tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77654873794235699162024-03-12T23:40:34.503-07:00Satanic Music For Good ChildrenMusic is the root of all evil ...-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.comBlogger175125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-60211248286085968952023-08-28T09:30:00.000-07:002023-08-28T09:30:41.828-07:00Because of You - The Goon Mat and Lord Benardo Order You to Take Off Your Clothes<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/JdtntZtY4Dk?si=JIvs1YgAT8SmQhKP" style="background-image: url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JdtntZtY4Dk/hqdefault.jpg);" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>Any release that opens with "Because of You" deserves one's full and undivided attention. Garage blues, swamp stomp. Of course it's on <a href="https://www.voodoorhythm.com/4-0/">Voodoo Rhythm Records</a> because . . . well, that's what it's known for. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.voodoorhythm.com/4-0/?view=category&id=68">The Goon Mat and Lord Benardo</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>This release came out in late 2017. What a fuck-all year that was. Trump took an oath to serve the country . . . and promptly broke it. Immigration became the new war on poverty/drugs/terror. Somehow, in the midst of the chaos, this duo released audio godhood onto an unsuspecting public. Did Rollins even know about it? I hope so. I think he would have been grooving on it had he heard it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Belgium. That's where this band formed. Belgium. How the fuck can a band from Belgium do American-style backwater blues better than those with red, white, and blue running thick through their veins? It would seem impossible. Should be impossible. Belgium doesn't have our history of slavery. Belgium doesn't have Mississippi John Hurt. How does this happen? It doesn't matter. </div><div><br /></div><div>Your job. Your only job (and it is one you can do easily and well) is to sit back and listen to these 11 soul crushing numbers. It begins with "Because of You" and ends with "Voodoo Got Me." In between there is a lot of drums, guitar, and harmonica. None of it is clean. All of it is pure. </div><div><br /></div><div>The letter that accompanied my copy of this release read that it wasn't "cutesy blues." Yeah, that shouldn't be a thing, but if it was, it would not be this. There's too much feedback. Too much noise. Too much movement. I think the closest thing in it to a "radio hit" is "Take Off Your Clothes" and that would only play in the dead of night somewhere in Kentucky for the few who are still awake.</div><div><br /></div><div>This must be heard to be believed. This must be believed to be heard.</div>-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-56478558199334377592023-04-08T14:28:00.002-07:002023-04-08T14:38:31.643-07:00The Perfume of Traitors<p> I received a disturbing email. Bandcamp, that thing everyone loves, seems to be a bit of a gatekeeper of what people should be able to listen to. It's a private company, so that is its own decision. Fans of the site and music should know, however, that if your music "offends" . . . off with your head.</p><p>This came to my inbox via Gradual Hate Records:</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div align="center">
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<div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="mso-cellspacing: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 100%px;">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">CENSORSHIP (regarding the closure of GH Records
Label on Bandcamp)</span></b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Censorship exists and has always existed, to a
greater or lesser extent, those who hold power have always controlled what
could </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">be said or could not be said. The methods have been more or less
effective throughout our history, everything has been successfully </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">explored
and exploited, but what was unimaginable just a few decades ago is the
censorship we suffer today.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">It all started very soft and silly.
Self-censorship, political correctness, has been sewing our mouths shut and
cornering our opinion </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">without any kind of opposition. The so-called
goodism, the progressive, are nothing more than the indisputable dogmas of
today, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">because disagreeing with any of its precepts places us in the camp
of the bad, the carcas, the intransigent, the adversaries of </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">goodness. Little by little, all kinds of ideas about an ideal world have been
creeping into our society and thought without being </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">discussed because they
have not been analyzed, ignoring what the human being is, ignoring that the
world is full of societies, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">cultures and religions. very different how can
you flaunt the indisputable truth? How can one pretend that what one thinks
is </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">good and that whoever disagrees is the worst of demons? Well, not only can
you, also, you can't argue, you can no longer go </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">against it, there will be
someone who interprets a suspicious opinion with interest and integrates it
into a black book of </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">anti-good abominations.</span><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">And is this all something controlled by the people
in power? No. All this is the monster resulting from the lack of truthful </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> information with which to create an opinion, and these are its
consequences. Years of “bad education” of data and biased and </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">tendentious
accounts. Years of absolute manipulation. Years of infantilization through
the implementation of absurd ideals that</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">have replaced ideas, of creating
factions, the good and the bad, of simplifying what is complicated by not
allowing opinions, of </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">censoring, keeping quiet, and now canceling what is
not politically correct or, whatever someone wants to interpret as not
correct,<br /><br />
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Nothing is respected anymore, if one believes that one possesses the
absolute truth, why not go with everything to someone who </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">does not think
the same? Why not cancel it without measuring the consequences? It doesn't
matter if he loses his business, his </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">prestige doesn't matter, everything
doesn't matter, because he's the bad guy.</span><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The terrible consequences of that absolutism, of
this unique way of thinking, are already being seen as a tsunami that grows
and </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">approaches at great speed, a tsunami of intransigence, a dictatorship
of the people over the people.</span><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">That simplifies things, it is not necessary to
submit to someone who not only submits willingly, but is more than willing
to submit to </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">others in any way. Today it will be an opinion, tomorrow a
book or a record, then those works that are considered outside the </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">ideology
will be destroyed (this is already happening, books are being rewritten,
records will be withdrawn from sale on platforms) </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">works of art will be
burned if they offend this goodist creed and the next thing we can already
imagine what it is... If all this is not questioned, why </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">should the
destruction of people be questioned? Aren't they bad if they don't think
alike? All this begins in a very silly, </span><span style="color: #111111; font-size: x-small;">very soft way, and little by </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: x-small;">little, like
the frog in the cauldron, we will succumb without realizing it and end up
being little more than </span><span style="color: #111111; font-size: x-small;">cattle.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The platforms that delete accounts, the
cancellations on social networks, the accusations, the stupid and
indiscriminate complaints, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">all of this will turn against everyone, without
exception, no one will librarian no matter how much they think they are on
the right </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">side. When totalitarianism goes out for a walk it leaves no
puppet with a head.</span><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">I dedicate these words to all those who believe
that they fight entrenched behind a computer keyboard and denounce
anonymously, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">that is not a fight, that is an abject and cowardly attack. I
also dedicate these words to all those who guaranteed a social network, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: xx-small; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">but
later censored it, in a vain attempt to convert their clientele into a
single herd. Totalitarianism is not eternal, neither is business.</span><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="color: #111111; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<td style="padding: 15pt 0in;">I cannot say I'm shocked. I am, however, disappointed. Whenever a company submits <br />to targeted gatekeeping that lets approved controversy thrive, but stifles the "wrong" <br />kind, it opens the door to issues. I'm not saying Bandcamp should allow everything on <br />its site despite its mission of spreading "the healing power of music by building a <br />community where artists thrive through the direct support of their fans." But when it <br />targets with all the accuracy a knee-jerk reaction permits, there is going to be damage. <br />Damage to artists. Damage to fans. Bandcamp is a gated community and should bill <br />itself as such. Artists and fans beware. When the tide turns, it may come your way and <br />you may not like what happens. <br /><br /><a href="https://soundcloud.com/ghrecords/consume-kali-yuga-from-gh-records?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fghrecords%252Fconsume-kali-yuga-from-gh-records">Enjoy this from GH Records.</a><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="mso-cellspacing: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 100%px;">
