The Official What the Fuck of the Day

Amebix + prawn bisque + the NY Post + Simon and fucking Garfunkle?.

What the hell is going on in the universe man? Guess it's another success from Bazillion Points BK. Ian you're a twisted fucker.

Last Month's Tracks of the Week

Yeah sorry about the massive and crippling neglect. Anyways, I'm trying to get back on my game here. Here's last month's "tracks of the week".

* Big Business - Start Your Digging
* Shrinebuilder - Blind For All To See
* Skeletonwitch - Soul Thrashing Black Sorcery
* Metallica - Whiplash
* Neurosis - Given to the Rising
* St. Vitus - White Stallions
* Red Fang - Prehistoric Dog
* Rwake - Crooked Rivers
* Poison Idea - Cult Band
* Dystopia - Illusion of Love

New ones are up now.

Municipal Waste, Phobia, Brutal Truth, and Cauldron @ the Gramercy Theater, NYC. Dec 9th, 2009

WAY WAY MORE TO COME!






Municipal Waste set on Flickr

Municipal Waste - Walk on & "Unleash the Bastards" @ Gramercy Theater, NYC. Dec. 9th, 2009. www.nogodsnovegetables.com from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Municipal Waste - "Headbanger Facerip" @ Gramercy Theater, NYC. Dec. 10, 2009. www.nogodsnovegetables.com from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Municipal Waste @ Gramercy Theater, NYC. Dec. 09, 2009. www.nogodsnovegetables.com from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Oh man, it's so true

German Industrial = Serious Business

Abrasion

Apparently videos games are metal afterall

New Tracks of the Week

This weeks tracks are up. Somebody send me a shit ton of Dystopia. I just realized I don't have fuck all any more for some reason.

Last weeks tracks.
* Eyehategod - Depress
* Eyehategod - Dixie Whiskey
* Crass - Securicor
* Crass - Bloody Revolution
* Tafkata - Terra
* Tafkata - Ten Foot
* Graf Orlock - 50 year Storm
* Graf Orlock - Days of High Adventure
* Black Flag - Depression
* Haunted Castle - Sunken Eyes

Shrinebuilder, Rwake, and Liturgy @ Le Poisson Rouge, NYC. Nov 15th, 2009

Shit tons more to come. All uploading now.

SHRINEBUILDER

Shrinebuilder - Hell @ Poisson Rouge. Nov 15th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Shrinebuilder - Pyramid of the Moon @ Poisson Rouge. Nov 15th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Shrinebuilder @ Poisson Rouge. Nov. 15th 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

More Shrinebuilder shots on Flickr

More Rwake shots on Flickr

Hooked on Junk (...mail...)

Next time someone sends you junk mail, print this out, enclose it in that little envelope and leave off the return address.

Best Junk Mail Response Ever

Moer Wrods to Liev By

Skate Mean, Live Clean

Graf Orlock

Recently I've been trying to clean house (literally and figuratively) and get my shit together. This involves a lot of stupid crap like actually cleaning my room, and other shit like reevaluating what I do at work. Anyways, it's kept me from updating this blog at the rate I like to. Guess I'll make it up to you by posting basically all o Graf Orlock's catalog. Remind me why I haven't changed the name of this blog to "Shit Blake Sends Me" yet?

Right so, Graf Orlock. Inventors of "CinemaGrind." Has little to nothing to do with the Rodriguez/Tarantino movies, promise. In summary, take every quote from every ridiculous 80's/90's action movie, throw them in the middle of a swirling mass of grindy/powerviolencey turmoil, add chunky guitars and multiple dudes wailing and you've got Graf.

Usually this kinda shit would border on my, "What the fuck are these skinny little shit's whine-screaming about again?" but instead of getting all fucking bitchy and emo they're yelling about fucking Point Break, Indiana Jones, Conan, and the fucking Terminator. Also the singers and whole band is tighter than a 10 year old.

Start out with "Destination Time: Yesterday" and move on from there. The albums are in order of release but don't include their split's.

Use this as fuel for the week.

Graf Orlock EP
Corpseperate Greed
Destination Time: Yesterday
Destination Time: Tomorrow
Destination Time: Today

What is This Song?

This shit kills it. Who the hell does this song? "Surfing on Heroin." I've only found covers.

Surfing on Heroin from Meat Post on Vimeo.

No Gods, All Real Beef Substitute, Naturally Flavored with Other Natural Flavors

Brutal German Thrash PSA's?

