“All We Are Saying is give peace a chance” became the anthem of the anti Vietnam-war movement back in ’69. Guitarist and composer Bill Frisell took his chances on some of the most famous songs written by John Lennon and record his take on the classic songs such as “Across the Universe”, “Nowhere Man”, “Imagine”, “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”, “In My Life”, “Come Together”, “# 9 Dream” or “Mother”.
Some might know Bill Frisell from John Zorn’s Naked City, but before that, he worked with Jan Garbarek on “Paths, Prints” in 1981 and one year later Pat Metheny recommended Frisell to Paul Motian who was recording “Psalm” for ECM Records. Frisell became ECM’s in-house guitar player. In ’83 he collaborated once again with Garbarek on “Wayfarer”.
Frisell’s first solo release was In Line featured solo guitar and duets with bassist Arild Andersen in 1983 and since he released almost 30 solo albums and had collaborate with Vernon Reid, Elvis Costello, Jack DeJohnette, Tim Berne, Michael White among many other artist on several release. Read more Bill Frisell – All We Are Saying… (2011)
Monthly Archives: September 2011
Unfold – Cosmogon (2011)
Released on September 27, 2011, “Cosmogon”, on Division Records, the third album by Swiss metal outfit Unfold came after a gap of eight years.
Alain – guitars & keys, Bastien – bass, Danek – vocals, Elie – guitars & keys, Laurent – drums, and Simon – guitars & keys delivered a dark and raw mix of slow grinding crust/doom/sludge like vibes with cutting edge and explosive riffs, hurricane like metal butcheries. Combining classic metal themes and modern sounds, twisted solutions, sometimes scremo like vocals, subtle elector-acoustic passages with post-grunge after taste and merciless grindings, they create their distinctive, own blended metal, and open the gates of an unheard universe.
38 minutes, 6 tracks, Unfold express anger, despair, suffering, and delivered the darkest future-metal. Read more Unfold – Cosmogon (2011)
Misfits – The Devil’s Rain (2011)
Misfits was founded in 1977 by singer and songwriter Glenn Danzig and the band disbanded in 1983 when Danzig went on to form Samhain and then Danzig. During this period, bassist Jerry Only was the only consistent members along Danzing, they released several EPs and singles and the albums “Walk Among Us” (1982) and “Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood” (1983), both considered touchstones of the early 1980s hardcore punk movement.
The success of Danzig’s post-Misfits’ work led to interest in his past work, and several high-profile rock bands professed fondness for the Misfits. Most notably, Metallica covered the Misfits songs “Last Caress” and “Green Hell” on “The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited” in 1987, and Guns N’ Roses covered “Attitude” on “The Spaghetti Incident?” in 1993. Several albums of reissued and previously unreleased Misfits material were issued between 1985 and 1987, the first being the compilation album “Legacy of Brutality” in 1985 which included many of the songs from the unreleased “Static Age” album. Danzig overdubbed many of the album’s instrument tracks in order to avoid having to pay royalties to the other former band members.
After a series of legal battles with Danzig, Only and Doyle (born Paul Caiafa) – the younger brother of the Misfits bassist who featured as guitarist of the band since 1980 – in 1995 the parties reached an out-of-court settlement that allowed Only and Doyle to record and perform as the Misfits, sharing merchandising rights with Danzig. Read more Misfits – The Devil’s Rain (2011)
As We Draw, Euglena, Hexis – 3​-Way Split (2011)
Encouraging free download, releasing classic vinyls and spreading real underground metal and alternatives for the mainstream crap, Throatruiner Records from France seems to be a nowadays Don Quijote of the music industry. One of these days I was thinking about my old record collection, I really miss now the scratches and the warm sound of the vinyls, I miss the big covers and the touch of the paper, I miss the good times they represent at least symbolically. The good times of the music when music was more about music and less about business and industry. I fucking hate the plastic cases, the cellophane coating as I hate the folders on my hard drive and the mp3s. Everything is so plastic and so tasteless.
What I’m saying is that the effort of Throatruiner Records and other-likes worth some respect and recognition. Their new 3-Way split is once again available to listen, free download or buy at their Bandcamp page, but I think both – bands and label – deserves some remuneration. Read more As We Draw, Euglena, Hexis – 3​-Way Split (2011)
Blink-182 – Neighborhoods (2011)
Vacation is over, time to wake up the neighborhoods. After a four-year hiatus this is their first album of new material in eight year. Two tragedies regarding the band – the death of the band’s frequent producer Jerry Finn by a cerebral hemorrhage on August 21, 2008 and a plane crash survived only by drummer Travis Barker and Adam Goldstein, better known as DJ AM – bring the band members together and they managed to work out their issues and reunite in 2008. “Neighborhoods” is the first Blink-182 album produced by the band members without the help of an outside record producer. And Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker did a great job.
