Playlist for August 2014

This is a list of all the albums, EPs, singles, etc. that I listened to in their entirety during the month of August 2014. Below that are lists of the movies I watched, zines I read, and bands that I saw live, as well as notes regarding each.

MUSIC
8/1/14-8/7/14
Smashing Pumpkins - "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" 2CD
Nirvana - "Nevermind"
Nirvana - "Bleach"
Green Day - "Dookie"

8/8/14
Mental Decay - "Run and Hide" EP
Bouncing Souls - "Maniacal Laughter"

8/9/14
Necrophagist - "Onset Of Putrefaction"
New Order - "Singles" Disc 2
Recluse - "Fading Into Darkness, Drowning In Myself" EP
So Stressed - "Attracted To Open Mouths"
Minor Threat - First Demo

8/10/14
The Tossers - "On A Fine Spring Morning"
Rogue Rats - S/T

8/11/14
Nirvana - "Bleach"
Jimmy Martin - "1954-1974, Vol. 4"
Crisis Arm - "Rend"
Green Day - "Dookie"

8/13/14
The Sky Above And Earth Below - "Parting Ways"
HIM - "Dark Light"

8/14/14
Blue Oyster Cult - S/T
Homegrown Hypocrisy - S/T
Black Cross - "Art Offensive"
The Glass Daggers - "Feel Good Destruction"
Underneath The Gun - "Forfeit Misfortunes"
Crisis Arm - "Rend"

8/15/14
Death By Stereo - "Day Of The Death"

8/16/14
Dead Kennedys - "Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables"
Smashing Pumpkins - "Pisces Iscariot"

8/18/14
Fractalline - "Polymath Theory"
Ordstro - "Fall MMXII" cassette
Big D & The Kids Table - "Good Luck"
Wire - "Pink Flag"

8/19/14
Our First Brains - 2014 Tour EP
Ordstro - Summer 2011 Tape
Void Boys/Hillary Chillton - split EP
Protest The Hero - "Kezia"

8/20/14
Joyride! - "bodies of water"
Mechachief - "Intruders"
Dreamdecay - "NVNVNV"
Wunami - S/T
Badlands - Demo
Dream Caste - "A Calmer Room" EP
Iron Maiden - "The Number Of The Beast"
Paper Thin - S/T EP
Stephen Steinbrink - "Arranged Waves"
Biblical Violence - "smmmece" digital single
V/A - "Fresh Cuts Vol.6" Guitar Center promo CD

8/21/14
Human Hands - S/T

8/22/14
Gravespell - "Gaia Terminus"

8/23/14
Vexx - S/T 10"

8/24/14
Rotting Christ - "Khronos"
The Gravitys - "Nutrition"
Struckout - "I'd Hate Me Too"
Hope - "Feeling Like A Buck Fifty"
Knights Of The Abyss - "Shades"

8/15/14
High Tension - Live Demo
Adamantium - "From The Depths Of Depression"
Bouncing Souls - "Maniacal Laughter"

8/26/14
Cursive - "The Difference Between Houses & Homes"
Vril - January 2013 digital demos

8/27/14
Snotrocket - Demo
Nomads - "Night.Owls//Mayhem.Aficionados//Death.Seekers" EP
Cold Lovers - "Mouth" EP
Full Of Hell - "Music From The Dial" live EP
Boilerman - "Loss Leaders"
Death March - "Fuck Your Fucking War" EP
The Valenteens - "Fun in the Sun With..." EP
Silverstein - "Discovering The Waterfront"
Noisem - "Agony Defined"

8/28/14
Nation Of Ulysses - "13-Point Program To Destroy America"
Banana Moose - "Part II" EP
The Caution Children - "Safe Crusades/No Judgements/And Baby"
Captain J Sperry - "Demon.Stration1" demo

