HardRockChick Interviews Arthur von Nagel of Cormorant

by hardrockchick [about 1 month, 17 days ago.]

Cormorant flew onto my radar late last year, after reading the articulate writings of lead singer and bassist Arthur von Nagel on MetalSucks. When it came time to assemble end of year lists for 2009, Dan from Bay Area Metal Scene and I agreed that Cormorant’s Metazoa should be one of the Loudest Bay Area Albums of 2009. Arthur recently answered some questions for me; read below to find out his fascinating thoughts on the SF metal scene, working full time and being in a band, Camus, and success in today’s music industry.

HardRockChick: What do you think about the current music scene in SF, and where does Cormorant fit into it?

“Being weird is more fun.”

Arthur von Nagel: I love Bay Area metal. I know the rest of the country associates the region with thrash, but there’s so much more on offer here. In the early 90s bands like Neurosis, Acid King, and Sleep were teaming up with producer Billy Anderson and pushing doom into exciting new directions. Black metal has been a constant here, dating back to the infamous Von (the first American black metal band), to the brilliant and tragically brief experimentations of Weakling, and now it seems Ludicra are finally receiving some of the attention they so richly deserve nationally. Death metal was arguably invented here with the Seven Churches album from Possessed, and great bands like Impaled and Hacksaw to the Throat helped keep the flame alive. The likes of Brocas Helm, Hammers of Misfortune, Slough Feg and Saviours mine old school heavy metal, folk and 70s prog for some truly incredible material.

The current crop of bands draws from this rich history. Amber Asylum, Giant Squid (whose vocalist, Aaron Gregory, guests on our new album Metazoa), Judgement Day (cellist Lewis Patzner also plays on our record), Grayceon, Saros and now Worm Ouroboros utilize non-traditional instrumentation and classically influenced song structures to expand outside the reaches of metal into progressive rock, ambience, and even chamber music while lightly touching upon Neurosis at their most experimental, or black metal at its most delicate. Chris Bruni of Profound Lore Records deserves many thanks for fostering this movement when larger labels dropped the ball.

As to where Cormorant fit into all this madness? We don’t. We gig with everyone from black metal bands (Wolves in the Throne Room, Velnias) to stoner doom (Black Cobra, Saviours) to trad (Slough Feg, Hammers of Misfortune) to folk (Primordial, Moonsorrow). On February 6th we’re playing alongside cinematic atmospheric sludge nutsos Atomic Bomb Audition, quirky old-school grinders Times of Desperation, and electronic one-man soundscapist Fights Monsters at the Stork Club in Oakland. Sometimes I wish there was some kind of scene we could assimilate into for marketing and touring purposes, and other times I’m glad we’re difficult to categorize. Being weird is more fun.

HRC: How do you balance working full time and being in the band?

“When you’re independent and self-funded, your music is a labor of love rather than a contractual obligation.”

AVN: Here’s what my average weekday itinerary looked like back in September and October of 2009, around the release of Metazoa…

7AM: Wake up, throw on work clothes, pop a couple waffles in the toaster, give the guinea pig a carrot, kiss my girlfriend (still asleep), and then shove a half-dozen or so Metazoa order packages in the backseat of my beat-up ’97 Ford Escort with the Bathory and Motorhead stickers on the bumper.

8AM: Work. I’m a program coordinator for developmentally disabled workers at a recycling center, an occupation I find very rewarding. I have a million and one crazy stories regarding this job, some of which would likely get me in hot water if discussed publicly. At this point in the morning I’m probably cruising around on the forklift setting up training stations for my work crew and trying not to run over any customers, who seem to display an unnatural attraction to dangerous moving machinery.

10:30AM: Break time. I run to my computer to answer as many Cormorant-related e-mails as possible in 15 minutes.

Noon: Lunch. I speed off to the post office since they close the same time my work does. While driving I pray there isn’t a line and that they didn’t run out of international customs forms. While in the queue I’m filling out said customs forms. Then I sneak in some lunch and try to power out some more e-mails or publicity before I start work again at 1 in the afternoon.

5PM: Get off work, head to the bank to pay off the band’s credit card bill from the previous USPS visit, drive home and shower. Then back to the computer to check for new orders. Spend the next hour or so packaging the new orders. Then back to finishing up the e-mails and questions from metal message board posters. I likely have an interview to answer or an article to finish writing. Eat dinner. By then it’s probably 8:30 and I try to sneak in a movie or gym visit with my girlfriend or some reading or computer game time if she’s out working. I’m usually in bed around 1AM. That was my life for two months last year and I loved it.

I like having an 8 to 5 job. It keeps us honest. I wouldn’t operate this way if I didn’t enjoy it. In a way it’s like having two jobs, except you have one to fund the other. Working full-time affords us the freedom to bypass all the hoops of the music industry. When you’re independent and self-funded, your music is a labor of love rather than a contractual obligation.

HRC: What inspires you?

“Looking over the lyrics, the recurring themes are social injustice, nature, suicide, history, and mythology, but those are just my general areas of interest rather than any particular muse.”

AVN: In terms of our lyrics, I wish I knew. The words to songs would come easier if I did. Looking over the lyrics, the recurring themes are social injustice, nature, suicide, history, and mythology, but those are just my general areas of interest rather than any particular muse. Doing a little more self-analysis, I’ll say I’m fond of writing lyrics where a prideful individual challenges society/nature/god and then fails miserably. The idea is nothing new; in fact Greek tragedy is founded on this very concept. In the end I just try to write good stories.

As to what inspires me in my life, my mother inspires me. I don’t think I’d have the willpower to raise a child on my own while juggling 3 jobs and going to school. As an immigrant no less. That’s a special sort of selflessness where you sacrifice everything in your own life to help another human being get through theirs. And yet millions of women do exactly that under worse circumstances than mine. So any single mothers reading this: thanks.

HRC: You’re a really smart, well-read guy. If you could suddenly expose everyone to one thing, whether it be a piece of literature, art, or music, what would it be and what would it teach them?

“When the only meaning is the search for meaning, why not enjoy life’s journey?”

AVN: You’re very kind but I wish I had the time to be well-read these days. I’ll pick a book that changed my life when I first read it in my early teens, and then changed my girlfriend’s life when I introduced it to her years later: The Myth of Sisyphus.

The Myth of Sisyphus is an essay by Algerian philosopher/novelist/playwright Albert Camus first published in France in 1942. Its subject is the philosophy of Absurdism, as illustrated by the story of the Greek tragic hero Sisyphus. In one of his misadventures, Sisyphus chained Death itself to a rock, for a short time ensuring immortality for all men. For this crime (among others) he was sentenced to an eternity in Hell rolling a boulder up a steep hill, only have it roll back down again right when he reached the crest. Such, offers Camus, is the state of man.

If there is no higher power, and life offers no meaning that man is capable of understanding, why then, Camus asks, do men not commit suicide? Throughout the course of the 120-page essay, he explores different philosophical interpretations of man’s hopelessness, from Nietzsche to Husserl to Dostoyevsky to Kierkegaard, refuting these conclusions as resorting to either an ultimate capitulation to the existence of God, or opting to falsely deify Reason. Instead Camus posits that it is precisely the struggle, the revolt against a knowing meaninglessness that offers each life its individual value. Sisyphus, Camus concludes, must be happy.

