review: Spylacopa (debut EP)

Spylacopa is that rare supergroup that lives up to its members’ pedigrees. Masterminded by Candiria guitarist John LaMacchia, Spylacopa grew to include Dillinger Escape Plan singer Greg Puciato, and later, Isis bassist Jeff Caxide and Made Out of Babies singer Julie Christmas. Its five-song debut EP never sounds like any of those individuals’ bands. Instead, we’re treated to the raging post-hardcore of “Haunting a Ghost” and the dark, moody rock of “Bloodletting,” two songs with lush, memorable choruses; an elegiac piano and synth instrumental situated perfectly at the midpoint, “Together We Become Forever”; “Staring At the Sound,” an up-tempo rocker that recalls Jane’s Addiction at its most aggressive; and finally, heady psychedelics on “I Should Have Known You Would.” LaMacchia’s consistent production keeps this from ever feeling patchwork, remarkable considering the sonic variety and the disjointed nature of the disc’s writing and recording process. At 23 minutes, this would feel like a tease if it wasn’t so complete – and that said, I’m still dying to hear more.

Spylacopa

Spylacopa

Rising Pulse

review: Metal Church--This Present Wasteland

Twenty-five years in the game have made Metal Church guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof one of the elder statesmen of heavy metal. On This Present Wasteland, he plays with the dignity of an old timer, adhering closely to the classic style which established the group in the mid-‘80s. The guitar solos, the lyrics (which hint at social concerns, but remain largely ambiguous), and the middling falsetto of singer Ronny Munroe are all fairly routine, but the band distinguishes itself with its rock solid musicianship and song writing. This music is definitely dated, though the band and their fans would likely argue that the classics never go out of style; and the modern (though understated) production sheen does help considerably. Metal Church arrived a little later than Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, and never approached the success of those groups, but they would be well received in an opening slot for either band.

Metal Church
This Present Wasteland
Steamhammer/SPV

review: Hackneyed--Death Prevails

The early buzz about Hackneyed’s debut album has centered around the band members’ ages—some of these guys won’t drink legally for a half-decade or more—but death metal fans will find plenty of promising material on Death Prevails. The German band’s use of dynamics and tempo changes gives them an advantage over many of their more experienced peers, who insist on playing fast and brutal at every moment. Hackneyed’s musicianship is adequate, but it’s their songwriting that impresses, as the band forges an identity for each individual track. “Symphony of Death” sways with an almost Egyptian vibe, and the goofy, cannibalistic lyrics on “Ravenous” are instantly memorable. The only stumble lies in the execution of the synthesizers, which sit awkwardly in the mix and sound tacked on. Beyond that minor quibble, it’s true that Hackneyed haven’t really tried anything new—yet. But Death Prevails hints at good things to come.

Hackneyed

Death Prevails

Nuclear Blast

review: Terror--The Damned, The Shamed

When Terror releases an album, it's generally like they're preaching to the choir. On their excellent first record, 2003's Lowest of the Low, the group established their signature sound: high energy, slightly metallic, no bullshit hardcore with an old school vibe. On subsequent releases, with the exception of the odd hip-hop interlude, they've repeated themselves again and again. Imagine my astonishment, then, when midway through "Betrayer" from The Damned, The Shamed, I heard 30 whole seconds of clean (!) guitar. "March To Redemption" offers a similar surprise, while "Lost Our Minds" features a nifty little guitar solo and evokes more sadness than rage. If anything, the fact that such minor details feel groundbreaking only underscores how deeply wedded Terror is to its metallic hardcore formula. Nevertheless, while The Damned, The Shamed won't convert any nonbelievers, its relative departures will likely keep the Terror faithful engaged enough to come back for the next serving.

Terror
The Damned, The Shamed
Century Media

review: Century--Black Ocean

On Black Ocean, Century beef up their sound with thick production and a more pronounced metallic edge, though they haven't strayed far from the successful brand of progressive hardcore heard on 2006's Faith and Failure. There's a good helping of melody here, not in band mastermind Carlos Slovak's vocals, which always belch monstrously, but in the guitar work. "Monolith" shifts seamlessly between ethereal melancholy and thrash stomp. Drummer Matthew Smith, who anchors the record with powerful, meticulous beats, pounds so hard on tracks like "Erasure" that you almost miss the airy, rockin' lead soaring overtop. It's obvious that Century has been influenced by the metalcore explosion of the last half-decade. The lurching breakdowns recall acts like Norma Jean; some of the lighter moments echo Misery Signals. And yet Century never sounds quite like any of those groups. Slovak's band isn't trying to corner any one segment of the aggressive music scene and that in itself is refreshing. At the very least, this is worth checking out for "Equus," one of the meanest, catchiest songs released so far this year.

