The Middle Class, TV Ghost, and Dead Meat at Bottom of the Hill! 10/14/11

The Middle Class played San Francisco for the first time in decades Friday night. I was lucky enough to DJ the gig, so I snapped some photos. Check 'em out.
Dead Meat






TV Ghost








The Middle Class

Getting Smooth With Bryan Xibalba

Frankly, I can't get enough of this song/video. Our friend Bryan is holding it down on bass, gravity bong, and Night Train in this.

Like most of you, I waste a good amount of my time awake fucking around on Twitter. One of the people I follow is Bryan Valdivia, bassist of up and coming metal/hc band Xibalba (who you should follow at @shadowboxinn). I noticed over the tenure of following him that this dude LOVED r+b and hip hop. Not just like, flavor of the week/shit hipsters think is cool/ironic hip hop and r+b, like shit that was huge when I was in middle school style stuff. Bryan's love for these jams is deep and legit as much his love for brutal shit is (this obvious due to his involvement in the almighty Xibalba). I'm not saying you can't love hard stuff and r+b, but Bryan is obviously on some next level shit as far as his feelings on hip hop and r+b go. So we decided to give him a space to drop knowledge on the world of hip hop and r+b. Without further ado, Bryan Valdivia...

It's finally happened. I have my own blog where I can post whatever I feel about music from back in the day and today. I remember one of my friends told me, "You should write your own blog where you post music videos and write about them." What he meant by that was, I always post videos on my Facebook and usually write a little story to go with it. It's usually always old R&B and Hip Hop tracks that I have story's about.
I play bass in Xibalba and at first listen you would think, "these guys only listen to slow and heavy shit". However, the reality is that we listen to the total opposite. Everyone in Xibalba listens to everything and I truly mean EVERYTHING. Our friend was complaining on tour how we are such a "hord"(that's how my foos say it) band and if people found out what we listen to they would think we're some pussies. On our first U.S. tour we were bumpin' Dr. Dre - Chronic 2001 (which I think is BETTER than the original Chronic), Sade (one of my favorite musical artists. Don't believe me? If you ever see me in person I'll show you my Sade tattoo), The Cranberries (Brian Ortiz, the guitarist in Xibalba has Dolores O'Riordan tattooed on his arm), The Fuguees, The Cure, Sublime, The Notorious B.I.G, Wu-Tang, Throwdown (Beyond Repair of course), Depeche Mode, The Stone Roses, Mariah Carey, The Smiths, Eminem (The Slim Shady L.P. is amazing)m, as well as the great Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Everyone in the band will agree that good music is good music, doesn't matter what kind it is. I was lucky to grow up in the early 90s but also very fortune to have an older brother and sister that were deep into R&B and Hip Hop in the 80s and early 90s (before this band from Aberdeen, Washington changed my life....NEVERMIND I'm getting sidetracked). R&B and Hip Hop have been the soundtrack of my life for as long as I can remember and it still is (my parents would bump: Vicente Fernandez, Juan Gabriel, & Ana Gabriel but that's for another blog). I tell everyone the first songs I can remember hearing when I was young was: Geto Boyz - My Mind Is Playin' Tricks On Me, MC Breed - No Future In Yo' Frontin', and Shai - If I Ever Fall In Love. R&B and Hip Hop was instilled in me at a young age because of my brother and sister and still to this day I thank them. I don't know if anyone is going to read this but if one person does and they enjoy it than I did my job.

SWV - Weak


I have such a weak (no pun intended) spot for girl groups from the 90s, and SWV is a classic girl group from the 90s. What's even funnier is that I was singing this song about a week ago and it's been stuck in my head since, so I guess it's perfect this is the first song I review. SWV had other hits but this is for sure the hit that people will probably remember from them but I also suggest you check out "Right Here/Human Nature" & "I'm So Into You". I haven't seen this video in a while but damn these girls are fine. The main singer, Coko, is mad fine. The singing on this track is on point. I love the part when they sing "cause my heart starts beatings triple time, with thoughts of loving you on my mind". That chorus is amazing. You can't help but groove to it and when it ends with "can't explain why your loving makes me weak", it gets me every time. I'm laughing as I'm watching this video because its typical 90s R&B girl group to dress up thug but be singing the soft songs, but I'm not complaining and they can for sure pull it off. They look like members of the Wu-Tang Clan. I'm a big hopeless romantic softy so I feel this song and it makes me smile because it reminds me of hearing this full blast in my sisters room when I was young. Man remember when girls used to be sucking lollipops? They need to bring that back. I don't see that anymore. I think that's sexy. When the third verse hits you can feel she is really feeling whoever she wrote this song about. Lucky man, in my book. I love how it ends because they go all out. "Something 'bout the way you do, the things you do ooh ooh, it..." LOVE that part and than it comes back to level. Its like she got excited just thinking about him and than realized she needs to calm it down a little bit. Such an amazing track. I suggest giving it a listen.

Helmet/House Of Pain "Just Another Victim


Damn, I remember this. My brother had this CD because I remember the cover. My brother has every Hip Hop cd known to man. I swear he has everything. Now I'm a fan of Helmet, but I'm not a fan of House of Pain at all. I mean "Jump Around" was coo when I was 5 but other than that they never really did it for me and probably never will. I will say this track is heavy and has such a catchy riff and even though I don't like House of Pain. Everlast comes hard on this track. "I built the House, I felt the Pain. You're victimized but got no one to blame." Now at the end of this song I found myself playing it again. Bands always do mash-ups and they usually are shitty but this one, I give it a thumbs up. I fucks with it.

Tower Of Power "So Very Hard To Go"


Ahh, a classic R&B group from the great city of Oakland. How can you not love this track? Just listen to those horns and sax. I hear horns and sax in music these days, but it doesn't feel right. This feels right. I love listening to soul oldies like this. There was a point where this is what I would listen to all the time because this music makes you feel something. It feels like music was so pure back then, and you can feel it just listening to it. Just listening to this puts a smile on my face even though if you pay attention to the lyrics, its not that happy of a song. I love when the back up singers come in with "so very hard to go.." Damn, that horn section is no joke. Such a great track.

