Real Cool Time ........ end of transmission.

And so, my faithful download monkeys, it is time for me to depart.

I have had a real cool time and achieved everything I set out to do

but lately it has become a chore thinking about reviews and listening

to prospective new music that has been sent to me. 

With so much great music coming out every day, I just wanna listen

to new shit and groove out to the sounds and jump up and down

and bang my head without thinking about how I will write about it.

I have 2 music collaborations coming and some more Zeppheroin ideas
floating around and want to put my passion into making my own
awesome music instead of commenting on someone else's. 

But dry your tears dear readers, I will still be guiding your musical tastes for
I am joining the wonderful and head banging freek, Joop at Stoner HiVe
as a guest reviewer for the few albums that still inspire me and each month
on BIL I will give a brief rundown on what will make your life better.

Big thanks and kisses to Doug E Dogg and Matthieu WetFox Blog
for helping out with words and reviews for me. Often bewildering,
funny, informative or plain wrong, these dudes added to the rich tapestry of
your reading enjoyment.

A big shout out to my blog brothers:
Joop at Stoner HiVe
Steve at Sludgelord
Artus at Archiv Hate
Lucas at Paranoid Hitsophrenic

Many glasses of strong drinks to be raised to the guys
who started me off with words of encouragement and more
importantly exposed me to music that I would never otherwise of heard:

Joel and Luke - you fucking guys rule!

Most thanks to anyone who read my words of drivel over the years -
I would like to thank each and every one of you but probably
cannot be bothered.

Goodbye.

I will leave you with these last words of wisdom:

I am right and you are wrong.

An Unfinished Life - Expose and Demons

 from: England sounds like: metallic hardcorejust one song:grind

 The Ghost Tape

A moonless drive on their way back to Plymouth. The night is quiet. Outside, nothing but an hesitant wind. Inside, the engine, four snoring half-drunk musicians, and a driver, fighting against tiredness, still wondering why the fuck he chose the Moors instead of the A38's. It smells like sweat and cheap beer. Empty bags of crisps lost between the amps, stuck under the guitar cases, wrapped around cables. 

Nothing but an unknown japanese van, old and beige, crossing the rustling emptiness on its way back to Newton Abbot, what’s left of the night, and a well-deserved rest.

Just around Combeston wood, when the B3357 meets an unnamed path , the drummer/driver closes his eyes for half the half of a second.
Just enough time for a gigantic truck to appear on the right.
No lights out, no motor sound. Probably no driver.

And no survivor.

            Next summer. Unexpected heat all over the south of England. Kate and her over-suntanned anorexic brainless crew are on their way to a festival in Brighton. One of her fuck friends is behind the wheel, not liking the way this trip started. The weather is already exhausting, the beer is already insipid, the babbling of the girls is already getting on his nerves. But not as much as the fact of being forced to leave his brand new deep blue Honda Civic in a lousy garage in Yelverton. And not as much as the fact of being forced to drive that shitty dusty rusty whining old van, beige as an un-celebrated MILF’s ass, and slower than Kate cerebral impulses.

The gossip at the back is ending, and the girls are asking for some music. No way to plug any of their IPods to the old radio-cassette player. When they try, in vain, to get any radio signal, they suddenly notice they are in the middle of a kind of nowhere people usually call: “the Moors”. Not a very LOL situation.

But Amy just found a tape under the passenger seat. Black, with three words carved in the plastic. An Unfinished Life.

Why not?

It whiffs for a few seconds, like echos of the hot breeze whirling around their expensive flat caps and haircuts.

But then come the noise.

It’s harsh, it’s raw, and sounds so much unlike their well maintained faces and nicely cut clothes they’d rather cry than go on listening to that shit for a second more.

Chris promptly presses the eject button.

But the tape won’t stop.

I never needed you, you always needed me. 
That's what the tape says. And the music fills the habitacle as a tribe of famished vampire bats would do when entering the donor centre on Derriford road. No more LOL, no more YOLO, just mid-tempi loudly pounding their ears. Cold madness that goes beyond madness, like witnessing an alcoholic mum repeatly stabbing her thirteen years old daughter.

Chris presses the Off button.

But the tape won’t stop.