When I first read this essay and Camus’s novels The Stranger, The Plague, and The Fall, I must have been 13 or 14 at the time, and I suddenly felt hope in the strangest way. Around this time my father was piling up legal and money problems at a ridiculous rate, so a philosophy that celebrated life’s absurdity by championing human struggle and hard work was exactly what I needed then. I feel very liberated when I read this book, and I imagine it would offer others a great sense of freedom as well. When the only meaning is the search for meaning, why not enjoy life’s journey?

HRC: It sounds like some really dark times in your life have inspired your lyrics. Do you think you always need dark times like that to inspire art, or can it come from a happy place as well?

“So I need the dark times to inspire the subject matter, but I only do the actual writing when I’m in a good mood.”

AVN: I need both. I’ve found that when I try to write lyrics in the midst of a strong negative experience, they turn out to be garbage. No one wants to listen to horrible, self-pitying, diary-level solipsism. What I do instead is wait until I’m in that happy place you mention, and then channel the negative emotion into a narrative poeticized with abstraction or historical parallels. So I need the dark times to inspire the subject matter, but I only do the actual writing when I’m in a good mood. But you’re right: when you strip the metaphor from the lyrics, they’re all very directly about my own life.

HRC: How important do you think aesthetic is to a band’s success? What I mean by aesthetic is anything from what is worn on stage to album art.

“Beautiful presentation is even more important as an independent band, because there’s still a stigma attached to self-publishing.”

AVN: The philosopher Roland Barthes wrote, “Language is never innocent.” Within the umbrella of language he includes all means of communication from our wardrobe to our handshakes to the material objects we’ve acquired as representations of status. All acts, conscious or not, are symbolic. So while in an ideal world artists would be judged by the merits of their music, the actuality is that seemingly benign choices like clothing, choice of band name and artwork, responses to interview questions, etc. all contribute to the perception of the band as a whole, and will reflect positively or negatively on the music. Metal, despite claims to the contrary, is no exception.

The most striking examples of the importance of aesthetics in metal are of course Metallica. Throughout the 80s and their first four albums, Metallica portrayed themselves as the anti glam rock. In contrast to their Los Angeles contemporaries, Metallica wore ratty jeans and high tops, left their hair an oily mess, and didn’t bother masking their adolescent acne scars with makeup. As everyone reading this knows, they broke into the mainstream with The Black Album. At its core The Black Album was a straightforward hard rock record, a major change from the winding progressive song structures of And Justice For All, and yet was celebrated by both the mainstream and most metal heads (with reservations). The change in sound from The Black Album to Load was not nearly as significant. Load likewise fell under hard rock, but prompted a massive backlash, not so much because of James Hetfield’s newfound love of country music, but because the band members cut their hair and were pictured wearing eyeliner and tailored suits in the album art. What Metallica didn’t realize was that, simply by being idiot drunken 80s thrash kids, they had defined a lifestyle choice for an entire generation. The deafening negative fan response was thus prompted not by a major simplification of the sound, but by a change in aesthetics, marketing and most importantly, branding.

So with that said it’s clear how important aesthetics are. Since we’re not very interested in defining ourselves by our attire, we instead go all out when it comes to album artwork. Beautiful presentation is even more important as an independent band, because there’s still a stigma attached to self-publishing. For Metazoa we enlisted the skills of Sacramento-based artist Julie Dillon, and she was an absolute godsend. I was first attracted to her work by its vibrant colors and tendency toward circular, spiraling shapes. I felt her designs would contrast nicely with the muted hues and angular forms common in metal album design. Julie delivered an incredible three-panel mural piece of truly mythic proportions that we couldn’t be any happier with. I know of a lot of fans who pirated our record, and then decided to buy it later because they wanted to own a piece of artwork. So we have her to thank for that.

HRC: What does it mean to be a successful musician in today’s industry?

“I feel bands should take great pride in their autonomy.”

AVN: It means you’re enjoying yourself. If you’re writing honest metal music, you can’t possibly be in it for the money because there is none. Not anymore. You have to love what you’re doing. I feel bands should take great pride in their autonomy. We’re not well known by any stretch of the imagination, but we’ve carved out our own tiny niche on a completely independent basis, and our album releases are self-sustaining. We’ve earned enough from Metazoa to record our next album, and hopefully we can continue in this manner. I’m not so worried about success. I worry about putting out the best music possible.

On the note of too much success, the concept of metal bands “selling out” is an amusing one. Sure, some drastic and deliberate changes in sound seem suspect (Cold Lake, Reroute to Remain and The Unspoken King come to mind immediately), but most of the metal musicians suckling at the corporate teat could earn a more consistent living working at McDonald’s. And then they’d probably even have health insurance! The majority of bands “selling out” do a terrible job of it anyway, because they’re still broke and drowning in debt to their record company. The fact is there are a couple dozen metal bands at most who have built a sufficient following to sustain a living that lasts their career. The word career is important, because you’ll see a lot of young groups riding some unfortunate trend and earning a lot of money for a few years. Then they go down with the ship when their label inevitably manufactures the next hot zeitgeist. It’s a ridiculous cycle I’m all too happy to ignore.

HRC: What’s the best and worst thing about the metal genre?

“When I first heard those early Slayer and Sepultura records, I discovered the soundtrack to my discontent.”

AVN: The best and worst things about metal are one and the same: excess. I was first attracted to metal because I was an angry stupid teenager who dropped out of high school at 16. When I first heard those early Slayer and Sepultura records, I discovered the soundtrack to my discontent. The power, honesty and rawness of an album like Celtic Frost’s Morbid Tales still awes me to this day. The bands I love were so experimental, pushed so many boundaries. Groups are always getting faster and faster or slower and slower, all ideas taken to their most extreme. The best metal is played un-ironically, will all emotions in full view, no shame. Primal. It’s a beautiful thing.

But looking at metal critically now at age 23, the genre’s same glorious, over-the-top, spiteful tunnel vision I loved then and still love now brings me some pause. While metal borrowed heavily from hardcore punk in terms of speed and rage, as a whole, it ignored punk’s sense of social obligation, its heart, and its message. In its place it offered mostly fantasy, gore, or satanic themes — essentially escapism. This is fine: sex, drugs and Satan are the cornerstones of rock n’ roll after all. But I’m getting old and I can’t relate anymore. What I can relate to is waking up cold and sore in the morning and busting my ass so I can have health insurance and pay the water bill. I can relate to out-of-touch politicians on all sides wagging their dicks around pretending to balance the state budget while my workers are forced into furlough days. I can relate to hearing racial slurs slung at African-Americans and Latinos on the street. I can relate to homelessness, to cancer, to broken families, to sexism, to spousal abuse, to homophobia, to suicide, to murder in my neighborhood. These are not themes that metal tends to explore with much seriousness. It’s an id without a super-ego.

HRC: Cormorant’s sound incorporates several subgenres of metal- is this a formula you can see the band sticking to?

“It’s not a conscious formula, really more of an anti-formula.”

AVN: It’s not a conscious formula, really more of an anti-formula. We’re simply integrating music styles we enjoy into our palette. We don’t just limit ourselves to metal subgenres either: we borrow a lot from jazz, 70s prog, neo-folk, jam bands, classical and post-rock among others. Because we aren’t pigeonholed in any particular style, it offers us greater freedom in our writing. We like it that way. I have tremendous respect for bands like Ulver, Manes, and even Darkthrone who never settled on a sound and kept evolving and experimenting. So will we keep referencing all the formative genres we love and grew up on? Of course! But the proportions and chemistry of the styles we employ will change.

