21 November 2010

Christmas 2010


























There it is, a list of all the things a discerning man of the world (with a slight knife fixation) would like to have for Christmas. In case it's confusing, Rise Above Records is just a link to the labels home page, because anything they've ever done is worth owning.

04 November 2010

The Blackest of the Black Tour 2010

First off we arrived about an hour after the doors opened due to a conflict between Steve's work schedule and Danzig's desire to start a show at 6pm. That said I missed all of Withered's set except 2 songs, one of which was heard while standing outside in the ticket line. I can't give them a fair judgment but I can say that the one song I heard was tight and sounded pretty good.

After exploring the oddity that is Expo Five (dirt mall, ex-strip club, arcade....and more?) we made our way back to the stage area as Toxic Holocaust came on stage. I'll be honest, my excitement to see Danzig was equaled by my excitement to see Toxic Holocaust. Their blend of 80's thrash and punk is right up my alley and they have some of the best album art/merch you'll see anywhere. The crowd lost it's mind during War Is Hell and rightfully so, if you weren't able to feel the intensity in the room you were a corpse. After their set, while Marduk were setting up, we went over and talked to Joel Grind for a few minutes, he was laid back and pretty gracious when we thanked him for their set. Good news is their album will be out next year and they'll be touring through here to support it.

Marduk was up next and I really don't have much to say about them. Black metal is something I can enjoy through headphones now and then, but a live show is another story, you can't headbang to it, you can't sing along, you can't really get anything but assaulted by blast beats. A lot of the crowd was having the time of their life while Marduk was on, so there's something there, I just wasn't tuned into it.

Next up was Possessed. In the name of transparency I'll admit I thought these guys were going to be these guys, never mind the fact that they broke up in the 1980's and Wino was in a band or two since then (St Vitus, The Hidden Hand, Shrinebuilder & Probot to name a few), it was an honest mistake but I was thrilled at the idea of seeing them play their cover of On The Hunt. So I'm twice the asshole when I see Jeff Becerra come on stage in a wheel chair and wonder what the fuck dimension I was in. Once I settled into not hearing southern sludge metal Possessed blew my face right the fuck off. Becerra's stage presence was obviously different than any front man I've seen before but it was pretty amazing, his interaction with the crowd was like micro conversations that took place in the span of a second or two. He would look at someone who was singing their ass of in the crowd and be so into it and then turn and be just as into the next person who was throwing the horns and pointing at him. One of the driving forces in Possessed's winning me over was Emilio Marquez, he took metal drumming to the next level. His set up was way more intense than any of the other 4 acts and it showed in his playing, when they were sitting his gear up I asked aloud if we'd come to see Rush by mistake, and after seeing them I would wager he could probably have pulled off 2112 start to finish if asked to.

And finally we come to the man himself; Glenn Fucking Danzig. Every other band was set up in 10-15 minutes, Danzig took 45. That fact aside once they made it on stage I noticed something, a sense of entitlement took over the guitarist and bass player. The show was riddled with sound problems, feedback (unintentional), and at one point the guitarist wireless set up stopped working for 10 seconds mid-solo. Danzig was giving his assistant all kinds of hell through the issues...and after them....and right before the encore. Lots of hell to that guy in the Fear shirt.

The crowd was singing along to every song and of course the place erupted during Twist of Cain and Mother. Danzig's stage presence was exactly what I expected, well...minus the crotch grabbing during Ju-Ju Bone. As Danzig stood on his 7" pedestal at the front of the stage he basically threw the horns, thrust his crotch and gave alternating chest bumps and thumbs downs (to implicate Satan, not disapprove the crowd) through the whole show. I'm glad I saw Danzig before he swore off touring, his various incarnations have been in steady musical rotation since I was 10 years old so it was definitely worth the issues.


Apollo Saturn V Launch

I'll have a review of the Danzig show later on today but I saw this over at A Continuous Lean and wanted to share it, it's a video from the launchpad of Apollo 8 and between the video and the score it's pretty awesome.




02 November 2010

Music

+
Barn Owl "Ancestral Star" - if you're looking for excellent blown out psych desert music, it really doesn't get much better than this

The Gaslamp Killer "Death Gate" - sample rich hip hop similar to early DJ Shadow but with a better production value and a clearer picture of what's happening


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Kings Of Leon "Come Around Sundown" - I am hoping that at least one of the group will listen to this pile of garbage and start a new band that sounds like their first two albums

Election Day Blues OR How I found Yog Sothoth and why he's in the Kentucky Senate race

So I sat down and read through Rand Paul and Jack Conway's viewpoints, giving myself the best overall understanding a person could in such a time frame...they're both fucking terrible. Jack Conway is a conservative liberal (which is fucking worthless if you desire change, it allows both a limp wrist on the rudder and a weak stomach in the trenches) and Rand Paul is a tea party conservative (which is like saying you're racist...because frankly the tea party is racist). Paul has me on the medical marijuana/gun control/repeal of the patriot act pieces & Conway has me on the medicare/hometown tax credit/abortion pieces. I will say the term "aqua buddha" has me wondering just how weird Rand Paul is...with no answer in site I'll just end this horseshit rant with a quote from Robert Anton Wilson because if he was still wandering this earth I'd write in a vote for him: "I was an anarchist for a long period of time. I'm not an anarchist any longer, because I've concluded that anarchism is an impractical ideal. Nowadays, I regard myself as a libertarian. I suppose an anarchist would say, paraphrasing what Marx said about agnostics being "frightened atheists," that libertarians are simply frightened anarchists. Having just stated the case for the opposition, I will go along and agree with them: yes, I am frightened. I'm a libertarian because I don't trust the people as much as anarchists do. I want to see government limited as much as possible; I would like to see it reduced back to where it was in Jefferson's time, or even smaller. But I would not like to see it abolished. I think the average American, if left totally free, would act exactly like Idi Amin. I don't trust the people any more than I trust the government."

26 May 2010

+
brown bird - the devil dancing
gogol bordello - transcontinental hustle
frank herbert's DUNE series (currently on Children of Dune)

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cutting my finger tip nearly off with my christmas gift, a Case XX knife



12 January 2010

The plans for 2010:

1. Get as close to debt free as possible. No credit cards, no car payments, no student loans. This year I become free of the systematic slavery of the middle class. My parents have a cumulative credit score of (-5) because they got caught in the whirlpool of high interest debt, I won't be the same.

2. Start a college fund for my daughter. If I put $150 a month away from the day she's born until she turns 18 and it earns average interest she should be able to get into a reasonable school without looking at student loans.

3. Find my next step career/education-wise. I'm 27 rushing towards 28 and don't have a career. I have a job. That needs at least a plan to be remedied.

..more to come!

09 January 2010

I have an unwavering belief that 2010 is going to be an amazing year. I don't usually partake in resolutions for the new year, I have a weird superstition that if I talk about anything good happening then it won't happen or it will be built up too much and not measure up to the expectations. So I've made plans, not resolutions! Coming next update!

12 December 2009

29 November 2009


Always carry more 'n one rope. You might run across more 'n one rope can handle.
- Bix Bender

I want to move, Kentucky has been home 98% of my life, but it doesn't hold my heart. There's too much wrong to appreciate the right and I think living somewhere else will either prove me right or make me see something in Kentucky I have been taking for granted.

I have a few ideas where I'd like to move, Mrs Williams has yet to weigh an opinion on any of them so as of right now they're pure fantasy as I build a case up to support each idea.

Case Book # 1: Montana
Everything I see and read about Montana has me ready to pack the car and move.

Glacier Country - Russell Country - Missouri River Country - Gold West Country - Yellowstone Country - Custer Country