List Mania

I cannot believe that 2009 is almost over. This has got to be one of the fastest moving years of my life. Anyway, as 2010 approaches, I am preparing to make my year end list of favorite records. I tend to alternate the number of albums on the list every year, but this year is looking like it will be a Top 25. I don't know exactly how many new albums came out this year (although I'm sure it is an outrageously high number), but my list will be based on the 98 albums I acquired over the course of the year, all of which are listed below in alphabetical order:

1. AFI – Crash Love
2. Against Me! – The Original Cowboy
3. Agoraphobic Nosebleed – Agorapocalypse
4. Alice In Chains – Black Gives Way To Blue
5. …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Century Of Self
6. Animals As Leaders – s/t
7. Baroness – The Blue Album
8. Brendan Benson – My Old, Familiar Friend
9. Between The Buried And Me – The Great Misdirect
10. The Big Pink – A Brief History Of Love
11. Billy Talent – Billy Talent III
12. Black Lips – 200 Million Thousand
13. Brand New – Daisy
14. Brutal Truth – Evolution Through Revolution
15. Built To Spill – There Is No Enemy
16. Burnt By The Sun – Heart Of Darkness
17. Cannibal Corpse – Evisceration Plague
18. Celeste – Misanthrope(s)
19. Chairlift – Does You Inspire You
20. City Of Ships – Look What God Did To Us
21. Clutch – Strange Cousins From The West
22. Coalesce – Ox
23. Coalesce – OX EP
24. The Company Band – s/t
25. Converge – Axe To Fall
26. Crooked Fingers – Forfeit/Fortune
27. Dead Weather – Horehound
28. Deer Tick – Born On Flag Day
29. The Devin Townsend Project – Addicted
30. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
31. Dredg – The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion
32. Drive-By Truckers – The Fine Print (A Collection Of Oddities and Rarities 2003 – 2008)
33. Dysrhythmia – Psychic Maps
34. Steve Earle – Townes
35. Eminem – Relapse
36. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
37. Flight Of The Conchords – I Told You I Was Freaky
38. Future Of The Left – Travels With Myself And Another
39. Gallows – Grey Britain
40. Goes Cube – Another Day Has Passed
41. Green Day – 21st Century Breakdown
42. Greymachine – Disconnected
43. PJ Harvey – A Woman A Man Walked By
44. Heartless Bastards – The Mountain
45. Heaven & Hell – The Devil You Know
46. Patterson Hood – Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs)
47. L’Homme Puma - On Remplace Les Yeux Cassés
48. Howl – Howl
49. Katatonia – Night Is The New Day
50. If These Trees Could Talk – Above The Earth, Below The Sky
51. Iron Age – The Sleeping Eye
52. Isis – Wavering Radiant
53. Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit – s/t
54. Jay–Z – The Blueprint 3
55. Jesu – Infinity
56. Jesu – Opiate Sun
57. Killswitch Engage – Killswitch Engage
58. Kreator – Hordes of Chaos
59. Kylesa – Static Tensions
60. Lamb Of God – Wrath
61. Lucero – 1372 Overton Park
62. The Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything To Nothing
63. Marcy Playground – Leaving Wonderland…In A Fit Of Rage
64. Mastodon – Crack The Skye
65. Matt and Kim – Grand
66. Megadeth – Endgame
67. Mono – Hymn To The Immortal Wind
68. Mount Eerie – Wind’s Poem
69. Muse – The Resistance
70. MUTEMATH – Armistice
71. Napalm Death – Time Waits For No Slave
72. NOFX – Coaster
73. Noisettes – Wild Young Heart
74. Obscura – Cosmogenesis
75. Pelican – Ephemeral
76. Pelican – What We All Come To Need
77. A Place To Bury Strangers – Exploding Head
78. Poison The Well – The Tropic Rot
79. Portugal. The Man – The Satanic Satanist
80. Revocation – Existence Is Futile
81. Russian Circles – Geneva
82. Scale The Summit – Carving Desert Canyons
83. Shadows Fall – Retribution
84. Shrinebuilder – s/t
85. Silversun Pickups – Swoon
86. Skeletonwitch – Breathing The Fire
87. Slayer – World Painted Blood
88. Sonic Youth – The Eternal
89. Telekinesis – Telekinesis!
90. Them Crooked Vultures – s/t
91. Tombs – Winter Hours
92. U2 – No Line On The Horizon
93. Weezer – Raditude
94. Where The Wild Things Are – Soundtrack (Karen O. and The Kids)
95. White Lies – To Lose My Life
96. Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg
97. Wolves In The Throne Room – Black Cascade
98. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz

One Dream That Won't Come True

Last night I had a dream that I had traveled to Atlantic City to see a Metallica concert and upon arrival discovered that Phil Collins had been announced as a special guest opener. In the dream, I watched both Phil Collins and Metallica perform and was ecstatic. However, when I woke up the next morning (still part of the dream) I was upset because I had drank too much and didn't remember their performances clearly, but was happy when I remembered that I would be seeing them again that evening. The dream went on a little big longer and then I eventually woke up in the real world and realized that I am actually seeing Metallica twice this weekend, but Lamb Of God will be the opener and not Phil Collins.

A couple of hours later I put the following update on my Facebook: had a dream last night that he went to see Metallica in Atlantic City and Phil Collins was announced as the surprise opener. Maybe Lamb Of God will do a Genesis cover this weekend and my dream will come partly true.

A friend commented on the update and mentioned (sarcastically) Disturbed's "Land of Confusion" cover. I don't like Disturbed, but I don't hate them either (in all honestly, I can actually enjoy Down With The Sickness every once in a while). The comment did get me thinking about Phil Collins/Genesis covers out there and one is actually hard pressed to find a really spectacular one. Phil Collins as a solo artist and as a member of Genesis has generated a more than respectable amount of hits and quality music (someday I will write a blog about the roots of my fondness for Phil Collins), so it is a bit surprising that (at least to my knowledge) he hasn't been covered more often. I know there was a Phil Collins hip-hop/R&B tribute album called Urban Renewal and along with Disturbed, Nonpoint, The Postal Service and Mariah Carey have had some mildy popular covers, but nothing really of particular note.

Anyway, I compiled a few covers of various Phil Collins and Genesis songs that I found on YouTube. Some are good, some are bad and some are completely misinformed and are just further proof that best way to enjoy Phil Collins and Genesis is by listening to the originals.

Disturbed "Land Of Confusion"



Nonpoint "In The Air Tonight"



Patterson Hood "In The Air Tonight"



The Postal Service "Against All Odds"



Bone Thugs-n-Harmony "Home"



Mariah Carey "Against All Odds"



Keane "That's All"



Ol' Dirty Bastard "Sussudio"

School Is A Job, But You Don't Get Paid

I never got into hardcore with the exception of Sick Of It All's Scratch The Surface and everything Snapcase did from Progression Through Unlearning on, but some of the crossover acts definitely appealed to my metal sensibilities. D.R.I. was one of the more well known crossover bands and my metal friends and I definitely dug 'em. This morning while out for a run with my iPod's newly created 90's metal playlist on shuffle (I did a smart playlist that pulled together all releases between '89 - '99 in the metal genre), the song "Beneath The Wheel" from D.R.I.'s Thrash Zone came up. I haven't listened to this album in a long time, but remember this particular song being somewhat of an anthem in high school (for me at least) because of the lyric "Run! Make the grade, School's a job, but you don't get paid". While Dirty Rotten LP and Dealing With It are usually considered their greatest albums, Thrash Zone has always been my personal favorite and hearing the great "single" Beneath The Wheel this morning has me fired up to listen to not only Thrash Zone, but some other crossover acts like Suicidal Tendencies and Corrosion Of Conformity (both were considered crossover before they turned into full-on metal bands and thank God they went the metal route because they put out absolutely amazing albums after their transformations...two of my all-time favorites!).

