Holiday Viewing Pleasures...

Let the Right One In

Thanks to N.B. for the "urgent" review!

Followed perfectly by oysters, steak tartar, sweetbreads, etc. Yum!

Let the right one in
Let the old dreams die
Let the wrong ones go

Eve of Destruction

I saw a great show last night at Cobra Lounge, with Plague Bringer, Yakuza, The Atlas Moth, and Winters in Osaka. A nice Thanksgiving eve sort of thing. W.I.O. opened with a twin-guitar, dark doom assault, they moved into almost "pop" grindcore territory, and then finished with nearly pure power-electronics. And a Butthole Surfers cover, to boot! The Atlas Moth had some nice moments of sludgy, doomy psychedelia, with near-Paradise Lost guitar flurishes, but they did not quite gel for me. Yakuza played a tough-as-nails, straighter metal set... relying less on the jazz/avant-garde side of things. Plague Bringer finished the night with a display of sheer brutality. Amazing!

Status - 11/26

- I skipped out of practice (the band with no name) early last night - even though we were making good progress on a couple of songs - in order to make it in time to see Wilderness at Schubas. Excellent show. They just plowed through one song after another, bridging the gaps with intense, sheering guitar sounds. I have been listening to their new CD - "(k)no(w)here" - a lot over the past couple of weeks. Nice to hang out with friends at the show. Not the creepy Popeye guy, though



- I did another Post Office run before practice, so all paid orders are in the mail. I have a lot of CDs and cassettes to get through, not to mention what I brought back from NYC. A couple of standouts are the new Bongripper + Winters in Osaka 3-inch, a pre-release of the Zone (NYC) "Elements" CD, the Tamaryn CDEP that I think will be re-released by Troubleman, and the Opus Finis "Pursue the Tragic Tune" CD. And still in rotation... the recent Splinter vs Stalin "Eravamo Così Felici" CD





- "The Shield" is over. Sigh...



Happy Thanksgiving!
Mark

Failing Lights 7-inch Reviewed

From the Redneck Fistula weblog:

Friday, November 14, 2008

Failing Lights | True Form 7"

This intense slab of noise on white vinyl with perfect minimal packaging comes to us via Chicago’s Bloodlust! label. Limited to 300 copies as is seemingly standard these days, and apparently about sold out. One song on each side. Side A, Discovery of a World in the Moon begins the planetary motif of the disc amid a churning of hateful noise, all covered with sheets of white hot feedback and drones which are kept alive by a pulsating star music borne possibly light years ahead of its time yet obviously honed directly beside it's peers. After the abrupt culmination of side A, side B picks up a bit softer, but just as chilling, as it's sound delves into a deep space of haunting and endless electronic voices. Ideal Lunar Landscape leaves us a bit more circumspect with it's sharp contrast, but somehow it's atmosphere is still unsettling. As our mind numbs a funureal (sic) dirge evolves and the unwelcomed (sic) brevity of this passage is realized.

Mail Run

I just came back from a mail run. All outstanding paid orders are on their way. Thanks to everyone who has been supporting the new releases!

Animal Law - Show No Mercy

Well, even though it is after the fact, my thanks go to Peter Sotos - and to Brandon Stosuy - for including Animal Law in a top ten list in Brandon's "Show No Mercy" column on Pitchfork:

Peter Sotos
01. Whores of Leith: Bangkok Fanny-rat [New Juche]
02. Lou Reed: Berlin: Live at St. Anne's Warehouse [Matador]
03. Consumer Electronics: Crowd Pleaser [Hand To Mouth]
04. ANTIchildLEAGUE: The Father [Hagshadow]
05. Iggy Pop: Where the Faces Shine, Vol. 2 [Easy Action]
06. Wewelsburg: Ultima Intolerance [Othal Productions]
07. Emit: Abortions [Autumn Wind]
08. Animal Law: Live [Bloodlust!]
09. Avsky: Malignant (Moribund]
10. Elite: We Own the Mountains [Folter]

View the entire column - including Dominick from Prurient's list - here:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/147495-column-show-no-mercy


P.S. Due to our break-up, the live CD never did happen. This was an advance copy...

Wierd 5th Anniversary

Here are a few low-quality BlackBerry photographs from the Wierd 5th Anniversary show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. The bands all played excellent and enjoyable sets over a massive sound system and the event was a success. The after-party was great fun, and the after-after party back in Bushwick was pretty much what you might expect... Late night spins of Envenomist, Sigillum S, Josh Lay, Spine Scavenger, Martial Canterel, etc., by candlelight... oh... and a small fire. Congratulations to Pieter for organizing such a great night -- on the back of five years of hard work! It was cool to meet so many people on this trip, and to be a part of the celebration. Opus Finis played an amazing improvised set at Wierd on Wednesday, so those who opted to wait for Friday's show saw an equally great but totally different facet of the band. Oh, and Pieter's 3:00 AM pure death-rock set on Wednesday was an unexpected bonus. Total whirlwind weekend!!!


(Music Hall of Williamsburg marquee)


(Opus Finis)


(Led Er Est)


(Xeno and Oaklander)


(Blacklist)

Mail-Order Open

I am back from NYC and I will be catching up with mail-order and Discogs packages today...

Mail-Order Closed Wed (19) - Sun (23)

Please note that mail-order service will be closed from Wednesday the 19th through Sunday the 23rd, as I will be in NYC for work and to attend the Wierd 5th Anniversary party:

http://www.musichallofwilliamsburg.com/calendar/show/2229/

Romero at Lampo

I saw Damion Romero perform at Lampo last night. It has been a while since BLOODYMINDED last played with Damion, at No Future Fest in April 2007. He fully took advantage of the new Lampo space (well, it was my first time there) by... well... let me let Chris Sienko explain it, as he wrote in his Gapers Block preview:

"...Romero turns Lampo into a highly reverberant space with a new performance created especially for the location. Using tone generators and a devices known as geophones, which are used to pick up vibrations in the ground. Using these devices with other equipment meant to generate internal feedback, Romero will essentially play the space itself, drawing out the vibrations of the walls and floors while sending the resultant sounds back into themselves, building a perpetual feedback loop..."

(full article: http://gapersblock.com/transmission/2008/11/12/post_34/)

That sums it up pretty well... and as I have noticed in the past, it is as much about feeling Damion's work as it is about hearing it. Obviously, the feedback (process) component is right up my alley, and this takes it a big step further, for sure. There was a full house - more people than chairs - and as I have seen at previous Lampo shows, I only ever know a handful of people there. Who are these people and why don't they come to, ahem... "noise" shows?!?