Friday 27 August 2010

The Adverts - Crossing The Red Sea (1978)













C'mon - tell me the truth -
when did you last play this?

It's been a while ain't it.

There is always something newer,
faster, heavier to put on. I know,
I know - you have just found a place
that has a new Zappa rehearsal
recording - which is just full of
not quite loud enough to hear chatting
and guitar tuning and you need to play it
NOW!

But do yourself a favour, get your ears
ready for sharp bursts of 3 min perfect
punk songs, buzzsaw melodies, nifty guitar,
impassioned singing and clever lyrics - Listen.

As an aside, I saw them 3 times, all at various
stages of their career and they were all
at The Marquee Club..... weird!

Wednesday 25 August 2010

Re-Birth Through Struggle (2010)























Hey, my faithful download monkeys- you ain't so bad.

I have been reading about you on other blogs - they call
you faceless leeches who cannot write in a comment box -
not me, I'm on your side. I realise that still living with
your mum and having no friends except for a cyber-porn-
avatar fills up your life - you are busy people.

I have a lovely present for you. Here is an album I have
made using musical instruments and my fingers!

Instrumental Punk tunes overlaid with lashings of Stoner
& Math like riffs. Kinda like a laid back Greg Ginn .... but
not as good....... oh yeah, and guitars ..... lots of 'em.

Tuesday 24 August 2010

Pet Slimmers of the Year - .... And The Sky Fell (2010)


















This 3 piece have been described as post-rock,
experimental metal/ambient etc.

I am finding a lot of post-rock becoming very samey,
hundreds of new bands are now doing the instrumental,
quiet/heavy thing but with nothing new to make them
stand out. My daughter is in a post-rock band and she
is only 9!

Ok, bit of an lie ......... it's more sludge based!

Ok, that's a lie as well

but ...... you know where I am coming from.

PSOTY stand out by being fuckin' heavy .... less post
and more rock. Tension building riffs, nice explosions
of sound. Forget the new crop of weak, wishy washy
new stuff - if you are after something meatier - Listen

Monday 23 August 2010

Electric Frankenstein - How to Make a Monster (1999)























"I'm a social reject
From the wrong side of the tracks
And you tell me it's raining
When you're pissing down my back"

From "I'm not your (nothing)"

With words like that, you know Electric Frankenstein
are not pussy footing around.

Their own tag line is High Energy Punk Rock & Roll.

Cannot argue with that. Fast, snotty, sneering tunes
with octane fast guitar work, think AC/DC meet the
Dead Boys doing Ramone covers. Stop reading this
and Listen

Friday 20 August 2010

A Wilhelm Scream - Career Suicide (2007)


















Bouncy, exciting hard punk with great
intricate instrumentation. Fast guitar
lines verging on math rock, stupidly
fantastic bass lines and gruff singing
really make this a really good example
of old school punk influences being used
with manic hardcore roots to produce
something that makes me jump up
and down.

Thursday 19 August 2010

Fela Kuti & Ginger Baker - Live (1970)

















Fela Kuti had a strong political awareness
running through his work but he never lost
sight of the power of his music to accompany
his message.

Heavy afro-funk rhythms pound relentless
tunes with horn heavy riffs, fat bass lines and
his keyboard stabs, overlaid with his voice which
is raw with soul power.

As tight as anything James Brown had done,
Ginger Baker guested on this album and
considering the band he had just left, showed
lots of restraint. More importantly, his name
helped to bring this to a wider western audience.

It must of worked because my old man had this
and used to drunkenly crank it up!

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Coliseum - House with a Curse (2010)



















Punk/Hardcore from Coliseum - this is the
real deal for me. I'm sick of hearing a band
described as hardcore, playing them and
hearing something that belongs more to a
metal/screamo/whatever "core" tag.

I will fight to my last breath the right for
anyone to listen or play whatever the fuck
they want but this does not mean I have to
like it!

Bands like Norma Jean (who I like) or Jobs
for a Cowboy (who I don't) seem to blend into
a generic deep growling, brutal blast-beat of
sameness. Hey, I really like some of it but it
is not punk/hardcore as far as I am concerned.

..... but that is only my opinion. Please do not
write me an essay of how wrong I am ...... in fact
please do ....... a 2 way street yeah?

Anyway, Coliseum have a fabulous album here,
sharp stabs of power and disgust, interesting riffs
interplay with the powerful songs, vocals are still
aggressive but what I call shouting rather than
growling, real emotion coming through that does
not seem to be going through the motions.

The sermon is over -Listen.


Tuesday 17 August 2010

Blood Farmers - S/T (1995)













Taking their name from a cheapo
horror film - "Invasion of the Blood
Farmers" - this band riff like there
is no tomorrow.

Pounding tunes with a huge rumbling
bass and Church of Misery type solos
and song structures, I would call this
heavy stoner with a doom touch - ideal
for anyone who has worn out their copies
of St Vitus albums!

Monday 16 August 2010

Black Flag - Process of Weeding Out (1985)


















In the same vein as the second side of
"Family Man", this EP showcases Greg
Ginn and his atonal guitar attack on 4
instrumental tracks.

Stomping on what can be done in a hardcore
band, these tracks see free form jazz scales
played with distortion and aggression, solos
go where they want and the bass and drums
really seem to be having a solid groove workout.

