Janice Whaley - Wow

I'm not even sure where to start with this one. It began with me reading one of my favorite blogs, Condemned to Rocknroll. Someone left a comment on one of the articles about an all-acapella Smiths cover project. I'm not very into covers, but I happened to have cracked The Queen is Dead and Meat is Murder back out today and of course, like an addict reintroduced to their favorite substance the second I get a nibble of The Smiths it's a very short distance to obsession. Pretty soon I'll be laying on the living room floor, reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman and listening to The Headmaster Ritual over and over and over again.

So after listening to that I did some snooping and found some more of her music. I'm really digging this as well.

Nick Cave - Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow

One of my favorite Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds songs from what is DEFINITELY my favorite album by the group - how have I never seen this video before???

Brilliant!!!

(note Jarvis Cocker in the smashing green suit)

Chelsea Wolfe - MER

Psychetect

Klint Finley is the mastermind that runs one of the best information-nexus sites on the internet, Technoccult.net. He also has a description-defying music project called Psychetect. It is fantastic. It takes me to strange inner spaces where reality melts and my thoughts turn into liquid fire. It is equally great to write to and great to zone uncontrollably; a much-appreciated Shamanic presence in the sometimes bleak and chaotic inner landscape that bubbles around beneath the furthest corridors of my consciousness.

Psychetect's E.P. Extremism is available for $2 here on bandcamp (you can also link to it through technoccult, which is probably an even better route to take because if you've never seen the site before you'll be able to get a feel for just how much information is there.

Battle Tapes

In my absence from keeping this blog there are SO MANY things that I have forgotten to put here. Take Battle Tapes for instance. In September 2011 my life had gone through a bit of a storm - I'd went through the slow death of Borders Books - a place I'd worked as a supervisor at for 5 years. And brother, it was a slow, painful death. Near to the end I was able to jump ship and begin a new career in the cryogenic field. That was August 2011, so like I said, September that year was a learning curve to say the least (I'd never had any experience in cryo-anything). Around this time my beautiful wife surprised me one Friday with tickets to see Helmet the following evening at, of all places, The Viper Room. Neither one of us like the Viper Room very much and this show was no exception. In fact, it pretty much made us HATE it. The place is soooo cool, if it was only run a little better. Case in point, the show had two bands on the bill and was supposed to start at, if I remember correctly, eight-thirty. Well, the club superimposed a local showcase in front of the Helmet gig and we ended up sitting through (by which of course I mean standing) two very, very bad "So Cal punk bands". Think of how much green day just absolutely sucks while trying oh so hard to convince every one - including me thinks, themselves - how 'punk rock' they are and then multiply that by about two thousand.

Yeah, that bad.

Anyway, by the time Helmet's opener came on neither my wife nor I were in a mood to tolerate even one more shitty band. Good thing Battle Tapes came out and BLEW THE FUCKING DOORS OFF THE CLUB. Really, I mean they were the highlight of the show, not really because they were better than Paige Hamilton and crew, but because when we had to leave only about seven songs into Helmet's set (Helmet! At a club as small as the Viper Room!!) it didn't hurt that bad because Battle Tapes was just that good.

I signed up for their mailing list and a few months later received word that they had released an EP for free on their site. Said EP is still available for free download here and I've posted their widget above so you can even hear it first.

It's sooooo good!!!

Corrections House - Hoax The System

The long-whispered about featuring Sanford Parker of Chicago Black Metal/Industrial band Nachtmystium along with Scott Kelly  of Neurosis, Mike IX Williams of Eyehategod and Bruce Lamont of Yakuza and Bloodiest has finally arrived. Above is their bandcamp, below the first video. Great throwback to the Industrial days of old. 

FIDLAR - Cheap Beer

The guys in FIDLAR bring the old school aesthetic without sounding like they're rehashing anything. Debut album came out today on Mom + Pop Music. What's more, you can buy the album directly from the band in what has to be the best Bundle pack I've seen in a while - either as CD or LP w/ t-shirt or (and this is my favorite) as CD or LP with a custom SKATE DECK! How freakin' cool is that? Mine cracked about a year ago so this might be the way to go if it doesn't sell out right away. I don't skate very often these days, but it's felt weird to not have a deck. I've had one on hand since about...1987.