The Weeknd - "Loft Music"


Now a lot of my foos have been listening to The Weeknd. They'd post videos and I didn't pay attention 'til all of those foos were posting videos on them, so I had to check it out. I forgot what song it was, but it was coo. This is second time I've heard of The Weeknd and I'll tell you this: I like it. I LOVE catchy shit and this is catchy as hell. Damn, the more I'm listening to this I actually really like it. Straight baby making music, but from what I can make out from this song this foo seems pissed. He also said "fuck faces", which right away reminds me of one of my favorite artists, Devin The Dude. The beat hits (I wonder who produced this track). The track lost me at the end when it seemed like he was just whining. I loved hearing the beat ride out, but I can't stand listening to the auto-tune bullshit.

Pete Rock and CL Smooth - "They Reminisce Over You"


Now this is my jam! The Soul Brother Pete Rock and CL Smooth in the classic "T.R.O.Y. - They Reminisce Over You." I miss the days of the duo of a dope producer and emcee like EPMD, GangStarr (R.I.P. Guru), Boogie Down Productions (R.I.P. Scott LaRock), and the legendary Eric B. & Rakim. I mean we got some really talented groups these days like Blu & Exile (if you haven't heard "Below The Havens," do yourself a favor and drop everything you're doing after you're done reading this and download that album. You can't get it on cd anymore cause its out of print. Lucky for me, I got a copy but download it and you'll thank me later). I love how the video starts showing old pictures of family members and straight to CL Smooth at the table with his moms and family. Damn, those drums and guitar at the start then the amazing sax comes in. I love it. If you're a hip hop fan, and you hear that sax part, right away you have to think of T.R.O.Y. The video sets the tone for the song. This song is for their homie Troy Dixon, who died around the time this record came out. Pete Rock gives him a shout out at the end of the song (Trouble T Roy). He was a dancer with Heavy D and the Boyz. There's some knowledge for ya. Damn, I love this track. I for sure remember my brother bumpin' this when it came out. Mecca and the Soul Brother is a classic hip hop album. I recommend that everyone cops it, it's a must have. When they put some of the shots in black and white it adds to the verse that CL is spittin'. You can feel what he is sayin'. CL puts a lot of himself in this song and I love when artist do that. What I love about hip hop is you can relate to it a lot. Most people think you can't, but they're listening to the wrong stuff. I love how CL delivers, "Listen, positive over negative for the women and master, Mother Queen's rising a chapter, Deja vu, tell you what I'm gonna do, When they reminisce over you, my God". You know what I else love about 90s hip hop? They had mad style. One of my favorite parts is in the second verse and how he says "My old man standing yelling 'Good God Almighty!" Love that part. Pete Rock laid down such a great beat and CL rides it perfect. These two had amazing chemistry and I'm glad they are working together again. They went years without talking to each other because they had differences when it came to music, but after Guru's death, they decided to get back together. I guess they didn't want what happened to Gangstarr to happen to them. That makes me happy. I mean listen to this CLASSIC track. It would be a great loss if they never made music together again. If you have never heard this song, I don't know what to tell you. You're truly missing out on one of the greatest hip hop songs of all time. Plain and simple. One of my favorite modern day Hip Hop groups that break- awhile ago, Little Brother, sampled this track on the last song off their record The Listening titled, "The Listening". There's another recommendation from me. That track alone speaks a lot about the bullshit in the Hip Hop game when it comes to groups, record labels, & even fans. Check that song out but after you peep this CLASSIC track.

Xibalba recently put out a full length called "Madre Mia Gracias Por Los Dias", which is available anywhere, and fucking kills. They are currently writing a follow up, but will probably be out on tour again real soon, fucking up this entire country. Support these dudes, and get ready for Bryan's next offering, because this dude LOVES music, and so do we.

Warped Again, but this time in hot as fuck Sacramento...

Jordan and Matt from Set Your Goals lurking the Advent Stage crowd from a better vantage point.

Well...we had so much fun at the Mountain View stop of the Van's Warped Tour that the Sacramento date was too good to pass up, so the Freelance Fiends piled in the car, hit Del Taco in Davis, and headed up to Marysville for an all day mosh extravaganza. We made a point to try and see people we didn't catch in Mountain View, and that day's schedule made doing so incredibly easy! So we waded through an uglier crowd than Mountain View, and saw the following bands doing their best to get through the final weekend of this summer long circus. Without further ado...

Against Me!



We only caught the last three songs of Against Me's set, but they were easily ten of the musically together and dynamic minutes of music we saw that day. They closed their set with "We Laugh At Danger and Break All The Rules" and it was just as heart-felt and sing along inciting as it was the first time we heard it back in 2002. Sadly, there were only about 300 people spiritedly singing lyrics back at Tom Gabel and crew as the band plowed through their electric folk punk, which wouldn't have been so bad had they not been on the MAIN STAGE, where we had seen The Devil Wears Prada and Attack! Attack! draw a few thousand fans earlier that day. Good sets aren't really dictated by the amount of people in the crowd, but it was rough to watch Against Me, such a powerful, commanding live band make little to no impact on the Warped Tour crowd. I don't know if their popularity is waning, or if the teenagers aren't into it because they don't have weak metal mosh parts, but it must have been a long, sobering summer for one of Gainesville's finest. However, it was nice seeing Max Weinberg's kid working after being kicked out of Madball. He looked much more at home in Against Me.



Bad Rabbits



At the Mountain View Warped Tour date, everyone we talked to on the tour went on and on about Bad Rabbits. We caught a little bit of their set from outside the show while we waited in line for our passes, but that small taste wasn't nearly enough to base any sort of accurate review on. We picked up their Stick Up Kids EP after that show and were completely floored by their unique blend of late 80s/early 90s funk, soul, and r+b played the the ferocity of kids who obviously cut their teeth in the punk and hardcore scenes. After playing the absolute shit out of Stick Up Kids all summer, we were both excited to finally see the dudes live in action, but also wondered if they were going to live up to the expectation. Bad Rabbits completely shattered and stomped on any expectation had by anyone much like they stomped and danced all over the Skull Candy Stage that afternoon. They had a crowd of several hundred Warped ticketholders and a stage full of hot girls, band dudes, and industry types shaking their asses and clapping their hands as they effortlessly juked and jived through thirty minutes of high energy funk featuring most of the Stick Up Kids EP, a De La Soul interlude, some new songs, and a collaboration with Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes. Bad Rabbits were musically superior than nearly every other band slated to play that day, and rightfully earned all of the hype generated around them this summer. If these guys aren't huge by next year, it will be evidence that the music industry no longer gives any merit to musical ability or the power of performance. Bad Rabbits are out with Taking Back Sunday this fall, and you best believe we will be there, drunkenly trying to dance and singing along as best we can.



