so the rumors are true, Ozzfest this year is gonna be a one off day, in fuckin Dallas Texas.  so yeah, if you unfortunately stuck out in that hell hole this is a nice treat for you, just make sure to bring a lot of sun screen.  boy, are they gonna make a ton of money on water.

so it’s August 9th at the Pizza Hut Park (how fucking metal is that!) in Dallas Texas

here’s the lineup

Main Stage:
Ozzy Osbourne
Metallica
Serj Tankian
Hellyeah
Jonathan Davis of Korn (solo performance)
Cavalera Conspiracy
Shadows Fall
Apocalyptica
In This Moment
Pantera/‘Dimebag” Darrell Abbot
Second Stage:
Sevendust
Devildriver
Kingdom Of Sorrow
Soilent Green
Witchcraft
Goatwhore
Third Stage:
The Sword
Drowning Pool
Rigor Mortis

lots of stuff’s been going on lately.
the new Mindless Self Indulgence came out.
new Nine Inch Nails came out which is totally free, check out the NIN website.

what i want to talk about right now is Boy Kicks Girl. i plan to write more extensively about these guys in the future, but for those who don’t know they are a long defunct bay area punk band that existed from 1996-2000. in their time they made a lot of noise and music. the three member punk piece was straight forward, gritty, and really angry about their ex-girlfriends. now, i know, i know - you’re wondering what emo crap this is right? but it’s not. at the moment i can’t put my finger on how to explain what separates BKG from today’s music so you’re just going to have to trust me and go check them out.

getting to the point though, their lovely singer Kevin has recently posted both their albums up for free download, along with a few recorded live shows and all sorts of other demos, covers, and b-sides so head over to their the Boy Kicks Girl myspace page and check out their blog for details.

also, my favorite San Jose band The Albert Square recently threw one of their songs up for download on their myspace as well so give them a listen. they’re new, a lot of fun, and you’ll be missing out if you don’t hear their music and go to the shows, so check em out here.

oh, and on a final note, 12 Angry Months by Local H comes out tomorrow so go pick that shit up from your local record store, it’s been a long time coming for a new H record.

so the remix album V is for Viagra along with the DoZo 7″ and Queen B 7″ are finally on sale at puscifer.com so go waste your money over there just like me. and while you’re at it, feel free to pick up a few copies of the Cuntry Boner 7″ and send one my way cause you love me =P

Alright, so anyone who’s talked to me much in the last month knows I’ve been binging deep into listening to American Nightmare/Give Up The Ghost. Naturally, this has led me in other directions – The Hope Conspiracy, Some Girls and XO FUCKIN SKELETONS!

Now, XO Skeletons just released a new album, Bored by Heaven, which is fucking amazing! and features guest spots by Cage who I appreciate and Benn Grim who I’ve never heard of before. Since I picked it up about two weeks ago I haven’t stopped listening to it along with their 7” release Asthmasgasm (which I picked up from Deathwish here, and i’m extremely happy with - the pink/white splatter looks fucking sick - by far the coolest 7″ i own now and it’s only $3). The album is 9 songs long clocking in at 21:27, a testament to my description of the muzik to my friends as American Nightmare meets Mindless Self Indulgence. The best I can really describe the muzik is some sort of electro hardcore hybrid with pop sensibilities and fun lyrics in a Wes Eisold fashion. If I went out dancing at a club this is the type of shit I’d want to hear…but that’s why I don’t go to the club.

[and before i get started. you can get the album from XO's myspace here for $7.99 and support the band or download here for free - your choice]

The album starts off hard with no bullshit on the lead in track Town Crier. There’s five seconds of electro noises to set the stage and then the guitars quickly come in along with Wes’s vocals and a crazy sense of dancability. Immediately the album is undeniably fun. Stand out lyrics from the song are “I know you’re married, yea I know your pain//your finger’s been strangled by a cheap promise ring”, “at your wedding reception I started drinking//to say all the things that I had been thinking” and my personal favorite “Jesus and Mary, held a séance for me//but I wasn’t dead, I was just in Philly.” The music of the chorus also feels like a video game punching you in the face.

