Welcome To Stopgap City.

So, we’re pretty realistic about the fact that maybe like four people on earth actually listen to our music. Like seriously, there’s four. I can name them. But man… Those four people are gonna shit when the new tracks hit bandcamp and they realize we’ve turned into a hulking mutated gene splice of early SWANS, White Mice, and Impetuous Ritual. And that’s about all the preamble I’ve got today. Oh yeah, one other thing worth mentioning, I’m gonna start writing about movies now too. I don’t always have time to watch one every day, but when I do I’ll make a quick note of it. - Muzak: Eyes of Fire - So, I saw these guys with Trivium, Danzig and Kataklysm ages ago. 2004 maybe? Or was it 2005? The exact date is now lost to the grey fog that is slowly consuming my mind, but what I do remember is that I wasn’t feeling all that well that day (recovering from a severe bout of food poisoning the night before), and my then-girlfriend dumped me in the car during the drive to the show. Turns out sh...

Wellp. Vacation is over and we're back to the grind. Upside is that we had a real nice break and unexpectedly wound up jamming out a bunch of new tracks... Downside is that we now have slightly fewer hours per day to finish hammering them into shape. So it goes. - Dhwesha - Gnarly DM from India with a real dark/ eerie vibe. Had never heard of Dhwesha before this track popped up on autoplay after something else I was listening to, but I wound up really digging them. So much so that I listened to the whole album twice then picked up a copy of the CD. - Necrot - I know these guys are a big deal, but for whatever reason I never picked up any of their albums until just the other day. Grabbed all three last time we hiked out to Vinyl Altar and they definitely live up to the hype. Mid-tempo to fast, dissonant but not incoherent, riffy as hell, great vox... I'm into it. - Krosis - "New School" DM seems like it has fallen out of favor super fucking hard over the past bunch ...

Well shit. I forgot to deactivate the ability to pay for our albums when our old band called it quits, and upon logging into our bandcamp for the first time in a long time I noticed that a decent little handful of people actually paid for the album we never finished? Which I guess means we're half-ass obligated to finish it. Thanks a lot assholes... Seriously though, this actually did happen completely by mistake, but after 16 years I'm not gonna end our run as one of those bands that take in (even a small amount of) money for an album that doesn't get released. So we're gonna do something. Whether or not anyone likes that something, listens, or gives a fuck? Eh, that's honestly not our problem. Hell, maybe this whole dumb experience will "revitalize" us and we'll decide to keep toiling in obscurity? Who knows. Only thing we know for semi-certain is that all the rest of the songs on the album are gonna have full-on drums/ guitar/ vox and kinda tap into...

I'll have you know that, whenever this winds up getting posted, it was actually finished EARLY. Still on vacation so not gonna bother with much in the way of a preamble, just a real quick mention that when I walk down the street or go into a store and see people wearing COVID masks but pulled down around their chin it makes me want to fucking scream. What the fuck? It's like taking the time to wear pants but hiking them down so your ass and crotch are flapping in the breeze. Like at that point what's the fucking plan? There's zero benefit and and probably significant discomfort. You're literally getting the worst of both worlds. - Federation X - I can't tell you much about this band, just that I was sent three of their albums as freebies with some other stuff I ordered years ago and that they sorta reminded me of a punky version of big dumb American Rawk 'n' Roll ala ZZ Top which is something I tend to dig when I'm working or working out. Feels like...

Took yesterday off because I'm on vacation. Keeping this preamble short because like I said: I'm on vacation. If you need anything else: Please refer to my previous statements about being on vacation. - Acephalix - Saw these guys a bunch of times when we lived in the Bay Area and I dig pretty much everything they've done, but man Aporia is the one I always come back to. Especially that last track. Crusty and fucking Massive. - Pink Mass - Necrosexual New Jerzy skuzzkult. About as pleasant as hatefucking a ruptured abscess. - Autopsy - I slept on the more recent Autopsy albums for a looooong time. Knew they existed. Knew they were probably good. Just never quite got around to actually listening to them. Finally picked up the three most recent full-lengths and I've been listening over the past couple days. They all do pretty much what you'd want/ expect an Autopsy album to do and I'm a dope for not checking them out sooner. - Mayhem - Real talk: I don't gi...

I'm technically on vacation, so no preamble today... Except for a vague warning that I was in a pretty 80's mood yesterday. - E-Force - Ex-Voivod "Negatron/ Phobos" era frontman doing his own thing. "His own thing" being fairly unique sounding thrash that while maybe not as flipped out as Voivod, is still pretty killer in its own right. - Trouble - First four Trouble albums are untouchably unfuckwithable in every way. Perfect fusion of Sabbath-y doom, 80's trad metal, and thrash. Super bummed to hear of Eric Wagner's passing.  - Warrior Soul - The band that kinda of bridged the chasm between hair metal and grunge, and unfortunately wound up getting largely snoozed on by both sides. I've wanted to do a death/ grind/ doom cover of this tune since like 1997. - Souls At Zero - I bought both of these albums out of a bargain bin at this tiny little record store in suburban MA when I was a freshman in high school. Still have them to this day. I get ...

