Live Review: The Riverdales with The Creeps and The Varsity Weirdos

The Riverdales
W/ The Creeps and The Varsity Weirdos
May 15, 2010
The Mod Club, Toronto

“What is it, early or somethin'? You guys are quiet out there" Creeps singer/guitarist Skottie asked of the Mod Club crowd Saturday evening. The Ottawa band opened the early show with their punky powerpop, preparing for ultimate Ramones-revivers, Screeching Weasel spin-offs The Riverdales, who headlined the event. Maybe it was the sunlight dampering the Mod Club crowd, because these adamant fist pumping Creeps fans didn't have a dancing bone in them. It wasn't the Creeps's fault; they provided a quick-tempo, twenty-five minute set that should have triggered at least a couple moshers. Skottie was having fun right from the get-go, rocking his navy-blue Johnny Ramone Mosrite guitar and knee bopping along with the four-on-the-floor beat of "On And On." Ian, sporting a Visitors tee, held his stage-right position on the bass confidently, providing backup vocals when needed. Sticking his tongue out to the adoring front row during "Hang Around," he too tried to snap people out of their daze. The band sped through more fan favourites "All The Way Home" and the quick "A-Bomb" that begged for a pit breakout, but no such thing happened. "Goo!" Skottie screamed off-mic between The Creeps's two final songs, giving Jordy behind the drums a run for his money. He gave a split-second "Are you crazy?!" kinda look as if they missed a break, before a quick drumstick four-count and settling into their last quick paced punk joint.

Moncton's The Varsity Weirdos walked out to a more packed crowd now taking up most of the Mod Club territory. Surprisingly, though, nobody moshed for these guys either, and I think it pissed them off. Guitarist Corey, who was rocking a white Mosrite (do you smell a theme?), paced around in between songs, looking frustrated with the non-energy of the crowd. The band cracked out the title track of their latest record "Can't Go Home" which got people's attention, a few fans started pogoing. If The Creeps wouldn't incite a circle pit, then The Varsity Weirdos should have to get people amped up, but it didn't happen. "Wanted By The FBI," another tune off Can't Go Home, soared out with its catchy background vocals, and "Disconnected" saw singer/bassist Eric head-tizzying along with the chorus. They rounded out their eleven song, twenty-five minute set with a rendition of "Look At The Stars" which got more than a few arms raised and some front row fans singing along. Before leaving Eric inadvertently addressed the zombyish pit: "The Riverdales are gonna come up here," he said, "and they're gonna show us how it's done." Something to look forward to.

The floor packed in tightly pre-Riverdales and I finally got the feeling that there were some diehards kicking around: Old Ramones and Screeching Weasel tees, leather jackets, a couple spiky streetpunks and scally caps, and older guys and gals noticeable by their khaki attire and polk-a-dot mod dresses. We all waited a long forty minutes until about twenty-five after eight, and then The Riverdales blew the Mod Club crowd away. The first of three Riverdales sets, belted out in true Ramones fashion with songs spliced only by "1-2-3-4" yells, finally got some fans moshing. This set was comprised of tunes "Make Way," "Mental Retard," "Homesick," "Out Of My Heart," "Back To You" complete with surfy bridge picked out by Ben Weasel, "King Dinosaur," and a new song off their upcoming disc Tarantula, entitled "12 To The Moon." After 13 minutes of pure power chord mayhem, the Riverdales took a break.

"It's a long time since we've been in Toronto, 15 years now. Last time we played the Maple Leaf Gardens" Weasel said while the other guys toweled themselves down and Weasel's green Mosrite got a tune-up. New Riverdales guitarist Simon Lamb was rocking a Mosrite too - a red sunburst model - continuing the night's humble homage to the late great Johnny Ramone. Weasel also used the break to plug the new album, reiterating the June 8th release date a couple times, before their second pummel of eight more tunes. First was the Riverdales classic, "Atomic Brain," sung by bassist Dan Vapid of Methadones and Queers fame. Weasel sang along off-mic to the whole song. "The Prince Of Space, 1-2-3-4!" Weasel screamed and they, like every song, tightly belted out the tune, complete with pinhead bridge-rant. The rest of the set included "Red Zone Cuba," "Rocketship X-M" with minor amp-level troubles for Lamb that no one else even flinched about, and new songs "Bad Seed Baby" and "Diabolik."

The visibly sweaty Riverdales braked again quickly before their final blastout, starting with a four-count yelp from Vapid setting up "Countdown" which forced Weasel into a frown-mouthed downstroke blast for the intro. "Outta Sight," "Wanna Be Alright," and "Teenage Strangler" led to the band leaving stage for a minute or two before an encore. "We got three more" Weasel confirmed when they reappeared, met with house rattling cheers. "Don't Wanna Go To The Party" triggered body surfing and the first full-floor moshpit of the evening. Now, in the encore, people were excited. "Last Stop Tokyo" was the second last song to which everyone in the Mod Club helped out with the chorus. One final Tarantula plug from Weasel before the classic "Riverdale Stomp" that drummed up another huge pit and group of body surfers. One of those streetpunks managed to get on stage, thrash his fist around to his favourite tune, and then dive back into the mayhem. The Riverdales were impressively tight for the live Ramones-esque speed, drummer Adam Cargin never missed a beat. Let's hope to see them in town again soon.

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

Dew-Scented - Invocation (CD Review)

Dew-Scented
Invocation
4.5/5

Listen To: Torn To Shreds
Skip It: Totem

From listening to metal and hardcore for years, it’s always refreshing to hear a band with clear dedication to their style. All you diehards know what I mean, finding a legitimate heavy group that doesn’t use hardcore as a front for getting new fans is difficult. This is why I can‘t big up Dew-Scented’s latest album Invocation enough. These Germans have been representing bullshit-free metal-hardcore since 1992, and know their style like none else - they hit everything within their sound right on the mark.

