Afternoon Walks On Mars

I’m sure most folks when you mention the music of summer think of The Beach Boys, Bananarama, Ice Cube, BTO, or something produced by the likes of Mark Ronson or Paul Williams. Me? I think Oneohtrix Point Never. In particular, the album Drawn and Quartered. Nothing gets my summer sunburn going more than the hazy swaths […]

A Life In Albums : Part Two

Thelonious Monk Quartet : Monk’s Dream I really can’t remember the reason why I bought Monk’s Dream. I was 21 years old and living in an apartment with my girlfriend at the time(summer/fall of 1995 to be exact.) We both had good jobs at the same company but worked different shifts, so while she would […]

Purple Skies and Bleeding Ears

When the forces of nature that are Heavy Blanket and Earthless come together you’d think this is going to be an earth-shattering, mind-melting moment in time. You’d believe that the earth’s lava-rich core would certainly spout forth and create a chasm of molten rock like the universe has yet to see. You would also expect […]

Speedwolves and Razor Hooves

Matt Pike should be crowned the King Hesher of Earth. The shirtless, stoned(formerly), drunk(formerly), and long-haired guitarist/singer of High On Fire is a force of nature. First off the guy is a monster on the guitar. Sure there’s dudes that shred in metal bands, but Pike has an ease of playing that feels almost savant-like. […]

Kicking A Can Of Worms

Damn. I don’t know what it is about Metz that really gets me wired up and ready to take on an army of replicant Ninjas with laser eyes, but I feel 10 feet tall, part man/part machine, and all jagged indifference when I listen to them. There’s an anxiety-driven angst in their music that pushes […]

Conan the Terminator

I think it’s safe to say that most everyone’s first glimpse of Arnold Schwarzenegger was as Conan the Barbarian. Muscle-bound, loin cloth-wearing Cimmerian warrior that liked to slash armies into mince meat by day and get it on by firelight with the mannish Cimmerian ladies at night. The film Conan the Barbarian was released in […]

Rated X

Miles Davis is this anomaly in the realm of jazz. While his contemporaries continued to push boundaries like him, they weren’t quite as vilified as he was when he wanted to push the boundaries of his music. I guess it’s not like Cotrane, Andrew Hill, Sun Ra, and Ornette Coleman were hailed by the jazz […]

Hell Awaits…among other things

The scariest concert I ever went to(besides Petra at the Notre Dame ACC with my uncle’s youth group) was Slayer in 1991. They were only one quarter of that evening’s entertainment, but they made up for it with sheer velocity, anger, and a smidgen of evil. I was 17 years old and as part of […]

Sco-Mule and Other Variables

Post-op pain has decided to make itself known today. It’s not unbearable, but it sure as hell is hard to find a comfortable spot. A zero-gravity room would be fantastic right about now, though drinking coffee in said room might prove difficult. Such is life. Well, in order to pass the time in-between pain pills […]

Ribbed and Veined

So yesterday was the big day. The dance with the doc. My one on one with a scalpel. My herniated disc was going to be dealt with surgically. I have to say, I was not looking forward to it. In fact I was kind of dreading it. I was wanting it taken care of. I […]