Travie getting loose with the BR dudes.


D.R.U.G.S.



This shit was AWFUL. We weren't even trying to watch these boners, but they were on before The Wonder Years and we didn't feel like immersing ourselves back into the crowd for twenty minutes. What we have here are four dudes that look like Pacific Sunwear employees and one guy who looks like a third rate James Hart (former Eighteen Visions/current Burn Halo frontman) playing AFI throwaway songs with a touch more "mosh" to them. For being such an obviously weak ass band, D.R.U.G.S. somehow managed to have a bunch of "tough" dudes moshing "really hard" for them (by "really hard" I mean "much harder than the swarms of teenage girls surrounding them). The apex of suck during this thirty minute assault on the senses (that wasn't the shotty sing alongs by the six sleazy groupies who probably all caught HPV from the band guys earlier that afternoon) was the "Wall of Death" the band got the crowd to do. We did our best to document it, but much like D.R.U.G.S. are as a band, we're shitty photographers, so it is what it is. Avoid this shit at all costs. Here's their "Wall of Death":





Gym Class Heroes



It may not be cool in certain circles to say this, but we give no fucks about circles: Gym Class Heroes are a GREAT fucking band. Travis McCoy is a decent rapper, and the rest of the band do a great job of playing a fierce blend of pop, soul, and reggae that at times is reminiscent of Sublime, and while they aren't quite as legendary or ground-breaking, they get the job done just as well. Gym Class Heroes arguably had one of the largest crowds in front of the Main Stage, and as we watched several thousand kids sing the words to "Cookie Jar" and "Cupid's Chokehold", we wondered how Gym Class got so big with little to no radio or MTV (like they even play videos anymore) airtime. Their Stereo Hearts record recently dropped, and while we haven't picked it up, we've heard good things, and are looking forward to seeing Travie and the boys on the road this fall. It may not be "hip" or "cool" to like a band as pop as Gym Class Heroes, but game recognize game, and these dudes fucking slay.




Lucero played another heart-wrenching set of whiskey-soaked, country-influenced punk and proved that even out of their element they are unfuckwithable live.




Moving Mountains delivered another explosive set of their unique shoegazey post-hardcore. We also interviewed them. Look out for that to be up on the site in the near future.




Yelawolf played. He's fucking terrible, but allegedly he slapped the shit out of Jonny Craig from Dance Gavin Dance, so we can give him a pass on being shitty for ultimately giving one of the world's biggest pieces of shit his come-uppance.

All in all, it was a pretty good day despite temperatures hanging in the upper 90s and the average beer being around $8. Thanks again to Matt and Set Your Goals for the hospitality and being great friends, and to Moving Mountains for the interview. Warped Tour is a pretty good time, regardless of who's playing. We had a good time this year, and it is very likely that we will be back again in 2012. Sometimes you need to mix it up with the kids and indulge that "guilty pleasure" part of the brain. See you in the pit.

We Saw Bands This Week! Evergreen Terrace! Chelsea Wolfe! Liturgy!

Yeah...we go to shows sometimes. This is who we've see this week thus far:

Evergreen Terrace, The Metro, Oakland 7/19/11










Chelsea Wolfe, Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco 7/20/11






Liturgy, Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco 7/20/11









See you in the pit!

REIGN SUPREME: Not Only the Name of the Band, but Also What They Do!

Cliches exist because there is some truth to them. We've all heard about how "you can take the boy out of the hood, but you can't take the hood out of the boy", and that's because it's true. How do I know? I'm living proof. I am not the angry, mosh-oriented youth I once was, and more often than not, if you were to yank the earbuds out of my ears and listen to my iPod you'd be prone to hear hilarious radio rap or some riffy, Sabbathy sounding band. However, even at 31, sometimes all it takes for me to be happy is an irate, heavy as fuck hardcore band whose record is not so much a record as much as it is an exercise in using instruments and vocals to drive late teens/early twenty-somethings to mosh pit violence. I guarantee that when I'm 80 years old and shitting my pants as I push my walker around the 4PM Early Bird Dinner Buffet at Fresh Choice I will still be a sucker for heavy hardcore bands.

That being said, Reign Supreme could be the greatest heavy hardcore band currently in existence. Their ability to take angry, brutal, no frills hardcore (which has been done to death since oh, I dunno, whenever Cro-Mags dropped Age of Quarrel) and breathe life back into it by adding subtle yet unique songwriting elements, stellar guitarwork, and what could be the most important piece of the puzzle, the unadulterated, roared vocals of frontman Jay Pepito, really sets Reign Supreme apart not only from other bands in their specific subgenre of hardcore, but from most other extreme bands in general. Check out this brutal jam, "Mother Superior":



Don't act like you weren't NOT smashing your fist against your desk. It's cool. I nearly broke my laptop listening to this the other day. We caught up with Reign Supreme frontman Jay Pepito and got the scoop on the band's recent lull in activty, their upcoming new record as well as their new label.

FF: What has the band been up to as of late?

JP: We are writing an EP, it's called Sky Burial, and it's 6, possibly 7, songs that sort of preview our new stylistic approach to music. We've outgrown our interest in playing contrived mosh-oriented hardcore, and it's time to let our influences shine a little bit more. That said, there will still be plenty of mosh, because we are good at that.

FF: How did the band come together?

JP: Kind of accidentally. I had some friends together jamming after I got kicked out of Blacklisted, and we just evolved into Reign Supreme. Fast forward a few lineup changes, and you have the current incarnation.

FF: You have a beastly voice. How did you learn to use your throat in that manner? Is that hard to maintain on tour?

