thePULSEBy Jillian Locke
I’m starting this month’s column off with the Shows I’m SO Pissed I missed ~ Silent Drive, Bane, With Honor at the Palladium (1/12), Disappearer, Pet Genius, Blacktail, Bovachevo at Ralph’s Diner (1/19), Mastodon/Neurorsis at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple (NY, 1/24), Life Once Lost, High on Fire at the Palladium (2/13), Flogging Molly at The Palladium (2/20), Kingdom of Sorrow at The Palladium (2/27). February ROCKED for shows and come hell or high water, next time any of these bands are in town, I am THERE, fist raised high.
Our favorite blood-spewing, corpse paint wearing, vampire loving gothic-metal army, Cradle of Filth, has stepped away from their usual hang out in the Carpathian Mountains to leap light-years into the future. On February 5th, CoF reissued Harder, Darker, Faster: Thornography Deluxe as an MVI (Music Video Interactive). The collection contains new music, video (including the making of “The Foetus”) and a program that enables you to mix one of the tracks ~ features that will be constantly updated. It’s a MUST for any diehard CoF fan. SO mad I missed them at Viva la Bands back in November.
On April 9th, San Diego native Tristan Prettyman will be headlining the Paradise Rock Club in support of her April 15th release, Hello. Prettyman offers a delicate yet solid collection of acoustic pop, all the makings of a sweet opener for her southern dates opening for G.Love and Special Sauce February 14th -March 6th.
Emerging from the swampy depths of Louisiana, Dax Riggs really is a bluesy, gritty version of H.I.M.’s Ville Valo. Formerly of dead boy and the Elephantmen, this is Riggs’ solo effort, jam-packed with all the soul and broken-heart it takes to make a truly great pop-blues album. He’s dark, he’s disturbed, and he’s belting out his thick emotional sludge in the most aesthetically pleasing way. From dark rhythms to poppier anthems, Dax Riggs is offering up emotional, melodramatic, strangely tantalizing blues/goth (on myspace.com/daxriggs, he actually describes his sound as a “…ghosts being born (heavy soul escaping) the moon rising from its grave in the sun radiating love (trafficking with devils)” medley. Check out “Demon Tied to a Chair in my Brain,” from 2007’s Fat Possum release, We Sing of Only Blood or Love.
30 Seconds to Mars is responding to the issue of global warning in their video for title track “A Beautiful Lie” from their 2005 platinum album. Not only are they responding, but with the making of this video, TSTM made history: they were the first band to film a video “…200 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland.” In a recent press release, vocalist Jared Leto described his experience in Greenland: “Almost everyone has heard of global warming by now but for the people of Greenland it is a real and tangible problem of today, not an issue of tomorrow…We hope that with this film and new website we can share, in some small way, this incredible experience with our family of friends and fans around the world.” The band has set up two websites offering environmentally conscience information: abeautifullie.buzznet.com and www.abeautifullie.org.
Through the Eyes of the Dead are looking forward to an upcoming tour with War of Ages, Soilwork and Throwdown (3/15 at the Palladium), but not after a little change up. Drummer Josh Kulick and vocalist Nate Johnson have parted ways with the band. In a Prosthetic Records press release, guitarist Justin Longshore had this to say: “To avoid any complications, we’ll just state that Josh [Kulick, drums] and Nate [Johnson, vocals] have both parted ways with the band under their own circumstances. We wish them the best of luck in the future.” In their place will be ex-As Blood Runs Black drummer Lech and former Invocation of Nehek and On Paths of Torment vocalist Lou Tanius. Nate Johnson will be joining MA/NH hardcore outfit Since the Flood.
Speaking of Since the Flood, the new line-up joined the Firestorm Fest bill on February 29th, along with Unholy, On Broken Wings, Recon, Down to Nothing, Shai Hulud, Sworn Enemy, Terror, and headliners Earth Crisis. Check back next month for reviews and news!
Also, don’t miss Genghis Tron, The Red Chord, Baroness, and Converge at The Palladium March 30th!!
