|
|
|
| Even my iPod is in on it.
|
|
Further proof that everything* is going according to A Plan:
- Decouple from Workstation -
Techno Animal - Monoscopic
- Leave Work -
Cabaret Voltaire - Sex, Money, Freaks (Long session 6 8 86)
Front 242 - Animal (Radio)
- Bus In Sight -
Motley Crue - In The Beginning
- Bus Arrives -
Chumbawumba - Mary, Mary (Stigmatic Mix)
Front Line Assembly - Reprobate (Lowlife Remixed By Greg Reely)
The Shizit - I Walk Through Walls
Head of David - 108
Head of David - Adrenecide
Front 242 - Never Lost Faust
Tears For Fears - Mad World
Godflesh - Slavestate
Optimus Rhyme - Reboot
Skinny Puppy - 200 Years
PISSPOWERASSCHRIST - Screwed
PISSPOWERASSCHRIST - Pisspower [V2.5 XopherTM Duncemix]
Godfleh - Monotremata
Crust Requiem - Leafeaters Anonymous
Birmingham 6 - Radicals
Tom Waits - Way Down In The Hole
-Bus Finally Crosses The Bridge -
Birmingham 6 - Summertime is Over
* See here and here. |
| Anyone know how to get blood out of a guitar?
|
|
|
Spikey Mike's new Doom Metal thing, which was filmed by Scary Mike for an upcoming short film. Some stock footage of me doing my usual bar thing may show up in it as well - who knows.
Hadn't seen MikeS since A Tribute To Sanity finished mastering, MikeP in longer, and Chris in even longer than that. Good stuff. |
07:07 <@bda> I totally can't envision Gibson listening to Brad Sucks (after having listened to a couple tracks myself).
07:08 < solios> o_o
07:10 < solios> I've long ago given up on anyone I respect having anything approximating similar taste in music.
07:12 < mdxi> everyone has bad taste in music
07:12 < solios> pretty much.
07:13 <@bda> I kinda like it.
07:13 <@bda> But.
07:13 <@bda> I like odd things.
07:14 < solios> lies. you're pop-40 to the bone.
07:15 < solios> sad fact : most of ATC could be summed up with a properly selected Anthrax comp.
07:15 <@bda> I don't think you'd find a lot of the Irish music I listen to on the pop 40.
07:15 <@bda> Jerkface.
07:16 < solios> probably on the irish pop 40. ;p
07:16 <@bda> Knew you'd say that.
|
| Rein[Forced], Acumen Nation, and Front Line Assembly
|
|
Motherfucking FRONT LINE, with a Millennium/Hard Wired-era setlist, live geetar and drums, all kinds of awesome and I'm not sure which is ringing more - my ears or my wang.
The show was at Mister Smalls, who will be hosting Electric Six (!) and They Might Be Giants (!) within the next couple of days.
Rein[Forced] : Much tighter than the last time I saw them. Might be the sound system, might be practice. Either way, their set was short, tight, and nice. Sounds a bit like Kevorkian Death Cycle, only better.
Acumen Nation : Always good, featuring a one-song duet with Jim from Rein[Forced]. I bought Jason a beer after their set and had a brief conversation about what a monetary racket Ozzfest is. Fuck corporate America - if you get a chance, go see Acumen Nation.
Then came The Start, whom I've never heard of before, ever. They made it a point to make a point out of the fact they're from Los Angeles, for whatever that's worth. It's been my experience that bands from California are proud of it - it's also been my experience that that's the only thing they have to be proud of. The Start sounded a lot like Luxt and didn't stop moving long enough to get decent pictures.
Then came Front Line Assembly. See top for verbspunk - great set, okay sound quality. The setlist pulled from Millennium, Hard Wired, Tactical Neural Implant, Prophecy and the Surface Patterns single. (They. Played. Internal. Combustion. SQUEE!!!!!!1111oneoneoneomfgSQUIRT). Yum. The set was much, much better than my pictures of it. Trust me.
FLA's been one of those Bands I Want To See Live since Millennium. Now that they're checked off of the list, it's down to Front 242 and The Sisters Of Mercy. Ph34r!
Also, the art on the Fallout digipak totally looks like a head roped to a giant metal dong.
The win, it burns.
Addendum : I should have mentioned before - Chris Smith secured the tickets, the wheels, and the bar tab. I totally wouldn't have been at the show if he wasn't as into Millennium as I am. <3. |
| Silent Weapons : Still the best damned album, ever.
|
|
18:14 <@solios> <- Ridjeck Theme
18:14 <@xeno> (Black Lung)++
18:14 <@solios> beeeum bububbuBEEba daaaaaaaa beum.
18:14 <@xeno> i think Battle of Brazil and Supermarket Dream are my favbokjsfasdfasdfj
18:14 <@xeno> solios++
18:14 <@solios> it's like a Drone version of The Tick theme.
