Today's featured article is Slayer. I love it when shit like that happens. Otherwise I have no real news. Tomorrow night (Thursday, 6/28), all you NYC kiddos should head over to Rockstar Bar in Williamsburg (S.5th/Kent) and see a bunch of rad bands play.
27 June 2007
22 June 2007
Nothing much and next week
Alright, I definitely got lazy during the past eleven days and haven't posted a damn thing. Been focused on other stuff other than finding music and writing about it. I think I posted about shows I wanted to go to (but probably didn't) and I will mention now that the mighty Team Dresch is playing in Brooklyn tonight. Since I've never seen them live, I really should go, but it's a friday night and they're coming out with a new album, so I get the impression that they'll probably tour again. Who knows.
In other news, this is going down next thursday. NYC folks should check it out:
In other news, this is going down next thursday. NYC folks should check it out:
11 June 2007
Constant Entertainment Overload (an update/short essay)
Okay, okay, I f'd up stupidly this weekend by neglecting to mention that last night (yeah, sunday night) there was gonna be a kickass show for anyone in the general NYC vicinity. Maybe it had to do with the fact that my band was playing and conflicts of interests could have arisen. But fuck it, my band is good, and I will state that right here.
Now, when you're in a band, you get used to the fact that only about 15% of the time are all the bands on the lineup awesome and agree that everyone else was awesome as well. Last night at Fat Baby was one of those nights. So here, check out these bands:
Archaeopteryx - This off-kilter bass/drums "metal" combo is heading out on a two month tour right now. Most likely that means they'll be in whatever town you live in/live near. Go see them.
From Cocaine to Rogaine - Just met this metal/core instrumental trio last night. Young band putting together some impressive tunes. I haven't listened to the demo they gave me yet, but I will today, so I'll update soon.
Stay Fucked - I've posted about these fellas before, and they've never failed to impress. Unfortunately they'll be taking a brief hiatus as bassist, Tony, is one half of Archaoesohdjfshotx and will be gone on tour.
Warmth - My band. I won't write about us. It's already lame enough that I've mentioned it.
Suffice to say that there is a really amazing undercurrent of strange, difficult-to-classify heavy music going on in Williamsburg right now. Jazz- and math-influenced not-quite-metal with a serious diy/punk attitude. Bands that seem doomed to repeat the lack of notoriety that too many of our influences have endured. While the neighborhood becomes more well known for its influx of condos and i-bankers and shitty derivative pop-music bullshit, there is really some incredible music happening. In a city where there is a constant entertainment overload, it's easy to avoid going to shows where a bunch of "no-name" bands are playing. I'm as guilty as the rest of 'em, particularly since there's so much of the same "trendy" stuff happening. It really sucks to go to a show to see some friends play and just be bombarded by three other shitty bands who just seem to have latched on to some shallow conception of what music is about. Hell yeah that's a pompous statement. Part of the reason that I keep this blog going is that it's a lot of work to keep up on innovative music when there's so much horrible background noise hiding the good stuff. I'm not content to just let some hacks get famous because somebody-knows-somebody and they dress "right." This just might be the last thing in my life that I'm still a hopeless romantic about. New York can jade a person right quick, but I'm also finding that this city can still be fuel for some romantic musicians.
Ah, that felt good, corny and necessary.
Now, when you're in a band, you get used to the fact that only about 15% of the time are all the bands on the lineup awesome and agree that everyone else was awesome as well. Last night at Fat Baby was one of those nights. So here, check out these bands:
Archaeopteryx - This off-kilter bass/drums "metal" combo is heading out on a two month tour right now. Most likely that means they'll be in whatever town you live in/live near. Go see them.
From Cocaine to Rogaine - Just met this metal/core instrumental trio last night. Young band putting together some impressive tunes. I haven't listened to the demo they gave me yet, but I will today, so I'll update soon.
Stay Fucked - I've posted about these fellas before, and they've never failed to impress. Unfortunately they'll be taking a brief hiatus as bassist, Tony, is one half of Archaoesohdjfshotx and will be gone on tour.
Warmth - My band. I won't write about us. It's already lame enough that I've mentioned it.
Suffice to say that there is a really amazing undercurrent of strange, difficult-to-classify heavy music going on in Williamsburg right now. Jazz- and math-influenced not-quite-metal with a serious diy/punk attitude. Bands that seem doomed to repeat the lack of notoriety that too many of our influences have endured. While the neighborhood becomes more well known for its influx of condos and i-bankers and shitty derivative pop-music bullshit, there is really some incredible music happening. In a city where there is a constant entertainment overload, it's easy to avoid going to shows where a bunch of "no-name" bands are playing. I'm as guilty as the rest of 'em, particularly since there's so much of the same "trendy" stuff happening. It really sucks to go to a show to see some friends play and just be bombarded by three other shitty bands who just seem to have latched on to some shallow conception of what music is about. Hell yeah that's a pompous statement. Part of the reason that I keep this blog going is that it's a lot of work to keep up on innovative music when there's so much horrible background noise hiding the good stuff. I'm not content to just let some hacks get famous because somebody-knows-somebody and they dress "right." This just might be the last thing in my life that I'm still a hopeless romantic about. New York can jade a person right quick, but I'm also finding that this city can still be fuel for some romantic musicians.
Ah, that felt good, corny and necessary.
01 June 2007
Enslaved is so good
Alright, I feel really ignorant sometimes when there's a fantastic band out there that I really should know about, but just don't. This is how I feel about Enslaved right now. They've been around for 16 years now and have released 9 full albums. I didn't really know anything about them, but their latest album, Ruun made so many people's "Best of 2006" lists that I had to pick it up. Of course, I'm broke 80% of the time, so I got it a good year after its release date (May 2, 2006). But whatever, Ruun is so ridiculously fantastic (except for track 2, which I haven't warmed up to at all yet) that I can't stop listening to it. When I first heard the term "progressive black metal" I wasn't quite sure how to imagine it, but wow, it's right up my alley. And by alley I mean a glorious enema of buzzing guitars, squealy/screechy vocals, melodically dark keys passages and wonderfully varied drumming. I love great black metal drumming in all its blastiness, but here there's plenty of change in terms of style and structure that it opens up beautiful new black metal paths. Man, I have a wicked boner for these guys right now, it's bordering on embarrassing. Fuck it. I know exactly why this made so many lists for last year. I also have to dive into their back catalog and boner up on my Enslaved history. This is gonna be fun.
In other news, my little affair with Enslaved got in the way of my big crush on the new Dinosaur Jr album, so a full review of that will have to wait. However, since Dino is playing here in NYC next week, I can do some big awesome thing to celebrate. I also finally just got my hands on the final Bucket Full of Teeth installment, IV. I'll be writing about that soon, too, because it also rules. What a good fucking haul this week.
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