As usual, I saw a whole lot of local bands playing the last couple of weeks.
Tasha’s Laughter: They started playing, I was unimpressed. Straight-ahead Gin Blossoms type of boredom rock. But somewhere around the fifth song, they played some crazy instrumental and from that point on, it was like Tool minus the boredom. Brilliant soloing, amazing bass playing, all of it just piled up like a mofo. Guys, juggle that setlist a bit so that the snoozers are more easily overlooked. Or write more good shit. Whatever works for ya.
Milkbar: These guys are still really green, so for that I will forgive a lot of the awkwardness. Their songs still need a lot of work to give them more identity than just lyrics and happy synth lines. More than anything, I would tell these lovely guys and girls to work on putting on a show. Find your stage presence. Advice to the band, or any band for that matter? Own the space and own the spotlight, and you’ll own the audience even if they think you kinda suck.
Citizens Banned: I really don’t know what to say about these guys. Talent? Sure, loads of it, aside from the drummer who tries to do some fast and frenetic work but ends up missing beats all over the place. They just don’t seem to have figured out exactly what they are. Punk/hardcore/emo vocals, prog aesthetic, crunchy or dreamy, it’s just all over the place. It’s a mess. There’s so much potential hiding underneath though; hopefully they find a way to bring it all together at some point (and either tell the drummer to work within his ability or toss him for a sequencer).
These in addition to others I’ve written about before; no need to rehash. All in all, it was nice to get out and enjoy the variety in a down-to-earth environment. Unlike the rest of the world of music…
Alice In Musicland
Via Blabbermouth:
World Entertainment News Network is reporting that TOOL frontman Maynard James Keenan is planning his touring schedule around his new vineyard’s harvesting and bottling because he insists on being part of the process. The eccentric rocker launched Merkin Vineyards in Sedona, Arizona last year and his first attempt at winemaking, the limited edition Primer Paso, has been a sellout.
And now the wine connoisseur is hooked on his new hobby and insists on scheduling all records, promoting and touring around the winery’s most important weeks.
He says, “The guys know that I’ve gotta be in Arizona for the harvesting and processing, and then I’ll need to be back there again for the bottling. We’ll be working our touring schedule around it.”
Keenan plans to release a 2004 Nagual de la Naga and a 2004 Nagual del Sensei, as well as a new Primer Paso under his Caduceus Cellars trade name later this year.
First I would ask Maynard if he knows what a “merkin” is, but I have a feeling he named it that on purpose because he’s Maynard. Oh, what a silly boy he is!
But his vineyard takes precidence over Tool? I hope you all are enjoying this clever ruse: Tool puts out a mediocre record, the fans eat it up because they’re rabid, and Maynard giggles because now he has more money for his grapes. Hopefully you do like the album, or otherwise you might feel… cheated. Bamboozled. Hornswaggled.
I will give him money for his wine though. I have to at least try it.
FEAR FACTORY frontman Burton C. Bell was reportedly electrocuted during the band’s first-ever concert in Luxembourg, which took place Saturday night (May 6) at the Den Atelier venue. A Luxembourg-based BLABBERMOUTH.NET visitor by the name of Théid has submitted the following report:
“The concert hall Den Atelier was obviously too small for a well-known American band, especially when it’s attracting a lot of people from the three neighbour countries (France, Belgium, Germany).
“The support bands didn’t get the sound they deserved (MISERY INDEX), so everybody was waiting for the first FEAR FACTORY song, and surprisingly the sound was OK, but only for a few seconds: at the moment singer Bell wanted to join in, the power on stage went down, and all you heard was the unplugged drum…
“After a second try and a series of classsic and new FF songs, power went down again and this prevented them to finish a song. After this second incident, many people (including singer Bell) blamed the technicians hoping there will be no third interruption… A few minutes before midnight, during the song ‘Archetype’ the singer instantly fell backwards, the audience, believing this was part of te show continued singing ‘Open your eyes…’ while the band stopped playing and roadies entered the stage to ‘carry’ Bell to the backstage. His eyes were open and he could almost stand alone, but looked not that good…
“This was the end of the concert, and beginning of the speculations…
“Twenty minutes later, I talked to the new guitarist of MISERY INDEX who told me that Bell was indeed electrocuted and still in the backstage, shaking and that nobody had called an ambulance or thought about getting him to a hospital…
“So much for the first and maybe last concert of FEAR FACTORY in Luxembourg.”