Total domination ensued once again February 22nd at the Middle East as Baltimore, MD’s powerhouse of rock, Clutch, pulled in a full house despite the snowy assault outside. Joined by Hexmachine, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, and Murder by Death (all of whom rocked the f**k out and were much deserving of the opening slots), Clutch appeared as a four piece, a change-up from their recent tours with 5-7 members. Not only was the band back to original size, but the rock vikings had a few other surprises up their sleeves, like “Basket of Eggs,” “The House that Peterbilt,” and the completely unexpected Bakerton Group (Clutch’s side-project) tracks “Last Orbit” and “Bruce Bigsby.” I have to say, one of the truly amazing things about a Clutch show is that as long as the person next to you is rockin’ out, you’re insta-best friends. You rock together, scream together, and sweat together…much like good sex, but sex for your ears. That being said, I have decided to include the entire set list, compliments of the www.pro-rock.com message board: Mercury, Profits of Doom, The Mob Goes Wild, Immortal, Sea of Destruction, Child of the City, The Soapmakers, Basket of Eggs, Mice and Gods, Eight Times Over Miss October, The Regulator, Bruce Bigsby, The Devil and Me, Texan Book of the Dead, Big Fat Pig, Last Orbit, Animal Farm, The House That Peterbilt; Encore: Power Player, Promoter.
While driving home from the show, my friend and I were talking about Clutch’s sound. I found it impossible to fit them into one genre. The best way I could describe their sound was that it encompasses every sound. Yeah, it’s rock. Sure, it’s bluesy. It’s also jammy, funky, intellectual, and completely silly, making Clutch’s music a genre completely unto itself. Clutch is the only band that can ALWAYS cheer me up and bring me back down to earth, regardless of my current mood or circumstance. There is no defining Clutch. They are an enigma, they are timeless, and they are, once again, the future and savior of rock and roll.
In other news, The Mix-Up, The Beastie Boys’ 2007 instrumental release, showed the world that grey-haired hip hop pioneers are not only still breathing, but still ruling the planet. They snagged the Best Pop Instrumental Album Grammy at this year’s 50th Annual Grammy Awards and are in the midst of recording their next release.
Withered, the sludge-grindcore implosion from Atlanta, GA, just spitting distance from Savannah GA, a location that is quickly becoming recognized as the nation’s capitol for dirty, face-melting metal, is in the middle of creating their Prosthetic Record’s debut, Folie Circulaire (which translates roughly into a bipolar/manic depressive disorder), which will mark their follow-up to 2005’s Memento Mori (which, according to Wikipedia.com, is a “…Latin phrase that may be freely translated as ‘Remember that you are mortal,’ ‘Remember you will die,’ or ‘Remember your death.’”). They are enlisting the help of producer Phillip Cope, better known for his work with Savannah demolishers Baroness, Kylesa, and Black Tusk, and a tentative May 2008 release is scheduled. They’ll be hittin’ up Tufts University’s Oxfam Café on March 6th with North Carolina’s own sludgemasters, Weedeater. www.myspace.com/withered
Still starving for southern rock? March 19th is a particularly hot-night for out-of-towner shows (even if it is a Wednesday night), as label mates Sick Puppy and Saving Abel hit up Great Scott in Allston. Saving Abel’s hit single “Addicted” is quickly garnering recognition on alternative radio and has helped the band spread their dirty, dirty Mississippi rock to the cold, cold north. Houston boys Scale the Summit will be crashing the Middle East with God is an Astronaut, as they promote their 2007 self-released Monument. The experimental prog-metallers have recently been picked up by Prosthetic Records and are planning their debut release later this year.
On March 27th, the Palladium will once again house a gargantuan metal show ~ this time it’s not the number of the bands, it’s the strength and solidity of the line-up. We already know that 36 Crazyfists, Napalm Death, and DevilDriver will be taking the stage, but the heavyweights will also be joined by a heavyweight-in-the-making. Knoxville, TN’s Straight Line Stitch has just been added to the roster, rounding out the already formidable Bound by the Road tour. Having already played with the likes of Anthrax, Mastodon, Killswith Engage, 3 Inches of Blood and Slayer, SLS is adding another notch to their metallic bedpost by joining the six week tour. Their Raging Nation Records/KOCH Records release, When Skies Wash Ashore, is expected to hit the shelves this summer, so come catch a bleeding earful of what this metal outfit has to offer.
Check back next month for show reviews, news on New England’s 10th Annual Metal and Hardcore Festival, some kick-ass Victory Records releases, and lots more… Let the months of metal continue!
Photos: #1 30 Seconds to Mars, #2 Through the Eyes of the Dead, #3 Clutch, #4 The Beastie Boys, #5 Scale the Summit
