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The Black Laser

Way Over Yonder In the Minor Key

May 16, 2012 |

About Music and Music

Man, I have been digging this song like crazy recently. It’s always been somewhere buried deep in my brain, but the other day it surfaced at a mix when I started singing “Ain’t nobody who can read like me” in response to someone who could not replicate the speed and clarity of my scratch VO read. Then it got me thinking that I hadn’t heard it in ages so I checked it out on Spotify and now I can’t stop singing it.

The song’s lyrics were originally penned by folk music legend Woody Guthrie, but he never got around to writing music for it. So, Guthrie’s daughter got Billy Bragg and Wilco (and a bunch of other folks) to write music to a bunch of lyrics that Woody left laying around after his death in 1967. And the song is damned good. My only disappointment is that we’ll never hear Guthrie’s specific voice belting these words against his acoustic guitar. That would be really wonderful.

> Continue reading...Way Over Yonder In the Minor Key

Death Grips’ “Hustle Bones”

May 15, 2012 |

Music and Music Videos

Hell yes, I didn’t know there was a new Death Grips record! I loved last year’s Ex Military and I’m pretty surprised to see a follow up so quickly. I felt like their first record just came out of nowhere, grabbed you by the face, hatefucked your brain, and then sat back to have a smoke, super content with itself. This track from their new record The Money Store suggests that their approach to your brain has stayed more or less the same.

Enjoy! Be pummeled!

> Continue reading...Death Grips’ “Hustle Bones”

Communic’s “Facing Tomorrow”

May 10, 2012 |

Music and Music Videos

After the gonzo masterpiece of a video by Bonde Do Rolê below, comes this archetype to generic shitty metal videos. Let us examine the tropes this video shamelessly embraces, shall we?

  • Band playing in a warehouse.
  • Band lit from below.
  • Band wearing all black.
  • Dude walking through a field.
  • Barrels full of fire.
  • Dude with a shovel.
  • Close-ups of shredding.
  • Chubby baby-faced member of the band.
  • Did I mention unbelievably boring warehouse band footage?
  • Shitty symbolism.
  • I was talking about the sapling.
  • Looks like it was made for a dollar.

Did you spot any I missed? And I’m only talking about the video. The song is just as generic and shitty. The singer sounds like he’s trying to sound like Devin Townsend, but he lacks the fucking balls to pull it off. And what the fuck kind of name is “Communic”? Is it a play on “community” and “cynic”? Because if it is, that is fucking stupid as fuck.

So there you go. Watch the Bonde Do Rolê video below and leave this stinker alone.

> Continue reading...Communic’s “Facing Tomorrow”

Downset’s Do We Speak a Dead Language

May 8, 2012 |

About Music and Music

I was reading Stuff You Will Hate earlier today and saw a post about their current podcast featuring the drummer from Downset. This, of course, got me thinking about Downset, specifically about their 1996 album Do We Speak A Dead Language, a shining example of mid-90s SoCal hardcore. It’s got the era-specific mix of rap and hardcore, the chunka chunka guitars, the social positive outlook, multiculturalism, punky as fuck drums. Everything! It’s got everything! I can’t even tell you how many times I listened to this album in high school. Many hundreds of times.

How many times have I listened to it since then? Maybe zero times.

I popped on over to Spotify to see if it was there (it was) and I have been jamming out to this thing for a little bit. And, man, it’s still so good. You all are probably going to listen to it and think, “But, Joe, this sounds dated as shit.” Sure, it does, but so does Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony and we all stil like that also. So fuck off. This album rules. It’s actually giving me chills.

> Continue reading...Downset’s <em>Do We Speak a Dead Language</em>