MONSTER MAGNET: SPINE OF GOD

I'm a huge fan of Monster Magnet, as all of you should know by now. Although I enjoy all of their material, I may have been mistaken on one count. In a previous review I had stated that that "Superjudge" (1993) was their best release hands down....well, I've been listening to their previous release "Spine of God" (1992) a lot lately, and let me tell you, it takes the new title of Monster Magnet's greatest.

Why have I not given this album the credit it deserves, you may ask? First of all, "Superjudge" was the first Monster Magnet tape I had ever heard. I soon discovered "Spine of God", but I was disappointed. The production was weak in my eyes....it was too hazy and not loud enough for me at the time. Also the guitar playing was different, not as metal driven as I was used to from the space lords, so I set this album aside for a while.

Later on, as I grew wiser in my years, I slowly rediscovered "Spine of God" and I can't get enough of it. This is one hell of a heavy psych metal album. Not as visceral as their later works but it is ten times more potent. They are more blues and heavy psych driven here. The main difference is the guitar work of John McBain, who would leave the band after this album. His guitar playing is not quite as intense as Ed Mundell's on "Superjudge" but every note is fuzzed out, feed back ridden, and lysergic....his playing leads you deep into the reaches of inner and outer space netherworlds that are nigh obtainable. Dave Wyndorf's vocals sound more drug addled and slurred than ever. The perfect Monster Magnet album. Eight tracks...all heavy, brain melting madness. Prepare your spaceship for blast off in 666 seconds and don't forget to pack plenty of beer and whatever else you may need.

FUN WITH A HOSE AND A TUBA

Here's a fascinating piece of way out there thrift store art...wish I had this one. To see more click here.

COME TO DADDY

Here's two versions of the same song with the same video. The first is by Aphex Twin, the master of frightening electronic music. This is Aphex Twin's unsettling classic and is the original.



Now here is The Dillenger Escape Plan's version, with the same video. Nightmarish prog-metal...both are devastatingly creepy. Which do you prefer? If I had to choose I would choose The Dillinger Escape Plan, but you can't knock the original either. One of my favorite songs, regardless.

THE VENTURES IN SPACE

Ok. I don't know how everybody feels about The Ventures here but I love them. Grimy, fuzzed out instrumental surf rock and more and it's finest. Their strongest release in my opinion is "The Ventures in Space" from 1963. This is on of the premier space rock albums. The Ventures take their fuzzed out distortion and strangeness to new heights. They coax their guitars to the extreme to produce some truly spaced out sounds. None of their instruments were electronically manipulated. They relied on feedback, distortion, and fuzz to create some of the most unearthly sounds ever heard in our solar system. All this while they retain their addictive go-go/surf dance beat! Check out "The Ventures in Space" today. It will satisfy all of your space-rock-a-go-go needs.

KILLING JOKE: MILLENIUM & THE WAIT

Killing Joke. They have been cranking out heavy, industrial metal metal since 1980. Their output has been plentiful over the years . Apocalyptic metal at it's finest. Here's "Millenium" from their 1994 release "Pandemonium", and "The Wait" from their self-titled 1980 debut album. Enjoy.

SAINT VITUS: BORN TOO LATE

Here's a dead on Saint Vitus live performance of "Born Too Late". I feel like this at times...I like too much stuff that came out way before my time. Maybe I should have been born earlier than 1974...but that's ok. I'll just keep digging into the old music, movies, and books...never grow tired of them.

CATHEDRAL: MIDNIGHT MOUNTAIN

Here's a classic Cathedral song/video. Pure, earth-moving, hip-shaking evil..."Midnight Mountain" from their " The Ethereal Mirror" album. Not their best album as a whole, but this song is one of Cathedral's all time best. Enjoy.

TSOL: DANCE WITH ME

T.S.O.L.'s "Dance With Me" (1981). What an album. T.S.O.L. was a band cursed with constantly changing line-ups and blessed with the fact that none of their releases ever sounded the same. Their strongest effort in my opinion is "Dance With Me". This album is quintessential gothic punk, with the perfect combination of punk and hardcore combined with angular, creepy guitar work and ghastly, perverse, and angst ridden lyrics that skirt the boundaries between hardcore and goth. The vocals of Jack Grisham are an acquired taste, but become highly infectious. The musicianship throughout is tight, fast-paced, energetic, and dark. A few of my favorite tracks are "Code Blue", a twisted and hilarious ode to necrophilia, and "Dance With Me", a goth-hardcore dirge masterpiece. This disc comes highly recommended. For anyone who appreciates both The Misfits and Bauhaus equally.

