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

I just can't say no to Depeche Mode

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

Depeche Mode - Pop Obsessed.zip

Interview: Discordance Axis

I'm going to start this the most pretentious way that i can: Discordance Axis are the most important grindcore band since Napalm Death and nobody knows it.

I'm generally not like that and i don't do such grandiose declarations of even my most beloved bands, that doesn't mean i don't think about, it's just that i don't usually share those thoughts because there's a big distance between the real world and the Fairy World that is my imagination; i also don't want to put DA in an awkward situation, making them seem like if they were bigger than they really were when they were together. The point about my opening statement is that i, like many others, feel that Discordance Axis did more for the genre than what 99% of the bands that are lumped into the same musical category have done collectively; stripping it off from it's more generic tendencies that many bands possess, the band injected their sound with angularity and austerity to add even more force to their hyperfast and short songs, making them add such then-unexplored languages to the genre like like odd-time signatures, for example. More so, the band connected grindcore out of leftist politics and political incorrectness to a more cyberpunk stream in the lyrical, conceptual and aesthetic senses; with themes belonging to classical sci-fi literature being screeched by vocalist Jon Chang, ambitiously packaged in DVD cases for the most part with artwork that oscillated from the futurist to the typical in a minimalist ambient (a style which was brought to a bigger crowd than grindcore fans when Studio Grey did an edition of movie posters for the film Resident Evil) and, in general, giving it a sense of unlimited posteriority that would plug grindcore out of it's established formulas to transform it into a genre ideal for experimentation, paving the way for such bands as the Dillinger Escape Plan and the Locust to more contemporary artists like Genghis Tron, Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck and Gånglîå.

The band was formed around the year 1992 in New Jersey in an unusual way for a band to start, without much live gigs and sporadic recording sessions that would spring out in different labels as EPs, full lenght albums or splits, the later which they did with such bands as Melt Banana and Corrupted; the band always had a connection with the Japanese scene, taking them to play there live, release splits with bands from there and even share band members. The band ended in 2001, a little after the release of their most popular and, probably, most cohesive album in their time together, The Inalienable Dreamless; the band found more recognition after breaking up, thanks in no small part to their mysticism, to the rising popularity of Hydrahead Records, the label which has released or re-released the bulk of their discography, to drummer Dave Witte's high profile, whose resumé includes Melt Banana (because of their ties with DA), Burnt By The Sun, Alec Empire, Municipal Waste and Human Remains, among a shitload of others; and their crescent direct or indirect influence on this type of music; a curious effect of the later happened in the form of Our Last Day, a posthumous album that features an unreleased song, a remix, their collaboration with Merzbow and a song by Jon's post-DA band Gridlink, but among all of this, there's a tribute paid to the band in the form of covers by bands such as Melt Banana, Gate and Mortalized; even more surprising is the Cide Projekt side of the album who reinterprete various Axis songs as MIDI versions which are brutal, funny and curious at the same time.

Oscillator recently talked to Jon Chang about the life and times of Discordance Axis and his more recent projects, chief among them his return to the musical front with Gridlink; emoticons courtesy of Jon himself.



Marcos Hassan (Oscillator): Please introduce yourself.

Jon Chang (Discordance Axis): Jon Chang. Former singer of Discordance Axis and current singer in the band GridLink. Writer/Co-Creator of the TV series Scratch Trigger Era and TF-134. Presently working on 2 video games KETM and Black Powder, Red Earth with Studio Grey.

Who or what inspired you to start playing this kind of music?

My first exposure to grind specifically was Napalm Death's From Enslavement To Obliteration, it was one of my favorite records for many years. I liked music from an early age though: The Who, Kiss, Motörhead, Maiden, AC/DC, Slayer, etc.

Do you consider the music you did with Discordance Axis "grindcore"?

Yes, that was the idea ;-)

What artists influenced you the most?

Philip K. Dick's books and Neon Genesis Evangelion probably had the largest impacts.

What are the differences between Discordance Axis and Gridlink, musically?

Rob and Matsubara are totally different in terms of their play style so the music is very different. It's hard to quantify ;-)

How was the whole scene back then as compared to right now?

Have no idea. I was never one to go and hang out and make friends.

Who did you consider Discordance Axis' peers? How about Gridlink's?

Never really thought about it...still not really thinking about it ^o^;

Why did you start out putting out splits with other bands?

Honestly, split EPs are all about marketing; getting your stuff out to a broad audience that hasn't heard you before...thanks lists operated much in the same way, people like a band, so they read their thanks list and find other similar bands. But these days, with bandwidth being so cheap, I feel split EPs have outlived their usefulness...

Can you talk a little about the progression from your releases?

Well, we started out more by the seat of our pants operation and got better playing together as time went on. ^_-

Our Last Day is not something most bands would do; how did it come about? What's your favorite song in there?

Honestly, the remix of "Ikaruga", seems a little more savage than the original; in regards to the covers, I like them all. Cide Projekt was probably the most creative of them all. The entire idea of Our Last Day came about after we heard his covers.

Can you tell us a little something about your bandmates and their contributions to the music?

Rob Marton wrote 99% of the guitar, Dave did all the drums. In GridLink, Matsu writes all the guitar, Okada works on the rhythm and mixing; Ikeda and Terada just smoke like crazy haha.



