Stuff you need to listen to – If These Trees Could Talk

It’s two days into 2011, my first post of the year and I’m writing about…? Post-Rock. In all honesty, I did only discover said genre properly in the year that’s just left but I feel that I start this new one fully ready to immerse myself in all it’s melancholic glory. (Ok, so I sound REALLY brown-nosed and I’ve yet hit 1,000 words… bollocks) Returning to the matter in hand, that being why post-rock is just so damn brilliant. In particular why you should give ITTCT a listen.

My first ‘post-rock’ was probably 65daysofstatic back in 2006 and in all honesty I thought it was shite. Granted I’d now happy go and punch my former self in the face before cutting off my hair, yelling ‘Iron Maiden suck balls’ before leaving to do some hardcore drive-bys. But, alas we all have a past which we’re ashamed of (otherwise we wouldn’t try so damn hard to escape it) even so, I wouldn’t be who I am now if it wasn’t for what I was in the past… You get the damned point. Anyway, in the last 12 months it would be fair to say that I’ve changed quite a bit, I’ve lost all enthusiasm for writing about music (see my last post) and I’ve remembered why I love cinema quite so much. But that’s all for another day.

Back to post-rock, now you may well know Mogwai, 65daysofstatic and God Is An Astronaut but ITTCT have a criminally low number of Last.fm listeners. True, you won’t get anything particularly unusual with this bunch. Both the album and the E.P are fairly standard, but nonetheless solid, post-rock records. The music itself moves from intricate passages to roaring crescendo’s and one track features more emotion that the entire Dream Smearater discography could ever muster. The sound quality on this track is pretty crappy, but that’s YouTube for you… just go buy the bloody thing; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3yEvKHhwqw

So there you go, a fresh slice of some post-rock magic to help bring in 2011 in true musical style. If you do just one thing this year, make it realising that metalheads take themselves far too seriously and could all do with a good kicking. Plus, Trolling is more fun than you could possibly imagine.

Happy New-fucking-Year!

Mr Bogle

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.

Just over 13 months ago I, along with The Iron Eagle and Eyelicker launched Reverse Current. It had come from the ‘ashes’ of Headbang.co.uk a site which, in its last days had been run almost entirely by yours truly. With endless shitty reviews, fake opinions and general bollocks it was kept going until it finally died a death. That was when RC was launched and, for the first few months at least, it was fun. Then life took over, despite what those dicks who attacked Charles and Camilla and climbed the cenotaph tell you, some students work FUCKING HARD! Myself included, not just that, I also grew increasingly weary of metal. An awful lot has changed in my life this year and non more significant that my disaffection with ‘metal’ as a genre. I knew I was bored when I found it a stretch to watch Iron Maiden for two hours at Sonisphere.

So, not only do I now listen to more hardcore than ever before I take genuine pleasure in attempting to piss off at may metalheads as I can. Sure call me a cunt, but I’m no more one than you. Music taste is insignificant now, because whatever I listen to I find I hate it from the outset. Maybe  I do only listen to a couple of tracks before classifying it as worthless shite but that’s my prerogative! I don’t get paid for this shit! Hell, I fucking pay to do it half the time! It’s because of this disaffection with the majority of what I listen too that I’m less likely to write on music than movies, why? Because I love movies and I haven’t had that enjoyment ruined by some prick telling me that I wear the wrong clothes to walk into a fucking cinema.

The main reason why I stopped writing before was because it had become such a struggle to do so, if I’m not enjoying it I see no reason to continue! It would be unfair to say that I haven’t had fun writing for these sites, course I have! At the end of the day I’ve done some awesome things as a result and I’ll always be grateful for those memories. However, I can’t ultimately bring myself to ruin any more music for myself. If you want to criticise me for making that choice. GO AHEAD.

Sure, I’ll write about music when I want too but right now? I don’t want too. Sorry if that spoils the illusion but this just ain’t as fun as it used to be.

Mr Bogle

The World Is Quite Different Now

This isn’t a new post, but rather something I posted on an old blog nearly a year ago. It may just seem to be sheer laziness that has driven me to ‘republish it’ but I felt it expressed what I was saying yesterday in a less aggressive way. I also still feel it’s a valid argument. No, this won’t be happening a lot.

