundwise), pretty much like the records and like if they never broke up or if they had a different drummer now.
The band played most of Heartwork and about half of Necroticism, they deviated from these albums to play "Reek Of Putrefaction" from their masterpiece (or one of their many masterpieces, anyway) Symphonies Of Sickness to follow it with "Keep On Rotting In The Free World" (complete with various symbols of many faiths on the screen) from their suicide attempt Swan Song, after which they went back to the very beginning of their career, playing "Genital Grinder" and "Psyosisified (Rotten To The Gore)" jointly to make it like one decent lenght song. I was pleasantly surprised to hear them switch from playing the more sophisticated side of their career to the more barebones and unpolished era with even more brutality, it was also great listening to Michael and Bill do some grunting live. After these, they left the stage, not an hour after they started their set.
When they came back, they played "Death Certificate" then the monstrous "Exhume To Consume" and left again; before they came back, Juan Brujo of Brujería came out to yell "Viva México Cabrones!!!" (on account that since the night before, we were celebrating the Independence Day) after which Jeff made a crack about him being his father, he then made a crack about them going backstage to inhale oxygen like Axl Rose or something; he actually made several jokes during the show but most were inaudible thanks to some microphone problems. He then introduced each member of the band, pointing out that Daniel Erlandsson was replacing their original drummer Ken Owen (i heard a section of the crowd chant "Owen, Owen!" earlier during the set) after which he made another joke, this time saying Erlansson owned eBay or something similar, right after which Daniel started pounding a slow beat which gave away the entrance of "Rupture In Purulence", Walker followed with the ultra heavy bassline and then the guitars kicked in, Jeff stood in front of the stage, past his mic stand and played a bit of the song without singing it after which a galloping twin guitar riff started and gave to a fast beat, that of the song "Heartwork"; easily the highlight for many people. The band finished the song, started a riff as a coda to it and ended it all, the screen started to show an autopsy from the first cuts to the body, while the band said their goodbyes to the crowd, throwing picks and drumsticks, with Jeff walking along the space between the barricade and the stage.
Personally, i have two complains, the first being that the show was very short, considering their back catalogue and that they hardly touched anything from their first two records, which brings me to complain number two, namely why the denial of most of Reek and Symphonies? To me and many others, this was the highlight of their career, their golden years and best albums; granted, i love Necroticism and Heartwork and i know those two are much more popular but come on!!! There's tons of amazing songs in both first records.
Thinking about what i am complaining, i seriously don't feel like it was a waste by any chance, it was more than a great concert, and i'm immensly happy for witnessing one of metal's best bands in action, as if they had never had any major lineup changes or had broken up. Everything was crushing, inspired and amazing; after all it's said and done, i can't complain.
I think this album is kinda good or ok, but, this being Metallica who haven't released a good album in 12 years (if we're generous and count Load as one), then this is fantastic news for fans.
The fact is that the album sounds like Metallica, like where they left off in between ...And Justice For All and the Black Album, but the fact is that it just sounds like them, it's not like the material is as good as anything they did in their first decade as a band; the main problem being the lack of memorable songs; the sounds might bring you back to the eighties but, in terms of pure songwriting skills, i think Load still edges Death Magnetic; whatever you think about their "grunge" sound or their haircuts or their lack of truly metal elements in there, Load has very well written and well put together songs.
Of course, i'd be an idiot if i expected anything of the quality of KillRideMasterJustice, that era is gone and years have passed since then, but i just want a good Metallica album all around, with good songs and good riffs. Perhaps a record similar to the Black Album, but of them right now.
I do feel, though, that perhaps this is the beginning of something new, perhaps they have learned to be themselves soundwise and, for their next album, maybe they can apply these riffs to better written, more memorable songs; songs you can scream along while blasting either at home or at concert, after which i would be more than happy to let them be and not care what they do afterwards.
I know they have a good album left in them, i just hope they get to record it and release it soon.
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
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.
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.
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:
Last (and beginnings of this) year was Depeche Mode's the way it hasn't been since 1990, when they released Violator and became the world's biggest band for a very special 12 month cycle; the band issued Playing The Angel to the masses, who responded with fervor by putting it on the best selling charts and all, they went on tour even to Uranus, they came to Mexico, selling the whole damn stadium of the Foro Sol in less than an hour, obliging them to schedule a second date which sold out even faster!!!! It was Depeche Mode's year so much that it made me step back as far as i could from them, i was sick of them; it wasn't that i didn't like Playing The Angel, in fact, it was one of my favorite albums of the year, or that i thought that finally, after twenty-something years of fame it finally went over their heads (i think they are physically incapable of that), it's just that it was too much Depeche Mode, i couldn't get away from them, you could hear them everywhere, people who normally wear U2 t-shirts all of a sudden were wearing DM shirts. i had never in the time i've liked the Depeche Mode, experienced something like this; since, for the most part, they have been more like a cult band, although all their singles and videos have always had heavy rotation, but never in the level of seeing EVERY-FUCKING-BODY BECOMING A FAN, people with not the faintest idea of music; it gets on my nerves.