JP: Thank you! I just emulated Andrew from Figure Four/Comeback Kid and Phil from Pantera as much as I could. I'm not a gifted vocalist, so it required a LOT of experimentation. It's easy to maintain now because I've sort of figured out how to do it. At first I used to lose my voice all the time.

FF: How did you hook up with Deathwish?

JP: We were on a small hardcore label called Malfunction Records. They went bankrupt and Deathwish purchased them. We sort of were an acquisition.

FF: It seemed like you guys had all sorts of momentum going between the release of the American Violence EP and "Testing the Limits of Infinite". In fact, you guys had a sort of "last minute" line up when I saw you at Fun Fun Fun Fest in 2009. What happened between those two releases?

JP: I don't even know. It's all a blur at this point. We did a lot of crazy shit. There was a lot of trouble with certain members of the band (and there still is), and sometimes we have to replace those buttheads with friends who can play our songs and tour. I don't know that we'll ever have a real steady lineup, but that's definitely something I'd like to have happen. There's no longevity or beauty in scab lineups.

FF: What was the best show you ever played with Reign Supreme?

JP: Probably Tokyo with Converge, This is Hardcore 2009, or Sound & Fury 2008. Some of the early shows with Trapped Under Ice and Advent will always be favorites of mine, even though there were like five kids at those shows.

FF: What was the worst show you have ever played with Reign Supreme?

JP: Probably the tour we did with Let Down. That whole tour sucked (THANKS ANDY RICE). The one show was in Kansas, the promoter didn't promote it, the venue was an empty warehouse with a broken PA, no waters (in July in Kansas), and literally three kids came. We shot off Roman Candles with Let Down until the venue kicked us out. Fuck that place.

FF: How did you hook up with the Four Year Strong guys for your appearance on "What The Hell is a Gigawatt?" off their Enemy Of The World record? Were you concerned with sounding out of place on their record?

JP: I know some of those guys. They're a good band. I like them. They record at the same place we do, so our producers just kind of I guess thought it would be a cool collaboration. I knew that my part was going to be a stereotypical mosh part, so I figured it would sound perfect given my stereotypical mosh voice.

FF: How was writing the newest material? How are you planning on releasing it?

JP: It's going to be our first release on our new label, Mediaskare. The new stuff is by far my favorite Reign Supreme material, it's so much harder without trying to fit into a certain sound. There's elements of Converge, Motorhead, Mastodon, Deftones, Advent, Isis, Neurosis, Tragedy, and other bands that we love, but could never really integrate into our sound. We are glad to be able to find a place where we can play heavy music, and feel OK with it not necessarily being derivative of other hardcore bands.

FF: What were the reasons that lead to the band leaving Deathwish?

JP: Deathwish was a great label for us, but the truth is, we never really felt like we fit in with the label and with a lot of the bands on the label. The kids who like Cold World and Blacklisted don't really like Reign Supreme, and sometimes, vice versa. I don't care if you like those bands, or don't like them, because that has nothing to do with it. All that has ever mattered to us as a band is the kids who like our band, and playing our music to those kids. So to us, Mediaskare made a lot more sense, because they will expose our sound to a lot of kids who will probably like it, and we will be able to share our music with more people. From day one, that has always been our mission. We have no illusions of headlining Madison Square Garden, all that we are after is writing the heaviest music that is as distinctly ours as possible and playing that to 300 kids in a VFW hall somewhere in rural America. We did as much as we could with Deathwish, but in the end, it makes sense for them to focus more on stuff like Touche Amore and it makes more sense for us to try to play to kids who want to hear stuff like us and who aren't already over our type of sound.

FF: What are the bands plans for the remainder of 2011? Can the West Coast expect to see you guys anytime in even the distant future?

JP: Record the new record. Do some touring here or there. Hopefully a fest or two in Europe. You can definitely expect to see us in the West Coast before 2012. We plan on flying out and doing some SoCal/NorCal shows.

FF: Any shout outs/thank yous/disses/final words?

JP: Be yourself, don't be one of these fools that gets caught up in all the trends. Hardcore is a wonderful thing, but it's full of liars and fakes. Thanks Erick, and all the people out there creating something new and genuine. We are grateful for the opportunity to share this with you.

Reign Supreme will be dropping Sky Burial in the Fall on Mediaskare. From the little we've heard, it's a banger and you will be moshing in your room. Thanks again to Jay and the rest of Reign Supreme. We will leave with an awesome clip of Reign Supreme playing for the 40 or so people that weren't too hungover to make it to the early day two start time of Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin back in 2009. In addition to some stellar moshing, yours truly is headbanging like an asshole onstage in an Econochrist t shirt. Ballin'.

Holy Shit the new Unearth Record is Heavy....

2004 was the breakout year for hardcore-oriented metal. Poison The Well, Killswitch Engage, and Shadows Fall, and the almighty Hatebreed blazed the trail, but 2004 was the summer that saw As I Lay Dying, Atreyu, Every Time I Die, Bleeding Through, Darkest Hour, Throwdown, God Forbid, and Unearth really break into the car stereos, iPods, and bedroom stereos of the average American metal kid. It was interesting to see bands I had grown up with and my own band had played selling out 1000 seat venues in towns they didn't live in. It may sound corny, but "it was a time so full of promise..."

Now its 2011, and a lot of those aforementioned bands have fallen back down the metal food chain, replaced by bands either younger and heavier or older and more "hipster" oriented. Over the last seven years, I hadn't kept up with a lot of bands I knew in that "class of '04", mostly because I stopped touring, tastes change, and life happens, but Sunday I reunited with Unearth at the Mountain View stop of the Rockstar Mayhem tour (also featuring Megadeth, Testament, Suicide Silence, Kingdom of Sorrow, and Red Fang) for an afternoon of beer bonging, shots, horrible statements, trips down memory lane, and brutal riffs. Needless to say, I still have a headache and looking at beer makes me queasy.