D.R.I. "Beneath The Wheel"



Suicidal Tendencies "How Will I Laugh Tomorrow"



Corrosion Of Conformity "Intervention"

Rockin' Out: Wolfmother/The Heartless Bastards @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 11/09/09

Not great pictures, but not the usual blurred mess that my Blackberry camera normally produces. Three cheers for progress!

Wolfmother and Heartless Bastards rolled into the hipster capital of the East Coast on Monday night to play The Music Hall of Williamsburg. I'd never seen Wolfmother live before, but was curious to see them since I am a big fan of their self-titled debut album (and this year's release Cosmic Egg is pretty good too) and having seen The Heartless Bastards twice already this year, I knew they could be counted on for a good show. Originally, this tour was only going to play the dreadful Terminal 5 in Manhattan, but much to my delight they added a second date at at the smaller and far superior (sound wise) Music Hall. The trek to Brooklyn to laugh at a few hipsters and take in a good show was a no brainer.

The Heartless Bastards first came to my attention after I saw them them open for The Black Keys back in February and subsequently picked up this year's The Mountain. I don't love all alt-country, but there are certainly a few bands that are masters of that genre and I now count the Heartless Bastards as part of that crowd. Singer/guitarist Erika Wennerstrom has one of those beautiful whiskey soaked throaty voices (she was actually drinking a Jack and ginger out of a coffee cup on stage...or so she claimed after an audience member admonished her for drinking coffee) that is probably the envy of many of her male counterparts. The band is tight and the songs are rockin' affairs informed by a country influence. They worked through a few technical difficulties like pros and didn't allow lulls in the action. If you are a fan of Lucero, The Black Keys, Drive-By Truckers, etc., then this is the band for you without a doubt.

When we were entering the venue, an extremely intoxicated college aged looking guy was getting denied entrance at the door. I didn't catch all of what was going on, but he was protesting about his ticket while the bouncer explained to him he was being turned away because he was too drunk. Bummer bro. That did make me realize that I had never really considered what a Wolfmother audience was going to look like. As it turned out, it looked a lot like the drunk college kid I saw outside, but mixed in with a few older rock dude types and was probably a 60/40 split between men and women. When Wolfmother came out and started playing the crowd was extremely fired up (as is usually expected when the headliner hits the stage), but what I didn't see coming was a mosh pit during the hit from their first album "Woman". Maybe this is me being a music snob or being older and a bit jaded or both, but the whole scene just struck me as so Woodstock '99....you know, a bunch of idiots moshing to music just for the sake of being aggressive. More than once, one of said idiots got on the stage and almost disturbed the ebb and flow of the set by flailing around a little too close to the band, but were promptly thrown off stage by security. That kind of stuff is just fine at a punk rock or hardcore show, but this was a rock n roll performance....audience participation is meant to be kept in the actual audience. One dufus actually knocked the mic off the stand and spent what felt like an eternity, but was more like 30 seconds, drunkenly fumbling with it to get it back on. Hey, at least he had some manners. That being said, even a bunch of drunk dipshits couldn't ruin what was a surprisingly spectacular set by Wolfmother.

Wolfmother only has singer/guitarist Andrew Stockdale remaining from the line-up that recorded their self-titled debut and as evidenced by the latest album Cosmic Egg and last night's performance, Wolfmother is really his vehicle. Original founding members, bassist/keyboardist Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett quit the band over the ever popular "irreconcilable personal and musical differences" and have been replaced my more than competent players as well as a second guitarist. I did notice during the set that Stockdale gave more than a few disapproving glances at his new keyboardist/bassist when their were slight imperfections in the playing/sound, so maybe the guy is a bit of a tyrant and hard to get along with, but who knows. Anyway, the simplest (and probably most accurate) way to describe Wolfmother is that they are a throwback to the more jammy 70's hard rock ala Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, Mountain, etc., but without being so derivative that it gets boring or screams "retro" too loudly. They came out, turned it up to 11 and rocked it out. There were no bathroom break songs (which was unfortunate because Stella can go right through you) and Stockdale showed that the new (and improved?) Wolfmother is a force to be reckoned with.

