Anyway, yeah. I've heard the name UFO before, perhaps as recently as in the Swamp. I don't pay much attention to recommendations of bands that were active before I was even born, however. I think I have the basics down well enough from my couple of years of regular classic rock listening and spend most time lately listening to what's been made in the last 5-10 years save for my favorites.
But my recent open recommendations-taking led me in the direction of UFO. I looked at their page, "Doctor Doctor" was the number one played song, so I downloaded the album it came from, Phenomenon. I was expecting nothing of real weight, and I heard:
Oh. Well, okay. You got me there.
]]>The music on this song is fantastic during the first bit. I wish this song was just that first 40 seconds over and over. However, GENRE BAD. And I apologize for the vocals in advance. They made me gag a little because, here on earth, in this reality, in this decade, someone thought those vocals were "cool" enough to record, and cool enough to record like that. Here's hoping the band's full of teenagers who haven't been exposed to anything better.
The good news is, the rest of their songs seem to mostly be just technical metal... so yay for them.
]]>[Mid-way Start: 67.9GBs]
Godhead
familiar sounding but maybe too much so, as I got sick of this sort of sound around 2001.
Jessamine
drone with some indie/psych sort of thing. deleting.
Dark Buddha Rising
okay once it finally gets going.
Noxagt
noise.
Struck By Lightning
here's the one that really sounds like a logical direction Mastodon might have taken minus Crackey. kind of boring considering how much of this kind of shit i've already heard, even just today, but okay.
Marble Sheep
drug abuse.
Pitchshifter
Orgy.
Caspain
post rock, melodic cry about the apocalypse music.
Indian
i meant to find them two years back but failed at this task. my 20 minutes of live experience turned me off from trying again til now.
Anthrax
here's where last.fm was jerking me around on the genres. perhaps i should have heard anthrax before, but i just haven't.
Riff Cannon
stoner nonsense.
Seven That Spells
soooo good.
Blind Dog
i'm pretty sure i had something by them before, but apparently it was deleted. and yeah, it's got a southern doom/stoner thing... meh.
Thorlock
i tried so many different people to get a full download of this. i knew it wasn't going to be worth it, but meh.
Lunachicks
recommended from the 90s "feminist" rock camp. annoying.
High on Fire
super irrelevant intro, away! didn't really want to hear your voice that much! this sounds like someone covering high on fire! FRAST HAMMA.
Megaton Leviathan
pretty good, but kind of hard to listen to most of the time.
Apostle of Solitude
mehhy meh meh.
Wizard Eye
sounds like it's going to be a black sabbath cover band. second song's better/more "original".
Darkthrone
i'm surprised this actually sounds good, at least to start with. i was expecting something unlistenable with all of the 'talk' lately.
Droids Attack
monkeys attack.
Mookerdam
haven't even sampled this yet. this band is giving me heartburn. Sounds like Portal in a way.
Otesanek
Trees? Sunn with some growling.
Downtrodden
first song sucks, second one's okay, overall annoying and getting deleted.
Liturgy
really noisy black metal. thanks, i was just using that space in my brain for thinking.
Cave
first song sounds 30+ years old. second song reveals the 2009-ness. i think the band I'm thinking of is Wooden Shjips. ... last agrees.
Dead Luke
little too out there, and the sound's bad, so, meh to you. "Spaceman Returned" is hypnotizing me as i'm cleaning up some junk here, though.
Blowback
insta-bored.
RIYL
one of the Kowloon/Snailface guys did this. It is the approximate equivalent of Sheavy versus Gelatinous Resin.
Your Highness Electric
apparently related to bands i've deleted. the first song doesn't sound like anything and is actually sort of interesting, could probably use it for a mix. second song sounds like boring old "stoner" that isn't "stoner".
The Grand
sounds QOTSA-inspired with some White Stripes or some other blues rock thing.
Sluts of Trust
no.
Burning Colossus
thought i had something by them. another no.
2
no.
SoSayeth
more no.
Dirty Power
yet more no.
Void
bored.
Autolux demo
maybe kind of interesting if i cared.
Stonehelm
words and thoughts.
JPT Scare Band
meh.
Ghost Brigade
post metal whine.
Ten East
i think i had something by them once.
The Death Letters
more mediocre.
and I'm irritated now.