When sleeping is not my addiction.
That's what the tape shouts. And Chris tries to tear the cassette player out.

I can smell shame in your breathe. 
That's what the tape yells. And Chris tries to drown it in warm beer. To smash it with his fists. And Kate tries to cover the hellish noise with high-pitch screams.

But the tape won’t stop.

And, even worse, it is auto-reverse.

And, even worse, the doors decided to lock themselves.

And, even worse, the engine just puffed and died.

And, even worse, they are stuck in the middle of deserted crossroad.

Thanks God there is no high-speed demonic truck coming on their right.

Well... it seems that the last lesson Life is going to teach them is to never thank God too early: a shadow quickly falls over the van, and its subsequent tangible following just dissolves the old carcass and its occupants into pieces and fluids that will dry and rot in the bushes around for the next thirty six hours.

            Winter. Angela’s Twingo is dead, and she really needs a four-wheel adjuvant to daily reach her uncomfortable chair behind that Tesco cash desk. That’s why she’s here, freezing among the sparse rows of second-to-fifteenth-hand cars. Her budget decides for her: it will be this old beige Nissan. Hopefully it would last till Rob-the-Bastard remembers to pay her her maintenance.

When she is trying to find that bloody handle to get the driver’s seat closer to the wheel, her hand found a greasy bunch of unknown material. It’s a bag of crisps, and it contains a black tape shaterred with pale crumbs.

She grimaces in disgust, and doesn't even try to read the carved words on the plastic No time to lose, the boss is waiting, the customers are waiting, a brand new shitty working day is stamping behind the horizon. She opens her windows, throws everything away, wipes her fingers on her uniform, switches the ignition and sighs. The engine started right away, which is always a good sign...

Expose my Demons on the Unfinished Life bandcamp (where you can get it for free)

on yutubi

the facebook

the big cartel

Some objectivity and clearer review:

PigsquealsandBreaKdow: "I am usually not one for this type of music, but Expose My Demons is good." What else can I say?...

Words by Matthieu

Electric Citizen - Sateen

Electric Citizen are a rock band first and foremost. 

Early Pentagram is evident in some of the song compositions but this 

is over-shadowed by the heavy fuzzed, psych rock action that fuel these 

modern retro rockers.

Laura Dolan sings clear and loud with melodic bite and before 

long, Sabbath meets early Heart springs to mind. With none of

the Occult/Hammer overtones that seem to be the template for a lot

retro '70's bands, Electric Citizen instead have produced an album

full of authentic grooves and quick fire rockers that make me want

to dig out some flares and show the world how real air guitar is 

played.

For a first album, this shows a band with tunnel vision when it comes

to getting their raw sound out to the world. Coming out on July 1st,

this is going to feature heavily in my summer soundtrack.

Play the track below and feel the love.

Get from RidingEasy Records

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Thanks to Richard from Sheltered Life for sending this to me.

Archiv Hate - Issue No 10

Time once again to expand your mind as the
best looking and interesting web 'zine celebrates
issue no 10.

Long awaited Archiv Hate zine series #X. Great people have 

joined us, some of these words you will hear for the first time. 

Enjoy the interview with Topon Das of amazing Fuck The Facts 

& Merdarahta. Cover art is made by Dawid Schindler of Wroclaw 

based hardcore/ punk quartet Torn Shore. Latvian guy Jānis 

Kuzminskis shares details on building AttAck guitars. 

Danial Gambler is soaking hands deep in blood to deliver 

craziest stories on album reviews. Arturs Vilmanis did his first 

ever review on Maxime Taccardi OMM (one man metal)

 project K.F.R - كافر. Excellent chat with graphic designer 

Olaf Schindler, read every single word he says! 

Morgan Gleave sharing story of The Baba Yaga, a mythical 

female figure from Russian folklore. And big horns up goes 

to Michael Rekevics of Vilkacis!

It is free, which is amazing for this piece of on-line music/art
project. If you have not given it a go before, be brave now!

Read me!

Black Majik Acid gig

Music fiends and earhole abusers - the very fine and quite

possibly unhinged unit known as Black Majik Acid are

playing with a slew of other like minded beat combos.

If you live in the Sacramento area, go fucking see them.

