What I'm Listening To

What I’m listening to:

If you’ve ever seen my stand-up you know I love heavy metal…that’s putting it lightly. I can’t fucking shut up about metal. I love music in general, but metal has been my favorite style of music since I found KISS and AC/DC when I was ten. So this is where I’ll talk about what new bands I like, what old bands I still like, what new bands I hate, what old bands I still hate and what bands I used to love and now currently hate. I’ll also talk about shows I’ve seen recently or shows I’m looking forward to. I could call this section “metal that I love” or simply “Fucking Metal” but ocassionally I like something that’s not metal. I love that latest ROOTS record “Phrenology” and the new AFI record and I don’t need some fifteen year-old Cradle of Filth fan to tell me “that shit ain’t metal, dick”. Anyway, this section will be called “What I’m Listening To”.

Oct. 10, 2004

Been doing a lot of traveling lately. The Comedians of Comedy tour was awesome, but talking to people can get old. There was a ton of driving and that means sitting and talking. The ipod saved me from a few boring converstions. I listened to the usual shit (scorpions, beastie boys, megadeth, pantera) and some new stuff. I played the shit out of that killer fucking new Lamb of God record - Ashes of the Wake. I also listened to Auf der Maur, Iced Earth (I played The Glorious Burden for Patton in Portland. He said "the singer sounds like Jack Black, but he's serious" yep, that pretty much nailed them) and Viktor Vaughn - amazing underground rapper. Anyway here's an update of my 25 most played itunes songs.

1. The Chauffeur Deftones The Duran Duran Tribute
2. What Doesn't Die Anthrax we've come for you all
3. Take It Off The Donnas Spend The Night
4. Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun The Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique
5. The Bends Anthrax Inside Out
6. U Mean I'm Not Black Sheep A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing
7. Seemingly Endless Time Death Angel Act III
8. Holy Diver Dio Holy Diver
9. The Faded Line Lamb of God Ashes of the Wake
10. Blackened Metallica ...And Justice For All
11. Walk Pantera Vulgar Display Of Power
12. Fucking Hostile Pantera Vulgar Display Of Power
13. Get By Talib Kweli
14. Scenario A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory
15. Back In Black AC/DC Back In Black
16. Nobody knows anything Anthrax we've come for you all
17. Skinned Blind Melon Soup Rock
18. pda Interpol Turn on the bright lights Alternative
19. Rock You The Roots Phrenology
20. Dead Skin Mask Slayer Seasons In The Abyss
21. Wait And Bleed Slipknot Slipknot
22. Cut Your Ribbon Sparta Wiretap Scars
23. Idle Hands Stone Sour Stone Sour
24. Toxicity System Of A Down Toxicity
25. Hooker With A Penis Tool Ænima

Most of the songs are pretty old(and a lot of singles mixed with album tracks), but notice i've been putting a lot of work in with "the faded line" by Lamb of God. It's a fast mover on my ipod chart. There are also two songs about serial killer Ed Gein, what does that say about me? I'm going to try to write reviews of Ashes of the Wake and the new Mastadon and Shadows Fall. I've also been listening to the Death Angel comeback The Art of Dying, I love it. Buy it, don't steal it.

4/16/04April 16

Somebody on the message board suggested when I don't have new CDs to review I should mention "classic" albums I currently can't get enough of. I decided I'd list every thing I've listened to in the last week.

Driving: I've had a few trips over the hill or down the 405 this week and here's what either kept me sane or fueled my rage.

Kiss - Kiss: Fucking brilliant first album, whenever rock critics talk about first albums they rarely mention Kiss - for Strutter and Black Diamond alone it deserves to be up there with the other great debuts.

Souls Of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity: great oakland hip-hop group, this is their '93 debut. They no longer record under this name, but are all part of the Hieroglyphics crew. The new Hieroglyphics is great, but this record kills it, classic early nineties sound - I always considered them a harder, lesser known Pharcyde. They are both four-pieces with distinctive rap styles and mostly positive, yet real and not preachy lyrics. Souls of Mischief come off grittier and less stoney than Pharcyde. Sometimes the raps sound like a rap battle with each group member trying to outdo the last guy. I love when it feels like that. When I listen to this old stuff I think the same thing every time. Rap sucks now. Mostly.