Why did you feel more affinity with bands from Japan and how so? How about now?

In the past yes. We were much more influenced by the Japanese bands than the US ones, they were faster with less cop-out mosh/slow parts; these days I really don't keep up with it all. I like a lot of Japanese bands though.

Did you conciously tried to push the boundaries of grindcore with stuff like your collaboration with Merzbow?

DA was essentially 3 very strong personalities clashing constantly haha. A lot of GridLink is designed like a painting, I suppose it's an unusual way of writing but everyone has their own particular methodology.

The band -actually your bands- sort of had a mysterious image and never gave up too much away, why?

Why not? :-P

Hahahahaha, the perfect answer strikes again. How important was the live show for you? can you describe what a Discordance Axis show was?

Rob hated them, Dave loved them, I fall somewhere in between; sometimes they are cool, other times they are exhausting. A show for us meant 2-3 months of rehearsal 4-5 days a week blasting through the set twice with no breaks, by the time we played we were tired of all the songs but we could play them without pause and that was the effect we wanted ^_^

Discordance Axis' artwork is very distinctive and original, how did it come about? What's Gridlink's artwork going to be like?

Hard to say where things come from exactly, sometimes it's planned and sometimes it spontaneous.

GridLink is going to be very different; we're not giving anything away yet, but we're building a lot of costumes and elaborate stage props for the art on the CD.

Did you ever consider doing Discordance Axis full time?

No.

What's your favorite or proudest moment in D.A.'s career?

To be honest, what stands out most is the post mortem. It's D-Day plus 5 years and people still like us.

When we were started, we couldn't even sell 500 copies of most of our EPs; 99% of our US shows had less than 20 people at them.

We got some good reviews but we mostly got crappy ones, people said we were pretentious and elitist. They were more interested in bands who had breakdowns and mosh parts. Oh well...

It's always surreal to read people talking about you on message boards who've never met you, especially when they have deep seated beliefs that we were either awesome or jerk offs.

What do you feel are your contributions to extreme music?

I have no idea, I am always surprised to find anyone remembers/likes us at all.

What's going on with Gridlink? When is your album coming out? Can you expand a little on the band?

We're hoping to finish recording/mixing by late ‘06 so the LP will probably come out sometime in ‘07. Only a year late! LOL

Honestly though, it's better we took a little longer; the whole piece is shaping up nicely. 10 songs, 14 minutes. No break twitch ^_-

What's the weirdest thing or best time you ever happened/had onstage?

Most of our live shows are a blur, I remember little to nothing about specific shows.

If you could recommend a few bands for people to check out, who would they be?

Well, it depends on what they are looking for; the best grind stuff I've heard in a long time is Mortalized.

What have you been listening to lately?

EQ8OR, Merri, X Japan, Slayer, Sex Machineguns, Patric Catani, United 93 (OST), SOB, Mortalized, Cave In.

What's next for you?

GridLink, Amber Grey, the CD; KETM and Black Powder, Red Earth.


DA with Melt Banana
-----------------------------------------

Discordance Axis - Ruin Trajectory.mp3 from the album Ulterior, 1995.
Discordance Axis - Tokyo.mp3 from split with Melt Banana, 1995.
Discordance Axis - Castration Rite.mp3 from the album The Inalienable Dreamless, 2001
Discordance Axis - Sega Bass Fishing.mp3 from the album Our Last Days, 2005

Discordance Axis: http://www.studio-grey.com/da/
DA in MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/discordanceaxiss
Studio Grey: http://www.studio-grey.com/
Dave Witte: http://blog.davewitte.com/
Dave Witte in MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/davewitte
Hydrahead Records: http://www.hydrahead.com/

Another Screeching Saxophone Silenced.

The screeching cries of a saxophone have been silenced again; no, it's not another Jazz giant who died or anything like that, it's actually a neo-no wave band who'll stop to spazz around, a post modern band known as Coughs which was only beginning to annoy people y won't have the chance to do so to more.

Or that's the rumor going around lately, even though there's talk of a lot of disagreements within the band, especially on their current UK tour, so much so that they can't seem to define a compensatory show for the one they can't do in Ireland. It's sad because we'd love for our favorite bands to always get along and be BFFs or at least fight enough so to generate some creative friction without going overboard so they can write kickass songs; we'd also love that our bands would never mature and that their member would never grow old or die so we can all see them at the top of their career always, but that's almost always impossible.

Heirs to late 70's New York's no wave scene, the band, especially on both their Load albums Fright Makes Right (2005) and this year's Secret Passage, played with a minimum of notes but never with a minimum of effort; dissonant but never losing a sense of composition and with a saxophone much austere and a lot more insane than James Chance's, which has been in an insane asylum for years where it gets a steady diet of electroshocks just to get it grounded and for it to function normally on the real world, but this one makes it sound like a nice school band instrument in comparison; with wild screaming pushing everything forward and the guitars and bass making an envolving racket for ambience the same way a paint bucket with no brush or a sledgehammer make ambience to a room. Melody would have gotten in the way for a band like this.



