A lot of people are compiling their lists of favorite albums, bands, movies, television shows or whatever of the decade.  I decided it would be fun to try to get a list together for my favorite albums of the decade.  I was initially optimistic about the list, but I quickly realized how lame the past decade has been.  Anyway, these are my personal albums of the decade.  I’m sure most of you will either hate the bands or albums.   A lot of these are sort of sentimental picks.  Many these albums got me through some tough times.  Others were my introduction into whole new genres.  Some are bands that grew on me and have left a huge impression.  I encourage you all to make your own lists.  I would love to read them.

The List

1. Between the Buried and Me – Colors (2007) link
2. At the Drive-In – Relationship of Command (2000) link
3. The Mars Volta – De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003) link
4. Coheed and Cambria – In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: III (2003) link
5. Circle Takes the Square – As the Roots Undo (2004) link
6. Muse – Absolution (2003) link
7. Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American (2001) link
8. La Dispute – Somewhere At The Bottom Of The River Between Vega And Altair (2008) link
9. Thursday – Full Collapse (2001) link
10. The Mountain Goats – All Hail West Texas (2002) link
11. The Number Twelve Looks Like You – Mongrel (2007) link
12. The Fall of Troy – Manipulator (2007) link
13. Café Tacvba – Cuatro Caminos (2003) link
14. The Postal Service – Give Up (2003) link
15. Three 6 Mafia – The Most Known Unknowns (2005) link
16. Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf (2002) link
17. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak (2003) link
18. The Blood Brothers – Young Machetes (2006) link
19. Rodrigo y Gabriela – Rodrigo y Gabriela (2006) link
20. mewithoutYou – [A-->B] Life (2002) link
21. Tenacious D - Tenacious D (2001) link
22. Paramore – Riot (2007) link
23. Taking Back Sunday – Tell All Your Friends (2002) link
24. The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower – Dissertation, Honey (2003) link
25. System of a Down – Toxicity (2001) link

Honorable Mention

• Alkaline Trio – From Here to Infirmary (2001) link
• Strike Anywhere – Change is a Sound (2001) link
• Blink-182 – Take Off Your Pants and Jacket (2001) link
• NOFX – War on Errorism (2004) link
• Job For a Cowboy – Doom EP (2005) link
• At All Cost – It’s Time to Decide (2006) link
• The Smashing Pumpkins – Machina and the Machines of God (2000) link
• Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (2005) link
• Cursive - Mama, I’m Swollen (2009) link
• See You Next Tuesday – Parasite (2007) link
• Protest the Hero – Kezia (2005) link
• The Darkness – Permission to Land (2003) link

Thank you, Between the Buried and Me.

Past Lives have made a track from their new album available on Pitchfork.

‘Hex Takes Hold’ is taken from Tapestry Of Webs, which is due for release on 23 February.

The band features ex-members of The Blood Brothers, who had all their albums recently reissued as special editions.

Past Lives consist of three members from seminal Seattle Post Hardcore group The Blood Brothers, and make pretty much exactly the kind of racket you might expect. After The Blood Brothers split in 2007 spin-off projects have been met with varying degree of success, but with Jordan Billie on vocals, and 60% of that band back together under the name Past Lives, this truly feels like the natural progression from the bands curtain call, Young Machetes, back in 2006.

With an EP release already under their belts the band are currently looking forward to the release of their full length debut, which shall be released in February next year. The first track from this album, Hex Takes Hold, has been made available  on the bands Myspace page and should do more enough to entice fans of The Blood Brothers.

Download: Past Lives – Hex Takes Hold

As a sort of feature for every week, I’ll be putting together a collection of tracks for different genres from live performances. This week is the post-hardcore genre with progressive influences. All these bands have exemplified more experimentation in the post-hardcore format and stand out from the typical punk/metalcore scene that has developed over the past few years.

Progressive Post-Hardcore Live Mix by phildavis89

The Sound of Animals Fighting

The first track is from The Sound of Animals Fighting off of their live DVD, We Must Become the Change We Want to See. It was the only recorded performance of the band where they played in front of a sold out crowd at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California. The Sound of Animals Fighting is a supergroup created by ex-RX Bandits member Rich Balling and features the likes of Anthony Green, the vocalist for Circa Surive, Craig Owens, the former vocalist for Chiodos, Matt Embree, the lead guitarist for the RX Bandits, Christopher Tsagakis, the drummer for the RX Bandits and several other guest appearances who showed up during the live show like Steve Choi from the RX Bandits helping on rhythm guitar and Joe Troy from the RX Bandits on bass.

The band’s sound can best be described as a fusion of the progressive punk featured in the RX Bandits with the heavier post-hardcore influence of Anthony Green’s Circa Survive and Craig Owens’s Chiodos. Their focus on more progressive scale verses is a fresh take on the power chord heavy genre.

The Fall of Troy.

The second track comes from The Fall of Troy. In early 2009, the band gave a visit to Hurley Studio in Costa Mesa, California to give a three song live set. The Fall of Troy takes a heavier approach to the post-hardcore genre, taking influences from bands like At the Drive-In and The Blood Brothers while creating crazy, technically proficient guitar riffs to drive their songs. To view the full set, click here for the video performance of “I Just Got This Symphony Going,” “Chapter III: Nostalgic Mannerisms” and the now titled “Nobody’s Perfect” (Called “Untitled” in the performance).

Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta. Picture taken by Nick Helderman.

Speaking of At the Drive-In, the last song on the playlist comes from the ashes of the highly influential post-hardcore with The Mars Volta. The performance of “Inertiatic E.S.P.” comes from the rare recorded performance of the band at the Electric Ballroom in Camden Town, England on July 9, 2003. While The Mars Volta tend to lean more on the progressive side with their music; the band’s first full-length release, De-Loused in the Comatorium, showed the band had not completely abandoned their punk and post-hardcore roots with songs like this one.

Det ser ut som jeg må skaffe meg Converges Axe To Fall. Bandets to forrige plater var strålende, og denne skal være enda bedre.

Converge
You Fail Me
Epitaph/Bonnier Amigo 2004
5/6

Nyskapende og genreknusende punkrock fra Boston-band. Et av 2004s beste rockesjokk.
Metal og hardcore kan både være ekstremt nyskapende og konservativ, og selv om flere band klarer seg utmerket på sin lille planet, er genrenes fremtid avhengig av artister som tør knuse båser, rive i stykker regelbøker og kaste seg ut på dypt vann. Gjerne samtidig. The Blood Brothers og The Locust gjorde det i fjor, og i år kan vi la øregangene ristes i filler av Boston-bandet Converge .

Deres fire foregående album har gjort kvartetten til semilegender i grenselandet metal og hardcore, og You Fail Me er så sterk at enda flere med sans for nyskapende rock bør rydde plass i platesamlingen.

Tekstmessig fremstår You Fail Me nærmest som et konseptalbum om bitterhet og følelsesmessig forræderi, mens de i løpet av 35 minutter brøyter ny musikalsk vei med referanser til så forskjellige artister som Fugazi, Napalm Death og Nirvana. Det sier sitt om dette albumet at Converge er i ferd med å skinne like sterkt på rockehimmelen som disse storhetene.

Converge
No Heroes
Epitaph/Bonnier Amigo 2006

Etter mesterverk som Jane Doe og You Fail Me er amerikanske Converge i eliten av band som rister løs ørevoksen og sprenger grenser mellom metal, hardcore og ekstrem støyrock. Kvartetten har verken funnet bremsepedalen eller kompromissknappen på sitt sjette offisielle album, men veksler mellom voldsomme adrenalinutblåsninger og innadvendte, dvelende låter som nesten ti minutter lange «Grim Heart/Black Rose». Ikke for pyser!

Bonus: Tidenes beste hardcore-album ifølge «justinjj» på Epinions.com.

1. Hatebreed: Satisfaction is the Death of Desire

2. Madball: Hold it Down

3. Blood for Blood: Living in Exile

4. Converge: When Forever Comes Crashing

5. Sworn Enemy: Negative Outlook

Michael Buble's Crazy Love's record sales skyrocketed past New Moon's this week after an appearance on Oprah

Not even the New Moon crew could use their vampire powers to outdo Michael Buble’s release of Crazy Love, reports Rolling Stone. The crooner appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, causing album sales to skyrocket to over 55% more than during the record’s first week on shelves, outdoing the new Twilight soundtrack by a score of 203,000 to 115,000, respectively, according to the Nielsen SounScan. Oh, the power of Oprah.

Stereogum gives us a look at last night’s Grizzly Bear gig at the Hollywood Palladium in L.A. with some pretty sweet pictures courtesy of Andrew Youssef. Beach House, the opening act, played a few tracks that will appear on their new release, Teen Dream, due out from Sub Pop Records on January 26^th.

Seattle’s post-hardcore pioneers The Blood Brothers practiced one of the 2000s’ most unique forms of punk, and after their breakup in 2007, fans were left with little to cling to other than their old Blood Brother’s records. Until now, that is. Epitaph Records is planning to re-release the entire The Blood Brothers‘ catalogue, minus their 2000 debut, This Adultery Is Ripe, reports Pitchfork. Look for it to the reissues, which will come stocked by B-sides, videos and live performance videos, when they drop on November 17.

Canada’s Kid Koala, Dynomite D and Wolfmother’s ex-rhythm section Chris Ross and Myles Heskett make up the psych group Slew. Their debut release, 100%, is set to be reissued by Ninja Tune, the label responsible for the likes of Amon Tobin, Blockhead, Bonobo and The Bug, just to name a few, reports Pitchfork. Look for the turntable-heavy sounds of Slew when the record drops on November 24^th.

– John Luposello

Jordan Billie and Mark Gajadhar of the Blood Brothers. Photo taken by Pedro Roque.

In a deal with Epitaph Records, the now defunct Blood Brothers will be re-releasing four of their albums, March on Electric Children (2002), Burn, Piano Island, Burn (2003), Crimes (2004), and Young Machetes (2006), on November 17th.

Out of the Seattle hardcore-punk scene, the Blood Brothers crafted album after album of critically acclaimed and highly influential music. While they remained relatively underground during their ten year existence from 1997 to 2007, their catalog has left an impact on both the punk and hardcore genres. They’ve influenced bands like The Fall of Troy and Foxy Shazam (Anything off The Flamingo Trigger) with their angst soaked punk and pop sensibility, while their duel singing style with Jordan Blilie and Johnny Whitney still remains one of the most potent and original approaches to hardcore-punk music today. Check out one of their singles off of Young Machetes, “Laser Life,” below.

