Continuity

So I am back from my trip, good times were to be had. However, I've decided to focus my energies into something that is longer than the blog format will allow. I'm writing a retrospective of the decade in rock music. Also, school is starting once again, and I'm currently obsessed with playing the World War II campaign in Civilization II. Operation Sea Lion was a success! Anyways I'll probably post it on here when its done, but the more I do, the more I find that needs coverage. Anyways, I'll probably be updating about as often as I usually do, which is to say, not very.

Here's a few capsule reviews for ya...

Jesu - Jesu (2006)
Justin Broadrick's opus. The man has spent the better part of three decades redefining metal, as a member of Napalm Death, Godflesh and other shorter-lived projects, but this is my favourite record of his. All votes for Scum will be counted though. This record is absolutely colossal. Each titanic track marches at a snail's pace, like fog rolling inexorably across the horizon. Broadrick uses dense waves of distortion and syrupy atmospherics to craft music that is titanically heavy yet soothes the listener like a warm blanket. It's easy to get lost in the haze, but it's not really difficult listening. A bliss-out metal record.

Candlemass - Nightfall (1987)
I've always been a huge fan of Candlemass's debut, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, but had never really spent much time with the later records featuring Messiah Marcolin on vocals until recently. While Nightfall does not top Epicus in terms of doomy ambience or quality material, fans of Marcolin's more operatic vocals may prefer this release, which combines the darkness and gloom of prime Sabbath with the grandeur of classic heavy metal. Bassist and main songwriter Leif Edling possesses an astounding supply of awesome riffs, and the advanced guitar heroics of Lars Johansson conjure majestic cathedral spires.

sHEAVY - Celestial Hi-Fi (2000)
These Canadians do a cool heavy rock thing better than most of their stoner-rock contemporaries. Singer Steve Hennessy is an absolute dead ringer for Ozzy, so the Sabbath comparison get's tossed around a lot, but this record is spacier than the masters themselves ever got. sHEAVY can write a song, so the best tracks allow the band to rise above mimicry, but we're never too far off from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath territory. If that's not a problem for you, then this is a fine hard rock album. When the band stretches out, as on album-closer "Tales From The Afterburner" their ensemble playing really shines. Most of the songs here are in the 5 to 6 minute range, so there is plenty of space for the songs to roam without ever losing the listener's attention. Other standout tracks are "What's Up Mr. Zero?" and a re-recorded version of "At The Mountains Of Madness" which was previously released on their 1996 album Blue Sky Mind.

Sabbatical

I'm fed up with working for the man, so I'm going to go explore the British Columbian wilderness for about 3 weeks. See you guys when I get back. I'll definitely have lots to discuss when I get back, because I'm pretty much going to be tuned in to some heavy frequencies the whole time. In the meantime, enjoy a completely unrelated video of wintertime driving to accompany Sun Araw's excellent "Heavy Deeds." Hell, I didn't even watch it, just dig the groove, maaaaaaan. Turn it up and let it wash over you while you do something else. Droney Psych -- it's the new sound.

Saint Vitus - Born Too Late

Band: Saint Vitus
Album: Born Too Late
Label: SST
Year: 1986
Rating: 93%

Saint Vitus may have been the most important rock band in the world in 1986. Although their commercial prospects at the time were negligible, their moment, while it lasted, (About 1986 to 1990) had as lasting an influence and was as brilliantly powerful in its own way as any rock band's ever. Lasting from the amicable departure of original vocalist Scott Reagers (the band continued to use some of his lyrics on Born Too Late) until the more acrimonious defection of his replacement, Scott "Wino" Weinrich, Saint Vitus's classic lineup produced 3 albums, an EP and a live album. While the Replacements and Hüsker Dü charted the shark-infested waters of major label politics, Sonic Youth was busily marrying its avant garde noisescapes to the traditional rock song format and Metallica and its cronies were barreling ahead towards world domination, Saint Vitus presaged the aesthetic and ideological return of the riff to the rock form. No-wave's noise exploration and thrash metal's relentless grooves and rabid shredding may have been the most notable contributions of those bands and their respective associates to guitar music, but with the benefit of hindsight it is clear that neither of these stylistic innovations had nearly the same bearing on rock music as a whole that the return of the riff would. (As for the world of metal, which would continue to develop as a form of music distinct from rock, the re-emergence of the riff would have to wait until extreme metal bands in the early 90's had exhausted what interest there was in pushing the thresholds of speed and brutality.) Although collegiate critical darlings like the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. would later receive much of the credit for the loud-quiet-loud dynamic that would come to swallow the rock song format whole in the coming decade, it was Vitus who most clearly predicted, by exaggerating and emphasizing the riff as an end unto itself, the shape that loudness would take. And nobody ever listened to rock because of the quiet parts.