R.I.P. Chuck Biscuits 1965-2009

HAHAHA BIG FUNNY HOAX! AHAHAHA OOPS!...
It's not too often that drummers in the punk world make a lasting and deeply influential mark on the world. Chuck Biscuits was definitely one of the few that did. Playing in the Canadian DOA, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Danzig, Social D and probably a shit ton of others, Chuck was definitely THE hardcore drummer. Dude is a pleasure to watch on the kit. Youtube any of his shit with the Circle Jerks or Danzig. It's infectious.

Chuck, you were the man and will be missed.

Tracks of the Week (In no particular order)

New ones up

Last weeks tracks:
* St. Vitus - White Stallions
* Weedeater - Gimme Back My Bullets
* Om - Inerrant Rays of the Sun
* Sleep - Aquarian
* Fukpig - Cunt Hive
* Wellington - The Toilet Bowl of Life
* Void - Organized Sports
* Tank - Biting and Scratching
* Pisschrist - Same Old Shit
* Nausea - Johnny Got His Gun

There Is Nothing Better Than Eyehategod.

There, I said it. There is nothing better than Eyehategod. I said it again. Last night's show was one of the most amazing, unreal, unholy, violent, awesome, beautiful fucking shows I have ever seen. Shit was like watching a hurricane. Amazing. Sadly or happily my camera was all out of batteries so I was forced to actually have a good time and stop worrying about shit for the entirety of their 2 hour set. Internet's loss, my gain. Go see Eyehategod. There's a reason they're the best.

Strong Intention, Tombs, Howl, and Unearthly Trance all killed it last night too. Fucking amazing all around.

Tafkata - "Worker & Parasite" and "Demo"

Blake, endless source of the gnarliest heavy shit I never listened to before but am slowly growing to crave, has supplied me with yet another fucking gem. A gem made out of addictive, sludgy, brutal but massively riffy fucking sweetness. A while back, Blake and I were shooting the shit about how I basically listen to Eyehategod a fuck load. He, in his own significantly more understated way, was like, "You're a fucking pussy. Put the fucking manpants on and listen to this Enewetak shit. Shortly after followed Unruh and Suicide Nation and blah blah blah. It will fuck your dog, beat your sister, and abscond with your Spawn action figure collection all in the same night." Well, maybe not exactly that but you know, literary fucking license n'all. Anyways, I listened to "Onward to Valhalla" and was converted to the ways of west coast evil fucking grind sludge.

Turns out that the singer and bassist of Enewetak went off after that band died and formed this band Tafkata (who according to Brendan, sounds like some Swahili word. He also thinks Enewetak sounds like a Swahili word... I'm calling the fucking wobblies on you son.) who are basically like the stoner-sludge side of the Enewetak coin and BOY AM I FUCKING EXCITED. This shit ripped me a new one straight from the beginning of the first song on the demo to the last song on the album. It's seriously like perfect doom/sludge riffs, with just the right amount of screamy grindy vocals, followed by great straight ahead hardcore breakdowns and pretty much every song clocks in at like 2 or 3 minutes so it doesn't drag ass.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

CLICK THE PICTURE FOR THE LINK.

Now For Something Completely Different

Thanks Metal Injection

Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder

If you read the last post, you'll noticed I mentioned that I had TWO heavy hitters to put up today as tribute for my lack of posting albums recently (Kinda like the Yom Kippur of metal or something). Thus, I now follow through with my most awaited album of the year. By far.

Shrinebuilder, as every metal website in the world has said, is a supergroup made up of Scott Michael Kelly (of Neurosis) Al Cisneros (of AsbestosDeath, Sleep, and OM), Scott "Wino" Weinrich (of basically every classic doom band ever including The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, and most recently Wino), and Dale Crover (Drummer of the Melvins). Basically, a legendary doom gathering of the tribes/minds/spirits/whatever.

When it comes to supergroups, I will almost always be the first one to set my expectations super, super fucking low. Hype through the roof + the reality of them being side-projects of other already amazing bands + my usual completely over the top ridiculous hyperbolic tendencies = total fucking let down with the end product most of the time. Shrinebuilder completely blows that shit away.

If I were to sum up my first couple of listens in middle school science terms, Shrinebuilder is a beautiful heterogeneous compound. In other words, when you put sugar in water it becomes the homogenous "sugar water," but when you put sand in water, it's still water and still sand. You can see both of the component parts. In Shrinebuilder, you can definitely pull out each player's contribution to the group. Not just like, "Hmmm... this song sounds a lot like Neurosis..." or whatever, but even parts of songs. I guess the most visible example of this is in "Pyramid of the Moon." You can definitely feel the Wino and SMK lead in the beginning of the song and as it progresses, the whole song pulls a slow shift towards Al Cisneros's lead until he kicks it full gear in to a Sleep/OM style drone for the 2nd half of the song. Each riff shows the fingerprint of the person who wrote it. Most riffs gotta lotta fucking fingerprints though.

