I am sorry I missed last month’s column. Graduate school is
keeping me really busy…who would’ve thought! My time is broken down into
the hour at this point. I have a desktop widget that loads my Sunbird
calender so I can keep track of what I need to accomplish each day. I
love playing with widgets; I have a bunch on my desktop. Right now this
is the best way for me to keep my life in order. Technology has greatly
assisted me. I have a very short attention span and can be quite
unorganized at times; Sunbird and desktop widgets help counteract it.
Maybe sometime soon I’ll write a full column about that.
This month’s column is a
bit brief also. I am really busy these days between school, research,
paper proposals, and planning for conferences. I think what I might do
in the future is just plan a day to belt out the entire column at once.
That might be easier for me to do.
Reviews
Lion Of Judah
Universal Peace
Youngblood Records
I have had mixed feelings
about all of Lion Of Judah’s previous records. I enjoyed their
performance in a live setting, but on record they just haven’t really
been able to move me. A lot of people say LOJ sound like Burn, but I
don’t hear it at all. I do hear a variety of influences: Early Fugazi, I Against I
era Bad Brains, and honestly I keep thinking of the band Heroin while
listening to this. This is pretty good I guess. A few songs drift into
“too much rock” for me however. I don’t see myself wanting to listen to
this record that much.
Ludicra
Fex Urbis Lex Orbis CD
Alternative Tentacles Records
I know very little about
black metal, so I am not sure how to review this. Ludicra are on
Alternative Tentacles (?!?) and remind me a lot of Cradle Of Filth, I
guess. Like I said, I know very little about this stuff. I read online
that a lot of this band’s lyrics are inspired by Les Miserables. That is pretty cool I guess. Check with Chris Alpino before buying.
The Good Book
Demo 2006
This band has apparently
already broken up, but this demo fucking rages hard. The Jersey Shore
pedigree here is impressive: members have spent time in bands as varied
as Ensign, Full Speed Ahead, Human Remains, S.O.V., and Tear It Up. In
fact 3/5 of Full Speed Ahead were in this band. The five songs on this
CD sound a lot like a median between Tear It Up (where vocalist Dave
Ackerman spent time in before this band) and Full Speed Ahead. Fast,
right to the point, hardcore in the vein of Bl’ast!, Black Flag and
other early eighties classics. Back in the days of Full Speed Ahead a
song with a mosh part as hard as the one in No Encore would have had kids from the shore killing each other.
Scapegoat
S/T
Painkiller Records
When I first got this
record a friend sent me a zip file of mp3s so I could listen to it in
the car. While walking across campus down at Stockton one day after
meeting with a former professor about graduate school stuff I toggled
through my player and queued up Mind Eraser, Rupture, Crossed Out, and
this new Scapegoat record. I didn’t really think about it; I just got in
my truck and bolted back onto the parkway. On my way back into
Manahawkin I looked down at my player because I thought the Crossed Out
record was going on for a long time. Turned out the Scapegoat record had
been playing for the past five minutes. Scapegoat play really
authentic, obviously, sounding hardcore in the vein of Crossed Out,
Rupture, DropDead, etc. How good is Painkiller Records? They just keep
turning out more and more excellent records. Word on the street is a Dry
Rot seven inch is next.
Please send stuff for
review to the address at the end of this column. I am happy to review
vinyl, CD, DVD, or book/fanzine as long as your band or label is not
associated with the RIAA. Please send the “final product”-I will not
review advanced versions or promotional material with DRM on it. I have
little interest in promo sheets and reserve the right to ridicule them.
Check Out
- There is only a Spanish translation, as far as I know, so far, but
if you like Harry Potter you need to check out The Decline Of The High
Elves, a series of Harry Potter fanfics that being published by Random
House. How cool is that? It is nice to see good fan fiction taken so
seriously. I hope there will be a English translation soon.
-
One of the
great things about the web right now is the ability to watch streaming
episodes on network websites. I have classes at night during the week so
I miss most of the shows I watch. This morning, on their respective
networks websites, I was able to catch up on the latest episodes of
Bones, Friday Night Lights (the BEST show on television), and CSI. Sure,
some of them are ad based, but if you miss an episode having to sit
through a thirty second ad for car insurance sure beats waiting for a
torrent to download or the show to air again.
-
If any of
you are in the Maryland area, I will be down that way in early May for
the Electronic Literature Organization symposium at the University of
Maryland. I will most likely be in town for only a day or two, but if
anyone else is going please get in touch.
Finally, Top 10 For April
- Miles Davis-On The Corner
- The Avengers-We Are The One
- Cleanse The Bacteria Compilation + Bonuses
- John Coltrane-Ole
- Sleater Kinney-Call The Doctor
- Youth Of Today-We’re Not In This Alone
- The Mahavishnu Orchestra-Birds Of Fire
- Tragedy-Vengeance + 3
- Mountain-Climbing!
- Curtis Mayfield-Superfly Soundtrack
Contact Info
William P. Wend
289 Bulkhead Ave.
Manahawkin NJ 08050
william at wpwend dot com
www.wpwend.com
Download complete issue