 

With the advent of social networking the idea of your personal life staying personal quickly became an oxymoron. These days with the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Friends Reunited its become increasing easy to find out things about people and to feel like you ‘know them’ despite having met them only once or sometimes not at all. There’s something weirdly esoteric about updating your ‘status’ or telling everyone ‘Whats on your mind?’ I’m not trying to deny that I use both Facebook and Twitter or that I’m somehow ‘holy than thou’ because of what I think (as is often how blogs can seem to be) but rather that in the last 5 years the idea and thrill of waiting to see someone to find out what they’ve been upto for the last [insert amount of time] and ‘catch up’. True we don’t share anything and everything with the wider world but at times it feels like we do.

At the end of every year there’s always a mass of ‘Best of’ lists that appear which attempt to summarise the last year in less than 300 words and try to make us wonder ‘what it would have been like had it not happened’ well…at least that’s how it can make me feel, with the end of last year and the ‘end of the decade’ there were lists cropping up everywhere telling us ‘what we didn’t have in ’99 but we do in ’09′ and some make for vaguely interesting reading. True we didn’t have social networking, Wikipedia or bluetooth ten years ago but what we do have is a world that is constantly shrinking and is being reduced steadily to a series of ones and zeros. Everything is becoming about ‘numbers’ and numbers can ultimately be described in binary and therefore become just a matrix of two different numbers.

What fascinates me most though is the seeming obsession with letting people know what you’re doing at this moment. right now. here. Me? I’m writing a blog entry. Ok so I’m not doing it as you’re there reading it but right now I’m talking to ‘you’ in the future, this post isn’t even finished yet but I’m still acting like you’re reading it as I type. Facebook has changed the way we act, now photos are all about embarrassing pictures of you dancing/drunk/singing and dancing whilst drunk/throwing up in the gutter when drunk/passed about when drunk (delete as appropriate).

I’m sure I was going somewhere when I started this……goodness knows where I’ve ended up though. Ah well I’ve probably said all that needs to be said, I’m feeling quite existentialist right now. It’s a good feeling has to be said, certainly feel better than I did twenty minutes ago. I’m just clutching at straws now.

Mr Bogle

Technology is out to get us…

Skynet is real and we’re all gonna die.

…and we’re all fucked. How you say? Well for a start #IAmSpartacus just thought we’d get that out the way. If you’re one of those twats who claim that they deliberately ignore social networking because ‘it’s gonna kill us all’ piss off and get a job. I just wanted to make it clear that I am the dude who actually threatened to blow up Robin Hood Airport. The other guy was just covering. He owned me a favour after I brought him a pint… shame it all got so out of hand.

I picked up my Uni’s local ‘Rag’ (I prefer toilet roll myself) but names aside. It contained various idiots sprouting bullshit from every orifice imaginable. This is included some choice pickings; including a review of Todd Phillips’ latest shit film (he’s the guy who made ‘The Hangover’) and before you say anything, I HATED that movie, just terrible, misogynistic bollocks.  But if you want to hear anyone on just why it’s really not worth the time of day I suggest Dr Kermode’s diagnosis. ‘Due Date’ (that’s the new one by the way) just from the trailer looks awful.  Honestly, first time I saw it I turned to my other half and said ‘well that looks shit’ trust me, I really did. ‘Bromance’ isn’t funny.

The second was the words ‘awesome 3D’ used in connection to the cinema really made me realise just how worried I am about ’3D’ I mean when you’re getting is either bodily fluids, stupid bits of body parts, boobs or whatever else gets thrown out at us. I mean face it Avatar was really bad, just really really bad. Boring, unoriginal and vacuous. I’d much rather go see ‘Papa Smurf’s Sex Tape’ than sit through another screening of ‘Dances with Wolves in Space’.

The question now is what’s next? Am I going to go to see ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean 4′ where Johnny Depp is going to donn his gloves from ‘Edward Scissorhands’ reach out and slice my head off for real? I’m very scared and would warn anyone against it. It’ll be a fucking massacre.

Final thing, the ‘rag’ also listed ‘DVD we’re most looking forward to’ as… no not Toy Story 3 or Inception… but Sex and (the fucking) City 2! I mean COME ON! I LET YOU HAVE THE REST BUT REALLY!!!!!!

Phew, rant over.

Mr Bogle

Prop19- A Big Change for all of us

Potentially the fate of the dope smoking population will be change in the next coming weeks with the Bill; Proposition 19. What happens in California will affect all of us, especially since we English look much cooler if we go along with whatever decision the U.S. makes, cause son I ain’t bein’ funny, but that Iraq war made us look the shiznaz (ooooooo ain’t I clever using political humor, praises to me!). Though just to clear things up, I know that this is a site for music, but music and dope go hand in hand like Cheech and Chong (pre and post break up (break up in a career sense not in a gay way, we can’t condone everything (Joke!)). If you have any ideological complaints about smoking dope then that is fine, no one is forcing you to smoke it (in the same way no one is forcing you to hang with the cool kids) you make your own choices in life that’s  what lifting these ridunkolous laws are all about, letting people make a choice, as well as a couple of other issues (I’ll get to them in my own sweet time).

