Grayceon/Lesbian/Walken - 11/5

so, how was your friday night? undoubtedly pretty fuckin' lame compared to sandeep's. three of the most badass bands i've encountered in the last 10 years, one show, $8 cover, and it was diwali (and birthdays of members of two of the bands!). i had been stoked about this show for a while, with Grayceon (SF), Lesbain (Seattle), and Walken (SF) playing on one night it was almost an ideal lineup for me.

before coming to the bay, i spent a few years kicking around seattle. upon encountering Lesbian, i made it a point to attend as many of their shows as possible and buy up every recording of theirs that i could. Lesbian forges the way into a delicate metal sub genre of their own. dipping into sludgy doom coupled with intensely psychedelic jams interwoven between math rock-esque break downs, they are more than a little hard to cram into a box.

Grayceon, also being a very uniquely artistic band, has never failed to amaze audiences at every show i've seen them play. i distinctly recall some random dude approaching Grayceon guitarist Max Doyle (also of Walken) after the band had just tore it up on the roof of idle hands tattoo parlor during the lower haight art walk, shaking his hand and saying "i never knew i could like a metal band before today...". there are many qualities that about Grayceon that one doesn't often encounter in metal bands. Jackie Perez Gratz (also of Giant Squid and Amber Asylum) fronts the band as vocalist and electric cello shred mistress. add guitarist Max Doyle's crushingly heavy handed finger picking and drummer Zack Farwell (also of Walken)'s thundering rhythms into the mix and all you're doing is bringing together keen minds for music theory and ridiculous amounts of obvious musical prowess. it's impossible to describe the bands sound without frighteningly redundant use of the word 'epic', so i'm just going to recommend you head to their website (http://www.grayceon.com/) and their myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/grayceon), listen to a couple tunes, and have your credit card ready, you'll be wanting to buy the albums as soon as you're finally able to tear yourself from listening to the songs over and over online...if of course you don't own them already.

Walken...well i'll lay my bias out on the table, i fucking LOVE this band. i don't know what it is, but from the firs time i saw them play, i was fucking hooked. taking some of the greatest elements of doom, math rock, and a healthy dollop of thrash Walken churns out tunes that are just so satisfying to my ears and soul. somehow it's like their music better describes my emotions than words can...it would be fucking sweet if i could walk into work and simply say 'i'm feeling very Thunder Paws today' as opposed to explaining that i feel very intense and mind bendingly groovy with high chances of repeatedly throwing some metal horns...(seriously, look up the song! it makes sense!!)...but i digress. these guys fucking rock. featuring the guitar and drum combination of Max Doyle and Zack Farwell you've already come to love with Grayceon, Walken also hosts Sean Kohler on guitar and backing vocals, with Shane Bergman (also of Hazzard's Cure) rounding the grinding quartet off on bass and lead vocals. together, the band belts out a sound worthy of the badassittude and groovyness of their namesake.

walking in to the hemlock on friday night i could already hear the chug of the cello. it was 10:05 and Grayceon was already on stage! i rushed to the bar, grabbed a beer, paid my cover to gain entrance to the tiny back room with the stage and dashed in, only to be met by a wall of show goers nodding to the hypnotic stylings Grayceon shreds their audiences with. their churning, heavy tunes cutting back and forth between sharp, driving speed sections and grinding, epic, down tempo dirges all within one 5 to 12 minute opus. i have yet to see this band put on a bad show, not even an okay so, Grayceon throws down. add in the fact that it was Zack's birthday, and all the good vibes that brought, and you have one killer fucking set with an audience packed so tightly there isn't even room for a gangly indian dude to slither his way to the front.

next up on stage was Lesbian...i love those guys! i was sure to stake out a spot up front for this, it was maybe april when i saw them last, but being in SF means having way fewer opportunities to see them play, so i jumpon any chance i get! i remember reading once that they first chose to call themselves 'Lesbianwitch' because they were searching for a band name that would be as offensive to christians as 'Black Sabbath' or 'Pentagram', then after a bit, it became Lesbian (i have no idea why, but who the fuck cares?! they tear it up!). Lesbian's set began with frontman Dorando Hodous letting the audience know they only had time for two songs. i smiled, recalling a Lesbian show at chop suey in Seattle more than a few years ago with Book of Black Earth and Melt Banana where their show started the exact same way, it was a good indication that epic slaughter was soon to follow. Lesbian warmed the audience up slowly, weaving intricate, oddly syncopated patterns with more reverb than distortion, creating a pleasant false sense of security before tearing into some intensely sludgy yet mind bogglingly technical riffs, which managed to sound simultaneously hap hazard and delicately crafted. luckily with Lesbian, two songs is a good 30 minutes, and Lesbian utilized that time to batter the audience with two amazing tracks off of their recently released (a month ago maybe) album, Stratospheria Cubensis (which is awesome by the way...more details on that in a later post [oh, and just a side note, but Lesbian is going to be playing in oakland this thursday the 11th at Sugar Mountain Records on San Pablo]).
closing out the show was Walken. since y'all already know how i feel about their music, prepare for more of the same. the show was fucking awesome, AWESOME. Grayceon and Lesbian alone made it an amazing night, but with Walken headlining...i'm struggling to some up with a simile to adequately express how FUCKING AWESOME this show was. let's jsut say, i would have paid 8 bucks to hear Walken play just one song live.