HRC: What are future plans for Cormorant?

“There’s always that delicate balance to strike between music and real life.”

AVN: We’re writing a follow-up to Metazoa right now. I’d estimate we have about 30-40 minutes of music so far, with no sign yet of the well drying up. We’re excited for these new songs and we’ll be playing some at upcoming live gigs. I won’t divulge too much yet about the direction or format of the new record, except that I feel it’s notably more progressive than Metazoa, but in the old Fates Warning sense rather than the Dream Theater sense. So we’re focusing on writing right now. We would love to do a west coast tour this year, but it’s difficult scheduling-wise with work and rent to pay. And of course we have to ration our vacation time so we can afford the two weeks in the studio we’d need to record the next album. There’s always that delicate balance to strike between music and real life. Rock stars we are not.

Catch Cormorant at The Stork Club in Oakland on February 6th

Cormorant links:
myspace
twitter

Genre(s): Interviews

3383Comments (2)2010-01-26+03%3A48%3A27hardrockchick

Miscellaneous Metal: Between the Buried and Me, Cynic, The Devin Townsend Project @ Slim’s, 1/18/10

by hardrockchick [about 1 month, 23 days ago.]

I was ‘on call’ for this show.

I have read so many love letters from my fellow bloggers about these three bands that I knew I needed to check them out. I’d seen Cynic before and disliked them, but that was a year ago, so I thought maybe things had changed. I tried to get in via press, but never received confirmation. And the show sold out. But Alan let me know at Behemoth that he might have an extra. So I got a text at 7:45 letting me know that I was all set. I get by with a little help from my friends!

Slim’s was filled to the brim as I walked in halfway through The Devin Townsend Project set. I’m squirming my way through the crowd to get at least a decent spot when I run into Dan from Bay Area Metal Scene, who’s in full fanboy mode. I actually did enjoy what I could see….that dude is hilarious. He’s a fantastic entertainer- making funny faces and working the crowd, but never losing focus of the fact that he’s a star guitar player. The music, however, I find to be like some weird combo of heavy metal, j-pop, and an ’80’s film starting Corey Haim. There are parts that get me ‘there’, and parts that make me scratch my head. This would be an ongoing theme for the evening.

Video from Bay Area Metal Scene:

I’m sooooooo going to get mean comments for this review, but Cynic is a weird fucking metal band. It took them a while to set up- I think there were some technical difficulties- so I kept staring at their speaker that had ‘GO VEG peta2′ on it. I’m totally fine with vegetarians, vegans, etc.- I’m practically one myself- and I know the Dillinger Escape Plan guys (one of my faves) are on the same ‘plan’…..but it still just seems weird to me. So Cynic contains great musicians, they play those weird little guitars, they have pretty vocals mixed with the occasional growl…but it’s just so unsatisfying to me. It feels like one giant interlude. This is compounded by the fact that the lead vocalist is uber-spiritual. “Do you guys know Yoga Tree?” This was followed by having the crowd do a half moon pose. Yep….it was metal yoga in there. Which is funny, because I always complain about my yoga class’ music…Sarah McLachlan, etc. So by the end of the set, I was actually considering suggesting this to my instructor. But I’m still unsure if I could deal. It just comes down to a matter of preference- I get that people geek out on Cynic and that not everyone is a depressed anger-ridden Satanist like myself. But I will remain cynical about Cynic.

Video from Bay Area Metal Scene:

I could tell shit was going to go down when Between the Buried and Me hit the stage. A whole new crop of people came to the front- they weren’t metalheads like I’m used to, but more like young kids that are just dangerously stupid in the pit. I moved back out of harm’s way. BTBAM are a technical progressive metal band similar to Dillinger Escape Plan but without the X factor. There are some songs I am down with, and others that made me want to run from the room (a country breakdown…really?). Either way- the kids were going ballistic, and Slim’s security were having a great time trying to keep up. I’m standing on the periphery by the stairs, when all of sudden I see something out of the corner of my eye and turn and am inadvertently backhanded by some dude being dragged out by security. I immediately clasped my cheekbone and shouted, “SERIOUSLY?!?” I’ve been really lucky with the amount of shows I go to, the kind I go to, and the places I generally stand in- that I haven’t been hurt too badly. I get kicked in the head by crowdsurfers on occasion, but I can protect myself pretty well. But a punch in the face? That only happened once before, at a Korn and Disturbed show in 2000, and you should have seen the other girl So I’m worrying that I might have a black eye, but figured that I’ll just tell people it’s from Behemoth. It ended up just being a little swollen.

Video from Bay Area Metal Scene:

I was a little distracted for the rest of the set, but I think I ‘got it’ by the end….BTBAM is- in my mind- a more mainstream and less interesting Dillinger Escape Plan. Towards the end of the set, one of the security guys walked over and whispered, “doesn’t really compare to last night“. That’s what she said.

Genre(s): My Musical Adventures

3376Comments (1)2010-01-20+02%3A01%3A31hardrockchick

Heavy Enlightenment: Behemoth, Septic Flesh, Lightning Swords of Death @ Slim’s, 1/17/10

by hardrockchick [about 1 month, 24 days ago.]

I’m driving back to SF from LA on about 5 hours of sleep, which is actually pretty normal for me, but nonetheless it led me into a long span of introspection on the open road. What am I doing with my life? I’m on the final countdown for an age milestone….and I’m following bands around at an increasing rate. Will I ever settle down? Am I being silly? WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?????

Luckily the road ended and I had little time to change clothes and get to the venue for my second evening with Behemoth. I can’t wait to see the bands in my hometown venue, which is about a third of the size of the previous night’s House of Blues. I run into Photo Ray, who’s dealing with photo pass issues, and get into the long line. The two people who happen to get behind me I had stood with at last year’s Satyricon show, so we geeked out on how awesome it was to meet Frost. We identified the smallish bus out front as Behemoth’s- the woman working the door made a comment, ‘it’s smaller than most buses, but I think where they come from in Poland, you know, life is harder’. OK. Once inside, I was still able to procure ‘my spot’ at Slim’s….phew.

I enjoyed the Lightning Swords of Death set more than the previous night- probably because I saw the whole thing. The vocalist practically does a backbend as he growls into the microphone. But the star is probably the bassist, who has a pretty chaotic playing style, highlighted by his solo. Yes- a bass solo- that’s something you don’t see every day. I’m interested to see what happens with this band- they are getting great exposure from this tour, and I think they could benefit from a longer set at a smaller club.

I’m watching Septic Flesh set up since I can easily see behind the screen that descends at Slim’s between sets. Both Fotis and Inferno set up their own kits with a little assistance- it’s always amazing for me to watch that stuff being put together. I don’t know shit about drums, so it’s magic to me. The backtracks for the symphonic elements are queued up on a Mac sitting beside Fotis. The band comes out and they play a little of ‘Anubis’ to soundcheck, which is kind of weird to hear the song before it’s actually part of the set. The tech mic checks with his heavy Greek accent….LOVE that accent. And then it begins. It’s amazing how much more intimate this show was compared to the HoB show- even though Slim’s actually had a barrier up for it. The crowd was really going off for them- which impressed me since it seems like awareness for this band is kind of low. I was wrapped up in Seth’s graceful power again, and Fotis’ drumming…..though the guitarist blocked my view most of the time. Oh well. As I drummed along with my hands on the rail, I felt a fair amount of pain…..I’m bruised from doing so the night before. Didn’t stop me from continuing the rest of the night…..today I have swollen hands. Highlights were ‘Persepolis’, ‘Anubis’, and ‘Communion’.

