Other Women - Demo (2011)

Other Women is made up of friends who used to be in a band called Regrets, with whom Like Rats played many a gig. Their new band has way more bendy riffs, which is awesome. There's nothing quite like a good bendy riff. This demo is a perfect iteration of heavy, dark hardcore with lots of bendy, chromatic riffs. For fans of hardcore bands that clearly enjoy Celtic Frost (Sheer Terror, New Lows, Gehenna). Bendy riffs, man...

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Weekend Nachos Interview

I recently interviewed Weekend Nachos, and the results are posted over at Invisible Oranges.

Take a look.

Like Rats - Like Rats (2010)

So the new Like Rats record, released by Cosmic Debris Records,is available for order or download over at www.likerats.net. You can have the mp3s for free and just pretend that everything is working normally on this blog or you can internet us a few dollars and we will mailbox you a physical vinyl record with cool artwork featuring a photo by Noel Rod0-Vankeulen (one of Shea's photo buddies) and Regan did the layout and he has a gold record hanging prominently in his apt because he did the layout for Lupe Fiasco. I'm really happy with how this turned out, so join me in jubilation. This is more of that Celtic Frost worship, with some steps taken towards a more proto-death metal sound. Andy will record your band and do a really good job at Bricktop Recording in Chicago, so get into that. Love is love, everything is love, please like my band, one what? One love.

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Death Strike - Fuckin Death (1985)

It should be obvious by now that I am a fan of primitive things. The absence of technicality reduces songs to an intuitive experience. "Does this work or not?" Although it is risky to strip things so bare, there is also potential for greatness in doing so. When it works, it really works. This is the zen meditation of proto-death metal. Let all riffs drift away until you're only left with power chords and Discharge-style drums. Acknowledge other thoughts, but let them pass into the abyss.

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Negative Approach - Total Recall

Another issue of Jettison Quarterly has hit the internet. Once again, I've written about cool records, and I also did an interview with former Punk Planet editor and current Cell Stories mastermind Dan Sinker. Check it out, ya dingus. Here's one of my reviews from a previous issue of Jettison.

Negative Approach is possibly the most pissed band I’ve ever heard. This is the musical tradition of The Stooges passed to the next decade: your lizard brain screaming disillusionment with civilization. What separates Negative Approach from other hardcore bands of the early 80s (besides their palpable ferocity) is their effective use of mid-paced rhythms and recursive phrases. Riffs morph sinuously from verse to chorus, referring back while always driving forward into crashing bursts of rhythmic intensity. While most of these songs ostensibly lack dynamics, tension and release are achieved through a manipulation of structure and managing expectations of how a phrase will terminate. As long as humans are crammed together in cities and neurotransmitters are thrown out of balance, this music will be relevant.

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Like Rats - Like Rats (2009)

So, I have this platform on the internet where people are interested in my opinion on music. As such, I've got to take this opportunity to tell you to listen to my own recordings. Besides, I wouldn't post it if I didn't think you'd like it. Half-hearted apologies to all of my friends on Twitter/F-book who've already been informed of this a few times. You'll be fine.

This is basically an example of me writing music that I want to hear, and what I want to hear is chromatic riffs at mid-paced tempos, but sometimes fast and sometimes slow. I love Tom G Warrior's signature riff composition style, and I tried to write riffs that evoke similar feelings without actually copying his techniques. There are a few self-imposed stylistic restrictions in order to keep the overall aesthetic within certain boundaries: no palm-muting, no double bass drum. Special attention was paid to the way that two primitive riffs compliment each other and create a relationship that makes each one significantly more interesting than if it were to exist on its own.

With love from me to you:

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While I'm talking about heavy Chicago bands, I also have to mention The Muzzler (Voivod, Morbid Angel, etc.) and Hate (newer Converge, except higher, more metal, and more pissed), both of whom recently put out new releases. The thing about these bands is that I would like them and listen to them even if I didn't even know them as people.

Merauder - Master Killer (1996)

My friend Friel has never heard Merauder, so I made a promise to send Master Killer to him. Then, I figured I'd just send it to the rest of the internet as well.

This is death metal recontextualized as syncopated rock music. Nu-metal showed the world how guys with braids can do this in the worst possible way; Merauder showed the world how guys with braids can do this in a way that I like so much.

Merauder understands that the best way to make their listeners frown uncontrollably is to play at a steady, mid-paced tempo. There is some sort of evolutionary short circuit about heavy guitars with a backbeat at ~150 bpm that causes a severe frown reflex. Major thirds are prevalent, texturing riffs with a distinct flavor: Merauder's most recognizable moment, the big mosher at 1:57 in "Master Killer," makes use of this sound.*

You know, it's interesting that I like this record as much as I do, as the evolution of death metal and hardcore into stoogish w's downtuning their guitars and putting the kick drum on the "and" bums me the fuck out. However, sometimes it's just done really, really well. I am an adult, and this record regularly makes me see red and mosh in my bedroom.

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*Please watch this whole video. Thank you have a nice day.

