Can't Sleep...Clown'll Eat Me

Not being able to sleep absolutely sucks. I'm fucking exhausted, yet my mind is racing and unable to relax. Welcome to the weekend in style! So to pass the time until I can respectably go out for a morning walk to grab some coffee, I've been absorbing the new Matthew Good record, Vancouver. Now multiple listens in, I'm enjoying this WAY more than 2007's Hospital Music and just as much his first two solo releases, perhaps more. His songwriting is so fluid and seemingly simple at times, yet littered with slight nuances and brilliant, painfully deep lyrics.

Tracks like "US Remain Impossible" and "On Nights Like Tonight" rival classics like "While We Were Hunting Rabbits" and MGB favorites such as "Advertising On Police Cars" and "The Rat Who Would Be King". Just as personal as Hospital Music at times, yet musically more focused.

For some amazing reading, check out his site here

His entire catalog is now available digitally in the US, or you can buy the imports from Canada.

Check it, my favorite track from Hospital Music, live and acoustic- "99% of Us is Failure":

Fight Amp, Bitches

If you don't like The Melvins or the Jesus Lizard, stop reading. If you do, you're about to have a new favorite band. Fight Amp (formerly Fight Amputation) takes everything you should love about crust punk and makes it both grittier and more streamlined, at the exact same time. Every song has structure, but always gives way to an organized chaos of feedback and orderly disorder.

I dug their 2008 release "Hungry For Nothing", but was absolutely blown away by their recently released "Manners & Praise". No filler. No let-up. Riff after riff. Never too smart for it's own good, yet never dulled down for casual listens. You can't just have this record on. It needs, no, requires one's full attention...And repeated listens.

I went back and found some of their out of print demos and 7"s when they were still known as Fight Amputation and I eagerly await their arrival.

This is a top ten record of 2009 for sure.

"Lungs" (live):

Let's talk about Katatonia, shall we?

It's all I can talk about. We might be looking at album of the year candidate...A career best with their new darkened opus, Night Is The New Day. Released last week around the world and this past Tuesday here in the States, this 48 minute haunting epic masterpiece is another in the fine line of jaw-dropping albums by the most underrated band on the planet. I said it in my update yesterday and I meant it. The fact that Katatonia isn't as big as Opeth, Porcupine Tree or even Tool, is criminal. Recognize.

"Forsaker" kicks off this motherfucker, bringing the listener in with sweeping harmonies by vocalist Jonas Renske, then crushing skulls with some of their heaviest riffing to date. Other highlights include the rest of the album. I know, a shitty review but it's the truth. No weak spots, no filler, no fat. This record is lean and hungry...The only other band in their space that seems to have drive like this is Paradise Lost. Ther new LP is amazing as well...A post for another day I suppose.

Bottom line: Pick this record up and support a band that will truly hit on your every emotion and work their way into "favorite band territory" in no time. If you're not a fan yet, work backwards. Their early material is killer melo-doom-death (w/a certain someone from Opeth on vocals) and is quite different from where they've been heading from 1997's Discouraged Ones and on.

I tagged their new video on the last post, so check some of this out...

Night Is The New Day is in stores now. Why are you not in one buying it this very second?

"Cold Ways" (live):

"Deadhouse" (live):

So Much New Junk. So much.

Well, it's clearly been a long fucking time since I've updated this blog. So much has happened since my last update, I don't even know where to begin. So instead of going on and on about shit that only I care about, I want to talk about some new jams that making living extremely pleasurable these days:

- Slayer-World Painted Blood
If you don't like Slayer, you have no business listening to, reading about or discussing anything that even remotely comes across as metal. This is the best Slayer album since Diabolus and possibly since Seasons in the Abyss (www.slayer.net)
- Katatonia-Night Is The New Day
Best unheard of band of the last ten years. Why this group isn't as big as Opeth or Porcupine Tree is beyond me. Better songs, better hooks, more mass appeal. Could be their best effort yet (www.nightisthenewday.com)
- Converge-Axe To Fall
Another stellar album from start to finish. Just as brutal as No Heroes and perhaps more diverse (www.convergecult.com)
- Kowloon Walled City-Gambling On The Richter Scale
Like Unsane, Helmet, Crowbar, Jesus Lizard, Tad and The Melvins? I thought you might. Think about all of this, summed up in one band...then add 10 times the heavy. Oh, and they write songs, not just sludgy riff after riff. This is killer shit from SF. (www.inthewalledcity.com)
- Matthew Good- Vancouver
The follow-up to Hospital Music blows it out of the water. Heartfelt and honest, like he always is. An homage to his city, one that he loves and despises. Great stuff (www.matthewgood.org)
- Living Colour- The Chair in the Doorway
Like Sly and the Family Stone...But with balls. Big balls. Truck nut style (www.livingcolour.net)

Also jamming on new releases from: Armed For Apocalypse, Fight Amp, Russian Circles, Doomriders, Om, Saviours, Baroness, Thrice, Long Distance Calling, Ghost Brigade and more.

What a great year for music.

Converge "Axe To Fall":

Katatonia The Day and Then The Shade":

Why Biffy Clyro is Awesome

I admit it. When I first heard the name Biffy Clyro, I figured they would most definitely suck. And not just suck. They would suck at heights that only a band named Biffy Clyro could. Last year, a buddy of mine at Roadrunner sent me a copy of Puzzle, their criminally underrated masterpiece. I did and still do stand corrected. Biffy Clyro is fucking brilliant. Every song is great. Every b-side is stellar. Every cover they do makes the original sound like dog shit being pushed thru a Play Doh machine. Biffy Clyro is indeed awesome.

They have a new LP coming out soon, hopefully before the end of the year. The dudes are streaming a video for their new jam "That Golden Rule" on their website (and you can view it below as well). It's the most aggressive they've been in a minute...Just a barnburner of a track.

My point in all of this is: a)Don't misjudge bands with ridiculous names and B)This particular band with said name is damn near flawless and everyone should go buy all of their records and import singles with neato b-sides.

"That Golden Rule"

"Mountains"

"Umbrella" (acoustic/live)

New Jams

Been a while, yet again. Life is tricky. It's great to be super busy but also great to have five minutes to come up for air. I have 30 seconds, so here's what has been pleasuring my earholes for the past few weeks:

- Burnt By The Sun: Heart of Darkness (Relapse)
- 16: Bridges To Burn (Relapse)
- Dredg: The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion (Ohlone)
- Cave In: Planets of Old (Hydra Head)
- Jesu: Infinity (Avalanche)
- 65daysofstatic: Escape From New York (Monotreme)
- City of Ships: Look What God Did To Us (Translation Loss)
- Birds of Prey: The Hellpreacher (Relapse)
- Clutch: Strange Cousins From The West (Weathermaker)...and read MANHUNT too. The song "Abraham Lincoln" on this LP is based on this amazing book.

..and the hopes that the new Pearl Jam album is more awesome that the 4 songs I've heard from it.

Zao is KILLING it...For One Night Only

And they did, seriously fucking killed it. They have played one show this year and from the looks of clips that have surfaced, if you were there, the chances of you surviving were slim to none. Dan's voice is sicker than ever. How this guy can channel his inner-demons like this is astounding. And his mustache doesn't hurt things, that's for sure. That thing rules.

Check out this clip of "The Rising End" from 2004's Funeral of God and then quit your shitty little band, because you are no longer needed. Thank you very much.

Please play more shows dudes...Heavy music needeth you.