This announcement comes as a real treat for Blood Brother fans. According to Epitaph’s press release, the new releases will come with previously unreleased tracks, remixes, live tracks, music videos and even a live DVD (The out-of-print Jungle Rules DVD from 2003 will come with the reissue of Burn, Piano Island, Burn).

As kind of a personal aside, the Blood Brothers is one of my favorite bands and I’m truly excited to see some of the announced live footage and tracks see the light of day. They were a nasty, unforgiving band who broke the boundaries of many genres to come up with their sound. Their brand of hardcore punk was far beyond anything else coming out of the hardcore scene during the early 2000s and I still hear bands using elements of punk that the Brothers helped to create. Everything from acid-fueled guitar to spastic, cat-like shrieking, breakdowns to keyboard driven punk songs, the Blood Brothers either did it first or better. I’m personally excited to see the Jungle Rules live DVD as I never had the opportunity to see them live before they broke up. Now, the band exists as two separate entities with co-vocalist Johnny Whitney and guitarist Cody Votolato creating the band Jaguar Love, while co-vocalist Jordan Blilie, drummer Mark Gajadhar, bassist Morgan Henderson and the band’s first guitarist Devin Welch creating Past Lives.

Jordan Blilie sat down with Alternative Press to talk about the reissues in a truly band nerd-tastic interview with Jason Pettigrew. It’s definitely worth a read just to hear about the new material that’s going to be released.

Amazing show at the Cavern, with Blood Brothers back to their best again!

I recently obtained a copy of Dynamite with a Laserbeam: Queen as Heard Through The Meat Grinder of Three One G (Various Artists). Three One G is an alternative record label that operates out of San Diego, and as you would expect, is the stable to many of the artists on this record.  As the title suggests, it features covers of Queen songs by various artists (16 of ‘em).

Now, I’ve always been a bit ambivalent about cover versions. I’m of the school of thought that a cover version should sound nothing like the original, otherwise, all you’re really doing is high-class karaoke. You’ll be pleased to know then, gentle reader, that your intrepid writer can report that many of these songs sound nothing like the originals or at least twist them into grotesque mirror images. 

The Blood Brothers set things off with a surf -punk version of Under Pressure, before Get Hustle’s drunken jazz take on Another One Bites the Dust.  From here on in, things get a little more interesting and extreme. Indeed, one thing that’s apparently obvious from a quick scan of the tracks, is that the obvious choices of Queen hits are eschewed in favour of more obscure album tracks. Thus Asterisk* give us their take on Ogre Battle, which very much sounds as if the ogres gave up battling, ate the band, and decided to play the instruments themselves.

The Oath provide a nihilistic version of We Are The Champions and do for it, what Sid Vicious did for My Way, but with considerably more aplomb. Go Go Go Air Heart give Death on Two Legs a suitably lo-fi rendition, while Upsilon Acrux treat Bicycle Race to a curious, instrumental experiment.  Sinking Body provide the first of many tracks which are completely unrecognisable in their wholly original industrial interpretation of Who Needs You, which ticks all the boxes for me by being almost as far from the original as you might want to get.

The Freddie Mercury penned The Fairy Feller’s Master Strokemay seem little more than pastoral whimsy, all be it with a gay subtext, however Glass Candy’s version is a superior one, and one of the best tracks found here. The fairy glade is replaced by the altogether shabbier, rain-drenched backstreet of an unknown city, where pimps, prostitutes, and drug-dealers lie in wait for the unwary providing escapes into darker fantasies.  Next up are the excellent The Locust who deal with Flash’s Theme in around 56 or so seconds running time and do so with considerably more attack, urgency and excitement than in the original.

Now, those of you still paying attention will probably agree that it takes some balls to attack the operatic bombast of Bohemian Rhapsody.  Weasel Water makes a game attempt, however the awfulness of the original still shines through. The Spacewurm fare better with Vutan’s Theme (sic). Indeed the sound effects of the original are married to a grungy, electronic reworking that evokes a bio-chemical attack rather than Brian Blessed in a pair of speedos, showing off his big helmet and shouting a lot.  Continuing on an electronic theme Fast Forward offer a wholly joyous cover of Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

There’s something extremely satisfying about The Convocation Of’s version of Get Down Make Love.  While almost conventional in spirit, it embues the track with an altogether seedier atmosphere.   Of course the good thing about it is Freddie’s double-entendres which here, remain intact. Mind you, for that very reason, I’ve always wondered why The Eagles of Death Metal never covered this one.  Bastard Noise don’t so much as steam-roller Lily of the Valley so much as nuke the valley, encase the valley in concrete, and nuke it all over again.  I’m more than impressed that they heard this (well, let’s admit it) gentle love ballad and thought. “We can make over three minutes of noise here!” It’s terrific. If you are a Queen fan I would suggest that this version will be as shocking to you, as say, stepping on a cat’s tail is to a cat.

I’d not heard of Tourettes Lautrec before (they get bonus points for the name), but they do Killer Queen proud by turning a self-conciously bohemian and urbane song into something altogether more angsty and spiky.  The final word goes to my old favourites Melt Banana who provide delicate Japanese female vocals over the deep bass throb of We Will Rock You, before the song destroys itself in a blizzard of feedback and distortion. Most satisfying.