FANTOMAS: SPIDER BABY

The mad theme song sung by Lon Chaney, Jr. from the movie Spider Baby has long been one of my favorite songs. Here is a particualrly twisted version by Fantomas. Fantomas consists of Mike Patton from Faith No More and Mr. Bungle on vocals, Trevor Dunn from Mr. Bungle on bass, Buzz Osborne from The Melvins on guitar, and Dave Lombardo from Slayer on drums. A creepy, heavier version of this campy, deranged classic song. I love it. This is a fan made video, couldn't find a live performance with decent sound quality.

THE PLANET CARAVAN FESTIVAL

The Planet Caravan Festival is coming to Asheville, North Carolina on September 18th and 19th, 2009. Tickets are 79.95 for both nights. Bands included are Clutch, retro-doom masters Pentagram, Orange Goblin, and Wino. I'm really excited about this, as I write here about many of these bands on a regular basis. It's a bit if a distance to drive for me, but I would love to try to make it up there. Maybe a little fall vacation...planning to head up that way at some point this fall anyway.

To read more about the Planet Caravan Festival, click here.

CATHEDRAL: CARAVAN BEYOND REDEMPTION

Cathedral's "Caravan Beyond Redemption" (1998). This is one of the most solid and impressive heavy metal albums ever made. Cathedral features Lee Dorian on vocals, ex-vocalist from the grind core band Napalm Death. You will be surprised at what Dorian delivers here...no death metal or grind core here, just pure hippiefied, end of the world evil. Dorian's vocals can be addictivly catchy and melodic at times. This is Cathedral's strongest release. Pure, apocalyptic metal, with a healthy dose of Black Sabbath, Kyuss, and White Zombie all mixed in together, a potent and poisonous head banging witches brew. It is hard to find such sinister, riff driven metal these days. The songs are all different, with many layered textures and samples such as the carnival sounds on the opening track "Voodoo", and the retro drug education film samples from "Revolution". The varied textures of the songs easily lift this above your usual doom metal album. But doom there is..."Caravan Beyond Redemption" is held together by an impending sense of retro-doom and acid-burned biker metal that is simply irresistible. No matter the pace of the song, whether it be fast or sense-numbing slow, Cathedral always delivers the adenaline fueled paranoid sense of doom that everyone needs. How to describe the sound of this album? It is a requiem of the apocalypse...head banging grooves, evil lyrics, strange, gory, and campy 1970's imagery, a little mellotron thrown in for good measure....and the almighty riff...sort of an out of control, high speed, roller coaster ride through hell...it seems endless...they tell you it's going to soon end but you're too caught up in the evil grooves to care...and did I mention they load you up with LSD before the ride?

Every time I hear this album I want back on the ride...can't get enough of it. If it's the end of the world and I'm around to see it, I want "Caravan Beyond Redemption" playing. I don't care if it's zombies taking me away or Jesus coming for my soul I want "Caravan Beyond Redemption" playing in the background before I go...

Here's the first two tracks. Pick this one up now if you know what's good for you...

Some More Unida...

Here's a few tracks from Unida's only full length album, "Coping With the Urban Coyote". It's been long out of print, and is nigh impossible to find, except at a very high price. I would kill to have this album (not literally)....I wish it would come back in print. Heavy stuff, just as heavy as Kyuss. As I said earlier, Unida is John Garcia's most intense, full throttle, sun baked work since Kyuss split. The production is not as strong as you would expect from Kyuss, but after all it's hard to top the production work of Chris Goss. Garcia is also coming more and more into his own sound here, drifting somewhat from the trademark Kyuss sound. After Undia split, he really came into his own with Hermano. Unida is still impressive indeed...brain damaging molten metal. Give these two tracks a listen..."Nervous" and "Human Tornado".