Video from Bay Area Metal Scene:

Between the sets, I got a text from my mom: ‘are you ok?’ Oops, I forgot to call her in my rush home, and Sundays are the days when I’m supposed to check in. I text back, ’sorry, I had two Behemoth shows this weekend, and I drove back and forth to LA’, to which she replies, ‘have fun!’. Yes, my mom knows Behemoth- I traveled to San Antonio, near where my parents live, to see Behemoth last year, and I showed her my photographs after. After the initial ‘Jamie, those guys are scary!’ reaction, she immediately justified it by saying that it makes sense that I’m into them because I was obsessed with Conan and He-Man when I was a kid. OK, I’ll buy that.

The vocalist for LSOD stands next to me by the stage- he’s operating the fog machine. The two guys behind me start chatting him up, and I’m eavesdropping on his thoughts on the LA crowd being better than SF for their set, when they usually encounter the opposite. They go on to chat about his satanic practice and theories, the tour, etc…it was an interesting conversation to overhear. The guys can see Inferno setting up his drums, and one of them asks me what happened to the paint. I let them know the corpse paint will still be there, no worries, they had it on last night. “You travel with the band?!” No, I travel for the band. Then I find out not only is it their first Behemoth show, but it’s one guy’s first show EVER. I start majorly tripping out on this, which embarrasses him. He’s 19, and he thinks I’m 22……which was great even if it was a terrible lie. Thank you for that.

A perk of standing where I always do at Slim’s is watching the band come up the stairs. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s my favorite part of shows- that fleeting moment where the band is about to take the stage. There’s excitement, an element of the unknown, but a promise of the epic, and that moment is the crux of the evening.

As soon as ‘Ov Fire and The Void’ starts, I can’t believe how quiet it is. I mean, I’ve encountered this issue many times at Slim’s, but didn’t find it noticeable for the first two bands. But I could easily talk to the person next to me, which upset me a lot. Oh well, I’m glad the sound blew me away the night before.

Video from Bay Area Metal Scene:

So I’m getting into my zone when Nergal comes over to my corner of the stage and I got the stare. Now, I’m not one of those people who ever goes ‘he was looking at me!!!!’ or whatever, and Nergal does this to pretty much everyone in the front and center. But it had never happened to me before. And who knows, he could have been looking over my head. But the point is, that 10 seconds seemed like an eternity. I froze like a deer in headlights, I got goosebumps, and then I just cracked a big smile. And he nodded and walked back to the center. To gain composure, I thought of this. That’s his fiance….and that video makes me giggle. He did it again one more time towards the end of the evening, and it completely freaked me out. That’s when I realized that Behemoth has power over me.

I could see Inferno really well tonight. He makes the most hilarious faces while he’s playing- like he’s eaten something bitter. I don’t get how someone can be that coordinated and fast- his four appendages stay a blur. Also, he must be able to apply his paint really quickly considering he’s not wearing it when he’s setting his drums up moments before he comes out. And I don’t know what they use, but he wipes sweat off his face between songs and the paint stays intact. It’s just all a mystery.

I can barely look at Orion without blushing, so I didn’t really. However, in my line of sight for Inferno was often his bicep. At first, I thought he had a tattoo of Jason from Friday the 13th that was mostly obscured by paint. But upon closer examination I realized with about 90% certainty that it was HANNIBAL FUCKING LECTER. Silence of the Lambs is one of my favorite movies- I went to school with the original intention of being a Clarice Starling because I was so obsessed with the film. Anyway, I thought it was unbelievably cool- though when I excitedly told my girlfriend about it this morning I think she thought I might need to get my head checked.

Tonight Nergal did a lot more talking- instructing the crowd to spread the word of the band and metal, some anti-religion remarks, thanking everyone, and talked about this being the first proper Behemoth headlining tour. He did not tear up a bible tonight, however. This is one example of why I like to go to multiple shows….yeah, the setlist was the same, but the act, the place- it was all different.

While the Evangelion and Demigod songs are generally the best in the set, over these two shows I rediscovered my love for ‘As Above So Below‘. What a killer riff and beat that song has.

There’s a guy that comes over the rail, and Nergal reaches out his fist but the guy can’t reach it as security is putting him down. That guy fought to try to re-engage in that fist bump until security had to drag him out of there.

The set is ending. There’s a small break before ‘Lucifer’, and Orion is standing at the top of the stairs. This guy pushes past me to yell at him, ‘Orion is GOD’ over and over…..hahaha wow. ‘Lucifer’ is such an awesome final song- not only is it the last track on Evangelion- but the way they perform it is fucking epic. They have such an economy of movement- much of it is them standing there like statues, only their fingers moving to play. And they just stare. Compared to the opening chaos in ‘Ov Fire and The Void’, it’s almost like the set works backwards in energy from most….and I love that it is constructed this way.

I got sad the moment they left the stage. I wish I could go to more shows this tour, but their schedule is really short. I went and bought a poster, and contemplated sticking around to see if they came out at the end. But I decided that Behemoth might be a band I should never meet. There’s a part of me that- even though I’ve seen them sans make-up eating backstage at Mayhem- pretends they are inhuman, frozen in ice between sets and defrosted and unleashed upon the world to rock the stage in the evenings.

When I left, it was raining, and it fit the evening perfectly.

See Photo Ray’s pics here.

Genre(s): My Musical Adventures

3371Comments (0)2010-01-19+02%3A53%3A45hardrockchick

House of Growls: Behemoth, Septic Flesh, Lightning Swords of Death @ House of Blues LA, 1/16/10

by hardrockchick [about 1 month, 24 days ago.]

I’m flying down the 5 at 90 mph, alternating between listening to the bands I would later see that evening and the Juliet, Naked audiobook, Nick Hornby’s latest work, which is, in part, about what it means to be a fan. It would be my first of two nights of Behemoth shows, where I would drive to and from LA in less than 24 hours to see them. I guess you could say I’m a fan.

My friend who let me crash at her place accompanied me to the show even though she’s more of an Eagles of Death Metal fan than a death metal one. Before the show, we had a nice sushi dinner, as anyone should before a show of this type.

This would be my first time at a House of Blues. I’d always tried to avoid them- it’s the venue equivalent of a chain restaurant, they’ve banned some of my favorite bands in the past, and I just always imagined them being overwrought with rules. The massive line to get in and the metal detector wands we encountered seemed to verify this. But once inside and settled in, I ended up really liking it. We scored a great spot on the right side of the stage, standing on a short flight of stairs, so we were slightly elevated above the crowd but still essentially front row. There were only two security guards in front of the rail, and no one ever told us to move. I was really impressed, and it’s always feeling like I’ve scored the best spot in the house that makes or breaks a show for me.

Lightning Swords of Death were on stage at this point. They definitely look like they walked right off the pages of True Norwegian Black Metal, even though they are from LA. They’ve got the sound down, too- that kind of muddled production quality of Darkthrone or Burzum. The sound seemed weird to me, and I only caught the last two or three songs of the set. I think it’s tricky to pull off being a black metal band that’s not Norwegian. I personally like to see where a band is from reflected in their work, and this is a tough genre to maneuver.

