Hotel Wrecking City Traders - Black Yolk

MG -- This might satisfy you a bit (I'll try to get Trey to post a couple bands...he's more adept at atmospheric sludge that I am). This is 'Hotel Wrecking City Traders', a two-piece instrumental sludge group from Australia. Kinda sorta similar to Pelican in an off-beat sort of way...these guys are cooler, though. I really like these guys...so don't just take the money out of their pockets:

Listen
Buy

Warhorse 1998 Demo

This has nothing to do with this post. I just wanted to point out that Mastodon looks like a really hairy pop punk band.

I've had this sitting around on my hard drive for a little bit now...I'm not sure whether or not:

1) I actually like the band.

and

2) if the band is still around and did anything beyond this demo.

The instrumentals are awesome--they're dead-on sludgy doom....but, the vocals are shades of Evanescence. They're just too operatic and "pretty" for my tastes in sludge. The production value of the demo is pretty lame too...things don't feel very cohesive--in terms of how the vocals and instrumentals work together, but that just might be an inherent quality of what they were trying to do.

However, don't let me dissuade you...I DID put forth the effort to upload this in the first place after all...

Warhorse - '98 Demo

--fred

Also...mindgrinder this week...

Trey's going to be gone for the week--so I'm going to break format...sort of. I will be playing all local and underground bands...so IF YOU SENT ME YOUR BANDS STUFF IN THE MAIL, chances are it will be played on the air.

10/28/08
TUESDAY. 10pm-12am, eastern.
wmucradio.com

A Few (hundred) Words.

The music community on blogger is a vibrant, beautiful, dynamic creature that rose from the ingenuity of a few souls with a fresh idea and eventually multiplied into hundreds of networks connecting millions of fans across the planet. These blogs offer a great medium of communication between fans, where they can share bands and even educate others on different and new subgenres of music. However, if you were to tell me that the blog community we have now is to last past next February, I wouldn’t believe you. Thousands of these sites exist on blogger; ranging from overt-pirate sites, who post disclaimers solely to cover their legal trail, or sites who offer one or two songs and a short bio of the band in question. Both of these sites are at risk of prosecution by the RIAA.

Take a look at the whole P2P scandal from the past few years that’s remarkably still on-going. P2P enables users to download individual files from other people, through a network that connects users directly. Not only can someone copy a file from someone else, but they can speed up that process by copying that single file from multiple users at a time. Back in 2000, mainstream artists, such as Metallica (of course), caught on and attempted multiple lawsuits on individuals for downloading single songs. This led to the death of one of the first popular P2P apps, Napster, which was quickly replaced by other apps, such as Kazaa, Morpheus, and Bearshare. What separates us from these P2P networks is the magnitude of music being “shared”. Rather than us putting up popular songs or A-Sides off of albums, we’re upping entire albums—discographies even. The RIAA were certainly capable of shutting down the larger torrent sites that offered a similar service—they even shut down the supremely productive sites like OiNK, which, through its ratio requirements, inherently motivated its members to upload hard to find and obscure music. They don’t care whether the music you’re uploading is out of print or impossible to buy, if they have a sliver of a case, they will act on it. They’ve even gone as far as suing a dead man’s relatives to collect on file-sharing violations.

If the RIAA is wiling to do something as ruthless as suing a grieving family because of the copyrighted files their deceased family member downloaded, they’re surely poised to shut our community down. When they do…I can only hope they hold the people who run the individual blogs are held accountable rather than Blogger--who have been incredibly hospitable in allowing us to do what we do. Chances are, though, that since the RIAA targeted the creators of the P2P apps, which weren’t specifically designed for the sharing of copyrighted material, they’ll surely attack the Blogger team first (who thankfully are backed by Google’s muscle.)

One thing I’ve had a hard time defining is whether or not the things we’re doing here are right or not. For one, we’re getting bands broken. Bands who would usually drown or fade away in obscurity are instead being raved about; for instance Parasytic, from Richmond, Virginia, and Grey, from Olympia, Washington. They owe A LOT to blogs, whether they’re aware of them or willing to admit it. Other bands have even encouraged the upping of their albums—some even doing it themselves, such as Jaked Off Shorts and Loaded Heads and Kowloon Walled City. These are bands that realize the potential of blogs and internet downloads and use it to their advantage…not to gain revenue—but solely for the purpose of GETTING HEARD.