First off, Invocation is free of pretentiousness. Build-up opener track “Downfall” employs an acoustic guitar for about a minute, before ushering in the hyper-picked palm-mutes of “Arise From Decay.” Then you know straight up what Invocation has in store: down-tune ridden breakdowns, speedy riffs, face-melter solos and thrashy drums.

All this in balanced harmony. Knowing when to step-up with some technicality and when to back off is what Dew-Scented does best. Like in “Have No Mercy For Us,” which features masterful thrash riffs, as well as simple, distortion soaked power chord progressions. Guitarists Michael Borchers and Martin Walczak accept the opportunity for a solo battle at the end of the four and a half minute tune, but don’t shove it down your throat. It’s quick, up and down the neck for a couple rounds in the thrash-style solo technique used for the entire album.

And don’t worry about vocals. Leif Jensen is master of a steady, anger-fuelled yell throughout Invocation. For contrast he could scream, he could sing along - but he knows that what he and the rest of his band have is perfect, and should not be screwed with.

Track Listing:

1. Downfall
2. Arise From Decay
3. The Invocation
4. Have No Mercy On Us
5. Artificial Life
6. Condemnation
7. Totem
8. Torn To Shreds
9. Revel In Contempt
10. A Critical Mass
11. Global Hysteria
12. Slaves Of Consent

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

CD Review: Exodus - Exhibit B: The Human Condition

Exodus
Exhibit B: The Human Condition
4/5

Listen To: Burn, Hollywood, Burn
Skip It: A Perpetual State Of Indifference

Unsung thrash pioneers Exodus celebrate twenty-five years of continuous carnage, amidst multiple personnel changes and hiatuses, on their ninth studio album, Exhibit B: The Human Condition. The record is their first collaboration with renowned metal producer Andy Sneap of Megadeth, Arch Enemy, and Kreator fame.

The Human Condition exhibits Exodus's classic thrash speed punched out by endless triplet drum beats. The disc opens with "The Ballad Of Leonard and Charles" and "Beyond The Pale," together making up over fourteen minutes of non-stop ferocity, with a vibrant showcase of heavy metal riffing and soloing from shredders Gary Holt and Lee Altus. Classic Exodus momentum stays in the forefront for a lot of the disc, most intense on the nine minute "The Sun Is My Destroyer," an up-tempo double bass fury that also features an intimidating sadistic growl from Dukes in the intro.

In stark contrast to the album's overall speed, a few tunes slow the tempo as well. "Nanking," a chug along headbanger indictment of the 1937 Japanese capture of the Chinese city, reminds you of A-list thrashers like Slayer or Megadeth in its ability to dampen pace and still keep you glued to your stereo. "Democide" is another stomper, featuring Holt and Altus heavily riffing along over a foundation of technical drum beats.

Most at centre-stage on Exhibit B: The Human Condition is Rob Dukes's personally stylized vocal hooks. From "The Ballad Of Leonard And Charles" and its chorus screams of Sado-sexual violence, to "Hammer and Life" and its breakdown chorus line The hammer is my symbol, The banner that I wave surely to induce future crowd sing alongs, Dukes pulls you in with many shades of satanic rebel theatrics. Let's hope to see another twenty-five years from Exodus.

Track Listing:

1. The Ballad Of Leonard And Charles
2. Beyond The Pale
3. Hammer And Life
4. Class Dismissed (A Hate Primer)
5. Downfall
6. March Of The Sycophants
7. Nanking
8. Burn, Hollywood, Burn
9. Democide
10. The Sun Is My Destroyer
11. A Perpetual State Of Indifference
12. Good Riddance

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

CD Review: Aeon - Path Of Fire

Aeon
Path Of Fire
3.5/5

Listen To: Kill Them All
Skip It: Total Kristus Inversus

In a 2008 interview with Decibel Magazine, Aeon guitarist Zebb Nilsson explains how the band's Christian phobic lyrics largely stem from vocalist Tommy Dahlström's irritating encounters with Jehovah's Witnesses while growing up. On Aeon's fourth full-length, Path Of Fire, Dahlström's hate for organized Christianity is once again at the forefront of the album's subject matter. In "Of Fire" Dahlström sings Your Jesus means nothing to me in a hellish growl. "Abomination To God" is a straight up manifesto of Dahlström's Christian opposition: I don't care what you say, I don't care what you think, Everything I do I do it for me, Nothing you can do to stop me he explains to the God he hates.

Aside from topping the most atheistic of lyrics, Aeon followers also know that beating their extreme musical technicality is out of the question. Path Of Fire leads you down a road of eleven new songs in true Aeon demeanour. Disc-opener "Forgiveness Denied" immediately races through blast-beats on par with black-metal ferocity and the math-metal guitar lines straying from conventional time signatures on "The Sacrament" are impressive and attention grabbing.

But sometimes the most impressive death metal bands turn you away by misusing the genre's categorizing techniques. After four solid breakouts of violent aggressiveness, Aeon does this with the minute and a half Latin acoustic filler track "Total Kristus Inversus". Guitarists Nilsson and Daniel Dlimi seem like they are showing off by racing up and down the nylon strings, over and over again, like a couple of rookies with something to prove. Frankly, the overall assault of Path Of Fire buries this attempt at a tasteful contrast, and would stand at the same high stature without it.