Coughs are still scheduled for a show on November 26 in Chicago opening for the Slits, reuniting teachers with students, although if rumors are true then this would not happen; i really hope this i'm writing is for more people to know of a truly great band instead of lamenting their loss; anyway, they deserve the tribute.
-------------------------------

Coughs - I'm Just A Bill.mp3 from the Fright Makes Right album, Load 2005.
Coughs - Penal Colony.mp3 from the Fright Makes Right album, Load 2005.
Coughs - Tyrannosaurus Reads.mp3 from the Bent Babies EP cd-r, self released 2006.
Coughs - Pacemaker.mp3 from the Bent Babies EP cd-r, self released 2006.
Coughs - Motherfuckers.mp3 from the Bant Babies EP cd-r, self released 2006.
Coughs - Air-conditioned Nightmare.mp3 from the Bent Babies EP cd-r, self released 2006.
Coughs - Dark Powers.mp3 from the Secret Passage album, Load 2006

Coughs in MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/coughsbitch
Load Records: http://www.loadrecords.com/

Arab Strap (1995-2006)

It's All Static After All

Jawbox
Novelty
1992, Dischord

The band was charged by twin frenetic guitars that go from here to there, with a clear relative in the works of Guy Piccioto and Eddie Janney with Rites Of Spring, the bass propelled everything from underneat, with a sense of it's own that at the same time completed what the guitars were commanding, with simple and strong drumming, supporting the three previously mentioned elements so they wouldn't shatter and end up in three different bands, and a static voice that narrated everything that was happening with the music. That how Jawbox was, finding themselves almost on the exact point in between Helmet and Fugazi, withg an added melodic sense that neither band would find until very late into their original careers. Novelty, their second album, showcased a confident band in all corners, without worries that at that time it was probable getting signed by a major label just for the fact of being a Dischord band, even though that's what happened in the end.



It's impossible to talk about the band without especially mentioning J Robbins who, by his own merit, deserves a star on the Georgetown Walk Of Fame or a picture on the walls of Yesterday & Today (if that existed, of course), before the formation of Jawbox, J had once filled the role of bass player for the incredible and incredibly important HarDCore band Government Issue; after Jawbox, J formed Burning Airlines, a less heavy yet very ultramelodic and rocking band, not to mention his work as a respected producer. Jawbox are sometimes referred to as an emo band (if your definition of emo is Fall Out Boy and Panic At The Disco then you probably won't understand the following, it has nothing to do with fashion and crap like that) and i can see why, the music has an inherited sense of nostalgia in itself and, also, the production and sounds used today sound kinda "early 90's" which, if you lived those days, invariably will bring memories back; but those are only touches, little frictions of time lost, worn laughter and misplaced cigarrette lighters, the songs are stellar, wrapping all that was doing rock outside the mainstream, unleashed and free but with a secret code book and a model to follow, and what it is to make a song that answers in an immediate way to poetic thinking, those thoughts that you often don't understand and sometimes you wished they quieted down. Jawbox is hard rock that likes to the headbang from the inside out instead of from the outside out like normal, it's atmosphere but so are rhythms, it's texture but so are riffs, it's you but also that guy over there.


Photo: Christian Lantry

After this album, Jawbox signed to Atlantic, recorded two albums, opened for Stone Temple Pilots on tour, Beavis & Butthead made fun of their video, never got to meet their target sales, got dropped, broke up, lost the rights to their major label albums and recently got them back. J Robbins now plays in a band called Channels that have an album on Dischord, an EP on DeSoto and lack arterial hypertension. For now, i enjoy the spaces between the notes which seem to be filled with thorns and ex-girlfriend's sisters you're forced to sit next to, it's all static after all.



------------------------

Jawbox - Linkwork.mp3
Jawbox - Static.mp3
Jawbox - Send Down.mp3

Band's page on Southern: http://www.southern.com/southern/band/JAWBO/
J Robbins: http://www.jrobbins.net/
Dischord: http://www.dischord.com/
DeSoto: http://www.desotorecords.com/

Radio Oscillator #7

I uploaded this one over a week ago but couldn't link it until now; anyhoo, this edition of the show marks a new phase since i've started to use Podomatic for hosting and stuff and, if you prefer listening to me ramble silly about music instead of reading me ramble silly about music, then now you can check my page (or better yet, subscribe via RSS) at the Podomatic site for the radio show.

Anyway, hopefully i'll have a new episode for this week we are entering.

1. Ani DiFranco - Superhero
2. Satyricon - The Pentagram Burns
3. Gang Wizard - KQ Means Let Me In
4. TV On The Radio - Playhouses
5. Isis - In Fiction
6. Angel'in Heavy Syrup - A Series Of Water Mind/Rubens And The Cathedral
7. The Jesus & Mary Chain - Just Like Honey
8. Elf Power - King Of Earth
9. Wolf Eyes - Human Animal
10. Eric Dolphy - Eclipse
11. Hang On The Box - Asshole, I'm Not Your Baby
12. Sunburned Hand Of The Man - Unless You Confess
13. X-Ray Specs - Oh Bondage Up Yours!
14. Smegma - Ladies Nite At The 'Ortho Lounge'
15. Fennesz - Nebenraum

Radio Oscillator 7.mp3

Oscillator at Podomatic: http://oscillator.podomatic.com/
(I'll be having a link on the sidebar which needs some serious maintenance)

The New Godfathers Of Modern Indie Rock

Yes
Fragile
1972, Atlantic

How the hell do i become a fan of a 70's progressive rock band thru indie pop music? Even though it might sound stupid, that's what happened to me recently.

