I hope it comes out on vinyl.

The first release from Neurosis since 2007’s Given to the Rising, this new live album was recorded that same year in Tilburg, Holland, at the annual Roadburn Festival, where Neurosis headlined to a die-hard audience. The album expertly captures as much of the band’s live experience as one possibly could on a physical recording, harnessing the monolithic flow and power of the band’s well-known sonically devastating live performances. The monstrous 78-minute record showcases this iconic band surging through hymns from their last few albums, including Given To The Rising, The Eye Of Every Storm, A Sun That Never Sets, and Through Silver In Blood.

more info:  Neurosis Live At Roadburn 2007 Details Announced | Roadburn.

When Yakuza vocalist/saxophonist Bruce Lamont talks about a great change and “something beyond ourselves” imminently about to occur, I don’t think he means apocalypse in the traditional sense, like he pictures some kind of catastrophic societal collapse nightmare scenario à la Cormac McCarthy‘s The Road, because, as he notes in our interview, it’s happened before. If you don’t think World War I was the end of the world, go back and read up.

Yakuza‘s fifth album (first for Profound Lore), Of Seismic Consequence, deals with these issues and has a sense of dread throughout, fully conscious of the impending but aware of the inevitability too. It’s a striking record for a number of reasons, its themes among them, but musically progressive as ever, Yakuza continue to be one of America‘s most unique and driven bands. Even a casual listen to Of Seismic Consequence from someone familiar with its predecessor, Transmutations (Prosthetic Records, 2007), will reveal a host of areas where the band has moved forward, Lamont‘s increased use of melodic singing being the most obvious.

But Yakuza has never just been about Lamont, however much his sundry guest appearances elsewhere, side-projects and solo work might make him the most recognizable figure in the band. Guitarist/vocalist Matt McClelland, bassist/vocalist Ivan Cruz and drummer/keyboardist James Staffel each play a central role in making Yakuza what they are in 2010. Sanford Parker‘s production work on Of Seismic Consequence didn’t hurt either.

After the jump, Lamont discusses his visions of the changes the world is about to undergo, how Yakuza came to work with Profound Lore, and just how great it is to scare the crap out of yuppies, which, no matter how you feel about the music, is something I think we can all agree on. Enjoy the Q&A.

Read the rest of the Yakuza Interview with Bruce Lamont: A Call to Observe Something Beyond Ourselves and a Call to Scare Yuppies | The Obelisk.

What is so unique about Mr. Munoz is that he was born with only one functional hand.  The other hand has no fingers on it.  But even with the set back, his playing is spectacular. Incredible to watch.  Flawless…

Frank lives at the Historical St. Anthony Hotel in San Antonio, Texas.  He volunteers to play there.  He was kind enough to play for me and my co-workers who were staying there on a business trip.  I was able to take a little film of him playing:

Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle and Chris & Cosey at his Industrial Records studio, 1980. Chris recently tweeted, “WTF! I’ve just exceeded (by quite a margin) ONE MILLION views of my photos on Flickr – this image was tops at 10k+” From his Flickr stream

via Industrial music pioneer Chris Carter with gear, 1980 – Boing Boing.

They had these really pissed-off geese that hissed at you every time you walked by.

We went to the Safari Park there in Beekse Bergen the first day.  This has to have been the most human setting for live captivity I have see for animals.  Wide open spaces.  Minimal man made structures.   The animals appeared at peace.   We got to the African Wild Dog area and they were fighting over a carcass of some sort.  It was awesome!

Day One

So the first day of the festival was too fucking awesome.  We started off with Ancestors which was a highlight for me.  I could not get a great place to stand to film but it was epic!  I was in awe.  It appeared that Ancestors were just a stoked to be there too. The set was vibrant and atmospheric. After that we went over to the Midi Theater to catch Shining (NO) [Jazz shining not razor blade Shining.]  They were EPIC!  So played together so well and so precise it was incredible.  I was able to get a video for the song “In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster.

Next was Eagle Twins.  One of the loudest shows I have ever been to.  They played in the Bat Cave which was aptly named.  The sound was awesome but the room was way too damn small.  I was bummed at that.  Gentry Densley plays through two regular guitar stacks and a bass amp.  He uses the volume pedals to adjust the sound he wants to come out in various combination.   It sounds incredible. I got a great video of “The Crow Hymn”.

We went over to the main stage and caught the tail end of Eye Hate God.  Boring.  I do not get what people see in them.  They were mediocre at best.  I was bored off my ass.  Next was Enslaved.  Great show.  I have seen them over 10 times so I am kinda biased when it comes to them.  They played a song they don’t play that often live, “Return to Yggdrasil” and that was the highlight of the night for me.