Track Listing:

1. Forgiveness Denied
2. Kill Them All
3. Inheritance
4. Abomination To God
5. Total Kristus Inversus
6. Of Fire
7. I Will Burn
8. Suffer The Soul
9. The Sacrament
10. Liar In The Name Of God
11. God Of War

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

CD Review: The Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever

The Hold Steady
Heaven Is Whenever
3.9/5

Listen To: Our Whole Lives
Skip It: Barely Breathing

The Hold Steady are one of those indie bands that, if on a major label, have potential to rule the world. Pop-rock with glimpses of western, big band and fuzzed out hippie twists, they can take you in any direction, which is what Heaven Is Whenever, their latest ten song record does.

The band’s fifth album opens with a western ditty, “The Sweet Part Of The City,” complete with slide steel strings and acoustic guitar rainfall. All this gets cornered by a contemporary tweak of synthy thhhips in the background, for a feel-good song with a lasting impression. The album’s sound arsenal grows on the second track, “Our Whole Lives,” which dawns the band’s reliance on electric power chords amidst hooky pop melodies, a wonderfully blatant contrast also used in “The Weekenders” and “Rock Problems.”

Heaven Is Whenever is also a lyrical masterpiece. Vocalist Craig Finn is full of unforgettable one-liners, like We’re good guys, but we can’t be good every night; Bangin’ ’round in restaurants isn’t that much prettier than bangin’ ’round in bars; and It’s a long way to the corner store from the centre of the universe. These are just my favourites; the album is a poetic Easter egg hunt for any lyric junkie.

But, I'll tell you what warrants my less than perfect rating. The album’s pros heavily outweigh a couple distinct cons found in “The Smidge” and “Barely Breathing.” These songs have the same potential as the rest of Heaven Is Whenever, but holding them back is an awkward, much too noticeable bareness. The scant rhythm section in “The Smidge” doesn’t support Finn’s vocals like other, fuller sounding songs do. And “Barely Breathing” starts out with a unique low-fi, twangy guitar riff that could equal precision, but drowns in more emptiness once the band kicks in.

Track Listing:

1. The Sweet Part Of The City
2. Our Whole Lives
3. The Weekenders
4. The Smidge
5. Rock Problems
6. We Can Get Together
7. Hurricane J
8. Barely Breathing
9. Soft In The Center
10. A Slight Discomfort

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

And the Lost Prize goes to...

Troubles by J.G. Farrell is the winner of the Lost Man Booker Prize.

The one-off award was announced with a twenty-two novel longlist (quickly shortened to twenty-one due to publication discrepancies) on February 1, 2010 to acknowledge the best literary fiction of 1970. Honourary archivist for the Booker Prize Foundation Peter Strauss came up with the idea when he discovered that 1970 publications were excluded from Booker Prize recognition because the decoration switched in 1971 from being a retrospective award to an annual award for the novel judged as best in that publication year. The untimely switch saw 1970 publications disregarded for the Booker Prize. Ion Trewin, literary director of Man Booker Prizes commented on the Man Booker Prize website that “Our longlist demonstrates that 1970 was a remarkable year for fiction written in English. Recognition for these novels and the eventual winner is long overdue.”

The shortlist for the Lost Man Booker Prize, announced on March 25, 2010, was comprised of six novels: The Birds On The Trees by Nina Bawden, The Bay Of Noon by Shirley Hazzard, Fire From Heaven by Haley Renault, The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark, The Vivisector by Patrick White, and Troubles by J.G. Farrell. The shortlist was narrowed down by a panel of three judges: journalist and critic Rachel Cooke, ITN newsreader Katie Derham, and poet/novelist Tobias Hill, who were all born in or around 1970. After the shortlist was determined, the winner’s fate fell to the public by way of online voting, which closed on April 23, 2010. The winner was announced May 19, 2010.

J.G. Farrell was a novelist of Anglo-Irish background and born in Liverpool, England in 1935, he died in 1979. In 1956 he began studying at Brasenose College in Oxford, England, and graduated in 1960 with Third-Degree Honours in French and Spanish. While at Oxford Farrell contracted polio which left him diseased and crippled for the remainder of his life, themes prominent in his 1965 novel The Lung. His first work, A Man From Elsewhere, was published in 1963.

Troubles takes place in 1919 Ireland and follows recent British Army discharge Major Brendan Archer, now living at the Majestic Hotel on the Wexford coast of south-east Ireland. The Majestic is owned by Archer’s presumed fiancé’s elderly father Edward Spencer. The Spencers are an Anglo-Irish Protestant family who counter Archer’s Anglo-Irish Catholic perspective. The story progresses with the breakdown of social relationships between these clashing ideologies, represented by the slow decay of the Majestic Hotel. Troubles won the Faber Memorial Prize in 1971, and is the first novel in Farrell’s historical fiction Empire Trilogy, preceding The Siege of Krishnapur (1973) which won the Booker Prize, and The Singapore Grip (1978). Ironically, if Troubles was awarded the Booker Prize in 1970, Farrell would go on to be the first double winner of the prize with The Siege of Krishnapur.

Published by this webzine

CD Review: Gogol Bordello - Trans-Continental Hustle

Gogol Bordello
Trans-Continental Hustle
4.2/5

Listen To: When Universes Collide
Skip It: Nothing.

You love our music but you hate our guts, And I know you still want me to ride the back of the bus spews Eugene Hütz in “Break The Spell” off Gogol Bordello’s latest album Trans-Continental Hustle. The American Recordings, Rick Rubin produced album is the band’s sixth full-length and first major label recording since leaving indie-punk label SideOneDummy.