A few months ago i listened to At War With The Mystics by the Flaming Lips for the very first time and it being the first time, i pretty much hated the album on impact, but i listened to it again later on, this time my opinion had changed but at the same time something came out in my mind. On that second listen i gave to the album by Wayne Coyne and co., the only two songs i wasn't entirely convinced of were "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" and "Free Radicals" but from "Sound Of Failure..." on, the music sounded better as it went along yet strangely familiar. At first, the music seemed to me to be a little Pink Floydian , but that wasn't exactly it, what it really reminded me of was of Yes, some of those riffs where the guitar and bass interlock with each other, some keyboard moments and even Wayne's voice sometimes would have a very Jon Anderson quality, not to mention the vocal harmonies; it was such the influence from the 70's band i was hearing from my speakers that i ended up downloading Fragile on the spot just to be sure about the comparison and, of course, the elemental parts were there, with enough retention of characteristics from both bands to remain original. That and i fell in love with Fragile.

Case number two, i recently listened to the Crane Wife by the Decemberists; it's first song didn't impress me much, sounding like pirate R.E.M. or something, but the second song, which is 12 minutes long and it's the best song i ever hear this band play and would you believe it's because it sounds like a mixture of the classic Decemeberists audio mixed with, yep, Yes. The phantom returns thru this very album.



But, why the hell Yes? They are supposed rock dinosaurs that were terminated by punk in the 70's and was more than dead, weren't they? How do you go from Rick Wakeman's capes to Colin Meloy and Wayne Coyne? what does it bring to them? How the hell do i become a fan of a 70's progressive rock band thru indie pop music? To answer that, we need to understand Yes.

Yes' music has always been a collision of odd time signatures, strange and extended arrangement and complex pop melodies and harmonies, influenced by everybody from the Beatles and the Beach Boys to Simon & Garfunkel (who they covered thru a 10 minute version of their "America"). It's creativity and musical inconformity meeting the art of songwriting and pop arrangements; while their contemporaries were more concerned with improvisation (King Crimson), the art of performance (Genesis) or standing in one leg while playing 3 hour flute solos and guessing how many people are you boring and how ridiculous you look at the same time (Jethro Tull); if you fast forward 30 years on, we see that the attitude towards instruments has changed and it's commonly accepted by a lot of people the fact that it doesn't make you punker not knowing how to play instead of knowing how to play and that, if the attitude and the songs are good, technical ability can actually contribute into making good music. If you gather all these elements with the timeless appeal of a well written song then welcome to the year 2006.

Yes was formed in the 60's and went thru some lineup changes until they more or less settled for Jon Anderson (vocals), Chris Squire (bass), Steve Howe (guitar), Rick Wakeman (Keyboards) and Bill Bruford (drums); the band was just coming out of obscurity thanks to their previous album, The Yes Album, having spawned a hit single with "I've Seen All Good People", but the band hurried right back to the studio, with just a few songs, so they decided to record what they had so far and that each of the members of the band will contribute a song to fill the album up. What could have turned into a complete disaster turned into a very cohesive album, with the solo contributions working as interludes that bridged one song into another, binging on the mood swings in between them; the main songs are far from bad, "Heart Of Sunrise" it's the only song in the album you can truly call "prog rock" since it combines dextreous musical passages with an epic song mode, "South Side Of The Sky" is heavier and more focused, just as "Long Distance Runaround) as well, both of which thread the record in the middle; but what hooked me to this record is "Roundabout", a song that manages to be frenetic, multipart, without a lot of technique, well done vocal arrangements and keyboards that add, don't substract.

Maybe Yes is not for everyone and maybe you won't like it, but i wanted to talk about a band i have been listening a lot lately and that resonates on the grooves of the Crane Wife and the War With The Mystics, and they are celestial.



Yes - Roundabout.mp3
Yes - South Side Of The Sky.mp3
Yes - The Fish (Shindleria Preamaturus).mp3

----------------------------------------------------------

Official website: http://www.yesworld.com/

The Last Great Concert Before the Year Ends?

Is

Radio Oscillator #6

This week's show got delayed because of some uploading troubles but, just like Wayne's World, it comes out Friday night to "party!!!!". Tributes to Atari Teenage Riot, Khanate and Dissection in the form of songs and a varied show in general.

1. Animal Collective - Loch Raven-Haverford PA
2. Atari Teenage Riot - Sick To Death
3. Last Exit - Discharge
4. Afrirampo - ONIPIKA hearts
5. The Dirty Three - This Night
6. Sword Heaven - Cults Of New Jersey
7. Fairport Convention - Percy's Song
8. Dissection - Unhallowed
9. Khanate - Torching Koraviev
10. Bastard Noise - The Only Menace Is Man (Skin Graft)
11. Cows - Koyaanisqats
12. The Kills - At The Back Of The Shell
13. Suishou No Fune - A Rose Bloomed
14. Redd Kross - Linda Blair

