Time Out on AoH

From: Time Out Chicago

The bleeding cymbals and deafening feedback produced by local drone group Locrian are often juxtaposed with gentle, introspective harmonies. Tonight's a release party for the new Drenched Lands (BloodLust). Brooding noiseniks Anatomy of Habit support in their universal premiere. Led by Bloodyminded's Mark Solotroff, the new group continues the damage begun in short-lived Animal Law. Earplugs recommended.

Pharmakon Update

The Pharmakon CD EP test arrived today and it looks and sounds right on the money. Barring any unforeseen delays, this limited edition release will be available at the Locrian, Anatomy of Habit, The Human Quena Orchestra, Pharmakon show at The Empty Bottle on Monday July 13.

Locrian LP Sold-Out

Pending a couple of distro/store orders that are awaiting payment, the Locrian "Drenched Lands" LP+3-inch CD is sold out from me. I have started a reservation list with the names of people who still want a copy, so feel free to send me an e-mail (bludlust@mindspring.com) if you wish to be added to the list. If the aforementioned distro/store orders remain unpaid past a certain point, then I will release those copies to people on the reservation list. You can also check with the band after they get back from their tour, mid-month, to see if they still have any of their copies. My thanks go out to everyone who supported this release!

- I just returned from the Post Office and all of the international orders (individual/distro/store) have now been shipped. This means that all paid orders (domestic and international) are in the mail

Locrian Mail Pt. 1

All paid USA orders (individuals, stores, distros) for the Locrian LP, received by noon today, have been mailed out. Thanks a lot! I will start packing up overseas orders now...

Locrian Pizza Party

It was a long evening/night, but Andre, Terence, and I assembled the complete edition of the Locrian "Drenched Lands" LP. They left with their copies to take on tour tomorrow, which is an unexpectedly great thing. I will begin mailing out paid copies tomorrow afternoon... And we will officially celebrate the release of the LP on Monday July 13th at The Empty Bottle. In the words of Shane Slut, "Good."

Status - 7/1

- All of the paid pre-orders for Super Eight Loop T-shirts were indeed mailed out last night. We are okay on larges and extra-larges, but the smalls and mediums went quickly and we only have one of each left right now. As with all of the shirts, we will try to keep a full range of sizes in-stock, as best as we can, based upon demand, etc. There may not be a new BloodLust! shirt in August, as funds are really tied up with the Locrian LP and upcoming Nightmares releases, etc., but Anatomy of Habit will have shirts ready in time for our debut show on July 13:


(click image to enlarge)

- LATE BREAKING NEWS: UPS just dropped off the Locrian vinyl, roughly two weeks earlier than expected. Hooray for United Record Pressing! Paid orders will start getting mailed out tomorrow. The best news is that the band will have LPs to take with them on their tour, which starts tomorrow:

July 2nd - Frankie's Basement / Toldeo, OH w/ Hive Mind & Jason Zeh
July 3rd - STALAG IX / Lucky Cheng's Fortune Cookie Cabaret / NYC, NY w/ Sleep Museum, Lussuria & Shallow Waters
July 5th - Show No Mercy Presents / Public Assembly / Brooklyn, NY w/ Anal Cunt, Fuck the Facts, Gwynbleidd & Copremesis
July 6th - Velvet Lounge / Washington, DC w/ Teething Veils, Our Brother the Native, Kohoutek & Religious Girls
July 7th - Nara Sushi / Richmond, VA w/ Wrnlrd, Head Molt & Twilight Memories of the Three Suns
July 8th - Talking Head Club / Baltimore, MD w/ The New Flesh & Nocnitsa
July 9th - The Khyber / Philadelphia, PA w/ Woe, T.O.M.B. & Panther Modern
July 10th - Garfield Artworks / Pittsburgh, PA w/ Requiem, D.O.T.S. & Casual Approach
July 11th - Skylab / Columbus, OH w/ The Human Quena Orchestra & Day Creeper
July 12th - Dayton Dirt Colelctive / Dayton, OH w/ The Human Quena Orchestra, Envenomist, Teeth Collection + John Moloney
July 13th - The Empty Bottle / Chicago, IL w/ The Human Quena Orchestra, Anatomy of Habit & Pharmakon


(click image to enlarge)

Weblog Freak-Out

I have no clue what happened to this blog, earlier today, but the background dropped out and I decided that after over seven years, it was time to take advantage of the opportunity to refresh it. This could take a while, so please bear with me...