Long live the underground.

Fucked Up - Glass Boys

Fucked Up are a punk band.

But how do you remain a punk band when you’re on 

magazine covers, or sharing stadium stages with the Foo Fighters?

Those are the questions that Fucked Up asks on “Glass Boys.” 

And they ask those questions in the form of a blazing, titanic, 

ultimately triumphant rock album. 

Their last album, “David Comes To Life” was a double LP 

with a sprawling collection of tracks and ambition. This time around, 

ten tracks manage to convey how others and indeed themselves deal with 

the perception of fame. As always, there is a depth of layers to the 

sonic barrage that will bear repeated listens.

Dense, heavy guitars drive these tracks along with controlled 

feedback and a vortex of sonic savagery but with the melodic 

arrangements turned up to “epic”, you have the paradox that is 

Fucked Up - brutal, searing riffs that have the power to uplift the 

spirit with song passages of tuneful grace and surging 

chorus structures.

“Pink Eyes” still sings like this will be his last chance to 

communicate with the world before his head explodes with his 

passion and commitment. This album will be in my best of the year list. 

Highly recommended.

Get from Matador Records Here

Facebook

Posts still slow

Still job hunting, still running around

trying to sort things out. 

I will post when I can but hopefully will soon be able to fill your 

empty lives with my wise words and wisdom.

Boris - Noise

Do not be mislead by the album title “Noise”. Anyone who is 
expecting another “Heavy Rocks” will have to think again. Boris 
have said they wanted this album to sum up everything they have done 
in the past.

So naturally, this is a fucking masterpiece. Throughout the album’s 8 

song, 58 minute duration, the band masterfully intermingles sludge-rock, 

blistering crust punk, shimmering shoegaze, epic thunderous doom, 

psychedelic melodies and just about everything else they’ve ever done. 

Returning to their classic trio lineup, guitarist/vocalist Wata has upped 

her game of sonic exploration and produced some stunning work that 

redefines the term ‘epic’. Some of the fastest songs they have tackled 

are sprayed over this album, driven by frenzied psychedelic riffing. 

Elsewhere colossal doom rubs shoulders with shoegaze atmospherics 

which lead into delicate tracks of shimmering vocals and contemplation. 

“Angel” is the album’s nearly 19-minute epic centerpiece that builds from 

entrancing chiming guitar notes and softly pulsing toms, ultimately 

breaking into a massive wall of drop-tuned sludge and a howling 

guitar lead reminiscent of Boris tracks “Feedbacker” and “Flood.” 

The song continues to shift gears several times as it builds in tension 

and emotion toward a very satisfying resolution, taking the entire track 

full circle to where it began.

This is the good stuff.

Get from Bandcamp

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Thanks to Sargent House Records for sending this to me.

Zeppheroin - Methadone Jesus

It is that time of the year where once again I make an album

instead of just reviewing it.

Slow, heavy as fuck riffs but no mention of the occult or 

burning witches - is it still Doom?

Hypnotic grooves and shit loads of distorted guitar but all in the 

spirit of The Stooges or VU - is it still Stoner?

Recorded on cheap equipment and all the vocals and solos were 

limited at two takes so the attack and intensity were not lost - 

punk still runs in my blood.

Play it and make your own mind up.

Better still, send it to people you hate.

Spread the word if ya can.

Free Download at Bandcamp

BLUE CHEER - "VINCEBUS ERUPTUM" 1968

Formed in San Francisco in 1967, Blue Cheer are often named checked in association with a wide range of current loud and noisy musical genres. Heavy distorted blues stoner with a bit of an experimental edge is my favoured description of this early 3 piece powerhouse.

The band is said to have been named after a type of LSD manufactured by one Owsley Stanley, who's very "far out " ramblings are featured on the reverse of the sleeve pictured here.

He became infamous for his association with The Grateful Dead and for his part in the rise of the psychedelic drug culture on the West Coast during the late 60's. 

Here's a link to see them performing to their debut single, a version of the classic rock'n'roll standard "Summertime Blues", which, along with the album, charted in the States. 

I wholeheartedly recommend that all you lovers of loud and heavy things in this world check out the entire album. Its 6 tracks being a 50/50 split between self penned songs and cover numbers, which I'm certain you will find a great way to pass 32 minutes of your lives !