Every alternative, grunge, hard rock and nu metal band of the 90's would come to embrace both the loud-quiet-loud songwriting philosophy as well as the focus on riff construction that Vitus had rescued. To be sure, Vitus's dirges have their antecedents, the most obvious being early Black Sabbath and other `70s proto-doom hard rock bands like Pentagram, Necromandus, Lucifer's Friend, Warhorse and Jerusalem. There were also like-minded revivalists during the 80's. Witchfinder General made overtly doomy records heavily indebted to this era a decade later during the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and Chicago's Trouble and Sweden's Candlemass were contemporaries of Vitus who, though distinctly more metallic in their embrace of neo-classical composition and histrionic vocals, were just as heavily indebted to the grooves of Master Of Reality. Even Wino's own trio The Obsessed had been hinting at a similar sound before he disbanded the group to join Vitus. Meanwhile, members of the punk/hardecore axis were slowing down their hectic tempos and letting their music breathe. Black Flag, Flipper, Across The River, The Melvins and Soundgarden are all notable in this regard. What made Vitus unique is that they were the first band to move beyond the realm of Sabbath copycats and create something wholly new. Most importantly, they played slower, and more heavily, than any band before them.

Originally flung upon unfriendly punk audiences while opening for Black Flag in the early 80's, Saint Vitus were as punk rock in attitude as a band could be. (It should be noted that these same audiences were just as hostile to Black Flag's sludgy makeover on their My War album as well.) Authentic throwbacks to an era that for most punks was a happily forgotten childhood memory, Saint Vitus were as uncool a group of guys as could be in the punker-than-thou American underground of the mid-`80s. Thier long, greasy biker hair and demim jackets drew the scorn of the nose ring and shaved head set, to say nothing of the teased hair and makeup of MTV hair metal. The truth is, they never had a chance.


Born Too Late is the purest distillation of the Vitus aesthetic. The band's attitude can best be summed up by the album's opener, the 7-minute title track. To this day, nothing matches its defiant power as a doom anthem. It is an avalanche of sound, suffocating the listener at a glacial pace. Throughout, crushing, insurmountable walls of heavily distorted guitar are tuned so low that they are subsumed into Mark Adams' bass frequencies. The song never speeds up, not even a little. Instead, it agonizingly crawls along in slow motion as Wino intones his tales of isolation with a knowing bellow that is instantly recognizable and impossible to replace.

Every time I'm on the street,
people laugh and point at me.
They talk about my length of hair,
and the out of date clothes I wear.

They say I look like the living dead,
they say I can't have much in my head.
They say my songs are much too slow,
but they don't know the things I know!

I know I don't belong,
and there's nothing that I can do.
I was born, too late,
and I'll never be like you....

Then, the band unleashes its secret weapon; lead guitarist Dave Chandler takes off on a long, highly melodic solo extrapolated from somewhere between Ron Asheton's primitive wah-fuzz freakouts and Tonny Iommi's slightly more nuanced appropriation of heavily overdriven and detuned Hendix licks. Though not particularly advanced as a technical player, Chandler possesses an extraordinarily musical sense of melody and counterpoint. As the principle songwriter of Saint Vitus, Chandler never forgot to keep his playing a component of the overall band voice, only playing the notes that needed to be played, and squeezing the maximum amount of emotional resonance out of them. His tone and sustain are masterful throughout, and frequently his playing dissolves into howling noise and feedback only to rise once again like a phoenix from the ashes with a beautiful melody line emerging from the sonic destruction surrounding it. After the final verse, Chandler again takes off on a solo, only this time it sounds like he's actually attacking his amplifiers, so jarring and physical is the effect he gets out of his battered SG.

If the rest of the album was only mediocre but for the title track, Born Too Late would still be an important record. Thankfully it is not. Although none of the other songs quite reach that level, there are gems throughout. "Clear Windowpane" ups the tempo a little and provides the band with one of their most hummable numbers and was also a frequent live favourite. Elsewhere the album is much more ominious. "Dying Inside" moves like a funeral march as Wino revels in the misery of the bottle, while "The War Starter" sports visions of global holocaust. "The Lost Feeling" alternates a groovy bassline with palls of overdriven guitar and spinechilling tales of addiction and depression straight out of Sabbath's "Hand of Doom." However, unlike Sabbath and other more indulgent hard rock bands, the ensemble playing here does not make room for any but the most minimal embellishments on the part of the players. Mark Adams keeps his playing steady and streamlined throughout while Armando Acosta's timekeeping and fills are precise and powerful. One may be tempted to dismiss the musicianship as amateurish, but to these ears it sounds highly disciplined, every player filling his role in service of the band.