Day Two

Day two started off with Church of Misery on the main stage due too “The volcano”. Fucking Incredible! Awesome live band.  They blew me away.  One of the best live performance of a band.  Great sound, great video show on the screen.

This was probably the day that everyone was really starting to get a little freaked out about the getting home.  There was a underlying current of “Hmmm, it is awesome to be here but I wonder if I’m going to get home any time soon…”.  But the show goes on.  Thorr’s Hammer was alright, but kinda boring.  I like my shows to be…showy…so to speak.  I think the setting should have been more somber. The lighting was too bright.  My opinion.

Comus was beautiful.   I love the Midi Theater!  It is an awesome venue for bands like this.  Comus had such a rich vibrant sound.  Incredible.

Trinacria have to be the best show I have ever seen.  It was mindblowing. I think they have taken what a lot of the post rock bands (Neurosis, A Storm of Light, etc) and taken it that next step.  I could have just gone home after that.  Awesome!

Day Three

I was starting to get worn the fuck out by day three.  We were at the Jungalos so walking all that way was starting to get to be a pain in the ass.   But the final day was awesome.  Astra was like taking a trip back in time!  It was prog lover’s dream.

Brant Bjork was pretty sweet.  I dig all his stuff.  But by the time we were getting towards the end of the day I was pretty worn out.  I just chilled out until the Armageddon Concerto with in Enslaved and Shining.  It was a nice end to a nice weekend. I got a little Video of Cato playing drums.  He is awesome.

Afterburner

So we went to afterburner but we were really burned out and i think I caught like a little bit of one band but by that time we just chilled out and talked with the people around us.

The week after Roadburn was spent touring Tilburg.  We were able to get a hotel in the Tilburg so basically we spent out time walking around.  It is a beautiful city.  All in all it was fun times all around.  Thank to all the cats who helped put Roadburn.  Cheers!

Banjo virtuoso Danny Barnes has a new video series out on “How to play The banjo”.   I picked up a banjo and played for about a year but I never really got the hang of it, but now I think I know why; the teacher.  I took guitar lessons from Danny when I was a kid and he is a really great teacher and has a lot of patience.  I think if I took banjo lessons from him and not the dude I was taking them from I would probably enjoyed it more.

Here is Part I and you can see the rest and check out all his wonderful music at  dannybarnes.com:

How to play the banjo – Parts I, II, and III | Ol’ Danny Barnes.

I never listened to Landmine Marathon before I am not a big death metal fan but this was some good stuff. I liked it because it had a nice NYHC edge to it too. One of the guitar players had a cool Cro-Mags Shirt! Grace was all NYHCing it up on a earlier song and kicked some dude in the balls.  Classic.

Zoroaster is the just fucking AWESOME!  They rule.  The first song is off their new album which is due out in July.

Naam are a doom making machine.  This is the first track off their self-titled album which is too awesome to even put into words.

Liturgy call there type of metal “Transcendental Black Metal” .  I love these guys.  Just raw and pure.

Mondo Drag are a great progressive rock band.  Dynamic and smooth.

Enjoy

So I put this album on and, at that time all I did was ride a 24 inch BMX cruiser, and started riding around Austin. So this is when we had two sides to an album. Before CD’s really caught on and way before MP3′s and iPods. Having two sides to an album really brings a different perspective on the music. With Some albums it is like have two different albums.

So back to Ritual, when I first listened to it I was fascinated by how different it sounded.  It was new and fresh to me.  It seems to me I never really heard anything like that before. Ritual was a Ritual for me.  I would put it on and begin my ride in the hot Austin summer.  Putting it on would drown out everything else around me.  I was in the moment.  Side A would get me to downtown and I lived about 12 miles from downtown Austin.  Listening to Side A, I would feel the music moving through me.  Getting me motivated like nothing could stop me from getting downtown.  I would slip through the narrow spaces in between cars, jump curbs like I was fucking Evel Knievel.  I would sing out loud, people probably thought I was a crazy man.  “I’m white dread and I’m white dread so, Ima got a ring and I hang it through my nose…”

By the time I got downtown I was pumped.  By that time the cassette tape would automatically flip over to the other side if I had the Walkman set to do that.  When I first heard Three Days I felt like I was moved into a higher plane of consciousness.  When you look up Epic in the dictionary Three Days is one of the things that it is used to describe Epic.  That song would put me on a spiritual high. But it is also a very melancholy song – telling the story of Perry Ferrel’s friend and her death.   I was just beginning to get into the Hare Krishna movement about that time and so I would ride and contemplate the cycle of death and rebirth.   When the song would start it would slow me down and I would actual start looking at the world around me.  Music makes everything have a different perspective.  If I was riding around right before twilight I would look at the long shadows the sun would throw on the buildings downtown.   The trees seemed to be getting ready for the evening slumber and it would bring a peace to the turmoil in my mind.  I would take a break from riding and just watch the trees fall asleep and get a better perspective on my life.