The band continued to gig in one form or another right up until founder and bassist Dickie Peterson's death from cancer in 2009. 

words by DOUG E DOGG - thanks for filling in

during my break.

Always Wanted War - "C.R.E.A.M."

from: Germany

sounds like: grunge 2.0

just one song: Stars hollow

Here are the five reasons why I daily listen to this EP for more than one month:

1. The intro: it features a banjo AND it sounds good, and it is the long awaited proof 

that hardcore bands can go accoustic without playing wimpy tunes a bunch of 15 years 

old scouts wouldn’t even welcome to their firecamp sessions. Which means three good 

surprises in less than 2 minutes. Good job.

2. Mixing the stoner riffs and rythmics with the screamo vocals is just a perfect idea 

I keep wondering why nobody thought about it before: you got the heaviness, you got 

the emotion, what would you need more? 

3. The good surprises happen all the time, be them the choruses in Stars hollow and 

the way they play around the traditionnal gang vocals ; the time bomb bridge in Derry ;

 the blink of groovy disco beat in Gotham ; the distorted new-wavy verse “It seems 

so far away from me” in Coldmoat ; or the falsely quiet bridge that ends in a dirty heavy 

metal solo in Blashyrkh. These seven songs are nothing but a succession of small birthdays 

for your ears. 

4. I am waiting for a decent grunge revival for years, and I finally found a band that sounds 

like grunge should do in 2013. But don’t get me wrong. Grunge was desperate but naïve, 

ironic but sincere, heavy but melodic, primal but complex. If C.R.E.AM. fulfills brillantly 

all these requisites, it also twists the model in order to propose a fresh alternative, namely 

by swapping 70’s heavy metal for stoner rock and hardcore punk for screamo. It manages to 

definitively keep the spirit, but also, and moreover, to play with your ears and expectations 

in a way you wish your girl/boyfriend would do with your body.
 

5. Last but not least, I fancy hairy butts and extreme choregraphy:

the bandcamp, where you can download the EP for FREE.

the facebook, just in case.

the wordpress, because you deserve it.

If you don't want to order the EP directly from them, just check:
- Moment of Collapse

- Black Lake Records

- Fake Art Fake Music

- Throatruiner

- SickmanGetting Sick Records

- Shivery Productions

- Tief in Marcellos Schuld Records

Always Wanted Objectivity:

- slightly less enthusiastic SWNK

- short What are blood Wings

-  german winterhimfruehling

- portuguese Misantropia Extrema

words by Matthieu

THE VANDALS - "PEACE THRU' VANDALISM" (1982) US Import 12" EP

The legendary track "Urban Struggle" first assaulted my earholes in the pub I've mentioned before where I first met Mr Maim...that's the one which played music at gig-like volume. This song was always very well received especially as it usually reared its ugly head later on of a Saturday evening when countless tins of Colt45 lager/beer had been consumed by all and sundry !!

This is a band who take neither themselves or the world at large particularly seriously and just appear to want to have an enormous amount of fun. This EP is their debut release from 1982 and could best be described as full throttle US garage punk. You are no doubt already aware of my affinity with vinyl and boy did this take some finding. 

Having spent several hours visiting all the likely outlets in central London, I travelled west to Portabello Road  where I spied a copy hanging on the wall of a fairly new independent record shop.....Excellent !!

 I was pleased to find the other 5 tracks, besides "Urban Struggle", were as equally good fun to listen to at great volume....my other personal favourite is "H.B. Hotel" which is a very loose interpretation of Elvis's "Heartbreak Hotel" and includes the immortal chorus of "I get so lonely, so fucking lonely, I get so lonely I could shit !!".....

Here's a handy link to listen to the whole EP....just 13:27 mins.....enjoy !

The Vandals are still a going concern although bassist Joe Escalante is now the only original band member. Interestingly, Joe spent the first 8 years in the band (1980-88) playing drums !!

Their debut album, "When In Rome Do As The Vandals", released in 1984 is well worth checking out although it is rather more produced than the EP, whose rather rough and ready approach I find to be part of its appeal.

words by DOUG E DOGG

Archiv Hate / BIL joint project.