In hopes of pushing Gypsy punk’s political themes into the mainstream, Gogol Bordello has riddled Trans-Continental Hustle with angry, satirical lyrics. In corridors full of tear gas, Our destinies change everyday, Like deleted scenes from Kafka, Flushed down the bureaucratic drain sings Hütz in the punky blowout indictment of Roma acceptance that is “Immigraniada (We Comin’ Rougher).” “When Universes Collide” tells of an innocent young child caught in the middle of war, Over crashing cymbals, and melody humming accordions and violins, Hütz sings It’s just father told me tonight, Authorities preparing an ethno-cleansing ride… So when the universes collide, Son, don’t get caught on the wrong side!

You really get the Roma feel with Gogol Bordello’s reliance on traditional music. The nine member band is in full-form, creating soulful ass-shakers like “In The Meantime In Pernambuco,” and some tracks, like “Uma Menina Uma Cigana,” are renditions of traditional folk songs sung in Hütz’s animated Ukrainian accent. Keeping it punk, dust-kicking speed drums and distorted rebel guitars are all over the fourteen song disc.

I hope the major label boost gets the meaning of Trans-Continental Hustle, and all Gypsy punk, across to the public. This is segregated music with a punk platform, trying to explain about present-day oppression and exploitation. If enough people listen, maybe we’ll stop calling these people Gypsies.

Track Listing:

1. Pala Tute
2. My Companjera
3. Sun Is On My Side
4. Rebellious Love
5. Immigraniada (We Comin’ Rougher)
6. When Universes Collide
7. Uma Menina Uma Cigana
8. Raise The Knowledge
9. Last One Goes The Hope
10. To Rise Above
11. In The Meantime In Pernambuco
12. Break The Spell
13. Trans-Continental Hustle

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

CD Review: Paul Weller - Wake Up The Nation

Paul Weller
Wake Up The Nation
4.25/5

Listen To: Two Fat Ladies
Skip It: She Speaks

Paul Weller teams up with former Jam-mate Bruce Foxton for the first time in 28 years on his tenth solo album Wake Up The Nation. The record is full of varying influences including funk, folk-country, and new-age samples that spice up classic Weller three chord mod-rock.

“Moonshine” employs a wailin’ ‘50s piano and hyper-shaking tambourine amidst space-age sounding keyboards for an attention grabbing album opener. Another twinkling piano appears in “7 & 3 Is The Striker’s Name,” alongside hooky Sha la la’s from Weller.

Ballad-like “Trees” follows a catchy three chord structure while Weller hops around different personas switching along with vocal effects and melody. At one point he is A mother whose Darling children would come from me [him], while later he is back to himself and protests confidently My baby loves me. “Trees” ends by leaving Weller alone with a thunderous piano for a heart-wrenching soliloquy.

‘60s electric organs and funky guitar riffs step out from a base of maraca sounding effects in “Pieces Of A Dream.” Can’t put my finger on it, Can’t put this finger on me Weller boasts in the tune, presumably acknowledging the multiple styles coming together. The sentiment sticks with finishing song “Two Fat Ladies,” an upbeat punk-country pogo fury complete with hair-raising slide guitar fills sailing out from the western-blues rhythm.

Infinite sounds come at you from every direction on Wake Up The Nation, proving Weller isn’t afraid to have some fun while still producing master crafted modern rock. It’s everything you expect from an original British punker with the spirit of ‘77 long gone.

Track Listing:

1. Moonshine
2. Wake Up The Nation
3. No Tears To Cry
4. Fast Car / Slow Traffic
5. Andromeda
6. In Amsterdam
7. She Speaks
8. Find The Torch
9. Aim High
10. Trees
11. Grasp & Still Connect
12. Whatever Next
13. 7 & 3 Is The Striker’s Name
14. Up The Dosage
15. Pieces Of A Dream
16. Two Fat Ladies

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

CD Review: Jakob Dylan - Women + Country

Jakob Dylan
Women + Country
3.9/5

Listen to: Holy Rollers For Love
Skip it: Truth For A Truth

Jakob Dylan’s 2008 debut solo effort Seeing Things faced harsh reviews, most notably accusing Dylan and lone guitar of being too raw and boring a duo. Usher in Dylan’s latest work Women + Country, which forges a new folk-country landscape.

The sun rises over album-opener “Nothing But The Whole Wide World,” revealing the newly acquired feminine vocal presence of Neko Case and Kelly Hogan. Acting solely as a harmony section, Dylan’s women are an easily welcomed contrast to his distinct undertone voice.

A mid-day calm settles in less optimistic sounding second song “Down On Our Own Shield.” The tune furthers Dylan’s musical horizon by dawning an instrumental pair of slide steel strings and banjo that trade up focus between one another, a technique used on most tracks. The ladies persist, providing frequent backup vocals sneaking in at essential moments.

Then “Lend A Hand,” complete with muzzled trumpet squawks and free-ranging blues guitar, leaves Dylan alone on the microphone. The speakeasy appropriate song frumps along a tipsy bass line and distant time-keeping bass drum, then eases seamlessly into slow-wandering “We Don’t Live Here Anymore,” reminiscent of sixties electric country.

The next four songs plateau somberly with Dylan’s voice challenged by the women’s harmonizing cries and emotion inducing western string instruments. “Truth For A Truth” struggles to entertain with an off-kilter guitar lead, before tempo rises again in “They’ve Trapped Us Boys” with a hoedown hop-along banjo and Cash-style bass line.

“Smile When You Call Me That” and “Standing Eight Count” achieve a high point for the album to end on, like it began. A day in the new life of a lone guitarman supported by a rejuvenating backing band.