Radio Oscillator #6.mp3

High Pitched Screams Of A Drying Cock

Prick Decay

Ahhh wonderful, undefied noise, all glowing in the dark but glowing in a black light so thick it's darker than darkness itself which makes it heavier than your own surroundings, which are tainted and fucked; that warmt of the tape, the hiss that indicates there's noise around the noise, around the fucked up frequencies that pummel my eardrum to submission but i'm a masochist baby, i really am. The hiss that makes it seem so oddly familiar and so nostalgic to the days when i used to tape my favorite Meat Loaf songs off the radio ("I Would Do Anything For Love", i'm not that old!!!), there's an almost snail pace and there's almost influences somewhere, i can almost hear Genesis P Orridge's tits smacking on a steel plate and something rumbling while hollering incomprehensible; it's also that sort of odd tempo that's not fast or slow enough but fucked that tapes recorded on crappy equipment have, it's not forward going, it's more like resisting the marching of time but getting dragged by it, being slowed by the weight of the world and your girlfriend's issues too, don't complain now; it's all so familiar yet unnatural. High pitched screams of a drying cock, all grinding in a slow and torturous howl of night time tapings, of refrigerator humming being amplified tenfold, is it Dylan Nyoukis fetish or poetic voice? is he decrying the beauty of a world invisible to the naked bureaucrat eye? or is he just puking over the magnetic fields just because it's kick ass to make annoying noises? If i had to answer that with the elements at my disposal, i'd say "who the hell cares?" this noise is absolutely marvelous, it's just something so cool to have up your ear, better than a pencil or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah by miles of smiles, it's almost not noise as much as they are sounds, sounds out of their natural elements and rearranged, manipulated, backwards, by the side and tucked in, it's a matter of etiquette. It's just things you hear everyday alterated and presented to you in a different and exciting way, sometimes incredibly loud, sometimes quiet and isolated, sometimes evoking something and then taking it away far until you forgot what you were remembering about, it's all about the memories and it's all about whoever else feels like it. I feel fine.



This thing is supposedly by Prick Decay from the UK (from Brigton specifically), their genius lies in their lyricism, their arrangement of sounds that, without notes even, make evocative, narrative pieces of abstract mind theater that can make a play of whatever is in your head, making it into a story of bravery and horror, of perversion and lust, of cats shitting and old men smelling, or whatever floats your boat; it's almost performance art made difficult music, without the performance or the art or the rock or the music. It's sound on sound action, the best kind.

(i downloaded this album and have no idea what the songs are called or nothing, all my research has been in vain...the things are tagged as "Prick Decay. Fuck Gong", if anyone can help me identify this stuff, i would really appreciate it)



-------------------------------------------------------------------

Prick Decay.Fuck Gong - Track 1.mp3
Prick Decay.Fuck Gong - Track 6.mp3

Decaer Pinga: http://www.pinktoes.net/decaer_pinga.htm
Chocolate Monk Records: http://www.pinktoes.net/chocolate_monk.htm

Interview: Xiu Xiu

First of all, i would like to apologize to Jamie Stewart; the problem is that Jamie sent me the answers to this interview back in December 2005 and i have finished transcribing, spell checking and writing an intro until now. So, i hope you're not too mad at me.

A ripping despaired sound from the bottom of a wounded soul, an art stundent's soul or a soul of an artist studying his enviroment or his past, of ancestral sounds from other cultures or from other generations or other genres, of pop and noise, of ambiguity or direct stuff, of simple or complicated, of acoustic guitars or computer compositions; all of these is Xiu Xiu (named after a chinese movie many people considered the most depressing film ever made) who, even though it seems they wouldn't have any structure or sense, make some of the most well thought out and memorable songs from this last couple of years while defying conventional everything all the time. Formed from the ashes of IBOPA and Ten In The Swear Jar (who inherited "I Luv The Valley Oh!" and "Helsabot" to Xiu2), Jamie remains as the only original member, but it would be completely unfair to call the band a "solo project" since every person present in any of their release contributes to the final sound of each one ; that's why their albums and EPs (Knife Play, Chapel Of Chimes EP, A Promise, Fag Patrol EP, Fabulous Muscles, La Forêt, Life And Live, Tu Mi Piaci EP and their most recent The Air Force, among others) manage to sound different from each other yet retain the same feeling the music of XX produces for the legions of ultra-passionate fans they have. Some of the characteristic elements that make their music are pop, electronica, noise, post punk (especially The Smiths, The Cure and Joy Division), folk, modern avant garde classical, gamelan (typical Indonesian music), Black Sabbath, pain, broken hearts, suicide, politics.

Xiu Xiu have played twice in Mexico (once in the City and once in Guadalajara, i've missed both times) and i hope they play here soon. Here, Stewart talked to Oscillator about their modus operandi, their influences and more.

Marcos Hassan (Oscillator): Introduce yourself

Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu): Jamie Cyrus Stewart

What are the main difference between your past work and La Forêt?

The title is the main thing, and there are different songs on this record than on the other records.

Were you surprised that Fabulous Muscles earned so much praise? Do you think people now are expecting your records to be Fabulous Muscles II?

Yes and yes, but Fabulous Muscles II would be pointless calculation and anti art. We do make records to recieve praise, we make them to try and add something to life for better or worse.

Was there a model you thought about when starting Xiu Xiu? What was the plan for the project?

Sort of, we did know that we wanted to always write about real life, ours and those around us in clear ways and we knew what genres we wanted to take from, 80's pop goth, dance, asian percussion music, modern classical and noise music.

How do you write and arrange sounds? is it more traditional like a band or is it more like studio collages?

