Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Goddamn I love this band.



Playing here August 13 at the Beat Kitchen. I'm going to splooge all over myself.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Show Review: Cross Examination, Vicious Attack, Pizza Party, and others last night

Haven't been to a show in a while, it was nice to get out. My friend Megadeth John from Vicious Attack picked me up and on the way to the show we enjoyed a joint of some OG Kush I got yesterday. The venue was on the south side kind of by that Ranchos Huevos venue. We get there and there's a ton of little thrash metal kids, this scene has really blown up over time. The show took place in a sort of non-descript building in the basement. The show had a cool vibe to it, felt really "underground". They were even selling concessions in the form of 2 dollar beers and a nitrous tank out back. Only on the south side haha. The crowd was a mixture of teenage thrasher kids (My friend said he saw lots of moms driving mini-vans dropping off and picking up their kids there), a couple crusties, random mexican dudes, older metal dudes, sketchy south side dudes who look like they spend all day sniffing glue, and sluts. The first band was called "Smashed Potatos" or some shit like that, I was told one of the members had a chicken suit on......glad I missed them. The first band I saw was "Savagery" who really sucked. I was going to blaze up in the basement but I thought it would be a waste to get high to such crappy music. They did a Megadeth cover that was hilariously bad. The singer tried to do a Dave Mustaine impression but ended up sounding like a dying dog out in the middle of the desert haha.

It should be noted that from pretty much the first note of the first band, there was a giant sprawling circle pit that swept up much of the basement. Lots of youthful energy going on, those little thrashers were going nuts. A couple people doing the push mosh thing which is always fun to watch. Hardcore kids could learn a few things from these metal shows. People seem to have a lot more fun at metal shows, instead of standing there with their arms crossed scowling (something I'm guilty of too). Maybe it's the beer? If there was even half the amount of people circle pitting at core shows, it would be awesome. Metal kids seem a lot less self-concious and are willing to let go and get buck wild. Another pizza thrash band named "Pizza Party" played next. This band is fucking ridiculous. They'd be like "This next song is called hot sauce" it's for everyone who likes hot sauce on their pizza, then they'd bust into some loud, pseudo-generic party thrash. All the underage drinking beforehand culminated into kids going apeshit on the dance floor. During the song breaks I could hear people yelling "PIZZA PAAARTY!" in drunken slur style and lots of belching. They'd be playing their shit and then all I would hear is "CHEESE!" then they'd go into a stompy mosh part, I was laughing my ass off at this point. People were trying to light pizza boxes on fire (and not succeeding).....hitting eachother with said boxes, and throwing around a mess of beer cans and other effluvia. I should also add that the soundguy, a sketchy looking south side native was blowing huge fucking fireballs onto the dance floor during a lull in the action. All the band's songs were about pizza. Jesus Christ.

Went and smoked a joint during the next set break. A bunch of thirsty motherfuckers kept asking to hit my joint (it was only a pinner too, of kush nonetheless) I'm a nice guy so I let a couple people hit it, but when I asked them if they wanted to throw down some money, or bud they sort of slunk out of the circle. I let this one dude from St. Louis hit it because he complimented me on my Judge longsleeve and said he listened to lots of straight edge hardcore. Ironically I was the only person wearing straight edge gear there, but I was also drinking beer and smoking weed all night. Vicious Attack was up next. It's cool that their original singer Dave is back in the band. For awhile they had gotten a new singer and were playing shows, but he didn't have the range and couldn't compare with Dave. Their sound is fast and hard, very Slayer influenced. That night they sounded a bit rusty but still performed serviceable renditions of their demo material.