[Mid-way End: 69.7GBs]
3GBs deleted. Almost a whole disk's life has been saved, and less than 4GBs left to sort. yay.
Edit: Fuck part 3. I ran through the rest of it instead, then cleared out some crap. Grand total of free space: 72.1GBs. 6GBs deleted. Pretty good day's work.
So, this is a month and a half of recently-excessive downloading. I'm going to try to do the unusual thing and delete useless things as I come across them.
Let's do this via date, starting with the oldest stuff. It will almost look random.
[Start: 66.1GB free space]
Fukkk Offf
dance/electronic, repetitive, nobody that follows my blog gives a fuck which is a shame because it often moves exactly like stoner rock. also a shame that all of these "bands" have lyrics that boil down to being a lushy slut. maybe i should write the first dance song that's about respecting your body and being good at math. anyway, this is okay. not great, just okay.
Veracrash
sounds like a less attention whore version of Queens of the Stone Age. seriously, it's like a re-written Lullabies.
S:T Erik
crappy name. doom with some psych nonsense. ok.
Finchley Boys
i didn't know that Clutch song was a cover. deleting.
Whitey
too awesome.
Hot Chip
started to sound better but all the same. meh.
Gomer Pyle
liked the album cover. ?
Ok Go
:(
King Crimson
some...remastering? i guess i forgot i didn't care. delete.
ASIWYFA
sounds better each time i listen. well, the first two songs.
The MassaCrista
don't like the "southern rock" sound. "Showdown" sounds like i've heard it before by some other band. i wonder if this band knows the tracks are in alphabetical order. ... (other album now) and this just sounds bad. meh, kind of reluctant but my collection has enough in it that i'm probably not going to listen to, so, delete.
Sleep (live ATP)
kind of a crappy recording, sounds like it's behind the audience. and fuck this audience, why the hell would you be whistling during sleep? calm your ass down, moron. deleting because i'm not going to listen to it again.
Rob Zombie
couple of okay songs.
Lions - V1
strange how i'm going to keep this versus that other band up there, but yeah... Lions has good moments, especially if you ignore the vocals.
OvO
keeping because they made me laugh.
Moses
better than their unsearchable, irritating name.
Buzzoven - HB
terrible, awful, just plain fucking shitty recording. bye now.
Cosmotron
pretty good, one of the rare actual 'stoner' bands.
Deadeyejack
hardcorey sludge. s'pose there's some okay moments in here, but overall not really my thing. i'll "pending" it.
Mountain of Judgement
apparently this judgment isn't centered on spelling. more psych doom. bored, deleting.
Threefold Law
Nothing new or interesting about this, which is ironic because this came out in 2009.
Isabelle's Gift
sounds its age.
Lethe
KYUSS! or not.
Union of Sleep
doom/sludge. sounds alright.
Purple Mercy
i was expecting psych. this is a hc whine-a-thon.
Sasquatch
one of these songs sounded really good the other day, though for the most part i'm not impressed.
Delvic
ah, first clear sounding album of the bunch. kind of noise/retarded.
1000mods
heard all but the one song before.
Ihsahn
downloaded because i used to know someone who loved them. kind of sounds like a cross between opeth and converge, and maybe a little meshuggah... how can i really be surprised?
The Ghost Is Clear Records comp
lots of the same crap.
Blackwaves
three thumbs and a pickle up.
What?
i think i got this from a random blog i found something else on. no!
Shadow of the Torturer
bad recording. you know, just because you rip the album at 320 doesn't mean it sounds good, people. oh, heh! this is the one that made me crack up because "i think... i'll take... A WALK."
Immolation
i'm sure if i gave this time it'd sink in, and then we'd get more death metal posts here. just what we've always wanted.
White Hills
good.
Nether Regions
took these from their facebook. looking forward to album-having.
The Knife
weird as usual, but i don't know about the operatic stuff.
Witch Mountain
couple of demo songs i took from the net. both good.
Melvins
some remixes and a song i've had for years. don't need, bye.
Black Sabbath
1969 demo. sounds awful.
Dragontears
psych in the vein of hawkwind/magnet and then some crybaby drug abused nonsense at the end. like.
Early Man
self titled. really good.
Out Hud
recommended to me because of the other retarded electronic bands i've listened to in the past. sounds a little like !!! at times, but...maybe less inspired?
Mendozza
two covers = 10 minutes you could have written something original. not as good as i wanted it to be.