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</div><div><br /></div><p></p>-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-46401896336748372042021-02-14T10:05:00.001-08:002021-02-14T10:05:41.894-08:00Everything's Dead<p>There is always reason to celebrate a release from the <a href="https://deadbrothers.com/">Dead Brothers</a>. Funeral music for civilization and then some. </p><p><i>Angst </i>came out four years ago this month and it has never been more timely. <a href="https://www.voodoorhythm.com/">Voodoo Rhythm Records</a>, again, put it out. The band is one of the label's mainstays. This time around, Marcus Aurelius Littler, whom I interviewed years ago for <i>Z Magazine</i>, has lent his hand to the proceedings. What follows is a soulful, sinful album that is the perfect thing for lonely, rainy nights were nothing is going right and nothing is looking to change. The world spins on the edge of fascism and in the arms of a pandemic.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpuaAVrwjgDemsL3xqyZ8p4CYGJkjhTXKU6YfDqYiJ-UD7gI2DEcY9tqFgGZCQ9tBZiHZniNjyls26DFK_RnxL4JscMqyN_g2wpDPBzmAim63-EDRWMeymMdOYIn8afnJo9EtlgW2G2gwW/s1200/71uyGEIvCcL._SL1200_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpuaAVrwjgDemsL3xqyZ8p4CYGJkjhTXKU6YfDqYiJ-UD7gI2DEcY9tqFgGZCQ9tBZiHZniNjyls26DFK_RnxL4JscMqyN_g2wpDPBzmAim63-EDRWMeymMdOYIn8afnJo9EtlgW2G2gwW/s320/71uyGEIvCcL._SL1200_.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p>You could guess there are 13 songs here. Not a single loser in the bunch, either. I know. How can that be? It's impossible, you say. It's not. Not if you heard this band before. Not if you are paying attention. Paying attention while the world burns.</p><p>The press release from years ago states that "we are standing at the edge of the end times." Catastrophe is so near you can smell it. It was with this in mind that the Dead Brothers hid in the Vosges Mountains to "take the pulse of our time." It seems the band read it right. This is the perfect accompaniment to the end times. The end of all things. They just knew it was coming four years ago. </p><p>Do not think it is all doom and gloom, though. Hardly. This is a celebration of the end. A party that is a wake. This is what should be playing as the planet stops spinning and the sun flares outward to consume us. This lets us expire with smiles on our faces. </p><p>Song eight. "Did We Fail?" Probably one of the best songs the band has written, and it has written some amazing tunes. This one haunts in all the right ways, though. It asks a question that is the ultimate question of humanity. Did we fail, or did we even try? Littler wrote it. It's appropriate of him and of this band. It is the zenith of both their existences. It is everything both stand for. This song, more than any other Dead Brothers song, examines everything that ever existed and that which has yet to be born. It is as painful to hear as it is to think about, and that song is sublime.</p><p>We did fail. We didn't even try. </p><p>But not the Dead Brothers. Failure is not something the band knows. And it doesn't even have to try.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GWBroYxd4Es" width="320" youtube-src-id="GWBroYxd4Es"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-48096580505598914912021-02-13T16:05:00.001-08:002021-02-13T16:05:25.409-08:00Beat Me, Beat Me<p> Marilyn Manson. I was never a fan. I found the guy articulate. Intelligent. But edgy? Dangerous? Controversial? Exciting? Only if you grew up in the suburbs. Or were Christian. His whole act seemed just like shock theatre aimed at a very specific audience. He did it well. It worked. But it was hardly shocking to anyone who was paying attention.</p><p>Now it is all kind of falling apart. Accusation after accusation is coming out. The tall, decidedly more bloated, shock star is being painted as an abuser of women and men. Television shows are dropping him. His manager and label have kicked him to the curb. It is all quite shocking in much the same way Manson was, which is to say not at all.</p><p>The allegations have been around for a quarter of a century. Some were mere hints. Others claims were more outright. In the era of #MeToo, though, it's harder to dismiss these claims, which Manson himself calls "horrible distortions of reality." This from a man who made it his job to horribly distort reality. It is as ironic as it is tragic. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidhrWzApCf1dWuvkSKcnaqZAlTxO44tWTJuePEJXS6GrNkuGgKjO36K2QsVt8Iu4IvE4G5YNn_4tm4t-z6pLVu4TOO0rmYoxxr9iwrk_7PCS8lJzDhFPx8dHrtci94hm0ZdkUQY0bTczjs/s518/16dc0b4f951b4384fe8b8707d2a02a33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="518" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidhrWzApCf1dWuvkSKcnaqZAlTxO44tWTJuePEJXS6GrNkuGgKjO36K2QsVt8Iu4IvE4G5YNn_4tm4t-z6pLVu4TOO0rmYoxxr9iwrk_7PCS8lJzDhFPx8dHrtci94hm0ZdkUQY0bTczjs/s320/16dc0b4f951b4384fe8b8707d2a02a33.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>I'm not taking pleasure in Manson's downfall. He never mattered that much to me. His music was background and not a soundtrack to my life. I have plenty of friends who thought he was a genius . . . and maybe he is. A genius can still abuse women. If Einstein was putting cigarettes out on a girl's nipple, though, that would be surprising. The shit Manson has been accused of? Not surprising at all.</p><p>I will be the first to admit that Manson may be correct to say it is a horrible distortion of reality. That these accusations are baseless. After all, he is about the easiest target for these accusations. It's easy to paint him guilty without a trial and nobody would really care all that much. But . . . there's enough smoke to indicate fire. There are enough claims to take the accusations seriously. Was it a consensual relationship that now seems abusive, but was not at the time? Was it always abuse? Are the claims baseless? I don't know. </p><p>Guilty or not, his career is done. The Manson people love and admire can be no more. Guilty or not, he is now on a defensive that he probably can't defend. At this point, the outs seem to be fade into obscurity or suicide. Hard to say which way he'll go. But I do know one thing. I won't care either way.</p>-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-6629170734164205482020-12-13T07:23:00.003-08:002020-12-13T07:23:49.936-08:00It's All Just Noise<p> "It's all just noise." That's what my father used to say about the music I listened to in my room during my teen years. In all fairness, he was right about Diesel Rhino just being "noise," but that was what appealed to me about it. As for the rest, it was music.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqlbY49ytE1EQjVzUh5hiWu77apVSMlkdYY32EpCWYCD05M7prOASi5dly63shjd5vFEsCIW_KMr5H7JBOjikpr8ED6tJIhreW48vpVtjvHGxmfRYb8ScYPofrF8VqdUIfOicoyi6BkKVu/s355/61YF9TEFx8L._SY355_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="355" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqlbY49ytE1EQjVzUh5hiWu77apVSMlkdYY32EpCWYCD05M7prOASi5dly63shjd5vFEsCIW_KMr5H7JBOjikpr8ED6tJIhreW48vpVtjvHGxmfRYb8ScYPofrF8VqdUIfOicoyi6BkKVu/s320/61YF9TEFx8L._SY355_.jpg" /></a></div>Back in 2016, before Covid-19 fucked up everyone's plans, <a href="https://www.voodoorhythm.com/83-artists/monsters.html" target="_blank">the Monsters</a> released <i>The Jungle Noise Recordings </i>on Reverend Beat-Man's own <a href="https://voodoorhythm.com/" target="_blank">Voodoo Rhythm Records</a> label. It was the 1994-95 home recording sessions of the Monsters. If you've followed the band, you know these songs. <i>Jungle Noise </i>was originally released by the German label Jungle Noise in 1995 as a 10" vinyl. Some of the other tracks here were released on 7"s on other labels, and the song "It's Not My Way" was originally meant for a Swiss anti-war compilation, but was not put on that release for whatever reason. <br /><p></p><p>The band's lineup at the time was a bit different, than what most fans are used to, as well. Robert Butler and Kat Allen were both in the band at that time, but later parted ways to pursue other projects. </p><p>Featuring 19 songs that are a fascinating look at the band's beginnings. It starts out with the energetic fuzzed-out thrash of "Psych-Out With Me" and ends with "Skeleton Stomp." In between you got all the classics like "Mummie Fucker Blues," "Lonesome Town," "Rock Around the Tombstone," and "Play With Fire." It is, indeed, music to ruin any party, and, more importantly, it is historic.</p><p>The Monsters is the only band tattoo I sport. Not the Misfits. Not Black Flag or the Dead Kennedys. Not Prince. The Monsters. Why? I recognize its purity. Beat-Man describes the sound as "primitive rock-n-roll chainsaw massacre trash garage" music. That is the most accurate description one can give. </p><p>Purity in audio form, and if you haven't experienced the band's sound yet, you should. This is a good place to start.</p><p><br /></p>-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-4082110658849402012020-10-18T15:03:00.000-07:002020-10-18T15:03:54.015-07:00Town Talent<p> The town I currently live in, Eureka, California, is home to some amazing musical talent. There are lots of areas, however, that produce an insane amount of musical talent. New Jersey, for instance. The grunge scene in the Seattle area. Sometimes it is something about the area, like with grunge, that causes a certain type of sound to become associated with that area. Besides grunge, there was also Atlanta's hip-hop scene and Norwegian black metal. Eureka does not have that kind of association with it, instead we gave the world . . . </p><p>Mike Patton and Sara Bareilles. </p><p>Mike Patton got big being in Faith No More, but before that he fronted the Eureka-based, polarizing Mr. Bungle.</p><p>Sara Bareilles is just everywhere, and most people you run into in Eureka have a story about how nice she is or how they know her family. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2EAkZKUBGLfH6ywHdbjxdVTCB2UMweNixb3X_GkXq_P3WgSquXzhoCdNztGazrBsn16r1vInUBNfobFC_TvnKpU2p4LVyauBUpQwstqOBTW6mEiM4vLu1zow9s9EZRcTm6i9zU2ndi1hE/s721/Mr-Bungle.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="721" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2EAkZKUBGLfH6ywHdbjxdVTCB2UMweNixb3X_GkXq_P3WgSquXzhoCdNztGazrBsn16r1vInUBNfobFC_TvnKpU2p4LVyauBUpQwstqOBTW6mEiM4vLu1zow9s9EZRcTm6i9zU2ndi1hE/s320/Mr-Bungle.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>There is no argument that both are talented in their own right. Both have great voices. And both have a fan following. Bareilles is, as to be expected, a far more liked talent as her work is easy on the ears. Patton, however, is . . . well, he's Mike Patton. I consider him to be the more influential of the two and the more artistic, but that's just me. Listening to Mr. Bungle's first self-titled release should be enough to prove that, but you should judge for yourself.<br /><p></p><p>These two aren't the only famous musicians from here, but they represent the broad scope of talent that Eureka, for whatever reason (Mr. Bungle would say it's the dismal town) produces. If this were a city the size of New York City or Los Angeles, one would understand that broad spectrum, but this is Eureka. One mall with half the stores closed. Two main shopping areas, neither being all that big or impressive. Logging used to be the main industry. Now it's pot. If there was ever an area with absolutely nothing special about it, it would be here. And yet we've produced these two artists. </p><p>That Mr. Bungle, as schizo as a band gets, came from Eureka would surprise nobody who spent over a year here. I've been here for over two decades. I think I know the town a bit. It's a haven for speed freaks, homeless prostitutes, child abuse, sex trafficking, pony girls, serial killers, sons of cult leaders, corruption, despair. It is no wonder that with a town like this you get "Love is a Fist."