Heartless Bastards "Out To Sea"



Heartless Bastards "The Mountain"



Wolfmother "Mind's Eye"



Wolfmother "Joker And The Thief"

New Fear Factory Sounds Like Old Fear Factory, But...

not quite as awesome. The first three Fear Factory albums, Soul Of A New Machine, Demanufacture and Obsolete, are personal favorites of mine, but on their fourth release, Digimortal, they lost me. To be fair, I haven't revisited that album since it came out in 2001 and there is a possibility that I might like it now, but at the time it came out, I thought it sounded like a failed attempt by Fear Factory to catch up with the nu-metal bands that were currently enjoying radio airplay and favorable record sales at the time. There was also well documented rumors of internal strife in the band between guitarist Dino Cazares and singer Burton C. Bell at the time that may (or may not) have contributed to the album not fulfilling the promise that was shown on earlier material. The band "broke up" after Digimortal and then got back together sans Dino and recorded two more albums. I did like the title track off of the first of those two albums, Archetype, but never felt the urge to check out the entire album or even bother with the second one.

Recently, Dino and Burton apparently made amends and decided to reform Fear Factory. The catch is that original drummer Raymond Herrera and long time bassist/guitarist Christian Olde Wolbers (he played guitar on the two releases Dino wasn't on) weren't invited to the party. I believe there were/are some legal disputes happening over the name between the two parties, but ultimately, for the fans, Fear Factory isn't Fear Factory without Burton's vocals and Dino's guitar playing. Byron Stroud and Gene Hoglan of Strapping Young Lad fame have been added on bass and drums respectively to make what sounds like, on paper at least, a pretty damn fine line-up. I don't know much about Stroud besides his work in SYL, but Hoglan is a monster of a metal drummer with a great resume including the aforementioned SYL as well as Dark Angel, Testament and Death among others.

A new track from this latest incarnation of Fear Factory has been "leaked". It sounds good and definitely has my curiosity piqued as to what the rest of the album will sound like. I don't expect to be floored like I was by their earlier material, but if they at least come close, then I'll be happy.

Whatever Happened To....

The Flys and Sponge? Actually, I don't care what happened to them at all. Like so many bands of the 90s, they each had one amazing song on an album that was otherwise terrible. And record executives wondered why people started flocking like crazy to the the internet to get their music for free....paying $18.99 for a CD with ONE good song on it is not even in the ballpark of a bargain. You screw people over, then eventually you are going to get screwed back. (Hops off soapbox) Anyway, the word "hit" is used in the phrase one hit wonder for a reason...both these songs are great:

The Flys "Got You (Where I Want You)"



Sponge "Plowed"

Long Island...The 51st State?

Last night I journeyed to Long Island for a show and had an absolute blast people watching. From the dude in the TapouT t-shirt and the other dude in the Affliction t-shirt (still can't believe I didn't see one Ed Hardy shirt) to the 40 something rocker chicks still dressing like it was the 80's to the 250 pound 15 year old teenagers in ill-fitting death metal t-shirts it was all quite a sight to behold.

Long Island is a locale that is often teased about its stereotypes and some of its residents make those stereotypes difficult to refute (just like any other city, state or geographical region that is saddled with stereotypes) and last night on the ride home as my snobby Manhattan friends and I (that was sarcasm) joked about the Long Island locals, it reminded me of a piece The Daily Show did a few months back about Long Island wanting to secede from New York and become it's own state. This being The Daily Show, obviously this is not something that is really a true news issue, but the piece they put together is absolutely hilarious. Even if you have no concept of some of the Long Island stereotypes, the poor idiots they suckered into appearing for this piece will still have you howling with laughter.

Enjoy:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Long Island Wants to Secede
www.thedailyshow.com

Rockin' Out: The Black Dahlia Murder/Skeletonwitch/Toxic Holocaust/Trap Them @ The Crazy Donkey 11/03/09

Seriously, what the hell is up with my Blackberry camera. I was about 4 or 5 rows back for Skeletonwitch and it still took blurry pictures that make it look like I was a mile away. God damn.