I was very excited to finally see Septic Flesh, from Greece, despite reading some negative reviews. They have a strong symphonic component to their sound- which is a turn off for some- but to me this is their Grecian spin on death metal. It reminds me of Chthonic. I was really impressed- they are dramatic and energetic and everything sounded fantastic. I really liked Seth as a frontman- there’s something different about him and the way he handles the bass is quite impressive. He’s a tall guy and he can play it upside down and hold it out on top of the audience with ease. He does a fair amount of instructing the audience to throw their devil horns in the air- but I wouldn’t say it’s much worse than other bands. So maybe the one thing that is a bit much is that they do refer to themselves as Gods….so I guess they are Grecian Gods. I can deal, especially because I’m about to rave about the drummer, Fotis Benardo, but only because he has the talent to back it up. He’s a seriously amazing drummer. But he’s also seriously good looking…to quote my friend who I sent his myspace page to before the show saying ‘look at who I’m seeing this weekend!’, she stated, ‘wow- that guy is Megan Fox hot…is he real?’. So everyone around me got a good laugh when I squealed when he stood up and removed his shirt at the beginning of the set. So, yeah, I’ll objectify men every once and a while- they do it to us all the time…..so somebody’s got to do it My favorite Septic Flesh song is Anubis- not only because it’s a great song, but also because it’s my cat’s name. I managed to film it below, but I was also banging my head, so it’s a bit shaky and my proximity to the speakers makes the audio not ideal.

Anubis
My soul is so light
And as this feather I can fly

Anubis
Don’t let me wither and die

As the time for Behemoth to hit the stage approached, the floor became even more packed with very large men. This was my first metal show in LA- and I was very interested to see what the crowd would be like. I found it to be even more male skewed than SF, and a bit more diverse in ages. In SF I feel like everyone is either significantly older or younger than me. We were standing near the stairs to go up to VIP- I thought there might be some good rock star sightings considering that NAMM was going on, and it’s LA- but I didn’t catch a glimpse of anyone.

Behemoth. They come out on stage and stand there, staring at the crowd. And then they launch in ‘Ov Fire and the Void’, which might be my favorite song of theirs. It’s a full throttle auditory and theatrical assault. Immediately someone comes from behind me, jumps onto the speaker and then the stage, and dives off. The security is absolutely overwhelmed. Several other divers would make it onto the stage over the course of the evening.

I’m in the zone- my body moves involuntarily along to the beats I know so well. The pit is pure chaos, surfers are coming over the barrier, which is moving closer to the stage. The power and energy of the band and the room was almost competing with each other, getting more and more intense with each song.

It was great to hear more of Evangelion, as only one track was played at the three Mayhem Fest shows I went to last year. It was also great to see them in the proper dark environment- though watching their set in the sunlight did have its charm. I did miss the massive amount of blood they spit out at the end of the set in those day shows…..this time around I only saw a trickle from Nergal at the end. Minor complaint.

Nergal: frontman of epic proportions. “Thank you California for always treating us like this is home”. Before ‘Christians to the Lions’, he brought out a bible and tore some pages out of it. He has come under fire in their homeland of Poland for this recently. This time I really focused on his guitar work- it’s impressive he can be that good while giving so much to his vocal duties. Usually one suffers as you can’t give 100% to both. Not the case here. I was especially impressed with ‘At the Left Hand Ov God’ and ‘Chant for Eschaton’.

I tried to film parts but kept getting bumped….here’s what I could salvage…it’s actually quite nice.

As they wrapped up their set with the epic ‘Lucifer’, I started thinking about how much I love them, and how this is hard to understand for some people. What is it about Behemoth? Am I a Satanist? Is it just because I think the bassist is one of the hottest men alive? These are questions I get from both non-metal types who think it’s just weird, and metal types that accuse me of being into ‘hipster metal’. To me, Behemoth is technical prowess, it’s pure intensity, it’s subversive theater, it’s anti-organized religion, it’s well composed songs that have actual hooks. And it comes down to this: Behemoth makes me feel alive. Someone once told me “everyone is weird about one thing”. Perhaps I just happen to be weird about five or so things….and Behemoth is one of them.

After the show, we filed outside and were deciding what to do with the rest of our evening since the show ended at an early 11pm. This is when, in true HRC fashion, the douchiest guy in the entire place saunters over, phone in hand, and just flatly goes, “hey, give me your number”. Seriously dude? Wow.

Somehow we ended the evening at some ‘hot’ new nightclub called Voyeur, since I was meeting a friend there. We were escorted in past the velvet rope in our metal attire while a hundred designer dressed faces glared at us. Once inside the room, which used to be a strip club, and still had mostly naked women dangling from the ceiling, I found one similarity between the death metal show and the posh club- hostility. Get a bunch of model types into one room and the result is pretty brutal.

Genre(s): My Musical Adventures

3366Comments (0)2010-01-19+00%3A13%3A14hardrockchick

Dive Punk: Agnostic Front, Death By Stereo, Hightower @ Thee Parkside, 1/15/10

by hardrockchick [about 1 month, 27 days ago.]

I live approximately 8 blocks from Thee Parkside, towards the top of Potrero Hill. It’s a weird neighborhood, man…I love it, everything is right there, but once it gets dark there is no one on the street. So my 9pm walk to the dive bar is completely silent. I’m having a moment, viewing the bay bridge from the top of the hill when some crazy homeless guy starts cackling at me from a hidden spot off the sidewalk. I jumped a foot in the air and made it to the bar as fast as I could. Crazy homeless punk.

There’s a pretty long line to get in, which is rare here- I’ve only seen it for Secrets of the Moon. Luckily the guestlist allows you to skip the line. The place is already packed, and walking onto the main floor I was hit with a stench that would loom all night. Stinky punk boys.

Hightower are on stage. I immediately remember them from a Valient Thorr show late last year. They are more metal than punk, with some doom and psychedelic elements. The drummer takes on most of the singing duties, which always throws me off. The guitarist thrashes around with his large mop of hair, once accidentally stepping offstage and he had to be propped up by another girl and yours truly.

You know you are in a dive bar when:

-a speaker above the stage has a towel taped to the corner to protect people who bump their head.
-someone from the crowd has to help plug in a light in exchange for a free shot
-the ‘barrier’ is really just a step for people to launch themselves onto the crowd
-that smell
-every guy that smiles at you is missing at least one prominent tooth

Death By Stereo- I really wanted to like them, but the music is just not for me. The crowd LOVED them. This is a band I could see doing really well on Warped Tour. It’s hardcore with some emo vocals that just made me cringe at times. But everyone was singing alone, the pit went off, a chick in a LBD and heels bought the band a rounds of shots and delivered them onstage (hitting her head on the above referenced speaker…d’oh!). The band was very eager to please and I was in the teensy minority of people standing there with arms folded. Oh well, instead I watched this girl with a build similar to mine police dudes in the pit. It was mindblowing. She’s grab them by the scruff of the neck and push them back into the pit. Once she had a guy by the throat. Crowdsurfers started popping up, barely squeezing between the crowd and the ceiling.