</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TXcuG28qHsA" width="320" youtube-src-id="TXcuG28qHsA"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p>That being the case, the town does not explain Bareilles. She's upbeat. Positive. Lilting. There's a side of Eureka that is a bit like her, too, but it only really prospers when you ignore all the other grime. </p><p>Mr. Bungle may be a mystery to people, and that's part of the appeal. But to people like me, it is the soundtrack to Eureka and will forever be associated with it.</p><p><br /></p>-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-23355287710661059712020-08-30T07:50:00.000-07:002020-08-30T07:50:44.340-07:00This Will Leave A Stain<p>Maybe you have heard of Frank Cassese because he wrote this truly sublime and disturbing book called <i><a href="https://bookshop.org/lists/highly-recommended-reading">Baby Killer</a></i>. I've sung its praises many times. Little known fact, the book's title was originally going to be that of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misfits_(band)">Misfits</a> song. You know the Misfits, right? One of the best bands (punk or not) to come out of New Jersey. One of the best bands, period. The noticeable thing here isn't that the Misfits are incredible, or even that Cassese was going to name his book after one of the band's songs. It's that he obviously has some musical knowledge and taste. And with that in mind, it goes to figure he would also produce some music.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfnqA_8MjmFA2uqyUywf5iRzB0ODfub9QAemZpZ_yNSz3GC_fg_77bRDKVyS0e5VGxdcCoj3yxIgI_LazOV2r-5Ikd6R3jIOXZXYFYbme2cSeLf2SfV6bbipNh_pJf7LLh6P0iAqjPGuDZ/s400/19794736._UY400_SS400_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfnqA_8MjmFA2uqyUywf5iRzB0ODfub9QAemZpZ_yNSz3GC_fg_77bRDKVyS0e5VGxdcCoj3yxIgI_LazOV2r-5Ikd6R3jIOXZXYFYbme2cSeLf2SfV6bbipNh_pJf7LLh6P0iAqjPGuDZ/s0/19794736._UY400_SS400_.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p>Now, what kind of music would the man who wrote <i>Baby Killer</i> make? Punk in the style of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exploited">The Exploited </a>or even the Misfits? Maybe. What about some neo folk? Not likely. Hip hop? Please. No, the obvious answer is metal. In this case death metal. </p><p>Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Corpse Stain.</p><p>The album is <i><a href="https://soundcloud.com/corpsestain/albums">The Last Messiah</a></i>. Click on that album title and be prepared for a treat. Now, I'm not the biggest death metal fan. I like it, but I don't actively seek it out. Those of you who followed me back in my <i>Tattoo Savage</i> days may remember I wrote a review of a black/death metal compilation CD that pissed someone off so much that he wrote a letter to the magazine saying he was going to decapitate me and defecate down my neck. The editor published the letter not realizing that it came from just a few towns away from where I lived. She later apologized to me and wished me good luck in not being killed. </p><p>With that in mind, I can honestly recommend this as being worth at least an initial listen. My guess is you'll want to hear it again. Even I, not the biggest death metal fan in the world, have listened to it a few times. Chiefly when I am working on the next volume of <a href="https://dougbrunell.wixsite.com/writerofdepravity/sinful-cinema-series">Sinful Cinema</a>. </p><p>Go give it a listen and buy his damn book. Neither of these will disappoint you.</p>-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-36486040472225562982020-04-09T14:02:00.003-07:002020-04-09T14:02:56.943-07:00Your Coronavirus Playlist: Destination LonelyOn January 24, 2020 the world turned upside down. No, it wasn't Covid-19 and the subsequent death tolls that fueled conspiracy theories and turned every idiot on Facebook into a doctor. It was a nervous breakdown, and not of the Black Flag sort.<br />
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"Far out, over the edge, filthy, desperate fuzz noise, garage rock 'n' roll from France," was how it was described. It was an apt description of what was unleashed that day. <a href="https://www.voodoorhythm.com/116-artists/destination-lonely.html" target="_blank">Destination Lonely</a>. <i>Nervous</i> <i>Breakdown</i>. A double album to usher in a New Age. This was the dawning of the Age of Virus.<br />
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<a href="https://voodoorhythm.com/" target="_blank">Voodoo Rhythm Records</a> released this monster. It came from a studio that was book for two weeks. 17 songs came from those 14 days. Two covers were thrown into the mix: "I Want You" from the Troggs, and "Ann" from The Stooges. You knew that, though. Destination Lonely is bound by law to do such things. And while it seems like the band's third album should be a triple album (imagine the thrills), it was kept to a dual release. Two times the fun as the world started coughing and dying.<br />
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It was easy to miss this release from the French trio. After all, some other things were happening at the time. The virus was makin' news and introducing terms like "social distancing" and "shelter in place" while "Schizo MF" and "Blind Man" played on stereos for those of us in the know.<br />
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Is it a good album? Of course it is. Destination Lonely can't put out a bad release. It just ain't in their blood, Jack. When something opens with "Lovin'," and it's all kinds of fuzzed out, you just know it's all gravy from there. If you'd judge it by its cover (who doesn't?), you'd be tempted to think it is some college-level experimental minimalism masquerading as "something deep and meaningful, man." You'd be forgiven for thinking that nonsense. And while it is deep and meaningful, it isn't pretentious noodling around. It is as described. Filthy. Fuzz. Noise. Garage. Desperate.<br />
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And damn good.<br />
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You are trapped inside. Concerts aren't happening any time soon. Why not grab something new to listen to? Take a chance on something? You can get it on <a href="https://voodoorhythm.myshopify.com/" target="_blank">Voodoo's site</a>, or on <a href="https://amzn.to/2wtpmkf" target="_blank">Amazon</a>. I don't care where you get it from, just get it. Put it on and watch the world slide into a new traumatizing normal. To quote the song "Day by Day," "Well I came into your life like a spit on a face/I blew your mind I made you really so insane." These guys knew it was coming before you did. The least you could do is give them a listen . . . before you end up dying in some emergency room . . . alone . . . the coughs of the dying mingling with the beeps of various machines. Yeah, that's the least you can do.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WSzyObHsewI" width="480"></iframe>-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-58682510957415830942020-01-26T08:01:00.000-08:002020-01-26T08:01:00.730-08:00Nasty Savage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ3irCA_kgFVB0dOru8xZ1n8RoBcCNSRqgpAHK0P_Et4Y42NuXLMZ7JHL7dKd4qEk3Sniz4u1DGYI8YDaTKdnekli8cFtnmc1HHI1tOvdKh3S566o4jEwt6h17bkrcrosJH8M5B1jf9ce3/s1600/nasty-savage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="413" data-original-width="550" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ3irCA_kgFVB0dOru8xZ1n8RoBcCNSRqgpAHK0P_Et4Y42NuXLMZ7JHL7dKd4qEk3Sniz4u1DGYI8YDaTKdnekli8cFtnmc1HHI1tOvdKh3S566o4jEwt6h17bkrcrosJH8M5B1jf9ce3/s320/nasty-savage.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Does anyone ... anyone remember <a href="https://www.nastysavage.com/" target="_blank">Nasty Savage</a>? I was first exposed to this wonderful thrash band with its song <i>XXX</i> on the <i>Metal Massacre VI</i> LP, which was a fantastic compilation. Whenever I read articles on the history of metal, or pieces on fondly remembered metal bands, Nasty Savage seems to be left off the lists. Maybe it is because the band is from Florida. Maybe it's because there were a bunch of other great bands at the time that slightly overshadowed the guys. Maybe it's because I'm just one of a handful that liked it.<br />
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Whatever the reason, if you like metal you should at least attempt to check out Nasty Savage. It was good stuff then, and it holds up now.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VR6SxeWVzZg" width="459"></iframe>-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-50927709219242109482019-12-07T06:59:00.002-08:002019-12-07T06:59:15.010-08:00Mr. Mojo RisingI give music far more credit than it sometimes deserves. I've said it can do everything from cause joy to cure cancer. All hyperbole ... until now. I've just run across a release that has inspired me to write one hell of a terrifying story, and it is all thanks to the music of the <a href="https://badmojos.bandcamp.com/">Bad Mojos</a>.<br />
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Few bands ... no ... no band I know of has ever said that it was inspired by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GG_Allin">GG Allin</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi">Mahatma Gandhi</a>, but it is a claim made by the Bad Mojos. This Switzerland-based trio who play some lo-fi punk rock may or may not be sincere about it, but they say it and that is all that counts. So how did all this inspire terror?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaKCVR9UCAbGAABom5r2D3jfq1CltELPiUd5UimfvjJTJXSo3q_ywu85N-aFQRPclhd3KyqZ0XAcQdG88qebZ-_I0AA2zQ2mc5_x_MGgcIM7rLwSpt_jztf06-4vP67i8frUHd6e4Xn5lH/s1600/badmojos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaKCVR9UCAbGAABom5r2D3jfq1CltELPiUd5UimfvjJTJXSo3q_ywu85N-aFQRPclhd3KyqZ0XAcQdG88qebZ-_I0AA2zQ2mc5_x_MGgcIM7rLwSpt_jztf06-4vP67i8frUHd6e4Xn5lH/s320/badmojos.jpg" width="320" /></a>I was traveling 101 South and listening to the band's <i>I Hope You OD</i>. The song, though it doesn't matter because it was the mood the entire CD was setting that caused this, was "I Wanna Be Dead." It's a pretty standard song title, and the band's sound makes it fit right at home on its label, <a href="https://www.voodoorhythm.com/">Voodoo Rhythm Records</a>, but there was something in the air that day. Something that made this release trigger an odd thought in my brain that no other CD has done. I started thinking of a scenario so creepy, so Lovecraftian (this should be a real word by now), so terrifying that it started to freak me out.<br />