18:14 <@xeno> XD XDXDXSDXXDXDXDDXD
18:14 <@xeno> <- pwned
18:14 <@solios> :D
18:15 <@solios> ooooooom
18:15 <@solios> hah!
18:15 <@solios> ooom doo haoooo wah
18:15 <@solios> rapapapap wee!
18:15 <@solios> boooooooong!
18:15 <@solios> beet! beet! beet!
18:16 <@xeno> asdhflkjasdfl;kasd
18:16 <@xeno> STOP
18:17 <@xeno> my pancreas fell off
18:17 <@solios> it's okay, it's at the beats now.
18:17 <@xeno> < xeno> It's not the one you hate. The one you hate's the one with the, um... cats.
18:18 <@xeno> < mrsxeno> This one doesn't do too well with my ears either
18:18 <@xeno> BING BING BING BING
18:18 <@xeno> OOOOOOOMMMMMM
18:18 <@xeno> CHING CHING CHING
18:18 <@xeno> OOOOOOOMMMMM
18:18 <@xeno> BAWADABING CHING
18:18 <@xeno> OOOOOOOOMMMMM
18:18 <@ejp> black lung sucks.
18:18 <@xeno> your mom.
18:18 <@xeno> fagbot: doot word jazz
18:18 <+fagbot> I'm a carton of comedy!
|
Previously slammed in paragraph two of this entry.
02:26 <@bda> blah.
02:23 <@bda> http://symphonyofnoise.com/nails/yearzero/ # Another NIN track.
02:26 <@bda> solios: You're right. Prog rock.
02:27 < solios> like I said on dcr: [it's] is a lot like going to plaid, in that it's a cute special effect and a horrible, horrible joke told by somebody in shiny pants.
02:27 <@bda> That almost made sense.
02:28 < solios> it's a Spaceballs joke. ;p
02:29 <@bda> No, I got that. :P
02:29 <@bda> Fuck, this song sucks.
02:29 <@bda> I hope this whole ARG thing and the leaked tracks are jokes.
02:29 <@bda> But I doubt it.
02:29 < solios> The nice thing about this kind of viral marketing is they can write it off if it doesn't pan out.
02:30 <@bda> Eh?
02:31 < solios> well, if _everyone_ thinks the "leaked" tracks etc. suck ass, then they won't need to bother with a release.
02:32 <@bda> ha.
02:32 <@bda> That sounds likely as likely as it being a farce. :)
02:32 <@bda> Or being INTENTIONALLY a farce.
02:33 < solios> my experience with prog rock is that the musicians have overdosed on their egos and proceed to choke themselves to death with the musical equivalent of autoerotic asphyxiation.
02:33 < solios> (>.<)
02:34 <@bda> Yes.
02:34 <@bda> blah.
02:35 < solios> man, if YOU think it sucks...
02:37 <@bda> Hey, fuck you.
02:37 < solios> shut up and take the left-handed complement. ;p
|
This pig will walk on the water
This pig will walk on the sea
This pig will walk whereever he wants
Walk on me
You are my ever living lie
My weakness wrapped upon the wheel
You the sore upon the side
The hand you hold will never heal
I am the cripple and the crime
I am the filth and first denied
This thief that shits upon your shrine
The shame that you can never hide
Hurt me - touch me
Cut me - touch me
Need me - touch me
Fuck me - touch me
This pig will walk on the water
This pig will walk on the sea
This pig will walk whereever he wants
Walk on me
There's nothing in your eyes but need
Come taste this tiny tender prey
Come push me to the tiny net
You'll never give, I'll never get
I'll never get
You'll never give
I'll never get
I burn my dirty little lights
That fill my dirty little nights
Concede and crawl and criticize
And I'll fill my dirty little highs
Hurt me - touch me
Cut me - touch me
Need me - touch me
Fuck me - touch me
This pig will walk on the water
This pig will walk on the sea
This pig will walk whereever he wants
Walk on me
Hurt me - touch me
Cut me - touch me
Need me - touch me
Fuck me - touch me
Hurt me - touch me
Cut me - touch me
Need me - touch me
Fuck me - touch me
This pig will walk on the water
This pig will walk on the sea
This pig will walk whereever he wants
Walk on me
This pig will walk on the water
This pig will walk on the sea
This pig will walk whereever he wants
Walk on me
-Pig : Wrecked : Fuck Me I'm Sick |
| Recent Listening : EP Edition
|
|
| |
Godflesh : Cold World (1992) 5.99$ @ Dave's.
[****.]
A four track EP containing Cold World and three versions of Nihil,
with the distiction of being one of those Godflesh things I've never been
able to track down on the seedy side of the internets. As neither track
appears anywhere else, this was a completely new listen for me. The tone
is reminiscent of Slavestate, though I think that has more to do
with the thematic and lyrical similarity the Nihil mixes share with
the versions of Slavestate. Cold World is the standout here,
unloading the brutal Godflesh aesthetic through what sounds like either
a synthesizer or a sample of one - a track that would feel out of place
on any other Godflesh release. Nihil, by comparison, would slip right
into Slavestate with ease. Cold World is an oldy, a goody,
and a welcome complement to my slowly growing Godflesh discography. |
| |
Front Line Assembly : Surface Patterns (1995) 5.99$ @ Dave's.
