Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Halloween Playlist

Shane-hain asked, so here it is. (Shufflified)

Name:Artist
Die, Die My Darling: The Misfits
Monsters In The Parasol: Queens Of The Stone Age
Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell: Iggy & The Stooges
Store Bought Bones: The Raconteurs
King Ink: The Birthday Party
Deadly Rhythm: Refused
Diabolic Scheme: The Hives
Initium\\Samhain: Samhain
London Dungeon: The Misfits
Cursed Realms (Of The Winterdemons): Sunn 0)))
Gallows Pole: Led Zeppelin
American Nightmare: The Misfits
Black Shuck: The Darkness
Head Of The Baptist: Cursed
Halloween : The Misfits
Mommy, Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight: The Misfits
Omalleys Bar: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Black Celebration Depeche Mode
Demonomania: The Misfits
Skulls: The Misfits
Celestial Crown: The Sword
How The Gods Kill: Danzig
Jack the Ripper (live): The White Stripes
Walking with a Ghost: The White Stripes
Monster In The Parasol: Desert Sessions
He-Who-Cannot-Be-Named: Samhain
Black Dream: Samhain
Your Sweet Six Six Six: H.I.M.
Abra Cadaver: The Hives
The Omen (Ave Satani): Fantômas
Death Comes Ripping: The Misfits
Up In Hell: Desert Sessions
Cape Fear: Fantômas
She: The Misfits
Come to Daddy: Dillinger Escape Plan With Mike Patton
Someone's In The Wolf: Queens Of The Stone Age
Ghoul's Night Out: The Misfits
Fearless Vampire Killers: Bad Brains
Children Of The Grave: Black Sabbath
RIP: Cursed
Thriller: Michael Jackson
All My Friends Are Going Death: Some Girls
NYC Ghosts & Flowers: Sonic Youth
Green Hell : The Misfits
A Dead Song: The Birthday Party
Rosemary's Baby: Fantômas
Barael's Blade: The Sword
666: John Frusciante
Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground: The White Stripes
Down in the Park: Gary Numan
Red Death at 6:14: The White Stripes
Suicide Invoice: Hot Snakes
Religion II: Some Girls
Automatic Midnight: Hot Snakes
Who Died: Hot Snakes
Last Caress: The Misfits
Vlad Tepes: Sunn 0)))
Bladecatcher: Mastodon
Dead Man's Party: Oingo Boingo
Sympathy For The Devil: The Rolling Stones
What's Behind The Mask: The Cramps
Horror Business: The Misfits
Blood and Thunder: Mastodon
Winter's Wolves:The Sword
The Mercy Seat: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Up Jumped The Devil : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Long Way Back From Hell: Danzig
Blue Veins: The Raconteurs
Fade To Black: Metallica
Bringer Of Death: Danzig
Ebethron: The Sword
Halloween II: The Misfits
Zombie Dance: The Cramps
Don't Fear the Reaper: H.I.M.
No Quarter: Led Zeppelin
6 Feet Deep: Gravediggaz
It Took The Night To Believe: Sunn 0)))
Rather Be Dead: Refused
Superstition: Stevie Wonder
Fatalist: Cursed
Twist of Cain: Samhain
Song of Joy: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath
Death Letter: The White Stripes
Someone's In The Wolf: Queens Of The Stone Age
Ghosts: Shellac
Master of Puppets: Metallica
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath: Black Sabbath
Damaged 1: Black Flag
Electric Funeral: Black Sabbath
Track 2: Khanate
Dead Souls: Joy Division
Horror Biz: Samhain
Night Of The Living Dead: The Misfits
Black Thunder: Doomriders
Die, All Right!: The Hives
One: Metallica
Lovely Creature : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Chase The Devil: Eagles of Death Metal
The Opera Song: Botch
I Was A Teenage Werewolf: The Cramps
Colony Of Birchmen: Mastodon
Marry Mortuary: Some Girls
Soul on Fire: Danzig
Hells Bells: AC/DC
Human Fly: The Cramps
Song For The Dead: Queens Of The Stone Age
Hatchet Job: Hot Snakes
The Devil Rides Out (Remix): Fantômas
Your Funeral, My Trial: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

[chosen based on title, lyrical content, and creepiness factor.]