Few labels have asked us to take down their albums, and only one or two bands have complained. I assume that the labels we’re in correspondence with are well aware of our blog and don’t have any problems with what we’re doing, they may even encourage us promoting their bands. Businesses have contacted us to try to use our site as an advertising base—saying we cater to the demographic they’re trying to capture. They see some sort of value in blogging, even if our form is an overtly illegal operation. The point is that people aren’t not trying to be associated with us. I don’t think they take into consideration MINDGRINDER’s aesthetic or quality of content, but rather, they just accept the inherent value of blogs in general.

We all know for sure that bands and “artists” like Metallica and Madonna don’t agree with what we do, but what about the Underground acts? Does posting music with a contrasting level of popularity save us any grief?

Take Lo-Res’ blog for an example. Lo-Res primarily uploads out-of-print records and obscure grindcore, powerviolence, metal, and hardcore bands, and usually supplies a pretty introspective bio of the band; reciting seeing the band in their prime or personal experiences with the members. You feel as if you actually gain something from reading his blog—he is, in a way, sitting you down and sharing his favorite albums with you in a very intimate fashion, and thus, I feel like there’s some sort of legitimacy in his blog.

However, there are a few blogs that completely contrast his method of running a site, such as lucid. Lucidmedia is the type of blog that posts music spanning across all different genres of music; and they’re primarily concerned with posting as much as possible. There was a time where I greatly admired the site, and even downloaded albums from genres that I KNEW I didn’t like, just because I trusted their contributors so much. But as the monster grew, lucid began hiring more contributors to strengthen the volume of weekly posts, and with that growth, went the quality of the posts. Biographies or descriptions of the artists ceased, replaced by album images and links to megaupload files or mediafire uploads. Blogs like Lucidmedia are not productive—and they’re the type of site that will lead the eventual shutdown of Blogger’s music community.

I sort of consider MINDGRINDER as being a midpoint between the two, and we try to serve the same purpose that we originally intended in getting our radio show; that is, exposing our audience to new bands and forms of music. Although we were originally designed around a Lucid Type layout, as that was the blog I was most familiar with at the time, we’ve made an effort to grow beyond that layout and become a stronger blog (although some vestiges of this former layout remain). We post, albeit not that often, tours dates for some of the bands we upload, links to bands myspaces, and even links to record labels that we prefer. This doesn’t make what we’re doing right, but I think it helps our integrity a bit. It’s unfortunate, though, that this will come to end someday. Eventually we’ll graduate or leave college and lose our show, and eventually the RIAA will crack down on and shut down all of your favorite pages, and we’ll be unable to continue things we love doing. I fear of what we’ll do afterwards, not only for obtaining music, but finding new music.

Don’t take what we have on blogger for granted, we’re really really lucky to have this community. If you illegally download music excessively--at the very least support the artists you like in one way or another, through going to a show, or buying a 7”…just put forth a (couple) few dollars to give our existence a little more meaning.

--fred

Electric Wizard

Some kid says we don't play these guys enough on the air...This is their newest album:

Electric Wizard - Witchcult Today

Grey - Stand Before Doom [Demo]

My god. This band presents a heaviness that cannot be outweighed -- all woman power-trio doom band from good ol' Olympia, War-shing-ton. These chicks have built up a large following from this demo ALONE:
Grey - Stand Before Doom [Demo]

I believe they have recently released their first record (mixed by Billy Anderson and produced by Jack Endino!)...pretty limited amounts on the vinyl front. Pick it up before it sells out:
CD
Black LP
Grey/Clear Blend LP
Splatter LP

Ogre - Seven Hells

I don't know much about these guys...(little help?). But they're pretty killer...they do a pretty awesome PENTAGRAM cover:

Ogre - Seven Hells
Part 1
Part 2
(stonery doom-metal -- they're good, please check them out)

Sleep - Jerusalem

This record was originally intended to be one giant track...but their label was unhappy with it and made them split it into "parts". Check it out:
Jerusalem
Part 1
Part 2

CANDLEMASS

This is probably the groups most well-known opus, this is some vital doom:
Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
Part 1
Part 2



ALL HAIL THE FAT MAN

Earth 2

(above L-R) Dylan Carlson from Earth, Kurt Danielson from TAD, Bret Michaels from Poison

Slow Heavy Minimalist Doom Metal--for fans of drone...new fans at least. You should know these guys by now:
Earth 2 Part 1
Earth 2 Part 2

CORRUPTED - DIOS INJUSTO--UNFAIR GOD

More music from everyone's favorite spanish-speaking japanese doom band:
CORRUPTED - DIOS INJUSTO/UNFAIR GOD

Solitude Aeturnus - Beyond the Crimson Horizon

...Texan Doom? This band is for fans of Candlemass...also, if you've kept up on the news, the original Vocalist for the band is FRONTING Candlemass now. Cool, huh?:
Solitude Aeturnus - Beyond the Crimson Horizon

EARTHRIDE - Taming of Demons

Some more great, but a little more modern, Maryland doom. I've been trying to get them to play at WMUC, but I fell out of contact with Sherman...