By the time Agnostic Front came on, we were packed in like sardines and it smelled like it, too. It was getting really hot as well. I had wedged myself between a beam and the exit just in case- it ended up being a very safe spot. But on all sides of me it seemed like tiny pockets of chaos were erupting. The band was performing Victim in Pain, their debut album which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. However, they put this in the middle of the set, which was kind of interesting. They sounded pretty good- especially in comparison to the previous band for me. The sound left much to be desired- there was a lot of feedback going on at first. But this is a dive joint- so it comes with the turf. So, for the vocals I often only picked up ‘New York’- which they say quite often. The album performance portion was the best for me- the title track is great. I just kind of laugh when I hear ‘Blind Faith’…”There is no justice, there’s just us”…I dunno, it’s a bit much. Divers started jumping on stage to surf the crowd, knocking over the mic stands. The temperature kept rising. As soon as the last song finished, the exit doors were thrown open and people made a mad dash to get out for fresh air. Everyone agreed that they needed air instead of an encore.

You can see a quick iPhone video clip here.

Shows at Thee Parkside are always interesting. I don’t think I’ll ever be blown away by a set here, but I love the authenticity and rawness that these shows always maintain. However, just like my walk home, the weekend should be all uphill from here.

Genre(s): My Musical Adventures

3362Comments (0)2010-01-16+10%3A14%3A42hardrockchick

HardRockChick Interviews Dez Fafara of DevilDriver

by hardrockchick [about 2 months, 3 days ago.]

Dez Fafara, formerly of Coal Chamber and currently of DevilDriver, is one cool guy. Before the second date of the Bound By the Road tour at Slim’s, I sat down with Dez in the smoke-filled back room of the tour bus to discuss life on the road, upcoming DevilDriver material, and Twitter.

HardRockChick: So last night was the first show of the tour- how was it? How did you feel about it?

Dez Farfara: Killer. Last night was in Pomona- it was amazing, you know, for a Thursday night there was 450-500 kids. It was amazing- a good time.

HRC: What makes a good show good for you and a bad show bad?

“We put this tour specifically together so we could hang out with people.”

DF: If you’re having a good time with the band, and the band is locked in, and it’s a loose show- and I mean it just flows- then that was a good show. And that was last night. People are coming over the barricade and circle pits are huge, and then it’s good- it’s a good time. And plus the bands you play with. We’ve got a lot of friends on this tour- I’m sitting with Jay Costa right now from Thy Will Be Done. We like all the bands on this tour. We put this tour specifically together so we could hang out with people.

HRC: You tour very extensively, yet, you’re a family man- you have a wife and kids- how do you manage relationships while you’re on the road so much?

“When she met me she kinda knew she had the life of the wife of a sailor.”

DF: I’ve been with my girl for almost 13 years. When she met me she kinda knew she had the life of the wife of a sailor. So, that’s that. But, she’s my rock, you know, I couldn’t go on without her. She’s behind everything I do. And the minute she’s not, I’ll fall right off the tracks and come home. She pushes me to do what I do, and she’s a huge part of my life.

HRC: How do you teach your kids about metal?

“I didn’t teach my kids about metal- I taught my kids about music in general.”

DF: I didn’t teach my kids about metal- I taught my kids about music in general. My youngest, who’s 12 and has got long hair and Slayer shirts- I wake up to heavy shit that I’ve never even heard of coming out of his room at 6:30 before school- it’s killer! (One of the crew interjects- “He teaches us about metal!”) He knows his shit. I’ve got three boys- the youngest being 12. I started kinda early in life.

See Dez’s kids star in the DevilDriver video for ‘Clouds Over California’

HRC: Metal and mainstream have always been at odds with each other, yet metal is becoming more mainstream right now. What do you think about that and where does DevilDriver fit into it?

“But if they crossover naturally and organically then it’s really cool to see that happening.”

DF: As far as metal going more mainstream- you’re only seeing some bands maybe do that, and they’re going to fall to the wayside if they don’t stick to their core. But if they crossover naturally and organically then it’s really cool to see that happening. As far as DevilDriver fitting in- I don’t think we really fit in anywhere, really. We have our own sound completely. We try to make sure that we keep that- our own unique gig, you know?

HRC: How about the live DVD that you have coming out- what’s going on with that right now?

“It’s not going to be your average DVD where a guy flies out for 19 days and makes it look like he’s with you for a year.”

DF: We’ve been recording this band on video since day one- since the first rehearsals. So it’s going to be something special. It’s not going to be your average DVD where a guy flies out for 19 days and makes it look like he’s with you for a year. We’ve really been filming for like 8 years. So, it’s gotta be something special. We’re talking to the label to try to figure out what’s really gonna happen and how we’re gonna do it. We’re in conversations right now. I’ll know in about 2 weeks really what’s going to happen and what the format’s gonna be.

HRC: And the new album- how’s that going?

DF: Well, we’re writing- we’ve got 6 tracks…

HRC: So you guys write on the road?

“I think 2 years is too long to wait for somebody’s tunes.”

DF: Yeah, we write on the road as well. We just started last night- the tour- so, you know, no one’s gonna start writing for 3 or 4 days- we’ve kinda got to get our sea legs on. But, we’re going in in April and May. It’s gonna be a good time. We’re definitely gonna record in Los Angeles. Picking producers right now. We try to get a record out every 20-21 months if we possibly can. I think 2 years is too long to wait for somebody’s tunes. I don’t know how old you are, but when I was coming up, you got a record a year or you really got pissed off at the artist. We’re trying to be that for our fans, and give them tons of tunes.

HRC: Speaking of fans, what do you think about social media such as Twitter and Facebook as far as keeping in touch with your fans?

DF: It all works real well. I just got on the Twitter thing about a month ago…

HRC: I saw!

“It’s good, I mean, it’s almost like the less words, it’s more personal.”

DF: Yeah, which is funny, you know, so I can be like, ‘I’m in Wal-Mart’…’I love Captain Crunch’ or whatever, you know. It’s good, I mean, it’s almost like the less words, it’s more personal. I don’t know how that works, but it’s working. So I twitter, and I blog and stuff. Our manager has to remind us, you know, to get out there. But it’s a good way to get in touch with your fans, definitely. And to get feedback as well. I’ve heard somebody say, ‘oh- you should play this song!’ And then after you hear it 20 times, you add the tune.

HRC: Do you have any new year’s resolutions?

“But I’ll stay resolute to that til the day I die.”

DF: Haha, no! I fall so short of any resolution I’ve ever made. Nah. To be a strong man out on the road. Good for my woman and my family. And to keep on rockin’. That’s my resolution. But I’ll stay resolute to that til the day I die.

Did you notice several sailor references throughout the conversation? I think I shall now refer to him as Captain Dez.

HRCDEZ

HRC & Capt. Dez

Read my write up from the show here.

Genre(s): Interviews

3341Comments (0)2010-01-10+00%3A09%3A22hardrockchick

The Devil’s Company: DevilDriver, Suffocation, Goatwhore, Thy Will Be Done @ Slim’s, 1/8/10

by hardrockchick [about 2 months, 3 days ago.]

It would be my first show of the year, and if this set the tone for the rest of 2010, I’m buckling up now because it’s going to be one hell of a ride.

We left off in December, which was a tumultuous month with great shows that were bittered by loss, and I spent a lot of time solo. But this show was the complete polar opposite: I was in good company, and it felt like the best possible way to begin the year.