[****.]
A four track EP (single?) containing one new track (Internal Combustion)
and three mixes of Surface Patterns, which most FLA fans have
heard as the fifth track on the classic (to me, anyway) 1994 release, Millennium.
I thought Surface Patterns was a decent track and was surprised that
FLA thought it warranted remixes - but as the other options in the Dave's
Music Mine bin were Total Terror II and Mindphaser, I opted
for SP. Hey, I'm weak in the knees for Millennium-era FLA
- and it turned out to be a good choice. All three Surface Patterns remixes
are structurally simillar to the Millennium track, with variations
on pacing, intros, vocal filtering, etceteras - they're all pretty good,
with the Chemical Cauldron remix being my favorite of the three.
The big reason to pick this up, however, is Internal Combustion -
an FLA track I'd never heard before Tuesday night, and an excellent example
of their early to mid 90s guitar-and-programming heavy sound. Acoustically
similar to Plasma Springs from Millennium, Internal Combustion
features a groovy programming-and-guitar crunch, and functional lyrics
that are a notch above FLA's usual (read : remedial) style. It's no Dopamine,
but Dopamine came over ten years later, so. |
|
|
|
Cabaret Voltaire : Radiation (BBC Recordings 84-86)
[****.]
The sleeve says these recordings are from CV's "slightly more accessible"
period. Big emphasis on the slightly here, folks - you're either
into this sort of thing or you're not. A lot of the tracks are variants
on songs from Code and Micro Phonies. Overall, it's a good
listen : I bought it after DJ Imperium
spun the Peel Session version of The Operative at Ceremony, and I
consider it money well spent. |
|
|
Techno Animal : Radio Hades
[*****]
I'm a Broadrick fan,
and Amazon has been a great source of non-Godflesh projects. Radio Hades
is a great dose of loop-heavy technoindustrial hell jazz, big on the thud,
thorough with the samples, and quite a bit more to my liking than The
Brotherhood Of The Bomb. While I dig the horns in Fistfunk, my
favorite track is Excavator, as it sounds a lot like Godflesh. Thud-thud
grind, thud-thud griiiind. |
|
|
Techno Animal : Re-Entry
[*****]
I thought this was a bit pricey when I snagged it - it wasn't until the
package showed up in the mail that I realized Re-Entry is a double
disk. Silly of me not have actually read the description or the track
list :P. More ambient than Radio Hades, heavier on the loops, Re-Entry
is kickass techno-industrial-trance. Favorites include Mastadon Americanus,
The Mighty Atom Smasher, City Heathen Dub, Catatonia, and Cape Canaveral,
which is close to what I was expecting the recent Final release to sound
like. Excellent work music - my recent maintenance
interval was performed to this album. |
|
|
Front Line Assembly : Artificial Soldier
[*****]
Unless you're one of the few rivetheads who happen to like Millenium,
Artificial Soldier is easily FLA's strongest release since Tactical
Neural Implant. Finally, an FLA album that doesn't sound like it's trying
to be Male Delerium, more accessible Noise Unit, Haujobb, or some sort of
industrial trip-hop. I haven't been shit-your-pants impressed by post-Millenium
FLA, so when I say AS is fucking good, I mean it. It's
not perfect - I find Humanity (World War 3) very annoying, for example
- but the guest appearances of Covenant and Front 242 vocalists more than
make up for it. The track that really stands out for me is Dopamine
- good programming, and (a true rarity for FLA) good lyrics. AS is
an exceptional FLA release, and I've gotten a lot of listening mileage out
of it. |
|
|
Killing Joke : Hosannas From the Basement of Hell
[****.]
All the earth-shattering thud of Killing Joke (2003), though the
lyrics are closer to Pandemonium. Piles of catchy riffs, some great
intros (the title track, for example), intelligent lyrics, long songs,
and a solid groove throughout: it's a good release, but it doesn't knock
their previous salvo out of first place. |
|
|
Ministry : Rantology
[***..]
It's easier to justify the purchase if you're into live recordings (I'm
not) or if you don't have much of Ministry's back catalogue (I do). The
hook here is the "update" mixes, none of which are better than
the originals (Jesus Built My Hotrod has suffered, Bad Blood is
pretty good but doesn't replace the original, NWO could have been
a lot tighter, and Wrong, while pretty good, feels like it could
have been a bit tighter). Standout tracks are The Great Satan and
Animosity, both of which feature Ministry's signature whack-whack-whack-whack
drums and Wall Of Guitars. Rantology is a listenable release with
some high points, but it feels unpolished in some places and rushed in others.