Usually when a band sounds so strongly like it's components, it almost always fails at sounding like a comprehensive whole. Somehow, probably because every person involved in this project is a fucking genius when it comes to doom, Shrinebuilder feels whole. No song feels out of place, no section feels jarring or confused, no tone or note doesn't belong. That's what really makes this album interesting to me. How unbelievable the balance between the parts and the whole is from start to finish. Just listen and tell me I'm wrong.

All of this being said, Shrinebuilder is surprisingly different than what I expected, but not different than what I hoped for. I was kind of expecting Dale's tribal, crushing, war drums to be driving a Dopesmoker bassline with Neurosis uber delayed guitars and Wino singing. What I got was a whole shit ton of Wino/SMK guitars and atmosphere mixed with some OM droning and driving, Dale acting as an anchor for the band to swirl around, and everyone takes turns on the mic. It's fucking cool.

Fuck this, I've said too much. Listen to the album and tell me I'm wrong. I could talk about this band for another fucking decade man. I am so stoked to see them next month at Poisson rouge with Rwake.

Get tix now kids.

Skeletonwitch - Breathing the Fire

To atone for my lack of new jam postage, today I will not only provide you with Vitus/Saviours goodness, but I will also, for no additional fees or agreements, give to you two of NGNV's most awaited heavy hitters of the last year. The first is none other than Skeletonwitch's Breathing the Fire. Although I haven't really written much about them since Scion in like March or something, long time readers know that I fall under the "I stand for thrashing black sorcery" camp. Skeletonwitch are, first and foremost, fucking awesome musicians. The dudes have mercilessly sledgehammered out their own niche in the metalworld by throwing classic thrash with modern black metal in a way that doesn't come off as fucking cheesy camp crap (...well not all the time...) and it doesn't come off as lame, underchopped not-quite-thrash-not-quite-black-not-quite-good garbage. Secondly, these dudes put on one of the most killer live shows around. It's like a wall of be-haired thrashing meat, relentlessly bearing down upon you with the fury of over a combined century of life lived in Ohio. Pretty fucking heavy man.

Anyways, "Beyond the Permafrost" was on pretty heavy rotation when I first found it, but after a while the thin production kinda fell out of favor. It wasn't for lack of killer songs or anything, just the album didn't really translate just how fucking heavy these guys get on stage. Thankfully, Breathing the Fire takes care of that shit with... uh... aplomb. I guess... Basically, it sounds fucking great, the songs thrash like a motherfucker, Chance's vox have that great 90's black wail, the guitar riffs have me fiending like Rush for oxy, and the songs never really lose their balls. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely stand out's among the crowd but as a whole, this album makes for a great listen. Grab this shit and feel the demonic black shredpocalypse.

Saint Vitus, Saviours, Orphans, and Bassoon @ Europa. October 16th, 2009

Show was at Club Europa in Brooklyn, New York. Shit was the jump off.

SAINT VITUS
A shit ton more Vitus pics

Saint Vitus - "Living Backwards" @ Europa. Oct. 16th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Saint Vitus @ Europa, Oct. 16th 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

Saviours @ Europa - October 16th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

SAVIOURS
More Saviours shots at Flickr

The Joys of a Fibrously Evil Diet

470 Flushing, beware...

In honor of yesterday's post

In honor of yesterday's post, somebody sent me The Black Oven.

I don't remember who sent this but thanks. So-called Black Oven Megan, this is for you

Impaled Northern Moonforest

(NOTE: Sorry about the fucking delay, computer has been in deththrows of inverted moltenpaced grim black abazagothian slowness of frostbitten grim dooming blasphemy all day.)

(OTHER NOTE: It's really hard to stop describing shit in the blackest of abazagothic inverted blasphemers frostbitten grim goatslaughtering black metal terms once you start. Don't try it.)

KVLT BAKKINGK

The latest installment in Black Metalers doing zany stuff.

BIG FUCKING CHANGES MAN!

Hi all, so as you might be able to tell, mad shit's goin on behind the scenes around here. I'm proud to announce the addition of the N.G.N.V. show's calendar (check the side bar ya dolts) to keep you up to date on stuff I think is worth seeing around the greater NYC area. If you hear of a show, please please please send me the details and I'll put it up. Yes, that includes your own bands kids. Get that shit to me please. The more the merrier.

Also, you may or may not notice that the site feels a little different for some reason you can't put your finger on. I finally figured out how to make it a little bit wider. Yes, I admit it. I'm a rookie and clueless but I'm learning so FOAD. Anyways, if for some reason you find it's fucking your shit up or not working lemme know so I can change it back or fix it some how.