While I managed to leave a lot of my money and some of my dignity at the Shoreline on Sunday, I didn't leave the copy of Darkness In The Light, Unearth's latest record, there (I'm honestly shocked it didn't get left in the golf cart that was hijacked nor in the VIP box seats we watched Megadeth and Machinehead from...Thanks Doug!). I have to be honest, I totally missed The March as I record, so the last thing I heard from the band was In The Eyes of Fire, which was definitely a lot more pissed than their breakout record, The Oncoming Storm. In fact, I had been so out of touch with the band and their world, that I wasn't really even sure of what to expect for them reaction-wise at Mayhem Fest on Sunday. About 40 seconds into their set Sunday, I realized that while I may have fallen out of touch with Unearth for a record, metal at large definitely had not based on the few thousand people going completely apeshit for them the moment they kicked off their thirty minute set. It wasn't really that much of a surprise; I've seen this band get a room of thirty people to erupt in violence. Clearly it was my bad for thinking their crowd response would be anything less in 2011.

Darkness In The Light is by far Unearth's heaviest work. The band has that rare ability to write a riff that makes floors open up in all out bloodshed while being catchy enough for heavy metal radio or Headbanger's Ball. The ability to pummel people with something that can get stuck in their heads is a trait many bands chase after for years but never quite hone to perfection. Unearth have more or less written the handbook in it via this album. Guitarists Ken Susi and Buz McGrath have really set themselves apart from a lot of their peers not only via their ability to keep things heavy AND catchy, but as excellent shredders. The solos and leads on "Watch It Burn" and "Shadows in the Light" are both lightning fast and well thought out, and avoid sounding like a two nerdy dudes testing out gear at Guitar Center. Their ability to work melody into their songs, be it via subtle notes in guitar parts or Ken Susi's clean vocals (which at times are reminiscent of ex-Underoath/The Almost singer Aaron Gillespie) are just another way that puts Unearth in a different class of band than their peers and argueably one of the few remaining relevant bands from that initial wave of bands that broke in 2004. I knew that Darkness in the Light would be a good listen, but had no idea it would be this powerful and standard setting, especially coming from a band who has been at it for as long as Unearth

The band is on the Rockstar Mayhem Tour for the rest of the summer before heading off to Europe with Bane and Evergreen Terrace. Darkness in the Light came out last week on Metal Blade, and is well worth the money. If you want your hair blown back and to potentially get a full beer tossed your way, check out Unearth live this summmer. They are proof that bands don't always fade into obscurity as time goes on.

Heavy Ass Reviews: Black Dahlia Murder! Job For A Cowboy! Harm's Way!

All right, in light of all the Warped Tour and Set Your Goals coverage, we're swinging the pendulum back to the other end of the spectrum and smashing your face with it. Here we go.

The Black Dahlia Murder Ritual



The Black Dahlia Murder have returned with their fifth record, Ritual, showing us how they from they have come from their debut, Unhallowed. While kitchy, almost ironic slasher lyrics and simple brutality are what put The Black Dahlia Murder on the map initially, those elements are long gone on Ritual, leaving us with a very complex, clean sounding record capable of holding its own among the influential heavy hitters than came before it. Frontman Trevor Strnad has really perfected his vocal attack, with his gutteral low growls hitting the pit of your stomach and his high screams raising the hairs on the back of neck like fingernails on a chalkboard. Perhaps the biggest leap forward on Ritual is ex-Arsis guitarist Ryan Knight finding that middle ground between the overly shredder sounding riffs present on 2009's Deflorate and the less-finesse yet more brutal guitar sounds of The Black Murder's earlier releases. Overall, this record is a banger. We are looking forward to seeing them on this years Summer Slaughter tour, where they will undoubtedly lay the Fillmore in San Francisco to waste.




Harm's Way Isolation



For the longest time, I was getting Harm's Way confused with Hostage Calm. I think it had to do with them playing shows in Northern California close to one another or the fact that when a lot of people I know start talking about "good" hardcore bands I've been known to start thinking about anything else (i.e. baseball, chicks, grocery lists, etc). Oddly enough, the same person who recommended that I give Hostage Calm a chance is also who told me to give Harm's Way a whirl, and for that, I thank him. Isolation is six songs of some of the most brutal hardcore I have ever heard. At times, I am reminded of Integrity, Disembodied, Sepultura, Madball, and perhaps one of the 90s most underrated bands, Despair. What set's Harm's Way apart from their influences is their razor sharp record production and their use of discordant guitar noise and tribal drums that nod to 90s heavyweights Neurosis or Godflesh, but these interludes and breaks are used sparingly compared to the ridiculous amounts of brutal mosh parts found throughout this record. Isolation is a rare hardcore record that has the ability to transcend the sneaker and camo short wearing hardcore crowd and appeal to the metal crowd without going the Ozzfest or "swoopy haircut" route. Cop this shit ASAP.




Job For A Cowboy Gloom



When I first started seeing Job For A Cowboy's name around, it was at a time in the mid-2000s when all sorts of metal and hardcore bands with stupid names started to make the scene (see Heavy Heavy Low Low, Arsonists Get All The Girls, or A Girl, A Gun, A Ghost). I thought there would be no possible way a band with a name like Job For A Cowboy" could be any good. I just expected another band doing what Eighteen Visions or Every Time I Die was already doing an incredible job at. Then I saw this...



HARD. AS. FUCK. Straight up. I was completely and totally wrong about Job For A Cowboy. They were a brutal death metal band, comprised mostly of young kids who, at the time "Entombment of a Machine" was released on the Doom EP, couldn't even buy themselves a beer in this country. Needless to say, I was in from that moment on.

Before we get to reviewing their awesome new EP, Gloom, let me make something abundantly clear: this whole "death metal" vs "deathcore" argument is fucking stupid, and is clearly something that dudes and chicks who aren't getting laid enough came up with to pick on bands that they just don't happen to like for some reason. If Job For A Cowboy doesn't blow your hair back for your own personal reasons, that's one thing. Discrediting their entire catalog of work because it goes against some precedent set forth by Death, At The Gates, Morbid Angel, Carcass, or whatever other band from the 90s the internet is worshipping these days just shows that you're an asshole who needs to stop playing World of Warcraft and mix it up in public. People in this world have real problems. The fact that Job For A Cowboy isn't afraid of using mosh parts in their songs, or that some dude in a Ringworm shirt spinkicked you in the face during a JFAC set doesn't diminish the incredible music this band has been kicking out since their inception.

