Glassjaw frontman Daryl Palumbo has revealed through several recent Tweets that the band has completed work on their long-awaited new EP. Palumbo said:
Beck and I are sitting in his car listening to the new Glassjaw EP that we’ve just completed. Shit SLAMS.”
When this hits stores, it’ll be Glassjaw’s first new release of material since 2002’s Worship and Tribute full-lenghth album (although El Mark, an iTunes-only EP of Worship leftover material, appeared in 2005). Needless to say, there’s many souls that were stirring when the band went on hiatus, and the music that will culminate from these sessions is sure to quiet many people who were worried that we’d never hear from the band again. Be on the lookout for more updates in the future..
MTV2‘s coverage of the area in Twin Cities Week continues today. A massive video diary of the station’s visit to the Soundset 2009 hip-hop festival and a backyard BBQ with Tapes ‘N Tapes is featured in this round of video offerings..
The playlist continues after the jump, and area artists Atmosphere, Tapes ‘N Tapes, P.O.S, Brother Ali, and various parts of the city are exposed during interviews and live performances from around the city. It’s a great viewing experience for any local. Enjoy! Continue reading →
The Alarmists new album The Overhead Left is the latest in a stringof free/pay-as-you-please releases coming from the Twin Cities. However, unlike some of the other artists, The Alarmists are partnering with the non-profit organization Rock the Cause to make an larger impact with any sales they do achieve. Read all about the band’s decision to put this hotly debated album out via this partnership and download it for FREE (with an email address) below:
Rock the Cause has partnered with The Alarmists to help create support. awareness and membership for new music and non-profit causes that shape our community. The long awaited new album The Overhead Left by The Alarmists is available to download for free through Rock the Cause.
The Alarmists would like to encourage you to make a donation of what ever you can afford to Rock the Cause or sign up to volunteer with one of the Rock the Cause charitable partners.
Over the past few years Rock the Cause has helped to support emerging musical artists with exposure, publicity, and new fans through concerts. Rock the Cause is a non-profit that works to develop a new generation of awareness, support and new volunteers for other non-profits, like Minnesota AIDS Project, Open Arms of Minnesota, Clare Housing, Free Arts Minnesota, and many more. You can learn about these great causes on the Rock the Cause web site!
Your donation will help Rock the Cause to continue its work of creating a new generation of music and volunteerism! The Greatest Generation is Now!
I still haven’t posted up my review of Sonic Youth’s The Eternal yet, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop plugging this album like nobody’s business anytime soon.
As someone who also constantly picks through the vinyl bins at the local record stores (often admittedly running across various used releases by SY, Thurston, and such), I couldn’t help but laugh at the band find their new album The Eternal for sale in the used bin on the streets only a few days after it’s release. Staged or not, the suggestion it implies is equally fantastic either way.
After moving to Matador for The Eternal following a long string of major label releases, the band’s video also reflects a renewed kinship for the independent spirit of the band’s earlier days. It’s a low budget, yet punchy number that shows some glaring similarities to a certain scene from Pontecorvo’s stunning 1967 masterpiece La battaglia di Algeri; I’m wondering if it’s an homage, but in short, it’s some great imagery to complement the confident, bouncy swagger of Gordon on “Sacred Trickster” and adds even another layer of depth to a taut track that’s already exploding with sound.
Vodpod videos no longer available. LIVE PERFORMANCE VIDEO: Tapes ‘n Tapes, “SWM” (live at Backyard BBQ from MTV2 Twin Cities week exclusive)
According to Gimme Noise, the Minneapolis metropolitan area has taken over the airwaves at MTV2 and MTV2.com this week, where they’ll be hosting interviews and performances that they taped two weeks ago during Soundset and such. To start the week off, Subterranean has posted a video of the local boys in Tapes ‘n Tapes showing off their acoustic skills on a rendition of “SWM”. Pay attention to MTV2.com throughout the week for more performances with TC artists such as P.O.S., Mike Mictlan, and more.
For today, I’m back with a round-up of the week in music videos and live performances that I cared to watch (except for one – if I find a d/l of the awesome Faith No More set from Download Festival that I live-streamed, I’ll be sure to post it later). Enjoy the list I’ve compiled; you’ll need to set aside a good chunk of time if you want to watch them all!