Ministry fans will dig it, casual listeners would be better served by A
Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste or Psalm 69. |
|
DJ? Acucrack : Mako vs. Geist : If you like DJ? Acucrack, you'll like this. Not much room for argument. Decent pseudo-industrial jungle-esque techno-thing. Money well spent in that I can throw it on and it doesn't jam itself up my nose and scream like most "techno" does. I'm not big on Acumen Nation but DJ? Acucrack is pretty satisfying. Grade : A-* Going into rotation.
Pig : Pigmata : Remastered WATTS. It may be pretty good in five or six years. I say this because everything Watts does as PIG he does seven or eight fucking times with minor or major variations. Pigmata is a straight-up sludgy, guitar-heavy rehash of all previous PIG and doesn't really add anything to the pot. If you like Watts, you won't mind... but after this, I'm starting to reheat the thought that En Esch and Gunter Schultz are the best thing that's run down KMFDM's leg. "Reject" is decent, "Junky" is reason enough to bring this disc to a show on the off chance you'll get the chance to shove it up Watt's ass and snap it off. Tracks range from old PIG lyrics on top of other old PIG tracks to complete shit that wouldn't look out of place on a Skold-or-later KMFDM B-side. Grade : D- I doubt I'll give this a second listen.... despite the fact that it whips the shit out of the last three KMFDM albums. King grumps when people say The Stand is his best work... ya gotta wonder how Watts feels about having peaked with Juke Joint Jezebelle.
Final : 3 : Broadrick sez Final isn't "Ambient." Technically, he's correct. Ambient doesn't have the occasional razors-on-chalkboard Autechre-takes-on-the-Federally-Mandated-Trance-Techno-Treble-Break. This does. All I can say about it after most of one initial listen is either I didn't notice (it accentuated the instance nicely) or it irritated the shit out of me (the sporadic adherence to aforementioned Federally Mandated Treble Laws). The former is good, the latter isn't just bad, it's thank the gods I got this out of the used bin four days after its release. Final seems to have the one thing lacking from every other JKB project under the sun - treble - and it's got just enough to make up for the lack of it elsehwhere. Really not sure how I feel about this. Grade : Inconclusive.**
* This ain't High Art. But it's not Complete Shit, either.
** It's JKB. I need a second listen under better operating conditions.
|
|
Producer : Steve Albini
Genre : Rock. Metal-Industrial in the Fall Of Because / Godflesh / later-era Ministry sense, but this album sounds "industrial*" in much the same way Bob Ross paintings are Cubist.
Special Features : Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Final, Jesu, Ice, Techno Animal, Curse Of The Golden Vampire, Fall Of Because, etc, etc.) on drums.
Sounds Like : Bastard child of Fall Of Because and Van Halen, Fear Factory's daddy. It's worth noting that this album sounds like it's mixed in reverse - drums over bass over guitar over vocals - and it works, beautifully.
Bought it for : Dog Day Sunrise, Justin Broadrick, Steve Albini (in that order).
Runtime : 48.4 minutes for 15 tracks
|
Track Listing and Ratings
01. [***xx] Tequila (reminds me of the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks)
02. [*****] El Supremo (instrumental)
03. [*****] Dog Day Sunrise (drums what go WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!, faithfully covered by Fear Factory on Demanufacture)
04. [****x] Bugged
05. [*****] Great White Heat (Van Halen-ish instrumental)
06. [*****] Cult Of Coats (Goofiness in the extreme)
07. [*****] Ditchwater
08. [-----] 108
09. [-----] Roadkill
10. [****x] Snake Domain
11. [-----] Grand Rift Faultline
12. [****x] Adrenecide
13. [*xxxx] Pierced All Over (Godflesh does the gloom thing far better)
14. [***xx] Skin Drill
15. [****x] Ink Vine (People double in size, but the brain remains the same)
Opinion
This album rocks. It's more of a low-fi crunchy, thuddy, bass-heavy rock album than it is the proto-grind of Fall Of Because or the polished electro-thud assault of the original Godflesh EP, which wasn't what I expected at all. Chronologically, Justin's stint in Head Of David overlaps FoB and falls right at the end of his time in Napalm Death, so I was expecting something in a similar vein. Instead, this - just as heavy, but with a funky rock-and-roll feel to it that has to be heard to be believed. Vocal styling is an extremely obvious influence on Demanufacture/Obsolete-era Fear Factory- far more than Godflesh, though earlier Godflesh vocals have a similar feel to FoB/HoD, so I think it's safe to say that Burton's just a big ol' Justin fanboy.
Like most Broadrick material, I'm glad I bought it and consider it well worth the price.