Pontiak
one of the albums i didn't get last year. moves kind of oddly, not sure about it yet, but i do remember listening to one or two of these and being okay with it in the recent past.
Buried At Sea
horror movie soundtrack.
Pharoah Overlord
Pink Floyd + Kyuss.
Dangers
stupid random downloads. die.
Celan
i think i could actually sit and listen to this, even though it's committing various offenses. vocalist kind of sounds like the guy in Black Elk.
Temples
took forever to find thanks to their bullshit name. doom?
more Buzzoven
yeah, that's just what i needed, another sample.
Coalesce
someone said they sounded like Mastodon should. fucking lied, is what you did, sir.
Maybeshewill
post-metal/rock. meh.
Graves At Sea
sounded as expected.
Glasspack
i went looking for this years ago and never found it. now that i have it, i'm not sure i want it. first song's still pretty good.
Wizards of Kaos
so far the only winner is "The River".
Mountain Goat
doom. maybe it's a requirement that if you have the word "mountain" in your name you have to be doom. poor black mountain's gonna get kicked out. :( also, i see nothing about animals as being "doom".
Morkobot
hyper post-rock/noise, ASIWYFA+Boris. it looks like i didn't finish this download... stupid soulseek. ... oh, looks like i did finish it elsewhere. ahh. saved from the evil soulseek monster.
Narrows
WE'RE ANGRY. WE'RE GONNA KICK YOUR DOG. THEN WE'RE GONNA STOMP ON YOUR GRASS. YEEEEAAAHHHH...MIDDLE CLASS REVOLT! *headbang mosh* ... sounds good.
Orange Sunshine
old new-old newer than newly older new-old? passing filters, anyway.
Blood Ceremony
got me with the first song. ew gross with the "wizardry" song. sounds/looks like they're trying to make fun of black sabbath somehow. Danava.
Karysun
instantly good. songs all sound the same after a bit.
La Otracina
i dunno. not interesting.
and this is where my downloading got really wacky. I will need to take a break and make a part two. Thus far have sorted ~5GBs.
[Mid-way: 67.8GBs]
]]>I was doing "research" today and came across this band's demo on Shiny Grey Monotone. It has three songs that are also all available on their myspace. Check them out, and try not to be taken aback by the Russian you find... It sounds like awesome whether you understand it or not.
]]>Zoroaster is recording. They are also "recording".
Their channel: terminaldoom
One video of the several:
]]>Murder City Devils - "I Want A Lot Now"
Sounds exactly like high school, except there was no car.
How about:
Living's no good in this hick town and/or city
I'd drive to Portland but I ain't got no car
Can't drive either, might have asked my best friend
but she's a massive drunk and a whooooorrrrre
Gonna be home and instant message my friend, he's
Two thousand miles south, can't leave here cuz I'm poor
I'm gonna be stuck in this motherfucking hickville city
but at least he's a drunk and a freakin' whooooorreeee.
*thumbs up*
]]>I'd embed the video but it's too large for my site and the size is a prime number so sizing it down would make it look shitty. So,
"Third Alternative" just made my day.
]]>We met because of the Swamp, as far as origin of location. We actually met because I was broke and lacking any real form of transportation so when Witchcraft came to town, I skipped them, and later when I read his review on the very show I missed on the Swamp I was compelled to say thanks. Normally I wouldn't have said anything, but I liked his ability to express himself and tell the story minus the usual pretentious jackoffery that comes with professional reviews. Fucking reviews...
At this point in my life, I'd recently quit my job and begun the new phase of my life - music bloggin'. I'd been stressed out pretty much nonstop for the last couple of years and ultimately decided that I needed to just quit what I was doing. I gradually then suddenly dropped everything I didn't like. I registered for school. I had time between quitting and the start of school, and music had grown a larger aspect of my life in the last couple of years, so I began the blog as a temporary time filling project.
Only a little time passed between the start of the blog and my thank-you comment so that he became my first official "reader". We obviously had Witchcraft in common, and it was apparent we also shared common favoritism of bands like Electric Wizard and Monster Magnet, among many others.
At that time, band connections were very rare for me as I'd just dropped a sea of Sublime and hardcore rap and "I don't like metal" and part-time music listeners from my sphere. My closest musical ally at this point was some Mike Patton-loving mongoloid I wasn't even really talking to any more. I tried to talk to people a few times on musical forums, but - unsurprisingly - stoner rock tends to attract potheads, and the ones of whom I spoke to probably shouldn't have graduated high school nevermind been allowed near a computer without a license...