Of course, It’s very easy to take the piss out of Queen. They are rock and roll royalty after all. However I get the feeling that many of these tracks may well have been prepared with a love of the originals in mind.  And let’s not forget, certainly under the aegis of Brian May and Roger Taylor we were given the proto-punk of Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll, and Sheer Heart Attack.  Without doubt Dynamite with a Laserbeam breathes new life into old favourites – and there’s not a big gay moustache anywhere in sight!

When it comes to Test Icicles, I’ll never quite Get why they’re the hottest defunct band since As The Sun Sets. I mean, yeah, they’re pretty good, you know, but … huh?

Then again, maybe I do Get It: They broke up in their prime after what, like an album? That’s a helluva way to build a legend, and members of TI have gone on to new, shittier projects that also get a lot of attention.

When it comes to “Boa vs. Python”/ “Dancing on Pegs,” (on thick-ass neon-green vinyl, totally Choice) it’s best to just ignore Side B. It doesn’t exist; it’s deader than a doorknob, more dance than rock and more C + C Music Factory than Joy Division. Ugh. (I actually might come to love this track after a few more listens; if so I will recant.)

Let’s focus on the good stuff, i.e. “Boa vs. Python.” There were a lot of post-Blood Brothers (with a twist!) bands out there after the Brothers got a major-label deal, but none of them made you dance like Test Icicles, and none of them made you dance in a jerkier, spazzier fashion.

Forget The Faint, forget Franz Ferdinand; this is where dance-rock got heavy enough — with ’80s fonts, no less — for the hipper elements of the indie population to embrace it, and people are still talking … Those flailing shrieks, random bursts of energy and seamless genre-mashing aren’t going away any time soon.

I only wish a band would have satisfactorily picked up where Test Icicles left off. Come to think of it, I might have been wrong about the nature of TI’s legend after all. Perhaps they’re remembered so fondly because their tracks ended in the desert and were never resuscitated.

It’s definitely fun trying to figure out why, in any event.

So, hi.

I guess I should introduce myself.  I’m Amanda. I’m 17 years old, and I just started my senior year of high school about a month ago.  I go to a visual and performing arts school. My area of concentration is art. So far I’ve taken Art 2D 1 and 2,  Sculpture 1, Painting 1, and I am currently in Painting 2, Drawing 1, and Ceramics 1.  I want to go to college for interior design or basic art studies.

In July 2007 I moved to Florida from my hometown, Williamsburg, Virginia. It completely broke my heart, and even though I love all the people I have met in Florida, I am most definitely going back to Virginia for college this coming fall. You will often hear me speak sourly of Florida. It’s not exactly my cup of tea.

Speaking of tea, at some point in my life I want to open a tea shop. I have been “addicted” to tea for years. I believe at the age of 8 I started drinking a cup every morning without fail. I make my own tea (I don’t just buy it!) and I am quite infatuated with it.

I am a vegetarian and I have very strong beliefs in animal rights. I think it all started when I found my dog, Bert, on the side of the road in the snow when he was only 2 weeks old. I also used to have a dog, Daisy, who was abused by her previous owners. Because they abused her at such a young age, she turned violent and unpredictable. Seeing what abuse did to her made me feel very strongly about how people should treat animals. In the past I was a vegan, but even though I took supplements, I found myself always feeling weak, so I just became a vegetarian. I’ve been a vegetarian for 3 years, and I’m pretty sure that move, I’m going to become a vegan again.

I am also disabled. But not very much, thankfully. I was born with and eye condition called anisometropic amblyopia. In a nut shell, that means that my eyes were so different, that my brain shut off signals to my left eye, and now I am completely blind out of that eye. For some reason, a lot of people think that it’s ‘cool’. Really, the only ‘cool’ part is that I can get scholarships because of it. Otherwise, it’s pretty crappy.

I have a lot of morals and standards. I have high expectations for myself. I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs, EVER. The way I look at it is that I don’t want to die any sooner than I have to. And it’s also illegal for me to do all those things, and I try my hardest to obey the law. It also dissapoints me how many people I know don’t seem to care, and they take part in these activities like it’s no big deal. But as for me, I’m keeping my body clean.

I know so many people say this-but music is a huge part of my life. I don’t play any instruments (except the rain stick), and I’m not in choir, and I have no idea about notes and chords. But I am constantly listening, discovering, downloading, singing (not very well, in my opinion), going to shows, reading about music, and helping out with my boyfriend’s band. I love all kinds of music-from 20’s jazz to grindcore. But my favorite bands are Bright Eyes, Modest Mouse, Animal Collective, and The Blood Brothers. If you get me talking about any of those bands, I won’t be able to stop.

I suppose that shall be it for now. I guess you’ll just have to get to know me better by reading my future posts!

The Blood Brothers on the last date of the Burn Piano Island tour before they literally got huge. A fun night.

Aaaaaaaaand we’re back. After an almost-week-long break from the cutthroat world of blogging, I’m back with a vengeance, yo. That being said, I am now of the opinion that taking breaks makes you lazy. It’s been a long 48 hours, so forgive the brevity of this post. Here’s a quick look at some of the more interesting music I’ve been listening to recently:

Boy and the Bird EP

Merykid:

I had the pleasure of reviewing this guy’s album for Independent Clauses. It’s singer-songwriter, but with a fresh sound that evokes the likes of Temposhark and Keaton Simons. His Bird and the Bees EP came out recently; it’s only six songs, but it’s all quality stuff.