Super Eight Up-Date

Isidro and I picked up the Super Eight Loop T-shirts this evening and they look excellent! The mild halftone effect really makes it. All of the paid pre-orders are packed up and I will try to get them in the mail tonight, before practice. Thanks again to those who already ordered! We also tried a seafood place right near the printers that was kick-ass. I had delicious shrimp empanadas and Isidro had an intense platter of huevos de carpa... carp roe... and it was tasty.

New Nightmares

Two new excerpts were just posted on our MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/synthnightmares

Status - 6/29 - Pt. 2

- The Kriminaaliset Metsänhaltijat "Anarkkia, Kaaos, Maailmanloppu!" CD EP (B!129) test disc arrived today and it looks and sounds great. It is loud as hell, actually! They might be ready to ship ahead of schedule and paid pre-orders will go out as soon as stock arrives

- All outstanding mail-order, Discogs, and eBay packages were mailed out this afternoon

The Golden Sores on I Heart Noise

From: I Heart Noise



Golden Sores – Peaceable Kingdom (Bloodlust!, 2009)

GS is a Chicago-based “ecstatic drone” duo of Steve Fors and Chris Miller. “Peaceable Kingdom” is their second release (a follow-up to 2008 “Ashdod To Ekron”, which came out on Drone Cowboy label) and their first for BloodLust!.

“Kingdom” is all about an exploration of the sonic state which exists between the aforementioned ecstatic drone, trippy ambience and even noise (although latter makes appearance only on the second track, “The Awful Rowing Toward God”).

In general it reminds me much of Zoviet-France / Nocturnal Emission work circa 80s – plenty of smooth, flowing sonic textures, surreal loops and sounds that were most likely generated electronically but resemble a whole multitiude of things from bells to electric sparks dancing around the edges of listeners speakers.

The album closer (”A Vision”) is akin some of the untitled tracks on Richard D. James/Aphex Twin 1994 opus “Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2″ – it starts out with a minimal synth line and unfolds slowly throughout its 6 minutes of duration.

With all of the tracks on “Kingdom” being more than 5 minutes long, this CD could’ve easily overstayed its welcome, but its saved by a huge diversity between tracks and countless shapes, textures and variations that Golden Sores were able to come up with on this record.

Status - 6/29

- I saw a great Sonic Youth show last night at the Vic Theater. Sold out show... and they had played there the night before, too. Regretfully, I missed White/Light, and I really tried to make it in time to see them. Fuck. Sonic Youth opened with "She is not Alone" from their first mini-LP... a pretty cool choice... and a really interesting version, as the bass/drums combination sounded not unlike Head of David covering Suicide's "Rocket U.S.A." Much of their main set focused on the new album, which had a great energy to it, live. Digging back again, they visited "Confusion is Sex" for another unusual re-arrangement -- of the Kim Gordon led "Making the Nature Scene." Also an interesting choice. Dark. Wow! I am terrible with remembering set lists, but all said and done, with two encores, they also dug back into "Daydream Nation," which among other things, yielded an excellent version of "Silver Rocket," and that made me think of my pal Amadou. Nice to run into different friends there. Fun night. I was really pleased to have the opportunity to go to the show.

- After I got back, I wrapped up organizing the material for the upcoming Pharmakon "sampler" CD that will be released to coincide with the July 13th show. Everything has been uploaded to the manufacturer and a test CD should be here by the end of the week. Margaret let me run wild with the packaging design, and I think that it looks unlike anything else that I have ever done. I just hope that the folks at the duplication facility do not look too closely at the art...

