Royal Thunder - S/T (2010)

Scene: A living room somewhere in Georgia, USA.

Camera P.O.V shot, tracks left to right showing

generic actors playing Father, Mother and Teenager.

Son: "Mom - Pop, I'm gonna form a band!"

Dad: "You don't know how long I have waited

for you to do this, Georgia has a long and proud

tradition of producing kiss-ass music"

Mum: "This is the proudest day of my life - will it

sound like Baroness?"

Son: "Er, not quite - I was thinking more of Dub-step

with a trip-hop vibe"

Dad: "Sounding like Kylesa?"

Son: "I wanted to try something without guitars"

Mum: "Sounding like Mastodon?"

Son: "NO! Not like Blacktusk either. Just because

we live in Georgia does not mean I have to sound

bone-crushingly heavy!"

Mom: "This is the saddest day of my life"

Dad: "Get out of my house. From this day on, I

have no son. You have brought shame to our

family. You are dead to me"!

Camera fades to black - cue credits.

Royal Thunder are from ........ guess where? .....

Georgia and have produced a 6 track EP of rumbling

stoner doom. More Kyuss than Kylesa, this band have

a great doom vibe with stunning female vocals but veer

more into the stoner side of things rather than the sludge

of any of the afore mentioned artists.

This is just their 1st release - when the album comes out

it should be a stonker.

Listen

Band Info

Miles Davis - Guitar Tracks

Just a compilation with some great guitar

work playing with Miles.

They go from Funky to Ambient to just a

bit abstract noodles.

Tracklist:

Fat Time - The Man with the Horn

Intro - Aura

Come Get It - Star People

Orange - Aura

Speak - Star People

Violet - Aura

Tatu (Part 1)- Dark Magus

Star People - Star People

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Part Chimp - Chart Pimp (2003)

Some brilliant post-punk noise rock.

Lots of distortion, with a thick sludgy sound that

batters you. Subtle it is not - these songs attack

with changing riffs, yelped vocals and you always

get the feeling that everything was recorded with

the needles in the red!

None of the tracks outstay their welcome and

the songs have enough variation to make you

keep on playing this again and again.

If you like Jesus Lizard, give this a go.

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Band Info

Kowloon Walled City - Gambling On The Richter Scale (2009)

Last of the Re-posts lost by rapidshare.

I know a lot of people had been

wetting themselves over the

new Dillinger Escape Plan album

but to my ears it does not touch

Kowloon Walled City's sludgy,

bare-knuckled destruction.

Huge monster riffs, thunderous

hardcore vocals make this

crushingly good.

Listen

You can download this album and

other stuff for free at their website:

http://inthewalledcity.com.music

Camel - Gods of Light ('73-'75)

English Prog rock from England.

They never reached the heights of Yes, Genesis etc

but produced sometimes ambient, sometimes space

rock guitar workouts over many albums.

Soaring clean solos with keyboards and flute and

the odd vocal passage, these live selections give

a good indication of their sound.

After 1976, I find them a bit bland and soft sounding

but this has five extended tracks with some magical

guitar work.

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Pixies - Doolittle (1989)

If Man is five

And the Devil is six

Than God is SEVEN.

Sun blissed backing vocals over frenzied singing

and shouting. Surf-punk tunes tumbling into

pop singalongs which burst into hardcore riffs.

Debaser, Wave of Mutilation, Monkey Gone to

Heaven, There Goes My Gun, Gouge Away - a lot

of bands would be pleased to have these songs

over a career, let alone from one album.

I missed out on the "Surfer Rosa" and "Come On

Pilgrim" albums and like a lot of people only

became aware of the Pixies when I first heard "Monkey".

I played it over and over again - not a duff song on it

and the whole thing played as a perfect set.

And yes, it was good seeing them play it all live

last year.

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uSSSy - Oko (2010)

In the same vein as Lightning Bolt, these Russian

guys are playing some fucked up instrumental

noise rock.

A bit more tuneful perhaps but still a dense wall

of sound that assaults the senses with feedback

guitar, heavy bass and pounding drums.

The more I play it, the more I doubt my ears -

am I hearing subtle riffs behind the background

chaos or is the sheer fuzziness and distortion

that is confusing me?

There are also elements of eastern scales and

some sort of ethnic stringed instrument that drifts

in and out that sounds like snippets from the

soundtrack of "Doctor Zhivago"

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Band Info

At The Drive In - Live (2000)

I got this a while ago from Symphony of Ghosts,

a very cool blog which has loads of live recordings -

check it out and say hi.

This has At The Drive In attacking the senses with

virtually the whole of "Relationship of Command"

being played live.

The volume needs to be cranked up a bit but it is

an excellent recording, really clear and powerful

and shows why at that time they gained the reputation

of being a fantastic live band.

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The Ghost of a Thousand - New Hopes, New Demonstrations (2009)

I thought I had put this up ages ago.

Along with Blackhole, Goes Cube and Disappearer,

all these bands have released brilliant albums of

hardcore / punk that I could not stop playing.

If you liked recent stuff by Phantom Glue, Git Some

and even some Coliseum, give this a go.

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Band Info

Siouxsie & The Banshees - The Scream (1978)

Debut album from The Banshees.

Bootlegs from some John Peel sessions had been

doing the rounds to keep us going until someone

put out their proper release.

Post-punk song arrangements topped with the

icy voice of Siouxsie, VU type minimal drum

patterns, saxaphone riffs, picked and strummed

minor guitar chords did the trick nicely.

This still remains an album that holds up pretty

well today.

Listen

Band Info