Why, oh why, am I being asked to choose between the Japanese post-rockers in Mono and industrial music’s pioneers in KMFDM? Sure, the bands obviously share more differences than similarities, but I can’t be the only one who jumped for joy a little bit the moment that I saw the announcement of each of these shows, can I?
.. that is, until I realized that they are both scheduled on the same night across town from each other, that is.
Sometimes this city does that to you though (just like I was forced to decide between the Acid Mother’s Temple show at the Entry and the FMTM/Torche/Dredg show at Varsity earlier in the year), and I guess I should just be glad that area booking agents are at least giving me 4 solid months to debate the positives and negatives of attending either gig.
Right now, I’m leaning towards attending the KMFDM gig purely because I’ve never had the chance to see these legends at work. While industrial music’s definitely not my forte, I’ve got a special place in my heart for the noise rock and underground electronic scenes in New York, Germany, and other niches throughout the world which birthed KMFDM and their contemporaries during the early 1980s. The abrasive electronic sounds that were spearheaded by KFMDM and a few others have seemed to eventually seep into the DNA of pretty much every band I enjoy, and though I don’t know much of their output, I’m pretty sure I’d still be fascinated to see a band that has indirectly had so much influence on my musical taste. Really though, I just want to see THE band who former La Crosse, WI vagabond Pete Missing continuously mentioned when we’d stop by his art gallery some years ago..
KMFDM, ANGEL SPIT
First Avenue
Oct. 5, 2009 | 7 PM
$20 ADV | $20 DOS | 18+
However, post-rock shows are my favorite kind of concerts to attend, and (with very few exceptions) nobody executes better than Mono. Seeing these dedicated musicians playing their soul-stirring psychedelic epics live at top volume is typically a can’t miss event for me, and this time they’ll be playing with Maserati. Considering that they also only visit the U.S. every few years, that I’ll have many more friends in the crowd with me here, and that Mono’s new album Hymn to the Immortal Wind is one of my favorites from the year, I feel like I’d be especially stupid for for missing this one, as well.
MONO, MASERATI
Triple Rock Social Club
Oct. 5, 2009 | 8 PM
$12 ADV | $15 DOS | 21+
Keep reading on the next page for all of KMFDM’s and Mono’s scheduled 2009 tour dates… Continue reading →
The Sunday Metal Minute is back for another week, and yet again the underground metal mainstream has failed to provide me with any new media that I’m anxious to post (..I’m holding out on a Municipal Waste post until we either get some more tracks to leak or see a music video..), so I’ve decided to dig back into the Mind Inversion vaults. Without the albums released by this week’s pick, Starkweather, metal as we know it likely would not exist.
Though they are still relatively unknown to this day, early releases by Starkeweather such as Crossbearer and Into the Wire united the ferocious styles of death and doom metal with the no-bullshit straightforward hardcore of Youth of Today and Minor Threat and eventually contributed a directl influence current darlings including Converge, Mastodon, and the Dillinger Escape Plan among others. In fact, for those who need a comparison, I’d liken the plight of Starkweather to the same one that afflicted Anvil back in the 80s, where the most enjoyable aspects of the band’s abrasive, hard-rocking metal sound were co-opted by others to propel their success while Anvil continued to dwell in obscurity (at least until this year, that is..). However, unlike Anvil, Starkweather’s output from the early 90s still sounds ahead of its time today and could easily garner comparisons to recent output from the like-minded boundary pushers in Kylesa – and they still haven’t received their big break.
“Shroud” is a great example of the emotional depth and vicious ferocity that Starkweather was capable of. If you have never heard this band but enjoy any others that I’ve mentioned in this post, do yourself a favor and download this and then begin to search for more to add to your collection; recent reissues and a new album via Candlelight Records in 2006 have made it easier than in past years.
