Chad VanGaalen

I'm really diggin this new Chad VanGallen video for his song "Peace On The Rise". It reminds of this creepy animated movie that I used to watch when I was all stoned in Junior High called Light Years.
Check it!

Beastie Boys

 Hot Sauce Committee Part Two

The new Beastie Boys album is out and it's all raw and gritty. Imagine if you cross pollinated One Day As A Lion with some heavy dubstep like Starkey all the while marinating it in a big ol' pot of Ill Communication and you would have this bad ass new B Boys album. I was a lil' worried about the group when MCA was diagnosed with cancer. But he's back and sounding gruffer then ever. The only thing more entertaining then this album right now is the insane yet hilarious short film sequel to the "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)" video.



Watch it a few times and see if you can spot all the cameos. It has to be some sort of record.

Stream the new album and hear all the pimpity action for yourself here.

Danzig - Live

The Great Saltair - Salt Lake City, UT 05/02/11

Back in the day I always found it a little strange when people were into Danzig. I never could quite understand how you could buy into this little barrel chested dude that looks like Vigo from Ghostbusters 2.

But as I've grown a little older I pretty much like any kind of music and after meeting my wife and finding out she was obsessed with him I accepted Mr. Glen Danzig into my life.

When his performance at Saltair was announced I had to go because, I knew somehow it was going to be hilarious yet awesome. Partly because of the crowd that would attend and partly because watching a goth metal version of Elvis / Morrisey's love child running around in a fishnet shirt sounded like a hell of a way to spend a Monday night.

Sadly though, only half of what I imagined actually came through. The crowd was awesome, there's nothing like watching a bunch of metal heads and drunk assholes rock out, they should make a reality show that consists of trashed people at shows doing their thing, it would be so amazingly entertaining. But, the worst part was watching the crowd bug out to two of the blandest metal core bands I have heard in a while in 2Cents and Devildriver (for some reason the lead singer of 2Cents kept referring to his penis and insulting the crowd). Then waiting patiently for Danzig only to have them sound like a busted ass blues rock cover band coming out of an old beer can with an extremely loud old dude shrieking randomly over the top. I was honestly amazed at how horrible it sounded. Then it occurred to me... on the way into the show security was making an extremely huge deal about not taking any pictures or videos. The reason must be because if any pics or video clips surfaced of a bald and chubby Danzig yelping incoherently and consistently running out of breath mid lyric no one would go to his concerts

It's was kind of sad to see that someone so strangely badass and ridiculous has now just become old and ridiculous. I guess when you need a paycheck for you're Viagra you gotta go play them shows. I managed to sneak a couple of crappy unfocused pics before being almost thrown out by security. Check em out.



Zola Jesus

Came across this video for "Night" by Zola Jesus. This live rendition is much more powerful than the version on Stridulum II. The drumming is amazing and really adds to the emotion of the song. I hope her future releases ditch the programmed percussion in favor of this dude.

Download the MP3 version here

Awesome Music Videos

Here's a couple of music videos I stumbled across last week. I'm sure I'm behind the times on these but, I wanted to post em up anyway. Both are gory in their own special way.

Flying Lotus "Kill Your Co-Workers":

Kiss a dude... Hahaha

HEALTH "We Are Water":

Not sure about the junk stab on this one...

Deftones - Live

In The Venue - Salt Lake City, UT 04/21/11



Every time a Deftones show comes into town I feel obligated to go because, they are by far my favorite band. So about every two or three years I get super stoked to see them again. When they come into town last July on the first leg of the Daimond Eyes tour they ended up playing The Rail and the show was amazing. Probably one of the best Deftones shows I have ever seen and I think I've seen them like eight times. The place wasn't insanely packed you could actually see the band (which is important because I have a somewhat unhealthy man crush on Chino) and the sound was dope. Awesome show. Awesome experience.

So when I heard they were coming back again  so soon I was excited but, not as excited as usual because the last show was so much fun. This time around the band played at In The Venue and it seemed like everybody and their cousin showed up. The show sold out and the place was crazy packed. So naturally I gravitated towards the 21 and older section to drink away my annoyance of the crowd which probably wasn't the greatest idea. The lines to the bar were long, the drinks were expensive and they tasted horrendous. Eventually with about an hours worth of waiting I finally got enough drinks in me that I was having a good time. But the side effect to my drunkenness was that I really wasn't giving a shit about the show and therefor didn't really put any effort into actually trying to see the band. So my night pretty much ended up looking like this...

As you can see it wasn't the greatest of times and definitely isn't as awesome of a view as the picture above. So as the night went on the band played the same old songs that I am used to them playing, never delving into any jams that I haven't heard live before and everyone I was with kept getting drunker and drunker. Eventually I just gave up and left during the encore of the show (I never thought I would leave a Deftones show early). Now in the morning and deep into my hangover I kind of regret not putting more effort into getting a better view and I'm kinda bummed that I left early. But, it is what it is and I'm sure they'll be back and when they do I hope they pick a bigger spot cause having so many Trashy Drunk Metal Headed Goth Slutin Bros all packed in so tightly is straight bogus.

If I was to put the night into a nice lil' synopsis it would go like this:

At the Deftones show last night a friend of mine lost his right shoe and drunkenly keep running into the pit trying to find it and while all this was unfortunate yet hilarious to me he ended up getting kicked out about an hour into the show.

Side note The Dillinger Escape Plan opened. The band was crazy tight and had really good energy. But the sound was horrible. Lame.

Fleet Foxes

Helplessness Blues



Finally!! The new Fleet Foxes album leaked. Now everyone in the world can chill out and stop drooling and crapping their pants waiting for it. I know I'm relieved and once I heard it leaked I immediately ran home and did nothing. Then the next morning I woke up and downloaded it. I am still a bit confused as to why everyone is praising these guys so much. I remember a couple of years ago when their self titled came out. People kept telling me to check it out and when I did I was a bit disappointed. While these dudes are definitely a bunch of talented indie folksters that worship at the feet of Crosby, Stills and Nash and probably have nudey pics of Simon & Garfunkel. I don't quite see how they are the supposed saviors.

So again I bought into the hype and gave Helplessness Blues a bunch of listens and again I am not completely blown away but, I am impressed. This album has more textures going on than your local Whole Foods market but, the best aspect is that the different instruments and textures don't come all at once. The first track "Montezuma" is essentially just vocals and guitar (am I the only that thinks that Robin Pecknold's voice is really similar to Ben Bridwell's of Band of Horses?) then the next couple of songs throw in a violin here and there or some percussion to drive the songs to their finish. But were the album becomes really interesting is in the middle of the album on track six "Helplessness Blues" the song starts off as more of a traditional folk song then towards the end breaks into this "New Terraine" Mew vibe. But the most entertaining and experimental song is track ten "The Shrine / An Argument" it starts all reverbed and beautiful then slowly builds into your typical driving folk jam then out of nowhere there is this John Coltrane saxophone solo that I totally wasn't expecting. Thats' when I decided that this album wasn't so vanilla.

So I guess all things considered,  Fleet Foxes has done what I want every band to do, which progress and while they haven't freakin hopscotched over the moon yet. They are definitely making some strong progress and I'm already drooling and crapping my pants for their next album to come out. Haha!!