Wednesday, May 18, 2011



Hey! I entered a tee shirt for submission at Threadless.
If you like it, please take a moment and click the above image to go vote.

VOTE HARD!

If it wins, it will be printed and available to the world for a good price.

Thanks!!!

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

New Frodus



For those who care, peep this shit above. Thats the cover for the new Frodus 7" from Lovitt Records.

Just came out. There were 100 printed on smoke vinyl with a different cover, but apparently they sold out yesterday (the day it went up). There is another version, in a run of 450 with black vinyl and the above cover.

You can click the cover to take you to the Lovitt Bandcamp where you can preview the 2 tracks and order the 7". The 7" comes with a digital download which also includes a 3rd song not on the 7"

If you dont know who Frodus is, I must say, now is the time to get into them. I just previewed the songs and while one is stronger than the other, they both seethe with an intensity that leaves you wondering if they ever took a hiatus in the first place.

This release gives me hope for good things from Frodus Conglomerate International.

For those of you new to the Frodus Conglomerate, do yrself a favor and check out 'And We Washed Our Weapons In The Sea', as well as their previous album, 'Comglomerate International'. Amazing stuff!

Preview and Order at Lovitt Bandcamp

Monday, November 08, 2010

...

Hello again. I will make something of this.
Look for me again after the New Year.

:O

Thursday, February 18, 2010

A tribute



Sick of it All - Blood, Sweat and No Tears (1989)

I grew up in Westchester Co, NY... not far from the city or NJ. I mention this as a setting for how a young Tim first heard hardcore and how it consumed him and spit him back out as the awesome individual he is today. (^_~)

Because of my geographic location I was privy to some good radio stations, most notably, WNYU and the king of all radio stations in the tri-state area in those days (1990) WSOU Seton Hall's Pirate Radio. At a young age of 12-13 I thought two things in this situation; A) That metal ruled and there wasnt enough on the radio and B) that Pirate Radio must mean it was just like that movie Pump Up The Volume where Christian Slater takes over the air waves and plays music that no one ever hears on the radio.

Well, 'A' was true, but 'B', well, I just wish it were true, but nonetheless, WSOU played metal and more metal. Overkill, Morbid Angel, Carcass, Slayer, Iron Maiden graced mine ears as well as a slew of bands I had never heard of before.

Here I should digress and explain that at the age of 13 (or was it 12) I still had to hit the hay on the early side of the evening and the radio shows I liked were often on at midnight and beyond (adding the mystique that it was truly and illegal pirate radio run by a bunch of metal heads..) So often, I would toss a cassette into the deck and hit record and go to sleep wondering what I'd hear the next day on the bus ride to school.

One fantastic day, two songs flowed into my aural receptors that changed my world. Blue Blood by Biohazard and Injustice System by Sick of It All. My friend Fooch and I were in love with these two songs, bookended on either side by metal bands. The DJ called it hardcore, which I hadnt really heard of yet. I didnt even really listen to punk. Just metal. So it was a whole new sound to me, both metallic, but harder and meaner and more to the point. I felt like I was in that fight or flight sort of mode when this stuff played and I loved the feeling. It made me skate better too!!

So, Fooch and I made it a point to search out these bands. He and I went to some crappy mall music store and he found a cassette of Biohazards first album, and I found Blood, Sweat and No Tears on tape and we jetted to go home and jam these fuckers.

it was immense. The cover of Blood, Sweat blew me away. It looked so fierce and so hard that it gave me a lump in my throat. I could never picture myself surviving such a scene, and yet, I still dreamed about being there.

With a good sense of what a mosh pit was, thanks to the cover, Fooch and I preceded to trash his room, moshing everything in sight. Then we went out and skated for hours before coming back to jam some more hardcore.

Since then, nothing else mattered but skating and finding more hardcore. Thrasher magazine was concurrently entering our lives and we began paying attention to the music section. "whos this band 7 seconds? where can we find that?!" "whats Youth of Today?! that looks sick!" and my favorite, "Gorilla Biscuits?? What a stupid name!!!"

A steady stream of Hardcore and Punk began to flow through our ears. Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, 7 Seconds, Bad Brains... the world was new and bright. Eventually we were even able to procure some Youth of Today and even some Gorilla Biscuits, who consequently turned out to be my favorite of the bunch, and eventually birthed Quicksand who took me even further down the road of awesome music. But that is another story, for another AOTM.

For now, I'd like to finish this by saying that I dont aim to make any new fans of SOIA. I assume youve all heard it and made your decisions on how you feel about them. They are still around and still releasing albums and even though I havent really cared about them since Just Look Around, it still rules that they are continuing down a road they started well over 20 yrs ago.

