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!

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.

Listen - don't listen.

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

My Space

Free Download from Lost Children Label

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

Band Info

Website & Buy

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.

Listen

Band Info

Buy

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!

Get Funked.

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.

Band Info

Buy

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!

Listen

My Space

Buy

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.

Buy

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!

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.

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!

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.

Listen

Buy

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.

Listen

Band Info

Record Label / Buy

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.

Listen

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.

Volume Two

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.

Listen

Buy

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.

Band Info