Thursday, December 23, 2010

RIDING THE BUS WITH MY SISTER

You're 8 years old. You think of yourself as the "class clown." You do a retard impression that all of your friends find hilarious. Life is good.

Flash forward 35 years. You have your own daytime talk show. You've had a moderately successful movie career. You're American's #2 lesbian icon. Life is still good, but where do you go from here? There's really only one option: it's time to revive your childhood retard impression.




Here's what real internet people have to say:

"I thought this was a very touching and human story... my family and I loved it and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys decent and honest stories with very real, human characters and very insightful and at times confronting observations on life. I agree with the comment made by another user who thought that Rosie O'Donnell deserves an Oscar for her portrayal of Beth. This film made me laugh and cry!"

"Although the film is directed more toward women, I enjoyed it(I am a male) and I suggest it to many people."

"Rosanne [sic] was better than excellent in this role. Her portrayal of Beth was exceptional. I'm nearly speechless."

"Hallmark Movies has not failed us yet."

"I would like to thank Hallmark and Rosie O'Donnell for a well-acted and well-presented movie that I will allow my young grandchildren to watch. That in itself is a real accomplishment in this age of Science Fiction and bad language."

"Watching Rosie O Donnel as a retard is magnificent. Her acting skills are unbelievably realistic, similar to other characters that were retarded such as Rainman and Special Ed. This role was meant for her and this character's life was meant for her. Bring this film to a party and your friends will be delighted as she screams, yells, and acts like, well - a retard - in this spectacular made-for-TV movie. Riding the Bus With my Sister's weakest point is that Rosie is not featured in every scene. There are a couple uninteresting subplots, which just aren't worth seeing. The film would have been much better if Rosie had been on a bus for the whole hour and a half. There are some other minor problems with the movie as well - in one scene Rosie is wearing yellow and can be mistaken for the actual bus. Any person with a strong humerus bone should see this modern day comedy classic." I couldn't have put it better myself.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

POSTER DUMP

Urban Inks


Michael Munter


Mark Moore


El Roacho


Charles Ben Russell

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

POSTER DUMP

Roy G. Biv


Steve Quenell


Mark Moore


Malleus


Lilas

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

FUN FACT #4

Anyone recognize the little guy with the microphone?



If you said "Tina Turner's little bitch in Beyond Thunderdome" you are correct.

Angry Anderson


And while we're on the subject of Rose Tattoo, has anyone else noticed how unintentionally homoerotic this band is? Don't believe me? Let's take a quick look at the song titles on their first album: "Nice Boys", "One of the Boys", "Bad Boy for Love"? Um, is it just me or does Angry seem a little boycrazy? Throw in some lyrics like "got tattooed arms and rings in my ears, never gonna suffer a straight man's fears" and you've basically got the musical equivalent of He-Man.

And what's with all the pictures of the band cuddling?





If Angry ever reads this, he's gonna kick my ass.

Monday, December 13, 2010

POSTER DUMP

Juul



Jason Killinger



Jason Killinger



David Dandrea



Craig Bryant



Alan Forbes and Arik Roper

Sunday, December 12, 2010

BLACK METAL MONDAY: FURZE "Reaper Subconscious Guide"






It’s no secret that black metal as a genre is full of stale predictability. Rife with formulaic bands willing to comfortably tread paths blazed decades ago, it’s easy to become bored and write black metal off as a dying art. Norwegian one-man BM entity Furze, lead by the enigmatic Woe J. Reaper, is certainly not one of the acts to regurgitate the tremelo-riffing, blasting, boombox-recorded tropes many bands cling to like a blood-stained security blanket. “Reaper Subconscious Guide,” Furze’s fourth full-length album, is a welcome rarity – a black metal record with personality.


A self-proclaimed “birthday card” to 1970s Black Sabbath, “RSG” is as much a twisted and strange doom metal album as it is a black metal one. With slow tempos and nary a blast beat to be found, chunky, bluesy riffs and sneered clean vocals, other Scandinavian Sabbath-heads like Reverend Bizarre come to mind, but this still sounds like nothing else out there. Sure, like many metal bands – black or otherwise – Reaper wears his influences on his sleeve – Bathory, Darkthrone, Celtic Frost/Hellhammer, and of course Sabbath – but as in previous Furze albums a distinct sense of “playfulness” is detectable. That’s right, a playful black/doom album. Still this ain’t no party album, it’s just certainly not as grim and humorless as 99% of BM (newer Darkthrone making up the other 1% of that equation!).