If health is a concern, well I got some bad news for you, smoking and drinking are bad for you. I think it’s only me that knows this fact, but believe it or not the very things are precious government make a considerable profit on is eventually going to kill you, so it’s either all OK or none of it is. Many studies have shown that cannabis is nowhere near as harmful as tobacco and alcohol. If you look into the illegalizing of cannabis you’ll will find that health and morality weren’t a big factor in the illegalization of the drug.

“Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”

“…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”

“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”
Actual quotes from the Harry Anslinger (A key player in the criminalization of cannabis, god bless him for fighting the good fight).

Back to the issue of that organized racket (music), there are many artist that are for the legalizing of weed, that you funky fresh kiddie winks   can get down with, for instance Dime Bag (although only way that I could of made that anymore obvious is by spelling it out for you), Sublime  (the members that are alive at least), Colt Jackson, Tenacious D,  Thunder Strook and many more, and if you pay by credit card I’ll provide Actors who are also for Legalizing it such as Seth Rogen, Jack Nicholson, Jennifer Aniston, Johnny Depp and many, many more.

Money is also taken out of the criminals back pocket and convenience is now in the hands of the dope fiends, truly a turn for the tables, as well as money pocketed off the revenue… oh sorry literally just got word through and apparently Prop19 is a no go. Nothing changes the Californian social experiment isn’t going to happen so go about you lives as per usual.

Although there was still a fair percentage that voted yes, so although immediate change didn’t happen, the future of the wonder crop is still uncertain.

Should probably rap up with something about music ermmm… oh it was Tom Petty’s 60th birthday recently (wait who the fuck is Tom Petty).

On the matter of British music…

By the time this article is published its likely that many of you will have heard Iron Maiden’s latest (and probably last) album. Yes there’s all the gumpff in Metal Hammer and such about whether or not its really the end for what, is undeniably one of the most successful bands in history. The question which now occurs to me, is that of the future of British live music. Not exclusively metal, because if our entire musical future was left in the hands of carbon copy acts trying to sound like the ‘classics’ we’d be fucked. Well and truly.

I have issues with the notion of ‘classic’ as a part of the definition of a genre. I mean, Deep Purple weren’t always ‘classic rock’ that’s just a recent tag which has been attached to them. For me, two of the best British live acts currently making waves are Pendulum and Skindred. And they’re bands who, whilst their albums are sometimes mediocre, remain untouchable in the live setting. These guys are, to be frank, the future. If you can’t handle that, well, I feel for you as very soon they will more that likely be headlining our festivals and arenas.

I could spend many thousands of words explaining exactly why I am right and you are wrong. But I’ve got better things to do, like listen to Tek- One and get my Dubstep shoes on. The world is consistently changing if you can’t take that, I hear my local monastery is recruiting.

Mr Bogle

If only we reviewed albums like this dude…

Many of you may be familiar with Zero Punctuation but if not… here’s a classic

In all honesty this is simple genius. I’m not suggesting that anyone attempts a ‘rip-off’ (cause that would be really stupid) but what ZP succeeds with is the sheer brutality which even Charlie Brooker would be proud of. So with any luck if this super-secret project (Yes it’s pathetic but it’s the truth) that I’m working on actually takes off…

Well who knows!

Mr Bogle

New Genre Idea-Gore Blimey (for the heavy English gentlemen)

A few months back I wrote an article called where do we go from here, in which I put forward the question how will the music we know and love change and will we still love it in what ever form it takes. Now I think I invented the single greatest form of British metal ever, it will make the British New Wave movement look like shit… I mean shite. It is as the title of the article suggest Gore Blimey, the music form so English it wears a bowler hat.

So what songs will be part of the Gore Blimey scene, well here’s a few title for you future Gore Blimey fans to sink your teeth into, Boiling Alive in a Nice Cup of Tea!, Cricket Team Gang Rape and Number Ten dooming Street. Even got the first album name GOREdon Bennet.

This could be huge and any band out there take this information and use it you ”ll be huge (within the UK). Think of all the band names you could have, Fish, Chips and DEATH!, Impailed on a Pin Cushion, A Pint of Murder, theres just no roof on this thing!