Earthride - Taming of Demons

PENTAGRAM - Relentless

A lot of people seem to love this band, so I figured we'd post some more from them. This is a later album, much later than the comp we upped before. Maryland/DC/Virginia doom at it's best: Pentagram - Relentless

Ol' Scratch - In Nex Illic Est Vita

Virginian-based doom sprinkled with drug addled lyrics. These dudes played on the last 'Third Rail Radio' we hosted.

Ol' Scratch - In Nex Illic Esta Vita

WMUC's best and brightest.

I have seriously never met this guy.

Mclusky Do Dallas

Lightsaber Cock Sucking Blues. Nuff Said.
(Really catchy noise rock)

Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas

Black Flag 1982 Demo

Played parts of this on 'Pat Robertson's Crust and Powerviolence Hour' back in the day (like three months ago). This demo features Chuck Biscuits (and is probably the only BF recording with him on it) on drums, Dez on second guitar, and Rollins on vox. The recordings took place during a brief period in 1982 when it was illegal for the band to record or release any material (for reasons I can't remember...fill me in here), which makes this demo that much more special. This recording is raw:

Black Flag - 1982 Demo

Minutemen - Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat

This is my favorite release by the Minutemen, and features a one 'Kim Gordon' who does a couple cameos throughout the record. This includes a slightly earlier version of 'Little Man With A Gun In His Hand'.

Minutemen - Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat

Sonic Youth - EVOL

Sonic Youth - EVOL

Sebadoh - III

It's a hit with all those super cool college radio kids:

Sebadoh - III

Kowloon Walled City

The best artists are the ones that offer their album for free on the internet...Kowloon Walled City is no exception to this. These guys hail from San Francisco and have produced some of the sludgiest down-tuned heavy noise I've heard from the area in a long while. They've thrown up their first EP, Turk Street on their site for free download (you can also purchase their CD for $8 and their 10" for $10):

Turk Street EP

--fred

PLAY AT WMUC GUYS.

The Abominable Iron Sloth

Think newer Hardcore mixed with Sludge squeezed into sort of a sped up funeral crawl. The Abominable Iron Sloth is the brain child of Justin Godfrey, as the band manifested after he was joined by the members of Will Haven, who split shortly after their first European Tour. Godfrey recruited the members of El Cerdo, changed the name of the band to 'The Indomitable Iron Sloth' and are planning to release new material soon.

This is another one of those promos I got at my last job...some love em...others hate em...

BEHOLD

THE ABOMINABLE IRON SLOTH.

OM Discography

Trey's in pretty bad shape--so I'm hijacking his post. Here's a fap-tastic wiki bio of the band:

Om is a duo formed in 2003 by the rhythm section of the disbanded stoner doom metal band Sleep. The band's first three albums feature Al Cisneros on vocals and bass and Chris Hakius on drums. Their music is similar in structure to Tibetan chanting and is rich in rhythm and melody. Their music and lyrics lift off at the beginning and slowly mutate giving a feeling of evolution inside each song.

In December of 2007 the band performed in Jerusalem, their performance lasting over 5 and a half hours in duration. A portion of that show was released on 12" vinyl by Southern Lord "OM - Live at Jerusalem".

On January 31, 2008 Hakius left the band and was replaced by drummer Emil Amos. OM has since recorded a single featuring the song Gebel Barkal accompanied by the band's b-side dub mix, "Version". This is the first OM release to feature Amos. The 7" 45 was released August 15, 2008 on Sub Pop.

Variations on a Theme

Conference of the Birds

Pilgrimage (coming soon)

Update 10/15/08: Sadly, GBTIM's now defunct and you can't go there for awesome shit anymore. We'll put up the last OM record as soon as we can. Thanks for the patience.
--trey/fred/tread

Frank Zappa - Absolutely Free (1967)

Yeah yeah Hot Rats is awesome, shut the hell up about it already. Before he decided he was better than everyone else (well actually he didn't but he was) and went solo, Zappa cut some really great records with The Mothers of Invention. Freak Out!'s a good place to start, but Absolutely Free is by far my personal choice for best early Zappa album.

