Monday, May 30, 2011

operation successful patient dead

So i went to a book reading yesterday. A dude i sort of know has compiled a bunch of folk tales from the North Eastern states and self published it. I sat through one full story and random rambling about Sikkim but what was interesting was the abject boredom on the faces of the kids there (there were quite a few) and the exact opposite expression from the parents who seemed genuinely captivated. The whole experience was somewhere between interesting and really boring.

In other news, my project goes live tonight. Finger crossed.

There's this band called Hell. From England, from around the NOWBHM movement who released a bunch of demos between 1982 and 1986. The band has finally released their debut album this year and it's quite great. The songs are mostly the old songs from the 80s given an up to date production and the band sounds like a cross between Refuge Denied and Into the Mirror Black with some keyboards and loads of samples. This is some kickass old fashioned heavy metal and i guess, almost 30 years in the making. I listened to this in the morning on the way to work. Did wonders for my mood and full marks for this video.



The last A Storm of Light album, Forgive Us Our Trespasses was terrific. I finally got the chance to listen to the new one on the way to coffee house today and it sounded fantastic. The post metal sludge vibe has a slightly folky tone to it and the album goes from massive sludge to spaced out acoustics without a moments hesitation. Some great songs on this and Destroyer really grabbed me. Heard it 3 times today.

Monday, May 23, 2011

the fine art of bullshit



So I'm watching the Saw movies. 4,5,6 and 7. Watched 4,5 and 6 over the weekend and might watch the last one tonight. It works well as 90 minute episodes. Jigsaw is a pretty memorable villain as far as these things go and the movies build the jigsaw mythos with a fair amount of care and what feels like reverence. Jigsaw dies in the third movie but his work is carried on by his recruits and tobin bell appears now and then in flashbacks and exposition. The holy shit factor of the first movie can never be duplicated but as far as horror franchises go, Saw is surprisingly decent.

The new season of Doctor Who is kicking ass. It left me with a big smile as the doctor ran around through time and space trying to save the planet from The Silence, a race of scary aliens who've invaded 1960s Earth. Also, Pond might be preggers with a time lord meta child who's about 8 years old but not yet born and might have regenerative powers and might just be a time lord or might just be the doctors latest incarnation waiting for this season to end or maybe I'm totally wrong and maybe I'm totally right. There's some real suspense here and overall, this series promises plenty.

Also started watching this series called The Borgias with Jeremy Irons as the patriarch of clan Borgia who becomes the pope and his family. Like a period Sopranos. Pretty good so far and loads of gratitious sex. Treme's also going very nicely 3 episodes in and I'm saving the new doctor who for the weekend.

In other news, I really don't feel like it.

You know how you can listen to something and it won't make any sense at all? Well, I've been writing this post from so long that I've forgotten what music I was talking about. Oh well.

The new Autopsy leaked. The first song is okay. A bit different and a bit of modern dissonance but come the second song "Dirty Gore Whore" and its like a reminder from the band of all that's unholy, twisted and sick in death metal. The boys are back. With a few new tricks in tow.

On the subject of leaks, Necrophagia's Deathtrip '69 is finally out as well. Horror metal. Opening with a sample from Evil Dead II, a song called Funeral for Solange, fun album with killjoy even trying his hand at some outlaw country and succeeding.

Sub Rosa. That's who I was talking about. Loving it now. Just made total sense one afternoon over lunch.



This years IPL is some boring shit. Lots of terrific individual performances but somehow the whole is not greater than the parts.

I'm getting irritated with people and their pretensions. I'm getting irritated with people who talk out of their ass and manage to sound super knowledgeable when they do it. I'm getting irritated generally with a whole lot of people. Maybe time to take up yoga and meditate. For real this time.

Episode 3 with the good doctor turned out be a bit damp. Lazy writing. Hopefully 4 will pick up the pace. Treme on the other hand is getting better with every episode. Anton Baptiste and his Soul Apostles had their first gig, Steve Zahn's producing a NOLA sampler with his crazy aunt, the Indian chief is still frustrated and angry and his son wants to make a New Orleans jazz record. The characters are interesting and unlike The Wire which was plot driven with some great characters, this doesn't really have much in the way of plot but it does have a lot of interesting people.

My lunch has arrived. Later.

So last night Airtel decided to up my internet connection in between sending me payment reminder messages. Suddenly my download speed went from 50 to 200. I ended up downloading some 12 new albums and 2 rather large files with 13 Assassins and I Saw the Devil. It was still on in the morning so I put Mother for download before leaving. This is nice but if it stays this way I might go crazy. And need a new hard disk. Anyway, I have a whole bunch of movies for the weekend. Mostly of the twisted oriental kind.

Only 13 Assassins happened. Its an hour of build up followed by an hour long battle scene. 13 vs. 200. Loads of samurai action and a fantastic battle scene. Liked this movie a lot.

This is turning into a ridiculously long update about nothing but the new Cave In is out and it deserves at least a couple of lines. From Converge like dissonant hardcore to spacey post hardcore, Cave In is like Radiohead with balls and White Silence is pretty fucking great. Somewhere along the way I think Cave In discovered pot, Pink Floyd and the Beatles and nothing was ever the same. Spacey, psychedelic post hardcore. Welcome back.

Other notable downloads over the last week include the new A Storm of Light which sounded fantastic on the first listen, the demo from Vastum is pretty good old school death-doom, the new Across Tundras sounds like the band has finally made the transition from good to great and Corpsessed's debut ep is a solid display of death metal. Overall, its been an awesome couple of weeks for new music.

Anyway, this is becoming really long winded and going nowhere. Must stop now.