Look at the above images. What do you think this is all about? What would you get if you combined these two giants of popular music? Not hard to work out.
If you guessed correctly and worked out that this is the vocal track from Jay-Z's The Black Album laid over the musical tracks from Purple Rain by Prince then download it, give yourself a pat on the back and a gold star.
If you guessed incorrectly then you should probably go and sit in the middle of the road somewhere. You don't really deserve to listen to this album or really live amongst normal folk. Idiots.
By now you will have probably heard the news, despite being only half the original line-up, Kiss it Goodbye have reformed for some select US shows. The band responsible for one of the most important albums to my musical growth as a youngster. Even now, over 10 years since I first heard it I still get a buzz every time I listen to it. In honour of this and my love for the melodramatic howl of vocalist Tim Singer, I have posted up some choice cuts from the dudes discography. She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not is still, to this day, one of the angriest hardcore records I have ever heard. Tim Singer sounds like he is going through a complete mental breakdown, his vocals a mixture of mumblings, shrieks and roars complemented by the berserk, twisted instrumentation. I still struggle to get my head around some of the ideas and riffs on this album. You can draw a definite line from Black Flag to the KIG, sonically and lyrically they both possess a crazy, wild anger that not many bands achieve. Stone cold classic.
Prior to KIG Singer and guitarist Keith Huckins where part of the Deadguy line up responsible for Fixation On A Co-Worker in 1995. The New Jersey group, along with Bloodlet where the black sheep of the Victory Records roster. A superb album in its own right. Combining noise rock, hardcore and a ton of negative attitude.
After KIG, the other members took part in Playing Enemy and Nineironspitfire. The demo below surfaced about 1999/2000 and whetted a lot of appetites for a future that never came. Family Man was KIG without Huckins and sounds for all intents and purposes like Black Flag smashing into Unsane's practise room. Sadly these two songs are all that ever seemed to exist.
There was talk of other recordings over the years, internet gossip and so forth but nothing has come out yet.
P.S. My Mediafire account is on the fritz so the links on this page are courtesy of the awesome folk over at The Living Doorway and Counts Of Arson. Sweet stuff.
Its been a while since I last posted on here, I've been busy. End of. We all know the recent events that are going to impact the world of blogging, so lets just enjoy what we do for the time being.
Today's post is the awesome 1981 album by the golden touch, liquid smooth vocal rapists Daryl Hall & John Oates, otherwise known as Hall & Oates. Private Eyes features their best selection of songs in my opinion. Every track is sure fire gold, assimilating R&B, soul, jazz and rock into simple, radio friendly bursts of pop. "Head Above Water" is the best unused pump-up/montage track as well.
In other news I have recently took up posting over at the might Illogical Contraption. If you dig death metal, conspiracy theories, awesome stuff and futuristic shit then its well worth a read.
Before Entombed and Unleashed, there was Nihilist. These guys never recorded anything other than a few demos and a 7" single before calling it quits in 89 ( or they disbanded and reformed under the name Entombed due to not liking Johnny Hedlund, leaving him to form Unleashed). Thankfully someone decided to knock this compilation out in 2005 which compiles all the demos and recordings the band managed to produce. Included within is a Repulsion cover as well as Entombed's original demo. Bathe in the sweet, rough hewn, barbaric, late 80's death metal storm.
Page and his lads doing what they did best back in the 90's. The second single from "Betty" just hammered home the Helmet sound to all those pricks watching MTV. You can argue all you want about its influence and its fault for various other "genres" but you can't deny the groove.
The EP is backed up with a few decent quality live tracks including "Just Another Victim", the collaboration they did with House Of Pain. Which funnily enough both groups tend to play live, but separately.
Larry Graham has got a fair few decent things going for him. He was a key member of Sly & The Family Stone, he is often credited with pioneering the slap technique applied to electric bass and he also worked with Betty Davis, Tower of Power's horn section and The Pointer Sisters. Amongst all this, he found time to form Graham Central Station back in 1973 with various musicians picked out of Jefferson Airplane, Santana and Hot Tuna. Mirror show cases this collectives combined playing skills on many levels. Some of the tightest and most energetic playing you are likely to hear.
The angry, foul mouthed, Biohazard collaborating, Spike Lee acting group known as Onyx made a pretty big impression back in the 90's. Here are the first two albums they did, Bacdafucup and All We Got Iz Us both classics zipped up together.
Its no secret of my love for Company Flow ( search the archives on here), but up until a few years ago I never really dug into what DJ Mr Len did after the trail blazing Brooklyn trio called it quits back in 2001. I followed El-P pretty obsessively across all his solo works and spent some time absorbing Bigg Jus's Black Mamba Serums but Len seemed pass me by.
Mr Len, Leonard "Lenny" Smythe to his friends, followed the break up with this very album. Acting as a sort of mixtape, it showcases a sound you have come to expect from one of the guys behind the dark Funcrusher Plus album but also leans way more towards standard structures. Sort of like trying to jam a huge, dark, nasty creature into a presentable glass box for people to stare at. That makes sense right?