Strange instruments crop up – you’ll hear plenty of glockenspiel, acoustic guitar and gong on this platter – whispered, chanting falsettos spring from the mix, and you really never know where the song will turn. Eschewing the two-riff-per-song minimalist approach, Reaper writes tunes with plenty of meat on their bones, and the songs actually sound different, each with its own atmosphere, from rocking to drugged-out, to eerie to almost bouncy. Admittedly, the instrumental tones occasionally sound strange and almost weak, but I tend to think this is intentional, an attempt to make the album more intimate – a real glimpse into the frazzled brain of Woe J. Reaper.


Some have leveled accusations of “joke band” at Furze, perhaps because Reaper’s bizarre, stream of consciousness liner notes and the sometimes off-the-wall aspects of the music itself could be misconstrued as attempts to satirize black metal or as ironic posturing. Such close-mindedness is not to be taken seriously. “Reaper Subconscious Guide” is a genuine piece of work, crafted with care and dedication to metal from a fellow who is probably just really fucking weird. Highly recommended!


Friday, December 10, 2010

NOTES FROM BELOW



If you have any interest in contemporary poster art, you have most likely heard of Stacie Willoughby. She is one of the most talented and prolific artists in the game. She is most easily recognized as (((folkYEAH!)))'s resident artist. You may also have seen her work featured in our "poster dumps." As of today she finally has her own website up, so smoke a fatty and give your eyes a treat.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

POSTER DUMP

Josh Staples



James Flames



Emek



Darwin



Craig Horky

Monday, December 6, 2010

BLACK METAL MONDAY: DISPIRIT




Listening to Dispirit is not fun. Their brand of black metal is not created with fist pumping or head banging in mind. Just look at their name – that’s what their music sounds like. Depressing, soul crushing, and definitely heavy. Dispirit is definitely in the cold and grim camp, but theirs is an urban form of black metal forged in San Francisco fog, not the “Funeral Fog” of Norway.


Their “Rehearsal at Oberoten” demo, released earlier this year, features two meandering tracks clocking it at just over 30 minutes. There’s a lot of tension and release here, with the first track, “Ixtab’s Lure,” starting at a slow and pounding, almost doomish pace. Dynamics are key. Blast beats are used very sparingly, with the band preferring to drag you through the muck and mire rather than hurtle you through a whipping black storm. Vocals are kept back in the mix, a howl or chant coming though the churning guitars on occasion. Surprisingly melodic guitar solos crop up from time to time, a welcome treat when many bands in the genre are unwilling to use this technique.


Being a rehearsal recording, “Oberoten” is certainly raw and fuzzy, but in this context it doesn’t take anything away from the listening experience. It’s a step above a boombox recording but you would never mistake it for being cut in a professional studio. The rawness adds atmosphere, as it should for black metal.


I saw Dispirit open for Portal in San Francisco in May, shortly after this demo was released, and they were loud and tight with great stage presence. Dispirit is the kind of band that doesn’t need a flashy stage show, corpse paint, or bullet belts to impress an audience; their intricate, crushing and above all, emotional black metal is enough.

Photo by Taylor Keahley of Brooklyn Vegan

Saturday, December 4, 2010

MACROCOSMOSMOSMOSM

New video for Portland psych-wizards, Macrocosm:

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

BLACK MASSES!!!


Fuck me! Have you heard the new Electric Wizard? It's is easily the best thing the Wizard has put out since Dopethrone. Hell, it may even be better. (I'm not gonna say it but I might be thinking it.) It's certainly not as face-crushingly brutal as Dopethrone but what it lacks in hardness, it makes up for in heaviness. We're talking serious smoke-infused grooves, baby. We're talking about grooves that make you wanna fuck a virgin on a pagan altar. Sexy.

Black Masses starts of with the title track which was a good call cuz it's one of the best songs on the album. It's a bit faster than usual but the riffs are still beefy as fuck and the vocals are almost catchy if you can believe that. I don't want to get into a long and boring song-by-song synopsis but I do want to mention that the song "Turn Off Your Mind" is fucking killer. Jus Oborn's vocals are reeeeeally good on this one. They're particularly good on the whole album, actually. But seriously, this track makes me feel like I got dosed and stepped onto the set of a 70's occultsploitation flick.

The thing that makes Black Masses better than a lot of EW's other albums (and most albums by other bands in the genre, for that matter) is that these wizards have really figured out how to keep their riffs interesting. Doom/stoner/etc. is about riffs and repetition but let's face it, a lot of it can get rather boring after a while. The trick is to change the way you play that same riff over and over again so that it doesn't sound the same. And EW have really nailed it this time around. Most of their songs don't have more than two riffs but they add enough other shit in there (wah-wahed-the-fuck-out solos, chanting, and is that a synthesizer I hear in the background?) to keep your attention for six (plus) minutes.

My only complaint is the last track, "Crypt of Drugula." It's a pretty half-assed noise drone that goes on forfuckingever but doesn't go anywhere but whatever, it's the last track so I can just turn it off and put on another album.

