Questions that demand answers

As the text on this blog grows some people find this blog by typing full questions into search engines. These questions clearly need answering.

1)What age do you need to be to go to a bath house?

The ridiculously named wellington live music venue, San Francisco Bath House will let you in if you have reached eighteen. Other than that, I have no idea.

2) Who is Kurt Cobain?

The singer/guitarist from Nirvana, a great marksman and a lousy father.

3) Is Pearl Jam still relevant?

If you listen to them, then yes. Yield was their best album and 10 and Vitalogy were really only OK.

4) Is rock dead?

Tap on the one you live under. If it wakes up, no, it isn't dead.

5) What is the difference between a big drill and a small drill?

They're different colours which is the only way you can tell them apart.

Do people really expect to find answers by typing whole questions? If you have a blog, what questions have driven traffic in your direction?

Uncut Blanks - Zombie

This band come close to living in the bottom of the word hailing from the South Island town of Dunedin which could be the reason that they flew under our radar. Uncut Blanks started in the rock 'n' roll busy-ness for about three years and do the Dwarves and Turbonegro punk and roll thang.

Despite the songs being old checking out their myspace site is encouraged.

Articles of Faith - Core

I'll admit that I'm often late to the party. I discovered The Descendents during my tape trading days through hearing Dag Nasty's "Wig Out At Denko's" album. . The melody, speed and anger wasn't coming as a threesome through a whole lot of the speed metal records that I was buying because they were easier to learn about, more available in my town and less expensive than the always imported American hardcore. Before hearing "Wig Out" I hadn't really heard much Minor Threat either but that's another story. I could blame it on living in a small city or the fact that imported records were only a considered purchase if they turned up in Palmerston North's Cambridge Second Hand Book and Records shop where it was possible to hide that B'last album you really needed to hear simply because the cover appealed.

Even later my knowledge of much of the early to late eighties American hardcore scene was gleaned from the pages of the UK magazines Metal Hammer and Metal Forces. I remember them reviewing a record by a band called Jones Very, who like Bomb Disneyland and Nomeansno looked interesting. After searching several local record shops for these seemingly mythical albums I just filed Jones Very to the back of my mind. Not all that long ago I came across the world of music blogs and found a post containing Jones Very on Music ruined my life As you may have observed from the name of this post, this isn't about them but Articles of Faith who despite being an early 80's hardcore band are a recent discovery for me due to fellow music bloggers. Core collects all their stuff from 1981 to 1983 back when you thought Musical Youth and New Edition were the best bands ever.

The righteous trinity of melody, speed and anger.

Awaken

The Blood Divine were what happened in the mid-nineties when Anathema kicked their vocalist out. He ended up teaming up with a couple of former Cradle of Filth members. As you would expect the results are a gothic metal album featuring deep male vocal with very occassional female singing in the background.

Enjoy!

New Zealand Second Wave Punk

There's a couple of videos of Unrestful Movements - Anti-trend on youtube. My personal favourite is this one which was played on Radio With Pictures. Karen Hay's nasally voice gives it away. Do Australian readers regularly buy RAM?
I remember buying a couple of issues in the late 80's and there were write-ups on The Celibate Rifles, V.Spy.V.Spy, The Triffids, The Go-Betweens and Midnight Oil. Rip It Up was the rock newspaper of choice in those days though being both local and free. I thought I was shoplifting when I first discovered it.




And thanks to our good friend at garageland. Here's Flesh D-vice who were going to play Deathpunkfest this year but ended up cancelling. Oddly I found one of their releases on an Oi RAC blog. This video still scares me. It would be interesting to know what horror movie was played on the Sunday horrors the night Radio With Pictures played the video.

Giant Squid - The Ichthyologist

Giant Squid “The Icthyologist” 20009 (Self-released)

Sometimes things can go very wrong. San Francisco band Giant Squid’s publicist and well-known metal writer, Adrian Bromley died an untimely death from Pneumonia at the tender age of 37. The band was left with the daunting task of promoting themselves to magazines and websites upon release of their second album. The Ichthyologist takes in many kinds of music besides metal. There are parts where singer Aaron Gregory’s voice at the beginning of “Dead Man Slough” makes you wonder if he has been gurgling the same whiskey mixed with gravel that Tom Waits has been digesting for many years. The sultry female vocals combined with chamber music of “Sutterville” echo Portishead. Like all so-called post-metal bands there is some Neurosis making its way into the light and lurking in the shadows. The ocean concept is strong throughout the album. Humpback whales’ matings calls alert the listener to the start of “Sevengill”. The classical instrumentation may make a listener wonder if they’ve accidentally flicked on an album from their parents’ collection however the ballsy metallic riffing will reassure this is not the case. “Mormon Island” is a soothing piece with flute, ever present cello brought to the fore and female vocals capable with a lulling effect. Sailors could easily become shipwrecked due to a trance induced by this track.

The “Ichthyologist” threw me as I had read high praise of the band in many respected quarters and the album didn’t draw me in immediately. Clocking in at an hour it seemed way too long however after subsequent listenings I found that like a bottle of fine wine it had to age a little first. Giant Squid have made an album that is ideal listening for flicking off the lights and watching an underwater documentary or to be enjoyed through headphones whilst staring at a tropical fishtank at your local aquarium. The CD is limited to 1,000 copies and a vinyl version of the album is due out in the near future.





Giant Squid on myspace.
Giant Squid's souvenier shop

Worth a thousand words