- I am catching up with all of the Locrian LP pre-orders and based upon individual and distro demand, I should be nearly sold out of my allotment. I will announce soon whether people should approach the band for copies, or what... Thanks for the enthusiastic response!

Plague Haus on TDS OGF

From: Plague Haus
(With thanks to Jeff!)

Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck : Champagne And Biological Women

Written by [ j ]

Bloodlust! : 2009 Format : 7” vinyl More mayhem courtesy of the boys from Boston, this time on hometown hero’s Mark Solotroff’s (Intrinsic Action, Bloodyminded) Bloodlust! label. Continuing where last years LP left off, this EP seems a bit more focused and dare I say, restrained. This release sees the project delve more into Death Industrial territory and leaving behind the more chaotic noise stance. Side A begins with “Covered In Shit”, a roaring synth loop with growled, almost spoken vocals. Some nice feedback screams though as well, but the whole thing is kept minimal and short. “Down In The Dirt” enters like a soundtrack to an old Twilight Zone episode and then blasts with more blown out synth. Tortured vocals slide like a cold razor through warm flesh. Again, an extremely short track ends the first side. “Still Erect (...And Definitely Not Leaving)” is up first on Side B. Low, rolling synth under cold metallic noise and straight shouted PE vocals. Next is “Mark Solotroff Built My Hotrod”, and obvious homage to the Surfers and the label honcho. Funny, but no comedic elements that I can pick up on in the sounds, more ominous synth and PE-style vocals that drifts into some shock-jock radio sample…or something close to it. On this release, 2DS 1GF seem to be coming more into their own style and establishing their own sound. While there were elements of this on they’re previous LP, it’s a definite step in the right direction taking a more PE approach as far as I’m concerned. If you follow my reviews at all, you know I’m no fan of long single tracks, but one thing I was baffled by was the other extreme here. The whole 7” is probably around seven minutes long. I realize there are some time constraints on a 45, but I would definitely have loved to hear these tracks progress a bit. It’s still worth checking out. Limited to 200 hand-numbered copies and housed in a color fold-over sleeve. Websites: myspace.com/tdsogf | bloodlust.blogspot.com

Pharmakon CD EP Sneak Peek

A Pictue of Pentagram is Worth...

Sorry, it's a bad cellphone snapshot, but it still conveys everything that I need to say about Bobby Liebling and Pentagram. Insanity... Captivating and cringe-worthy... A consummate performer... Echoes of Michael Jackson (crotch-grabs galore) and Mick Jagger in his stage movement. I had to look up the last time that I saw Pentagram... December 7, 1993, at The Grand in New York, with Cathedral, Iron Man, and 13... and I remember that even being a slightly awkward show to take in, way back then. But what a fucking amazing line-up of bands! Liebling is so out-of-step with the "usual" metal thing that it makes things all that more jaw-dropping. Classic, old-school hard-rock stage presence... But he is just so intense of a character at this point. Just look online... I'd rather not go into disparaging detail. Two encores, or was it three? Well, they wrapped things up with "Sign of the Wolf (Pentagram)" - which was great to hear - and "Relentless" (if I remember correctly???) - and those followed "20 Buck Spin" and the early "Walk in the Blue Light" - so it was nice that some key early material got plenty of attention. What else? I enjoyed The Atlas Moth more than I ever have before... they were pretty massive sounding, last night, and a bit less Neurosis-like than I have previously perceived them. And Nachtmystium were straight up devastating! The songs from the new album and the new EP ("Doomsday Derelicts") were steamrollers... Big riffs, big sound, psychedelic, tight as hell, and so far beyond black metal... and the Usurper connection (Jon Necromancer) only makes things better and better.

Edit: After just listening to their first two albums, I am no longer satisfied with their set list from last night... it just dawned on me that they did not play "Madman" and it has to be their ultimate song in my opinion...
No actual YouTube videos for it... just a "static logo" clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHBmxZFulqs
And a pre-historic version by Death Row:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StGETFSlWuI
Neither are worth embedding...

Off to see Sonic Youth and White/Light tonight...