This album is being release on vinyl on December 21. The cheapest place I've found to pre-order it is here. If you don't give a rat's ass about vinyl you can pick it up right now at your local music store.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

FUN FACT #3

Before Ricky Gervais became one of the UK's finest (and funniest) actors/writers/producers/whatever, he tried to make it as a second rate 80's Bowie.



More fun from Wikipedia: In 1985, a radio station in Metro Manila, Philippines, DWRT-FM, started playing a song billed as "Fade" by Medium (also billed as "Medium" by Fade), which quickly became a favorite of many Filipino teenagers. DWRT-FM had lied about the song title and artist name which prevented anyone from finding the record and playing it themselves. Additionally, to stop other radio stations from recording it and playing it, DWRT-FM inserted a station I.D. midway through the track. Eventually, another radio station revealed the identity of the song as "More to Lose" by Seona Dancing.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Thursday, November 11, 2010

BEATING TUF E NUF TO THE PUNCH


Does anyone know anything about this band? Fit for Fight is one of the best metal albums ever made but I still can't find any info on them other than a) they are from Denmark and b) they recorded with Henrik Lund (who also recorded Mercyful Fate). Why are they such a mystery?

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

HOARDER PUPPETS

Monday, November 8, 2010

BLACK METAL MONDAY




Morbosidad/Perversor split LP: “Invocaciones Demoniacas”

Welcome to hell! Nuclear War Now! Productions recently unleashed this slab of blasphemous black/death metal for all those strong enough to chug a skull full of goat blood, puke on a shit-smeared Catholic altar, and straight up rape the Virgin Mary in a pool of her own tears.

I was really excited to hear that Perversor and Morbosidad were teaming up for a split LP. For one, split Lps are a great format – with the LP’s greater length you get all the benefits of a split 7” with none of the drawbacks; you don’t have to flip the fucker every five minutes and you get to check out two bands for the price of one. I’ve been familiar with both bands for a while, Morbosidad having released a slew of full-lengths and EPs in their 17 year history, and Perversor having released only a few records, most recently the “Demon Metal” mini LP on Hell’s Headbangers Records.

First up is Morbosidad. Hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area and lead by gas-mask clad Tomas Stench, they play a grinding, blasting and heavy as shit brand of black/death equally influenced by the South American bands of yesteryear like Sarcofago and Vulcano, Finland’s mighty Beherit and Canadian “war metal” pioneers Blasphemy. This recording starts with two brief hymns to darkness, sung completely in Espanol, and continues to rip it up for four more tracks of violent metal. They move from blast beats to more conventional thrash drumming, with an occasional slower almost “mosh” tempo in places. The recording is clear and heavy, the guitars thick, but not super polished and very natural sounding. This shit makes me want to flip over a fucking bus full of nuns! Tomas’ vocals are mostly midranged growls, and the band is very tight, something missing from lesser bands playing this “bestial” style of metal. I prefer a more focused attack for this kind of stuff – the atmosphere is so chaotic that if the songs are played too loose everything blends together into a total fucking mess, which is not the case here. This record is just plain raging.

Perversor are on the flipside and hail from Chile. They play a very complimentary style for Morbosidad – again blasting and of course brimming with blasphemy, drawing from the piss-filled well of their South American brethren, but with some crucial differences. They are much more chaotic sounding, due in part to a rawer and more reverb drenched recording, and also because of the vocals – they’re raspy and very out of control, with a lot of reverb as opposed to the dryer sounding Morbosidad vocals. Another difference that I really like with these hellions is the very pronounced thrash/speed metal influence. Sometimes they’re playing riffs reminiscent of early Sodom and Bathory or, perhaps, Merciless, but way faster than those bands ever did, then they suddenly break into slightly slower thrash-to-the-bone drum patterns with some killer double bass. Basically, these riffs are made for fucking headbanging. The second of their six tracks, “Vortice De Destruccion,” is a particular highlight of this method. While I think this recording is a little weaker than their debut “Cult of Destruction,” and not quite as catchy as that abomination, they still lay down an absolutely solid batch of tunes that will satisfy any fan of no frills black/thrash metal. Crack a fucking beer and put your fist through a window!

I highly recommend this split, and if you get it, nab the LP over the CD; it contains a great eight-page lyric/artwork booklet with some bad-trip psychedelic drawings from Perversor vocalist Torrid, and a huge poster of the cover art by Chris “Thorncross” Moyen. Buy and go straight to hell!
Morbosidad photo taken from their website: www.morbosometal.net

POSTER DUMP

by Roy G. Biv



by Vidya Gastaldon



by Billy Perkins



by Drew Ward



by Chuck U



by Stacie Willoughby


by Zomic