Last night, I only had the time to watch Sonic Youth jam on a more abrasive version of “Sacred Trickster” for their glorious new album The Eternal (review probably pending) on the Late Show with David Letterman before I hit the hay. However, for those who have been paying attention, this week has certainly been a good one for fans of the mid-90s alternative rock scene, as Conan O’Brien hosted an appearance from Rancid last nightand Jimmy Kimmel featured a reunion performance from Blink 182 consisting of only classic songs from their back catalog on Tuesday. Since I was too sleepy to watch it all, I’ve rounded up all the videos for you to watch here this afternoon. We begin with the best:
As Mayhem brought Blackened Fest to St. Paul, MN on June 9, 20009, the vibe was unexpectedly and unfortunately even more somber than one would have hoped for the return of some of Norwegian black metal’s reigning elite. After already suffering the crippling blow of a late visa-related cancellation from Marduk before the tour began, the rest of the lineup except for Mayhem (Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation, and Withered) were forced to cut the trek short the night before St. Paul due to a variety of complications described by Justina V. over at Metal Injecction. Whether or not Justina’s indictment of Mayhem’s responsibility for the festival’s implosion is accurate or not, I certainly can understand her resentment as a fellow Metal Injection reporter (based in MPLS) and someone who was on the opening band’s guestlists that never arrived. To put it shortly, it was a huge bummer to be greeted with the cancellation announcement sign as I walked in, and it made me skeptical I’d even enjoy what was now becoming an expensive evening for me (although, I must say, the ticket price was actually slashed to 1/2 the original cost for those who bought advanced tickets, and refunds and free Absu tickets for next week were being offered to attendees – the venue was graciously being overly apologetic for the unfortunate circumstances).
While performances from Cattle Decap, Cephalic Carnage, Withered, and Marduk would never occur, Mayhem pushed on against the odds and advice of financial experts, carrying the torch of blackness alone on the last dates of a now-solo headlining tour. Playing to a crowd of devoted Twin Cities extreme metal faithful, Mayhem’s blistering, theatrical black metal and a collection of local bands that adequately replaced the openers who were dismissed eventually won over the dejected.
Chris Deline, my pal from CultureBully, has already posted an excellent review that breaks down the action for the show set-by-set, so I invite you to check out his recap and live videos to see exactly how the entire night panned out.
For my part, every opening act that played brought something unique to the table, just as I had originally expected heading into the night. Deterioration‘s two-instrument aural assault was the most eye-opening physical display of death-grind talent I’ve seen all year, while Grand Demise of Civilization‘s straight-forward black metal offered one of the most spectacularly ceremonious performances you’re likely to see from a band of any kind in this region. To top it all off, the classic campy metal humor of deathgore lifers in Anal Blast helped to lighten the mood considerably before Mayhem finally took control of the room.
By the time Mayhem hit the stage, the crowd was primed and ready to unleash under their dizzying spell of disgusting black metal. As Necrobutcher, Hellhammer, and the guitar duo of Morfeus and Silmaeth blasted out the storm, Attila Csihar hung his rope mockingly above the thrashing mass of a darkness in front of him, taunting the pulsing mosh pit with an oppressive arm and repeatedly ridiculing the disgraces of humanity. The stage set up was grizzly and overbearing, as well; however, one such as myself couldn’t help being sucked sucked in by this chaotic display from such a legendary and influential band beneath the dazzling lights at Station 4 in the much the same way that many people are by shocking horror films. Until the end, Mayhem never ceased to shock and impress my blackened heart after so many years throughout the lenght of their performance; when it’s said and done, they put together a show well-worth the ticket price and surely were appreciated by everyone who they stuck it out and played for (despite their inevitable financial loss).
Concluding our coverage at Station 4, I’ve got my own video from Mayhem’s set as well as some pretty vivid photographic evidence from the night. The media continues below:
Mastodon continues to impress with their spacey music video for “Oblivion” from the new album Crack the Skye, their third video helmed by psychedelic guru Roboshobo. Truthfully, their partnership seems to be paying off, because the man(?) has been able to consistently accomplish the seemingly impossible task of creating a visual document that accurately translates the incredibly visual auditory experience of Mastodon’s music. If Mastodon’s Crack the Skyeconcept movie really does take shape, we can be sure that Roboshobo will deliver with one of his own picture perfect interpretations if he’s the one behind it…
all about the band’s decision to put this 
(Mayhem)
(Mayhem)
MIND INVERSION 