Black Dhalia Murder - (I forget what it's called. It's still in my car.): They look like they'd play that nice emo music, but these guys are all pissed off about something. Maybe they are all mad that I just called them emo. They have a guy who yells and screams a lot, he's the singer. And they also come off as a little spooky. I like the guitars though and can get around the yelling guy.

Slayer - Reign in Blood: Obscure record you've probably never heard of.
Hunt it down and check it out, it rocks a little. I must look hilarious when I'm listening to this. I've loved this record for 18 years and I still drum on every surface and scream along to it. Every fucking time. I'm rocking out too hard to notice other drivers laughing at my dipshittery.

Office: Writing alone or with my current writing partner Dave Anthony. Dave is around the same age, but never got into anything heavier than Priest and Maiden. The last two scripts we wrote were fueled by Piece of Mind, Powerslave, Point of Entry, Screaming For Vengeance, Back in Black, Women and Children First, Scorpions' Animal Magnetism, Love Drive, High and Dry and Diary of a Madman. Every once in a while we'll drop in a little System of A Down, Far, deftones or Faith No More.
This week though - mostly Maiden - Piece of Mind

Public Enemy - It takes a Nation... This was me alone, Dave can't write to rap. I think he's racist.

Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique: In my top ten of all time. Maybe even top five. Don't ask me to actually make a top five. I would go nuts trying to do it, I love too many records. I have listened to it at least once a week since it came out. No lie.

Accept - Restless and Wild: I fucking love Fast as a Shark. I get the same feeling when I hear that now as i did fifty years ago.

Other bands I listened to this week: Death Angel, the Cure, new Exodus - loving this record, Dizzee Rascal, Lamb of God, Blind Melon, Black Star, Black Sheep, Scorpions, Tori Amos, Guns and Roses, AC/DC, Priest, Deftones, Method Man - just saw his new video with busta. It's pretty cool. I can't wait to hear the whole album. NEW DEATH ANGEL IN MAY - I'll let you know as soon as I hear it.

2/24/04:
I haven’t updated this in a while – been busy and honestly none of the albums I’ve bought lately have blown me away. Here's a few that I really like. I'm working on a Darkness review (which I really fucking hate - If one more of my non-metal "friends" says "What do you think of the Darkness, I bet you love them" I'm going to become pretty stabby - you read me right - I'm gonna start cutting people).

STATIC X - SHADOW ZONE. It’s not for everyone. Sometimes I like my metal dancey. I loved their first record and I really like this. I like the riffs, there are a bunch of really catchy songs. Monster guitar sound, great drums. I hear it’s not selling that well. That’s a damn shame. If you liked the first record, don’t be dick, go pick it up. Especially if you are a strip club DJ. It has a bunch of great high energy songs just waiting for strippers to dance to. The guys at your club will get boners in their dicks and have to go buy the record so their dick can get another boner. Favorite songs: Destroy All (especially when it picks up speed at the end), Control It (great fucking riff), Shadow Zone (a little Kornish, but in a good way), Dead World (feels like a fast Manson song, if he ever did fast songs), Monster(smoking fast, great), The Only (I think this was the first single – great, great song – it would be huge if people didn’t suck)

FAR reissues – Sacto band. They broke up a couple of years ago, I always liked them. They started on my friend’s label (Rusty Nail). They got signed around the same time as the Deftones and they weren’t handled as well. They did two records for Sony, they didn’t break – they should have. I guess with a lot of emo bands citing Far as an influence Sony decided to reissue them (don’t let that scare you off). Water and Solutions is an amazing record. It’s the best of the two. Tin Cans with Strings to You being the other (also worth checking out). The singer Jonah is a great lyricist with a voice that is both plaintive and strikingly powerful. It is not metal, just good music with great vocals, driving drums and soaring guitars. My favorite songs on Water and Solutions are Bury White (great intro to their style), Really Here (brilliant song, bursting with feeling – notice I didn’t use the word emotion), Mother Mary (great riff, super catchy chorus) Actually every song on this album is great, just check it out.