Unfortunately Vicious Attack had their set cut short when someone yelled "The Cops are here!". The music was cut off for about 15 minutes and it was decided that Vicious Attack would relinquish the rest of their set to Cross Examination who drove out from St. Louis. The cops said they would be back in 15 minutes at midnight to shut the show down. Cross Exam hurriedly set all their gear up, but were still missing an amp and a guitar head. Once these items were located they kicked things off with the "Awesome Party Squad Intro". The crowd had thinned out considerably by now, but there was still lots of kids circle pitting, crowd boogie boarding, spraying silly string and hitting each other with pizza boxes. People always go nuts when Cross Examination plays and this was no exception. They played for a lot longer than 15 minutes, as the cops never showed up again. I'm glad they were being reasonable. I'm also glad that I came to the show in the first place. I've got to try to make it out to more south side shows, this one was just crazy with nonstop circle pits, fire-breathing sound dudes, beer for sale and a fucking nitrous tank in back. This show was the tits.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

American Gods-Chariot The Ghost LP Review




One of the dudes from this band posted on the Bridge 9 board that he was looking for people to review one of their records. Checking out their myspace, and listening to some of the tracks got me stoked on the band, so I agreed to check it out and write something about it. American Gods are one of a few new bands of this genre that have been coming out lately, along with Anne from Portland and Whirl from California. This is shoegaze pretty much exactly how I like it.....it's a bit tilted towards a melodic, melancholy indie rock sound, sort of Starflyer 59ish but retains the noisy wall of sound effects we all know and love. "El Matador" starts the record out in a sort of listless dreamy fashion with some cool guitar sounds. Next song is ""No Fault of Our Own" which gets things going a bit more. The vocals on this track do have a bit of an ethereal quality to them, but seem to be a little louder than most shoegaze bands, though still a little muted, on some of these songs I feel as if one I'm just on the cusp of understanding some the words or be able to sing along, but the vocals seem to be just out of reach. There's a really cool noise at the end of "No Fault" that sound like a space alien ripping a crackly interstellar bonghit. "Our Empire never Dies" is another standout song on here with a catchy guitar hook. At first I thought the layers of spoken word samples in the background detracted from the song a bit, upon further listening I realized the song would feel a little empty without them. The "Segue" which follows this is a classic exercise in spacy wall of sound gazing. "Soleil Noir " is the last full song on the record, and while a decent track, is my least favorite of the bunch. It doesn't distinguish itself as much as the other tracks, but I still wouldn't call it bad or a throwaway track, I just like it a little less than the rest. The record concludes with "Transmissions" an ambient noise track that kind of sounds like a spaceship flying through space. I enjoyed this release and will be looking for more from them in the future, and would definitely see them live if they came to my neck of the woods.

Edit: Somehow the song sequence got jumbled up, here's the real tracklist:

1. Transmission
2. Soleil Noir
3. Segue
4. Our Empire Never Dies
5. El Matador
6. No Fault of Our Own

Go to http://withdrawalrecords.com/music.html to order the record, and check out http://www.myspace.com/americangodsband for more band info and live dates.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

MC Freddy Madball



I can't make up my mind whether this is kind of cool or just really bad.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Vintage High Times Scan: Smuggler Planes....Tramp Freighters of the Sky

Originally published in the March 1977 issue of High Times Magazine. Written by Dave Nolan. Love the colors and artwork of this article.





Saturday, March 19, 2011

Cheese Danish Reviews



Clover Hill-This selection is what most gas station in the Chicagoland area stock. First thing I noticed upon unwrapping it and taking a bite, is that it was slightly dried out. This may be due to it actually sitting around for awhile, or maybe the high amount of preservatives gives it it's texture....who knows. All these gas station snacks have tons of preservatives and are probably horrible for you, but they're so damn good you can't stop yourself from picking one up when you have a sweet tooth and want to take care of it on the cheap. The "cheese" in cloverhill danishes is flavorful, and there's a good amount of it. These taste delicious when eaten with or dipped in coffee, and despite the initial dryness, tastes really good. These are my go-to snack when I get a craving for something sweet and cheap while Im out.






Little Debbie-This one seemed to be the freshest and moistest out of all 3 selections. The flavor was just ok though. There's too much artifical cheese on this one and it doesn't taste as good as the other danishes. I also thought there was a bit too much icing and when heated up turns loses its consistency and turns into a frosty, goopy, blobby thing. It'll do in a pinch, but the proportion of ingredients was thrown off so that it's relegated to my last choice.