Dumpster Generation

A Billion Ernies:

Also an IC work (should submit this review this weekend), A Billion Ernies is equal parts ska and hardcore. Sounds like fun, right? Yeah, me too. I’d actually heard these guys before, many, many years ago, so it was nice to check out their latest work. The quality is a bit raw and unfinished, but it complements their sound nicely.

Losing Salt

Marc With A C:

Brilliant singer-songwriter that has something of a Mountain Goats sensibility. He sings about the chicken pox, star wars, punk rock girls, and storing human organs in formaldehyde. Need I say more?

Young Machetes (apologies for the poor quality, my internet is crapping out)

The Blood Brothers:
Fast and hard punk rock. There’s a touch of the Hives in their sound, but the overall tone is harder, almost leaning toward the metal side of things. The album Young Machetes is an adrenaline-pumping, frenzied thing that makes for a good time.

The Few Not Fleeting

Nothing More:

I’ve talked about these guys before – several times, I think. I’m too lazy to link it up, plus I think my proxy connection just got shut down; look them up. Nothing More is an independent band out of my hometown of San Antonio; they play progressive rock with other genre influences that range from funk to metal to pop. They’re a solid act, and apparently their song “Fat Kid” hit #12 on the rock charts in Norway. If that’s not simultaneously awesome and hilarious, I don’t know what is.

That wraps it up for now. I listen to more than I can possibly list here, so I’ll probably make this a recurring thing. Stay tuned and all that – more content coming your way!

Zwar ist mir last.fm ein Begriff, da ich es jedoch nicht nutze, war ich mir gar nicht darüber bewusst, wie viele Songs dort zum kostenlosen Download bereitstehen!

Vielen Dank an dieser Stelle noch einmal für den Tipp!

Hier meine Highlights:

#1 Die neue Single von Moby Shot in the Back of the Head – Angenehm, weil: Gitarre!

#2 Dorchester Hotel von The Sounds

#3 Natürlich gibt es auch mehrere Tracks von der Band des CC-Verfechters Trent Reznor Nine Inch Nails:
• Discipline vom ohnehin kostenfrei herunterladbaren Album The Slip
• 1 Ghosts I vom Album Ghosts I-IV

#4 IAMX: Think of England

#5 Einen Remix des Songs Peace vom neuen Depeche Mode-Album Sounds of the Universe gibt es auch.

#6 Die momentan recht gehypten Portugal.The Man sind mit People Say vertreten. Der Track rechtfertigt den Hype jetzt auch nicht unbedingt…

#7 Gitarren-Virtuosität mit John Petruccis Wishful Thinking.

#8 The Blood Brothers – Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck

#9 Vor Kurzem auf Tour mit Peer, soll eher schwach gewesen sein, wird aber aufgrund des schönen Song-Titels erwähnt: ClickClickDecker – Wer hat mir auf die Schuhe gekotzt

#10 Einer der bescheuertsten Band-Namen, die es gibt, und dennoch erfolgreich: Herrenmagazin – Atzelgift

#11 Geiler Titel im Original. Hier gibt’s den TekMonki’s Tiresias Rhesus Mix zu Androgyny von Garbage.

#12 Escape the Fate – Not Good Enough (die Preview dauert nur 30 sek, der DL beinhaltet den kompletten Song)

#13 Bis jetzt nur extrem gute Live-Kritiken von dieser New Yorker Band gehört: The Bronx – Shitty Future und Pleasure Seekers

#14 Legenden, Alter! Einstürzende Neubauten – Weil Weil Weil

#15 Long Distance Calling – Fire in the Mountain

#16 Lachen erwünscht! Bodo Wartke – Ja, Schatz!

#17 Post-Rock aus Australien, veröffentlich(t)en auch unter CC: Sleepmakeswaves – One Day You Will Teach Me to Let Go of My Fears (Mehr hier…)

#18 Kitsch pur… Aber schön isset ja doch, was der Herr José González so kann: Teardrop (live).

#19 Und zum Abschluss: Den Pet Shop Boys Yes Megamix

Love Rhymes With Hideous Car Wrecks from Crimes (2004).

Dug a few crates yesterday (no, not really, I was handed a big pile to go through, but for the sake of dramatic effect, let’s say you imagine me standing there for hours, getting dirty fingers from digging) and found myself walking home with a few all so familiar records. Amongst them March On Electric Children and …Burn, Piano Island, Burn by The Blood Brothers. Two records I loved a while back, and must say I still like a whole lot. I willl even put my neck out and say that I miss those tiny fellas.

/ Mikael Nordlander.

Videobootleg dun concerto da extinta banda de hardcore de Seattle, The Blood Brothers gravado en 2002 durante a xira do seu segundo disco March On Electric Children.

(18:15 – 18:55 = 40 minutes)

Woke up early the next day after a pretty bad night of sleep. Everyone in our hotel room, which was now complete with Micha, Jeanette, myself, Karla, and her friend Jamie, was super tired, I think, so there was a lot of snoring and shit. ~__~ Not so fun. Also, Jeanette, Micha, and I shared a bed, and I found it to be a little bit tight anyway.