3 INCHES OF BLOOD – I talked about these guys on the message board. Young Canadians that sound like NWOBHM meets thrash. They have two vocalists that have a Paul DiAnno/Helloween/Grim Reaper/King Diamond thing happening. RDestroy the Orcs” wins best song title ever. Search high and low for this CD. They just signed to Roadrunner, I expect big things from them (big and metal)

METAL SHOP – The amazing hair metal tribute band that plays the Viper Room every week recently put out an album (on their own) of originals. You may
know them as Danger Kitty from those credit card ads. If you live in LA, go see them. They play dead on covers of songs you probably hate (but secretly love) and then pepper it with hilarious banter. I’m sorry, I meant fucking hilarious banter. Their original disc Hole Patrol has been spinning on a super regular basis in my car stereo. The songs nail the feeling and sound of popular 80s hair metal like Whitesnake and Poison. With songs about strippers, fat girls and the fact that Hell is probably pretty hot, I still find myself giggling and singing along. The lyrics are hilarious, dirty and way more joke packed than Spinal Tap or Tenacious D.

More to come soon including HIMSA, PROBOT, ICED EARTH and DAMAGEPLAN and a bunch of bile devoted to the DARKNESS.

OCT. 26, 2003

I love the iPod. iPod, Tivo, HALO and stripper shoes are the greatest inventions of any century. My fiance got me the 5 gig model last christmas and it's full(it contains just a little over a thousand songs). Tell her to get me the 20 for this Christmas. Anyway, you are what's on your ipod...so here's who I am. Here is iPod's list of my most played songs. It tells you the genre of music too in case you're a retard or an old person. It also includes the amount of times you've played each song and the last time you played it. If you're bored with your job/life enough to keep reading you'll learn a little about me (or at least what I listen to at airports, on airplanes, and shopping when I'm high). I love my little song remembering pocket robot.

1) Get By 3:47 Talib Kweli
2) What Doesn't Die 4:09 Anthrax we've come for you all
3) Rock You 3:12 The Roots Phrenology
4) Idle Hands 3:56 Stone Sour Stone Sour
5) Take It Off 2:40 The Donnas Spend The Night
6) Fucking Hostile 2:48 Pantera Vulgar Display Of Power
7) The Bends 3:52 Anthrax Inside Out
8) Walk 5:14 Pantera Vulgar Display Of Power
9) Understanding In A Car Crash 4:24 Thursday Full Collapse
10) nobody knows anything 2:57 Anthrax we've come for you all
11) Back In Black 4:16 AC/DC Back In Black
12) Holy Diver 5:55 Dio Holy Diver
13) Wait And Bleed 2:27 Slipknot Slipknot
14) Blackened 6:42 Metallica ...And Justice For All
15) Cut Your Ribbon 3:04 Sparta Wiretap Scars
16) Toxicity 3:38 System Of A Down Toxicity
17) Scenario 4:15 A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory
18) St. Anger 7:21 Metallica St. Anger
19) U Mean I'm Not 1:24 Black Sheep A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing
20) pda 4:59 Interpol Turn on the bright lights
21) I Am The Law 5:54 Anthrax Among The Living
22) No More Tears 6:57 Black Label Society Sonic Brew
23) This Love 6:32 Pantera Vulgar Display Of Power
24) Rush 3:42 Talib Kweli
25) Hells Bells 5:12 AC/DC Back In Black

Notice how I listened to "St. Anger" nine times before I decided it sucked. If it was gonna grow on me I think I gave it enough chances. If you've never heard Zakk Wylde's heavier version of "No More Tears" you should track it down, it rules. I know some of the tracks might seem out of character (the Donnas, some crybaby modern rock and happy hip/hop), but I can't be the angry metal guy all day/every day. If I wrote down what's in my car stereo you'd find a lot of SLAYER and pretty much nothing but METAL (for some reason I'm more angry in my car - I can't figure it out). But when I put on the headphones I get all introspective and more than a little sissified. I have bought some NEW CDs lately and checked out some concerts (Primus being one), I will post about them soon.