Last Friday night a friend of mine mentioned that he was headed out to The Crazy Donkey in Long Island, NY to see The Black Dahlia Murder, Skeletonwitch, Toxic Holocaust and Trap Them this week. Having been really impressed with Skeletonwitch the one and only time I saw a live performance of theirs, I was very curious to check them out again. I was also curious about Trap Them as I had heard good things and having seen The Black Dahlia Murder and Toxic Holocaust live before, I knew they were at least somewhat fun live bands (even though I'm not really into either band's music).

First up was Trap Them. For some reason I was under the impression that these guys were deathcore, but was pleasantly surprised to see they are more heavy, faster, droney with elements of grind kind of sounding stuff (got that?). A couple of my buddies I was there with are huge Trap Them friends and told me that this particular live show wasn't doing them justice and that I needed to hear some studio stuff to truly appreciate them. I'm sold. Definitley going to check out their last release at some point in the near future.

Next was Toxic Holocaust. I've seen these guys live twice before and both times wandered off to another part of the venue after two or three songs. They love Venom and Slayer and it shows in their sound, but unfortunately it shows a little too much. It is one thing to wear your influences on your sleeve, but another to sound like a cover band. People seem to love these guys though for whatever reason. I don't hate it, but I don't much care for it....at all.

Now it was time for the main event (for me at least) as Skeletonwitch hit the stage. These guys look like a cross between full on 80's thrash metal dudes and bikers from the show Sons Of Anarchy playing thrash mixed with black metal or black metal thrash metal style....however you want to say it. The singer is one of the best frontmen to emerge in the newest class of metal bands....he does all the cheesy "Satan" "Metal" "Beer" ranting between songs, but he is completely taking the piss out of it. Don't get me wrong, these guys are metal to the core, but they are also just having fun playing music and not taking the imagery too seriously. I love Skeletonwitch's albums Beyond The Permafrost and Breathing The Fire, but they do not capture how powerful the band is live. Hopefully on their next album they will find a producer that can translate their live performances into a studio recording properly. On another note, I always know I really liked a band's performance when I head over to the merch booth after their set and buy a shirt and that is exactly what I did after Skeletonwitch's performance last night. Two thumbs way up.

Closing the night was The Black Dahlia Murder and that is clearly who the majority of the crowd was there to see. I'm not particularly into this band, but they put on a fun show. The singer usually takes his shirt off at some point during the show to reveal his substantial beer gut with the word "HEARTBURN" tattooed across it and then storms around the stage like a mad man. Like Skeletonwitch, these guys are just taking the piss out of it and having fun, but the music isn't really my cup of tea. It's pretty much average death metal and in death metal, average simply doesn't cut it, but the kids seem to love 'em, so God bless.

After all that metal and still facing the drive back to the city from Long Island, we made a group decision to give ourselves our own internal "HEARTBURN" tattoos and hit up Taco Bell before the drive home:All in all, a fun night of metal, people watching (Long Island is like it's own country, but more on that in a separate post) and delicious fast food.

Trap Them "Flesh And Below"



Toxic Holocaust "Nuke The Cross"



Skeletonwitch "Repulsive Salvation"



The Black Dahlia Murder "Funeral Thirst"

Happy Slayer Day

I've never met a Slayer album I didn't like...some are just better than others. Most Slayer fans would agree that the three albums released between 1986 and 1990, Reign In Blood, South Of Heaven and Seasons In The Abyss are the bands best with most picking Reign In Blood as the ultimate Slayer album. While I do love Reign In Blood, I've always leaned towards South Of Heaven and Seasons In The Abyss in a tie for #1 as my favorite Slayer. Today, Slayer released World Painted Blood, their 10th studio album (11th if you count the covers record Undisputed Attitude) and as I've come to expect with this band, it is awesome. There is no real descriptive review I can write of the band's sound because it simply sounds like Slayer and either you love that sound or you don't (and shame on you if you don't).