Next up in Spider Heaven and Hell which isn’t one of my favorites but I do thoroughly enjoy the silliness of the line “spider earth between//spider heaven and hell”

The album comes back strong with Better Babes featuring Benn Grim with an ultra fast drum beat. It’s quickly accompanied some great bass and electronics. I really like this song due to multiple elements. First is the duality of the verse vocals and the screaming chorus vocals. There’s also the odd ranting between verses that reminds me of Suicidal Tendencies Institutionalized but in a comical way. There’s also a lot of amazing lyrics in the song that paint beautiful little moments and my personal favorite, “I won’t say shit till I hear a guitar……fuck that’s good!//if the speakers spill blood then I’ll drown in that flood.” In the gap after the first line the guitar comes in and every time I hear it I feel myself agreeing with Wes, fuck, that is good.

Following that is Stranger Tongues which is a good song, I just don’t have much to say about it.

Next comes Live From Planet Death (Jock Jam 1) which is one of the strongest songs of the album. It starts off with some background talk from someone trying to unite people at a rally and then it plows right into the song. It plays out strong with catchy music and lyrics that continue to drop the name of religion. The song really pulls together at the end with the first lyrics that I fell in love with on the album “I said//HEY YOU, are you feeling me?//I wanna make some history!//Devil’s on the six and God is on the seven!//Blow them both to hell and we’ll fuck all in haven!”

Up next is another one of my favorites on the album, Birthdays. It short, sweet, ridiculous, a lot of fun, and kind of reminds me on the Gorrilaz song Punk which I dig a lot. It’s the result of taking a few lines, a good electronic loop, and some really bumpin bass, then throwing them all together. Give it a listen in your car while you’re driving to work. Before you know it you’ll find yourself dancing even though you don’t remember starting.

Then comes Under the Ice of Hell Freezing over. Blanks faces staring back at me, I’m under the ice of hell freezing over. And that’s really all there is to say about that song.

And now Cage appears on Lavacious Facts. This song ties Live from Planet Death for strongest song on the album (even though I think Town Crier might be my favorite). Great music, great vocals, and a great hook combined with Cage filling in the gaps between Wes’s verses makes for a bad ass combination. This song has one my favorite choruses on the album “tell me honey if we’re gonna die anyway//I only wish I could say what I wanna say/I’m on the corner with a cigarette in the rain//only you can keep cancer away.” For me, those four lines illustrate such a beautiful painting in my head.

Finally the album ends with California Needs you and Me (Advice to a Young Couple). It feels like XO mixed with a dash of California Surf Punk. It’s a good song and good way to the end album. I like the different vocal deliveries on it as well as the guitar. I also am thoroughly amused with how Wes says California and the line “Unsend ‘em our love in a plagiarized letter”

and i’m back.

first off, i posted a new page - THE GRAVEYARD - which is my tribute to amazing bands that didn’t make it as far as they should’ve. despite the demise of these bands though, i’ve made it part of my mission in life to continue exposing people to their muzik. along with that, don’t forget to check out the BURIED TREASURE section for bands that are still around and should make sure to check out before they disappear.

second of all - i recently got a hold of Sprung Monkey’s very first cd Situation Life (you can pick it up here) which is amazing because i’ve never seen it available anywhere before. anywho, upon ordering it i was slightly worried. i figured it would be good my $11 just to check out this piece of Sprung Monkey history, but i wasn’t sure if it would be that amazing cause as much as i really like some tracks on Swirl (their second album), i was never a fan of it the way i was their other two albums.

however - Situation Life proved me really fucking wrong in my worries because this cd is amazing and by far one of the most amazing albums i’ve gotten my hands onto recently. it’s way heavier and far more experimental than their later stuff and i fucking love it. there’s a lot of really heavy guitar riffs that almost go metal in tone at times and some crazy funky bass riffs that bear resemblance to Les Claypool’s funkiness. for Incubus fans, it’s like the difference between Fungus Amongus and the rest of their discography. for non-Incubus fans, it’s just goddamn amazing. the cd is very early 90’s crazy experimental trying to redefine muzik in all sorts of ways and in my opinion if you don’t check it you’re life might just never be complete.

with that said - don’t forget V is for Viagra, the Puscifer (Maynard James Keenan) remix album comes out tuesday along with 7 inches for DoZo and Queen B so pick that shit up.

oh, and one last thing. in Isis land all of the craziness over the Holy Tears single final got sorted it out and it’s been out for a few weeks now (on cd anyway, the vinyl is still a mystery to me). i finally found a copy in my local Street Light and Isis has finally started selling it in the official store here. if you like Isis i would definitely pick it up. the artwork is really cool, the Melvins/Lustmord remix of Not in Rivers, But in Drops is the definition of how heavy muzik like this should be remixed, and the live version of Holy Tears with Justin Chancellor is amazing. just listen to how well they fill up that huge amphitheater they were in opening for Tool with their sound. it’s mind boggling. it also contains a video for Holy Tears which i must confess, i still haven’t watched by i will.