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I'll be giving the band an appearance in the story, that is for sure. Will the story scare you like the idea did me? I don't know, but I think so. All I know is I could go on and talk about the band's punk sound and so on and so forth, but the fact that it inspired this idea for a story is far more important and interesting to me. If you want to perhaps experience the same thing, try driving down a highway along a bay on a cloudy day and watch the birds in the sky as you listen to "I Wanna Be Dead." Your results, of course, may vary.-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-19591561196540230222019-11-25T05:49:00.002-08:002019-11-25T05:49:38.084-08:00... And Justice For NoneMetallica's fourth album, <i><a href="https://amzn.to/34hdWf0">... And Justice For Al</a>l</i>, was its last great release. I don't think I'm being controversial in stating that. It was the last one that meant anything to me. It was the last one before the band changed. After that release, any moments of pure <a href="http://www.metallica.com/">Metallica</a> were abnormalities and were no longer the standard. The band's game changed, and I did not change with it.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Justice-All-Metallica/dp/B000002H6C/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li2&tag=cancerzeitge-20&linkId=5384a73ea96e36af7bc1fe64843f33e6&language=en_US" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B000002H6C&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=cancerzeitge-20&language=en_US" /></a></div>
To be fair, I had problems with the release when it came out. I placed it as my least favorite of the band's output until then. Maybe I was nostalgic for the raw power that had come before it. Maybe I was bitter about the band's growing popularity, though I found it to be well-deserved in this case. I did not even hate it enough to not see the band on that tour. (Leigh Valley, PA, in case you care, with the embarrassment that was <a href="http://www.queensrycheofficial.com/">Queensryche</a>.) It just was not as good as, say, <i><a href="https://amzn.to/34fYIHh">Master of Puppets</a></i>. Again, no controversy there, I think.<br />
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I believe if you had to place blame for the band's change it is because ... the band changed. At some point in the process of writing and recording <i>... And Justice For All</i>, Metallica started to take itself more seriously. The men wanted to mature as musicians. They wanted to delve deeper into their craft. It's because they were artists, and not mere entertainers who were content with releasing the same thing over and over because that is what their audience wanted. Metallica changed because it wanted to. It needed to. To grow as musicians and artists, it had to.<br />
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And there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's good.<br />
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It just wasn't for me. Not at all. It's not that I wanted the band to stagnate. That is a prison I would never wish on an artist. For me it was that the place Metallica was going was not a place I wanted to meet them at, and I had no desire to be along for the ride. I did not want to listen to a band I used to love experiment with what it wanted to become. Perhaps I wasn't a true fan. Maybe that is true. A true fan would stick by the band no matter what it did. I believe I was a true fan up until that fourth release, though. With that, I sensed the tide was turning. I knew the ride I had so enjoyed was coming to a fast end, and I bailed.<br />
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Do I regret it? Not at all. But I do find myself listening to <i>... And Justice For All</i> more than ever and wondering, "What if ...?"-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-89683476645458425492019-11-21T05:17:00.000-08:002019-11-21T05:17:18.237-08:00Shine On, You Crazy DiamondThe fuzzy goodness of "Psychonaut" had just kicked in. It wasn't loud on the car stereo, but it was noticeable. My fifteen-year-old daughter and I were just about home. The wind had kicked up something ferocious outside the car, and we were at a stoplight underneath a big tree. It was the ideal place to hear the song.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLzC-6q4_MFFQI9vB4Cud63Kqrw8GtxMKc8pcrllkBHHSri0IIoP0K7oFskW_chhMtHgHgQwoshcWJZUKoqen45iTLzeIJZ08P2A_y8Rw4bNPmCHMuvPyhz3sD-nW9pqdubc_d84t2RBI6/s1600/et.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLzC-6q4_MFFQI9vB4Cud63Kqrw8GtxMKc8pcrllkBHHSri0IIoP0K7oFskW_chhMtHgHgQwoshcWJZUKoqen45iTLzeIJZ08P2A_y8Rw4bNPmCHMuvPyhz3sD-nW9pqdubc_d84t2RBI6/s320/et.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
"I never heard music made by aliens before," she said.<br />
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That is how she described the sounds of <a href="https://www.voodoorhythm.com/artists/140-artists/e-t-explore-me/258-e-t-explore-me.html">ET Explore Me</a>. We were listening to the debut <a href="https://voodoorhythm.com/">Voodoo Rhythm Records</a> release, <i>Shine</i>, which was released 17 years after the band's first seven inch came out. Also interesting to note is the fact that <i>Shine</i> is the band's first full length album. Far too many bands are around 17 minutes before they do that sort of thing. 17 years, however, is apparently just enough time to release a near perfect album of psychedelic punk, organ distortion music from the Netherlands. The fact that it came out in February of this year makes it a love letter to music fans, too. That's all kinds of treats going on for your ears.<br />
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Of the dozen songs on the release, it's the first, "Let Me In," that gives listeners a taste right from the start of what they are in for. It is just the right way to start an album, and at times sounds like it is a soundtrack to a Sixties horror comedy like <i>The Munsters</i>. I am not kidding one bit, either. If you hear that and don't think that, you can write to me and complain. In fact, I insist you do. Eleven songs later ... and all of them sound just a bit different from the others ... and you realize that for 17 years you had no idea this band was out there making this amazing sound. It's the type of thing that makes you wonder what else is lurking about.<br />
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Now you know ... and knowing is half the battle.-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-11718821283035278482019-06-03T05:54:00.001-07:002019-06-03T05:54:50.070-07:00Metal Devil CokesI have owned MDC's <i>Metal Devil Cokes</i> CD for what seems like an eternity. Well, no more. I'm officially putting it up for sale on eBay within a week or so. Parting is such sweet sorrow. But how did I get to this place?<br />
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I've always liked Texas-born MDC. Dave Dictor always seemed like a progressive kind of guy with songs that were pro-gay, pro-animal, anti-capitalism. Not every song was a winner, but I felt that the band's heart was in the right place, and I appreciated it. But for all that praise, the only release I ever owned was the aforementioned one. I had a copy of one of the band's other releases (long since eaten by a car stereo's cassette player), and I have some compilations with the band on it, but still ... I only ever bought this one release.<br />
<br />
Before parting with it, I decided to give it one last listen. Partly for nostalgia's sake, but also to see if maybe I was making a mistake. Maybe I'd like it even more now and want to pick up everything the band has done. Sadly, after giving it three listens, I was not changing my mind. My reaction was the same upon first hearing it. It's clever, catchy ... and not much else. Perhaps it's a little too juvenile for my tastes. I remember thinking that very thing when I bought it, too.<br />
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I'm putting a lot of my music up for sale. Not because I hate it, but because there is so much of it that I don't listen to anymore and have no desire to do so. Oddly enough, my feelings on the bands haven't changed, but some of these things I've heard so many times that I don't think I need to hear them again. They aren't connected to any particular memory. They don't connect as deeply as some other releases. They just don't move me.<br />
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But what if I'm wrong? It's a question anyone who is selling off part of their collection faces. What if you are wrong, and the moment you sell it, you'll want it back? Well, I guess the band will get my money a second time ... and there's nothing wrong with that.<br />
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<br />-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-70428652705458106452019-05-28T06:08:00.002-07:002019-05-28T06:09:29.854-07:00Psychedelic Crimes - Advance WordI was excited to get the new Jackets release, <i>Queen of the Pill</i>, from <a href="https://www.voodoorhythm.com/">Voodoo Rhythm Records</a>. I'm a big fan of this Swiss fuzzed-out psychedelica, and with the addition of Jim Diamond (White Stripes) to the group, I figured good would only get better. And then I popped the CD into my car stereo ...<br />
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But wait, you say, I didn't know this was out. Well, it's not yet. It's not out until June 14, 2019, but I got an advance copy, and I couldn't wait to hear it. And then I popped the CD into my car stereo ...<br />
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Being in the car is not the best place to listen to music for the first time, at least not for me. My concentration is on the road and avoiding getting smashed into by some dumb Humboldt County driver in an oversized pick-up truck with State of Jefferson stickers on it. I put the Jackets on because I was excited. I meant to start listening to it at home that morning, but things got out of hand as I was working on my latest Sinful Cinema book, and I sort of lost track of time, so the car would have to be the initial listen. And then I popped the CD into my car stereo ...<br />
<br />
"Dreamer" started it all. "Be Myself" finished it. In between were eight more songs. I was mesmerized. This was all the guitars and females vocals I expected. This was all the Sixties vibe bustling with rawness that I wanted. It was, in a word, Heaven. To quote The The, heaven sent and hell bent. It was so captivating and dream-like that I actually kind of lost track of the fact that I was driving. That's bad ... but in a really good way.<br />
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When you get your hands on this (and you will want to get your hands on this) there will be some standout tracks. For me it was "Steam Queen," "Don't Leave Me Alone," "Queen of the Pill," "Floating Alice" and "Losers Lullaby." Your list may be different, but if my description alone intrigued you, you will have favorites, though it will be hard to pick. Just recognize the greatness, bask in the aural swirls, and enjoy.<br />
<br />
June 14th isn't that far away.-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-79703515497154624342019-02-15T06:08:00.002-08:002019-02-15T06:08:59.732-08:00Bad Luck Rising<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In what world did this come out in 2011? That’s what
you’ll ask yourself when you first hear Delaney Davidson’s </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Luck-Man-Delaney-Davidson/dp/B005HY27EQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=&linkCode=ll1&tag=cancerzeitge-20&linkId=5d93c764daf86f995e76710ec5047d20&language=en_US"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Bad Luck Man</span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">.
