Mark Lanegan is the Tupac of my music collection. I have no idea how the guy manages to record as many records as he does and still manage to eat breakfast. Unfortunately for Mark, he's probably a lot closer to death than Tupac is. Just recently he's completed three amazing tracks for the Import-only Creature With The Atom Brains' "I Am The Golden Gate Bridge", a cover of "The Man In The Long Black Coat" by Bob Dylan and a second full-length LP with Isobel Campbell, "Sunday at Devil Dirt" (also import-only at this time). The latter will be a Fancy feature at some point.
Sub Pop released "Adorata", a fantastic mini-album/EP from The Gutter Twins this past Tuesday. To my lack of surprise, it is amazing. I actually think it's better than their full-length debut, "Saturnalia", which was great but definitely lacked just a bit. Hey, I have high standards for the frontmen of The Afghan Whigs, Twilight Singers, Screaming Trees, and countless solo projects and guest spots.
Enjoy the fanciness: "St. James Infirmary" Live, 2008
You have to respect bands that make brilliant records and then break up while still on top. No one likes to be Warrant, not even Warrant. Especially not Warrant. Bands like Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees and many others decided that this is probably as good as it gets and called it quits. One such band is Dead To Fall. They used to suck. Basic meathead hardcore with more breakdowns than Hatebreed would know what to do with. They put out three records which all sounded the same, until January of this year.
"Are You Serious?" is a killer metal album that has something for everyone: Breakdowns, riff after riff, gutteral-yet-understadable vocals and lyrics that make you think one second and make you think "What the fuck is this guy thinking?" another. They take a page from the Clutch playbook and never let it get too serious.
They never made a record as good as any of the bands above (except Warrant) but they made a motherfucker on the way out of town. RIP Dead To Fall.
