Cave In is back. You should know this. A new single hit the 'net shelves at iTunes today, called "Retina Sees Rewind", which is taken from the forthcoming 12" 4-song EP Planets of Old, coming July 28th on the ever-awesome Hydra Head Records. It will rule. You should also know this.
A lot of people have their fandom split between the metalcore originators era (1995-1998) and the Failure-loving days (1999-2004), but I seem to really dig where they've been going off and on since 2005's Perfect Pitch Black...They go wherever the fuck they want. It's like Led Zeppelin meets Old Man Gloom at Ken Andrew's house. The new track is killer and keeps with this freedom, leaving the listener with under 3 minutes of aural bliss.
The band reunites on July 19th in Mass for "reunion"/record release show of sorts. Tickets sold out in 2 minutes or some crazy shit like that.
In case you can't tell, I cannot wait for this.
A tasty nugget to get you excited: "The World Is In Your Way" Live, 2005
The new PJ album will hit streets on 9/22 (possibly) and after their 3-minute appearance on Conan last night and their much-publicized deal with Target, there's a lot of info suddenly out there. The new song "Get Some" is pretty awesome. Ed didn't quite have a great night vocally but it was killer to see a song so bass/drum driven. It was almost Police-like, circa 1978. Like a long lost b-side. It has that familiar feel like "Save You", "Spin The Black Circle" and other vicious PJ tracks from years past, but it also has jerky start-stop breaks and a very infectious chorus. Look, nothing works better than some great power chords. We all know this.
Yes, the Target deal seems like horseshit, but it might be a good deal for the band and Target has always been an eco-friendly company, something that probably seems very attractive to Pearl Jam. They promise to still put the record out thru the indies and of course the Ten Club.
Oh yeah, the album is going to be called Backspacer...Either a reference to the backspace key on turn-of-the-century typrwriters or that damn turtle Stone Gossard sponsored in some stupid race for jerks. I hope it's the former cause the latter is fucking lame.
Bottom line: New Pearl Jam music is always a good thing.
Today is like opening a time capsule of hardcore. Both Earth Crisis and Zao have new records out and I'm heading to my local record shop to buy them. Feels like I'm 17 again, wearing my Snapcase hoodie, long shorts, listening to some Cast Iron Hike...Wait, not much has changed! Earth Crisis is putting out their first original full length since 2000's Slither (which I loved, goofball elitist hardcore d-bags hated) and Zao is back as a four-piece, doing what they do best: Crushing riffs, razor-gargling vocals, poetic lyrics, handlebar mustaches.
The Zao is limited to 8K physical copies and the packaging is supposed to be breathtaking, while Century Media decided to give iTunes an album-only bonus track for Earth Crisis, which is fucked up. Thanks, dudes, who last put an album out before iTunes existed.
Anyway, here's some tunes to wake up with on this fine Cinco de Mayo...
ZAO "Five Year Winter" Live: Earth Crisis "Broken Foundation" Ozzfest Live 1996:
I know I've been gone for a minute...Life is busy and time is always short it seems.
So I've been digging on the brand new Hatesphere album, "To The Nines"...Who cares that 4/5ths of the original lineup is gone, or that 4/5ths of the lineup from the last record is gone. This is brutally heavy and groovy metallic hardcore with low-hanging balls. This is for fans of Pantera, Lamb of God, Slayer, Sepultura and to some extent, Hatebreed and Terror, except without the shitty adolescent "Say It To My Face" hardcore chants.
Check this band out. I haven't been able to see them live just yet, as their popularity is less than none here in the states. Hey, at least they have proper distribution this time!
To The Nines is out now on Napalm/SPV Records in both regular CD and deluxe CD digipak versions (w/3 bonus tracks).
"Drinking With The King of The Dead" (from 2007's Serpent Smiles and Killer Eyes):
I've been on a big Galactic Cowboys kick lately. If you're not familiar with these Texan/Missourian (?) dudes then spend some time digging into their amazing catalog, which spans a decade, releasing albums both on Geffen Records and Metal Blade. Six LP's and one awesome EP complete the GC catalog. Get all of it. It's either on clearance or out of print but easy to find for a few bucks a piece.
Think King's X, with 4-part harmonies instead of three. Think Dream Theater without all the wanking. Think Beatles-meets-Metallica with more than a hint of sarcasm and a sense of humor. Think awesome.
Their catalog (and sometimes fan base) is split into two factions: Before the hiatus (Geffen) and after (Metal Blade). Danie Cnoier or Wally Farkas. Fuck the haters. I love it all. Space In Your Face and The Horse That Bud Bought are my favorites but they're all amazing records. Name a few bands that never wrote a bad song. It's harder than you think. Sure, there has been some filler/intro/avant garde cuts, but I still find them enjoyable. Sometimes.
The band unfortunately called it quits in 2000 after their swan song Let It Go (featuring Jerry Gaskill from King's X on drums). Bassist/vocalist Monty Colvin went on to start Crunchy, a pop-punk-metal project. Vocalist/guitarist Ben Higgins started Gristle with some Texan dudes and his son. Former drummer Alan Doss still produces records (Jambi's Revenge, etc) and still plays. Dane Connier started The Connier Brothers Band, with guess who else? Wally Farkas started Molken Music, an independent label only releasing music from his friends, which include Dug Pinnick, Ty Tabor ("Balance" is his finest record to date, by the way), King's X DVD's and unreleased and live music and this year, his first solo LP, "Past Due".
I love this band. I always come back to them and get on a huge GC kick for a few weeks. Fucking awesome band.
"Fear Not" (from 1996's Machine Fish LP):
"Nothing To Say" (from 1998's At The End of the Day):
It was August of 1991 and I just saw the "Alive" video on MTV and had my mind blown and life changed forever. A band actually PLAYING during a video. God bless you, Josh Taft. I love Pearl Jam. The band that could've been bigger than U2 but chose to not be douche bags and took the hard road all the way instead. They chose to make weirder and weirder (and better) records to aleinate their fly-by-night fans and critics. This kept them together all these years and made them the only non-Mudhoney Seattle band that is still in it's somewhat original incarnation.
The Ten deluxe edition comes out this tuesday, March 24th. Four versions will be available, including a Super Awesome deluxe edition (CD w/ bonus tracks, new mix CD w/ bonus tracks, MTV Unplugged DVD (finally!), Drop In The Park live show 2LP 180g, 2LP 180g of Ten and a ton of passes, tickets, replica notebook and replica original copy of the "Mamasan" cassette of the demos Ed sent back to Jeff and Stone with the first PJ songs on them: "Once", "Alive" and "Footsteps"). I know.
Ten is not my favorite PJ album. In fact, it's my least favorite. Still, it's groundbreaking and set the tone for what was to come over the past 18 years. The band turns 20 in 2011 and will celebrate by re-releasing all of their studio albums in this super-deluxe fasion before then.
All I'm saying is bring that shit on. And thanks for once again, emptying my wallet.
Cave In is back. You should know this. A new single hit the 'net shelves at iTunes today, called "Retina Sees Rewind", which is taken from the forthcoming 12" 4-song EP Planets of Old, coming July 28th on the ever-awesome Hydra Head Records. It will rule. You should also know this. 
