Beavis and Butt-head were sitting on they famous couch and watching a video on the almighty eMpTyV. Actually it was an old Black Sabbath clip. “Paranoid” if I remember it right. They joking about “this is Ozzy’s son” and stuffs like that. Beavis said “they rocks! they are Americans!”, but Butt-head screamed back: “No dumbass, they are from Seattle!”
Well, it was two decades ago, but I remember it now because the new Aiden material starts like a Black Sabbath album from the 70s and continue with a great Iron Maiden riff and well, these guys are from Seattle. For real.
America is a nation of immigrants and I believe the power of America comes directly from this multicultural composition. When a British band try to copy the American sound usually they ending up being nothing but a pale imitation, but when American bands try to sound British, well, sometimes they do a better job than the originals. Read more Aiden – Disguises (2011)
rock
David Bowie – Toy – Unreleased Album from 2001 (2011)
In a world divided by zeros and ones, leaking out to the internet of most of the musical – and not only – products it’s not quit a surprise anymore. I already saw on the web materials scheduled to be released in May, June or even further. Instead hunting down bloggers and deleting blogs, feds and net-cops should concentrate on those guys who actually are stilling these stuffs from the studios or leaking them out from the offices of the record labels. On the other hand it’s quit funny, sometimes the artist is the primal source of the leak, it became some kind of “unconventional” promotional concept this kind of leaks. Anyway, I don’t know the source of this leak, but Sunday afternoon, March 20, 2011, a 256 kbps quality torrent of the full-length album was leaked online. The torrent is quite easy to find and meanwhile the album it’s all over on the file sharing sites as well. “Toy” consisting of 14 tracks recorded by David Bowie at the turn of the century and planned to released for a mid-2001 date. Due to problems with Virgin, Bowie’s record label at the time, it never saw the light of day. Read more David Bowie – Toy – Unreleased Album from 2001 (2011)
Flaming Lips and Neon Indian (2011)
“Is David Bowie Dead?” (or “dying” – it’s still unclear…) it’s a huge song. It’s so David Bowie. 6 minutes and 45 seconds of pure stardust. I can play this single track for a whole day. At least. Maybe even backward. The over 8 minutes of “Alan’s Theremin” is more Neon Indian than Flaming Lips, it sounds like a psychedelic puzzle torn off from the 70s and striped to the bones now days. It’s like a carousel, floats and waving around. “You Don’t Respond” returns with a twisted guitar riff and gloomy electronics and sounds exactly like a broken answering machine. Finally “Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth Part 2” seems like a rehearsal recording, kind of “work in progress” stuff. And that’s all, this is the long expected collaborative project of Flaming Lips with Neon Indian, this 12″ EP. Read more Flaming Lips and Neon Indian (2011)
VA – Homefront – Songs For The Resistance, OST (2011)
“Homefront” is the controversial first-person shooter video game developed by Kaos Studios and published by THQ. The antagonists in “Homefront” were originally intended to be Chinese, but were later replaced by North Koreans for two reasons: a possible backlash by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and the reality of economic interdependence between America and China. Homefront is set in a near future America in 2027 when a nuclear-armed Korean People’s Army invades the USA. The game is written by John Milius, who co-wrote “Apocalypse Now” and wrote/directed “Red Dawn”. In the speculative fiction, post peak oil world that features a significantly diminished United States, and a united Korea that has built a massive alliance in East Asia. The game focuses on the collapse of the United States, subsequent occupation by the Greater Korean Republic – a united Korea under the rule of North Korea – and the American Resistance that fights said occupation. The player is invited to join the American Resistance, “using guerrilla tactics, commandeering military vehicles, and utilizing advanced drone technology”. For sales of Homefront to Japan, the game has been censored by removing all references to North Korea including pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.The changes are replaced by using a “A Certain Country to the North” and the “Northern Leader”. Read more VA – Homefront – Songs For The Resistance, OST (2011)
Sum 41 – Screaming Bloody Murder (2011)
With their debut effort “All Killer No Filler” released back in 2001 certified platinum in Canada, the United States and in the UK and the following three releases certified platinum in Canada, Sum 41 definitively it’s what we call a mainstream rock/punk band. Still, these Canadian guys rocks harder then 99.9% of the so-called rock and punk bands the record companies and the media trying to sell us as “real stuffs”. They blending intelligently rock, punk and hardcore elements and they have a good taste to write real songs. “Screaming Bloody Murder” is not only in its title a killer piece of work, it’s really an intense material far from the usual “bubble gum” and “soap box” pseudo-punk stuffs we get used with lately.