First day of vacation. Took three long walks over the weekend so we're hanging in today. Gonna watch a couple movies and hang out with DD. Actually, now that I've mentioned it: Posting might drop off a bit over this week 'cos we haven't had a week off together in over a year. - Ka - Probably my favorite current era rapper. Has a real unique vibe, real humid and gloomy sounding. Don't consider myself any kind of expert on the style, but I like what I like. - Cambatta - Another recent favorite. Hip Hop/ Rap with a dark "psychedelic" edge. Guess this is the mood I'm in today... - Clipping - I got into Clipping right around the time they released that one song where they sampled Deathpile and a bunch of noise people I talked to via email got kinda mad about it. As far as I'm concerned everything they've done has been fucking brilliant. Totally want them to sample one of our old tracks... - Apophis - Egyptian/ occult tinged DM from Germany... I ...

We keep getting storm warnings that don't actually turn into storms so I didn't bother to bring an umbrella when we took a long walk yesterday. Well, joke's on me... we got fucking soaked . - Crush Efekt - I had been looking for this album for so fucking long that I was legitimately starting to think that I had imagined it. Turns out I was just misspelling the band name, or really, they were. Super tough DM tinged hardcore from Ohio. Sorta reminds me of 25 ta Life or Cold as Life, but with death metal vocals and drums. Sounds weird as shit on paper but the track "Backstabber" has been stuck in my head for like 24 years. - Deadindustry - More super tough metal/ hardcore circa 1997 with kind of a Pantera meets Nu-Metal tinge. I think this band was from Texas and might have had a member that went on to play in Devourment? But apart from that, I honestly don't remember much else about them... Just that this is another album I've been trying to score a physic...

I wasn't gonna bother today, but then I did. Lucky fucking you. - Krisiun - Trillion-mile-per-hour death metal from Brazil…. I remember Krisiun being a BIG FUCKING DEAL among my circle of friends when this album came out back in the mid 90’s. I always really liked these guys too, though maybe not quite enough to rush out and get their logo tattooed on my leg like one of my friends did… Kinda reminds me of an even more “off the rails” version of None So Vile era Cryptopsy. Hadn’t listened to this in ages, glad I threw it on today. - Deathstench - A band I was in was label-mates with these guys for a brief moment a few years ago. Still think they’re really good. A hollowed out carcass of black/ death metal rotting into a rancid pool of death industrial, noise, and dark ambient nastiness. Saw them live when we lived in PDX, they were pretty killer in a live setting as well. - Sutekh Hexen - There was a time when Sutekh Hexen was just about my favorite band in the entire fucking wor...

Uuuugh. Woke up to our apartment building having an unannounced 8am smoke alarm test and luckily the alarm is brutally loud and right in our bedroom…. Talk about a rude awakening. I feel like my teeth are still rattling. Other than that? Uh, not much to report. Took yesterday off because I felt whacked out and fidgety… Guessing it was a symptom of either anxiety or too much coffee/ not enough sleep, but really, who the hell knows what is going on with my body and brain anymore? - Wargasm - Well, if it’s gonna be a rude awakening anyway might as well make the best of it with one of my favorite thrash tunes of all time. These guys were local to where I grew up in MA and should have been a much bigger deal than they actually were. Both of their albums absolutely rule but Ugly might be my favorite of the two, mostly because of this tune and Dreadnaught Day. - Danzig - Do I really need to explain Danzig to anyone? His first solo album is probably my pound for pound favorite, but for whate...

I'm mostly nocturnal at this point in my life, but here are still days I find myself obligated to deal with sunshine/ heat/ light/ humanity, so I figured why not make the best of it by cranking some big sweaty psych/ rawk jamz? Made the two mile walk to Shop Rite/ Home Depot through 90 degree heat / 90 percent humidity  almost tolerable. Other than that, just hanging out, working on music, putting a lot of thought into "what kind of music would I be making if the world was ending and I really wanted to speak my soul before it all hits the fucking wall?" Because, y'know, take a fucking look around out there... End of the world doesn't feel too far off. Oh yeah, almost got in a fight with some anti-mask weirdo 'cos I was wearing a mask in the grocery store, but he backed off when he realized I was actually pretty enthusiastic about the prospect of beating him to a bloody pulp in the produce aisle. So it goes. - Ghost - They're not my favorite band in the w...