That morning, I would have liked to leave wayyy earlier but Jeanette and Micha were taking fooking forever to get ready, so we didn’t leave til like… I don’t even know what time, but at least an hour later than I would have wanted to. ~__~ Especially since we’d needed to check in at the Hyatt first and THEN go onto shows. Like, each of those girls had so many freaking bags… I just had a backpack and a satchel thing, and each of them had like a giant suitcase and another additional bag… and sometimes even more than that. Like, holy fuck! It’s like a four day trip! I don’t freaking understand at all. I also think it’s funny because the amount of clothes and shit that they had are equivalent… or possibly even more… to what my new Australian friend (more on that later) has for his entire two month vacation of the States and London. So what the freck! Unreal!! I don’t understaaaand.

Meet the ladies who took ages to get ready.

Anyway. We headed over to the Cedar Courtyard, where we’d gotten some wristbands from vTech cause it was a Filter party they were sponsoring. Saw this Filipino? singer-songwriter chick named Zee Avi (above). Don’t care for it. Her voice was okay and fine, but whatever. Singer-songwriter stuff not sooooo exciting.

Then Hockey (above) from Portland came on, and Ashley from The Wig was doing PR for them before. Indie dance rock stuff that was cool and interesting initially but got pretty repetitive pretty quick.

Jeanette & Micha.

Then came time to see These Arms Are Snakes at the Radio Room. We took our sweet time looking at Flatstock stuff at the Convention Center, and Jeanette bought some magnets, and then at around 2:00pm, we headed over to the Radio Room to see These Arms Are Snakes. NO ONE WILL BE IN LINE TO SEE THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES, I thought, after last time being in Portland and attending a show that was like, half empty. Turns out that the Avett Brothers were playing at that same venue, though, so we completely fucking missed the show and were standing in line forever to result in nothing at all… nothing at all… nothing at all… :{ On the plus side, I met a couple of cool dudes in line… this one dude from Dallas and this one Australian who I would later see everywhere, discover was taking the same flight to Seattle as I was, and become my new BFF. Pretty much a hottie, too… in the emaciated, black-dyed hair kind of way everyone knows I am so fond of.

Then came… “responsibilities.” This was the day when allllll of these people who I work with were having shows, so first, I think, we headed over to the Flamingo Cantina where the Team Clermont show was, and Judy (my writer and ex-Warm Fuzzy Publicist) happened to be there… so I met up with her and Bill from Team Clermont, and just shot the shit for a while. Twas interesting. Talked to Bill about the state of the industry and how the economy hath affected their business, and I guess it has… in the senses that previously they could have charged two times as much for a publicity campaign as well as worked with better bands during that time… but now they don’t get paid all that much and don’t have as much of a choice in who they work with.

Jeanette entered some dance contest they had to dance to corny musics, simply because they were giving out $100 cards to the Container Store and she loooves the Container Store. She danced for probably half as long as the other people who were already dancing, but she won a gift card, so yay!!

Afterwards, we headed over to the FACT show to meet up with Katy from Vagrant. That was cool, although freakishly, Jeanette had met her on the airplane, which is super weird! I guess Jeanette had picked the fuck out of her brain as well, asking her shit about the music business. FACT is this Japanese punk/hardcore-ish band that sounded better on their disc, in my opinion, than they did IRL.

Meanwhile Sky Eats Airplane was playing at the other Emo’s, and I had been hoping they were at the same Emo’s (or at least connected), but unfortunately not. I would have rather seen Sky Eats Airplane than FACT, definitely, but unfortunately, I missed them ~__~ Oh well. No getting Francesca to draw dinosaurs in my book this year. Last year I’d brought around this little sketchbook and told everyone I met to draw something in it; I’d remembered to bring the sketchbook with me everywhere this year, but had forgotten to ask even a single person to draw something in it. Oops? ~__~

Then it was onto Red Eyed Fly because Jeanette wanted to see Port O’ Brien, who she is obsessed with or whatevers. But first, Viva Voce was on, and I don’t quite understand at all why anyone likes Viva Voce. Sure, their lead lady is cute and can play wicked fucking guitar, but their show was ultimately pretty the borings.

Port O’ Brien bassist?

Port O’ Brien was much better. Their lead singer had a nearly Kurt Cobain-ish raspiness and style going on. For their last song, and their intro song to their last disc, and seemingly what might be their most popular song, they had this box of pots and pans that people were allowed to play with and bang on along with the song. That was neat. There were also these two funny, totally wasted guys who sat in the very front. They were from Seattle, and they basically kept cheering and being SUPER excited because they had missed Port O’ Brien the last time they were in Seattle, and finally! They were catching them live!! In Austin!! The Port O’ Brien dudes were super nice about it, letting them sit on the stage, and talking to them, and making jokes with them. Very cool. Jeanette wanted to talk to the lead singer afterwards to ask him for his autograph, but then nOooOo because she was too shy or something. WEAK!!

Port O’ Brien arms the laypeople with pots and pans!

KAOS!

This dude was promoting Mega-something-or-other.

To quote Jeanette: “I DON’T BELIEF!” (she didn’t really say it like that, but in spirit, she did).

We had a lot of time to kill in-between, so we paid $2 to go to the American Apparel Sample Sale. The shit was not cheap and I found it to be decidedly unexciting and a waste of my $2. Oh well. I actually knew that I wouldn’t be buying anything there before I even stepped foot in there but still I went. Silly!