His choice of vocalists on here is pretty spot on. Each track obviously playing to that lyricists talents and vibe. Jean Grae stands out on her contribution "Taco Day", that's pretty intense in its narrative. Mass Influence, Lord Sear and Chubb Rock all provide pretty solid accompaniment. The only lull in the albums running is the collaboration with metalcore chumps Agents Of Man. Which is just lame. Despite that, Pity The Fool makes a pretty sweet mixtape for random journeys and in my experience household cleaning.
Faltermeyer nails it again despite only being responsible for about half of the tracks on here. But come on! Its Chase at his best. You can't argue with that. Bit by bit.
Anyone that follows this will know how I feel about Coalesce, so lets move forward with the least amount of fuss and back tracking. I love this band. 2009, when they toured for the first time over here and in Europe they played 3 tracks as a live studio session for the BBC Radio 1 "Rock Show".
Here are those 3 tracks. "Wild Ox Moan", " The Villain I Won't Deny" and "Through Sparrows I Rest" all sound pretty fucking monstrous. The BBC got it right this time.
Too good not to share. Really interesting documentary about street gangs in the 80's. Primarily around the Bronx area. Everyone knows gangs are cool. Especially with names like Nomads and Savage Skulls. Back in the days when everyone wore denim and leather. The Warriors got nothing on these dudes........
Some nasty, local noise right here. Pine Barrens have been slowly getting there shit together for a while now, a few gigs, few mentions. They completed this demo late last year. I say demo, its a self released 4 track affair really. I don't know how to describe this other than its a very dark sounding, black tinged, thrash laced barrage of desperate rasped vocals and minor melodic riffage. Does that make sense? They even throw in sax and violin on the closer. Nearest thing I can think of is maybe Crestfallen ( I proper used to love that band, got that to post soon) with the core toned down and the BM turned up? Maybe? Dan Shaw is involved which means brutality is more than guaranteed over any sort of labelling or niche. Get it downloaded.
Tonight we spin tunes while trying to soundtrack films being projected onto a wall.It has huge disaster written all over it. Anyone that lives in my shitty neck of the woods come down. Which is no one.
As I have said before, there are certain bands and albums, that if someone doesn't like, then I don't trust them. Anyone that reads this blog will know which I mean. Well Coalesce are on there as well. A prime influence on me musically and also one of the best bands ever. Fact.
So as a treat for a cold, dark Sunday night, here is the "final" release they put out just before they split up in 2000. It was made available at the "final" show. Of course, it being Coalesce, they reformed inside of 6 months and stopped selling this making it a pretty rare item.
"Last Call For The Living" is made up of very early demo recordings, when the band was still finding its sound. The recording quality differs quite a bit to anything else, but they are demos. Sean Ingram had not yet discovered "that voice" and his vocals on here owe more to the 90's hardcore scene they played for. The first 3 tracks are said demos and are followed by early versions of SXE baiting classic Harvest of Maturity and On Their Behalf as well as a early version of Simulcast. Bitchin' stuff.
Certainly a completely different listen compared to any other Coalesce album and only real Coalesce geeks will get anything out of this. But then if your reading this, your a Coalesce geek like the rest of us losers.
Learned this morning of Pete Postlethwaite's death after a long battle with cancer. Despite making a few solid gold turkeys in his time he had the same thing Morgan Freeman had in that he brought a level of class and professionalism to everything he did. RIP.
There really isn't much more that can be said that hasn't already about the overwhelming loss of Johnny Morrow back in 2002. You cannot deny the power of Iron Monkey and you would have to be blind to not be aware of its influence still to this day. Armour Of God was a project that involved JPM and his ex-Monkey band mates Jim Rushby and Justin Greaves alongside Sean and Marvin from The Varukers. The best way to describe the sound would be Infest pumped up on steroids while throwing in huge Boston style mosh riffs. Completely untrendy, no frills, aggro hardcore with those vocals raging over the top.
These three tracks saw light of day as a split with 3rd Stone on the Threefold label back in 2000. I have only included the Armour Of God tracks as I don't like the 3rd Stone side. The above picture is courtesy of the jacket destroying madman known as Nabbe.
As far as I know, these are the only recorded evidence of Armour of God. I have heard things over the years but nothing has ever really come up. If anyone knows different then seriously, swing us a line.
You all know that band Dead Swans? Well this is what they did before. Good old, straight forward, AN/Boston worshipping hardcore. Fast to the point songs that stick in your head and finish before you even realise it.
"Because we are food for worms lads. Because, believe it or not, each and every one of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold, and die."
The Hardest Working Man In Showbiz! Mr Dynamite! Mr Please Please Please Please Her! Minister Of The New New Super Heavy Funk! Soul Brother Number One, are just a few of the names he goes by.