Well, that sucks for him I guess. This sort of thing happens a lot more often than you would think, which is why this was nothing more than a fan report buried on a metal news website. It’s something that happens to most musicians (although typically much milder than what this report has made it out to be) at one time or another. Fun with wires and electricity.
Speaking of…
LEAVES’ EYES, the German/Norwegian band formed by ex-THEATRE OF TRAGEDY singer Liv Kristine Espenaes Krull and members of ATROCITY (who are fronted by Liv’s husband Alexander Krull), have posted the following message on their official web site:
“On their European tour LEAVES’ EYES and ATROCITY had a very stormy ‘welcome’ at their gig in Glasgow! While a big thunderstorm was going on, the support band ELIS had to stop their show because of a lightning strike! At the same time a water pipe broke on the roof of the concert hall. Water was floating into the whole venue and the concert was nearly cancelled. After the promoters took control of the situation again, the concert for ATROCITY and LEAVES’ EYES could continue! The bands want to thank the audience and the promoters for making the concert such a great event after all!”
LEAVES’ EYES will release a new EP, entitled “Legend Land”, in Europe on June 2 and in North American on July 28 via Napalm Records.
It seems like electricity is chasing down every band in Europe, period.
Note: this is the second time TODAY that I’ve seen “America” typo’ed “American” on a news site.
ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian has commented on the “controversy” surrounding a recently published Internet interview with ANTHRAX guitarist Dan Spitz in which Spitz appeared to insinuate that late PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott “copied” his leads for ANTHRAX’s “Stomp 442” record, and slam some of his bandmates on a number of topics, including the release of ANTHRAX’s “The Greater of Two Evils” CD (featuring re-recordings of the band’s classic songs).
In a posting on ANTHRAX’s official forum (where he posts under the name “Black Thirteen”), Ian stated about the interview (which was published on the Metal-Rules.com web site), “He [Dan Spitz] claims it’s bullshit. I hope it is. We are in the process of getting the tapes. Innocent until proven guilty. Truth will prevail. It has to because these statements are inexcusable. If he said it, or if this writer did just make it up, out of all of it; saying that Darrell copied the leads, taking credit away from what was unique to Darrell, that is beyond low. Disrespect Darrell’s legacy? No, not on my watch.”
Danny Spitz has said stupider things. Much, much stupider things. I wouldn’t doubt it if he did say it.
But whether he said it or not, I don’t care. He “appeared to insinuate” something negative about Dimebag and the whole f*cking metal world goes HYPERBERZERKMODE. Never mind that what we’re discussing here is an Anthrax album, not thieved for Pantera. Danny recorded a solo, quit the band, and they had others fill in and play it instead. He got no writing credit. That’s the issue at hand, really — no writing credit. Not that Dime played his solo.
This is not only the most catty interpretation I’ve seen in a long time, but it’s even worse that Scott Ian is running around like the Great Dimebag Defender. Why is he arguing that Spitz didn’t say it? He should be arguing why he didn’t give credit to Dan on the album. Oh, wait… it’s not press-worthy if we’re not focusing on a potential Dimebag diss.
Good lord I’m old and jaded.
And finally:
According to a posting on the KORN fan site KornTV.co.uk, KORN cancelled their previously announced May 4 show in Jakarta, Indonesia due to an active volcano, their management has said.
The management reportedly told the local papers said the band were afraid the Merapi volcano would erupt during their stay in the country.
KORN were scheduled to play at the Tennis Indoor Stadium in Jakarta Thursday (May 4) in what would have been their first visit to Indonesia since February 2004.