* When I think "industrial" I think of toasters assraping alarm clocks (Whitehouse), Robocop samples and guitar loops (Front Line Assembly before Delerium started making money), or some combination of the two.
|
And I am the sun
I rise above the world
And when the light goes out
I kill another child
And I am insane
I crawl into your mouth
I grow like a flower
I grow a suicide
And I am the sun
And I am the light
And I am the sun
Yeah I am the light
And I am the dog
I cut out my eyes
Yeah I will nullify
My true love creation
And I am the sun
I love everyone
I live inside your chest
I grow like a cancer
And I am the sun
And I am the light
Yeah I am the sun
Yeah I am the light
I love everyone
I love everyone
Swans - I Am The Sun
|
Too many problems
Oh why am I here
I don't need to be me
'Cos you're all too clear
Well I can see
There's something wrong with you
But what do you excepth me to do?
At least I gotta know what I wanna be
Don't come to me if you need pitty
Are you lonely you got no one
You get your body in suspension
That's no problem problem
Problem the problem is you
Eat your heart out on a plastic tray
You don't do what you want
Then you'll fade away
You won't find me working
Nine to five
It's too much fun a being alive
I'm using my feet for my human machine
You wan't find me living for the screen
Are you lonely all your needs catered
You got your brains dehydrated
Problem problem
Problem the problems is you
What you gonna do
Problem problem
Problem the problems is you
What you gonna do with your problem
In a death trip I ain't automatic
You won't find me just staying static
Don't give me any orders
For people like me
There is no order
Bet you thought you had it all worked out
Bet you thought you knew what I was about
Bet you thought you'd
Solved all your problems
But you are the problem
Problem problem
Problem the problem is you
What you gonna do with your problem
I'll leave it to you
Problem their problem is you
You got a problem
Oh what you gonna do
They know a doctor
Gonna take you away
They take you away
And throw away the key
They don't want you
And they don't want me
You got a problem
The problem is you
Problem the problem is you
What you gonna do
Problem problem problem
Problem problem problem
Problem problem problem
Problem problem problem
-Sex Pistols : Never Mind The Bollocks : Problems |
Hornbach, take two:
13:35 * pw is listening to End Neu (Live) by Einstürzende Neubauten from Strategies Against Architecture III (Disc 1)
13:35 <@pw> ^^ Godlike.
13:36 <@solios_> you've seen Blixa do the Hornbach readings, yes?
13:36 <@pw> No?
13:36 <@pw> Do I want it?
13:37 <@solios_> omfg.
13:37 <@solios_> http://swen.antville.org/stories/923786/
13:37 <@_Lasar> !
13:37 <@_Lasar> You want to see those.
13:37 <@solios_> they're great.
13:37 <@_Lasar> Indeed.
13:37 * pw has no brain power tonight, but bookmarks for later downloadage.
13:38 <@solios_> dude at least look at one.
13:38 <@_Lasar> There is no brain power required.
13:38 <@solios_> indeed.
13:38 <@_Lasar> Click, click on any one from the list, and watch.
13:38 <@_Lasar> NOW
13:38 <@solios_> _Lasar++
13:38 <@_Lasar> It will GIVE you brainpower.
13:39 <@pw> WMV
13:39 * pw whimpers
13:39 <@pw> WMV always cacks out on me about 75% of the way through.
13:39 <@_Lasar> Use VLC
13:39 <@_Lasar> WMP--
13:39 <@_Lasar> I have teh same issues.
13:40 <@_Lasar> But these are short, I think even WMP should play them.
13:40 <@_Lasar> I carry these movies everywhere on my Xda.
13:41 <@pw> I should point out that I'm very pleased that I have a 10mbps connection.
13:42 <@_Lasar> Shut up and watch.
13:42 <@_Lasar> If this isn't the best thing that happened to you today, then you had sex.
13:43 <@solios_> XD
13:45 <@pw> Blimey.
13:45 * pw now wishes he had a video iPod.
13:45 <@pw> Yes.
13:45 <@pw> Excellent.
|
16:23 < solios> holy fuck Christ Analogue sucks.
16:23 < solios> they're bad like Strommkern.
16:26 < mdxi> i upgraded to comcast digital christ
16:27 < solios> I'm still getting my christ through UHF
16:27 < solios> it's this magical mystical mix of shitty spoken word and "minimal" (read : bad) programming.
16:28 < solios> it's like some guy who's seen pi too many times masturbating on a casio.
16:28 < vai> er. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of solios' imagination, God - who am I kidding RUN!!!
16:28 < mdxi> that movie really kinda sucked
16:29 < mdxi> it was cool in the beginning but then the last act was just retarded
16:29 < solios> yes but the qabbala was mostly accurate.
16:29 < solios> pretty much.
16:29 < solios> it was Eraserhead with Math instead of the baby. :P
16:30 < mdxi> rule #1 for good moviemaking: NEVER START WITH THE TECHNOBABBLE -- IF YOU NEED COMPUTER MAGIC, JUST MAKE IT HAPPEN AND LEAVE IT UNSAID
16:30 <@bda> LA BELLE DAME SANS REGRETS
|
Write about heat and then tell Icarus
He got too close
Sucked in the engine of holy ignorance
How could he know?