From Latvia to London, Artūrs Vilmanis has designed a joint 

Archiv Hate/BIL shirt. Show your disgust with the world and wear 

with pride!

See shirts here!

Desertfest - London, Sunday 27th April

Arrive in Camden and meet the boys from Robot (A) and

First Process Church Of Mars.

Get a drink.

First band of the day is at the Underworld - Lifer

These guys come on and start the day off with slabs of hate 

filled sludge that is loud and furious. Inbetween the singer

telling us they are a  "bunch of Welsh cunts" we are told that

it is the new guitarists 2nd gig. Stood at the side of the stage quietly

but  played wave after wave after wave of sonic destruction.

Saw the singer afterwards and he told me they had had no sleep since

the day before and spent the night in their van. Nice one!

Get a drink.

War Wolf were on next and they should of been higher up
in the running order. Hardcore doom played with full intensity
and passion. I though had seen the guitarist/singer before.

Bumped into him later on that day - he is also in Sea Bastard
who were great at last years Desertfest. War Wolf like short
songs that attack and mangle your ear drums. One of the fastest
bands of the day and were great.

Get a drink.

Run over to The Electric Ballroom to see Black Rainbows.
This was worth the admission price alone. Powerful, driving
psych stoner which sounded all the better because of the Ballrooms
sound system that could actually cope with the vast volume these guys
cranked out. Their excellent set was rounded of with an insanely great
version of "Black To Comm" which was simply the best MC5 cover
version that I have ever heard.

Get a drink.

Stay there for Lonely Kamel. Never heard these guys before
but it was a real treat of stoner grooviness.

The band really got the crowd going and I made a mental note to track
down the albums. According to those who know about such things,
the version of "Grim Reefer" was note perfect and awesome.

Refuse a drink - getting a bit wobbly!

Run like a bastard to see the start of Wolfs Head at the Black
Heart. In this tiny venue, Wolfs Head seen an unstoppable force of nature
mixing elements of almost black metal with hardcore. Special mention must
go to the drummer. He produced the best drum sound I have heard in a
long time - sounded like a machine gun being fired in your ears.

Get a drink.

Radio Moscow back at the Ballroom. As always they were good
with the guitar player in full Hendrix/Marino mode but I kinda got the
feeling that the (really fantastic) solos were thought up first and then the
songs fitted around them.

Get a drink/refuse ..... not quite sure!

Next up were Elder. Lots of pounding riffs and hooks, great song
writing and real driving attitude.

Left after a bit to check out the Underworld. Eurostar had fucked up the
arrival of Graves At Sea & Sourvein and everything was about a hour late.
I think we saw 10 minutes of Graves At Sea but still am not sure!

Get a drink.

Back to the Ballroom for Church Of Misery.

Never seen these guys before and was plenty hyped for this.
They looked cool - they looked serious - they performed old
and new material with an intense manic energy ......... and they sucked.
They sucked because some cunt of a soundman totally lost the
guitar in the mix, resulting in a very bass heavy sound which made the
guitar player looking like he was miming, such was the lack of power
coming through the P.A.
A real shame - let's hope they return to these shores with a new engineer!

Boris more than made up for my disappointment by playing a set of
such gigantic and epic sound that people left at the end looking
stunned and dazed.

Picture copyright Giant Robot. I was too pissed to work my phone!

The guitar sound was fucking immense and murderous. Huge walls of
controlled feedback rumbled deep in my stomach and made an insane
grin that stayed on for the whole set. Drawing from the Heavy Rocks album
was always going to be a winner but the last 2 new songs just blew me
away. 15-17? minutes long was an epic that started off with delicate
picked notes that rang into silence and, oh so slowly, built up into
something that could only be described as a cross of Floyd, Sabbath,
The Melvins, Electric Wizard and Sgt Pepper era Beatles.

I went happily home then, trying not to fall asleep on the train
and miss my stop. Roll on Desertfest 2015 who have already
confirmed the mighty Sleep!

