Saturday, March 1, 2008

MIA Mike Conley found dead

As the frontman for the Orange County hardcore punk band MIA, Michael Conley raged against war, racism and the isolation of modern life on stage alongside other legendary acts in the 1980s like the Dead Kennedys and Social Distortion.

“Life’s a mess, you gotta face it, if you’re not a millionaire it’s hard to make it, I’m a mess, that’s for sure,” Conley sang in one song.

More recently, Conley became a champion for revitalizing the economy in Westside Costa Mesa as the owner of The Avalon Bar, 820 19th St., a popular venue for Orange County DJs.

“We used to kid he was the mayor of Costa Mesa because everyone knew him,” said Jeff “Meatball” Tulinius, a longtime friend of Conley’s. “He was a popular guy — everyone knew Mike Conley.”

Conley, a father of three, died in suburban Chicago Thursday after he was found suffering a major head wound in a motel parking lot near O’Hare International Airport. Cook County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating. Investigators are waiting for the results of toxicology tests after an autopsy was done. He was 48 years old.


Full story here:

Sad indeed. Here's some Youtubage.



RIP Mike

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Shihad



Once upon a time Shihad were a band I'd pay to go to see. That seems like a lifetime ago. Their recent music makes me violenty ill and they haven't done an album I can listen all the way through since their 1995 album, Killjoy. I guess I'm no longer in their target audience since this band has a reputation for live shows I'd assume that's where they get a large percentage of their income and they've probably worked out that the regular show going audience is largely under 25 and tailored their music accordingly now playing nearly unlistenable(for me, anyway) arena rock. It appears that they've given up on getting on the cover of international heavy metal magazines and seem set on getting the cover of Men's fashion magazines like Details. Oh, well.

Anyway here is the B-sides album from '96. Like Everybody else later appeared on their album, The General Electric Songs are:

1) Prayer
2) Like Everybody Else
3) Boys Keep Swinging
4) N.I.L.
5) Silvercup (Tremolo mix)
6) Clapper Loader (Yee-haa mix)
7) Bring Your Friends


Get it
The flyer at the top of the post was sent to me by Shihad drummer, Tom Larkin when I was trying to get hold of their first demo tape way back when it was reviewed by Danish thrash metal fanzine Blackthorn.

Beastwars - IV

After over a year off for various reasons, we have returned solely because we wanted to review the new Beastwars album. I really w...