Released on September 27, 2011 through DGC Records and Interscope Records, the sixth studio album by Blink-182 is another great collection of pop punk anthems. Maybe some of their new songs have a darker vibe, but still, this is so 101% Californian punk. Read more Blink-182 – Neighborhoods (2011)
Maylene And The Sons of Disaster – IV (2011)
Released in June 2009, the band’s third album called “III” was one of my favorite albums of the year and their tasty southern metal had some unique, fresh breath. The album debuted at #71 on the Billboard 200 and they performed the entrance theme for the former Unified WWE Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho and The Big Show, entitled “Crank the Walls Down”. Also, their song “Step Up (I’m On It)” was the theme for WWE Bragging Rights.
Lead vocalist Dallas Taylor is the last original member of the band left, although he took some time off from touring to deal with some things in his personal life from September 2009 to February 2010 and the band recruited their good friend Schuylar Croom,vocalist for He Is Legend, to fill in for touring and in that period no original members of the band were present onstage.
Formed in Alabama, in 2004, the band name and concept are based on the legend of the criminal gang of Ma Barker and her sons, noting that evil lifestyles will be met with “divine justice”. Maylene And The Sons of Disaster are back. Read more Maylene And The Sons of Disaster – IV (2011)
Mastodon – The Hunter (2011)
Developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, heavy metal, a genre of rock music was declared dead and buried since in each and every decade. Formed in 1999, in Atlanta, Georgia, Mastodon with roots back in blues rock and psychedelic rock, with raw sludge riffs and powerful post-grunge flavors, delivering complex, multi-layered songs, but also memorable and cutting riffs, merging progressive elements with pure rock energy, prove once again that the heavy metal in its purest essence remains strong and fresh, capable of reinventing itself. Mastodon managed to sound classy and traditional being modern and creative, looking further.
Moved to Atlanta from Victor, New York, drummer Brann Dailor and guitarist Bill Kelliher teamed up with bassist/singer Troy Sanders and guitarist/singer Brent Hinds and formed the band in late 1999. They recorded their first demo in 2000, which featured the band’s first lead singer, Eric Saner on vocals, but he left the band for personal reasons after just a couple of months and Troy Sanders take over most of the vocal duties. Read more Mastodon – The Hunter (2011)
WormZ – Introduction To The System (2011)
Something’s going on in Italy lately, this year I stumble into lot of good stuffs from the peninsula in all kind of genres from rock to harsh electro. WormZ are a duo from Milan and “Introduction To The System” is their most recent production consist of 9 noisy and pumping tracks.
Riko – programming, production, mastering and voice, and Drago – synth, guitar and voice juggling between hard harsh electro noises and classic EBM and techno sounds delivering a crushy and crunchy mixture of intense and high-energy music which definitively sets the clubs on fire.
Harddance, powernoise, name and label it as you please, this is an excellent and explosive mixture of sounds and genres. Read more WormZ – Introduction To The System (2011)
Wednesday 13 – Calling All Corpses (2011)
“I Wanna Be… Cremated”. Sounds familiar? Well, if you’re into punk rock and The Ramones means something for you, it should.
Joseph Poole, better known as Wednesday 13 and mainly famous for his role as the frontman of the Murderdolls, are delivering his new solo material and it sounds exactly as the perfect blending of The Ramones and Alice Cooper. Horror punk? Eventually a twist of Misfits is mandatory and always part of the formula, but don’t take those horror things too seriously, this is dirty, good-old rock and roll and even the fake blood was replaced with humor. Just like “sedated” with “cremated”. 😀 Anyway, at the end we all gonna die, don’t really matter if we were good little boys and girls and avoided downloading this or that, isn’t it? Don’t looking for trouble: mp3 to mp3 and dust to dust! 😆 Read more Wednesday 13 – Calling All Corpses (2011)
XMRV – Disimmunized (2011)
Absolutely sick! Lasting only one minute, “Noodles” clarify at least this aspect. Xenotropic murine leukemia virus (XMRV) – is a gammaretrovirus that was first described in 2006. Initial reports linked the virus to prostate cancer, and later to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), but these were followed by a large number of studies in which no association was found. It has not been established that XMRV can infect humans, nor has it been demonstrated that XMRV is associated with or causes human disease. Numerous researchers have suggested that XMRV detection may result from contamination of clinical specimens and laboratory reagents with mouse retroviruses or related nucleic acids. I told you it’s sick!
A clash of nationalities, cultures, quite different tastes and musical influences and backgrounds, XMRV blending through their own creative filter hardcore, thrash metal, grunge, noise, punk, jazz, Latin music and delivering a killer sonic cocktail which will definitively knock you down. Are you ready for a punch directly in your immune system? Read more XMRV – Disimmunized (2011)