7/12/03 METALLICA is back, sort of. I bought that St. Anger demo, I think it’ll will be a pretty good Metallica record when they fix the drums, get rid of that Invisible Kid song (sweet baby jesus, does that song suck, it’s the suckiest suck to ever suck) and when Bob Rock hits that little button that will make Jaymz’ vocals less gay. I can’t wait for them to make those tweaks and release St. Anger…oh wait, it’s finished? That’s the final product? Well, then it sucks.

UP NEXT -- ANTHRAX: We’ve Come for You All. This record rules. My favorite album of this year and since I had the demo in September, I make it my favorite album for 2002 also. You know what? Fuck it, I know no better discs are going to come out in 2004 either, so it’ll be my favorite album for next year too. If you ever liked Anthrax you should buy this immediately (for me it is ranks alongside their two best records: Among the Living and White Noise). If you ever liked metal, even if you never were an Anthrax fan you should buy this. Although if you called yourself a metal fan and you don’t like Anthrax I don’t know if we can be friends. You might want to take your Saigon Kick CD and your Sleeze Beez T-shirt and go fuck yourself. If I offended any Saigon Kick fans, I’m sorry…for your shitty musical taste. Anyway, Anthrax rules. Scott, Charlie, Frankie and John have outdone themselves. They’re accomplished metal musicians, yet the hunger these guys still have is palpable. It doesn’t feel calculated like certain other aging metal outfits (the band I mentioned above that rhymes with Metallica), there’s none of that sweaty “Hey, remember us” desperation that St. Anger reeks of. And god bless the new guitar guy, Rob Italian last name that I’m too lazy to look up. Rob plays his ass off and he also produced this masterpiece, Metallica should hire him to do “Re- St. Anger”. Caggiano (I looked it up) is the gentleman’s name and he is a welcome addition, although I do miss Paul Crook, that dude was a rad guitar player and one of the coolest rock guys I’ve ever met. This record is one of those rare beasts that grows and changes the more you listen to it. I constantly have a new favorite song. When I first got it, I loved “Superhero” just cause it stood out, it’s a super catchy, rocking Anthrax tune, it reminded me of “Only”. They don’t sound alike at all, but they both are just perfect, sing-along ready metal songs. A week of listening later, and I was into “What Doesn’t Die” (the album’s opener), it’s heavy as hell, the double bass crushes everything in it’s path. It feels like classic Anthrax (straight-up 1987 thrash metal), but I actually think it’s heavier then any of the old stuff. Then I fell in love with the crazy drum intro to “Nobody Knows Anything” and speaking of Charlie’s drums “Black Dhalia” is another stand-out tune featuring some heavy fucking blast-beats. “Safe Home” isn’t heavy, but it’s one of the best songs Anthrax has ever written. It just is a classic song and should be all over the radio and MTV, and if the world weren’t such an asshole it would be. That’s right, I just called the world an asshole, but an asshole world is the only explanation for Good Charlotte being huge and Anthrax going unheard by the mainstream.

OTHER RANDOM REVIEWS: I bought the new CRADLE OF FILTH CD, those guys sure are METAL. I just listened to it once, more about it later.

NOT METAL, but the new ALKALINE TRIO record “Good Mourning” is really growing on me. Matt Skiba, the singer is all pissed off about something and I’m usually on board when some singer dude is all mad at something. I just bought MARS VOLTA (it features the two dudes with all the hair from At The Drive In), it’s okay, I plan to give it more of a chance this week. I prefer the other At the Drive In spin-off band, SPARTA. Their album “Wiretap Scars” is still on my play list. You should buy that shit, girls like it too, which isn’t true about most of the shit I like. Sparta was slept on, don’t be a dick, go buy it so they don’t get dropped from their label. I want them to make more music.

You know who sucks? TRAPT and FINCH and THE ATARIS, fuck all three of those bands. That shit is gay. Excuse me, but I find it extremely hard to be articulate when I really fucking hate something. I will never use this area to rip on the obvious like JOHN MAYER, I’ll never say anything like that RYour body is a Wonderland” gave me AIDS. ‘Cause it’s too easy and that “music” isn’t for me(it’s for wetbrained frat rapists and ugly girls who find Dave Matthews too challenging). I will however rip on bands like CRAPT that is marketed as “heavy music” but is neither. Fuck them and fuck SALIVA.