Hostess-My favorite out of the 3. Comes in a rectangular shape as opposed to the other 2 round ones. The danish itself was really fresh, and the cheese tasted good, with the right amount of icing as well. The best way to enjoy this one is heating it up for about 13 seconds and eat it slowly with a fork this way you get the maximum amount of enjoyment out of it. When heated, the breading takes on a delicious, doughy consistency which blends very well with the cheese and icing. The mouth feel of a heated bite taken out of these danishes is excellent and you will probably want another one after you finish your first. If you're talking heated up, then this is my favorite of the 3.

Vintage JOB Rolling Paper Ads

I suppose sex and drugs do go together,


Power Outage

Was gonna post yesterday, but the power in my house went out for about 7 hours. I'll make it up to you today. Promise.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

The Depreciation Guild: Blue Lily Video



If someone made a machine that plugged into your brain while you were sleeping, this is what my dreams would look and sound like.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Vintage High Times Scan: Punk London; A Guide to Punks, Pubs, and Pastimes

In keeping with the High Times punk rock theme, here's another cool article by Victor Bockris. Originally published in the May 1978 issue of High Times.





Monday, March 14, 2011

Tony Bobbins Infomercial (Featuring Ben Stiller)



"Look at my teeth, they rule you!"

Vintage High Times Comics: Dope Rider

High Times used to print some comics that were really out there. Here's one called Dope Rider. It's really weird and doesn't make much sense, but looks cool and entertains.





Sunday, March 13, 2011

RazorxFade live at Albion House 4/01/10

Unreleased until now.




Vintage High Times Scan: DOA.....Inside The Sex Pistol's Infamous Last Tour

This is the first in a series of articles I'm going to post. When punk rock took off in the late 70's, High Times allied itself with Punk Magazine and started to cover the punk rock scene both in the U.S. and the U.K. Legs McNeil of Punk Magazine contributed a few very particularly memorable articles. This article is a tour journal chronicling the Sex Pistols first and last DOA tour. It was originally printed in the June 1978 issue of High Times.








Saturday, March 12, 2011

Stuff I've Been Into Lately

The Falling Man 9/11 Documentary (I've been watching and reading a lot of stuff about 9/11 lately. Hearing stories and seeing footage makes me appreciate just how big a tragedy this was. I stumbled upon this documentary on youtube based on an article in Esquire magazine about a controversial photograph showing a man jumping (or possibly falling) from one of the towers. An effort to identify the man in the photograph was undertaken and this documentary chronicles that search. In the process the stories of other jumpers are heard and given a voice beyond that of being" just a jumper". Very interesting and harrowing documentary. Here is the first part, you can find links to the rest of the 8 videos on the sidebar.



Military Blogs (Check out http://my-vietnam-stories.blogspot.com/ for an interesting account of one man's Vietnam experiance. Also take a look at http://www.realcombatlife.com for first person accounts of military service.)

My Vietnam Stories Blog

Real Combat Life Blog

The Crow Soundtrack (I used to play the fuck out of this when I was 13 years old. I had a babysitter that was into Industrial and Alternative music so I got turned onto Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, and stuff like Machines of Loving Grace, Nitzer Ebb. The Crow Soundtrack has so many good songs on it, you can really the album all the way through, not a common occurrence. The songs fit the movie well even though I don't remember a lot of them actually being in the movie. It has a vibe all it's own but fits the dark, gothy archetype of the movie like a glove.)
Download it here:


The Crow Soundtrack

Nine Inch Nails-Pretty Hate Machine (Downloading The Crow Soundtrack made me start downloading all the records and bands I was into in the mid-90's, like NIN, Marilyn Manson, 1000 Homo DJS, Ministry etc. This is the stuff which pretty much paved the way to punk and hardcore for me. I remember going to the used CD store that used to be in downtown Hinsdale and buying all these expensive NIN bootlegs. Back then, Trent Reznor was pretty much the coolest dude ever. Broken and The Downward Spiral are top notch as well. Hearing these again brings back so many memories of being a kid in the mid 90's.)
Download it here:



Pretty Hate Machine

Duels (The manner in which an affront to a gentlemen's sense of honer is avenged in a prearranged fair fight. They can be fought to first blood or to the death with a variety of weapons and rules to be agreed on by both parties. Dueling was popular between the 11th and 20th centuries, in the parlance of our times, a duel refers to aerial warfare between fighter pilots. Read more on Wikipedia)



Dueling Wikipedia Page


Kellogs Maple Syrup Flavored Eggo Waffle Cereal (This stuff is amazing. I bought it cuz it was on sale and it tastes like fucking waffles with butter and syrup. I ate a whole box of it last night when I had the munchies..... off the hook.)