Deryck “Bizzy D” Whibley – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboard, Jason “Cone” McCaslin – bass guitar, backing vocals, Steve “Stevo” Jocz – drums, percussion, and Tom “Brown Tom” Thacker – lead guitar, backing vocals managed to write and put together a quality material, 14 (plus 2 bonus) tracks without any senseless filling. Read more Sum 41 – Screaming Bloody Murder (2011)
Boris – New Album (2011)
It’s pretty strange listening with one ear the loudspeaker and the new album by Boris and with one eye looking over the shoulder to the tv set, watching what’s going on in Japan, especially at the Fukushima Daiichi site. Boris planning to release three new albums this year, “New Album” was released on March 16, 2011, on CD through Tearbridge – an imprint of major label Avex, and on double LP through Daymare. The album is not planned to be released outside of Japan and the CD and LP feature different versions of several tracks. “Heavy Rocks” and “Attention Please” are expected to be released in April and on the same day. And all this after in January we had a nice piece of work, the collaboration between Boris with Merzbow and the brilliant album “Klatter”.
The fifteenth studio album by Boris contains 10 brand new songs and this Japanese guys know how to rock. Read more Boris – New Album (2011)
Terrorvision – Super Delux (2011)
Terrorvision Rocks. In the good old-fashioned way: cutting edge guitars, pumping bass, solid drums, voice with character and it’s all about feeling good. I loved “Oblivion” from their second album “How to Make Friends and Influence People” released back in 1994, and Terrorvision managed to hit Top 40 in UK subsequently with all they singles released till 1999. But after their forth album “Shaving Peaches” EMI drop them and after one more album released by Papillon Records in 2001 “Good to Go” the band splitting up and vanished.
Meantime EMI tried to ripping off all the skins from the band and cashing in by releasing two best of albums and in 2005 with the release of” B Sides And Rarities“. The group reformed to play two tours in 2005 played four more dates in November and December 2007. Occasionally they played few gigs through 2008 and 2009 as well fulminating with the headlining on the Bohemia Stage at the 2010 Sonisphere festival at Knebworth House. Read more Terrorvision – Super Delux (2011)
Julian Cope – The JEHOVACOAT Demos (2011)
Cope is one of the few – if not quit the only – British guy who took the path of Krautrock and 
mainly he’s “to blame” for popularizing this gender in UK not only by playing it, but also by his book “Krautrocksampler” (1995). I discovered Cope through his most popular album, “Peggy Suicide” (1991) with a major delay. But Cope is also famous for his prominent role in the Margaret Thatcher Poll Tax Riots, and not at least for his permanent struggle with the Record companies and the music industry, with those he referred to as “greedheads”.
“The JEHOVACOAT Demos”consist of 15 previously unreleased tracks and 5 previously unpublished poems from the Archdrude, all written and recorded throughout 1993 in direct response to having been dropped by Island Records. In the mid-1990s, Cope signed with Rick Rubin’s Def American label, releasing “Autogeddon” (1994) and “20 Mothers” (1995), but he was dropped by the label when he refused to visit the USA. So Cope released the next album, “Interpreter” through Echo Records (1996). Read more Julian Cope – The JEHOVACOAT Demos (2011)
The Haunted – Unseen (2011)
This guys from Gothenburg, Sweden managed to came out with the perfect blend of the traditional Melodic Death/Thrash with the modern, straight approach and sound of the later trends. And I’m gonna tell you right from the beginning: “Unseen” it’s another outstanding collection of heavy, consistent songs, all the 12 new tracks are killer ones, crushing constructions of modern metal, the three years passed from their previous material, “Versus”, worth the extended waiting.
Formed in 1996 on the solid foundation of the pioneering band of the Swedish metal scene At the Gates, The Haunted signed to Earache Records and released their debut, self-titled album in 1998. The original members were Anders & Jonas Björler, Peter Dolving, Adrian Erlandsson and Patrik Jensen. Read more The Haunted – Unseen (2011)
Wings – London Town (1978)
My mom played this vinyl many times and it gets under my skin. Tunes, fragments of it still vibrates in my ears even after 30 and so years. “By dawn’s first light i’ll come back to your room again/With my carnation hidden by the packages/I’m carrying, something/I’m carrying something for you…” Just like that. “People pass me by on my imaginary street/Ordinary people it’s impossible to meet/Holding conversations that are always incomplete/Well, I don’t know/Oh where are there places to go/Someone somewhere has to know/I don’t know…” Songs to humming along a lifetime. Just like “Girlfriend” or “With A Little Luck”. And I’m pretty sure, a guy named Michael Jackson learned this songs – and lesson – as well. But I love McCarney and I love this whole album from “”Cafe on the Left Bank” to “Famous Groupies” or from the “Backwards Traveller” to “Deliver Your Children” and I just can name all the 14 tracks of the original release. Worth to mention the over 6 minutes of “”Morse Moose and the Grey Goose” with Funky and Psychedelic infusions. On the re-issued and remastered release from 1993 there’s two bonus tracks: “Girls’ School” and “Mull of Kintyre”, this second one becoming the UK’s biggest-selling not charting single, even outstripping The Beatles’ largest seller “She Loves You”. Read more Wings – London Town (1978)