Track Listing:

1. Nothing But The Whole Wide World
2. Down On Our Own Shield
3. Lend A Hand
4. We Don’t Live Here Anymore
5. Everybody’s Hurting
6. Yonder Come The Blues
7. Holy Rollers For Love
8. Truth For A Truth
9. They’ve Trapped Us Boys
10. Smile When You Call Me That
11. Standing Eight Count

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

CD Review: The Crinn - Dreaming Saturn

The Crinn
Dreaming Saturn
4/5

Listen To: Anaphylactic Shock
Skip It: Lucid Dream Field

Jazz techniques are used in every genre of metal, from the speedy feathered bass drum turned double bass, or soloing trades between battling guitars. However, it’s always hard to label a band as purely jazz-metal.

That said The Crinn mixes jazz technicality into their sound in a style that can be labeled as jazz-metal. Their sixth studio album Dreaming Saturn is laden with sporadic tempo shifting guitar and bass lines, like on “Incipience,” the disc’s first track that foundations the high-pitch pinball guitar picking to be used in every song.

But when Dreaming Saturn isn’t mud sliding through informal guitar leads, you are subject to staple metalcore techniques. Like the heavy chugging breakdowns of “Meat Eating Machines” that allow vocalist John Nelson to let out some steam-relieving screams. Or the machinegun-guitar sprays of “Anaphylactic Shock” that splice forward motion in preparation for a breakdown of UFO-themed octivated power chords sailing high over a solid drum centre.

“Cathartic Insurrection” features an electrifying hammer on/pulloff guitar frenzy wildly impressive to any player. And that is just it. Dreaming Saturn is largely a display of technical, jazz-style musicianship, often giving Nelson a break on the mic for minutes on end.

The downside to this album is its track-similarity. If you need to know when songs end and begin without watching your track counter, Dreaming Saturn isn’t for you. Like when “Anaphylactic Shock” seamlessly becomes “Cathartic Insurrection,” for example, you don‘t notice a song change. The track’s don’t recycle riffs between one another, but all songs on Dreaming Saturn conform to The Crinn’s distinct style.

Track Listing:

1. Incipience
2. Meat Eating Machines
3. Anaphylactic Shock
4. Cathartic Insurrection
5. Voluptuous Eruptions
6. Magnetic Magician
7. Syzygy
8. Lucid Dream Field
9. Down, In Waves

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

CD Review: Bleeding Through - S/T

Bleeding Through
Bleeding Through
3.9/5

Listen To: Breathing In The Wrath
Skip It: Light My Eyes

Bleeding Through’s latest self-titled album is another testament of the band’s boundary crossing sound. Throaty hardcore vocals and heavy power chord structures team up with extreme metal riffing, blast-beat drums, melodic singing and symphonic keyboards to round out a sound far from being simply metal-hardcore.

“A Resurrection” lays out the symphonic foundation for the record with layered violins and keyboards, before bursting into the face-slapping blast-beat and speed metal riff of “Anti-Hero.” All this within two minutes of the disc's opening, and then “Anti-Hero” merges into a hardcore anthem complete with circle-pit inducing triplet drums upholding echoey chants of I’ve Seen Enough of You … I’ve Heard Enough of You scorching over low palm-muted power chords. “Your Abandonment,” “Breathing In The Wrath” and “Fifteen Minutes” follow similar structures with heavy, pace-slowing guitar bludgeons supporting explosive battle cries.

The shape-shifting Bleeding Through also displays progressive metal techniques throughout the album. From the lightning fast guitar solo in “Fifteen Minutes,” to the blast-beat exposé that is “This Time Nothing Is Sacred,” the band displays thrash and black-metal influences jetting out of their hardcore centre.

If that isn’t enough, Bleeding Through also rocks a symphonic-metal sound through a distortion-dissecting keyboard illuminating over massive riffs. In “Slow Your Roll” and “Distortion, Devotion” the synthesized sound grabs your attention by accentuating the chord changes with refreshing bursts of high tones.

Bleeding Through’s sound on this disc punches across that they are not easily defined. If you’re looking for a distinct, experimental sound masked by massively heavy metal-hardcore, you should listen to this.

Track Listing:

1. A Resurrection
2. Anti-Hero
3. Your Abandonment
4. Fifteen Minutes
5. Salvation Never Found
6. Breathing In The Wrath
7. This Time Nothing Is Sacred
8. Divide The Armies
9. Drag Me To The Ocean
10. Light My Eyes
11. Slow Your Roll
12. Distortion, Devotion

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

Palahniuk Back With New Novel, Tell-All

Photo Source: amazon.co.uk

Critically acclaimed award-winning novelist of Fight Club and Choke, Chuck Palahniuk has released his latest novel, Tell-All on Doubleday on May 4, 2010.

A Random House review of Tell-All on The Cult, Palahniuk’s official website, describes the novel as a “Sunset Boulevard–inflected homage to Old Hollywood when Bette Davis and Joan Crawford ruled the roost; a veritable Tourette’s syndrome of rat-tat-tat name-dropping, from the A-list to the Z-list; and a merciless send-up of Lillian Hellman’s habit of butchering the truth” (Source: chuckpalahniuk.net).

Narrator Hazie Coogie, caretaker of Hollywood actress Katherine “Miss Kathie” Kenton, guides the mysterious tale turned murder plot when Miss Kathie’s latest suitor, Webster Carlton Westward III, is discovered to have written a celebrity tell-all memoir alluding to Miss Kathie’s death in a forthcoming Lillian Hellman musical (Source: chuckpalahniuk.net).