Gloom shows the band tightening up their sound a bit from their previous full lengths, especially Genesis. The guitar parts are much less noisy and chaotic, and the band comes together, assaulting your entire body by locking in with each other rhythmically behind singer Jonny Davy's disgustingly ferocious voice. The guitar soloing has been upped several notches, and is also highlighted by how together the band is behind the leads. This is a rare EP that I actually wish was a full length. If nothing else, Gloom should silence anyone who is still trying to front on Job For A Cowboy with having an early involvement in metal hardcore.




Go out and grab these joints. Make this summer a brutal summer. Life's too short to listen to shitty bands.

We Got Totally Warped On Saturday and Had a Pretty Fucking Good Time!

Ah, the The Van's Warped Tour, how far it has come. The tour has evolved from an odd, smallish festival featuring Quicksand, a pre-famous No Doubt, Sublime with all members alive and breathing, L7, Seaweed, Sick of it All, CIV, and a young upstart band known as Deftones, to a multi-stage, sensory assault who's alumni has included such heavy hitters as Green Day, Weezer, Blink-182, Eminem, My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and more or less the entire Fat Wreck and Epitaph Records' rosters at various points over the years. It went from two stages, to what seemed like well over ten at one point in the mid 2000s, and now back down a "respectable" seven stages this year, still making you feel like you're in Las Vegas' hottest, loudest, most crowded casino as you attempt to navigate your way through the madness. Aside from the audio/visual over-stimulation, you are surrounded by thousands of kids between the ages of 10 and 22, which are OBVIOUSLY who I want to be spending any sort of afternoon with, right? Did I forget to mention that more often than not, you are in some sort of giant dirt patch or asphalt parking lot with minimal amounts of shade? Sounds like hell right? Tell me about it.

For all the shit often talked about Warped Tour, I always somehow manage to end up at it at least once, often twice a summer. More often than not, some friends of mine are on it, and there's usually one or two bands that are actually awesome on it, and a couple of guilty pleasure bands that people claim they don't like but secretly love. This year was shaping up to be just like the last, with Saturday's line up in Mountain View, CA boasting A Day To Remeber, August Burns Red, The Devil Wears Prada, Less Than Jake, Attack Attack!, Against Me!, Set Your Goals, The Acacia Strain, Winds of Plague, Moving Mountains, the EVER controversial Dance Gavin Dance, The Wonder Years, I Set My Friends On Fire, Unwritten Law, Lucero, Street Dogs, The Aggrolites, and Simple Plan. Only a handful of those bands are worth watching, and we ended up catching about six of them.

Our day started at what is normally the main stage in the ampitheater, but when Warped Tour comes through town, they split that stage into two smaller stages, this year called the Nintendo 3DS and Tilly's AP stages, respectively. These stages are often crossroads for bands. Usually they are split equally between bands well on their way to stardom (I saw Four Year Strong, Set Your Goals, and Miss Katy Perry herself on these stages in 2008), and bands plummeting to either their timely or untimely demise (Unwritten Law, Dance Gavin Dance, and Relient K were repping for the FAILBOAT this year). As far as these stages go at the Warped Tour stop at Shoreline, they're awesome because THEY'RE IN THE SHADE and if you don't have special wrist bands like we had, you can actually sit down and not be moshed to death by teenagers. Here's who we checked out in that neck of the woods this year.

Unwritten Law



Unwritten Law were part of that wave of skateboarder/surfer-oriented punk bands that blew up in the mid-90s. Their peers were bands like Blink-182, Dancehall Crashers, Fenix Tx, MxPX...you get the idea. If you're wondering why someone rocking a Kvelertak shirt on that specific day was even interested in checking these dudes out, well, nostalgia will make a man do crazy things. To be honest, early on in their career, they were pretty fucking good. They sort of walked the line between Green Day's adolescent innocence and Pennywise's limited aggression. Check out this banger:



That song is called "CPK" and as my boy Sergeant D over at the almighty Stuff You Will Hate blog will attest to, its the SHIT. So naturally, I was hoping for a sweet flashback to my younger days. That isn't too outlandish to expect, right? Welp, I was wrong. What Unwritten Law delivered was a thirty minute set of shotty, outdated songs (only one of which I recognized, "Teenage Suicide"), and frontman (and from what I gathered only original member) Scott Russo pitching rockstar-esque fits over gear malfunctions I've seen high school aged bands recover better from. While what I saw onstage Saturday was not the UL I grew up loving, I can't say that there weren't a (very) small contingent of fans there excited to see them, belting out every word. Apparently they've kept putting out records and all 60 people that bought them showed up to Mountain View that day. Needless to say, it was a sad sight, and an obvious omen that it's time for these dudes to wrap it up. The 90s ended eleven years ago, and Unwritten Law's relevance was arguably out the door even before the millenium ball dropped.

Moving Mountains



I discovered Moving Mountains when I came up on some tickets to see Say Anything in San Francisco. The other bands on that tour were some bullshit I didn't care about, but I decided to look into this random band I was unfamiliar with. I was expecting some sort of pop punk, whiny, fake emo bullshit that seems to be running rampant throughout suburbs across our great country, but I couldn't have been more off. Moving Mountains play throwback 90s indie emo with the complexity of and as captivating as Sunny Day Real Estate or Braid, but put through a shoegazer-ish filter evoking comparisons to My Bloody Valentine, Ride, or Cerberus Shoal. The band's first full length, Pneuma, was chock full of horns and additonal vocalists which made for an outstanding record that flowed seemlessly from one song to the next, but left me wondering how they would address this sound live, because there was no way they were taking that many people on a van tour.

I ended up missing the Say Anything show they were on, but caught them on tour with that shitty Biffy Clyro band that only people in the UK seem to care about. That night at the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco, Moving Mountains completely blew me away and when their set ended, it was the first instance in a long time that I wished a band would have kept playing. Seeing them added to this years Warped Tour line up got me fucking siked, and I was ready to watch them turn heads and potentially steer some impressionable teenager away from listening to some shitty band like Black Veil Brides or Of Mice & Men. Moving Mountains did not disappoint. Their swirled through a thirty minute set comprised mostly of songs of their new record Waves (which is a banger and needs to be up in your mix ASAP), and "Cover The Roots Lower The Stems" from Pneuma. The band sounded just as full and dynamic as they do on record, and persevered through guitar straps breaking due to their dramatic yet genuine body movements their music drives them to do. If you appreciate 90s melodic emo, indie rock, or shoegaze, you need to be up on Moving Mountains.