Pussies.
Your Band Here
Same intro as always: if you’re in a band or knows someone who is, shoot me an email or add me as a friend on MySpace. I’ll add you to the stack and the world will smile forever. Oh, I mean, I’ll write a review!
Like these!
Wicked Liz & the Bellyswirls:
This band has been around for a WHILE, familiar to me as they would often hit my hometown (they’re opening for Styx at Riverfest next month). Like a lot of midwestern bands, they’re a mix of pop and rock with a bit of blues tossed in every now and again. Unlike a lot of midwestern bands, they have original material.
Positives: Liz has one hell of a voice and one hell of a tight backing band. As far as pop/rock goes, yeah, they get it. Compare it to a more rock-oriented Blues Traveler but without all the harmonica. And a female singer. Okay, that’s nothing like Blues Traveler.
Negatives: This is pretty standard stuff, song-wise. But between Liz’s voice and the musicianship, there’s potential for them to go places as a sleeper hit rock band. Some of their work needs some de-1990-ization before it gets to that point, however.
The Dogma:
Italy! What a great country for metal. They’re very into the pretty. The Dogma is no different, mashing love for a hyperactive bass drum with synth and orchestrated elements. The big bonus is that The Dogma, like a lot of other newer European metal bands, remembers how great thrash solos sounded.
Positives: They sound great. I don’t have any specifics to note here at all. Imagine their fellow countrymen Lacuna Coil with a soaring male vocalist instead of female and add in a chunk of power metal influence. It works very well.
Negatives: If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: it’s a very dated sound. However, it seems like a lot of bands are working to bring this style back. If The Dogma gets caught up in this trend, they’re certainly a more palatable style of power metal than anything recorded ten years ago.
Thee Orakle:
Thee Orakle does classify itself as somewhat experimental, but that’s merely a metal technicality. Symphonic black metal leaning heavily into goth, it’s your typical setup of male growls with pretty soaring female vocals. The difference would be their metal style which ranges from goth metal to prog to thrash. The spooky undercurrent is usually there regardless, so it’s not as disjointed as it may sound.
Positives: Certainly all of the members of Thee Orakle are musically competent. This is more than evident on “Moment of Eternity,” which is one hell of a great song in composition, style, musicianship… you name it. Good, good stuff.
Negatives: Is it just the mix or where in the hell is the bass? Someone’s getting cheated. Other than that, they do tend to go a bit overboard and clusterf*ck things a bit, but that can happen when you have a band with seven people. If they will take a step back and make some moments less busy, focus on one idea, and make everyone run in the same direction, they’d sound a hell of a lot tighter.
The Rad Ones
I have reviewed a lot of albums in the last couple of weeks.
Mathan tells his own Totally True Tune Tale.
And D’Errico discusses a metal album you likely haven’t heard.
Outro
My birthday is coming up next week, but I’m definitely not begging for attention. I’m tired of getting older. I want to go back to the days when I could enjoy crappy music and not get angry at the world for sucking. Oh wait, those days were before I turned twelve, and I have no desire to go back to fifth grade ever again.
So, rather than dwelling on growing older, here’s something that makes me feel young and happy.
If you haven’t discovered it just yet: basically, you type in the names of bands and songs that you like. Pandora goes hunting through all of these crazy recommendations and classifications to make you a radio station tailor-made to your tastes. As the songs come up, you can give ’em a thumbs-down if you think they suck and you never want to hear them again (or anything like them). Or, you can thumbs-up something new that you just discovered and think is MEGA AWESOME and want to hear more like it.
It’s a great cure for boredom if nothing else. And I don’t know about you, but I love surprises.
If you want to hear what I’m hearing:
My metal station (with prog leanings)
and
My stompy station (with trance leanings).
Happy birthday! Or, wait, it’s my birthday. Happy birthday girl giving you stuff day! Use with caution.
Keep one foot in the gutter, one fist in the gold,
–gloomchen