Finding adequate things for me to eat on my nearly vegetarian diet is not so easy. Finally, after searching around for a while and starving for the near day, I found a MMMPANADAS truck! They sell empanadas… at least they’re kinda like empanadas.

After that, we headed over to Wave to see Death Is Not A Joyride. This shit might be all out of order because it’s all kind of a blur, to be honest. Wine Revolution played before them, and they were pretty much so unmemorable I literally remember pretty much nothing about them.

Death Is Not A Joyride.

Death Is Not A Joyride. (yes, with the period) gave an OK live performance. It was visually appealing but some of the musical intricacies were definitely lost, I feel. Jeanette was so not down with the Bjork-like vocals and super theatrical approach. She liked some British band upstairs called My Side Captain, that I, on the other hand, could not get into at all. It was just boring, typical indie rock.

I’ve found that I have major, major problems relating to the appeal of mainstream indie rock. More on that latter.

After Death Is Not A Joyride., we headed over to Habana Calle 6, to see The Everyday Visuals, who actually finished their sound check SUPER early somehow. They played a good set although it started off a bit rough and slightly boring in fact. Everyone in their band plays like a million instruments each (and the drummer played an accordion, for godsakes!). In that regard, it was pretty exciting. Afterwards, I talked to the lead singer, Chris, and basically introduced myself and said I was to do an interview with them soon. Gina, their publicist, had originally scheduled an interview with me, with them, for Friday, the 20th, but I guess I was retard and was like, “Oh, the interview’s supposed to be Saturday,” so I gave Chris my number and we talked about doing it Saturday instead of Friday. In fact, it was my mistake, because I’d thought the 20th was Saturday, but it was actually Friday. My bad. Good thing the Dredg interview that was supposed to happen on Friday was cancelled, or things would have been slightly rough. (although I did have all the questions ready already).

Jeanette & I at Habana Calle 6.

After that, we gorged on cupcakes. Thanks, Jeanette! The cupcakes were sold out of a TRUCK! A cupcake truck!! The cupcakes were just mediocre, however. :/ They’re no fucking freaking CUPCAKE ROYALE (the only cupcakes I hold any kind of allegiance to, frankly… show me something better!).

Then we moved on to Maggie Mae’s Rooftop to see Freeland. This is where all the fratty looking SxSW people appeared! Their publicist had been harassing me to do an interview, but I’d said no because Adam Freeland’s stuff is soooo electronic, but after seeing him, I kinda wish I had done one, because the performance was SICK, and he seemed like a really nice, really cute old dude. Oh well. It was KINDA a dance party although there wasn’t a HUGE amount of dancing, but there was more than your average rock show (but less than your average rave).

There was a British scallywag who had apparently been following Adam Freeland around, and he was in the front row, repeatedly calling, “FREELAND!! FREELAND!!” and being somewhat obnoxious. He talked to everyone he could get his crooked teeth and grubby hands on about the greatness that is Adam Freeland. Eventually, security kicked his ass to the curb (he later snuck? back in, however… but he was decidedly less chipper).

The venue was odd. To get to the bathroom, you had to cross on up the left side of the stage, which was slightly awkward. Jeanette met a couple dudes and was flirty-face with them.

It was hard to dance with cameras and a million things in my bag. But oh well. They played, “We Want Your Soul” and a buncha Freeland originals, which was cool.

Afterwards, which was around, 1?am? we headed over to this mysterious Ballet venue, which was like, ten blocks to the west of the main downtown strip, and I was rather skeptical that things even xisted there. We got there around 1?30? am? and went straight there… which in retrospect I’m rather disappointed about because Jaguar Love was playing at Cedar Door, and I recognized it playing from a distance… it would have been cool to check out Jaguar Love, even though it’s no Neon Blonde, but it would have helped me imagine WHAT a Neon Blonde performance would be like (as I’ve never even seen the Blood Brothers).

So, we ended up at Ballet, which was this super nice ballet studio that looked more like a two story opera house on the outside than a two story ballet studio. Absurd. An Austin indie radio station was sponsoring the entire vent. The room was like 87 degrees F and really super humid from all the sweat. It was like a sauna. Luckily, it didn’t smell super bad, but yeah.

Death Set played first, but they had massive technical issues, so they played this uber short, somewhat obnoxious set of dancey, trashy, whatever-the-hell-that-kids-are-into-these-days.

So we waited like an hour for Monotonix to set up and then sat in like the second row. They took FOREVER to set up. They finally started playing and there were some brainless dancing jumping bodies that started caving in. Jeanette freaked out as we were sandwiched amongst all of these young, smelly dudes, and she lost a camera lens cap, too. She vacated as soon as possible, and I vacated shortly thereafter. It was funny, though, cause she basically kept saying that she was picturing herself, the 25 year old lady (there were a lotta kids, although there were a lotta people over 21 as well) who was fainting in the middle of the crowd. Haha.

Monotonix drummer, wearing a purple wig that belonged to some concertgoer, which the lead singer of Monotonix wiped his ass with, and then set on the head of the drummer.

Drums. Not music so much as showmanship… that’s a Monotonix show. Who the fuck goes for the music? No one, really.

They go to see half-assed music, and oh yeah, cock and balls of the lead singer’s.

