Gentle Giant - Free Hand (1975)

Gentle Giant - Free

My favorite album by these prog um.. giants. 70's prog rock excellence.
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Didn't Your Parents Give You A Name?

This is the inspiration.....



Superb song and lyrics from a superb album.

The Kids Of Widney High - Lets Get Busy (2001)

Now, like most people who heard about this when it was originally released back in 1999, I thought it was some kind of joke by Mike Patton. "Ipecac releasing an album of songs by some special needs kids from LA?" Yes, it does sound like a joke doesn't it? But there was no joke. He has said how honest and heart warming he finds these simple songs about life. Some friends of mine saw them in San Francisco at Patton's Millennium Bash and reported back about how nice and warming it was to witness them perform. The kids handle all the vocals while the music is composed by the tutors. It has been an ongoing project since 1988 and the line up changes as students come and go through the school.

The kids Of Widney High - Lets Get Busy

Get over the initial, slightly-wrong-because-you-are-giggling reaction and its a little gem of an album.

Pretty Girls music video



TV Documentary

Stop smirking!

Teddy Pendergrass RIP

Teddy Pendergrass
March 26, 1950 – January 13, 2010

Maybe I'm a bit slow with this one. Only found out last night. Rest in peace you soulful, smooth bastard you. He made his name with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in the early 70's then a solo career that saw him achieve super stardom beyond anything he had done before. He did get caught with a transsexual in a car crash but seeing as he has spent the last 20 + years confined to a wheelchair due to this they let him off with that one.
Here's his debut, self-titled album from 1977. Superb R'n'B indicative of the times. And still stands up today. Make sure you brought a spare pair of panties ladies.

Teddy Pendergrass - S/T

Don Caballero

Don Cab need no introduction whatsoever. Instrumental, math rock masters. You can read about the band themselves nearly anywhere else on the Internet so I won't recite some Wiki biography. They rule, simple fact.
My good friend Stu hooked me up with this article recently and it made for such a interesting and insightful read that I reckon it needs to be spread around some more.
In 2000, while on tour in support of American Don with singer/songwriter Fred Weaver, the bands van was involved in a huge highway pileup. This and a number of other problems forced the break up of Don Cab. Weaver went onto document this whole tour and the dissolution of the band in his tour diary which was later published in the magazine Chunklet.
Funny, depressing, retarded and eye opening in equal measure. Anyone who has ever been involved with touring will see so many familiar themes in the story. This is the break down of Don Cab.

The Dark Final Days Of Don Cab

Enjoy. Cheers to Stu for this one as well.

Santo Caserio - Four Songs 7" (2003)

Sweet, sweet screamo/emo violence/hardcore whatever from long forgotten but sadly missed Scottish lot. My old band played with these quite a few times and I was always impressed with there honest approach to "emotional" hardcore and clever use of saxophone in amongst the clutter of guitars and screams. The vocalist helps put gigs on nowadays in Edinburgh while the bassist, Youngy plays in sonic titans Snowblood. I have no idea what the others are doing.
This is the 4-song 7" they released back in 2003 which was packaged in such a nice way. Multiple layers and various little pieces as you can see....

Santo Caserio Four Songs 7"

That above link gives you the 7". They still have a Myspace up here where they have more tracks from a never released 10". They are floating around on other blog sites so its not to hard to find.

What I watched this week

80's animated boobananza Heavy Metal.

Henry Silva and RZA

"Fuck HQ, I'm doing this my own way!"

After the recent purchase of Enzo G Castellari's The Bronx Warriors Trilogy Box set, and during the watching of Escape From The Bronx I was reminded about the awesomeness of Henry Silva. Veteran TV, movie and character actor and often seen in the role of the villain/baddie/nemesis etc.
First time I came across this brooding maestro of the screen was in 80's Alligator-on-the-loose creature feature ....Alligator. In this classic he played the big game hunter brought in to bring down the creature of the title. His screen time is limited but more than anything stood out even to my inferior child's mind back then.