8/29/14
Prawn - "Short Stay, Long Road" EP
Badblood - "End Me" EP
No Sir - "Holy Land" EP
Converge/Dropdead - split EP
Weatherbox - "Follow The Rattle Of The Afghan Guitar"

8/30/14
Silverstein - "Discovering The Waterfront"

8/31/14
Drive Like Jehu - "Yank Crime"
The Gravitys - "Nutrition"
Run Forever - "Settling"
HBH - "Slackin' It" EP

MUSIC NOTES
- I basically just listened to whatever Troy put on the CD player for the first couple weeks that we lived at the new apartment, and that was pretty much just the 4 CDs listed at the top of the list. For at least a week.
- "Born To Lose"
- Favorite "new finds" of the month: Recluse, The Sky Above And Earth Below, Fractalline, Badlands, Dream Caste, Gravespell, Snotrocket, Nomads, The Caution Children
- "Immoral, Inconvenient People..." .... "Rend" is such a good album
- "I never fit in anywhere, and now I don't I fit here. No hope, nothing to believe in."
- I had no idea Troy would like Big D & The Kids Table so damn much
- Protest The Hero fucking kicks ass; I can't believe the bassist left
- Fucking Wunami, goddamn
- Every time I listen to Stephen Steinbrink I'm blown away
- How did Hope get so thoroughly forgotten? They were badass
- "From The Depths Of Depression"
- Noisem KICKS ASS but when I saw them live I couldn't hear any of the solos
- After hearing "13-Point Program To Destroy America" I'm almost shocked at how blatantly Refused ripped it off on "The Shape Of Punk To Come"....it's just too obvious
- That was the first time I ever listened to Drive Like Jehu
- "Nutrition" is finished. Hit me up if you want a copy.
- HBH was by far the worst band I listened to last month. Maybe the worst of all 2014.

LIVE
8/7/14 - Crisis Arm/Pilgrims/Little Bear/(The Gravitys)/Obsolete Sun @ The Dial
8/15/14 - (Ian C. with special guest Troy Campbell)/Plastic City Pariah @ Che Cafe
8/29/14 - Dropdead/Full Of Hell/Noisem/The Coltranes/Badblood @ The Dial

LIVE NOTES
- On the 7th we played one of the best Gravitys sets we ever did and covered The Ramones perfectly before my good friends in Crisis Arm left for tour. On the 15th I played the worst set I have ever played in my entire life and then left my notebook at the venue. Alcohol is a hell of a drug...
- Dropdead is a quality live band. Extremely solid every time.

ZINES
8/8/14 - Crisis Arm - "Rend" lyrics/art accompaniment
8/19/14 - KYEO Speaks 8
8/28/14 - HUBY #4

MOVIES
8/9/14 - "Fun With Dick And Jane"
             "It"
             "The Wolf Of Wall Street"
8/10/14 - "Chappelle's Show Season 1" Disc 1
8/12/14 - "Shaquille O'Neal Presents: All Star Comedy Jam"
                "Ride Along"
8/13/14 - "We Are Marshall"
8/17/14 - "Her"
                "Pastor Shepherd"
8/18/14 - "The Purge"
8/19/14 - "Afflicted"
                "The Fighter"
8/22/14 - "Beerfest"
8/27/14 - "The Professional"
8/28/14 - "Stargate"
8/30/14 - "American Pie 2"
               "The Glass Castle"
8/31/14 - "The Butterfly Effect"
                "Fight Club"

MOVIE NOTES
- That's like, way more movies than I normally watch in a single month
- Despite it being one of my mom and my brother Troy's favorite movies, that was the first time I had seen "It"....it's all about togetherness and being there for one another and facing your inner demons and I liked it.
- I had read some bad reviews beforehand but DAMN "Ride Along" sucks
- "Her" wasn't as tear-jerking as I had been led to believe but it was definitely the best movie I've seen in quite a long time
- "Pastor Shepherd" is a weird fucking movie, ESPECIALLY after reading about its background...I'm not entirely sure what angle this guy is going for to be honest.
- I am Christian Bale's character in "The Fighter" and Troy is Mark Wahlberg....It sucks
- I have watched "Beerfest" wayyyyy too many times
- "The Professional" is so much creepier than I remember
- Troy went to bed before "Stargate" was over and honestly I don't blame him
- "The Glass Castle" is a ridiculous, ridiculous movie
- Troy had never seen "Fight Club" before WTF