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Winter Records

It's only 84 degrees here today, so that got me thinking.
Here's some records that remind me of Winter, and don't feel right when listened to any other time:

The Strokes: Is This It?
The Strokes: Room On Fire
Interpol: Turn On The Bright Lights
Interpol: Antics
Misfits: Static Age
The Darkness: Permission to Land
Elliott Smith: From A Basement On A Hill
My Bloody Valentine: Loveless
Explosions In The Sky: Those Who Tell The Truth...
Fugazi: End Hits
George Harrison: All Things Must Pass
Mastodon: Leviathan
Nirvana: Unplugged in New York
Smashing Pumpkins: Gish

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Inventory

Interesting (and not so interesting) Things On My Desk:
-2 coffee cups
-drum machine
-surfboard fin
-art show price list
-bills
-headphones
-buddhist prayer beads
-box of stickers
-2 iPods
-airsoft gun
-CM buttons
-2 watches
-business cards
-Chinese relaxation balls
-recording interface
-stack of burnt/blank CDs
-speakers
-cup full of pens and change
-multiple guitar picks
-Miguelito Pancho Sanchez-Danzig, my erstwhile cellphone.

Monday, October 2, 2006

American Hardcore: A Meditation

There are many privileges, in my opinion, about living in Southern California (along with, of course, many disadvantages), and one of them is getting to see the movies that don't come out in most other places. Now, I normally don't get too excited about going to the movies, but, a documentary? On music? About Minor Threat, Black Flag and Bad Brains? Sign me right the fuck up.

Punk inspired/derived movies are usually an incredible bummer. Take, for example, Punk: Attitude, which came out a few years ago. Complete and utter shit. Horrible. A thrown together, woefully incomplete, highlight reel that might as well have been made by MTV. And it wasn't, which could have also been the biggest bummer.* 1991: The Year Punk Broke contained some of my favorite bands in the world, ever, but it was suuuuuuuper boring. And barely "punk" related. The Decline of Western Civilization is mildly entertaining because everyone in it is so absolutely fucked up. It looks, however, like it was made by the Channel 4 news in their spare time, and there's no real information in it. Decline 2: The Metal Years was way better, but I digress. SLC Punk, though, is really good for some reason.

Needless to say, I approached American Hardcore with much trepidation. My reasoning was, "Even if I just get to see a bunch of Black Flag and Minor Threat clips I've already seen on the big screen, that'll still be cool." The book it's based on, American Hardcore: A Tribal History is a rad book. Kinda confusing, but really fascinating to me. Since I am a gentleman and a scholar, and have read pages upon pages of essays about punk, I didn't really intend to learn anything new.

I don't know about you, but when I'm sitting in the movie theater and the screen goes dark, and fucking Banned In DC starts playing, I nearly loose my shit. In a good way. So we're off to a good start.

It's a similar phenomenon to watching Lord Of The Rings: you know and love the story, and you're suprised that the film pulls off all this stuff that's supposed to be just a part of your imagination. So maybe it's not LOTR, but I didn't think there was any way "they" could've gotten right all this stuff that has been such a big part of me for so many years. I really didn't think the movie could come close to what I know it should be.

But I'm pleasantly surprised. It was (pretty much) all there. It reminded me of Dogtown and Z-Boys, stylistically. Ian, Henry, Greg Ginn, HR... they talked to the right dudes. I wondered where Adam Yauch, Glenn E. Friedman and Chuck Dukowski were, however, but other than that (and maybe Ray Cappo... but more on that later), everyone was there. Unfortunately, some douchebags were there that probably shouldn't have been (Dicky Barrett- I'm looking at you), but whatever. They even had a piece on the Adolescents (Steve Soto's lost a ton of weight. Gastric Bypass?)! TSOL! My friend Kimm was on there!

And it wasn't just a bunch of reused old footage. I have seen, I think, every bit of filmed evidence of Minor Threat, so AHC gets a pass on that one. But seeing Rollins knock the fuck out of a heckler on the big screen was remarkable. There was rad Bad Brains footy too. What else? Pretty much every band that mattered, and some that really didn't, but it's always good to err on the side of too much info as opposed to too little. But there was nowhere near enough Misfits, for god's sake.

As Ian Mackaye (ma-kiye, thanks Jerm) said, Minor Threat was a good band, talent wise. Most of the bands are incredibly tight. Bad Brains were robots created to play incredibly fast and tight. Black Flag: practice, 8AM, Christmas morning. Enough said. Listen to a "modern" punk record: that shit is tres horrible.

Dawn brought up that she thought they should have gone into what hardcore punk evolved into- namely present day hardcore. Which is a good point. It was fine without it, but it could have been interesting to hear what Ray of Today or CIV had to say. Maybe.

And of course, there was a punker in the theater mouthing off the whole time. Fuckin gutter punks.

But yeah- it was good. Could have been a lot worse.



*[It was made by Don Letts, who was allegedly big in the late 70's British punk scene. You'd assume he'd know better. Actually, I wouldn't assume. I know better than to trust the preachers of the 70's punk gospel.]