It’s an honest question because this music at first sounds … old. Then after
you settle into the groove of this one-man band, you understand it isn’t really
old, it’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">timeless</i>.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Davidson is from<span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">dson is a New Zealander</span> New Zealand, but you wouldn’t know
it listening to these fourteen tunes of hard luck, depression, and
relationships gone belly-up. He sounds fully American, like he was born and
bred in the land of the blues, parishes, and voodoo. You can picture him
wandering the swamps, playing dive bars, and keeping it honest. It’s no wonder
he used to be part of </span><a href="http://www.deadbrothers.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Dead Brothers</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.voodoorhythm.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Voodoo
Rhythm Records</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> put this out. It was the label’s second
release of his. It was a good choice. Years from now when civilization is
fighting over scraps of irradiated food and looking for shelter from the
perpetual inferno/polar vortex cycle the planet has been plunged into, this
music will still touch souls. Whether it’s the title track, “I’ve Got the Devil
Inside” or “Windy City,” this music will be understood by people everywhere at
any time. They will recognize and respect its purity just as easily as they
know its shame. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As I write the first draft of this, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Naked Massacre </i>is playing on my
television. It’s a sleazy little movie, inspired by a real crime. It’s a
subject Davidson could sing about and make it relatable if he so desired. He
has this ability to turn even the most transgressive of men into a tortured
being you yearn to understand. He’s not a bad luck man, or even a bad man. He’s
just a man with the ability to perform songs that move souls.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And that will never get old. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-79824325126860894322019-01-28T05:42:00.000-08:002019-01-28T05:42:04.120-08:00Midnight Memories<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s just noise. That’s the common refrain heard by
every child about their music from every parent. You heard it. I heard it …
especially when I was listening to Diesel Rhino.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course, it goes the other way around, too. The
younger generation has a hard time coming to grips with the music of its elders.
They don’t understand why their parents and grandparents like what they do as
much as they do. I remember taking road trips with my grandparents, and the
scariest thing I’d hear was, “Let’s listen to </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxcar_Willie"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Boxcar Willie</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
one more time.” My soul would scream. I could not understand the appeal of
Boxcar Willie. I couldn’t relate to him or his songs. Nor could I relate to my
dad’s love of </span><a href="https://www.johnnymathis.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Johnny
Mathis</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, or my mother’s need to play </span><a href="http://www.judycollins.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Judy Collins</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On the flip side of that, I’m sure my parents
cringed whenever they heard </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_(band)"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Kiss</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">,
</span><a href="https://ironmaiden.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Iron Maiden</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">,
or later on – </span><a href="http://www.skinnypuppy.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Skinny
Puppy</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">. How could my parents relate to it? It wasn’t their
music, and it wasn’t their memories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That’s where the power lies. Music moves people for
different reasons. It creates different memories in different people. How it
connects with you as a child may be different than how it connects with you as
an adult, but if that connection was strong enough when it originally was created,
it will most likely always stick with you no matter how little you listen to it
in your later years. I do not listen to Kiss much these days, but if it comes
on Sirius, I’ll crank it up and I’ll have some sort of memory attached to it. The
last bit of music I bought was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Essence!</i>
by </span><a href="http://www.deathinjune.net/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Death in June</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">.
I do not have early memories attached to that band, but I’m interested in
making new ones – a new soundtrack for this point of my life. I don’t just
stick with the songs and albums I know. My parents did the same thing. I
remember my mother buying the newest </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blondie_(band)"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blondie</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
release. I remember my dad getting excited when he got a new </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Murray"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Anne Murray</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
eight-track.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The music that sticks, though, is what we’ll never
understand between generations. We don’t share the memories and that’s okay.
We’ll go on not understanding each other’s music choices and it doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t diminish either side in either way. We don’t have to understand each
other in this sense because it’s so personal that it could never be fully
understood anyway. Just remember that the next time you question your
grandparent’s love of Boxcar Willie, though I have a hard time coming to grips
with that ever being an acceptable music choice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-90187853928563282382019-01-19T08:40:00.002-08:002019-01-19T08:40:49.023-08:00No One Can Save You<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Destination-Lonely-159732874076965/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Destination
Lonely</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">. If that band name doesn’t scream emo I don’t know
what does. Then have a title like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">No One
Can Save Me</i>, and you know what the songs will sound like.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You would be wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfk1J2lMcfEGISSsNcjnjWFNUVg_AIId5jj3buwPdWG-Y14j9FKTMflfD7dTVKHWG0mg6LcXwhQEB0N8XcypvuZ-yh2UmmGZzFeb2F36VNbm1vC-FuBWc9d0ly2BTxJQw-qpDcfS3ptdIe/s1600/A-2320170-1428407623-7869.jpeg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="150" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfk1J2lMcfEGISSsNcjnjWFNUVg_AIId5jj3buwPdWG-Y14j9FKTMflfD7dTVKHWG0mg6LcXwhQEB0N8XcypvuZ-yh2UmmGZzFeb2F36VNbm1vC-FuBWc9d0ly2BTxJQw-qpDcfS3ptdIe/s1600/A-2320170-1428407623-7869.jpeg.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Three young men from South France have armed
themselves with instruments and have created pure, crisp garage rock with roots
firmly in the punk scene and a sound that sometimes evokes the guitar playing of
Poison Ivy. Yeah, who would have thought such a thing could exist and sound so
raw yet refined?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Not I. Not when I first heard the release three or
so years ago. Knowing it was on </span><a href="https://www.voodoorhythm.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Voodoo
Rhythm Records</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> told me it probably wouldn’t be some emo
band, but the label has surprised me before. Not with garbage, mind you, but
with something I was something unexpected. </span><a href="http://www.deadbrothers.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Dead Brothers</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
comes to mind. This was no exception. I was expecting one thing and got
something else entirely different, and I was blown the hell away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A quick read of the lyrics finds plenty of doom and
gloom. Suicide, murder, loneliness, and hatred are the common themes. They are
not happy ditties that one can sing in the shower. These are songs that play
over and over in your head in the dark … after your loved one has walked out
the door … or you shot him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Still, it’s not emo. No, Sir. It’s a grabbing,
multi-limbed monster, much like the one that can be found on the cover of issue
eight of Marvel Comic’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fear</i>. It’s
reaching through an open window, grabbing you by your shirt sleeve as your wife
screams in terror from the stairs. That’s what this is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The opening number, “Freeze Beat,” is an
instrumental piece. If a film of my short story </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Night-Fishing-Doug-Brunell-ebook/dp/B00T27FPU2"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Night</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fishing</i></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
ever happened to be made, I would want this music playing during the opening
scene. It sets the mood, but doesn’t really give you a clue as to what is
coming, much like my short story’s opening scene. The song lets you know you
are in for a ride, but at this point you are not sure if it’s a rollercoaster
or a ride through a haunted house. Truth is, it’s a little of both.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Between “Gonna Break” and the title song there are
moments of clarity and greatness that aren’t evident at first. In fact, those
moments are mostly lyrical, but the music is so appealing that you will
overlook the lyrics the first couple of listens. The sound is a sonic whirlwind
of broken glass, and it is overwhelming in all the best ways. When you finally
decided to take in what Marco Fatal is singing (you may remember him from The
Fatals), you will experience this moment of enlightenment where the entire
picture becomes clear. It is beautifully terrifying. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">No
One Can Save Me</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> will probably never be heralded as the
must-have, top release of all time, but it doesn’t need to be. It is far too
personal for that … and far too fun from a listening level. Yeah, it’s a dark,
angry release, but it’s also a work of art. And because of that, far too many
people will never quite understand it. For those who do … it’s near perfection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-55265755795402028362018-12-15T15:46:00.000-08:002018-12-15T15:46:09.931-08:00Rainy Morning, Humboldt with The Jackets
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Driving south on the 101. Heading into Eureka, CA.