Last but not least, I'm about half way through swapping all my files from Rapidshare to dropbox (which is why I haven't been posting a lot of albums lately. It just makes the process slower. Many apologies for that guys. They'll be back soon enough.) Anyways, it seems like everyone likes this whole dropbox thing so I'ma stick with it.

As always, if something is broken or not working on your comp lemme know. I'll make it all better. Allllllll bettterrrrrr

Lol...?

Tracks of the Week

New Tracks of the week up.

Last weeks:

* Fukpig - As The Bombs Fall
* Euclid - Gimme Some Lovin'
* Rorschach - Checkmate
* Swankys - Knife Will Not Open Because Of The Rust
* Infernal Stronghold - Thrashed Empire
* Disclose - Nuclear Explosion
* Hellbastard - The Pylons
* Sabbat - A Cautionary Tale
* Municipal Waste - The Art Of Partying
* Aura Noir - Schitzoid Paranoid

Lemme know if you want any of them.

It's Coming...

OM & NAAM @ Europa. Oct 11th, 2009

OM - Rays of the Sun/To The Shrinebuilder Pt. 1 @ Europa Oct 11th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

OM - Rays of the Sun/To The Shrinebuilder Pt. 2 @ Europa Oct 11th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

OM: Cremation Ghat I @ Europa. Oct 11th, 2009 from Jack Crank on Vimeo.

A few weeks ago I reviewed OM's new album, "God Is Good." As you might have figured out, I wasn't overly stoked with it as a follow up to Pilgrimage/Innerant Rays of the Sun. As a follow up to Gebel Berkel it was definitely an improvement but on a whole, I like the earlier shit better. Despite the lukewarm reception to the new album, I still love that band live so I got tix to see them at Europa with Brooklyn favorites Naam. Lichens and 6 Organs of Admittance also opened for them. Naam, as always fucking killed it and are sounding tighter and tighter every day. Robert, aka: Lichens played the delay pedals in a chair. Probably cool on album, definitely good for high people live. Somewhat boring as he just sat still with a microphone and a loop box throat singing into feedback loops for 30minutes. Pass the pipe please.

As for 6 Organs of Admittance... wrong bill. Stick to coffeehouses. If members of the audience are shushing other members so they can hear the band, you're at the wrong club, with the wrong crowd, and definitely on the wrong lineup. Go elsewhere. Probably would have been good if they were playing through a shit load of amps at a crushing volume with some sort of a rhythm section. On two acoustic guitars it sounded like the shit I used to hear the less retarded hippies try (significantly less well) to play at college. No thanks.

OM on the other hand. On fucking point from minute one. Started with To the Shrinebuilder and crushed songs from each one of their albums. Could have used a little more volume on Al's bass but other than that I'd say it was pretty fucking spot on.

Om with Emil is definitely a different beast all together. I meant to ask Al and Emil about this and the new album but never really got around to it. Busy times man. Anyways, for lack of a better term, I'd say Emil is a way more extroverted drummer than Chris Hakius. Where Chris really focuses on relentlessly hammering down the groove with no regard for fills or frills, Emil is all over the kit. Fills, rolls, beat changes, whatever. Unfortunately, it tends to be really distracting from the overall vibe that Chris was so heavy on setting up and holding down. Also, hombre really needs to remember the value of a change in dynamics.

Long and short: Dude kinda drums like an adorable yet overenthusiastic puppy. You know man, you like him, it makes you happy, he's a friendly little guy with a good heart that's in the right place but too noisy for the hunt. But, for this job, old yeller kicking around on the porch just chilling is the mutt for the job in this case.

Oh yeah, almost forgot one minor detail. OM now has three members. Robert of Lichens was doing all sorts of crazy shit like PLAYING FUCKING GUITAR! Yes, OM now has a guitar, a keyboard, some tambourine percussiony stuff, and a shit ton of delay effects. It's cool I guess. Again, somewhat distracting but really not too bad. I'm more of a minimalist though when it comes to my post-Sleep stoner drone doom.

Ok, now that I've gotten all the nitpicky annoying shit out of the way, this show layed it the fuck on. Thick. In the best way possible. It fucking ruled.

Al and Emil and Rob fucking barreled into the set and did what they do best. Play music to headbang slowly to. The audience and the band were totally on the same page, Al didn't miss a note, the new effects dude added some interesting new sections on to old songs that I wasn't expecting and definitely wasn't disappointed with. At one point between the last 2 songs of the set before the encore I actually heard Emil say to Al, "Man let's play more, the vibe is perfect in here." or something to that effect. All the songs were a little heavier and just barely faster than I remember them and it felt fucking good. Yesssss.

Next time though, Emil, dude, leave your pants on and stay behind the drumkit, you're harshing my mellow brah.