Century
Black Ocean
Prosthetic Records

Black N Blue Bowl: Interview with Paul Bearer of Joe Coffee and Sheer Terror

I talked to Paul Bearer backstage at the BNB Bowl. Paul is best known for his work with Sheer Terror in the '80s and '90s, but the for the past few years he's fronted Joe Coffee. Paul had a lot of funny, heartfelt things to say. This guy rules. Check it out, easily the best interview of the day.

--On Sheer Terror:

PB: Sheer Terror is dead. We put it to rest four years ago, when we did the two shows at CBGBs. The money was good and it was good to be reunited with my old band members and whatnot. To put it to rest the right way. I did it to bury it right, and it's buried.

--On his band Joe Coffee:

PB: There was a detective in New York City who was involved in the whole Son of Sam thing named Joe Coffee. But I just call it Joe Coffee because I like coffee. It's an easy name to remember. The merchandising possibilities are endless [laughs]. I've been doing it seven years at least. We've got one EP, one album, we pressed up a thousand. Ice Cream Records is gonna rerelease it, hopefully by the time summer starts. It ain't hardcore. It's punk by nature. I mean, we're all from the hardcore scene and whatnot. I've been going to shows for 26 years or so. You don't always have to hold onto the same thing and keep doing it over and over. The clinical definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I can't do that. I'm insane enough, and I'm dealing with that in therapy once a week. But with Joe Coffee, it's more where my heart always was. It's rock n roll, it's punk. I want to bring more of a soul thing into it. Northern soul, with a horn section, eventually--I hope, I pray. But I'm still writing about growing up and trying to do your bit. All my friends are fucked up or criminals, and I would never turn my back on them, but I want everybody to do better. To put that into music. The girls are getting it more than the guys right now, which is cool. The guys are gonna' realize, 'hey, he's still one of us.'

I steal from old country and old r&b and soul songs. I'll be the first to admit it. I did that with Sheer Terror, but nobody realized it because they were too busy punching each other in the face in the pit. But with Joe Coffee, I don't want them so much punching each other in the pit. I want them to enjoy themselves. I'm not reinventing the wheel by any means, I just want people to enjoy themselves and have fun. And if I do strike a chord and they understand it, it's a bonus for me. I'm not gonna' give 'em Sheer Terror again and again, I'd feel like I'm cheating the audience. I'm a musician, I'm an artist, quote/endquote, I expand, I move on. If they like the songs, the music, that's all that really matters to me.

--On the song "Everything's Fine," by the Saints, which Sheer Terror covered:

PB: The Saints, one of the first, if not the first, punk bands out of Australia. That's from their third album called Prehistoric Sounds. They put out their first, (I'm) Stranded, their second album, Eternally Yours. The third album was more of a departure. They were punk, rock, r&b. I urge anyone to dive into the Saints, especially their first three albums. We did ["Everything's Fine"] live a couple times. Without the horns, it took away, but we played it because it's one of my favorite songs.

Chatting with Paul Bearer. Photos by David Hsu.

--On comparing bands like Blood For Blood to Sheer Terror:

PB: Y'know, the Blood For Blood thing, they bring that up a lot. Don't get me wrong, they were a good band for what they did. I know those guys. But I don't really see it. Maybe the honesty, or the anger. I'm not taking anything away from them. They cursed a helluva lot more than I did. I mean, "fuck" was every other word in their lyrics. I can see myself using "fuck" more in Joe Coffee, which is weird. As I get older, I'm cursing more. The desperation and whatnot, the hate. But I don't really see it.

The term hatecore, I cannot stand. I think it's fucking ridiculous. It's hardcore. And to just base your whole life on hate, hate, hate, hate. I mean, even the Nazis didn't do that. To not try or want to love, it's saddening. It's depressing. It didn't help me that my first record was called Just Can't Hate Enough. Didn't help. I love love, and I want to love love again, and I want to be in love with a woman who I love. I'm not a big fan of people, I don't like people as a whole, but the ones I do, I care for. For me to hate you means we had some sort of relationship and it went bad--whether it's friendship or business or whatever--and it turned to hate. I'm not priding myself on hating people because that's just redundant and ignorant and stupid. So, I mean, Blood For Blood--God bless 'em. Musically, I guess [it resembles Sheer Terror], but I don't listen to a lot of hardcore. As far as I'm concerned, the last great hardcore, heavy record that came out was Poison Idea's Feel The Darkness [released 1990]. Nothing can touch that album. Slayer can suck a dick compared to that album.