When the lyrics “Burnt out, grass scorched by the sun. The buildings remain. We will beat them all to dust.”  on Then She Did… would bring me back to a time when I had no cares in life.  Back when I lived in southern California down in Imperial Valley.   I was really young but I remember this time, and I don’t remember how I got there or how I got home, but me this native American kid were walking around this abandoned building that was just a skeleton of what it once was.  The thing I remember the most is this metal triangle – like the kind you use to call people for chow – was hanging on the side of the building.  I just remember staring at it the triangle and thinking about what it had seen while hanging there.

Ritual de lo Habitual will always be one of my favorite albums of all time.

Greetings and a happy new year! Looks like a very promising one for Dordeduh by the way: first live appearance, first EP later to be followed by a debut album, and both to be released by a very respected German label at that, maybe even a European tour to promote all of this. 2010 doesn’t look so bad…could we speak of an abundance of optimism?

Hupogrammos: Happy new year to you as well, and may it be a revealing one for us all. Well, optimism takes its shape from the way you create your path. In Dordeduh‘s case, lots of work still remains to be done to achieve the things you speak of. Our first live date should be known to the interested public by now, the EP will be ready by March, then we’ll announce the debut album’s release, to be followed by the supporting live dates.

2009 has been an extremely agitating year for you, one of severe disappointment. Following Negura Bunget’s split we see two camps having formed, each being eager to see what the other has to offer, not only structurally, but also conceptually. Do you think that what didn’t kill you made you stronger? What does the future hold for Dordeduh, from the prism of NB’s formation to its split, both ? Or perhaps we should see everything from a completely different point of view, unrelated to the past?

Throughout our personal history there’s always been a natural continuity with our past; we’re not going to make a secret out of the fact that the split from Negura Bunget has not only been the most difficult moment in our musician-related lives (and I mean Sol Faur and I), but in fact, the greatest disappointment in our personal lives. It just shouldn’t have ended this way. It’s what hurts us the most, the way it was handled. Of course these events speak volumes about how much we have to learn about ourselves from our own personal experiences, and I’m also speaking about the modesty needed to approach such teachings with, so that they can be integrated in the best way. But these events surround our personal lives. Yes there is a lot to be learned but I’d rather the listeners saw Dordeduh as a new and definite entity, capable of seeing the future and learn from the past without being neither of their captive.

read the rest of the interview at BrooklynVegan.

Astra‘s debut album The Weirding is an incredible album.  Astra is a straight up progressive rock band from San Diego.  And when I say progressive rock I do not mean this weird modern shit but something that could have been recorded in the early 70′s.  If you are going to Roadburn make sure you take time to check them out.

Nachtmystium‘s put out an superb metal album a few years back that is a high point of the decade.  Assassins: Black Meddle, Part 1 is Pink Floyd and Darkthrone’s love child.   The last three songs on the album are epic!  Nachtmystium put on a hell of a live show too.

Another tattooist/artist/musician, Danial Higgs and Lungfish are a band I just got turned onto this year.   So I did not want to include them in the my top 10 even though they are pretty damn bad ass.  Being from the tattoo world I did not know that the Lungfish Danial Higgs and the Tattooist and Artist Danial Higgs were the same person.  My favorite Lungfish album to date is probably 2006′s Love is Love.  I am just got hep to them so I am way into them right now.  Great album!

Doom supergroup Shrinebuilder are a powerhorse force of doom greatness.  Shrinebuilder features Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Wino (The Obsessed, St. Vitus, Spirit Caravan) Al Cisneros (Sleep, OM) and Dale Crover (The Melvins). This self titled LP is doom at it’s finest.  Each member adds a little something to each of the songs.  Killer.

Danny Barnes is one of the most prolific song-writers in the music business today.  With his albums with the Bad Livers and his solo albums he just keeps putting out more and more stuff every year!  2006′s Oft Mended Raiment is a smorgasbord of sound and wonder.   I love the use of samples on this record along with Danny’s high lonesome vocals.  A contrast that works will.  Also this years, Pizza Box, is awesome!  He is the master of the claw-hammer.  The highlights for me are the title track, Sleep, and Charlie.  Danny is an awesome story teller.  Many Hailz Danny.

I could go on and on but I won’t…I can’t wait for the next.