What I can say about World Painted Blood is that it is the best Slayer album since 1998's Diabolus In Musica. That isn't a dig on God Hates Us All or Christ Illusion (the two albums released between Diabolus and WPB) as they are both great, but this one is the first in a while to strike a healthy balance between fast, heavy Slayer and more "melodic" Slayer which is a recipe that worked nothing short of perfectly on Seasons In The Abyss. The album is excellent from start to finish, but my early favorites are "Beauty Through Order", "Playing With Dolls" and "Snuff".

I will also say that (and this might be a reflection of my age) the new Slayer is also better than a large majority of albums put out this year by newer metal bands. It is good to know that the "old guys" still have some tricks (and chops and licks) up their sleeves and that along with their peers in The Big Four Metallica (Death Magnetic) and Megadeth (Endgame) they can still put out great records (although Slayer has never had horribly misguided journeys in new directions in their sound like those two). Now if only Anthrax would get it together.....

"Playing With Dolls"



"Snuff"



"Beauty Through Order"



World Painted Blood Digital Press Release

Drunk Ewoks Equal Ratings Bonanza

I am not The Today Show's target audience by a long shot (at least for their sake I hope I'm not because they are failing miserably at getting me to watch if that is the case), but perhaps if they had more segments like this, then I'd tune in more regularly because nothing says male, 18-35 demo more than drunken Ewoks humping Al Roker's leg, doing the moonwalk and grabbing vodka martinis. To his credit, Al Roker is cracking up and thinks it is hilarious (I've heard him on Howard Stern before and he actually seems like a pretty chill guy), but the female anchors (and guest) get visibly annoyed. Supposedly, midgets were hired to wear the Ewok costumes and imbibed before they went on camera. If that is true, then god bless them because this is internet video entertainment that the whole family can enjoy.

It starts off slow, but right around the 2:00 mark things start getting pee your pants funny:

Rockin' Out: Mastodon/Converge @ Hammerstein Ballroom 10/30/09

More terrible Blackberry camera pictures to go along with a fantastic show.

I've seen both Mastodon and Converge live multiple times (and once before on the same bill), so I knew that I was in a for a good evening of live metal music. High On Fire was opening the show, but their 6:30pm start time interfered with pre-show drink and food plans and Dethklok was the headliner, but to quote a guy I overheard talking to his buddy in the bathroom line "I can watch cartoons at home.", so this show was all about the meat in the middle of the sandwich if you will.

Converge's live performances, not unlike their recorded albums, are a chaotic mess...in the most beautiful way possible. Singer Jacob Bannon's unintelligible vocal style would be dismissed by non-metalheads as simple screaming, but for those of us who appreciate harsher vocal styles, he is one of the premiere singers in the metal world. There is such passion and fury behind not only his vocal style, but the playing of guitarist Kurt Ballou, bassist Nate Newton and drummer Ben Koller as well that it is hard not to pump your fist in the air and bang your head when they bulldoze through their sets. Underneath all the noise and chaos is very intelligent songwriting, playing, melodies and grooves. It was also cool to hear songs from Converge's recently released opus Axe To Fall (which will definitely be in my Top 5 albums of the year). That album has a healthy amount of guest musicians, but they still pulled the songs off as a four piece with ease and lost none of the recorded versions power and fury.

Mastodon's new album Crack The Skye has been growing on me more and more as the year goes on. Not that I didn't like it at first, but it did take me a little time to warm up to it. Good thing because the band opened up their set by playing the album in it's entirety complete with a screen showing a "movie" behind them to accompany the songs. [My friend and I were discussing whether they pulled old movie clips or whether the band had had this stuff filmed specifically for them. I could probably Google that and answer my own question, but ultimately I don't really care that much. It looked cool and that is what matters.] But what's more important than a fancy stage set is good songs played well live and Mastodon delivers in spades. Mastodon has been getting a larger and more expansive audience over the course of their four albums and seeing them on a larger stage with a more sophisticated sound and light show, it is really easy to understand why. It is cool to see a band that is rooted in extreme metal have the mainstream starting to come to them (not in droves, but hey, you gotta convert one person at a time). The cherry on the top of the metal sundae was that they closed with a cover of "Emerald" by Thin Lizzy with Nate Newton from Converge on vocals.