Chicken Tenders (I go to Jewel for my grocery shopping and while there, always get some chicken fingers with some of those tater babies (steak fries). Eat em with a side of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce and some Tahitian Treat. Super good.)



Tahitian Treat (The best non-alcoholic drink in the world? Quite possibly. Someone told me he saw 99 cent 2 liters of this on sale somewhere and my head almost exploded. )

Thursday, March 10, 2011

The Night Owl Print Zine #6 Scan

I've been searching my house for this for quite a long time now, as I'm terribly unorganized. It's a scan of the last issue of The Night Owl 1 page zine.....the theme is a tribute to New York Hardcore. I wanted to focus on some of the lesser known NYHC bands that are under-appreciated in my opinion. I was also really into The Icemen at the time I came out with this, so the entire back page features reviews of nearly all their material, demos/live shows etc. I wanted to try something new, so I added download links for everything I reviewed and as far as I know they all still work. Ryan Wilson and John Caution were guest reviewers, both writing up albums that they're really into. Actually, I'm pretty sure they got me to check out DMIZE and Altercation in the first place. Once of my favorite memories is handing a copy of these to Lord Ezec and the rest of the Skarhead band members when they were in town for The Rumble Fest. Ezec was all stoked about the DMIZE interviews and that paved the way for me to eventually get an interview out of him. I was gonna do it in person but my camera battery was almost dead and a crazy brawl broke out later on so I probably wouldn't have got to do it anyway. Anyways, sorry about the Cutoffs, I scanned them in the best I could as my scanner is a piece of shit and malfunctions a lot. I'm going to start working on Night Owl #7 as soon as things calm down a bit for me. my goal is to get to at least #10, and after that start doing full size zines.


Down in a Hole



Bury me softly in this womb
I give this part of me for you
Sand rains down and here I sit
Holding rare flowers
In a tomb... in bloom

Down in a hole and I don't know if I can be saved
See my heart I decorate it like a grave
You don't understand who they
Thought I was supposed to be
Look at me now a man
Who wont let himself be

Down in a hole, feelin' so small
Down in a hole, losin' control
I'd like to fly,
But my wings have been so denied

Down in a hole and they've put all
The stones in their place
I've eaten the sun so my tongue
Has been burned of the taste
I have been guilty
Of kicking myself in the teeth
I will speak no more
Of my feelings beneath

Down in a hole, feelin' so small
Down in a hole, losin' control
I'd like to fly but my
Wings have been so denied

Bury me softly in this womb
Oh I want to be inside of you
I give this part of me for you
Oh I want to be inside of you
Sand rains down and here I sit
Holding rare flowers (oh I want to be inside of you)
In a tomb... in bloom
Oh I want to be inside...

Down in a hole, feelin' so small
Down in a hole, losin' my soul
Down in a hole, feelin' so small
Down in a hole, outta control
I'd like to fly but my
Wings have been so denied


RIP Layne.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Facebook "Like" feature added

I'm experimenting with ways to make the blog better and get more people reading it on a regular basis. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page you'll see that I added a "like" feature. I want to hear your guys's opinions, does this add to the page or is it distracting? Give me feedback so I can use it to create a better, more entertaining Night Owl Blog. I'm open to any suggestions or criticism, if you don't feel like posting on here email me at KingCobra8291@yahoo with NIGHT OWL BLOG as the subject.

Lord Green Higher than God 7" and Last Demo Cassette Reviews

As I posted a couple days ago a dude named Tom from the band "Lord Green" contacted and asked me to review his band's record. I received a package the other day with the Lord Green Higher Than God 7" and a cassette tape of their last demo. The artwork for the EP is pretty basic computer print out stuff. Just a white pentagram with a black background. I'd describe their sound as heavy fuzzed out stoner rock with some fast parts that show some hardcore punk influence. Some of the stuff is instrumental, while other tracks have distorted vocals which work well with the band's sound. I'd say that bandwise they remind me of a mix of Bongzilla, Wolfbrigade, and Black Sabbath. The more I listen to it the better it gets and I pick up on all these cool guitar riffs I didn't notice before.




