This weekend was one of the best for many reasons worldwide and San Francisco was buzzing too. This year’s Toad and Salmon Chili Bowl Cook Off in the US went off in fine style. Watch the footage from the Potrero Del Sol skate park right here.
Def Jux have released their latest Def Jux Presents… album.
The album, the fourth in the series, features music from Camu Tao [R.I.P.], Cage, Mr Lif, Rob Sonic and the head honcho himself El-P. Hit the link here and grab the album, along with a host of other goodies that are available, including t-shirts, posters and stickers.
The Fall Of Troy have released a song from their upcoming album.
The record will be called In The Unlikely Event and is due to be released on October 6th, with Terry Date on production duties. You can check out the track Panic Attack by clicking here.
Foo Fighters have announced they will release a ‘Best Of’ album this year.
The collection will be called Greatest Hits and will be released on November 2. There will be new tracks featured on the record called Wheels and Word Forward as well as favourites such as Learn To Fly, Best Of You and Everlong.
DJ AM sadly passed away this weekend.
The DJ who survived a plane crash last year was found dead in his apartment. We’ll remember him for his excellent work in hip hop – check out his work with Travis Barker from last year:
Click below to watch the Note Skateshop crew get down to ‘Platt Fields Olympics‘ to celebrate 10 years in skateboarding. This is the funniest skate vid we have seen in ages!
The NOTE Olympics from joe gavin on Vimeo.
Black Label have posted a full section of Chris Troy from their much talked about God Save The Label DVD this week and he has gone pro! Check it out and then go and buy it from your local SOS with Chris’ new deck.
Mexico City Jose Cuervo Salon
25.08.09
A few words of advice: if you’ve been suffering from an upset stomach, then the bass-heavy rumblings of a Mastodon gig probably won’t do you any favours down below. Still, the Mastodon live experience does offer plenty of aural and visual pleasures, and that’s why your correspondent is here tonight, diet cola in hand and Imodium tablets in pocket.
The Jose Cuervo Salon is a fairly slick venue, its only notable characteristic being the dozens of bottles of the world’s best-known (but definitely not best-tasting) tequila lining the walls. Thankfully such shortcomings are made up for by the enthusiasm of the 2,000-odd fans in attendance, some of whom have travelled from as far as Guadalajara (roughly a 7-hour drive) to be here tonight.
Yokozuna kick things off with a two man guitar n’ drums assault. Spidery garage rock riffs are definitely their forte, although the occasional slower numbers also impress with a sleazier, darker ZZ Top vibe. Unfortunately, what starts as a taut and punchy set soon degenerates into a loose, haphazard instrumental workout; and whilst the duo certainly aren’t boring to watch, they fail to leave a particularly lasting impression.
When Mexican metal fans start cheering, they do so with the kind of fervour that you’d usually associate with a football match. The chants of “MAS-TA-DON! MAS-TA-DON!” begin long before Atlanta’s finest arrive, and mutate into gargantuan roars of delight as the surging riffs or ‘Oblivion‘ engulf them like some kind of metallic tsunami. Mastodon’s forte has long been their ability to experiment without slipping into the murky waters of self-indulgence, and hence the likes of ‘The Czar‘ are infused with all manner of unpredictable musical twists and turns. One thing they do fall short on is crowd interaction, but then again, if you had songs this good, you’d happily let them do the talking for you.
As great as the material from their recent ‘Crack The Skye‘ sounds, the band really step things up a gear for the encore, unleashing the hardcore fury of ‘The Wolf Is Loose‘ as a gigantic circle pit ensues before their eyes. ‘Iron Tusk‘ brings things to a close, with bassist Troy Sanders lurching around the stage like a deranged, drunken man-mammoth. Or should that be man-mastodon? Either way, this band’s musical evolution continues to set them apart from the pack in fine style.
Alex Gosman
There has only been a select few of UK bands who have been lucky enough to be signed by Bridge 9 records, so when I found out that Dead Swans had been signed up by the biggest label in hardcore I expected good things from the album.
When you first put the record on you are greeted by Thinking Of You, the song starts out slow and sludgy and I thought this could be really something different and great, until 20 seconds in when the song takes off. Every line of vocals is sung in a call and response way by singer Nick, every so often in hardcore music this is really effective, but when it’s on nearly every song it loses its charm.
After being unimpressed by the first song I didn’t want to condemn the album as the rest might be different, but I was wrong. Almost every song starts in the same way, fast music, fast vocals in call and response fashion, the structures aren’t all that inventive and most songs have discordant finger picking at the end of each bar which is all too cliché.
Even when the song Ivy Archway ends with an instrumental acoustic piece I feel I’ve heard it done all before in bands like Give up the Ghost and The Legacy. Dead Swans are obviously fans of the aforementioned Give up the Ghost as nearly everything about them is a tribute, “poetic” lyrics, discords, octaves and stereotypical breakdowns, even Nick’s voice sounds like Wes Eisold. You could argue that the genre is melodic hardcore and it’s very hard to be original, but plenty of bands, especially in the UK have written brilliant melodic hardcore songs that sound like no other band.
It wasn’t until I got to the song Winter Overture that I found a song I genuinely liked, as its all instrumental and pretty original in its format. Unfortunately that’s the only real gem on the album and to be frank I’d rather listen to a melodic band with more originality.
The sad truth is that in today’s dying hardcore scene this album will probably be one of Bridge 9’s best selling of the year and everyone will love it and Dead Swans will continue to be at the top. I’m not saying they don’t deserve it as they’ve all been in bands that haven’t gone anywhere in the past, just that there are other bands out there writing better, more original music.
Jonathan Teggert
Sights and Sounds are a band whose name is a statement about themselves, when you look at the album artwork for their new release Monolith you are mesmerised by beautiful imagery and when you play the record you are barraged by an array of different sounds.
Unfortunately this isn’t the best thing in the world, as sometimes the songs sound like Isis and sometimes they sound like Thrice. Although Sights and Sounds are clearly a very talented band, you often feel like instead of creating their own sound they have taken what bands have already invented and tried to throw it together to make something new but it doesn’t always work.
The album has a whole stoner rock vibe about it, which is a positive on Sights and Sounds’ behalf as that genre of music is having a real resurgence at the moment and hopefully they will get in on that. Songs such as The Clutter and Pedal Against the Wind have a very similar sound to progressive emo bands such as Brand New and it’s a sound that really works for the band and suits singer Andrew’s voice really well.
This band is obviously a very experimental band and although Monolith may be quite a confused album it has a lot of potential and I feel that a lot of people will dig it. I really hope that Sights and Sounds define themselves more clearly by the time they release another album as I get the feeling it could be something special.
Jonathan Teggert