Rainy. Cold. Morning. Sun is just starting to rise behind the clouds, but it
won’t be seen for hours. The Jackets’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadows
of Sound</i> is playing on my car’s stereo.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">What one needs to know about the <a href="https://www.voodoorhythm.com/"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Voodoo Rhythm Records</span></a> release is simple.
It’s a trio from Bern, Switzerland that formed in 2007. It’s singer/guitarist
is Jackie Brutsche, a strong a frontwoman as any band could want. It was
recorded at Circo Perrotti, which only really matters to musicians, but if you
know the name you know why it’s important.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Simple. Just like the day.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBgPcnkhOPc3PTpZfXWfq9DrAmAAGiZlewSlxvmqJV-agh983Iwquw8xQOWqg7ZgfVpe2T2HwUHchZEiwZxUyeXLVsITyrjfby16w1j_GaDuU6U7ob975NRjv973XlUIvdFm0b2uFkX3Vd/s1600/thejackets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="620" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBgPcnkhOPc3PTpZfXWfq9DrAmAAGiZlewSlxvmqJV-agh983Iwquw8xQOWqg7ZgfVpe2T2HwUHchZEiwZxUyeXLVsITyrjfby16w1j_GaDuU6U7ob975NRjv973XlUIvdFm0b2uFkX3Vd/s320/thejackets.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">I’m going to Eureka. Lately, many people have been
fleeing from it. Most have taken flight to Los Angeles or Las Vegas. Two
entertainment hubs. Two places where dreams go to flourish or die. Some have
opted for points north. They Great White Way, with lots of emphasis on white. Either
way, The Jackets, I think, is the perfect soundtrack for the thoughts on the
thoughts on the journey.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">From the opening track, “Don’t Turn Yourself In,”
there is one word that comes to mind. “Fuzz.” It tells you all you need. That
fuzz sticks throughout the album. Guitars at their fuzziest. You either dig the
sound or you don’t. I dig. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-mFdD4pbGR51awL6RsMpmNDId8e23FWbdevbBZRCLTBIGk7c8Su_d2i6GUjYf8xE6eLATNoiSeQ9TAQ_Q-3PML9TdV3-xzQykXop4OKDqGqaDQEO9WewjXU2Et062JhRCIj90Ft3y0Vp7/s1600/beau-brummelstones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-mFdD4pbGR51awL6RsMpmNDId8e23FWbdevbBZRCLTBIGk7c8Su_d2i6GUjYf8xE6eLATNoiSeQ9TAQ_Q-3PML9TdV3-xzQykXop4OKDqGqaDQEO9WewjXU2Et062JhRCIj90Ft3y0Vp7/s320/beau-brummelstones.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Garage rock, with a hint of the good ol’ fashioned
punk spirit, is worn by The Jackets not so much like a badge of honor, but a
birthright. Often caricatured, but rarely parodied, garage rock, The Jackets’
forte, is primitive and pure enough that it keeps capitalist jackals at bay as
it is hard to co-op. It’s not a sound that works for selling Jeeps. It’s a
sound as simple as a Hanna-Barbara cartoon, and if you remember some of those
you can recall whenever a garage rock-type was in one of them they were the
aforementioned caricatured creations. Hair in the eyes. Simple lines. Creepy.
Outcasts. Misfits, but not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the</i>
Misfits. There was a mystique about them. To the adults they sounded like
fools, but to the kids they offered sage wisdom, and welcomed their tiny souls
into the unknown. Some of us went willingly. Others ended up bopping to Hanson.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Looking at the eye makeup worn by Brutsche, it brings
back the memories of those cartoons with the promise of something new. In many
ways, she encapsulates why those people are fleeing Eureka. It is an allure of
the savage. The appeal of the primate. Fight and flight. Her eyes can be seen
from afar … and they frighten. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">After the musical flea circus of the 1990s and 2000s,
I can’t help but think that music is devolving as it is evolving. An expanding
universe that is also pulling back into itself. A feat of quantum mechanics
that exists only in theories and vague ideas mumbled by the scientific elite.
From that nexus of garbage music which dominated the airwaves in that 20 years
of vapid tunes, music went back to the basics with bands like The Jackets and
forward into an aural soundscape both ambient and anxiety ridden, as
exemplified by the continuing output from Non. One only has to look at the
movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mandy</i> to see how sound can
inspire love and dread.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Mandy</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">,
ironically, took place in the Pacific Northwest, that Great White Way. It is a
land where fuzzed out guitars are as at home as the tall redwoods loved equally
by tree huggers and tree killers. The movie and The Jackets could not exist in
the inner city poverty project of a place like Harlem. Primitive rock, which at
one time had a home there, no longer belongs on those streets. Eureka, no
stranger to garage rock, has evolved, too. It may be losing its artist elite,
but others will replace them. This place of certain opposites is bound to
create more of them. The Jackets, it should go without saying, would find an
audience and a home here. People would go to see the trio without ever having
to hear a muddied note. We’re that kind of folks.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">When friends and acquaintances first started leaving,
it begged the question of why. Why now? Why there? Los Angeles is plastic
fantastic. Las Vegas is gaudy gauze. Oregon is gone. The answer, which came to
me during track “Watch You Cry,” seems simple now. They are pursuing dreams
that stagnated here. Fresh air. Fresh ideas. Fresh pain. Watch you cry is no
longer a song, but a promise. Humboldt, it has been said, always welcomes you
back, however. And if it’s your first time, we guarantee you won’t forget us.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">You can’t escape no matter how hard you try.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Jorge Explosion produced <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shadows of Sound</i>. Nothing digital. Nothing unpure. Three musicians
and the truth. U2 had it wrong all along. The Jackets formed in 2007, right at
the end of the musical death decades. It flourished. It grew. It produced this
third album, recorded in Spain without the aid of computers, and became the
stuff of legends. 11 tracks. The soundtrack to running away while staying in
place. If the Empire is dying, this is the party music that is playing.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Pulling into Eureka it’s no surprise that traffic
congests right near the Burger King and McDonald’s. Amongst the pick-ups caked
with mud and the Prius doing its best, The Jackets remind me of being younger
and realizing you can create your own reality. Those who never knew that world
will continue traveling south to L.A. or Lost Wages. Whatever happens in Vegas,
stays there, however. Whatever happens here can be inbred or exported, and its
creators will never care. The Jackets embody that same attitude. That Prius
doing its best? It’s got an old faded Feel the Bern sticker. The Jackets formed
in Bern. The irony is not lost on this soul.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">But then again, I was never one to run … and the
dreams pursue me.</span></div>
-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-19532101741467618292017-09-13T11:06:00.000-07:002017-09-13T11:06:37.989-07:00A Special Thanks From DisarrayI have been thanked on film credits, in books, and on various band releases. One of the bands to thank me (well, to thank my 'zine <i>Married Punks</i>, actually) was the TN based metal act Disarray on its 1996 release, <i>Bleed</i>, which I was sent a cassette copy of to review back in the day. It wasn't the first band to thank me, but it was the one of the few bands that wasn't punk, and appearing on its "Thank You" list opened the door to getting a lot of new readers and a lot of metal bands sending material our way.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFV_kx86EWDrQ1CxWeXXgcH16-HAwklFQ0zvHh-7fQ-pMbTim9Nc-MyhNbDuoA-1Dnslw4FscUYjW4fnlt-RrCyA62AzDgBtOgSgZOkrMG2ug_gg_QDzj-O3dVVpGbmcZLt3O-aS7A36gU/s1600/disarray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="232" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFV_kx86EWDrQ1CxWeXXgcH16-HAwklFQ0zvHh-7fQ-pMbTim9Nc-MyhNbDuoA-1Dnslw4FscUYjW4fnlt-RrCyA62AzDgBtOgSgZOkrMG2ug_gg_QDzj-O3dVVpGbmcZLt3O-aS7A36gU/s1600/disarray.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>Bleed</i> was just five songs, but they were five really good songs, and the band went on to do even better things. From what I can see, the band's last release, <i>Edge of My Demise</i>, came out in 2007. The band started in 1995, however, which makes its legacy a lot longer than many of the bands we reviewed in the 'zine. (A song from the band did appear on a 2008 tribute album, too, it should be noted.) What happened to the band? I have no idea. I imagine it's the same thing that happened to many bands. Back in the day, though, this was a metal band I enjoyed listening to, and I was bummed when my cassette copy of <i>Bleed</i> was eaten by my tape player. I could find a new copy on eBay, along with releases from Mr. Big and Van McCoy, but I doubt I will. Not because I don't like the band or didn't appreciate being thanked, but because I doubt it will be as good as I remember it being. My tastes have changed, and while I still enjoy metal of all sorts, I'm more discerning these days.<br />