EP REVIEW: Hysterics - "Can't I Live"

   I listened to this EP a few days ago and immediately after it was over I played it again, something is that is a major rarity in my listening patterns. I usually go from release to release to release without much of a pause in between but when this one ended I just had to hear it again.
   Hysterics is an all-female thrashy punk band from Portland with a vocalist that has absolutely badass ripping screams. This EP was released as a 7" by M'Lady's Records earlier this year, who also released Vexx's similarly dope 10" but in my opinion this is even doper. In a way they have a fast, basic approach to their songs that's at once almost street punk a la Blatz while simultaneously reminding me of seriously-angry bands like Uniform Choice or, in the case of the hyperfast delivery in "Psychotic Drain," SOA. You can just tell in her scream, the gritty and powerful barks, that she means what she's saying.
   There are a few moments when the thrash culls slightly, like the deep echoey part in "Now I See What I Have Lost" and the mid-tempo rock n roll swagger in "Please Sir," which at 4 minutes is by far the longest track on the EP. I didn't read the lyrics but with a title like "Please Sir" and a refrain of "I want some more" I've got to assume it's a somewhat flippant/ironic comment on institutional misogyny etc. This track has the kind of continuous growing trudge that brings to mind Ceremony's "Sick" due to its constant repetition that builds and builds upon the same layer until it's weighing itself in.
   EP closer "No Vision" is expressive in a nearly Embrace-type way, bringing to mind the song "No More Pain" in particular, but of course with more intensely biting screams than MacKaye's near-talking delivery. The seemingly facetious imploring to "give me your blessing/thank you!" also brought to mind the kind of irreverent, nearly-cryptic yet still question-raising lyrics on Nirvana's first album, but that might just be because my brother has been playing "Bleach" like, all the damn time lately.
   This is highly recommended to fans of harsh yet listenable hardcore punk, especially those of you keen on killer female vocals; this chick really wails.

http://mladysrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mlr-044-cant-i-live-7-ep

DEMO REVIEW: MobAttack - "A Night Of Disrespect"

   MobAttack is a d-beat style punk band from Corona. They label themselves as "tradional hardcore punk" on their bandcamp page but they've got to be referring to what was called "hardcore" in England not the States, because this brings to mind bands like Conflict, Discharge, or even maybe Disorder much more than what's "traditionally" called "hardcore" here in California.
   This 2-song demo is alright but there are just so many bands in this vein from the last 30 years that its difficult for any of them, much less a startup, to really stand out at all. The first song has a repeating 2-chord verse with thrashy, kinda sloppy drums and for the 'chorus'/chant part its like they're just going down the fretboard playing muted harmonics. It's called "Join The Resistance," and again Conflict came up in my mind as the nearest point of reference. Take that as you will.
   The second song, "Disaster or Disarmament" (real topical, guys) has a bit more substance but unfortunately the main riff in the song is pretty much the exact same chords as "Crippled With Fear" by State Of Fear, and for me that's like a classic so it was kind of hard to hear this song without hearing that also subconsciously. There's a real crappy solo at the end, although not out of step for d-beat/street punk stylings, and then the demo's over.
   This was released over a year ago and they don't appear to have any new music out since, but they do have some shows listed so I'm gonna just believe that somewhere in their set are songs more memorable or worthwhile than what's on this demo.

http://mobattack.bandcamp.com/album/a-night-of-disrespect

ALBUM REVIEW: Dying Messiah - "Heinous Spectacle Of Mutilation"