"Invocation and Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin" alone should be enough convincing for all the jazzy-rock fans out there. And of course, all you Patton worshipers could get a wake-up call from the original genre-hopper as he and the band move from that little number to a old-school Elvis-style rock number on "Big Leg Emma" and then from THAT onto the pre-zepp blues rock of "Why Dont'cha Do Me Right." Don't forget other non-sensical silly numbers like "Call Any Vegetable" and "America Drinks" (I've got your fucking Disco Volante right here you art-school hipster assholes). Seriously guys, I could talk about Zappa all day before I even get to the non-Mothers' stuff.

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - Absolutely Free

As an added bonus because I love all of you (momentarily), I'm putting up Weasels Ripped My Flesh which is another of my favorites that includes live recordings of the Mothers showcasing all of their range (Avant-garde classical to Doo-wop)

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - Weasels Ripped My Flesh

Vacation Grinder

On our show next Tuesday...we're playing nothing but Metal: Speed-Death-Thrash-Black-Gore for two solid hours (10pm-12am). As always, we'll be streaming the show live from the blog when we go on.

Slayer - Show No Mercy/Haunting the Chapel

--fred

PS: Check us on myspace if you haven't already

Unpersons - Unpersons III (2003)

Well, at least one person wants this so why not?

This is the only other Unperson's record I've been able to get my hands on. At least it's actually got album artwork...

Unpersons III

Saturday Night Movie

Watch:


Buy.

The Jesus Lizard - Liar and Head/Pure

This is a request from a friend

The Jesus Lizard. If you don't know who they are, fucking hell...

Two excellent albums by a band that fucked it all up by signing up with Capitol

Liar plus Head/Pure all in one convenient .rar!

Unpersons - Unpersons II

I uploaded this for a last.fm user already, so I figured I'd post the link here for all the MINDGRINDER faithful.

Unpersons is a sludgy, noisy type band from Savannah, Georgia. You might even be able to call 'em powerviolence but without the blast beats as they mix extremely chaotic and fast spurts of music with slower, more methodical distorted chugging. If I'm not mistaken, the drummer from this is also in Kylesa (them Georgians is incestuous). Fans of the up-and-coming Baroness (another fucking Savannah band) may also recognize these guys from the split they did called A Grey Sigh in a Flower Husk (Unpersons' contribution is actually not that good if you were wondering).

Anyways, here's their very-hard-to-find first LP

Unpersons - Unpersons II

Thrones - Punk in my Vitamins Demo

Earliest Thrones work you can possible get...our homie over at The Worried Well already posted this...I'm pretty sure those chumps over at lucid have done the same. I went and cleaned up the filenames a little bit...and it wouldn't hurt to have another Punk in my Vitamins tape added to our online collection.

Thrones - Demo Tape

(Make sure you check out Joe's Radio show on KMBT radio!)

FLIPPER - Live at Dante's 12.02.06

Flipper's a band that's hated by some and cherished by many. Punk scenesters of the time hated their dissonance while others found some sort of novelty or value in what they were doing. Later on, teenagers across the country flipped through their local record stores, picking up anything they could find by the group, at the promotion of K. Cobain. By the mid-nineties, long after the death of Vocalist/Bassist Will Shatter, the band had splintered off and gone their separate ways. Bruce Loose, second vocalist, was caught in a serious car accident towards the end of the decade, and still uses a cane to get around...their Drummer Steve DePace moped around for awhile looking for someone to publish a FLIPPER book, and Falconi slipped into obscurity.

Around 2005 or so, the group got together, with temporary replacement bassist Bruno DeSmartass, to play a couple of dates at CBGB. Shortly after, the band picked up former-NIRVANA bassist Krist Novoselic, and started to play dates up and down the west coast, more notably in the SF and Portland areas (There were also a few dates played with the Melvins...). The band WAS planning to go ahead and do a national tour, but Novoselic backed out due to "obligations at home" (?), so the tour is currently in limbo.

The show I'm uploading is from 12/02/06 (the date of my 18th birthday, in case you really care), out in Portland, Oregon recorded at Dante's by the infamous Mike Ziegler.

Enjoy it (beware dial-uppers, this is in lossless. In other words, these files are not compressed and they're really fucking big):
Flipper - Live @ Dante's
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

--fred
(tell me if I got any of my facts wrong)
EDIT: Oh yeah--PLEASE don't re-encode these to mp3. We're try to keeping the internets pure.