anyway, i’m out - more updates to come today or tomorrow.

so wow it’s been sometime. no no no, this little project hasn’t been forgotten, i’ve just been caught up in so many other things in life lately. there’s also already a million people out there doing what i’m trying to do and doing it better, so i don’t really feel bad about dropping off the face of this project for a while…plus, this is just a testing ground - it’s still on the real thing.

now for the real babbling though, this entry isn’t going to be very coherent, but i’m just gonna take some time to ramble about what i’ve been listening to lately and other musical nonsense. unless you’re extremely bored, you should probably skip this.

i saw the Subhumans the other night. i won’t lie, i’ve never really listened to them before. i know who they are, but i never listened to them. walking to show was pretty funny. i was wearing my Tool hoodie and some dipshit punk kid yells at me “TOOL’S NOT PUNK.” no fucking shit genius, they should give you a fucking award for being able to point that one out. and beyond that, punk shows aren’t about proving you are punker than everyone else, they are about finally having our fucking night out and hopefully avoiding the cops. if you really wanna prove who’s punk though, grab a length of rope and let’s go hang out in logan park asshole. show was good though, Subhuman’s rocked it. there was this opening band La Pueble that was some spanish punk band. you could tell who all that watsonville kids were during their set. i liked it a lot.

the Ashes Divide cd came out last tuesday. i’m enjoying it. it’s not quite what i was hoping for, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad or anything. i’ll digest it slowly though. doesn’t help that this comes out in the middle of me delving deep into a lot of hardcore.

i also picked up the Isis single for Holy Tears. the Melvins/Lustmord remix of Not in Rivers, But in Drops is so fucking amazing. i’m dying for more newer Isis remixes like this, and just, remixes of music like this by mixers like this. the live version of Holy Tears with Justin Chancellor (Tool) is fucking great too. QUESTION:: DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THE 12″ OF THIS IS OUT OR WHEN IT’S COMING OUT?!?!

Thrice’s Alchemy Index Volumes III & IV (Air & Earth) comes out tuesday. i’m excited, but not dying over it. i liked some songs of vols. I &II a lot, but i wasn’t in love with it all. however, i do think it’s a really interesting project so i wanna hear what this shit sounds like.

was listening to a lot of Death By Stereo for a while there. i fucking love those guys and i can’t wait for the next album and a touring schedule that takes them out of so cal. i know, i know, they came to SF with The Cult but fuck paying $40 to see DBS open for some band i don’t even really know (apparently The Cult is something cool though, i dunno).

also, been listening to a crazy fucking amount of American Nightmare/Give Up The Ghost. i got a hold of their cover of Black Flag’s Depression and just couldn’t stop listening to it which led me to doing something i haven’t done in a long time - i went out and bought their cd with no idea anything about the songs on it, or what the band sounded like other than that one cover song. so yeah, picked up Year One and it’s absolutely mind blowing. the music is amazing and intense. Wes’ lyrics are so beautiful and he is the most frantic singer ever. i love it. i’m hoping to get a hold of their other cds when i can (and if you are some i love American Nightmare but Give Up The Ghost sucks and i’m so hardcore kid - don’t fucking leave me comments that everything after Year One sucks - grow up and see beyond your scene). with this i’m dying to get a hold of the S/T EP or Year One on vinyl. fuck yeah that would be tight.

all of this naturally led to me checking out XO Skeletons, who actually just put out a new cd that i love. the best i can describe it is it’s MSI meets Give Up The Ghost. all this hardcore craziness mixed with electronics and a lot of fucking fun. go check it out. you’ve got 8 bucks, support the band and by the new EP directly from the band, then dance around naked in your room with a beer or glass of wine and have a good fucking 20 minutes. go go go! (oh, and you can download their 7″ for free from their blog - just beware, when you open that shit, click get info on tracks 2 and 4 and change the volume to normal. for some reason when i downloaded them they were on full blast)

so yeah, i guess that’s about it.
i love vinyl
i’m really interested is wes eisold’s creative output
oh, and i think the world is ending
enjoy

look, i’m sorry, but you just aren’t a band anymore when you release an album in 4 different formats right off the bat and offer special material only to those who shell out 4 times the cost of a single CD to get your special deluxe package that just repeats the same shit over and over again…i love you guys, but you aren’t a band, you’re just a fucking business now because you are rewarding your fan base based off of their financial capability