It is a bit of both. We do alot of improvisations built around very very basic rhythms or chords and then shape the improvisations into songs on the computer. On the sparser songs, they are written in more traditional ways like sitting with a guitar and note book looking out the window feeling anxious.

Was the lo-fi movement of the early-90's and artists like Lou Barlow with his projects Sebadoh and Sentridoh big influences to you?

No, not so much. Any lo-finess we have comes from lack of money, which i think it came from for Lou as well.

What's so special to you about sharing your secrets and fears and vulnerabilities with a 4 track recorder or similar devices? Is the hiss of the tape something warm for you to open up?

We actually use a computer. i do not know why sharing these things is special to me or if it is even special, it just seems right for us, i am not sure why.



Is it easy for you to pour your emotions out thru music?

No but it is essential, does that make me sound like a dick?

Of course not, i actually agree. Do you think that by (almost) eliminating traditional notes and timbres and focusing more on textures, you are closer to deliver a more accurate representation of what you want to express in your songs?

We do without too much thinking about it, try to make sounds that reflect the subject matter of the songs, but sometimes traditional sounds are perfect too. We do put alot of time and effort into sounds for their own expressive sake for certain.

Is the acoutic guitar side of the music a way to balance things out with the more atonal expressions, or does it serve the same porpuse in a different way?

As i said above, some songs seem to need particular sounds.

How does noise fit into your whole sound? what's so appealing about it to you and your compositions?

That it is both violent and non specific but also intense and uncontrolable.

Do you think you're playing pop music?

Yes, very much so. The songs have words you usually can hear clearly and most of them have verses and choruses.



Do you think your music is filled with a sense of "death"?

At the risk of being too cheesy, what is not filled with a sense of death?

Do you think that your music is a collision of intellect and emotion?

All music is a collision of intellect and emotion, more purely than any other way of making art

How does it make you feel that you inspire such an extreme response in people?

Mostly i have to ignore responses or i get too self conscious and freaked out but it is certainly better than being considered boring.

Why is it so important to address politics in your music?

It is impossible to ignore, it is important to address politics to in everything right now

How do you do to reproduce all the experimentation you do on record live? Do you resort to improvisation in concert at all? do you pull a Queen and rearrange the songs for stage performance?

Maybe somewhere in the middle, we do play to a drum machine so we have practice somethings to a tee but other things we do differently every night or parts of songs are devoted to improvisation.



So what's the craziest or funniest thing that ever happened to you onstage? How about the best?

Craziest was AGHHHHHHH!!!!!! So dumb, not in this band but in a previous band getting the classic and retarded blow job on stage, but it was from a drag queen i had been obsessed with since i was 18. the best? i think playing to kind and supportive audiences and doing the best we can that night is the best.

What was your experience of playing Mexico like?

Insane and the most fun 24 hours i ever had in my life.

What do you think about the musical climate these days?

Don't ask, i 'll just start talking shit. Ugh.

Where and why does the fascination with Black Sabbath come from?

Have you ever heard them? If so you would not need to ask.

Ouch!! Checkmate. If someone wanted to get into gamelan, what you would say to them and what would you recommend them to listen to?

Any records by the Smithsonian Institute recorded in the 1950's but there are not bad gamelan records, it is an inherently flawless music. Just make sure it is not played by white hippie college students.

What have you been listening to lately?

Weirdly the Blue Album by Weezer, i have no good explanation for this.

What’s next for you?

More touring and we are half done with our next record that i think will be called Boy Soprano (ED: It will be called The Air Force). We have a few split 7" coming out soon as well with Paper Chase, Kill Me Tomorrow and Dead Science, as well as music for a film by Robert Reis and a play by Ken Urban.



---------------------------------------------------------

I Broke Up (SJ).mp3 from Knife Play
Sad Pony Guerilla Girl.mp3 from A Promise
Clowne Towne.mp3 from Fabulous Muscles
Bog People.mp3 from La Forêt
Boy Soprano.mp3 from The Air Force

Website: http://www.xiuxiu.org/
Main label: http://www.5rc.com/

Here's Where The Republicans Come In

It's incredible but the Daily Show just turned 10, for those who don't know, the Daily Show is a comedic newscast hosted by Jon Stewart where the day's political happenings get aboarded with a humorist spin; what makes them stand out is that they manage to be incredibly spot on on their reflections and stomach-cramping funny at the same time, without shoving a personal political agenda on people's faces (unlike, say, Michael Moore) managing to entertain, inform and make people think about the every day occurrences in this chaotic day in which we live. Ever since, the show has becomed one of Comedy Central's most viewed, a summarized version is broadcasted worldwide thru CNN International (Global Edition) and has launched a spinoff (The Colbert Report), it's one of those shows i'd watch if they showed them here (even though we get the Global Edition).

So what do they do to celebrate a decade of presidential mockery and exposing of stupidity in general? A concert of course! The weird thing is that the band they chose to headline is Superchunk, the semi-retired Chapel Hill, NC band that's somehow is still synonymous with Merge Records (Neutral Milk Hotel, Spoon, The Arcade Fire). The band hasn't released any new studio albums since 2001 and has played sporadically, with it's members focusing on their other projects (like Mac McCaughan's Portastatic), even though it seems a natural choice for the Daily Show team, since many people there are fans and it seems Jon Stewart "has this thing -- if a band has "super" in their name he thinks they're somehow better. It came down to you guys and Supertramp."