Saint Vitus at their best typify the band ideal. In any rock band, the more the players' egos are subsumed into the overall voice of the band, the heavier that band may become. Saint Vitus were the heaviest band in the world for a time, and through them a direct line can be drawn through The Melvins, Cathedral, Sleep, Earth, Boris, Burning Witch, Khanate, Sunn O))) and any other purveyors of monolithic sonic destruction that have come since. Their next two albums, 1988's Mournful Cries and 1990's V continued to explore this dynamic and are almost as impressive demonstrations of power and craft, although they lack the overall level of quality songwriting and the original creative spark that made Born Too Late a truly classic album. This belongs in the collection of any music fan who has even a vague interest in heavy music.

*Note* The SST CD reissue that I own came with the 3-song 1987 Thirsty & Miserable EP also on the CD as bonus tracks. The songs here are equally as impressive as anything on Born Too Late, though maybe somewhat more sprightly in tone, and the quarter-time Black Flag cover alone is worth the price of the admission.

Proverb

Rock n' roll is a dish best served baked - and generously sauced.

Annoyance

I saw Tool the other night. Good show, but I couldn't believe how many douchebags there were in the crowd. You know, juice monkeys in muscle shirts who throw up the middle finger when the chorus hits. What the hell is up with that? Additionally annoying to me was the number of times I had to let some drunk morons stumble out of the isle to go get more 8 dollar beers. Have these people never been to a concert before? get drunk BEFORE the main act's set. It's not a hockey game. Why did you spend 70 bucks to see a band only to spend half the set waiting in line for beer? And another thing, your seat numbers are printed on your tickets. There's no reason why 7 people should be arguing about 4 seats in the middle of the row 20 minutes into the set. You can count, right? SORT IT OUT, FUCKERS!

It must be amusing to the band, who by all accounts are an extremely intelligent group of men. I mean, for the band to invest so much into their art, both in the studio and onstage (the advanced musicianship, the complex interlocking layers that form their music, the multimedia presentation that accompanies it, etc.) only to have some drunks lose their shit every time a light gets shined at them might be kind of frustrating. Then again, I guess they are doing alright for themselves.

Anyways, here's the setlist:

Third Eye
Jambi
Stinkfist
The Patient
Intolerance
Vicarious
Schism
46 & 2

-interlude-

Lateralus
Ænema

Patriotic

Happy Canada Day one and all! For those of you who aren't from the land of hockey and maple syrup, it might come as a surprise that we actually count rock as one of our foremost imports. Particularly in the last decade I am proud to say that a number of first rate bands and artists have made a name for themselves, although plenty of high volume rock n' roll has been emanating from the great white north for decades now. Anyways, here's a little something I threw together... my Top 10 Canadian albums of all time!

1. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere(1969)
2. Black Mountain - Black Mountain (2005)
3. Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven (2000)
4. Fucked Up - The Chemisty Of Common Life (2008)
5. Rush - 2112 (1976)
6. Voivod - Killing Technology (1987)
7. Jerk With A Bomb - Pyrokinesis (2002)
8. Bison - Quiet Earth (2008)
9. Exciter - Heavy Metal Maniac (1983)
10. Anvil - Metal On Metal (1982)



Former Philadelphia Flyers captain Bobby Clarke got his teeth knocked out in the mosh pit at a D.O.A. show in 1981. He still thinks Joey Shithead totally sold out and that the Subhumans were way better.

Semiannual

It's the half way point of the year, so here's a little overview of some of my favorite albums so far for 2010.


Bison BC - Dark Ages
A French horn? METAL!!!! Opener "Stressed Elephant" blew my mind when I first heard it. The rest of the album comes close to matching it for pure awesomeness. This is powerful, sludgy thrash from one of the best metal bands in the world


Caribou - Swim
A gorgeously layered and disorienting headphone record from a guy who is good at making headphone records.

Cathedral - The Guessing Game
After 2005's The Garden of Unearthly Delights, I had pretty much given up hope of hearing a new Cathedral album ever again. I only discovered that a new one was coming out by chance actually. Anyways, this is a solid Cathedral album which continues and even expands on Garden's overt prog leanings. It is a double album after all. That said, there's still enough heavy riffage and cock-eyed Lee Dorrian cackling here to satisfy most fans, unless you are the kind that are still pining for a return to Forests Of Equilibrium.