For me, this is the entry point to a world Ive never left. The world of hardcore, it's ideas and values are things that made me who I am today.

What was yr first intro to hardcore? Where were you? How old? How did you hear it? This I'd like to hear as well as yr thoughts on this album.

I turned 33 a few weeks ago and was recently thinking about how I've been into hardcore for 20 yrs now... so this is my tribute.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Stuff You Should Hear, late 2009 ed.

Its been a while since I've taken the time to make another post. In that time, much good has taken place. I met someone amazing. I had a most excellent, first ever trip out of the USA to anywhere. And I've heard tons of great new music.

As a prelude to a series of "Best Of's" for the end of the year I'd like to offer you a varied group of some of the best new bands to come out this year. While diverse in sound, all these bands share one thing in common; the ability to create powerful moving music, on their own terms, with their own steam. DIY is something that everybody can have a say in, down to its ethics or to its practical applications, or even its naiveté, but when a band puts together something solid that stands on its own two feet, its not a matter of any scene or idealism, its a tried and true result of putting 110% of yr heart into what moves you.

Dogs Of Winter - From Soil To Shale (2009)


Dogs of Winter are a Brooklyn, NY band playing a post hardcore version of early 90s grunge. While trite to bring up grunge in a review for music, one has to appreciate first the pure balls that bands like Soundgarden and Alice and Chains brought around that early period of grunge. A sound both burly and soulful, with delicious low ends and a crowd moving sense of groove. Dogs of Winter gets their kick by mixing such burl and soul, such 90's vintage groove, with fiery and tempestuous post hardcore, in the vein of such fascinating greats as Drive Like Jehu and Frodus. With angles arising betwixt belted out harmonies in triplicate, and heavy repetitive bass grooves, Dogs of Winter rule from multiple view points, even tossing in a deep low end that some stoner bands wish they had.. The singing is particularly tight and very powerful, never becoming trite or nostalgic, occasionally even bordering on the bellicose. The whole album is strong as fuck, comes complete with lyrics embedded for each song, and most excitingly, features an amazing set of artworks by artist Joe Boyle. His work is dark and splattered, with each piece speaking towards the song it represents. It would be amazing if Dogs of Winter would give this album a full release with a full booklet of artwork. (Do I smell sweet vinyl in the future?). Peep another panel of this art, for the song Anathema...


Dogs of Winter @ Myspace
Dogs of Winter
Joe Boyle Art


--------------{More Reviews Below!}----------------


Bad Actor - Portrait of Finality (2009)



Bad Actor are from Florida, and they sound like it. Pure throat shredding metal. Glass shoved in your face, and dirt clogged in your throat. You can try imagine something sunny while you take a ride with Bad Actor. But its nigh impossible. With two vocalists, ie. two times the shredded vocal delivery, in two octaves, bellowing and new and improved sound of razors against bone. Yep, Bad Actor, like their name implies, dont want you enjoy this performance. This is no sunny walk in the park. You will be bruised and possibly broken. You will get a dry feeling caught in your chest and air wont seem so readily available as blackened chords rain arpeggiated deah upon your nightmare. Whatever hasnt succumbed thus far is sure to taste the steady rumble of the rhythm section as it gallops all over the wasted lands, victims strewn by the sonic battering, crushed beneath its death encrusted hooves. Somewhere, Carcass is proud. and in Florida its probably sunny. :)


--------------{More Reviews Below!}----------------

Collapse Under the Empire - Systembreakdown (2009)


Collapse Under the Empire are a German post-rock / electronic act with subtle releases of cathartic energy, bubbling into subdued melancholy and introspection with rays of light punching through on occasion, to let us all know that while, yes, life is hard, there is beauty in the cracks of the every day. Between moments of careful progression Collapse Under the Empire rests on beautiful repetitious notes, while percolating electronics breathe an array of color and tone into what can be seen as a basic post-rock approach. The closest touchstone to these guys I can think of is 65daysofstatic, who also use programmed beats and synths among crescendos of guitars and martial drumming. Here, the combination is far more successful, with the electronics playing equal parts in the mix and often driving the sound while the guitars hang back and offer some much needed texture. The electronics in this case are more in line with one of my favorites, Obfusc. Meaning that they are steeped in equal doses of melody and ambience, the kind that brings to mind a slow flame as it dances on tiny winds, or the rush of water over rocks on a rainy day in the woods. Collapse Under the Empire (CUTE, if you havent noticed) offer up an album that is at once familiar while also honing a style that has yet to be done this successfully.

They are releasing a new album early next year called "Find A Place To Be Safe". You can hear two of the tracks on their free single, "Crawling". Download that right here.