--On Joe Coffee potentially playing a Superbowl:

PB: A show's a show. If there's people, we'll play. We don't turn our noses up at anything. But we're not a hardcore band. The indie scene, or whatever you wanna' call it, they're like afraid of me. I don't even know these people. So we can't really get shows with them. We tried. We'll play with anyone! But with the Superbowl, we'd love to play. We'd stick out like a sore thumb. But you know what? That's not a bad thing.



----Well, that's everything from the Black N Blue Bowl. It was a fun day. I want to thank Dave Hsu for taking photos, and the Rockstar people for the beer tickets.

Black N Blue Bowl: Interview with John Joseph of Bloodclot and the Cro-Mags

Photos by David Hsu.

Backstage at the Black N Blue Bowl, I got a chance to talk with John Joseph, best known as the singer of New York hardcore/crossover legends the Cro-Mags, who was playing with his new band Bloodclot. Joseph talked about everything from health and fitness to screenwriting projects and his recently released autobiography, The Evolution of a Cro-Magnon.

--On his book, The Evolution of a Cro-Magnon:

JJ: The book's doing really well, we're almost sold out of the first pressing. It chronicles how I grew up, me and my brothers, in foster homes, on the street at a young age. How I got into music, roadying with the Bad Brains. A lotta' crazy shit. I just finished two screenplays and got an agent in Hollywood, so it's starting to manifest into other stuff.

The book took me seven years. I started working on it about 15 years ago, but I was using the material for screenplays. Then at the urging of my screenwriting partner, I chose to make it a book instead. I had memoirs and diaries from 20 years ago and I just finally put it all in a book and then I got an editor. Then we just decided to get a publisher and self-publish. It's just like music, you get ripped off in the publishing world. The movie business. Everything. So now when I come with something, I wanna' do it grassroots. Now I'm getting into the whole independent film shit, trying to work that whole angle in there where you're not selling out, selling out your life. My writing teacher told me you gotta' know about the business, because otherwise you'll get ripped off.

I work hard, I write everyday. Whether it's a screenplay or whatever the fuck, I'm constantly writing, I'm constantly training, working on music. And I'm ready to tour the fucking world with these guys.

--On his screenplays:

JJ: One's a comedy about a religious cult, and the other one's a drama, a boxing film. I studied under Robert McKee, he's one of the most sought after screenwriting teachers. I've been working about seven or eight years on films now.

I started writing with Morgan Spurlock who did Super Size Me--it was me, him and his wife--and they knew about Robert McKee and I took the course, applied his techniques to my scripts. They were like, 'We'd love to work with you, but you'd have to go to school.' So that's what I did.

Bassist Rick Lopez (Merauder) and Joseph perform with Bloodclot.

--On Bloodclot:

JJ: The band features members of Cro-Mags, Biohazard, Merauder, Pro-Pain, so it's the new shit. We just dropped a record called Burn Babylon Burn. Going on tour, South America, Europe. It's just starting to kick up now.

We know the record business is not what it used to be. Everybody downloads. We don't give a fuck. I put out my book on audio first and everybody downloaded it. So we don't care about selling a billion records because nobody does anymore. But you'll be able to get it on iTunes soon.

--On the state of the scene, and the world:

JJ: If ever there was a time for revolutionary attitude in punk rock and hardcore, now's the time, with what's going on in the world. That seems to be the aspect of this music that's been taken out of it. I've been going to punk shows since '77, when I was 15. I'm 45 years old. So I saw the whole evolution of punk rock, hardcore, the whole shit. The metal, the crossover, whatever. We don't sing about our relationship problems, or how tough we are, or how many tattoos we got. The message is conscious and we're out there to make people think about what's going on. I'm way behind zeitgeist, [radio host] Alex Jones and his film Endgame, and what's really going on with the Illuminati and the families that are taking over this planet. They're taking advantage of the people and milking this fucking planet dry of all its resources.

--On health:

JJ: I'm against meat. I got another book coming out called Meat Is For Pussies and it's a health book. It's the brother book to Skinny Bitch, number one on the New York Times bestseller list. People just don't know about health. I've been training, I'm a competitive triathlete now. I'm doing an iron man and the whole book is about health, nutrition, training, the vegetarian aspect. It's not about a quick burnout and take a bunch of fucking steroids and then you're getting your balls cut off 10 years later. I'm for longevity in training, I want to be racing when I'm 60 years old. And rocking the stage. I've been playing since 1981. 26 years, bro. And we bring it every night, it's like boom. High energy. What you put into health is what you get out of it.

--On playing the Superbowl in '05 with Fearless Vampire Killers:

JJ: It was the Cro-Mag reunion, the 20 year thing, but with all the politics and people talking shit, I just didn't wanna' call it Cro-Mags. I'm over all that bullshit, I never slam any of those dudes in interviews. It is what it is. I choose to remain positive and do my shit like that.

Kids going apeshit during Bloodclot.