Got two excellent psychedelic hard rock albums in today's mail from the World In Sound label (Forced Exposure sez the're based out of Germany, but these arrived from Brooklyn, so who knows).
The first one, the s/t debut by Lima, Peru's El Cuy, is a blazin' power trio disc with plenty of idling-dragster Rickenbacker bass, thunderous drums and guitar, guitar, guitar. The vocals are rudimentary/primitive, but in a crude-like-it-should-be way rather than a please-hire-a-vocalist-I'm-begging-here way.
The other one, though, is more interesting: It's Discovery Of Obskuria by Obskuria, a band featuring, according to Forced Exposure, legendary guitar player Tom Brehm of the '60s U.S. group Dragonwyck (never heard of 'em but whatever), super-talented German keyboardist Winnie Rimbach-Sator of Karmic Society and Treacle People - two more groups I've never heard of - and La Ira De Dios from Peru. So okay. What I know is that this album features a lot of kick-ass organ alongside the heavy riffing and huge bass throb, and nowhere does that organ come into play more strongly and more perfectly than on their eight-minute, dooooooommmm-like cover of Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls." They turn the song into an Iron Butterfly-esque plod until your skull's ready to implode from the sheer awesomeness of it. They also cover the Misfits' "Die, Die My Darling" with dueling male and female vocals, making it sound like something in between the Jefferson Airplane and X's "The World's A Mess, It's In My Kiss." Both of these are well worth your time.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
THIS WEEK IN THE VOICE
GENGHIS TRON
Board Up The House
Relapse
The first time I read the name "Genghis Tron," probably on some website, I laughed out loud. It's a pretty awesome name, and it helps separate them from the metal hordes—which is a good thing. Despite being on Relapse (after some early EPs and a full-length on Crucial Blast), they're not a metal band, though crunching guitars and grindcore-ish screamed vocals are elements of their sound. The dominant elements, though, are synths and programmed drums.
[Read the rest here.]
Board Up The House
Relapse
The first time I read the name "Genghis Tron," probably on some website, I laughed out loud. It's a pretty awesome name, and it helps separate them from the metal hordes—which is a good thing. Despite being on Relapse (after some early EPs and a full-length on Crucial Blast), they're not a metal band, though crunching guitars and grindcore-ish screamed vocals are elements of their sound. The dominant elements, though, are synths and programmed drums.
[Read the rest here.]
TODAY ON PTW
HELLHAMMER
"Revelations Of Doom"
from Demon Entrails (Century Media)
The legendary demos by Tom G. Warrior’s pre-Celtic Frost outfit have at last been remastered (er, as best they could) and given a proper - deluxe, even - CD issue. It’s a glimpse into what was going on in the mind of one very weird Swiss obsessive in 1982 or so. Rougher than Venom in some respects, but much more compelling, too, Warrior’s delivery on “Revelations Of Doom” is a merciless buzzsaw, chewing right through the worn-cassette sound quality and making this one of the most genuinely assaultive metal releases of the year. Even metal dilettantes and hipsters (yeah, yeah, ugh, ptooey, whatever) should be lining up to bask in the glory from these ashes, still smoldering after 25 years.
(Click here to see this review on paperthinwalls.com itsownself, where you can download the song.)
"Revelations Of Doom"
from Demon Entrails (Century Media)
The legendary demos by Tom G. Warrior’s pre-Celtic Frost outfit have at last been remastered (er, as best they could) and given a proper - deluxe, even - CD issue. It’s a glimpse into what was going on in the mind of one very weird Swiss obsessive in 1982 or so. Rougher than Venom in some respects, but much more compelling, too, Warrior’s delivery on “Revelations Of Doom” is a merciless buzzsaw, chewing right through the worn-cassette sound quality and making this one of the most genuinely assaultive metal releases of the year. Even metal dilettantes and hipsters (yeah, yeah, ugh, ptooey, whatever) should be lining up to bask in the glory from these ashes, still smoldering after 25 years.
(Click here to see this review on paperthinwalls.com itsownself, where you can download the song.)
Saturday, February 23, 2008
ON ITS HIND LEGS
There's an article in this week's New York Times Magazine about Anita Renfroe, a female Christian comedian who's big on YouTube.
I guess she's just as fascinating (in a female preacher/dog-walking-on-its-hind-legs way) as Brad Stine, a male Christian comedian the paper had John Leland (yep, Mr. Hip: A History himself) profile back in 2005. (Stine also got a lavish tongue-bath from the New Yorker in 2004.)