[more on this later...maybe]

(and don’t get confused, this isn’t about NIN releasing Ghosts I-IV in various formats, all those various formats come with interesting and new material…this is about bands that force you to buy their album again and again just to get that one bonus track, or that dvd with some behind the scenes footage, or to get that special vinyl single it now comes with)

that’s right
new NIN
Ghosts I-IV
2 cds worth of instrumentals
download the first 9 for free
or grab the whole thing for $5 for the download
$10 for the cd and download
etc etc for bigger and better special additions
major fucking respect to anyone who wants to donate me $300 for the ultra deluxe version
=D

go here

in quick news - looking through the Puscifer website i noticed that there are 7″ singles coming out for DoZo and Queen B, both featuring reimxes by Lustmord

also, Aaron Turner of Isis reports that he recently turned a remix of Trekka into Maynard for some future EP.

————————

and now for some personal thoughts…
now maybe it’s because i’ve been in college for too long now, or maybe it’s been my desire to establish some sort of culture identicifcaion for myself that moves beyond the color of my skin, but mosh pits are something i’ve started to analyze a lot in the past year or so…maybe more

my friends and i were all sitting around one night drinking copious amounts of wine when i posed the question - does anyone have any idea what compelled us all right around the end of 8th grade to need to go to shows and throw ourselves into pits? i mean, i know i love it, but honestly, what the hell compelled us to do that?

jamie, ethertrace, delivered my favorite answer. though i don’t remember his exact words, the idea was that we all started to realize that there was something wrong with the world and the way things had been taught to us. that something was seriously fucked up even if we didn’t know exactly what it was.

now, i’m a heavy body modification enthusiast. with this comes a lot of interest in body ritual, such as suspension, play piercing, and many other things. i remember being a young child and learning about suspensions that native american tribes participated in, such as the O-Kee-Pa Suspension. i also remember thinking how happy i was because i wasn’t part of a culture that had such painful rites of passage and wondering what would possess someone to do such a thing.

…i like to examine my own culture and life as if it was being examined by people in the future, putting it back together. or just by cultures that are completely different than ours, and quite possibly completely ignorant of ours. i like to think that people might one day view the mosh pits all of my friends and i creat as our reaction to the muzik of our culture similar to dances other cultures have done to bring rain or good weather for this years crops. they are dance of hope. the dances we do i feel are of hope, as well as purging our anger and hate. it’s our way of creating a space where pain and violence (to some extent) are acceptable for at least a moment because that space doesn’t exist any open public sphere of our society today. i think the violence is needed in someway because in our culture violence is so fetishized and we are completely removed from it by law.

my fascination with pits continues with the history of pits, and how different styles of music, as well as different geographical locations have developed different styles of pitting. though pits are often pure chaos, anyone who denies that there is an extreme amount of order to them needs to reexamine what they think a pit is. circle pits always have the group of enforcers hanging around the edge to protect the rest of the crowd from the chaos. when someone crowd surfs there are always people holding them up and pushing them around. when someone stages dives the crowd knows to catch them. when someone falls down everyone knows to pick them up. and when the crowd starts to part down the middle, everyone but those into real pain know to get the hell out of the way of the wall of death.

i think i’ll end here before i ramble on too much, but here are some videos

Lamb of God Wall of Death Compilation
Sick of it All 4way Wall of Death
Another Sick of it All 4way Wall of Death
Laughable Yellowcard Wall of Death
Random hXc Dancing
Really crazy hXc Dancing at a Throwndown Show
DevilDriver 25,000 person Circle Pit (biggest ever?)

so sometime back the now former singer of Campbell California’s own Strata put out an amazing book of poetry called Coma Therapy (which i have read and keep meaning to post a review of). anywho, i guess copies of the book are starting to run low and he is focusing his energy on a new book and will not be repressing Coma Therapy in foreseeable future which means get it now or possible never. don’t sleep on this shit, and don’t let that it’s a book of poetry scare you cause what scares you about poetry, this is not it

you can order the book here
you can check some of his poems out here (check the blog entires)
or if you’re interested but too poor to buy the book you can download an full audiobook of all the poem’s here

now go support some local underground art!