I don't have much by Superchunk but they always seemed to me like a decent band, energetic and melodic punk with just a whiff of melancholy in their sound; somehow, they get mentioned as heirs of later Hüsker Dü and you can see why; even though they don't share the rage or frustration with the Düs, they do have that sense of reflective punk, might be a more frenetic Replacements? Superchunk are a little like bigger brothers to the Promise Ring, Jimmy Eat World, the Get Up Kids and bands like that.

The concert will take place Novemeber 16 at Irving Plaza in NYC and also playing will be the Mountain Goats, Clem Snide and the Upper Crust (who, if they are who i think they are, are a band that dress up like dandies, with powdered wigs and everything). Congratulations on being one of the best political shows on tv!

Hyper Enough.mp3
Seed Toss.mp3
Sidewalk.mp3

Radio Oscillator #5

Here's the show, enjoy!

I haven't finished the fanzine but i'm getting closer; last week i wwent to see Cat Power and Slayer and they wewre both amazing for different reasons.

1. Silversun Pickups - Well Thought Out Twinkles
2. Acid Mothers Temple SWR - Fenomenologia
3. Rah Bras - Scoop Toe Pump Girls
4. Arab On Radar - Birth Control Blues
5. Zero Point - untitled
6. Six Organs Of Admittance - Eight Cognition/All You've Left
7. Adolescents - Amoeba
8. Converge - Downpour
9. The Mean Reds - Ci-Clops Of 42nd
10. Stillborn Christians - Aggression
11. Cat Power - Who Knows Where The Time Goes (live)
12. Darkthrone - Skald Av Satans Sol
13. Guitar Wolf - Jet Generation
14. Yellow Swans - High On The Mountain Of Love
15. Pink Fairies - Ten Thousand Words In A Cardboard Box
16. Slayer - Evil Has No Boundaries (live)

Radio Oscillator #5.mp3

Radio Oscillator #4

I know it's been a long time since i've done a radio show...hell!! it's been a long time since i've updated this thing, but that doesn't mean i've been slacking off or anything. Actually, i've been working on the fanzine so i can get it ready for publishing; so far, i have interviews with Melt-Banana, Discordance Axis, Hella and Rah Bras, concerts by Yo La Tengo and the Sounds Of The Underground festival tour. There's still stuff to do but i'm getting there.

I apologize for finishing and uploading this show so late, the reason for this is that, i started working on this particular show like a month ago but that week i got very sick and only got a chance to finish the spanish version, and right after that week, i went on vacations; in fact, i finished this show just a couple of days ago. But anyway, the show is up and i hope to get back to work on the radio podcast thingy every week.

About the show, it has less songs than last show (that one had 19 songs?!) but that doesn't mean the show is shorter, in fact, you always get a solid hour of music and any time i use past the hour is to give space for my witty, expert comentary. A lot of 2006 music on this one for the crowds, some of it soon to be released, some of it just released and some of it released for a couple of months now, there's also stuff from other years too. Enjoy:

1. Boris - Woman On The Screen
2. Danielson - Two Sitting Ducks
3. Comets On Fire - The Swallow's Eye
4. Teenage Jesus & The Jerks - Race Mixing
5. OOIOO - Uja
6. Peter Brötzmann Octet - Responsible
7. D.R.I. - Violent Pacification
8. The Skaters - Mister Cabin
9. Xiu Xiu - Vulture Piano
10. Bardo Pond - Lost Word
11. Belle & Sebastian - The Blues Are Still Blue
12. Jack Rose - Crossing The Great Waters

Radio Oscillator #4.mp3

News And Rants

If you give a crap about drummer magazines then congratulations!!!! You belong to a very exclusive world of suckers who are making money for a couple of people who don’t deserve it. But on the new issue of Modern Drummer, the one with The Police’s Stewart Copeland on the cover, has an article on Damon Che of Don Caballero, so you know to go to your favorite magazine shop, read the article and put the mag back on the rack (i got mad skillz yo!). Seriously, what good comes of drummer magazines?

Who’s coming to the Touch & Go Records 25th Anniversary? It’s going to slay!!! If you still don’t know who’s playing, check the list below. By the way BIG BLACK REUNITES!!! Yes! Albini, Durango and Pezzati (still no word if Roland will be the drummer or if there’s still issues and lawsuits pending) are gonna get up and do a couple of songs, it’s not a complete set but it’s enough. Here’s the other bands to get you giddy, the show will happen September 8-10 at the Tenth Annual Hideout Block Party:

!!!
3 Mile Pilot
Arcwelder
The Black Heart Procession
Calexico
CocoRosie
Didjits (all original members)
Enon
The EX
Girls Against Boys (all original members)
Killdozer (all original members)
Ted Leo + Pharmacists
Man or Astroman? (all original members)
Negative Approach (featuring John Brannon and OP Moore, Can you believe it?! NEGATIVE-tupa-tupa-tu-APPROACH!!)
The New Year
Pegboy
Pinback
Quasi
Scratch Acid (all original members)
Seam
Shellac
The Shipping News
Supersystem
Uzeda
...and they still have one more band to anounce (pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease Jesus Lizard! Jesus Lizard!...well, i’ll settle for Die Kreuzen)

Check out the new Mecca Normal animated video, it’s funny (not ha ha funny, just funny) here.