BLACK RAINBOWS - HOLY MOON 2013

Oh yes !....this ticks all the boxes for what I look for in really great heavy Psych Stoner.....the powerful driving groove created by this excellent Italian 3 piece is a pleasure from start to finish. They have released 3 albums since 2007 and in September last year put out "Holy Moon" which was described as an EP, containing just 6 tracks running a  little over 38 minutes...but, what a magnificent 38 minutes ! After being most pleasingly assaulted by the opening 4 tracks we get to "If I Was A Bird", which is an acoustic outing and, to the band's enormous credit, fits in perfectly with the mood and tone set by what has gone before. 

The closing track is a most impressive 12 min version of MC5's infamous "Black To Comm"....a song that "The 5" described as "their room clearance device" !! The Black Rainbows blast straight into it and then cool it down ...there's a great big solo....then blast it back out again to the finish. Long term visitors to this site will know of my love for all things MC5 and this has been immediately added to my "best MC5 covers list".

Here's a link to the video for "The Hunter" from "Holy Moon"....

  

...and to find out what the band are up to......

Facebook

Enjoy......

Words by DOUG E DOGG

Now get our T Shirts

That's right - I am back from the dead and as

a reward for your patient waiting, there is a range of

tee shirts to make you feel like a true music fan!

Fucking great - now you can be as cool as all the older kids

with this range of exclusive shirts. Buy now before the copyright

people come down on my ass!

Any bloggers care to spread the word - cheers.

Spend your money at Black Insect Doom Shirts

Gli Altri - Fondamenta, Strutture, Argini

From: Italy

Sounds like: Post-rock with muscles

Just one song: Cera

Savona, Italy, was formerly known to harbor a flourishing iron industry and one of Christopher Columbus' houses. But Chronos is a cruel motherfucker. Like almost everywhere in the ancient European industrial hotspots, the business is now as dead as Abdelazziz Bouteflika. And Christopher Columbus's sex-appeal (or what's left of it) is on its way to the junkyard, following the paces of his own statue in Buenos Aires.
So, what's left in Savona, then?
Simply the best, as the other would roar.
They are five, they don't pollute the atmosphere nor infect innocent Indians with whiskey and venereal diseases, and that's fine with me. Even more than fine, as Gli Altri play their post-rock the way it should always sound: powerfully. Period.
If I worried about decency, I would describe their music as a smart mixture of the tormented violence of the emotive hardcore with the contemplative lyricism of the above-mentioned post-rock.
But, unfortunately, as decency went completely out of fashion during the Reagan/Thatcher era , I have no choice but to say it crudely: this album sounds like Mogwaï with balls (the band, obviously).
My apologies for the Scottish crew, the PC-non-gender-biased watchmen and the furry monster. I honestly tried to find some cuter words, I've been beating around the bush for more than three weeks, but in vain...
When you will first listen to "Fondamenta, strutture, argini", you may not see my point directly. The first three songs sound like some solid modernization of Zen Arcade sung in Italian. The ghost of Mogwaï appears only after, right from the beginning of 6:33. It comes dressed with melancholic drops of guitar beating on a falsely quiet wave of (other) guitar and violin. And, over his shoulder, you can even spot his companion from Godspeed You Black Emperor. But unlike the usual ghosts whose aspect usually oscillates between ethereal reminiscences and decomposed remains, these ones get brighter and stronger as the album goes by, their face irrigated by the new blood and energy Gli Altri manage to infuse. And when it ends, you will probably face the same evidence I had to face: this is really how post-rock should sound: a massive yet subtle mingling of power and emotions creating vivid imaginary landscapes through excited (and exciting) brushstrokes.
To say that I warmly recommend this album would be an understatement and a not-very-decent way to conclude this post. But as decency etc.

Legal download from the bandcamp

Stay tuned with the band through the facebook

Buy their stuff via:

- Taxi Driver Records

- DreaminGorilla Records

- QSQDR

- Savona Sotterranea

- Rude Records

- Bus Stop Press 

- Bori Punk Asso

- Collane Di Ruggine

- Buridda Distro

- Salterò Autoproduzion

Objectivity with a cloud of latte:

- Interview (EN) BoriPunkAsso

- Onion Magazine (IT)

- Stimolividi (IT)

-  La Caduta (IT)

- Rockline (IT)

- Outsiders (IT)

Words by Matthieu