   Another day, another underground brutal death metal album with programmed drums and lots of cool samples. I really hate programmed drums and I don't get why so many death metal bands make releases using them. I mean, I guess I understand the desire to get your songs out there so assholes like myself can hear them but its so distractingly un-organic to hear the exact same cymbal and snare sounds for 40 minutes. It's especially grating when they're programmed to do (literally) inhuman grind speeds, like the chatter going on in "Gone Before The Bodies Drop." It's so fast that its actually kinda stupid and the click of the false snare is so loud as to drown out the guitars. It almost sounds like some late-90s techno buildup right before the lights go down. Moby still holds the world record for fastest BPM in a song and fake grind drums sound alot like that Moby song. Sorry.
   Otherwise, this is a pretty badass album with concepts sicker than alot of more metaphysical/metaphorical death metal bands out right now. This is straight up gore metal along the lines of Exhumed or (of course) Cannibal Corpse, with imaginative songs like "Skinned Alive And Crucified," "Bound Duct Taped And Drowned," and "Crushed Into Cranial Fragments." There's also the sexist element that again, only the most 'brutal' of death metal bands really embrace, as evidenced by songs like "Whoring Out The Innocent" and the ever-so-subtle "Motivated By Misogynistic Hatred." I wonder what that song is about. Other topics include "MethLab Mutilation"s and "The Bible Pimp" so if anything at least these sick bastards have some scope with their subject matter.
   Their disgusting subject matter.
   The guitars on this entire release are relentless and bring a vibe of very old school death metal, particularly the aforementioned Exhumed, and the vocals are low and unintelligible all the way as well. There's a slight reprieve for a spooky clean intro to "Hacksaw Slaughter" but soon enough that bludgeons its way as well. I just cannot get over the false sound of the programmed drums but at this point it seems like more than half the death metal releases I come across these days are filled with computer drums so I guess I'll just have to get over it.
   It would be alot cooler with real drums though.

http://dyingmessiah.bandcamp.com/album/heinous-spectacle-of-mutilation

ALBUM REVIEW: Hideous Rebirth - "Partially Devoured"

   Hideous Rebirth is a "brutal" death metal band very much in the line of Dying Fetus, Suffocation or even Cannibal Corpse. Their recent album "Partially Devoured" was released earlier this year on Gore House Productions and I streamed it earlier tonight as I was folding my laundry.
   The first few songs were strong enough, the guitarists certainly know what they're doing and there's enough time changes to keep you interested, but the drums are clearly programmed and that's a major distraction for me. I wasn't really thinking too much of it one way or the other, it was cool stuff on the whole minus the minor drum annoyance so I was just letting it play through.
   That was until, however, I looked at the screen to see what the current song was called. It was called "Butthole Portal."
   Hideous Rebirth, how in the fuck am I supposed to take you seriously when you have a song called goddamned "Butthole Portal?" That's something Green Jelly would call a song; I feel like that'd be too stupid even for 90's GWAR. The song itself is okay but its just such a terrible song title that I felt compelled to write this review.
   Let's just act like I never looked at the tracklisting and talk about the music. This is very technical death metal that shifts from brutal heavy mosh parts into shredding grind-like parts with ease and there is a dual vocal approach featuring both curdled highs and guttural lows. Almost every song starts with some kind of macabre sample or another, although a couple I'm pretty sure I've heard on other albums.
   Upon looking up the band's Facebook page, it appears that this release was recorded entirely by founding member Duane Gutierrez so that would explain the programmed drums. He's recruited members of Ossification and In The Form Of Flesh to fill out the band so hopefully new stuff comes soon and it doesn't have embarrassingly juvenile song titles

.
http://gorehouseproductions.bandcamp.com/album/partially-devoured

EP: Kikeiji - "Plastic Scandal"

