For someone who likes music as much as I do, it takes a lot to get me out of the house to see a band. All of that standing around for hours has to come with the promise of a fierce guitar solo, especially if we’re talking about going to a show on a weeknight. Still, I took a chance on Black Mountain at Pop Montreal a couple years ago and I wasn’t disappointed. The show was at Montreal’s Spectrum—an...

Hailing from Tokyo, Japan, Grief Of War was formed, in their own words, "For the purpose of being the true heir of real thrash metal." With A Mounting Crisis…And Their Fury Got Released, they may have honestly done just that. Originally released in Japan in 2005, this record is being re-released by Prosthetic Records, who signed Grief Of War in 07. I for one am glad that it is finally going to see the light of day, as it's a...

Hope you saved up those Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Boxing Day checks from Grandma, kiddies, because the horn has sounded and the race is on for all your hard-earned cash this summer. Leading off right now is Coachella, which just announced its three (THREE!!) day lineup for the sweatiest festival this side of the Rockies this coming April 25th-27th. Names in bold, you ask for? Survey says: Portishead, Roger Waters, Kraftwerk, Death Cab, Jack Johnson, MMJ, Raconteurs, The Verve and Love & Rockets. Honorable...

Working at a record shop is pretty sweet. I worked at one for years, and the only time it sucked would be on say, a cold rainy Tuesday afternoon, when there would be nuh-thing to do. So you’d find yourself going through CD bins to make sure everything was filed correctly. One day I pulled out a CD with this psychedelic collage/painting, kind of like something Rick White would do, and guessed (correctly) that this would most definitely be worth...

The girl at the raised, round bar table kept stashing the tens and twenties in an odd little wooden mail rack—the kind that grandparents always seem to put bills in—as opposed to the standard metal cash box. And there were a lot of tens and twenties flowing into her hands, or credit cards being flashed and lists being checked. Over the chatter in the bar area of Tangier—just past the cordoned-off pre-speed dating event, whatever that means—could be heard the...

Call it kismet, or fate, or luck, or intelligent design, or whatever, but sometimes things happen for a reason. Julie Slick began taking bass lessons at age twelve as one of the original students at The Paul Green School of Rock. Her younger brother Eric later enrolled as a drummer, and together the two played with musical luminaries including King Crimson's Adrian Belew. Impressed by their skills, Belew—who has played with the Talking Heads, Bowie, Zappa, Paul Simon, and hell,...

In San Francisco’s gritty industrial DNA Lounge Sunday night (January 13), in front of flashing well-known corporate logos projected on the screen behind them, Paul Robb, James Cassidy and Kurt Harland Larson took the stage for one of their first full shows together in nearly 15 years. The trio, who are Information Society, is making a handful of stops, having played in Philadelphia and Seattle, and continuing on to Austin, TX (January 18). Touring behind their most recently released 2007...

When done properly, the most uproarious of comedies are those based on dark and unhappy circumstances or bleakly ironic images. History is littered with proof that the human condition needs a downside in order to remember where up is; for example, a frowning clown painted monochromatically in blue can bring a bent little smile to the face of someone that sees it, author Daniel Handler has made a fortune from a series of unfortunate events and even Friedrich Nietzsche—without a...

When I first heard Saviours' latest release, Into Abaddon (Kemado), bands like Iron Maiden, Venom, Witchfinder General, Trouble and Candlemass all came to mind. Not because I thought Saviours was trying to sound like any of them, but because they somehow managed to combine the galloping guitars of NWOBHM with the painful heaviness of Doom Metal, and the end result is pretty fucking mind-blowing. Listening to the opening track "Raging Embers," it was obvious that these four guys hailing from...

I think there's something to be said when fans cry out, "Don't ever cover this band because you'll ever do them justice!” That can be said about bands jacking samples like Puff Daddy and that God awful Godzilla song, Limp Bizkit fumbling through “Behind Blue Eyes” for another movie I think, and maybe the most painful of all, Michael Bolton’s attempt at “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.” It hurts me just to type that. So when Portishead posts...