I'm not gonna get all Steve M. here, and go off on a tirade about supposedly liberal media outlets and their endless anthropological fascination with people - from performers to politicians - who hate and scorn them. My point is this: I am a firm believer in the positive side of cultural atomization. I don't think it's necessary for any news outlet to be all things to all people. I don't think music critics should be generalists, attempting to know a little bit about everything. I believe critics should specialize, learn a niche and live it. And I think newspapers and magazines should have viewpoints, stick to them, and not bother to engage the other side - and that starts with recognizing that there is another side, that cultural polarization does exist. Anita Renfroe and Brad Stine fans don't give a hot crap about what the New York Times thinks; if they do, it's in a reactionary way, i.e. if the Times is for it, they're agin it. So screw 'em. Let Stine, Renfroe, and all their fellows get their publicity from Christian Comedy Weekly or whatever, the same way fans of basement black metal read Terrorizer and Metal Maniacs, not Rolling Stone, to get their information. (Assuming they read "old media" at all, of course. Which is my second point - if this woman's a huge hit on YouTube, doesn't that prove she doesn't need the Times's imprimatur?)
I guess she's just as fascinating (in a female preacher/dog-walking-on-its-hind-legs way) as Brad Stine, a male Christian comedian the paper had John Leland (yep, Mr. Hip: A History himself) profile back in 2005. (Stine also got a lavish tongue-bath from the New Yorker in 2004.)
I'm not gonna get all Steve M. here, and go off on a tirade about supposedly liberal media outlets and their endless anthropological fascination with people - from performers to politicians - who hate and scorn them. My point is this: I am a firm believer in the positive side of cultural atomization. I don't think it's necessary for any news outlet to be all things to all people. I don't think music critics should be generalists, attempting to know a little bit about everything. I believe critics should specialize, learn a niche and live it. And I think newspapers and magazines should have viewpoints, stick to them, and not bother to engage the other side - and that starts with recognizing that there is another side, that cultural polarization does exist. Anita Renfroe and Brad Stine fans don't give a hot crap about what the New York Times thinks; if they do, it's in a reactionary way, i.e. if the Times is for it, they're agin it. So screw 'em. Let Stine, Renfroe, and all their fellows get their publicity from Christian Comedy Weekly or whatever, the same way fans of basement black metal read Terrorizer and Metal Maniacs, not Rolling Stone, to get their information. (Assuming they read "old media" at all, of course. Which is my second point - if this woman's a huge hit on YouTube, doesn't that prove she doesn't need the Times's imprimatur?)
Friday, February 22, 2008
R.I.P. TEO MACERO
New York Times obit.
Obviously, this is a big one. The importance of Macero's role in Miles' late '60s and early '70s material is literally incalculable. Should he have gotten co-billing on, say, On The Corner, though? I don't think so. Ask yourself this: Would Teo Macero have made that album by, and for, himself? No. His technical innovations were in the service of Miles Davis's sonic imagination.
But it's unfair to tie Macero inextricably to Miles, anyway. His production work on Thelonious Monk's Columbia albums is equally stellar, and subtle as fuck - the edits (now revealed in the wake of the extended takes available on the remastered CDs) are seamless and just as in service of the music as the wild-ass tape-splicing and stereo panning of the Miles stuff. In fact, this is as good a time as any to state once again for the record that the Columbia studio albums (and the live Monk In Tokyo) are my favorite Thelonious discs, and the ones I almost always wind up putting on when I'm in a Monk mood. Anyway, R.I.P. Teo. Hank Shocklee should pour some out on the curb for you.
Obviously, this is a big one. The importance of Macero's role in Miles' late '60s and early '70s material is literally incalculable. Should he have gotten co-billing on, say, On The Corner, though? I don't think so. Ask yourself this: Would Teo Macero have made that album by, and for, himself? No. His technical innovations were in the service of Miles Davis's sonic imagination.
But it's unfair to tie Macero inextricably to Miles, anyway. His production work on Thelonious Monk's Columbia albums is equally stellar, and subtle as fuck - the edits (now revealed in the wake of the extended takes available on the remastered CDs) are seamless and just as in service of the music as the wild-ass tape-splicing and stereo panning of the Miles stuff. In fact, this is as good a time as any to state once again for the record that the Columbia studio albums (and the live Monk In Tokyo) are my favorite Thelonious discs, and the ones I almost always wind up putting on when I'm in a Monk mood. Anyway, R.I.P. Teo. Hank Shocklee should pour some out on the curb for you.
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