So it’s 6pm, and I’m walking up 11th Street talking to the DevilDriver tour manager on the phone because I have an interview scheduled with Dez. However, I’m not on the schedule. He tells me that Dez has canceled one interview today, but would I like to interview someone else from the band? I hesitate, but let him know that my questions were pretty Dez specific. So I tell him it’s no big deal, this happens, let’s do it another time. But he tells me to hang on and come to the bus.

By then I’ve walked up to the front of Slim’s by the tour bus. I’m greeted with a warm welcome- “it’s Hard Rock Chick!” from two guys waiting in line to get in (since 2:30p that afternoon- dedication!). Turns out, they are the same guys I photographed at the rail at Slipknot last year. I’m chatting with them when the tour manager steps off the bus and yells ‘Hard Rock Chick?!”, so I wander over there expecting to be told ’sorry’, but instead, he steps aside for me to get on the bus. He starts leading me past the main area to the back, hesitating only to ask, “are you ok with large amounts of marijuana smoke?”, to which I reply, “yes…this is San Francisco”. Honestly, if I didn’t know that Dez is a married man, I would not have just gone on the back of the bus by myself. But as the curtain was pulled aside, and smoke billowed out, and I saw the back couches full of crew and members of the other bands, I widened my eyes a bit, took a deep breath, and went into work mode.

The guys cleared a seat for me, turned down the music, and were very polite while I ran through my questions with Dez. You can read the interview here. Afterwards, I thanked him and got up to leave, maneuvering around equipment set up for another interview in the front of the bus. I step off to the usual raised eyebrows of the people waiting outside and chat with the two guys again when I hear “HEY, girl, come back over here!” So I walk back to the door, and Dez and one of the crew have come off the bus to talk to me. A few fans rush up to get things signed, so I’m standing there like…ummm…what is going on? After signing the stuff, Dez tells me to give my contact info to the crew guy because they want to put me on their MySpace. So I give him my card, and they give me a VIP pass and an invitation to come back for drinks before the show. So…I guess he liked my interview?

I run home and grab a bite to eat when I get a text from my co-worker, Dean, who is also entrenched in the metal scene and is friends with DevilDriver guitarist, Mike Spreitzer. So I meet up with them for pre-show drinks at the divey pizza place down the street, Bowzers. Mike has great taste in music- he’s wearing a Skinny Puppy shirt, Rammstein is his favorite band, and NIN seemed to rank up there as well.

It’s time for the show, and when I get inside, Thy Will Be Done is already on stage. I’m quickly reminded of how quiet Slim’s is for metal shows…boo….but from the little I saw of TWBD, I dug it. Next time, I’ll have a more astute review.

I was VERY excited to finally see Goatwhore after all 4 or 5 times I had to miss them due to conflicts last year. Carving Out the Eyes of God was one of my favorite albums of 2009. Many people I know cannot get past the name, but I’ve done my fair share of convincing people to take a closer look at this band, even right then, as I ran into HRC friend Jeff, who runs the Bleeding Metal Facebook group. Perhaps I easily accepted the name Goatwhore because my high school mascot was- get this- the Battlin’ Billies. As in Billy Goats. Yeah…..so, Goatwhore did not disappoint. I squeezed my way into my front corner and admired their work. Yes, I had a VIP pass and could’ve watched the whole show from behind the velvet rope….but I prefer the front row energy. There’s something about death metal from New Orleans that just works. I mean, of all the places in the US for that kind of music to come from, it just makes sense. Their frontman, with the incredibly formal sounding name Louis Benjamin Falgoust II, is great. Zak Simmons is also a great drummer- he played with HRC fave Nachtmystium for awhile. And DD guitarist Mike enlightened me that guitarist Sammy Duet was in Acid Bath, a band I somehow did not know about but am currently enjoying. And the bassist almost has the exact same name as me….weird! Anyway, great set- below is a clip from HRC friend Dan with Bay Area Metal Scene, who was also in the house that evening.

High off that set, I turned around to see one of my favorite front men, Robb Flynn of Machine Head, standing there. A few people over stands Matt Pike from High on Fire. And of course there were my dear friends Umlaut, Photo Ray, and Photo Alan. Yes, the metal brother/sisterhood was out in full force, and it felt good.

You know what’s really great about metal shows? No line for the women’s restroom!

Next up was Suffocation, from New York. They are a powerful band that’s still got it even though they predate all the other bands by over 10 years. Vocalist Frank Mullen is quite the character. I wish I could recall everything that he said between songs, but I wouldn’t do it justice. I know that one was a rant in support of the Second Amendment- “get on my lawn and I shoot you!” (or something like that). Now, while most SFers would gasp at this, the inner me felt at home with this statement. HRC insider info: mommy and daddy make guns for a living. Not necessarily the killing kind, more of the collectible art kind. I won’t get political on you, but I support the Second Amendment, and it’s generally a piece of my life I have to hide in hippie town. Anyway, while the flow of the set was a bit disrupted with these speeches, the seasoned band brought the heaviest set of the night.

I squeezed back up front for DevilDriver. DD is a band that puts on a great show- one that’s not to be missed even if their music isn’t your thing. This is probably why they tour so much. Dez has just got it as a front man- he’s energetic and he imbues that onto the audience, and just really connects well with them. I loved that they started with ‘End of the Line’.

A couple things of note happened during this set: one was the stage dive partial fail by someone I kinda know…..it was the monitor’s fault for falling! And then at the end of the set, Guitarist Mike broke a string, and then his replacement guitar wasn’t working, so he took it off and threw it down and went off stage. While we all thought he was just really pissed that his guitar wasn’t working- I found out later that his tech pointed out that there was blood all over his face when he walked off stage, which is why he had to run downstairs to get patched up. Seems that when he was taking off the guitar the strap caught one of his facial piercing and….ouch.

Luckily I know exactly where to stand to stay out of harm’s way, because it got a bit rough in there. It also helped to have Dean and Jeff blocking the crazies…so, thanks!!!

I had a lot of fun at this show, but my neck hurts from bangin’ my head so much…..a sign of taking 3 weeks off from shows. Time to get back in show shape!

Afterward, we hung around outside, I grabbed a pic with Dez, and we watched the hardcore fans get things signed. We were harassed by a homeless guy multiple times about buying a Street Sheet from him- “no, thanks, man”…”yeah, still, no thanks”….”yeah, we’re still not interested”. But we saw him make out like a bandit with some food and water that the crew gave him later on. There was one group of fans who had a huge stack of posters that they were getting each member of DD to sign. Since I’m a poster collector- I glanced at them and saw that they all looked like other band’s posters…so I was really confused. We went for drinks with the band and crew minus Dez at Lucky 13, and I drove some of the guys back to the tune of Behemoth (which the bassist properly identified after one song). These people were still waiting to catch the last member of the band to sign them (John the drummer)- come to find out they had a poster from every show the band has ever played in SF. The band thought that was cool…as did I.

The night ended at a late 3am, when I decided to leave after watching the bassist from Suffocation and John the drummer get in a deep ‘conversation’ about blast beats and click tracks where they sat there and drummed on their legs, which kinda reminded me of this:

(the first quote, #30, between Nathan and Pickles)

Thanks to DevilDriver for being super cool to me, and making my first show of the year quite a memorable one!