Gonna keep it short today because it's our 16 year anniversary... Want some free relationship advice? Probably not, but here's some anyway: Don't be a fucking dick. That's legitimately the only advice I've got. A whole lot of making something work is probably down to dumb luck, but being snippy, sarcastic and passive aggressive with someone you're supposed to care about definitely doesn't make anything any easier. Just try to keep showing up. Being present. Take shit seriously. Try not to get hung up on stupid shit... Hell, maybe start a couple bands together? Certainly, not the worst way to spend your time. - Erik Wollo/ Steve Roach - Tangerine Dream/ Berlin School/ Space Ambient synth drift. Big fan of both artists but somehow didn't realize they had collaborated until I ran across this album earlier this evening. Guess it's not a huge surprise seeing as they're on the same label and explore pretty similar musical avenues, but this is great no...

Hung out, watched Conan the Destroyer, and started work on what will probably be our next album. No idea what the band name is gonna be. No idea if the album will even come out. But we're working again, and it's good to be working again. Ditching the old band name was the right choice, there's no baggage, no weight, no bummed out acceptance that even if we do the coolest shit we've ever done people will shrug it off because of the whacked out band name. Right now there's just music and a handful of song titles and a vague idea of sequenced/ arpeggiated Tangerine Dream style synths and tribal drums cut with doom and black metal guitars. Like a fucked up planetarium show about the eventual death of the planet/ galaxy/ universe. - Shining - Metal tinged spazz-jazz from Norway. These guys eventually smoothed out most of their jagged edges and morphed into more of a straightforward "industrial rock" type thing that's much less interesting to me, but man......

So, how is this new thing different than the old thing you may ask? Well, mostly, the level of effort is lower... In that I'm not putting a whole lot of thought into what I'm writing about anymore. I just listen to whatever I feel like, jot down the band names as they pop up on my iPod or Spotify or wherever, and at the end of the day I sit down with a cup of tea and write a few words about whatever I listened to. It feels good so far... Loose. Relaxed. Not thinking too hard. Not trying to "keep up" or impress anyone. Just going with my gut. That feels like the right direction to be heading in. Plus, a neat byproduct of this experiment is: You can kind of see the some of the weird threads and tangents my brain goes off on. Like, where listening to one thing will make me think "oh yeah, I should pull out this other sort of similar thing I haven't heard in a while." Like how listening to Black Army Jacket for the first time in a long time reminded me of Ul...

Well, I completely FUBAR-ed the formatting of today's post then had to retype the whole thing  twice  so believe me when I say this bright idea for a new webzine is already grating on my nerves HARD. Oh well, take a breath, unclench the teeth, resist the urge to fire our laptop out the window, call it a lesson learned... and for god's sake remember not to copy/ paste stuff into blogger ever again. - Altar  - Chunky chuggy DM from the Netherlands. Vocals are kind of “meh” but man… Some of the riffs on this thing are fucking awesome in their boneheaded, knuckle-dragging, simplicity. Think I paid a buck for this CD like 14 years ago? Certainly worth every penny of that. - Zeroid  - Desperate German HC similar to Acme or Systral, but these guys fuse that vibe with some serious fucking WEIGHT ala His Hero Is Gone and/ or Neurosis circa “Souls At Zero.” This is legitimately some of the most ferocious shit I’ve ever heard. Why weren’t these guys a bigger deal? - Paranoia Ke...

Hey here's an idea: Gonna try to sit down and write a few quick words about whatever I listen to on any given day. No plan, no pressure, just really loose and informal... Bad Words! Sentence fragments! Terrible taste in almost everything! Probably a fair amount of bargain bin Goregrind and Nu-Metal! Actually having fun for a fucking change! See if I can untie some of the stupid knots in my brain and get back to the way things were before I ruined my webzine by trying to make it more professional. Now, are these reviews? Man, I dunno... Not really. I don't feel qualified (or even particularly inclined) to "review" anything anymore. These are mostly just vague thoughts and impressions from a dude who spends 99% of his life listening to music. - Charger - Hadn't heard this album in almost 20 years but then it popped into my brain the other day and I decided to track it down. Still sounds gnarly as hell. Sorta like Iron Monkey with some of the Black Sabbath swapped o...

Well here we are... The old band is done. The old website is shuttered. And we're off and away to whatever comes next. Feels super weird but it was time. Plans for the future? Yeah, we've got a few, but it's too early to talk about any of them. All I can say right now is that we're still making music together and I think we're probably gonna start releasing our own CDs? Maybe head back in the direction of being a mysterious/ anonymous project. We'll see. Right now though, the burnout is real and I need to step back for a while. Clear my head. Take a breath. Mess with the synths. Tune up the guitars. See what happens. Gonna try to check in with a roundup once a week until I find the motivation to set up a proper website for the zine. So, with that in mind... - Muzak: Paramæcium  - Mid 90's Aussie deathdoom. I guess they were a Christian band but it Doesn't hurt the music much. If you dig the first couple Paradise Lost albums you'll probably really dig...