Immediately, from Zilla, I noticed BRAINS. There was spelling - proper, adequate, real English spelling. And there was grammar. Did you know that there are people in the US of A able to write proper fucking grammar? I didn't. I always feel like an asshole because I want people to type at me like they're writing a book, not a bad fucking haiku, because I don't speak txt or l337 or drunken gibberish. I don't need capital letters or even proper punctuation most of the time, but can we all please just proofread once in a damn while? Alas, I'd found one of the rare people capable of the spelling and grammar my English-teacher-in-a-former-lifetime self had been lacking so long.
Naturally, this human being with their spelling and Monster Magnet existing on my Earth made me go "yay!" a few times. Even better, we seemed to be on a similar, slightly angsty wavelength, with a similar current state of life, and (gasp) we even lived near enough each other. That had certainly never happened before.
Enter long, drawn out, heart-wrenching story here about how that has seriously never happened before. I've met a hundred interesting people online before, and not a single one of them lived anywhere near me nor did I have any access to in "real life". I would call it a vice.
I decided early on that I was going to meet this new person. I wasn't sure how yet, but it was clear music was to be involved. Sure enough, some months later, I heard a mutual favorite band was coming to Plotland...
I was a little bit nervous/excited in the weeks leading up to the show, still not entirely sure it was going to happen at all even though I had ticket in hand. I was worried I'd back out, since I do that when I get nervous. Then I was worried he would, and I'd either have wasted time or have to go through the whole process of nervousness again. The day arrived, and like I'd imagined I'd be I was almost sick. I didn't eat enough. I left for the show a little later than usual as padding, hoping I'd arrive and he'd already be there because waiting just makes these things worse. By the time I finally got to the venue, noticed no one of any remote familiarity and sat down to make myself stand out, I had had so many adrenaline rushes that day that I'd approached the beginnings of a dead brain.
I was texting my niece, who'd suddenly decided three days AFTER I'd originally texted her to tell me some ridiculous sob story about why she'd not replied three days ago, when a face who looked familiar in some faraway mental land kind of way walked by. I got a knowing look, but I don't process these things fast and certainly not on a nervous dead brain, so I wasn't really sure until he had fully walked away. By that point I had another bullshit text... I decided I'd get up and find him again in a bit, not exactly confident in my ability to just walk up to people I wasn't sure they were who I thought they were...
As I replied to my text, he simply sat down next to me and said hi. Well that saved me a fucking year of "do I get up or was that really him or where did he go and errrgh?!"
I was really surprised at how well just text translated into real life interaction. The questions I knew existed via words alone were, for the most part, answered. Despite being pretty nervous and then pretty quiet (is this really news...), and maybe the environment not being the best choice for talking and/or being heard, the whole situation went well. I'd always thought that since I was cursed to befriend foreigners, my first meeting of a 'net person would go horribly awry, but it actually didn't...
And then I came home and wrote two pages on my cyberhearts for sHitty music, misspelling "Automaton" as "automation" because for all the brains I need, I lost mine in the Prozac Wars.
Life has long since taken hold of communication between me and Zilla, causing it to be what the natives call "intermittent". Nevertheless, as my first proper blog reader and first internet-meets-real life acquaintance slash friend, I have to say I'm really grateful to have met and know him, and hope to continue as much for some time yet.
His song (nah, I didn't try very hard on this one):
]]>Most of 2000 Micrograms From Home sounds pretty mellow, but "Borderline" is upbeat and drives the revival 60s/70s psych rock sound home with that echoed synth. I'm thinking other songs on the album are better, but this is a fine place to start.
Check them out, maaaaan.
]]>Apparently they will live to kill again.
Get it from the 2010 album Horse. Yes, they're trying not to be searchable on the internet. Nevertheless, you can find that song in their site's sidebar.
]]>http://www.vbs.tv/watch/toxic/toxic-garbage-island-1-of-3
I wasn't even looking.
]]>They have a new album, out now, called Must Destroy.
You can find it streaming:
here.
]]>MTV asks you to host Headbanger's Ball.
Note: this joke will serve as my "first time's the worst time" review.
]]>