Dead Meadow - Three Kings
Dead Meadow have a pretty good handle on their sound. Over the last decade their heady, heavy and hazy sound has not really changed a whole lot. This live multimedia album/Song Remains The Same homage serves two purposes: It acts as a sort-of greatest hits compilation, and also lets the acolytes know that Dead Meadow have a better sense of humor than they might have imagined. Anyways, the performances are good, and die hards will enjoy hearing how they vary from the originials. A side of new studio material is here as well, and these 5 songs are no more and no more than what you would expect- Fuzzy, shoegazy stompers with plenty of Jason Simon wah-guitar solos all over them.


Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
As a general rule I try not to talk about stuff like this too much in this blog, because a) I'm worried about revealing my ignorance of the intricacies of the very wide world of electronic music, and b) if you're reading my thoughts about obscure hard rock bands like Budgie and Stray, there's a good chance you've already made up your mind about what you think of electronic music, and nothing I say will change your mind. Suffice it to say, COSMOGRAMMA IS FUCKING CRAZY! I've never heard so many styles of electronic colliding and conflicting with one another, but somehow, instead of a tangled mess, it's an impeccably produced masterpiece. The stylistic schizophrenia can be off-putting, but there's no question that the music here is a serious accomplishment.


Harvey Milk - A Small Turn Of Human Kindness
Apparently, some long time Milk fans were disappointed with Life... The Best Game In Town
's supposed accessability, and it appears the band took the criticism to heart. This album features none of the uptempo sludge-sprints to the finish line or thrashy, blown-out Motörhead-style barnburners that made up most of that album. Instead, this is album composed entirely of crawlingly slow Melvins-inspired agony. Torture-victim vocals neck-shackled to a wall of feedback and suffocatingly heavy doom-riffs. Lift with your knees.

High On Fire - Snakes For The Divine
No need to rehash the review I wrote when this came out, suffice it to say that it's awesome.

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
Okay, so here's the thing. I don't like dance music. I don't like dancing. I didn't ever really like LCD Soundsystem very much before I listened to the first song on this album. But when that fat, gnarly synth bassline in "Dance Yrself Clean" hits, it'll wipe your memory clean of any preconceived notions. Just awesome. The rest of the album is an exercise in arty electro-pop in the vein of Bowie's late 70's Berlin trilogy or like-minded art-rock and post-punk experimentalists like Robert Fripp, David Byrne and Brian Eno. Worth the time if that sounds like something you'd be into.

The Liars - Sisterworld
Experimental rock band adds another winner to its vastly interesting discography. Full review is in the archives somewhere.

Pontiak - Living
Nothin' fancy here, just good heavy rock with a pile of great riffs and ferocious power-trio ensemble playing and a handful of really good songs too.

Sleepy Sun - Fever
Everything that makes a rock n' roll album great is here. Fantastic and memorable songs, melodically informed vocals, ferocious guitar playing and an incendiary production job courtesy of Vancouver's own Colin Stewart. The album is supremely well-paced, as calm, psychedelic passages melt into pyrotechnic guitar eruptions, and the whole thing seems much shorter than its 42 minute run time. If that isn't the mark of a truly awesome collection of rock n' roll music, I don't know what is.

Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
The indie-blog world is going nuts for these psych-pop revivalists from down under, but with good reason. Beatles comparisons are inevitable, but to these singed eardrums, the lineage of Sweden's Dungen is immediately apparent, not to mention crimson-hued 90's indie psych experimentalists like Apples In Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control and Mercury Rev. Tame Impala up the accessibility factor over these bands by actually singing in English and displaying a greater ratio of song-craft to sound manipulation.

Ufomammut - Eve
Cosmic Doom titans Ufomammut have returned from their journeys beyond the Kuiper Belt with their mightiest slab of space metal yet. Eve is a 5-part musical odyssey which delivers exactly what you would expect from the band. Nothing new for them, but they have certainly raised the bar once again. The riff in the third section is about as heavy as anything EVER.

UNKLE - Where Did The Night Fall?
Trip-Hop iconoclasts UNKLE wheel in a few friends to help them make another album, this time shooting for a woozy psych feel. The end result is closer to kraut-pop dreamers like Stereolab and Deerhunter than Pink Floyd however. Plenty of chilled, elongated grooves and wet, subdued beats. Works for me. Various guest vocalists including members of The Black Angels and Sleepy Sun show up and pitch in, but the highlight for me is Mark Lanegan's turn on the mic on the closing number, "Another Night Out."

Vex'd - Cloud Seed
Master producer brings another album of HEAVY dubstep for the ladies. They'll dance the night away for sure.

Woods - At Echo Lake
Although I preferred the somewhat darker Songs Of Shame from last year, this band has again crafted a set of superb Crazy Horse inflected lo-fi roots rock. As I am not generally a fan of that kind of stuff, it speaks volume of the quality of their music that I can so thoroughly enjoy it.