   Kikeiji was a punk band from Japan that played in the early to mid 1980s. Unlike many other well-known Japanese hardcore/punk bands from that time period, however, Kikeiji relies very little on 'noise' factors or any overtly obvious 'metal' tendencies; instead they hearken back to UK anarcho punk sounds, bringing to mind the Subhumans in particular. Much to my liking with this type of punk, the bass is well pronounced throughout the 4 songs on this release, originally put out as a 7" on ADK Records in 1983.
   This short release manages to branch a few different sounds within the general realm of what was going on in early punk: The first track has an angry-ska feel on some of the guitar parts that again, brings to mind Subhumans or maybe even Zounds if they were a bit more distorted, while the third track has a rock-fuck groove going on like an even more rollicking version of the Big Boys. The fourth track is the type of slow, repetitive, chant-like punk song that's almost post-punk but not all the way there, with fairly cool echoey guitar 'solo' middle parts to add to a sense of eeriness.
   This is a really cool release and I'd highly recommend downloading it if you can find it. I had gotten it from the blog 7inchpunk.com but that's been shut down it looks like. If you somehow come across some old Japanese punk records and this is in there, buy the lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL0JXZXBIpw

ALBUM REVIEW: Carnival Seasons - "The Town"

   Carnival Seasons is a rock band from Southern California that labels themselves "alternative" although all the songs are extremely radio-polished and contain many corporate-rock tropes from the last 10 to 15 years. They seem like alright musicians, especially lead guitarist Danathan Nguyen who has satisfying if somewhat unoriginal solos strewn throughout the release, but the type of 'good musicians' that are probably versed solely in mainstream rock music to the point of being almost entirely reliant on well-established models for songwriting and presentation.
   The vocalist has a fairly strong voice for what he does, but unfortunately his style of singing is pretty much exactly what I do not like in a rock singer. He has a bit of gravel to his delivery that at best reminds one of Rod Stewart or the guy from Stereophonics, but at worst brings to mind Rob Thomas or the guy from Fuel in the post-Pearl Jam drawl that I thought died off a decade ago, mixed in with some of the annoying quasi-RnB bending of syllables that modern radio bands like Neon Trees or even Maroon 5 sometimes do. The similarity to the guy from Fuel was especially apparent in the song "When Are You Coming Back" which had a chorus of "stayeeee with mayeeee" and similar unnecessary extensions of words. The following track "Untrained Actions" has a bevy of "oooh-whoaa-whooaaa" stuff going on like arena-lite-rock popular right now. Kings Of Leon. Mumford And Sons gone electric. Imagine Dragons with less electronics. Shit like that. It's really not my style but alot of people seem to like this kind of singing and its not like the guy is off key or anything. It's just not my bag at all.
   
   Musically, all the songs are fairly well-constructed and played but so generic that they feel recycled. The second song, "Rolling Out Tonight," starts with jangly, over-reverbed guitars that are impossible to hear without thinking of 80's U2 or one of Angels & Airwaves many interchangeable songs, a feature that's played out to even more obvious extents in the album closer "We Are One." Meanwhile, "Lazy," while being perhaps my favorite song on the entire album, borrows a Green Day riff and takes out any semblance of snottiness.
   Maybe the main thing that fundamentally turns me off from bands like this is the forced sense that this is "important music." The delivery has all the saccharine hopefulness and wonder-of-the-world bullshit that plagues many modern rock bands into seeming like cheesy rewrites of "Do You Realize?" They're like one of those bands who has a single hit on KROQ and gets to be the token 'really earnest kinda-indie band' on the annual Weenie Roast lineup.
  
   If you like the stuff I've listed above then give this band a listen I guess, but all in all, I personally can't recommend this album. As I've clearly indicated, this just isn't in the vein of what I like at all. The two tracks that were the most okay, "Lazy" and "Not In Control," still sounded like faceless entries into a 90's comedy soundtrack or suited to be played during a scene transition in "The Real World."
   No teeth.


  http://carnivalseasons.bandcamp.com/