Snakes? Booty? Breakdancers? C+C Music Factory? The end credits video for Snakes On A Plane is going to go off!!! Officially, it has become the most bizarre movie in the history of filmmaking.

Converge have the new album’s title!!! It will be called No Heroes!! In short, they say that these days there aren’t a lot of people who’d suffer or are passionate about art and life...except for the ‘Verge!!! The cd will be put out by Epitaph.

Voivod posted a mp3 of a new song from their album Katorz, which comes out on July 25. The song, called “The X-Stream” sounds like Rocket From The Crypt but a teeny bit more metal. Weird.

Voivod – The X-Stream.mp3

Dischord is gonna release a crapload of new stuff on the second half of this present year, of which the most prominent are: Channels, with J Robbins (ex-Goverment Issue, Jawbox and Burning Airlines, in case you didn’t know) will issue their debut full lenght album on August 28. So far, they have only released an EP thru DeSoto called Open, the bands sounds cool; here, i leave you with an mp3 from the EP courtesy of DeSoto:

Channels – Chivaree.mp3

Also thru Dischord in October will be made available There To Here, the debut solo album by Joe Lally produced by the kickass tag team of Ian MacKaye and Don Zientara at Inner Ear Studios. The album has stellar guest spots by Ian, Guy Picciotto, Wino, Amy Farina, Eddie Janney, Jason Kourkounis, Jerry Busher, Danny Frankel and Antonia Tricarico. Now you know at least 75% of Fugazi are still getting along, so stop your whinning kids.

Also from Fugazi, Brendan Canty has produced the new album by Dischorders French Toast.

And to end with the Fugazi related news, The Evens are recording their next album and are hoping to release it during Fall of this year.

I thought i was done but i’m not. 10 new shows have been added to Fugazi’s live series; to browse and buy that stuff, click here.

On August 15 comes Thunder Down Under by HOT MUTHAFUCKIN’ SNAKES.

Unless it contains the words “break up” and “reform At The Drive-In”, any other Mars Volta news is a waste of time, especially after their last album Frances Of An Exhibition.

So they are gonna do a movie about Jeff Buckley...

And if you live in Portland, Sleater-Kinney has scheduled their real last show there.

If there would be just one good compilation all year, Suicide Squeeze’s 10th Anniversary one would be it; and with a tracklisting like this, who can’t it be? By the way, don’t blow it and really buy it if you want it because it’ll be limited to 6000 copies (which is a lot i know, but that means records won’t last for long). It comes out July 25th:

Disc 1
1. 764-Hero "Now You're Swimming"
2. Modest Mouse "A Life of Arctic Sounds"
3. The Scenic Vermont "Elementary" #
4. Elliott Smith "Division Day"
5. Modest Mouse / 764-Hero "Whenever You See Fit (DJ Dynomite D REMIX)
6. Pennsy's Electric Workhorses Songs "Cycle Suitor" * #
7. Pedro the Lion "June 18, 1976"
8. The Black Heart Procession "After the Ladder" #
9. Aspera "Bird's Fly" #
10. Constantines "Dirty Business" #
11. The Magic Magicians "Cascade Express"
12. The Black Keys "Yearnin' (live)"
13. Iron and Wine / Six Parts Seven "Sleeping Diagonally"
14. The Melvins "With Teeth (live)" #
15. Les Savy Fav "We'll Make a Lover of You" #
16. Hint Hint "Natural Collegiate"
17. We Ragazzi "Making You Queens Tonight"
18. The Unicorns "2014"
19. S "5 Dollars"
20. Goon Moon "Rock Weird (Weird Rock)"

Disc 2
1. Minus the Bear "The Game Needed Me (Dalek REMIX)" *
2. The Aislers Set "What Fades First (demo)" *
3. Headphones "Gas and Matches (acoustic)" *
4. Crystal Skulls "Baby Boy (demo)" *
5. Six Parts Seven "Afternoon Bed" *
6. Metal Hearts "Jean Baptiste" *
7. Of Montreal "Voltaic Crusher/Undrum to Muted Da" +
8. Chin Up Chin Up "Trophy's for Hire" *
9. Earlimart "Caruthers Boy" *
10. Red Stars Theory "Evergreen and Ivorbean" *
11. Black Mountain "Voices" +
12. Russian Circles "Upper Ninety" *
13. These Arms Are Snakes "Old Paradise" *
14. Hella "Meth Leper" *

* - Previously Unreleased
+ - First time on CD
# - Out of Print

And now a “Good” and “Bad” lesson. Good: Declining an invitation to be part of the Family Values tour with faded and pathetic people like Korn and Deftones. Bad: Releasing an album featuring a collaboration with Nora Jones.

Now you can really say you can die because of Aerosmith.

Check this video out, it’s what’s probably Megadeth’s first ever gig with Kerry King on second guitar. Headbang to “Teh Mechanix”

Check out Unexpect, they sound like a power metal version of Magma or Koenjihyakkei; yes, that’s how awesome they sound!!! But that’s not all, their bass player plays a 9 string bass and they come from Montreal, eh!!! Skin Graft are probably kicking themselves for not signing them in the first place, it’s the kind of stuff they wet their pants for. Anyway, their album which comes out August 22 is called In A Flesh Aquarium and it will come out thru The End Records.

Unexpect – Megalomaniac Trees.mp3