PterryPtez

I kina just want the chick from Otep to shush :/

Via her blog:

My friends,

I find myself deep in the rolling green of the beautiful Southern territory of flavorful Fayetteville, Arkansas. The hills are rich with a monochrome flora and the arching landscape is crested by a silky blue sky brimming with billowing clouds moving slowly overhead like an enormous ghost armada returning victorious from war.

The heat is thick and sweltering. It is a strange and wondrous sensory experience.

I see all this and am amazed how anyone could live surrounded by such beauty but care so very little about maintaining it.

I wonder if future generations will ever believe days like this actually existed or will they assume that these are just the words of a demented mind twisted with fantasy or folklore? Perhaps they will lament on the rugged Eden that their ancestors took for granted and squandered in the heavy stink of apathy and inaction?

I remember my home, beautiful Los Angeles, and how sad it is that we do not have skies like those over Arkansas. Our sun rides high above a nicotine-stain of a haze hacked up from the millions of cars belching their lower-regulated exhaust into our atmosphere.

I remember the live webcam of the BP oil spill currently vomiting millions of gallons of crude into our ocean, killing wildlife, poisoning our water, and ultimately us.

If we do nothing, we are consenting to the murder of our planet and condemning future generations to endure a reality far worse than the one we were left by those who failed us generations before.

How many more brave American soldiers must be sent far from home, to kill, to fight, to be injured, to die (or see their friends die) in senseless wars for oil? (Much love & respect to the US Armed Forces.)

How many more innocent animals must perish, confused, suffocating and choking in stinky goo, due to our selfish inaction and apathy?

How many more American dollars will WE allow be sent to fund Iranian nuclear capabilities or the Saudis and ultimately al-queda?

What else needs to happen for us to demand a LEGITIMATE clean energy policy to purge this parasite of petroleum from our national skin?

I realize this will not be an immediate fix. There will be no mass exodus from fossil fuels. Our infrastructure is too dependent on it. Like any junkie, we must be weaned slowly from our petroleum addiction.

It might be a little painful, sure, but Americans are made from hard stock. We braved the rocks and jagged edges of pioneering the wilderness of a new country and we can do it again.

But it only works if we do it together and (this time) do it RIGHT. Clean Energy and Alternative Energy sources will create AMERICAN jobs. Solar, Wind, Hemp, Algae, Ethanol, Natural Gas, et cetera, et cetera will empower and fortify our workforce. Not just financially, but intellectually, and it helps secure the health and beauty of our only home – planet Earth.

Let us reclaim our pioneering spirit:
“If not us, who. If not now, when?”

In art,
Otep Shamaya

Tl:Dr:

“Oil spills are bad mmmkay…

…and I really fucking love metaphores”

I can only imagine how annoying her stage banter must be. She probably says that we have to work together to save the planet blah blah, followed by obvious go-with-the positive-vibe cheer. Remember when you couldn’t see an American band without some smarmy fucker saying something along the lines of “sorry for our president”. Insta-crowd-rappor, like covering Wonderwall at an indie gig. No ones gonna disagree, and it’ll probably get everyone by your side, but it’s such an obnoxious obvious thing to do its kina a dick move. Can’t wait for everyone to start saying what a wonderful human being she is and what a noble supporter of green energy. She’ll probably be further tarnished with the “outspoken political views” brush, which used to mean “a band that makes fun of George Bush”, but now he’s gone I guess these obnoxious “outspoken” political types are having to make do with every blindingly obvious metaphore-and-sugar coated event they can. Oil spills bad, renewable energy good, war bad, noble soldiers good. All this reharsh hardly stikes me as particularly revalatory or noteworthy in any sense. At least she isn’t getting at Barrack Obama for not personally swimming to the bottom of the ocean and plugging the oil with an American flag, like most of America seems to be.

But yeah, shut up Otep. And fuck Rage Against The Machine and their juvenile grasp of politics while I’m at it.

Eyelicker

Just to be clear, I agree with what she’s saying, just like any rational person would, and I’m all for political vigilance. I just hate people obnoxiously broadcasting such status quo views for brownie points.

Jurojin: Prog Metal done properly!

Ok, so that video isn’t really “metal”, but check out their myspace! I promise you won’t be disapointed. I guess arab-metal would be the best estimation of what they are, mixing some sweet riffage with percussion and influences from god-knows-what.

They’ve been apparently going down a storm recently so check them out and see what’s up!

Interview with Sonic Abuse Here!

Myspace