<br />
Still, it was pretty cool to be thanked by the band at the time, which is something Maiden never did for me.-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-71091785063113533452017-07-21T19:05:00.001-07:002017-07-21T19:05:23.382-07:00The Soundtrack to Depravity is Classic RockThose who have read my novel <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2uksauk">Black Devil Spine</a>, </i>or even just read the <a href="http://horrorcultfilms.co.uk/2017/06/black-devil-spine-by-doug-brunell-book-review/">reviews</a>, know it is not a light read meant for the beach or the easily offended. For the years I worked on it I described it as my "sex and violence" manuscript. Those who read it know that is an accurate description.<br />
<br />
Throughout the novel there is a constant reference to classic rock. Songs punctuate some scenes. Why? It's the music one of the main characters likes quite a bit. This meant that I had to listen to a lot of it while writing. While I don't hate classic rock, it is not exactly my go-to music ... especially not for writing.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1n6KcmsPbs7eVGZTC8v0mbkfP2tLad8PTS3Wjvm_dFFhogazbSrqYV58fvu0gYA0_10QZnZbSw6HjIN4BIcP4SY6TgvF417gDcOi6Ri0z46Wfc2bM8lhi3DX5xJp40gE1eN7h7DFV7GDI/s1600/front+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1n6KcmsPbs7eVGZTC8v0mbkfP2tLad8PTS3Wjvm_dFFhogazbSrqYV58fvu0gYA0_10QZnZbSw6HjIN4BIcP4SY6TgvF417gDcOi6Ri0z46Wfc2bM8lhi3DX5xJp40gE1eN7h7DFV7GDI/s320/front+cover.jpg" width="213" /></a>But it worked.<br />
<br />
It worked really well, actually. In fact, while editing and listening to even more classic rock I found that songs were matching scenes ... and I had not written those scenes to the music. The Stones. Eric Clapton. Rush. Bad Company. Those bands had somehow infiltrated the manuscript in places, and editing felt almost magical. Everything just <i>flowed</i>.<br />
<br />
Some people have told me that they thought the music to which I wrote the book would be death metal or industrial. That didn't fit the mood. Not at all. It was too on the nose. I was writing about real people doing bad things, and the character of Martin Springer would call that stuff "noise." It would distract him from his art and murder.<br />
<br />
I am not recommending you read the book. Like I mentioned, it's not for everyone. If you are easily offended or squeamish, forget it. But if you are mildly curious and have a strong stomach for violence, I would love for you to pick it up and drop me a note. If you're a classic rock fan, all the better, but I may have ruined a song or two for you.<br />
<br />
<br />-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-32866388803837754262017-07-17T06:19:00.001-07:002017-07-17T06:19:23.544-07:00The Power a Secret Holds ...The title to this blog posting is a play on The Dead Brothers' song "The Power a Secrt Holds," which can be found on the incredible <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2t6dmOF">Voodoo Rhythm Records Records to Ruin Any Party Vol. 3</a></i>. I have had nothing but praise for the label and these compilations, and this one, complete with Juke Joint Pimps, Pussywarmers, Urban Junior, Reverend Beat Man, Possessed by Paul James, Bob Log III, Andy Dale Petty, Roy and the Devil's MC, and many more doesn't disappoint.<br />
<br />
But I, like Peter David, digress ...<br />
<br />
It's been about two years since I've last had a post here. Why? I've been busy. Very. Busy. <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2utuVMa">Black Devil Spine</a></i> came out, which meant I was listening to classic rock for months of editing. (Classic rock is a huge part of that story.) I also started the <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2tvALIv">Sinful Cinema</a></i> series, which is proving to be popular with film fans. So, yeah, blog posts took a backseat to other ventures.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUnC3e1jkknBtZvYOMwJPBCNOmhby3qQlKTzOFap-OWvidqe7_EI6rCEC3SMMrhxGovv45hdIQisS7-tGi6yii2soNB_wKNIlDTYqiL0DUJUmIwm5gGopl13cEKAGEzey7O0EsibkRgboG/s1600/voodoo3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUnC3e1jkknBtZvYOMwJPBCNOmhby3qQlKTzOFap-OWvidqe7_EI6rCEC3SMMrhxGovv45hdIQisS7-tGi6yii2soNB_wKNIlDTYqiL0DUJUmIwm5gGopl13cEKAGEzey7O0EsibkRgboG/s1600/voodoo3.jpg" /></a>As I was cleaning the house and tossing out stuff, I was listening to this compilation, and when Reverend Beat Man's "Jesus Christ Twist" came on I thought, "I haven't written a blog post in a while!" What better music to inspire a new posting? Voodoo reinvigorated my love of music, and now it's served as a catalyst to getting the blog going again. I can't promise this will be a regular thing, but I'm sure going to try and make it so.<br />
<br />
As to be expected, I believe that anyone who appreciates excellent music should march out and find this CD. Sure, it's six years old, but the music is as timeless as sunsets and funeral rites. There's blues trash, swamp rock, psychedelic, and just about everything else to stir the heart. I'm not saying this because I received it free to review, either. This is stuff I'd be recommending regardless of how much I had to pay for it. Trust me, this is worth it, as are the other two volumes in the set.<br />
<br />
Maybe next time I'll delve into how music fit into the writing of <i>Black Devil Spine</i>. Maybe not. In the meantime, you've got some trash blues to enjoy ...<br />
<br />
<br />-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-27338313398628213562015-10-26T06:30:00.001-07:002015-10-26T06:30:06.318-07:00Backseat Education - Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction<div class="MsoNormal">
Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction. If that name made you grin, you know of the
band. The year was 1988. <i>Tattooed
Beat Messiah</i> was released (some fools would say “dropped” these days), and
the world of hard rock would never be quite the same. I was a fan from the first track, which was
the “Wolf Child Speech.” It was over the
top. Ridiculous. Not to be taken seriously. Perfect.
It was what hard rock should be.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHKFG9IO-fbFiXUhBB5wMATogZ3UpC9wrN-kRHOXdXi7c07m628oZZzgCzHH_C99NISQjzbjwCbmQld7M7Kcg1joKOhoyRDA7UebsJi5EbBcO2XgM-UMa3CZAlQyrNHFohRN4Xn8KVw8v9/s1600/zodiac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHKFG9IO-fbFiXUhBB5wMATogZ3UpC9wrN-kRHOXdXi7c07m628oZZzgCzHH_C99NISQjzbjwCbmQld7M7Kcg1joKOhoyRDA7UebsJi5EbBcO2XgM-UMa3CZAlQyrNHFohRN4Xn8KVw8v9/s320/zodiac.jpg" /></a>It’s no surprise that this band came out of the same era
that gave us Sigue Sigue Sputnik (affordable firepower), Adam and the Ants, and
Mötley Crüe. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The music was blistering and the lyrics didn’t take
themselves all too seriously … or at least one hoped they didn’t. Zodiac Mindwarp (Mark Manning) put a lot of
swagger in those tales of debauchery, and that’s what made it so great. Sure, there were other bands out there of
this ilk that sang songs of wine and women, but none looked or sounded like
this one, and few seemed so real.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction never got much of a following
here in America. It made an appearance
here and there, and some college stations played its songs, but for the most
part it was merely a footnote in musical history, while insipid garbage like
Mr. Big (1989 actually marked the band’s debut album, but it was formed in
1988) captured audiences’ ears and hearts
-- easy listening for the easily distracted. I don’t know why this was the case, but
perhaps it was due to the fact that Zodiac Mindwarp and company looked like a
bunch of coke-up bikers who may be Nazis while Mr. Big looked like a bunch of
Bon Jovi fans from the Midwest who dreamed of playing the Cloverfield County
Fair. Me? I’ll take biker Nazis over cowboys any day. The rest of America, sadly, didn’t feel the
same way. Oh, what could’ve been…<o:p></o:p></div>
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Enjoy the video.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ruX1dzsM4Ek" width="560"></iframe>-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-15304243628696926192015-10-22T04:56:00.000-07:002015-10-22T04:56:54.335-07:00Hank Haint's Blackout<div class="MsoNormal">
Man, when it comes to a label that has a knack for getting
great one-man bands, nothing beats <a href="http://www.voodoorhythm.com/">Voodoo Rhythm Records</a>. Case in point? Hank Haint. He even covers an old GG Allin song (“Don’t Talk to Me”)! How could you possibly go wrong with this guy?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXg_dPO225VEwbcGatwLuI8bvfknQUjmbjPdOTqB9hLx4fQHdWPmzg1CGJ7Eo8RKFHQYu1yjY3VxuQO2_jsOtzEkYJFMJgZcNtLPBwOCA6nxKQhI9LGgSHbQ3xmmDUd0fo-Bya4ETOoLQ/s1600/hank+haint.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXg_dPO225VEwbcGatwLuI8bvfknQUjmbjPdOTqB9hLx4fQHdWPmzg1CGJ7Eo8RKFHQYu1yjY3VxuQO2_jsOtzEkYJFMJgZcNtLPBwOCA6nxKQhI9LGgSHbQ3xmmDUd0fo-Bya4ETOoLQ/s320/hank+haint.jpg" /></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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On May 25, 2012, <i>Blackout</i>
was released on an unsuspecting world. You,
the listener, is first subjected to “Keep on Walking.” You think, “This can’t possibly be a one-man
band.” You are, of course, wrong. Just like the times you thought there wasn’t
a cop around and that one time you swore she was 18. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There are 12 other songs (including the Allin cover) that
will only serve to strengthen your disbelief.