BRIAN ENO: HERE COME THE WARM JETS

One of my favorite Brian Eno songs is "Here Come the Warm Jets", released in 1974. This is excellent minimalist space rock. A very powerful and simple song with a repetitive riff that gradually builds and builds in intensity as it blasts you off into the stratosphere. A classic of the genre. Here it is. It was hard to find this one...the visuals are not that great but they will have to do.

UNIDA: FLOWER GIRL

Here's a track from Unida, one of vocalist John Garcia's bands he formed after the legendary Kyuss split part. This is very heavy stuff, Garcia's most intense work since Kyuss. Pure molten, ferocious desert/biker/hippie metal at it's finest. This is the first track from their 1999 split EP with Dozer. Unida has four songs on the EP, and all are great. It is worth the price for these four tracks alone. Without any further ado, here's "Flower Girl", the first rack from the EP. Enjoy.

FRANK BLACK: LOS ANGELES

Here's an excellent song from Frank Black's self titled, debut solo album after he left The Pixies. In my opinion, it's the best solo album of his career. This track has been rattling around in my head for days and days for some reason. Highly addivtive. Here it is..."Los Angeles". Enjoy.

A Little Bob Marley...

Been in the mood for a little Bob Marley today...don't know why. There is such a sense of melancholy in his music, even when it is very upbeat. Always deep, always soulful. Here's "There She Goes" and "Cheer Up". Great stuff...really hits the spot. Enjoy.

There She Goes - Bob Marley & The Wailers

Cheer Up - Bob Marley

ROB ZOMBIE WITH LIONEL RICHIE: BRICK HOUSE

Here's Rob Zombie getting down with Lionel Richie on one of my favorite songs of all time, "Brick House". Zombie looks like he's having a blast. A knockout live performance here. Enjoy.

IGGY POP: LUST FOR LIFE

"Lust for Life" (1977) is Iggy Pop's strongest solo album, in my opinion. It is his best work since The Stooges. It combines the adrenaline fueled madness and energy with an incredible sense of songwriting, a strong sense of melody, and a healthy underlying sense of musical experimentation. Part of this may be may be due to the musical direction and assistance of David Bowie, but "Lust for Life" sounds like a pure Iggy Pop album. He is really coming into his own sound here.

There are so many stand out tracks here. All are different and unique, and all convey a different mood. The album starts with the driving, somewhat cynical title track "Lust For Life". Then things get darker, heavier, and stranger with "Sweet Sixteen", "Some Weird Sin" and "The Passenger". The mood continues in it's downward spiral through the rest of the album. There is the seriously addictive dark pop of "Tonight" and "Success, and two truly twisted slower tracks "Turn Blue" and "Fall in Love With Me". The lyrics are strong, poetic, darkly off kilter and personal. Iggy's vocals are at their most soulful and intense. The musicianship is perfect here. Sometimes it brings to mind the work of David Bowie on "Lodger", "Low", and "Heroes", but most of the time it is pure, libido and drug driven, brilliantly sick and twisted Iggy Pop at his finest. Bowie is on backing voclas and Carlos Alamar is on guitar here. His playing adds a dark, glossy 1970's feel to the mix.

I cannot recommend this album enough. It is strong on every track...listen to it as a whole. If you like The Stooges but have been skeptical about Iggy's solo work you will be pleasantly surprised with this one. Pick this one up now. If you already have it, give it another listen.

HELIOS CREED: THE BEGINNING OF LIGHT

Here's "The Beginning of Light", my favorite track from the god of space rock Helios Creed's 2006 album "Deep Blue Love Vacuum". As a whole it is not one of his better albums, but there are some stand out tracks such as this one. In fact, "The Beginning of Light" is one of my all time favorite songs of his. Fasten your seatbelts, blast off, and enjoy.

A PIECE OF PULP ART BY VIRGIL FINLAY

SKELETONS WITH GREEN ROBES DANCE JOYFULLLY IN HELLFIRE

Enough said. From the PSB Gallery of Thrift Store Art. The link is on the right. Love this painting, wish I had it.

Voivod: Deathproof

Hey, sorry about so many Voivod posts. This is the last one for a while, I promise. I grew up listening to metal in my teen years and Voivod has always been my favforite band of the genre. They are the greatest metal band from the 1980's to now in my opinion and it's hard to see them go. Here's "Deathproof" from their last album "Infini" of course. The catchiest song on the album, one of their greatest tracks.