Crumbsuckers - Life of Dreams (1986)

This weekend, someone affiliated with art school hated me for inventing the cool new thing, which is push-ups followed by a shot of whiskey with protein powder in it. The feeling was mutual though, since I hate people who aren't strong. Anyway, I learned that this guy is involved with a kind of spazzy moshy band, and I couldn't help but wonder: Why would you want to be in a spazzy band when the Crumbsuckers exist?

The intricacy of the phrasings on this record could very easily get lost in the "relentless thrash attack" or whatever. The Crumbsuckers use the tonality defying flurry of power chords to construct their riffs, typical of hardcore punk, and, by extension, metal. However, the Crumbsuckers tend to stray from the structuring patterns expected of say, a Discharge song, in which two simple riffs exist in binary, and the gestalt created from this pairing provides the thrust of the song. Rather, many of the phrases on Life of Dreams are narratives in themselves, which moves the song beyond binary minimalism into more complicated structuring relationships. Also, when I've posted about extreme music in the past, I've discussed breaking the enveloping atmosphere of the d-beat for hard hitting rhythmic emphasis. This usually occurs as a third option, breaking up the Riff A, Riff B, Riff A, Riff B structure.

However, in Trapped, the phrases of the verse and chorus each resolve their own motion into this sort of emphasis. It's very easy to hear in the verse on the lines: I'm All Clammed Up - Tell Me Shut Up

The chorus is an interesting variation on the verse, in that, although the melody changes significantly, it keeps a lot of the same rhythmic ideas, but puts them in a rather herky-jerky framework. It's tough to discuss this in terms of actual meter, since the d-beat is more of a "feel" than an actual, writable rhythm, but you can count the first part of the chorus in nine, then the second part in twelve. Resolution into a hard-hitting quarter notes closes each part, before finally putting us back on safe ground with a return to the verse or a transition into a straight backbeat.

Also, if you want me to like something, have a part like at 0:30 in Face of Death.

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Hey, who remembers that fascinating post I did about The Gordons a few months ago? It turns out that a venerable blogger offered a link to their extremely difficult to locate second album:

http://www.raremp3.co.uk/2009/03/gordons-volume-02-1984.html

I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but given the body of work that dudes have put together as The Gordons, and then later Bailterspace, I'm almost as excited as you are to hear it.

Varukers - Another Religion, Another War (1984)

I'm in a band where my main song-writing inspiration is Celtic Frost. This works out pretty well for me since I think about Celtic Frost most of the time.

Now, back in the early & mid 80's, Tom G Warrior was probably spending a lot of time thinking about Motörhead and Discharge and Amebix and the fucking Varukers. So, according to logic and the transitive property, I am spending a lot of time thinking about the Varukers, which, all things considered, is a pretty rad thing to think about.

Most of the things that I said about Deep Wound also apply to the Varukers, a blur of d-beat aggression into the rhythmic emphasis of the chorus. What's the deal with the d-beat though? It's like once you reach a certain bpm, what is ostensibly just a basic backbeat with syncopation leading up to the fourth beat flips into this weird intuition defying monster that lends itself nicely to an ambient syncopation hum over which chords can fly in any which way they please. Super cool, wish I understood it.

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Think I Care - World Asylum (2006)

If you've looked at my blogger profile at all, you may have noticed how I feel about Celtic Frost. Think I Care felt the same way, or they at least felt the same way about Sheer Terror, who certainly groveled at the jeweled throne of Tom G. Warrior.

The agenda here is very, uh, primitive. We've got a plethora of chromatic, mid-paced riffs that just force the corners of your mouth down as far down as they can go. Riffs establish a pummeling stomp through down-picking on an open chord, then are offset with a syncopated flurry of fifths. This is done with the intuition of bands like Nuclear Assault or the Cro-Mags, making each deviation a spike in your endorphins. Song structures are typical of post 85 hardcore, with loose verse chorus arrangements leading up to "the big heavy." Depending on your mood and breeding, you may find this fun or you may find this tedious. My argument is that you should loosen up because not everyone wants to listen to Richard Strauss all of the time.

I saw this band many years ago, well before I was smart. As such, I watched respectfully from the side and probably thought about Dillinger Escape Plan riffs or something fucking stupid like that. This may be a false memory, but I think the drummer was playing without bending his wrists at all, delivering a true pre-agriculture beating to a world gone wrong.

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Note: My friend Dave kindly pointed out that the intro to this record is a straight up rip of Cro-Mags - Death Camps. Dave is the most knowledgeable mosher of them all.

Deep Wound - Almost Complete

In a strange turn of events, I really like a contemporary, hyped-up band, so a week ago I went to that 12 hour Fucked Up show. Moby played! Read about it on the internet! Point is, J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr & Deep Wound did some things there that inspired me to make this post.

Deep Wound play a sort of proto-grindcore where guitars are a speed-picked blur and the drums form a backdrop of pulsing noise. Rhythms are established by the changing of chords over ambient drumming, then, for the chorus, all instruments converge into a punishing counter-rhythm. Don't Need has a nice three step development, where the frenzy of the verse is slightly tempered by the pre-chorus, before the simultaneously frowny/fist-pumping break. Occasionally, a back beat is thrown in for the bridge, enabling further frowning.

Deep Wound is not special because they were teenagers trying to sound like Discharge nor because that guy had that song on the Kids soundtrack. Deep Wound is special because of their rhythmic intution.

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