No Rollins or lyrics but if you like the music
from "My War", turn up the speakers and Listen.

Friday 13 August 2010

Holiday snaps




Hi dear readers,

Thought you might like to see the
place we are staying at.

Not as new as the picture in the brochure
but the beach was nice and empty!






Wednesday 11 August 2010

Music Selection

New things I am listening to on holiday -
which could mean new releases or bands
I have never heard before are going to be:

Part Chimp
Burner
Mondo Drag
Kerretta
Angel Eyes
Zoroaster
Mose Giganticus
Cave In
Astrohenge
Howler Toad
Switch Opens
Unicornibot
Electric Mud Generator
Fang Island
Gifts from Enola
Yakuza
Kongh
Mytonia
Ocoai
Mother Unit
Rolo Tomassi

Hopefully I should have some lovely
pictures for you to look at on Friday.

Monday 9 August 2010

Bye!

I am now off on holiday for a week, going
to the sunny Isle of Wight. Being an island
off the south coast of England, it has the
reputation of being behind the times - fuck
me, it is terrible there, kinda like going back
to stone age times.

The broadband speeds are well slow, the new
Toy Story film is only being shown in 3D in
a couple of complexes and the new season of
Family Guy is only now being shown!

I will not have any real interweb access so
my posts will dry up for this week.

But do not despair - knowing that my blog
gives your life meaning and purpose, here
are some other blogs to keep you going.

Lucid Media not only have cool albums, they also
do a fantastic range of scanned comics ready for
you to read. Just added is the 1st 20 issues of
the Alan Moore "Swamp Thing", one of the finest
run I have ever read.

Looking for all things dark, black, doomy with big
dollops of psychedelic stoner? Well Veins Dried Out
will sort you out.

We Fucking Love Music have classical, electronic, dub step
(whatever the fuck that is), hardcore, new folk - the descriptions
are sometimes very sparse but you never know what will appear.

Julian Cope has a crazed website that talks about music, ley lines,
standing stones etc at Head Heritage

Bye!

Friday 6 August 2010

Breed 77 - Insects (2009)


















A nice blend of metal/punk that zips along
at a fair old pace.

The music is hard and fast but what makes
it stand out are the tiny Spanish influences
in the guitars and riffs.

Grungy walls of sound with tension filled
just under the surface explode into big hook
filled chorus lines and vocals that veer between
clean and growled.

Lots of bouncy tunes with different timing
changes and the odd eastern music scale makes
this album stand out from a lot of other bands.

Thursday 5 August 2010

Struck by Lightning - Serpents (2009)























An explosive, ear bursting album - plenty of early
Mastodon crossed with a punk/hardcore urgency.

Pounding drums drive the songs along which never
stop or let anything get in their way, High on Fire type
riffs and aggressive solos lay on top of fat, bottom end
bass.

Plenty of non-stop tunes which never lose momentum,
this made me jump up and down for quite a long time.
Band Info

Wednesday 4 August 2010

Lou Reed - Rock 'n' Roll Animal (Part 2)


















You all know the story behind this album -
1974 and Lou Reed follows up the bleakness
of "Berlin" with this live album.

A lot of VU fans hate this because with the
help of twin guitar players Dick Wagner and
Steve Hunter, he plays old classics as heavy
rock work outs with flashy full-distortion
solos and extended jams ...... but this is what
Reed does best - moving the goal posts and
showing he could turn his hand from anything
including avant garde to heavy metal.

No matter what you think, I fucking love this
album, not only does it rock like a bastard but
it was my first introduction to Lou Reed.

What is not widely known is that the rest of
the songs from this live set were released years
later - with no fanfare - as "Lou Reed - Live".....
.... which I call Rock 'n' Roll Animal Vol 2.

The set list is:
Vicious
Satellite of Love
Walk on the Wild Side
I'm Waiting for The Man
Oh, Jim
Sad Song

I can only think that his record company wanted
to push the VU aspect of the songs and not bother
with many of his solo tracks, which is a shame
because this is a worthy addition to his already
impressive collection of classic albums.

Tuesday 3 August 2010

Bushman's Revenge - You Lost Me at Hello (2009)


















Instrumental chaos as the Nordic power
trio veer between heaviness mixed with
wild abandonment, crossing prog-style
passages with classic hard rock riffs which
turn into jazz type freak outs so beloved
by Zappa at his most guitar-god like.

This is a molten mix of styles that has
wild sounding jams as if a cover band
is trying to sound like a stoner group
playing King Crimson doing P Floyd
covers in a mad jazz explosion.

Monday 2 August 2010

Conflict - The Ungovernable Force (1986)























This is the 3rd album from anarcho-punks Conflict.

For me, this album really delivered the goods. Embracing
the punk ethic of anyone can be in a band, previous
recordings were brilliant, noisy explosions of political
intent but the music pretty well sucked.

At the time, Husker Du and Black Flag were releasing
classic albums with power and tunes that really
got me going, so early Crass etc left me a
bit cold.

The Ungovernable Force had the bile and fury
but this time was backed up with fuck-off tunes,
meaty riffs, big thunderous production, sound bites,
bits of piano, even female vocals.

Paint a big "A" on yer jacket, drink some cider,
lace up your Doc Martens and Listen.