When you think about the fact that he only started working as a solo act
five years earlier, you will chastise yourself for wasting the last half decade
doing … what? Not this, that’s for
sure. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Blues trash with a punk attitude is how this music has been
described. That is about as accurate a
description as one will get. It’s too
raw for the “hip” crowd., and too obscure for mainstream music lover. It’s in that void to be enjoyed only by the
daring and the lucky. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, this may not be your thing at all. You may lean more toward pop or, Heaven
forbid, hip hop. You may be wondering
what the fuss is about. It’s one guy,
after all. How hard can that be? He goes into the studio, lays a track,
switches instruments and lays another track.
Well, he performs live, too. And
not with a backing band. One man. Many instruments. The touch of death!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6voc1aZS7C0" width="560"></iframe>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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My only complaint? I
would’ve moved “Pissing in the Sink” to the last track. It is the perfect way to end an album. As it stands, “Untitled,” the last song,
isn’t a horrible way to end it (and one can easily see why it is the last
song), but “Pissing in the Sink” would have been the feather in this mighty
cap. If that is the only complaint one
can muster, you know it is a solid release. </div>
-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-80269504823278635932014-09-24T19:35:00.000-07:002014-09-24T19:35:43.707-07:00Frozen Angel<div class="MsoNormal">
I haven’t seen the movie that this soundtrack is from, but
if <a href="http://www.voodoorhythm.com/90-artists/roy-and-the-devil-s-motorcycle.html">Roy and the Devil’s Motorcycle and Voodoo Rhythm Records</a> are behind it, I
know it has got to be good. First, some
history, and then we shall delve into <i><a href="http://www.grooves-inc.com/roy-the-devils-motorcycle-tino-frozen-angel-voodoo-rhy-vinyl-album-pZZa1-1899206264.html?language=en&currency=USD&utm_source=froogle_us&utm_campaign=froogle_us&gclid=CjwKEAjw14mhBRC0vdSNkI2l7CASJAC8OFS08YHawz6fqKBen54oIoopJAoZBC0MwSZaxhFo6PesoRoCKJfw_wcB">Tino– Frozen Angel</a></i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Roy and the Devil’s Motorcycle has been around 20
years. You’ve most likely never heard of
the band. For the uninitiated, it
combines blues, garage, psychedelica and some folk to create a sound unlike
most anything else out there. “Unique” doesn’t
do it justice. Three brothers. Guitars.
Truth. It is primitive. It is otherworldly. It is necessary listening for those who think
outside the box.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Adding another feather to its ornate cap, the band has done
the soundtrack to a documentary about Martin “Tino” Schippert, aka Frozen
Angel. Tino was the first Swiss
president of the Hell’s Angels. He
started as an activist. He ended up dead
in Bolivia. Without seeing the film, I
must say that the story itself would have me intrigued, but the music only
serves to heighten my curiosity. It is
eight songs of primarily instrumental swirl, with snippets of the movie
seemingly thrown in. I can imagine its
place in the documentary, and I must say it seems to fit the subject matter, as
well. It is unlike most soundtracks I’ve
heard, and that’s a good thing. If music
could be ephemeral…<o:p></o:p></div>
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If you are a film soundtrack collector (I know you are out
there – I used to be one), then this is something you must look into. If you like any of the musical descriptions I
gave, this must also be sought out post haste.
Granted, it is not for everyone … or even most people … but that’s
because the majority of people have no idea what they are missing and would
rather stick with the tried-and-true over the dirty unknown. This is for the seekers of the unusual, the
transgressive, the bizarre … music for music lovers. Those who look at music as art, and not as
entertainment. Forge onward, brave
bastards. This is the soundtrack to your
dreams.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uDpUCmAbIjQ" width="560"></iframe>-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7765487379423569916.post-64197045571600720562014-09-02T13:21:00.001-07:002014-09-02T13:21:15.282-07:00Let's Start a War at the Whitehouse, Said Wattie One Day<div class="MsoNormal">
The first release I ever bought by the <a href="http://www.the-exploited.net/">Exploited</a> was the
1986 cassette,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000JO7R/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00000JO7R&linkCode=as2&tag=cancerzeitge-20&linkId=YMLQNGHNWEKRLQIC%22%3ELive%20at%20the%20White%20House%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=cancerzeitge-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00000JO7R%22%20width=%221%22%20height=%221%22%20border=%220%22%20alt=%22%22%20style=%22border:none%20!important;%20margin:0px%20!important;%22%20/%3E"> <i>Live at the Whitehouse</i></a>. I had heard the band a few times on our local
college radio station, and I liked what I heard, so I set out to the music
store to procure whatever Exploited I could get my hands on (which is how one
bought music in the days before downloading).
The store I went to wasn’t well-stocked with anything but pop and heavy
metal, and <i>Live at the Whitehouse</i> was
the only Exploited to be had. As it
stands, it wasn’t a great listening experience, as those who have heard it can
attest to. <o:p></o:p></div>
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If you are familiar with the Exploited, a live album
delivers exactly what you’d expect. The
sound is raw, angry and turns to buzzsaw noise in spots. The release I bought was a full live show and
featured some great songs, including “Let’s Start a War,” “Horror Epics,”
“Wankers,” “I Hate You,” “Dogs of War,” “Sex and Violence,” and “Punk’s Not
Dead.” That’s a satisfying line-up of
classic Exploited songs despite the dodgy sound. Couple that with cover art that shows a
partially destroyed Capitol Building (not the White House, oddly enough) and
you can’t help but capture a young punk’s heart.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The band, which has had roughly 3,859 members through its
years of existence, has always had its share of controversy, and violence
followed many of its shows. (I wasn’t
there when it played Airport City Music Hall in PA, but I heard that white
power skins maced singer Wattie when he took the stage. For those who remember shows at that venue,
skinheads were a constant source of misery, as were the bouncers. The reason
for the attack was Wattie’s anti-American beliefs.) For many, the Exploited has always symbolized
the best and worst of what punk rock was and should be. For me, it was just an energetic, politically
angry band that seemed more interested in slogans than real change. It was entertaining, but nothing I’d formulate
a political philosophy around. (Remember
the Barmy Army?)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-4Q-jLYASswrOJNNGcJUqqueX1Ua-p0NmXjQ56dh5eyIOprVXUNQF8CUjny8nRSba2Va-m-8y-JZVCVH5VNkZWi8AFziPukN1IiG7OByIU12ba_WfEQ8c7LwGsfAQH_j8TXBOeHo3TCc9/s1600/live-whitehouse-04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-4Q-jLYASswrOJNNGcJUqqueX1Ua-p0NmXjQ56dh5eyIOprVXUNQF8CUjny8nRSba2Va-m-8y-JZVCVH5VNkZWi8AFziPukN1IiG7OByIU12ba_WfEQ8c7LwGsfAQH_j8TXBOeHo3TCc9/s1600/live-whitehouse-04.jpg" height="279" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Live at the Whitehouse</i>
may have been my first Exploited purchase, but it was far from my last. Sometimes those purchases felt shameful, like
when I would purchase really <a href="http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Normal_Porn_for_Normal_People">creepy porn</a> from seedy shops reeking of bleach and
sweat, but others were moments of sheer celebration. Not every release was worthy of the effort it
took to make it, but all of them had moments of sublime chaos. (My own sublime chaos that was linked to the
Exploited came when one of the releases was playing on the car stereo as my
friends and I were engaged in a high speed chase with a cop. We were winning the race, the flashing cop
lights not making the best headway, when we flipped the car. We slid something like 116 feet on the roof
until we hit a boulder. As I spat out
windshield glass, the cop on the scene told us to get away from the car I was
still inside because gas was flooding out and he thought it would explode. The Exploited
continued to play on the stereo.
Surreal.) <o:p></o:p></div>
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These days the band doesn’t much resemble that which it was
in 1986, which is a good thing. Bands
should evolve over time. I’m not sure
that what the Exploited has become is much worth pursuing, but seeing its skull
logo on a shirt still brings a smile to my face even if the new music leaves me
kind of cold. I will say, however, that
the later stuff is far more cohesive and better produced than the band’s
earlier releases. It’s as if the band
took the power of metal and matched it with the anger of punk and came up with
something that works for it. That said,
it doesn’t fully work for me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At least I have the memories…<o:p></o:p></div>
-Doug Brunell (America's Favorite Son)http://www.blogger.com/profile/10216616964188376483noreply@blogger.com0