Tell-All thus pays homage to American playwright Lillian Hellman, who died in 1984. Following the discourse laid out in Hellman’s autobiography, The Unfinished Woman (1969), Palahniuk reproduces Hellman’s controversial starlet persona crafted during her forty-plus year career. After penning critical successes such as The Children’s Hour (1934) and The Little Foxes (1939), Hellman’s public image was tested in the 1950s when she was blacklisted by the Hollywood Movie Studios for her long-time affair with communist party member and detective-novelist Dashiell Hammet.

Palahniuk is also set to release a novel, Damned, in 2011, which he said in an interview with Doubleday is “about an eleven-year-old girl who finds herself in Hell and learns how to manipulate the corrupt system of demons and bodily fluids. Imagine if The Shawshank Redemption had a baby by The Lovely Bones and it was raised by Judy Blume, and you have my next new project” (Source: chuckpalahniuk.net). Watch for a North American tour by Palahniuk soon in support of Tell-All.

Published by campusintel.com

10th Annual Joey Ramone Birthday Bash Scheduled

Photo Source: joeyramone.com

The 10th Annual Joey Ramone Birthday Bash is scheduled for May 19 at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza in New York City. This year’s event is being headlined by Hank III and Morningwood, with supporting acts The Sic Fucks, The Independents (whom Ramone managed shortly before his death), Spanking Charlene, and Heap. The Joey Ramone Birthday Bashers, a parade of rock and roll underworld royalty featuring Little Steven Van Zandt, Mickey Leigh, Richie Ramone, Walter Lure, Cheetah Chrome, Thunderbolt Patterson, Ed Stasium, and Hank III will also perform at the night. All proceeds from the event go to the Lymphoma Research Foundation.

The bash celebrates the punk godfather’s life which ended on April 15, 2001 due to complications with lymphoma cancer. Shortly before his death, the 59 year old Ramone made his brother, guitarist Mickey Leigh, Rattlers, and mother Charlotte Lester promise they would celebrate his birthday that year. Now a ten year long tradition, the annual bash is notorious for its wild party atmosphere and performances from punks the Ramones hung out with and influenced alike. The first bash featured Cheap Trick and Blondie, and since The Misfits, Rocket From The Crypt, The Bouncing Souls, The Waldos, and The Saints have all hit the stage for Ramone’s birthday.

After Joey Ramone died the legacy of the Ramones thrusted into the mainstream. The seminal punk rock band responsible for stripping down pompous rock and roll in the late 70s with such worldly hits as “I Wanna Be Sedated” and “Blitzkrieg Bop” were recognized for their importance to modern rock. The first Ramones album, released in 1976 and produced by the reputed Phil Spector (Beatles’ Let It Be), is widely considered as the prototype for the first wave punk era that reshaped mainstream music.

Joey also did a lot of work outside the Ramones. In 1985 he joined Little Steven Van Zandt’s advocacy group Artists United Against Apartheid acting against the Sun City Resort in South Africa. Other acts he worked with include Youth Gone Mad, Helen Love, Ronnie Spector, Blackfire, and The Independents. In 2003, a section of East 2nd Street near CBGB’s nightclub where the Ramones played their first shows in New York City was officially renamed Joey Ramone Place. In 2002, the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the same year that Joey’s last work, a solo album entitled Don’t Worry About Me, was posthumously released by his predecessors. On May 14, 2009, Joey himself was inducted into the Hall of Fame, as well.

With sources from joeyramone.com

Published by campusintel.com

Cannibal Corpse with 1349 and Skeletonwitch @ The Opera House, April 28 (Live Review)

Cannibal Corpse

with Skeletonwitch and 1349
April 28, 2010
Opera House

Cannibal Corpse drew a pilgrimage of diehard metal fans at the Opera House stop of their Evisceration Plague Tour Wednesday night. Skeletonwitch from Athens, Ohio opened the bill to a diverse crowd of cretins sporting everything from original Death t-shirts and knee high shitkickers, to black and white zombie makeup and the odd street punk rat-tail. “Alright, let’s see an old school circle pit” Skeletonwitch front man Chance Garnett summoned during the double bass backed breakdown of “Repulsive Salvation” with a rotating outstretched arm toward the pit, fairly tightly packed for an opener. Rightly, though, because Skeletonwitch’s thrashy half hour performance was like a travelling edition of Headbanger’s Ball. Chance circling around the stage and chugging beers like a possessed ring leader, and N8 Feet Under and Scunty D. funneling out continuous guitar riffs in front of bull skull-and-horns on their amps. Skeletonwitch got all the corpse-grinder lovers partying with “Stand, Fight, and Die” off their newest record Breathing The Fire, which induced propellerish hair swirls from Chance and hundreds of devil horned arms from the pit. The house party atmosphere reigned on with Chance’s pre-song wisecracks of “Smoke weed Toronto” and “We got any beer drinkers out there?” met with yells and whistles from the crowd. Ripping versions of “Crushed Beyond Dust” also off Breathing The Fire and “Beyond The Permafrost” off the 2007 record of the same name got plastic beer cups flying as fans danced to their favourites. The ravenous double guitar harmony of “Within My Blood” off their first album At One With The Shadows ended the energetic set, Chance at centre stage with devil horns extended high overhead. “Drink beer, smoke weed, and for the love of God, eat some fucking pussy” he lastly demanded in his demonic metal hiss, and the beer chugging party was over.