Converge "No Heroes"



Converge "The Broken Vow"



Mastodon "Oblivion"



Mastodon "Divinations"

Happy Helloween

I was never the biggest fan of German metal band Helloween, but Keeper Of The Seven Keys, Part I is a pretty awesome album and the song "I Want Out" from Keeper Of The Seven Keys, Part II is fantastic. So, enjoy this little ditty from Helloween, have a safe and fun Halloween and remember don't eat any candy from strangers and if someone gives you a toothbrush instead of candy while you are out trick or treating, then promptly egg their house.

Chuck Biscuits Rises From The Dead!!!

Well, not really, but it turns out that yesterday's reports of Chuck Biscuits demise were an "elaborate" internet hoax. Chuck seems like an odd choice for such a prank, but it must have been been fun and had meaning for some jack ass out there. Frankly, I don't think anyone is really up in arms about this (except for probably Chuck and his family and close friends), but if you want to look at the glass as half full (which I always do), then at least it reminded us all how awesome those first four Danzig albums are. I cranked Lucifuge yesterday and was flooded with great memories from growing up. So, I'm going to give the other three albums a spin in the near future too because after all, Danzig does kick ass.

"Am I Demon"



"Bodies"



"Snakes Of Christ"

R.I.P. Chuck Biscuits

One of my favorite bands in high school was Danzig. Most folks of course know the singer and namesake of the band, Glenn Danzig from his time in the Misfits and Samhain and from the breakthrough hit Danzig had with their song "Mother". His vocal style is instantly recognizable (you don't hear too many people that sound like the satanic spawn of Elvis and Jim Morrison), but a huge and defining component of Danzig's (the band) popularity was Glenn's backing band (not unlike how David Lee Roth's early solo material was held up by the playing of Steve Vai, Billy Sheehan and Greg Bissonette). The "classic" line-up that recorded the first four albums (Danzig, Danzig II: Lucifuge, Danzig III: How The Gods Kill, Danzig 4) included Eerie Von on bass, John Christ on guitar and Chuck Biscuits on drums. Chuck was a monster of a drummer and provided an incredible backbone to this (literally and figuratively) muscular band. Chuck also spent time behind the kit for legends like Black Flag, Circle Jerks, D.O.A., Samhain, Social Distortion and (as I was suprised to learn today) even a few tracks by Run D.M.C.(!). Sadly, he passed away this past weekend after battling throat cancer at the age of 44. No matter who you are or what you've done in life, that is way too early of an age to be taken away. Personally, I'll be cranking Danzig II: Lucifuge this evening before I go out as my way of paying respect to a guy who contributed to records that were a big part of my life growing up. Thanks Chuck and have fun up there.

"Twist Of Cain"



"Her Black Wings"



"Dirty Black Summer"

Ear Candy: Big Wreck

We all own a couple (or maybe a lot) of albums that we think are brilliant, but they either only flirted with mainstream success or flew under everyone's radar completely. In Loving Memory Of... by Big Wreck is one of those records for me. Released in 1997, the debut album by Big Wreck did enjoy some success due to radio airplay for the singles "The Oaf" and "That Song", but the band never really broke through to the big time. They recorded a second album, The Pleasure And The Greed,which was a complete commercial failure and eventually disbanded.

In Loving Memory Of... isn't necessarily the most inventive music you will hear in your life, but music doesn't always have to be ground breaking to be thoroughly enjoyable. Lead singer Ian Thornley's voice is reminiscent of Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and suits the band's alternative/grunge sound perfectly. They have a sound that is familiar, but at the same time difficult to describe. If you are a fan of the aforementioned Soundgarden as well as Our Lady Peace and the Matthew Good Band, then Big Wreck would definitely be up your alley. Parts of it even remind me of Jeff Buckley. Not to scare anyone off, but think Nickelback if Nickelback existed in a parallel universe and was actually a really good band. If this album had come out just three or four years later, then I think it could have been a monster hit, but what do I know...

Anyway, enough of me stumbling through a description of their sound...check it out for yourself:

"Blown Wide Open"



"The Oaf"



"That Song"