live
Farflung go near, then far
Space/stoner rockers Farflung are playing rare live dates in LA (The Echo, 3/19) and SF (Bottom of the Hill, 3/20) before undertaking a week-long tour of central Europe, including the Roadburn Festival. (See dates here.) Stoner rock all sounds the same to me – see this great interview with Roadrunner A&R; exec Monte Conner on […]
Bloody Panda, Villains, Wetnurse @ Santos Party House
New York City has a clutch of top-shelf bands lacking top-shelf status – Black Anvil, Bloody Panda, Defeatist, Krallice, Leader, Tombs, Villains, Wetnurse. (Krallice did get some notice last year, and Tombs’ new record on Relapse should boost their profile.) Thus, they often play at home to spoiled audiences. On February 26, Wetnurse, Villains, and […]
Holy cow! Cattle Decapitation, Psyopus, Gigan
Cattle Decapitation vocalist Travis Ryanw/ Carcass car, Munich, DE When Cattle Decapitation first announced their tour, which starts this Wednesday (dates below), alongside Psyopus, Gigan, and Book of Black Earth, I wasn’t excited. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen Cattle Decapitation; when I lived in San Francisco, they seemed to play there every […]
Ringworm interview, European tour
Spreading the disease There are few joys like horse-whipping, double-time, metallic hardcore. When I worked out yesterday, I put on Ringworm‘s Justice Replaced by Revenge (Victory, 2005). I felt like He-Man. Today the band begins a European tour – see dates below, including several US shows afterwards. Recently I dug up an email interview I […]
Septicflesh - Communion
Original album artworkCeramic sculpture by Cecilia JanssonPhoto by Jukka Tilli Septic Flesh have made much good music – almost too much. These Greeks mix death, doom, black, goth, thrash, and industrial metal, with clean and dirty vocals, both male and female. Their records are sprawling, and their epic feel can get tiring. So can their […]
Ancestors, Night Horse to spark up West Coast
Night HorsePhoto by Ilana Shulman Tee Pee Records had a good run this year. The label put out records by Ancestors, Annihilation Time, Blackstrap, Earthless, Graveyard, and Night Horse, with not a dud in the bunch. This Friday, Ancestors and Night Horse embark on a joint (pun intended) US West Coast tour (dates below). Ancestors […]
Frostmoon Eclipse bring Italian ice to US
Frostmoon Eclipse Italian black metallers Frostmoon Eclipse, whom I wrote about here, embark on their first US tour this Sunday. (See dates below.) The routing is frankly strange – scattered locales in the South and Midwest. This is probably due to their tourmates, Nashville’s Chaos Moon and Ft. Lauderdale’s Benighted in Sodom, whom I reviewed […]
Javelina to take self-sharpening tusks on tour
Photo by Scott Kinkade Tonight Philly’s Javelina begin a short tour spreading downtuned filth and beard envy. (See dates below.) The jaunt begins at Nara Sushi, a combination sushi joint/music venue. What a brilliant idea. Another stop on the tour is Star Booty, in St. Petersburg, FL. Evidently, it’s a vintage clothes boutique. I am […]
Blacklisted take black hearts to blacktop
Foto by xBORZAKx Not to spam you with tour dates – but good bands on the road deserve support. 99% of bands don’t mean anything to me. I might enjoy their music, but it doesn’t reach deeper than my ears. Blacklisted fall in the other 1%. …The Beat Goes On (Deathwish, 2005) helped me through […]
Landmine Marathon to maim West Coast
Get Your War On Landmine Marathon are good on record, but magnificent live. They have a 3-D aspect that wax/disc/MP3 can’t capture – flying spit, whipping hair, speakers pushing air. Even though they basically only have one song, it’s a damn good one. They’re one of the few bands I’ve felt like begging to play […]