By the end of Skeletonwitch’s set there were double the people roaming around the Opera House in anticipation of black-metal heavyweights 1349. I skittered upstairs to the Opera House balcony to find some breathing room, where I scored an impeccable view of the stage. A floor rattling cheer erupted as the house darkened and reverberating thunder noises echoed around, and someone on the balcony sparked up a skunky joint. Clouds of dry ice fogged up the stage as 1349 laid down their first track which drew more attentiveness than moshing from the crowd below. Vocalist Ravn was in full black-metal garb with spiky forearm bondage gear and mid-thigh warrior boots, bassist Seidemann lurked around in a black wizard cloak, and all four 1349 guys were sporting black and white face makeup. Touring guitarist Sechtdamon outstretched a grappling talon toward the crowd before “When I Was Flesh” off this year’s Demonoir which fractured the continually used inter-song storm sound samples allowing the band to catch their breath. The lightning fast snare buzz-blasts of “I Am Abomination” off 2005’s Hellfire finally got about fifteen to twenty pitmen thrashing hard, and Ravn slowly sauntered around the stage like a cocky, satanic Mick Jagger. “Sculptor Of Flesh” opened up the pit some more, and “Atomic Chapel” got all three frontmen and several crowd members head banging hard for the end of the forty minute set.

The now amply warmed up crowd cheered as a massive banner reading Cannibal Corpse in dripping blood red letters elevated behind the drum kit. Corpsegrinder opened with a four song inferno that saw the sardine-can-like dance floor break out into a chaotic slam pit - arms, legs, and beer cups jetting out from every direction. “You guys are fuckin’ rowdy tonight, let’s keep it goin’,” singer George Fisher said before introducing “The Wretched Spawn” with a growl, triggering an eruption of cheers. A punching rendition of “I Will Kill You” led to the band’s first of many breath-catcher breaks, during which Fisher, dressed simply in a black t-shirt and cargo-pants tucked into mid-shin combat boots, raised and lowered cheers from the crowd with orchestra conductor arms.

“Don’t make me vertically destroy you, ‘cause it’s quite obvious I can kick your head in” Fisher said before the title track of Corpse‘s latest album Evisceration Plague, laying out his violent, vengeful rhetoric for the set. He was largely concerned with keeping up pit energy, introducing other songs with “This is for anyone giving you shit,” “I wanna see a fuckin’ circle pit for this one,” and “This is Cannibal Corpse’s time, so if you see anybody on the outside playing with their pecker, pull them in and start slammin’.” A mid-set execution of “Death Walking Terror” off 2006 album Kill got everyone grooving with its slower-tempo head banging opportunities and thunderous tom drum fills beat out by original Corpse-ster Paul Mazurkiewicz.

Then came the first song ever played by Cannibal Corpse, “Splattered Brains, Scattered Remains,” one of many old school offerings for the first wave Corpse diehards represented by original 90s tour shirts. “Pit Of Zombies” off 2002’s Gore Obsessed brought the show back to current era and got the pit swaying from wall to wall in crashing waves of people. Original Corpse bassist Alex Webster approached the stage monitors afterward to give a frown-mouthed nod and air-props of approval to the adoring fans. Next was a wicked rendition of “Make Them Suffer,” during which Fisher pointed at all corners of the Opera House, considerately pulling all into the song’s sentiment. “This goes out to everyone in the pit. And for those not in it, buy them a beer or a shot later, or I’ll kill you myself,” he then threatened before another old school offering of “A Skull Full Of Maggots” from first Corpse album, 1990’s Eaten Back To Life. Thrashing drums rolled out from the stage while Fisher once again conducted the crowd for the hair raising “Maggots” chants . Fisher growled “Keep supporting death metal” before sending off the insanely long hour and twenty minute set with “Hammer Smashed Face,” which no doubt got the most erupting response from the crowd, notably during the bass fill from Webster somewhat answering the crowd’s previously unanswered calls for a bass solo. The Corpse was tight, and needless to say, my ears were bleeding when I left the Opera House.

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine

Fuck The Facts at The Alex in Brantford (Live Review)

Fuck The Facts
The Alex, Brantford
April 23, 2010

“Move the fuck up here,” beckoned Fuck The Facts bassist Marc Bourgon at the Alex in Brantford last Friday night while lead vocalist Mel Mongeon skittered around the empty front row pit-space. The audience of local punk and metal-core diehards quickly filled the floor’s void for the intimidating 10-song mudslide of drop-B tuned guitars and blast-beat infernos leaving a grind core bullet hole in the Brantford scene.

The quintet slipped ferociously into “Wake” off their latest release which came out in February. You can’t find the limited 1000 copy pressing in stores, aptly titled “Unnamed EP,” no doubt playing on Fuck The Facts’s fractured metal style most closely associated with grind, but ever indefinable with varying genre injections of industrial, punk, and stoner groove. Further personifying the confusion record buyers face when encountering their music, the band played on a continuously unlit stage at the Alex with minimal banter between songs that often seamlessly melded into one another. The distortion dripping chaos is faceless to the average heavy rock listener, empowering FTF’s niche noise to its fullest intentions.

They slowed the set’s tempo with “My Failures (Just Like Yesterday)” off their 2008 split with Belgium deathgrinders Leng Tch’e. Then a quick, audacious rendition of “The Sound Of Your Smashed Head” off Stigmata High-Five triggered more slam-moves in the pit, and Mongeon couldn’t help but tizzy-groove her growl spewing noggin with the blast beat crash along. “Kelowna” off 2008 full-length Disgorge Mexico and “Ballet Addict” from 2003’s Backstabber Etiquette rounded out the performance that gave Brantford a glimpse of what‘s going on around Ottawa right now: original hardcore metal that knows no borders and plays into no commercial agenda. Or, real art.