I enjoyed the moshyness or whatever for a short duration, until all of the smelly man sweat congealing on me convinced me that, “No, this is not fun,” although ze good thing about a Monotonix show is that even with all the thrashing and moshing and pointlessness, it’s of ze happy variety, not the punch-in-the-face type (in fact, just about all SxSW rowdy shows are like that, for some reason). In fact, that’s really the best part about Austin… the vibe. The vibe is amazing. Everyone’s there because they want to be there… no one is super pissy and no one is a super dick. Amazing!

After we’d vacated the extreme crowd, we went around the building and found some stairs going upwards, and basically watched the Monotonix shows from up above. It was totally an area we were “not supposed to be in,” but whatever. At one point (while we were still downstairs near the crowd), some lady had her body pressed up against the upper window, and she was like grinding and humping the glass, and all these little boys were like, “OMG HOTNESS!” when really it was kind of disgusting, me thinks.

Jeanette looked pretty peesed the whole time although later she said she was glad to have witnessed the insanity, and how could you not? I’ll be posting a video soon, but this particular Monotonix show actually made me think WTF. The other one I saw was, I mean, okay, “crazy,” but understandable… the end of this one was kinda sorta just straight-up WTF. BTW, there were four police officers called in. They didn’t particularly do anything this particular evening, but they sat and watched, basically. After the Monotonix show, I asked one police officer what he thought about the show. He said that it wasn’t exactly his type of music, but it was okay. Hehe.

This is when the Monotonix show turns to WTF.

By the time the show was over, my feet were massively in pain haha. And despite my saying that that particular morning was the last time I’d be taking a cab, we took a cab. I wasn’t quite sure at the time where the Hyatt was, and I thought that where we were was further from our hotel than the main downtown strip was, but I was wrong… we were actually SUPER close to our hotel, like a… seven block walk, I’d say… but oh well. The cab wasn’t too expensive and we managed to snag it in an area where they were still easy to get, and we passed by a shitload of people who could not hail an empty cab because there were no empty cabs. Suckaz!

Got to the hotel, fucked around on the computer for a while, and then went to bed at like 4:30am? or 5:00am? Wee!

one of my all-time favorite bands and one helluva way to get hyped for a ride / the day in general, the world misses the Blood Brothers. at the forefront of the post-everything movement in hardcore alongside bands like Refused, the Brothers kept it super real for a decade, based out of Seattle. for their full bio and links to the many projects that have come from the remnants of the band, check here.

The Blood Brothers – USA Nails (off 2003’s ‘Burn, Piano Island, Burn’)

The Blood Brothers – Trash Flavored Trash (off 2004’s ‘Crimes’)

Genre:Post-Hardcore
Country:USA
Website:http://www.myspace.com/thebloodbrothersband
The Blood Brothers – This Adultery Is Ripe

Du post-hardcore cette fois, avec The Fall of Troy ! (notez cette subtile rime)
Ce groupe américain composé de 3 membres, qui faisaient autrefois partie de The Thirty Years War, s’inspire pas mal de The Blood Brothers, qui lui aussi a fait de bonnes choses. On peut peut-être reconnaître un mélange de At The Drive-In, d’après Wiki.

Donc donc donc, cet album au nom plutôt bizarre, Doppelgänger (sorti en août 2005) est composé de 11 tracks toutes aussi bien les unes que les autres. Pour info, The Fall of Troy a fait à ce jour 5 albums, le 5ème intitulé Phantom on the Horizon étant prévu pour le 28 novembre.

Les rythmes sont très variés, on a droit a du lourd avec une accentuation sur la basse ou a des moments très speed et j’en passe, des progressions de rythmes très bien enchainées le tout avec cette touche de folie qui accapare toute notre concentration. La voix du chanteur peut nous faire imaginer toute sorte de choses différentes, on imaginerait bien par exemple un couple qui s’engueule avec les assiettes qui valsent en s’éclatant contre les murs. Mais elle n’est pas omniprésente et elle n’en a pas besoin pour que la musique nous absorbe dans ses moindres notes.

The Fall Of Troy nous excite bien comme il faut, tout est bien fait, ça pulse et on en redemande. A noter également que la 3ème piste est présente dans le jeu Guitar Hero 3: Legend of Rock, et pour vous donner un avant goût, un clip :

past lives are what is left of the blood brothers following the schism that took place when members cody votolato and johnny whitney left to form jaguar love. now, with friend and ex-blood brothers guitarist devin welch (he left following their first album rumors laid waste) back in the fold, past lives are faced with an interesting dilemma: “what next?” being four surviving members of a defunct band, how can their sound depart from what they’ve done before when the dynamic really hasn’t shifted? more importantly, should their sound be different? these questions are effectively answered on strange symmetry, the band’s debut EP, where they do what they do best: make stunning, breakneck-speed art punk— albeit this time they’ve taken a much more textural approach. while the one-two punch of jordan and johnny’s call and response is noticeably absent, jordan’s stepping-up as a “front man” does not sound forced. he sings when he wants to and knows when to give the music enough room to breathe. in fact, this awareness of one’s role benefits past lives, as they have the advantage of being a well-weathered, experienced band, sounding comfortable with one another throughout the record. album-opener “beyond gone” balances restraint and tension in a way that suggests a true democracy within the band. while they might have been blood brothers in past lives, the spectre of their former selves does not weigh heavily enough on this new faction to hinder their music. strange symmetry is reassuringly good and a promising start to a new chapter.