Lucero



To be honest, I was surprised to see Lucero as an addition to the 2011 Warped Tour. I have been a fan of the band for well over seven years and throughout that time, have seen them sell out several respectably sized venues in the Bay Area, and seen them be major draws on Austin, TX's Fun Fun Fun Fest, as well as supporting such heavy hitters as Against Me! and Social Distortion. Their folky, americana tinged punk is definitely not what the young ones seem to be interested in these days (especially judging by some of their fashion choices). To anyone with ears that work, it is rather obvious that Lucero are a band with a much older audience than the average Warped Tour alumni, and knowing that, it was puzzling to see them participate knowing that they probably wouldn't be on a "huge draw" stage there. What's in it for them? Some secrets never leave their circles. Naturally, being on the older spectrum of Warped attendees, I wasn't about to miss them.

The band started out their set with my favorite song, "That Much Further West", but it was cut short due to some sort of bass technical issue. Oddly enough, it was via technical issues that the crowd was able to see how much more of a real band Lucero is versus many of their peers on the Tilly's/AP stage, much less the entire tour. While techs scrambled to fix the issue, frontman Ben Nichols lead their pedal steel and keyboard players in a song that didn't require bass, never losing the attention of the audience. Eventually, the bass issue was resolved, and the band resumed their set as if there hadn't been any issue with the bass rig while the ampitheater seats continued to fill with curious onlookers. One thing noticeably absent from their stage set up was a set list, and at when a fan yelled out "Kiss the Bottle", Nichols said "All right, we haven't done that on this tour. Let's give it a go". Nichols called off the famous, heart-wrenching Jawbreaker song and played arguably better than Jawbreaker did. Their allotted half hour seemed to end all too abruptly, proving that Lucero's real home is headlining a stage in a dark club rife with cheap beer and decent whiskey, not in a sparsely full ampitheater playing to curious onlookers while 3OH!3 is annoying the world from across the parking lot.

After this, we moved over to the Advent Stage, which is stage of bands that could probably hold their own on the main stage, but bring the mosh a little too hard, or are at least a little too aggressive for the average high school student with a stupid haircut. Some of the bands we didn't care to see on this stage were Miss May I, Of Mice & Men, Woe Is Me, Black Veil Brides, The Word Alive, and We Came As Romans. Sitting in the hot sun and baking seems less torturous than enduring any of those bands. However, the Advent Stage wasn't completely devoid of talent or at the very least, entertainment. Here's who we caught.

Winds of Plague



I have to be honest. I would barely consider myself a fan of Winds of Plague. I always saw them as a watered down version of Bleeding Through(right down to the gothy female keyboardist) with corny lyrics and Southern California "bro dude" posturing. Then I saw this video...



IS THAT NOT THE AWESOMEST SHIT YOU HAVE EVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE? This is probably the greatest Madball song written in years. The mosh parts are just stupid heavy, the lyrics are over the top aggressive, and the video homage to bands like Biohazard and Life of Agony are TOO GOOD not to like. So upon discovering this only days before going to Warped, I was fucking siked. I was ready to mosh hard for the state I call my home...

...BUT THEY DIDN'T EVEN PLAY THE FUCKING SONG! WHAT THE FUCK, BRO? How does a band leave by far its greatest musical accomplishment ever off of the set list on a tour that has them playing to thousands of aggressive youths everyday? I know the song has vocals from Martin Stewart of Terror and the guy from As Blood Runs Black, but cmon, is it that hard for Johnny Plague to handle on his own? NEWSFLASH WINDS OF PLAGUE: SEIZE THE MOMENT AND PLAY THE BEST SONG YOU'VE EVER WRITTEN WHEN YOU'RE PLAYING A BIG DEAL FEST LIKE WARPED TOUR. The kids were into their other stuff, but no other WOP song would have opened the floor up as much as "California" would have. Not the "I don't fear evil, evil fucking fears me" song, nor whatever other Bleeding Through leftover song they polished up and called their own. The only other notable parts of their set were a rather questionable sample of Barack Obama saying "The United States has killed Osama Bin Laden" (don't get me wrong, that was a gigantic moral victory for New York and Bin Laden himself was an asshole, but using that sample to get mosh pits pumping harder strikes an odd chord with me), and the female keyboardist's unusual playing stance that more often than not had her nearly bent over with her hair whipping (I'll let your imagination fill in the blanks on that one). I more or less sat through a half hour of unimaginative mosh metal for one song that wasn't even played. Uber bummed on that.

Set Your Goals



Yeah, I know we reviewed their new record Burning At Both Ends last week and loved it. So knowing that, did you really think we WEREN'T going to watch them wreck shop at Warped? I mean c'mon, this site is run by a dude. Dudes are predictable. Needless to say, when Set Your Goals hit the Advent Stage (and hard, might I add), not only were we there rearing to go, but so were a couple of thousand kids who instantly went ballistic as drummer Mikey Ambrose counted the band in and lead them into Burning's opening jam, "Cure For Apathy". The next half hour saw the Advent Stage turn into a trampoline for the band as they went through "Echoes", "The Fallen", "Summer Jam", and the new single, "Certain". As Set Your Goals got deeper into their set, the crowd seemed to go even more wild, with the stream of kids rolling over the top of the crowd and over the barricade becoming more rapid and the mosh action getting so out of hand that at one point, a fight erupted that from what I gathered, security did not come out on top of. The band closed their all too short set with the anthemic "Mutiny" (a rather ironic choice after watching a security guard get his ass handed to him by the crowd), during which the frenzied crowd energetically surged one final time before the band retired to their merch tent for autographs, photographs, and hugs for fans.




Bands we sort of saw, but didn't see enough to really review, but we will be checking out again at the August stop in Sacramento:

Bad Rabbits



A band who can cover Michael Jackson this well is on some next level shit. We caught them while we were waiting in line for our passes, but that half-focused look was not nearly enough to make a proper judgement on them. However, based entirely on their Stick Up Kids EP and this cover, this band is probably primed to be gigantic.