Charles Mingus: Eclipse

Here's a distrubingly beautiful piece of avante jazz. Charles Mingus' "Eclipse", hauntingly poetic and strange, and way ahead of it's time. A great use of female vocals and strings mixed with Mingus' always personal and unique compositions. Enjoy.

Eclipse - Charles Mingus

VOIVOD: INFINI

"Inifini" is Voivod's newest and final album. It was recorded using guitarist Piggy's guitar tracks exactly as he recorded them on his laptop before his death. Due to the nature of this album and the fact that it was recorded after Piggy's death, I was a bit hesitant about how "Infini" would turn out. After all, Piggy was the driving musical force behind the band. I was worried that "Infini" would sound rather patched together. After hearing this album, I was surprisingly mistaken.

"Infini" comes very close to being the strongest release of the band's career. It reminds of the greatest moments of the discordant, psychedelic thrash of "Dimension Hatross" and the heavy, science fiction rock of "The Outer Limits". It is really a throw back to Voivod at their strongest. Their last few albums with Snake back on vocals and Metallica's Jason Newstead on bass only hint at the quality that this album brings. It features the heaviest and most brilliant guitar playing of Piggy's career. Mind blowing, psychedelic guitar solos and discordant, machine-like chords abound. Jason Newstead's bass playing has never sounded so heavy and aggressive. Snakes' vocals sound as inhuman, cybernetic, and aggressive as ever. In fact the band sounds very cohesive, It's hard to imagine that Piggy was not there during the recording and that his guitar tracks were used untampered with, exactly as he recorded them.

All tracks are great on this album. Dissonant, frightening, and catchy. Some of my favorites include "God Phones", "Global Warning" and "Deathproof". On "Infini" Voivod masterfully blends psychedelic thrash metal with trippy, cyber/space rock. An impressive album indeed, and a fitting, final note to their career. Highly recommended.

SOME OLD VOIVOD VIDEOS FROM DVOD 1

I just got Voivod's new and final album "Infini". Sounds great so far...a review will be coming soon. In the meantime, here's some vintage Voivod, classic music videos taken from the excellent DVD chronicling Voivod's early career from the early 1980's "War and Pain" to the very early 1990's "Nothingface". This disc does a great job at covering Voivod's early career, with a mixture of live performances and music videos. My only complaint is that it is a bit hard to navigate. It is well worth the money if you are a fan of Voivod's heavy, dissonant, futuristic sci-fi metal...

Here's "Voivod" from their first album "War and Pain"...


and here's "Ravenous Medicine" from their third album Killing Technology". Both tracks are very early and raw, not as refined as their later material, but well worth a look-see. Enjoy.

WITCHFINDER GENERAL: FREE COUNTRY

I know I've recently posted about Witchfinder Genreal and the album this song comes from, "Death Penalty". I really have become addicted to this album...such classic, heavy, retro doom is hard to come by. My favorite track from the album has got to be "Free Country", an addictive hippie metal anthem that will be stuck in your head permanently. This is the quintessential, head banging, stoner metal anthem, released in 1980 and heavy as ever..."Free Country". Enjoy.

ALABAM THUNDERPUSSY: DRY SPELL

Alabam Thunderpussy. Not too much to say about these guys except they sound like a cross between Black Sabbath, Lynnyrd Skyynyrd, Motorhead and Kyuss on crank. Unpretentious and purely visceral with trashy cover art and lyrics, plenty of high octane head banging grooves, and a vocalist that sounds like he eats nails, washing them down with whiskey and amphetamines. Pure, unclean fun. Here's "Dry Spell". It's from their 'River City Revival" album. If you like what you hear you should seek out the album. A solid release.

THE BEATLES: YER BLUES

Here's a heavy, depressive, blues song from The Beatles' "White Album". The Beatles are sort of hit and miss with me, but when they hit, they hit you hard, especially on "The White Album". Anyway here's "Yer Blues". With it's heavy overtones of sucide, if this had come out in the 1980's or later, religious groups would be all over this trying to censor it. Enjoy.