You can also peep a video they made and be sure to check out their sites.
Video
Band Site
Myspace


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note. - My City of Ghosts, Stars and Hours (2009)


Another band from Germany playing a great style of post-rock is note. As a 4 piece that knows how to make a lot of noise, note. have something nice and unique going on. At once brash and chatoic, quiet and organized, note. has found their muse in not only combining the two extremes of explosive noise and reflective beauty and have instead infused a number of other elements into what, until this year, has been a very static and overdone music scene. By combining elements of jazz and chaotic styles of punk riffing not often heard in this genre (and by not often, im referring to a tendency to occasionally approach the hyper kinetic energies of a band like Off Minor) note. has forged an exciting new sound. While at times featuring the rapidly blurred guitar ringing of bands like Caspian and Gift From Enola, there are also copious amounts of piano, some clapping, some swift and heavy time changes that will have you doing double takes. In short, the musicianship is very tight and very obvious on these long players. The only band that has ever managed to combine such disparate influences with such success is the Samuel Jackson Five, who now have some competition if these four guys known as note. decide to come back with more albums. Lets hope they do!

Peep their myspace.


--------------{More Reviews Below!}----------------


We Only Said - We Only Said (2009)



We Only Said are a French band bringing forth a wonderful style of subdued post-rock that usually tends to arrive from the likes of Louisville or Chicago, if you catch my drift. This album portrays an amazing sense of dynamics that only bands like Shipping News, Slint and Tortoise have on some of their more subdued numbers. In other words, this is more Three-Four than Save Everything, more Washer than Good Morning Captain, more Swung From the Gutters than Djed... If you catch my drift. And drifting is something We Only Said seems to be comfortable doing. Drifting in and out of consciousness, We Only Said lull you into a sense of safety and then beg that you be more on yr guard as a tense shimmering slow build piece cracks in with a snare hit. Never content to just hit you over the head, instead, they keep you on your toes by offering hints of what might lie around the corner of yr next shift to consciousness, like a seething reminder that all that is beautiful is not always safe. And all that is safe is not always static. Its a very hard album to describe and might just be one of my favorite things I have heard this year. There is darkness all over this record and its some of the most luminous darkness I have ever experienced.

We Only Said @ Myspace

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

My Apologies



THIS SITE IS NOT DEAD.

I have been extremely neglectful of the site lately. I apologize to those of you that I have promised reviews to. I still have a number of great things coming up and then I want to get back into posting some older stuff.

Coming up soon:

Dogs of Winter
note.
Bad Actor
We Only Said
Secret Wars

There are a few other things I need to go through as well. So if you are one of those people, reviews are on the way.

I havent been online much these days but if you are ever interested in seeing what I have been listening to, please check out my last.fm on the right. Im usually scrobbling music all day, every day and you can write me and say "whatsup" and ask me shit if you want. I also belong to a group there called Album of the Month, which has a hardcore flavor. So feel free to join and get to know those fine people.

If you have a band that you'd like me to check out. I can only say it will be a while before I can even think of promising a review. After the bands listed above I plan on delving into a large catalogue of hardcore that I have been jamming to lately.

As always, there are tons of records being released all the time, and so many of them rule. So always keep your radars on and search search search. There are some new blogs added to the roster on the right, and those people keep up on their posting quite a bit more than me, so give them some traffic and stop back in a few days to see my next post.

Thats all. Thanks for reading. Lata!!

Tim/Blend77

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Sinaloa - Chapel & Basement



Sinaloa is a state. Sinaloa is also one of the best post-hardcore / emo / insert inane genre tag here bands that are currently going. Many of you already know all about them and have probably heard a number of their albums and splits since the early 00's.

Earlier this spring Sinaloa made it down to NYC and for the mini tour released a screenprinted version of their Fathers & Sons LP and this cassette which is comprised of all the songs from Oceans of Islands played acosutically. The title of the release is due to the fact that these songs were recorded in a chapel which the drummers father arranged for them to use.

These version of the songs portray, in startling detail, the intimacy that has always laid at the foundation of any Sinaloa song. Their concern for the world around them has always had its roots in hardcore but such a humanistic approach goes much further back to the dawn of mans first questions. The resonant sounds and the acoustic quality of these songs hearkens back to a time when we didnt need to scream our questions, doubts, and fears about the world around us, but instead could have open discourse with the ability to shape things as they arise. Times have clearly changed and while the severity of what goes on around us continues to elevate in every way possible, this set of songs, presented as they are, juxtaposed with these quick moving and harsh dealing times, is a quiet scream for change. When the din of the world drowns out everything, sometimes it takes just a whisper to shatter the noise.

Sinaloa can be found here and here.
Explanations of all lyrics are included not inly in every release that the band puts out, but also on their website.