The Acacia Strain



These dudes are heavy as fuck, did some dates with our good friends in Disembodied a few months back, and also brought our friend Jesse from The Wrath up to do guest vocals. However, I had go to play dance music in Oakland later that night and needed some downtime, so we took off during their set. However, the amount of shit they were talking on Black Veil Brides (who directly followed them on that stage) was enough for me to know that I will be needed to investigate these dudes closer in August.

The Wonder Years



I'm a sucker for good pop punk, and these dudes do it. Don't really have much more of a reason than that.

Thank you to Matt and Set Your Goals for getting us in and being gracious hosts. We will be checking out the Sacramento date August 11th because its obvious that we missed some gems Saturday.

Playlist from Happy Hour at the Ruby Room with B-Moss 6/26/11

Set 1:
Bison BC - Slow Hand of Death
Red Fang - Prehistoric Dog
Witch Mountain - Wing of Our Lord
Ted Nugent - Stranglehold
Pentagram - When The Screams Come
Norma Jean - Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste
Saviours - We Roam
Mercyful Fate - Evil

Set 2:
Hostage Calm - A Mistrust Earned/Rebel Fatigues
Shook Ones - So Grown Up
Living With Lions - A Bottle of Charades
Descendents - Cameage
Joyce Manor - Constant Headache
Piebald - American Hearts
Anne - Stripping
Screeching Weasel - El Mozote

Set 3:
Lil B The Based God - Like A Martian
Notorious BIG/Method Man - The What
Tyler, The Creator/Frank Ocean - She
Pete Rock and CL Smooth - T.R.O.Y.
Lil Wayne - 6 Foot 7
Young L - Loud Pockets
Kool Keith - Make Up Your Mind
Earl Sweatshirt - Drop
Trash Talk - Explode
Rotting Out - Laugh Now, Die Later
Modern Life Is War - D.E.A.D.R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
S.O.S. - Keep Me Outside

Set 4:
White Zombie - Thunderkiss 65
Alice In Chains - Would?
Pantera - I'm Broken
God Forbid - Anti Hero

Tankcrimes Continues Legacy of Killer Releases With Tapes by Obsessor and Night Fever

Oakland is a legendary city for punk and hardcore. I could come up with a list of obvious and not so obvious bands, icons, and labels, but where would I even begin. Punk and hardcore in Oakland is much like living in Oakland: if you aren't sharp, hard, aware of your surroundings, and a step ahead of the rest of your neighborhood: you're going to end up a casualty. Voetsek drummer Scotty Heath has been an Oakland resident for a long time, and his record label, Tankcrimes, is a testimony to his keen ear and his ability to find bands and release records that hold their own in a region so rich in great punk and hardcore music.

My former bandmate used to live next door to Heath, and I have peeked into the garage that Tankcrimes is run out of numerous times as we went to and from our own rehearsals. I knew Scotty's label was more than a hobby, but over 2010, Tankcrimes has outgrown Oakland and has began to make quite an impact on punk and hardcore worldwide. Over the past few months, Tankcrimes has put out releases by Annihlation Time, Kicker, Victims, and Cannabis Corpse. Last October, Heath put on the Tankcrimes Brainsqueeze, a two day fest featuring Municipal Waste, Ghoul, Vitamin X, Toxic Holocaust, Ramming Speed, and few other heavy hitters associated with the Tankcrimes label (the DJ at the all day after party at Eli's was the SHIT if I do say so myself...). The garage with a work table and shelves full of records I peered into a handful of times, sometimes staggering between two different friends houses after libations, has definitely taken itself to the next level.

Tankcrimes recently offered up two very different releases on 2011's most popular dead format, cassettes. While both of these releases can easily be played in any car made before the mid 2000s, the bands themselves are definitely in catagories of their own. The first is Obsessor, a one man metal project from Richmond, VA and the second is Night Fever, a dirty hardcore band from Copenhagen, Denmark. Let's dig a little deeper, shall we?



Obsessor offer up two songs of d-beat influenced metal in the same ballpark as Venom or even early Celtic Frost. All of the instruments and vocals were done by Richmond, VA legend Brandon Ferrell, who has done time in Municipal Waste, Government Warning, and Vinyl Conflict Records. What I like most about this two song single is how Ferrell manages to write great metal songs that still have a dirty, raw punk rock feel to them. If the bio didn't mention that Obsessor were a one man band, I never would have known. The songs lack that overly rigid feel that often comes with one man bands (I imagine that rigidness is associated with keeping tempo while recording the different instruments). These two songs are outstanding and with the right hired guns, would make for some ruling circle pits when played live. I look forward to hearing more from this one man metal assault.




I have to be honest. In general, I am wary of European hardcore. I'm not trying to knock an entire continent's contribution to an entire subgenre, but for my taste, many of their so called all-stars fall flat in comparison to their American or Canadian counterparts. Night Fever, however, rule so much than I wish this tape made its way into the stereos of several popular American "hardcore" bands and perhaps breathe some life into a scene saturated in nothing more than bands doing their best rewrites of whatever was hot in the scene ten years ago. Night Fever are what would happen if Slapshot and Motorhead had a kid with an AMAZING sense of humor. The music is fast, angry, and aggressive, yet has a filthy rock n roll feel too it. You could just as easily run off of the stage and headwalk to these guys as you could headbanging furiously while pounding beers in the back of the club, leaving the moshing to the youngins without permanent injuries. Night Fever have all the fun that I feel hardcore (at least in the US) has lost over the last decade. Fun that was replaced with posturing, haircuts, sneaker obsessions, and years gone by that won't ever come back. Night Fever's greatest strength is in the vocal range of frontman Soloman, who can just as easily bark over lightning fast galloping drum beats as well as he can sing like a hybrid of Lemmy and King Diamond. This tape kills. Metalheads, punks, and core kids alike will LOVE Night Fever.

Both tapes are available for order off of the Tankcrimes Website. Close up Facebook and go buy some tapes. 2011 has been a big year for Tankcrimes and its barely half over. Let's see if we can't help Scotty wrap it up with a bang.