Bleeding Through, Born Of Osiris, Sleeping Giant, Oceano, Stray From The Path @ Opera House (Show Review)

Bleeding Through
with Stray From The Path, Oceano, Sleeping Giant, Born Of Osiris
April 26, 2010
Opera House

Long Island’s melodic metal-hardcore upstarts Stray From The Path kicked off the Toronto installment of the Spring Breakdown Tour with singer Andrew Dijorio’s crowd-waking stage presence, marking his territory by constantly pacing back and forth between bassist Ryan Thompson and guitarist Tom Williams. The band slipped into the ferociously fast “Damien” off their latest album Make Your Own History, and got some help from a dedicated fan on the breakdown vocals. After giving props to the rest of the bands on the bill, Stray From The Path punched out “White Flag” off their 2007 release Villains which instigated high-raised leg-slams from all three frontmen. “You guys havin’ a good fuckin’ time tonight?” asked Dijorio after a quick two minute breath catcher intermission. Then the guys offered a cover of “Bulls On Parade” by Rage Against The Machine that saw the whole dance floor hopping along and huddle jumping toward Dijorio’s outstretched mic hand. The set ended with “Comrades,” inducing a telltale hardcore rant from Dijorio of “Male, female, black, white, I don’t give a fuck. You can joint this shit, be a part of music.”

Next was renowned four-piece Chicago death metal powerhouse Oceano who unleashed a quick twenty-five minute, yet wildly impressive set. Singer Adam Warren’s gut-wrenchingly low growls sounded like those of an angry froth-mouthed hellhound looking for a rage outlet. The distortion drenched drop-A tuned bass and lead guitars manned by Kevin Colabuono and Andrew Mikhail (respectively) provided a perfect match for Warren, pulling out of him the most intimidating underworld growls and high-pitched metal spews of the night. After a couple numbers Warren demanded “Let’s open this fuckin’ pit up,” and onlookers followed queue by breaking out in massive wind-mill arm throws and floor-cracking boot-stomps. The band belted out a thrashing rendition of “A Mandatory Sacrifice” off their recent debut album Depths, and also debuted a new song in their audience pressured encore. One word describes the feel of Oceano’s set: devotion. With minimal inter-song banter and ravenous death metal offerings, these guys had an explicit ‘no guff, let’s fuckin’ throw it down’ air.

Christian hardcore group Sleeping Giant was up third. They opened their set with “Gang Signs” off their latest 2009 record Sons Of Thunder during which there was an issue with microphone levels. Singer Thom Green didn’t let it bother him, though, continuing to instigate the crowd by approaching the stage monitors and beating his chest while mouthing the lyrics. “No One Leaves This Room Sick” got the five-piece’s guitarists head banging which spread contagiously. But some members of the audience grew uneasy when Green set up their next tune “Whoremonger.” “Religion has ruined who Jesus really is,” he said, “you won’t find the real Jesus in a church.” Some booed, some cheered, and Green attempted to justify his stance: “We’re not here to preach religion to you, but we’ve made friends with a God we didn’t know before.” Then during the song’s breakdown Green busted an odd lip-biting and ball-grab move.

Next was symphonic metal sextet Born Of Osiris, who were the clear crowd favourite evident by the fullest mosh pit of the evening. “Now Arise” off their latest full-length album A Higher Place got singer Ronnie Canizaro and guitarists Lee McKinney and Jason Richardson standing uniformly with left feet high on the stage monitors. Keyboardist/backup vocalist Joe Buras abandoned his instrument for a centre stage headbang before returning to his mark. Stage monitors were often used for a dominating, yet interactive presence, like during fourth song “Exist” for its attention grabbing guitar solo battle and fifth song “Abstract Art,” off 2007’s The New Reign, which saw both guitarists and bassist David Da Rocha standing tall above the crowd. The technical doubled guitar leads of “The New Reign” solidified the talent of Born Of Osiris’ guitar section. “Bow Down” sent the Opera House into a whirlwind of slam-dancers demonstrating the best of their style. And there were high-fives all around for front row fans from Born Of Osiris as they outro’d “Open Arms To Damnation,” another audience pleaser notable by numerous arms and bodies flailing around the pit.

After a few scenesters filed out from the pit and the bar filled with older metalcore diehards, Bleeding Through graced a blood red-lit stage. Vocalist Brendan Schieppati, scantily clad in mere gym-shorts in My War era Rollins fashion, hopped around the stage monitors creating a larger than life persona. “I wanna see a circle pit” he beckoned, and an honest attempt by those left on the floor was made. Third song “Declaration” got keyboardist Marta Peterson rocking into an air-filling hairswirl stance amidst bright white strobe-lights creating dark silhouettes of the band members. The strobe-light effect was used throughout Bleeding Through’s set, notably in “Rise” that saw Schieppati raise an inspiring fist high above his head. “We’re real fuckin’ happy to be on a Canadian label,” Schieppati explained in his set-up for “Anti-Hero” off the band’s 2010 self-titled album, out on Distort records. He let some crowd members help out on the I’ve Seen Enough vocals for the first breakdown, and the version also featured a tweaked drawn out feedback session before the second and final breakdown.

Schieppati reminisced about Bleeding Through’s early days as a “new band” before a smashing rendition of “Breathing In The Wrath.” “Now we’re the old band that can look down on all the new bands and say who the fuck are these guys,” the tattooed hardcore hero chuckled out before thanking all the bands on the bill by name, whom he called “the bands of the future.” Their next song, “Beneath The Grey” off 2008’s Declaration, was dedicated to Toronto’s own Cancer Bats, who now have a new title from Bleeding Through as being “bitchin’ dudes.” The set finished with “Kill To Believe” from 2006 full-length The Truth, during which guitarist Brian Leppke faced the drums for some feedoff energy. The band came back for an encore song determined by a coin toss, turning out to be “Sister Charlatan.”

Published by Tangible Sounds Music Magazine