It sort of reminds me of the era when i got to learn of the existance of the band...yes, this is another of those stories where i originally hated a certain band just to finally get how awesome they really are in the end. I distinctly remember a conversation i had with someone in which i was defending the artistic and musical merits of Pearl Jam (people who know me will find this very amusing) and this person questioned me if i was a Depeche Mode fan, accusation which i denied or, more like, since i was around 12 years old at the time, pronounced them being "horrible faggots that are afraid of guitars" (come to think of it, i express myself in very similar terms now as i did then) and that their music was disgusting, the other person replied that it was impossible for me to like Pearl Jam but not Depeche Mode at the same time which seemed completely idiotic, since neither band sounds anything alike, like comparing Westlife to the Velvet Underground (even if two bands sound very similar, people might like one and dislike the other, since it's most probably that one of the two inspired the other, therefore one band being appreciated as unoriginal and lacking in inspiration, unlike the other more influential one), i had a strong repulsion towards them, probably because of their image, their lack of guitars and distortion (i had a saying back then that said "if it doesn't have distortion, it sucks") and their popularity, even though this was during the Songs Of Faith and Devotion era. It wasn't until Ultra was released and i listened to "Barrel Of A Gun" that i heard and, most importantly, felt who good they could be and, in part, helped me get into electronica; in that sense, that single was the perfect crossover song for me, with it's strong drum machines, background wah guitar and it's atmosphere of imminent aggressiveness, How could i say no? Especially since i was coming from being into Nine Inch Nails and Ministry.
It's strange for a band like this to become one of my very favorites, someone incredibly popular with songs on the radio; on the DVD that comes with their recent Best Of compilation, which has been aired recently on VH1 here, Martin Gore or Alan Wilder or someone else said that, early on, the band was undecided whether they wanted to be a cult band or unabashedly commercial and, the truth which anyone can conclude with a simple gaze upon their career is that they have achieved both; their music is not shallow and dumb, au contraire, it's a texturized dark minimalist style that can give them a way to experiment, incorporating everything from pure country blues ("Personal Jesus", "I Feel You") to it's most adventurous strain (the acoustic licks plus IDM-like shifting beat of "Dream On"). But what really hooks me is the vocals, i'm a person who doesn't like ultra polished voices and doesn't really pay attention to the lyrics, yet i have a strong liking of well done vocal melodies (which explains why i like so much pop music); with Depeche Mode, the vocal melody is so much a part of the arrangement and instrumention that, without them, the songs would sound half-assed; the melodies and words on the lyrics are mashed up so well that it's impossible not to pay attention to either, with the lyrics tending from perfect rhymes ("Promises me i'm as safe as houses/As long as i remember who's wearing the trousers") to well detailed stories and reflections ("Blasphemous Rumours"), screaming for you to scream along with them, all delivered with amazing power by Dave Gahan (and sometimes, chief songwriter Martin Gore), who is probably the only guy who can sing "well" without getting tiresome. More than anything, though, Depeche Mode are, thematically, not just on the lyrics but on their instrumentation, arrangements, voices, feelings, etc. about the passion one can have for obsession, from the most simple of concepts as accepting someone else or putting a two note guitar riff in the back of a wall of synths to the most profound relationships humans can get, about love and sex, the interest and stress of wanting somebody so much for what that person can fill us, to the point of feeling internal redemption that reaches the farthest point of the soul in which the most tender kiss or the wildest of orgasms has a spot that defines us and it makes us feel part of the universe and absolves us from the march of time at once; no wonder most of the girls i have been interested in have a predilaction for Violator as much as i have.
I've been so tired of Depeche Mode that i haven't heard them in a long while (i'm still a little hurt that i couldn't go see them live), it's been like a year since i've heard Playing The Angel; but, after watching the aforementioned documentary on VH1 (crap channel, although they show great movies in it here and their Classic segment sometimes has good stuff, like when i saw the Flaming Lips' "She Don't Use Jelly" video), i couldn't resist and decided to listen to them again and, to be honest, i just can't say no to Depeche Mode, i simply can't deny their music.
That's why i'm sharing with you a mini mix i did of the songs i've been diggin on this Depeche Mode week.
Depeche Mode - Pop Obsessed
01. Useless 02. Strangelove 03. Blasphemous Rumours 04. Walking In My Shoes 05. Halo 06. People Are People 07. When The Body Speaks 08. Enjoy The Silence
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