Catch this tour when it comes near you- dates here. Some of them include Behemoth- East Coast- I hate you!!!

Genre(s): My Musical Adventures

3348Comments (0)2010-01-10+00%3A08%3A17hardrockchick

What’s the Alternative? 2009 in Alt-Rock

by hardrockchick [about 2 months, 9 days ago.]

It’s challenging to write about what happened to a genre of music in 2009 when it’s as loosely defined as Alternative. What exactly is Alternative music, really? It’s hard to put into words, but our ears can pick it up. And that’s the beauty of music.

Early ’90s alt-rock bands Dinosaur Jr., Meat Puppets, The Jesus Lizard, and Sonic Youth all toured extensively in support of albums and rereleases. This interestingly mimics the way these bands originally set the stage for Grunge, which is set to see a huge revival in 2010 with the newly reunited Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Stone Temple Pilots.

It has often been said that The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath wrote every riff and melody out there, and today’s music just combines them in new and different ways. One look at the genre classifications of new bands’ MySpace pages will show you how genre hybrids are becoming more and more diverse. Disco elements have found their way into the indie rock of MGMT and the GRAMMY nominated Yeah Yeah Yeah’s album, It’s Blitz. Electronica have merged into the psychedelic rock of A Place to Bury Strangers, who’s second album Exploding Head is one of my favorites of the year. Dirty Projectors have combined indie rock with almost every other genre imaginable in the most dizzying album of the year, Bitte Orca. And Fever Ray claims to be black metal (though I can not go there) combined with folk rock, as seen in their 2009 self-titled release .

Some subgenres from the early ’80s were refreshed in 2009. Chris Corner of IAMX continued to produce innovative music in the darkwave realm with Kingdom of Welcome Addiction. Fischerspooner released their latest installment in the electroclash realm with Entertainment. Post-punk bands heavily influenced by Joy Division and The Jesus and Mary Chain saw success this year, my favorites being The Horrors with their release Primary Colours- another one of my favorite albums of the year, as well as Crocodiles, The Raveonettes, and She Wants Revenge.

Indie rock, which has dominated alternative rock for the past decade, has increasingly taken an electronic slant. This can be seen in the GRAMMY nominated Phoenix’s work Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, as well as other 2009 indie favorites Grizzly Bear, Miike Snow, Glasvegas, Matt & Kim, and Lykke Li.

Perhaps being an established Alternative music act proved to be a curse on the road this year. GRAMMY nominated Depeche Mode set off on a world tour to promote Sounds of the Universe. The tour was plagued with cancellations as David Gahan battled illness and a leg injury (one of which was my show in SF….PLEASE RESCHEDULE..thanks!) Morissey also had to cancel shows as he toured in support of Years of Refusal . And Weezer lead singer Rivers Cuomo was injured in a bus accident that led to cancellations of the remainder of their Raditude tour.

What will happen to Alternative music as we move into the new decade? What genre buried in the past will be reborn in the present? Will we see rock music mixed with elements of Polka or Hyphy? I’m excited to see what new ground will be covered in the future of Alternative music.

Genre(s): GRAMMY rock/metal/alternative community blogger pieces

3312Comments (0)2010-01-03+23%3A28%3A37hardrockchick

It Was a Rockin’ 2009- A Look Back

by hardrockchick [about 2 months, 10 days ago.]

2009: the last year of the first decade of the new millennium. It proved to be a year rife with innovation, comebacks, breakthroughs, and goodbyes in rock music.

Thrash metal began in the ’80’s with Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax, who, incidentally, will tour together for the first time in 2010. Their influence can be felt today as we are in the midst of the New Wave of Thrash Metal Bands, led by Skeletonwitch, Warbringer, and Toxic Holocaust. And I would be amiss not to mention the inspirational story of thrash metal band Anvil, as told in the documentary Anvil: The Story of Anvil, which made waves across the industry in 2009.

Black metal, an extreme subculture in the ’80’s and early ’90s, has seen a push towards the mainstream this year. Beyond a New York Times piece on a Black Metal symposium and appearances in high fashion, 2009 saw the release of Until the Light Takes Us, which documents Norweigian Black Metal’s early and most controversial years. The popularity of Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse and solid albums by black metal leaning bands Behemoth, Satyricon, Enslaved, Marduk, and Gorgoroth have also elevated the genre.

However, 2009 kinda belonged to Mastodon. For a metal band who’s been working hard for 10 years, Crack the Skye has proven to be the true breakthrough album for them. While glaringly missing from the GRAMMY nominations, this concept album has been a critical success and is my personal favorite album of the year. The album’s prog metal leaning, along with recent efforts from bands like Baroness and Pelican, have brought new fans into the genre.

As 2010 approached, a resurgence of all things ’90’s popped up, especially in the realm of Seattle Sound, or Grunge. 2009 marked the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s debut album, Bleach. We saw the return of Alice in Chains, who have seen success with their new album and tour, including a GRAMMY nominated single. And nearly minutes before the clock struck midnight for 2010, Soundgarden announced that they were getting back together after a 12 year hiatus. Oh- Limp Bizkit also reunited- but it’s still too soon for a late ’90’s revival…

Several rock stars pulled together supergroups and branched out with side projects in 2009. Jack White teamed up with Alison Mosshart for the delectable Dead Weather. Josh Homme, Dave Grohl, and John Paul Jones got together for Them Crooked Vultures. Sammy Hagar and Joe Satriani pulled off Chickenfoot. And Maynard James Keenan exposed us to his side project, Puscifer.

Twitter’s real time updates became wildly popular in 2009. As musicians signed up, fans were able to directly connect with their favorite artists and peer into their lives in a different way than ever before. Rock and metal musicians have been everpresent in this trend, as fans followed updates from Trent Reznor, Chris Cornell, Zakk Wylde, Tom Morello, Dave Navarro, and Jamey Jasta throughout the year.

Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails have done much to push the fragile music industry forward in recent years. In 2009, the band released an iPhone application that allowed fans to connect with each other and share content. An open camera policy was also implemented at their concerts, leading to fan shot and edited high quality videos of NIN shows. Despite this activity, the band played their final shows for the foreseeable future in September.

Bands like Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine have recently been involved in efforts to stop the use of music to torture prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Rock and metal tracks make up the bulk of the list of songs that are played at high volumes in this heinous misuse of art.

A facebook campaign aiming to end X-Factor’s reign over the UK Christmas charts banded together music fans- Rage Against the Machine fans in particular- from all over the world. RATM’s ‘Killing in the Name’ emerged victorious and earned the ‘Christmas Number One’ slot on the UK Singles Chart. All I want for Christmas is my metal!

Unfortunately, 2009 may be remembered as one of the deadliest years in music. Beyond losing the King of Pop, we said goodbye to Ron Asheton of The Stooges, Lux Interior of The Cramps, Rowland Howard of The Birthday Party, Les Paul, and Vic Chesnutt. We’ll never know the full potential of James ‘The Rev’ Sullivan of Avenged Sevenfold, Brian Redman of 3 Inches of Blood, and Mike Alexander of Evile.

All in all, 2009 has been a good year for music. It makes me excited for what 2010 holds for all of us rockers and metalheads out there.

Genre(s): GRAMMY rock/metal/alternative community blogger pieces

3306Comments (0)It+Was+a+Rockin%27+2009-+A+Look+Back2010-01-02+23%3A50%3A10hardrockchick