Higher Than God 7"

Side A: A heavy, stoner rock funeral-dirge called "falling" makes up my first introduction to the band. It's a loud as shit riff-fest that would be cool to blast after a heavy bout with your bong. The track gets a little repetitive towards the end, but I'd call this pretty cool. Definitely not bad.

Side B: "Higher Than God" starts out fast and winds down with another doomed out Sabbath inspired riffathon at the end. You can hear what sounds like some d-beat influence in the fast part. To me a lot of this bands faster stuff sounds a bit like a slower Wolfbrigade or Tragedy and way sludgier and stonier than both those bands. "Higher" is a solid track with numerous tempo changes and stonerish guitar riffs galore. This would sound great blasted on some huge, good quality speakers.

Overall this is a pretty good record. Not something I'd listen to all the time, but I do get in the mood for shit like this sometimes, I just wish I had a better stereo system so I could fucking blast it out. I'd be into seeing these guys live to see how these songs translate to a live setting.



Last Demo Ever Cassette

The tracks on this cassette are faster and more punk sounding than the EP, but still retain the same level of sludgy doom as the EP tracks. Again, some of the faster songs show a d-beat influence which can be comparable to a slightly slower Wolfbrigade or Tragedy. Standouts include the 7 minute plus "Dropping Out" which has stony fuzzed out riffs galore with a hard edge, and "Losing the Race" which plays as a pretty straight forward punk track played in Lord Green's fuzzy, distorted manner. "Flying" is also fucking awesome, and this version sounds way better than the EP version in my opinion. The whole cassette tape is drenched in feedback and distorted guitars and sounds great with a pair of headphones and a joint. The band gets extra props for the cool looking tape. I don't usually get hyped on tapes, but it fits with this kind of music for some reason.

For tour dates and more info hit up http://www.lordgreen.net/

and

http://www.myspace.com/LordGreen420

Saturday, March 5, 2011

15 minutes of Forrest.



My friend Donnie and I were getting stoned the other day and fucking around with his camera. I don't know if Donnie is bipolar or not, but he goes into these crazy ass manic monologue voice-overs tailored to the movie he's watching, and does back and forth dialogue from the characters. Here he is with 15 minutes of Forrest Gump, saying all kinds of ridiculous, hilarious shit. I almost had a heart attack from laughing so hard. That's me giggling like a little girl in the background.

Friday, March 4, 2011

I'm in my own zone.....



Been in my head all day. Don't give a fuuuuuuuck, fuck everybody.

The guy on the left looks fuckin' goofy as fuck haha. Actually, the guy on the right looks like he's takin' a shit too. The dude in the center is like "Yea I hang out with some wack lookin' mothafuckas, and what?".

Daniel Dickey.com

I stumbled upon this dude's blog from a comment he made on here about the Ecstasy Bandits article. The writing is both sharp and funny and it's refreshing to find a somewhat prolific writer in a sea of minimalist blogs and tumblrs. Lots of entertaining stuff to read and a good sense of humor. It's rare that a blog makes me laugh out loud while reading it alone at my house Go take a look.

Daniel Dickey.com

I think I might throw this up in the links section.

Lord Green 420

A dude named Tom from the band Lord Green (http://www.myspace.com/LordGreen420) contacted me about a record review. He said he enjoys the blog on a regular basis and wants me to review a record for his band.Just received a 7" and tape from him, they look cool and I can't wait to listen to em. A review is forthcoming, stay tuned.

Here to stay

It's been a hectic couple days. Missed my surgery at Stroger Hospital due to a crazy situation unfolding before me. I'm trying to reschedule but attempting to contact anyone by phone at the hospital is akin to ramming your head repeatedly against a brick wall.I have a formal appointment for another clinic visit on monday so we'll see how that goes. They did tell me I was going to need pins though. My fuckin' hand is already al;most healed.....the wrong way. Can't make a fist right now, maybe that's a good thing because I'd love to punch somebody/something.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Shit's been really fucked lately so I haven't been updating as much. I'll be back to posting on the regular soon though.