No such excuse for those who come after him
- Carbon alloy
I've heard say:
"The printed word and the paper it's printed on
- Not worth anythin'. In the time that it takes
To write about doing it, it could be done."
I say 'no' in the oldest formula:
"Fuck this, and fuck you"
If it's good enough for Geoffrey Chaucer
It's OK by me too.
Latent energy in lines of lettering
- One dot a full stop
Swing on a phrase for fresh mobility:
"Mud chokes no eels"
The past and the present, the cheque and the counterfoil
Fill in/tear off
Prop up a point with some lines from the library...
This week's maxim:
"In for a penny, in for a pound" - Information
Shriekback : Care : Lines from the Library |
| Any damned wanker with a guitar.
|
|
08:51 <@bda> http://www.plainparade.org/songs/ # ofmg
08:52 <@ejp> o_o
08:53 <@bda> "The Sixth Borough"
08:53 <@bda> RAGE
08:54 <@ejp> ?
08:54 <@ejp> I just see shitty indie bands redoing songs by *other* shitty indie bands.
08:54 <@bda> New York City has five boroughs.
08:54 < solios> "In short, Philadelphia is poised to be fucking huge. "
08:54 <@bda> Referring to Philly as the "Sixth Borough" implies that Philly is just a suburb of NYC.
08:54 < solios> CNN was all PHILLY MUSIC SCENE PWNZ this summer.
08:54 <@bda> Like say Jersey City.
08:54 <@bda> Which is obviously not the fucking case. :P
08:54 < solios> heh.
08:55 <@ejp> you sure?
08:55 <@bda> Yes.
08:55 <@bda> I am.
08:55 <@bda> Even with all the goddamn New Yorkers moving here. :)
08:55 < solios> heh.
08:55 < solios> dude.
08:55 <@bda> Only in Philly would TWO opening bands get booed off the stage at an NIN concert. ;)
08:56 < solios> everyone in the Pitt goth scene who's spent any length of time in Philly says [the Philly goth/industrial scene* is] a total fucking horrorshow wasteland.
08:56 <@ejp> we don't have a music scene here.
08:56 < solios> apparently the town is balls for industrial.**
08:56 < solios> my friend John has lived there for five years, runs a record label out of Philly and hasn't been able to play a single show there.
* We all know that I care fuckall for the Hipster horror show and that I find their music to be as agonizing as their wardrobe. Pittsburgh's music scene is just as viable as Philly's, especially since Philly seems to be basing its assumption of awesomeness on in the pretext of "any damned wanker with a guitar is worth seeing." The big difference is that Pittsburgh venues are so utterly tied to Organized Sport that playing a gig on a game night is a violation of city law. All Pittsburgh venues will show The Game, regardless of Organized Sport alignment or attitude. The fact that I have yet to see any evidence of similar behavior in Philly is certainly a reason to move there- it's possible for a band to bust out a set without being interrupted or overriden by the irregular bellowings of inebriated proles. Another advantage for Philly is that the place actually has venues, while Pittsburgh seems to be losing them at an average of one a year. Philly is getting Front 242; if a Pittsburgh promoter could even afford them they've got not place to put them.
** For as much difficulty as I have with the scenesters, my Pittsburgh Music Experience™ has always been a question of "Do I go to Ceremony or do i stay home and drink?" Staying home wins when I want to listen to Girls Under Glass more than Imminent Starvation, but I usually go out- mostly because I like the idea of a fence being between my drunk ass and very pretty, very underaged girlies. The idea of going to a "mainstream" bar/club night makes me nauseous- and whenever any blog or newspaper or whatever gets squirty about a city's "music scene," you can bet that they're talking about bands that are inspired by bands that are inspired by bands that are inspired by ripoffs of the bands Mike writes about and not, say, a bunch of Front 242 wannabes with iridescent hair and Hot Topic tags tangling off of their socks. |
SEPTA strike maxxes out the cabs and 30th street is Far. Arrangements are made and Harry and his significant other are amazingly hoopy froods for manifesting wheels for Bryan and myself.
Day starts with a quick provisioning run to Wawa, followed by Billy Idol doing a live set with three Motley Crue-lookin' dudes on acoustic guitars in front of a live audience of young asian women and old scary-lookin soccer moms. Berlin's amazingly awful video for Metro, some {Jessica Simpson|Sharon Apple} thing, a snatch of Gorillaz, some Weezer-inflected hipster shit and Leo Laporte looking bored to near-stupor at some sort of bubbly OS X-powered software demo shot in July. Fucking TV.
Harry shows up, saving me from Bryan's control of the remote.
Leaving Drexel, Sputnik is thumbed on for the first time since Aoi (pronounced "owie" by Bryan and others - I'd phoneticized it as ay-oi internally, but seeing as how Pittsburgh is worldly in the same sense as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I'd no incidental means of the proper pronunciation happening to me), Friday night. First track off the drive is Wish by the Cranes.
Sputnik runs for the next seven hours and change without stopping and presently reads at around 3/4 battery capacity.
