Remember when you first bought Death Leprosy? Awesomeness. Remember the stench of the j-card? Nasty. Remember what your mom said the first time she heard “Pull the Plug” or “Primitive Ways?” No, it wasn’t, “Johnny, turn it down!” Or, “Close the door when you’re playing that racket!!!” It was, “Who sings like that? Cookie Monster?”
Mom was way more prescient than we ever imagined.
For more Muppets Deci-love, click these links. Mom might even think they’re funny.
Looking to get fired today? Then by all means, please check out this extremely NSFW video for the title track on Lair of the Minotaur’s awesome new record War Metal Battle Master.
Midwest fans can catch Lair of the Minotaur with Today is the Day and Mouth of the Architect during the final week of the tour. Then it’s back on the road in May and June with Kylesa, The Ocean, Withered and Intronaut. Did someone from Decibel put together that dream line-up or what?
Apr 1 2008 8:00P The Note - Chicago, Illinois
Apr 2 2008 8:00P The Blue Note - Muskegon, Michigan
Apr 3 2008 8:00P Cactus Club - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Apr 4 2008 8:00P The Picador - Iowa City, Iowa
Apr 5 2008 8:00P Triple Rock Social Club - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Apr 6 2008 8:00P Vaudeville Mews - Des Moines, Iowa
Have you been reading the “Great Moments in Art History” series at Metal Inquisition? Here’s Sergeant D on the legendarily awful/awesome artwork that graced the cover of Obituary’s Slowly We Rot:
“The corpse of a lifeless hesher rotting in the street explicitly illustrates the album’s title. I like it when artists just get right to the point. There are no sociopolitical comments, it’s just a picture of a guy, rotting. Slowly, we assume.”
Subscriptions to the Ipecac vinyl figures collection depicted here sold out within a week of their announcement on Portland, OR toy manufacturer UNKL’s site. We know that there are some scarily-devoted Mike Patton and Melvins completists out there, but still: wow! Luckily, UNKL will be making a small number of each figure available on their site on the first of every month — you can get yer sticky fingers on a sweet Isis model and avoid Northern State entirely. You know, just like in the real world.
The Japanese vinyl art explosion is actually a pretty amazing phenomenon. In Japan, little figures like these often get sold in vending machines. The smaller ones called “gashapon” often come in plastic capsules, but vinyl figures literally come in all sizes — Japanese company Presspop has recently done limited runs of 2 ft tall figures from Jim Woodring and archer Prewitt’s comics. Take a look at Kid Robot and Ningyoushi when you’re doing your holiday shopping, ok?
And if you happen to be in Baltimore, MD on Friday, December 7, swing by Atomic Pop for the DVD Release Party & Screening of Toypunks, a dopcumentary that “offers a rare first-hand glimpse of the converging worlds of Japanese street, punk and toy culture.”
I think Techno Animal’s Brotherhood of the Bomb is the finest thing that Justin Broadrick has put his hands on since Godflesh disbanded; I’m in that rare subset of JB fans who wishes he’d stop releasing a new Jesu EP twice a year and filling the rest of his datebook with soundalike remixes for metal bands just to carve out a little time to reconnect with Kevin Martin. That partnership was pretty spectacular: aside from Techno Animal and Curse of the Golden Vampire (the pair’s two-time collaboration, once as a trio with Atari Teenage Riot’s Alec Empire), you’ve got God, Ice, The Sidewinder and Zonal to explore to get a complete picture of what was going on in Broadrick’s head throughout much of the 1990s. Your take on any of these projects depends on your willingness to see Broadrick outside of the Godflesh-Jesu context and which side you fall on the great drum-’n'-bass debate. Brodrick and Martin’s industrial output is (in my mind) on par with the best of Tricky, Goldie and Roni Size. I’m not sure whether any of it outlasted its natural expiration date, but as this short film — inspired by Curse of the Golden Vampire’s “Ultrasonic Meltdown” — reveals, JB and The Bug’s sweet noise still has a home at the stripper pole:
Are there any Lars von Trier fans in the house? Are there any Lars von Trier fans period? It’s a pity that Swedish writer/director Steve Ericsson’s career seems to have stalled out after 2002’s Lyckantropen; his lush 28-minute short is a perfect marriage between Breaking the Waves and The Howling. Even better: the (mostly) silent psychodrama incorporates effects and music from Ulver, some of which is reprised on the soundtrack Lyckantropen Themes. That record isn’t essential — it actually may portray the Norewegian trio at its most ponderous and ambient WTF? point — but the listening experience definitely improves with the added context of seeing/hearing how the music is incorporated within the film. New Ulver full-length Shadows of the Sun is scheduled to be released on October 1st, and if you liked Blood Inside, you’ll totally dig this one, too. In the meantime, here’s the not-released-on-DVD Lyckantropen (in three parts) to whet yer appetites:
Oni Press has just published a 26-page preview of the new graphic novel Black Metal by writer Rick Spears and artist (and occasional Deciblog lurker/commenter) Chuck BB. Most of the preview follows twins Sam and Shawn’s strange trip after listening to the “true black metal” of kvlt act Frost Axe; get your pre-release orders in now to see how the grim and frostbitten fable finishes out. Spears is one of the geniuses behind the graphic novel Teenagers from Mars and keeps an excellent blog called The Hot and the Cool; Chuck BB maintains his own site which promises “more rants,” but currently houses some awesome rock poster designs, illustrations and concept art for Black Metal. Also, be sure to check out the pair’s recent guest blogging stint on MySpace Comic Books, which features another two-dozen pages of finished art (that’s, like, half the book right there!), Rick and Chuck’s “Top 5 Personal Metal Moments” and some equally hilarious comments. Like this one: “honestly, its an okay comic and all, but i think things like metal are better not made fun of. its just disrespectful to the darkness that drives us.”