He has brooded alongside Steven Seagal and Burt Reynolds, voiced Bane in the Batman animated show and kicked more B-movie ass than I can actually list yet most people couldn't tell you his name.
He starred alongside Forest Whitaker in the Jim Jarmusch helmed Ghost Dog : The Way Of The Samurai back in 1999, which is the other point of this post. The soundtrack to this awesome flick was created from scratch by Wu-Tang patriarch RZA and alongside Liquid Swords is one of the better Wu off shoots. Below is the Japanese version of the soundtrack, which is the most definitive one going. I got this from the awesome Substix blog where you can read about it in a far more eloquent way than I could describe it. Simply put, its an awesome, atmospheric effort by RZA to accompany an equally awesome and atmospheric film that I can't recommend enough.

Ghost Dog OST : Part 1
Ghost Dog OST : Part 2

Here's to Henry Silva and RZA.

Kataklysm - Temple Of Knowledge (1996)

Classic 90's death metal by a bunch of Canadians ( they always seem to be pretty good at extreme, technical brutality) who love having tons of vocals over everything and have become pretty shit in more recent incarnations.

Katakylsm - Temple Of Knowledge

This is the 2003 reissue which includes the early demo The Vortex of Resurrection. We used to joke about the claim they made of inventing the "northern hyperblast". Which is just a normal hyperblast but because they saw Fear Factory described as such decided to tack northern on the beginning of it. Crazy Canadians.

Tractor - Demo (2006)

I have been digging through my personal archives recently. Realising I more than likely have a wealth of CD-r's from bands we have played with over the years and that some of them are still really good it makes sense to share some sounds that no longer exist or people never heard first time round.
Tractor are a band I became aware of due to the drummer running Superfi Records, who released a few things by my old band. I got sent this back in 2006 to review and remember it being one of the better things to be sent my way. They have this whole Unsane thing going on. Rumbling, distorted bass and pounding, echoing drums but mixed with a slow, Am-Rep sort of groove. The vocals are the biggest nod to Unsane, bearing that distorted, claustrophobic feeling howl of NYC's noisiest sons. If any of that sounds appealing then give it a whirl. I don't really know if they are still going but there are a few things that followed this release available at Superfi's distro.

Tractor - 2006 Demo

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Blasphemophagher

My latest obsession. Which is pretty good as I don't usually get mega excited over new music these days ( Not as much as I used to, the glory days of youth). Blasphemophagher manage to combine two of my all time favourite things, harsh music and nuclear decimation. They wear gas masks, spikes and military helmets and look like they should be advancing across a mustard gas, mud drenched field in some alternate reality of nuclear devastation. Sweet.


The Italian lot fall firmly into the Christ-raping, raw black metal camp but with a complete dedication to blasting and speed, which is always a good thing. In fact I would say alongside Dawn of Wolves and Black Witchery have re-sparked my love for BM over recent months.
Despite the harsh speed, its the obsession with atomic destruction and mankind's slow decay from radiation which I really enjoy. Its not surprising to see find them at home on the Nuclear War Now! label. Give them a go, they have some awesome stuff on that label.
I have always had a obsession with post-apocalyptic fiction and film. I really don't know why. Maybe it was the books they made us read at school being a child of the 80's or never being stopped from watching Mad Max for the 100Th time on a Saturday afternoon.


This is the one that I have been rinsing for the past couple of days. "Nuclear Empire Of Apocalypse". Flat out, blast obsessed, harshly produced black metal with the tiniest hint of noisy, underground thrash. Available here or go listen here. I was gonna upload it but its quite recent and underground so go buy it on vinyl from Nuclear War Now! themselves.
I can't recommend this enough recently. Superb stuff.

Again with the snow.

Woke up this morning and snowed in again. Drank coffee and listened to Immortal. It was good.

Five Superfighters

I used to have this on video. Cost about a quid in a charity shop. Gutted it is now lost somewhere.
Classic Shaw Brothers ass kicking fun.

Scott Walker - Scott 4 (1969)

First post of the 2010. Inspired by a recent drunken conversation, is this 1969 gem. Easily the best album in Scott Walkers career. Perfect for inducing the those feelings of dread and desperation brought on by last nights boozing.

Scott Walker - Scott 4