Stepping out of the Amtrak station in Pittsburgh, the lyrics of Vampires, track 10 of the final Godflesh album, Hymns. Apt. Complete olfactory collapse brought to you by the mandatory Asshole With Cheap Cigar blatting away into a cel outside the terminal doors. Start itching immediatly, having broken into a sinus-stopping sneezing fit between Greensburg and Final Destination.
The first words out if iTunes mouth as I'm offloading gear in the batcave? "This. Is. NECESSARY." - Tool, Aenima, Disgustipated.
Fitting.
Quickly followed by Soma FM's Secret Agent while unpacking (of equipment and other things) occurs, then Solios's Pumpcon 2k5 Theme Song - Die Warzau : Gone Chemical, with an Oxygene remix slipping unobtrusively in on the leadout.
Off to tie up other responsibilities; will sort through train photography later.
Contrast: Philly's 30th street station has a hotel-styled waiting loop for taxis. You escalate up from the trains, exit stage left, wait your turn, state your destination and cruise off in style within moments. Pittsburgh's Amtrak station had a jitney.
Yeah. A jitney. Just the one. No cabs.
Leaving the house to Front 242 : Religion (Pussy-Whipped Mix).
Woot. |
Maybe I'm falling
Maybe I'm not
Surrounded by people
Unintentional art
The moving of people
The buck and the sway
You fill up my head
And then you get in my way
Gone chemical
Emotional
How is that?
Everybody's gone chemical
Emotional
How is that?
Everybody's gone
Maybe I love you
Maybe I don't
You misunderstand me
And tell me you won't
The moving of people
The buck and the sway
You fill up my head
And then you get in my way
-Die Warzau : Convenience (2004) : Gone Chemical
|
Who's the artsy anarchist
Who's the magic masochist
Who's the piggish postulator
Who's the anal agitator
Who's the heinous plagiarist
Who's the sexy satanist
Who's the manic masturbator
Who's the cryptic constipator
Who is
Who
Who the hell are you
Do you love me
I'm the salt in your wound
I'm the fist in your face
I'm the thorn in your side
The devil in disguise
-KMFDM : XTORT (1996) : Wrath
|
| Black Lung : The Coming Dark Age
|
|
|
Composer : David Thrussell
Genre : Electronic
Label : Psy-Harmonics Psy-054 (2005)
Format : Digipak
Special Features : Stickers!!, booklet containing the essay Eating Fossil Fuels by Dale Allen Pfeiffer, complete with an ibid. loaded bibliography.*
Sounds Like : Just about every other Black Lung release with the exception of Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars.**
Rush Limbaugh Would File It Under : Liberal Histrionics
Runtime : 57:05 for 13 tracks
Overall iTunes Rating : [***xx]
This isn't a review it's : The "reviewer" finding as many ways as possible to say "this isn't Silent Weapons! Damn!" |
Track Listing and Ratings
Note that the album is rated against other Black Lung material using Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars as a baseline [*****]. As the baseline is a matter of personal taste, ratings should be taken with a grain of salt. Bold tracks are standouts- the most likely to be piled onto a comp or thrown into a playlist. If I excluded Silent and rated Dark Age against all of the other Black Lung releases I've heard, we'd be looking at a solid overall 4 rating as opposed to a three-point-something.
01. [***xx] The Coming Dark Age
02. [**xxx] The Sins Of Megalopolis
03. [***xx] Karmageddon
04. [****x] The Great Automobile Hunt
05. [****x] The Doomed Fortress
06. [***xx] Concrete Octopus
07. [***xx] Armies Of Oil
08. [***xx] The View From Hubbert's Peak
09. [***xx] Battle For The Grim Plateau
10. [****x] Leibowitz's Canticle
11. [***xx] Toward The Petro-Apocalypse
12. [***xx] Megalopolis Dies
13. [***xx] The New Dark Age
Opinion
I'm kind of bummed that I paid out the ass for the import off of Amazon (moreso the fact that it took about a month to show up), but the thing came with stickers, so it's all good.
I say "bummed" because the reason I like Black Lung in the first place - the above-mentioned Silent Weapons - seems to have been a complete fluke. It sounds almost nothing like the rest of the Thrussell catalogue and it's the album that strikes the closest to my industrial/shortwave preferences. I love that album so much that it's completely biased me against the rest of his output - this doesn't mean that Thrussell sucks, mind you. It means he scratched my itch once and I keep to hoping that he'll do it again. The fact that he hasn't shouldn't reflect badly on him. I can't knock Dark Age, but I can say that my pants were dry from beginning to end.
My personal bias and general inability to write about or appreciate music from the perspective of the musician aside, Dark Age is still a solid, listenable release. It's the late-twilight kind of dark as opposed to the screaming-nightmares dark, it slides off of your brain if you're not paying attention to it (makes for good work music), and there's enough "dark age" flavor to distance the album a bit from other releases. Thrussell fans will be able to easily differentiate Dark Age from, say, Extraordinary Popular Delusions or The Depopulation Bomb - and there's certainly no mistaking it for Weapons. I keep fapping about that album for a reason, folks - go hunt down a copy of either Silent for Quiet or Silent for Silent, which is the same tracks in a different order with nasty album art. It's sort of a Myke Weiskopf vs. Electronica thing.
Impression
While The Coming Dark Age is a decent album, I certainly can't recommend purchasing it at Amazon [IMPORT] pricing unless you know for sure that Thrussell's blend of electronics is your thing. If you're going to drop coin on a Black Lung release and want the absolute maximum bang for your buck, spend your money on the incorrectly named and incorrectly track-ordered Silent Weapons For Silent Wars. Seriously.
* I like the stickers.
** If I don't keep my eyes on the screen, I repeatedly mistake Michael Easton for Keanu Reeves. It's not that I have a tin ear so much as if I'm not paying strict attention to music it starts to blend together, the way faces and body types and clothing blend into a handful of extras mirror-tricked into a full-sized crowd on the street. In this sense, Thrussell is Thrussell - I recognize the work as such but it doesn't reach out and smack me around the way Silent Weapons does - it stands out like Terry Gilliam's Red Knight would in the New York Stock Exchange. |
| Fuck Me I'm Sick (As Fuck)
|
|
If shit like this keeps up I'm going to need to add a "drunk/high/intoxicated" category:
17:42 <@solios> THIS PIG WILL WALK ON THE WATER
17:42 <@solios> THIS PIG WILL WALK ON THE SEA
17:42 <@solios> THIS PIG WILL WALK WHEREEVER HE WANTS
17:42 <@solios> WALK ON ME
17:42 <@solios> PIG++
18:18 -!- You're now known as gothlios
20:13 -!- xeno [~bafh@cloak-FBC748D1.stcgpa.adelphia.net] has quit [Ping timeout]
23:23 -!- You're now known as solios
23:48 -!- solios changed the topic of #dotnet to: The networks current state did not exist before humans affirmed its existance.
23:48 <@solios> DISCUSS.
23:52 <@solios> hm.
23:52 -!- solios changed the topic of #dotnet to: The Network did not exist until humans affirmed its existence.
23:53 <@solios> (the internets as a projected physical model of the subconscious, etc)*
23:53 <@solios> THIS PIG CAN WALK ON WATER
23:53 <@solios> THIS PIG CAN WALK ON THE SEA
23:53 <@solios> THIS PIG CAN WALK WHEREEVER HE WANTS
23:53 <@solios> WALK ON ME
* The moment I was typing this mess, it made COMPLETE sense. The kind of sense that Buddah strives for. It's that kind of truth - the boozahol-fueled morass that you spend huge chunks of the rest of your life trying to re-aquire or forget. In this case, I'm rolling the dice on re-acquire, as I caught a glimpse of the Truth behind my vastly inaccurate thesis of The Internet As A Synthetic Plane Of Existence. It isn't. What it is is a fundamental shift in the way the physical plane is accessed and/or utilized - for an instant I had the size of it, and it hiccuped away like the mental equivalent of a beer fart. :P |
| The Dance Commander's ready to sin.
|
|
23:08 <bda> I know nothing of Bauhaus.
23:08 <solios> proto-post-punk alongside Joy Division.
23:09 <solios> Joy Divsion became New Order after Ian hung himself ; Bauhaus split up - Murphy went Solo, Ash did Love and Rockets.. then they noticed they make more money as Bauhaus.*
23:10 <solios> there are no goth/industrial webcomics.**
23:10 <solios> so I've got to do it. :P
23:10 <solios> (better that than porn)
23:10 <bda> ha.
* I'm probably screwing up my Scene History here (and leaving out Tunes on Tail), but I think the above is more or less accurate. And for those of you paying attention to these sorts of things, yes, I used an Electric 6 lyric as the header for a one-sided about Bauhaus. I'm going to hell.
** I'm assuming there's at least one or two floating around, but I've either tried to read them and failed, or I haven't found them yet. Note that I'm more of a Mad Max Headroom industrial gutterpunk than one of those Voltaire types (fashion, etc). |
Hey, look at the hooks
on your pants makes you wanna dance.
I say yeah yeah,
I say yeah yeah.
There ain't never a catch, all you got to do is snatch,
do the velcro fly,
do the velcro fly.
You need just enough of that sticky stuff
to hold the seams of your fine blue jeans.
I say yeah yeah.
I say yeah yeah.
There ain't never a catch, all you got to do is snatch,
do the velcro fly,
do the velcro fly.
-ZZ Top, Velcro Fly
The song cropped up on the xenopod while transitioning from Oakland to Birmingham. That drum loop is damned catchy. Vastly out of place sitting with the rest of my music library, but I'm always willing to make room for Awesome.
It's a rocking track. Probably less so if you haven't read The Waste Lands. |
|
|