i got a bit of a kick out of the fact that this show was happening almost a year to the day after the CD release show for Walken's most recent full length album (Nov. 6th, 2009 at annie's social club...oh annie's...) . this year, it was celebrating Zack and Sean's birthdays that was adding extra emphasis to the fact that it was bound to be a badass fucking set. i was super excited to see Walken play. i had missed a couple of previous opportunities to see them, and was super pissed at myself each time. after the first Walken show i saw, i made it a point to see them as often as they had shows i was aware of. there was one point a couple of years ago when i saw them three times within two months and i was thrilled as fuck. friday night lived up to and my expectations and completely destroyed any part of me that would ever contribute to missing a Walken show ever again.

y'know when you're chilling right before a show and you tell yourself, 'man, if they start with (fill in your favorite song by the band here) or (fill in your very close second favorite, but possibly actually favorite song by them here)', and then the band totally plays one of the songs? that was my exact situation as Walken tore into 'Right at Home' to open their set. from there it was straight into a five song block with almost no break for applause, Walken wasn't on stage to fuck around, they were up there to melt some fucking faces...and melt them they did (musically). i tried to keep track of the set list in my head, but got way too carried away rocking the fuck out to 'Watch it Burn', 'In the city of No Seasons' and of course getting some serious headbanging in on 'Thunder Paws'. the best part of the show was undoubtedly the new tracks, keeping me eagerly awaiting new recordings from these guys. after an intense and killer set of tunes, the guys from Walken stepped off stage, leaving the audience calling out to hear 'Running Out of Time'. i checked my phone, it was still hardly 12:40,surely there was time for...and before i could finish my thought they were back. the unstoppable machine of metal badassitude that is Walken tore into 'Running Out of Time' and 'Beast Toker' providing the audience their sought after encore.

as with all the bands that played friday night, Walken is a band that strives to play music that is recognizably metal in a way that few metal bands conceptualize their music. in my opinion, Walken owned the show that night. yes i'm biased, but seriously, give 'em a listen and go to a show. you'll be blown the fuck away. seriously, go buy some of these albums. check out some samples of the bands first if you need to:

http://www.myspace.com/grayceon
http://www.myspace.com/lesbianwitch
http://www.myspace.com/walken

alright, that's it, go listen to some music fun new music...and keep it gloomy y'all.

week of epicness part tres...

impressed by my knowledge of numbers in foreign languages? don't be, you're seeing the limit of it. after the crazy go nuts time that was the Evil Survives show saturday, i almost considered taking it easy and sitting out the Red Fang / Valient Thorr show on monday the 11th. i quickly reconsidered after recounting how uncanny Red Fang's show at the oakland metro opera house had been this summer, and besides, what's a better cure for the mendacity that is a monday than a metal show?

going in to the bottom of the hill, i wasn't sure what to expect. i knew Red Fang would be bringing that crazy energy that their music inspires, but i wasn't super familiar with Valient Thorr...in fact all i really had heard about them was that "their shows are fucking crazy". i was tired, i wanted a beer, i wanted to see what kinda merch Red Fang had for sale, and wasn't feel 100%, so i concluded i'd rock out to Red Fang, listen to the first couple Valient Thorr songs and if i wasn't feeling it, i'd head home...but firs the merch table! one of the best parts about going to indie metal shows is $5 music. always buy the $5 music. if it sucks, hey, it was just 5 bucks, but rarely if ever does it suck. between the Pirates of Darkwater EP purchased at the Sword show, or the Ten Miles Wide album purchased at the Mendozza show, my life has been brutally enriched by $5 music. as i approached Red Fang's merch table, saw the same vinyl i had at home i got a little bummed, until i noticed the $5 tour EPs they had for sale. i immediately snatched one up and waded my way through the crowd as Red Fang took the stage.

combining well loved vintage gear with Thin Lizzy-esque song structure, the best way to describe Red Fang's sound would be as groovy, roots metal. a brilliant throw back to double chorused guitar solos, solid, steady, driving drums, booming bass, and severely harmonized vocals. Red Fang tore through a slew of new tracks (to be featured on their upcoming LP from Relapse Records and despite audience unfamiliarity, the whole crowd was groovin'. from the new tracks Red Fang cut into some golden oldies off their first LP. my personal highlight was getting to hear "Good to Die" live, though "Prehistoric Dog" and "Humans Remain, Human Remains" were pretty prolific as well. all 'round awesomeness.

after watching Red Fang kick the shit out of their instruments for about 40 minutes, my energy was definitely up and i was ready to see what Valient Thorr had to offer, fucking craziness sounded like just what i needed as i waded my way closer to the stage so as to get some pit action in. the phrase "rock n' roll party" only begins to describe what Valient Thorr brought. providing an all around sonic assault was pretty much their game plan as song after song pummeled the audience. not being too familiar with Valient Thorr's work, i must admit i wasn't totally prepared for the energy of their pit, and was pretty fucking impressed when a ring of dudes held the pit back so i could search for the glasses that had gotten knocked off of my face. When playing live, Valient Thorr does an excellent job of keeping the audience going crazy, but with super positive attitudes. Comments from lead singer Valient Himself like "this song's about those times when you feel down in the dumps, like nothin's going your way, but you just power through and keep going, cuz you know there's a thousand people out there who feel the same and need to party with you!" kept audience members smiling while dropping heavy elbows in the pit. their political stances came out through at various points in the show with Valient announcing the title of their latest single as "a message about the people who actually have power in our country and what we wanna do to them! this song is called Killionaire!!" and noting how the band's logo is a modified peace symbol. a supreme highlight came when the entire band left their instruments aside to take up drums, as Valient hopped into the audience and started freak dancing random show goers female and male alike. seriously, a ball to the wall, "who gives a fuck, let's go crazy" rock n' roll party. Hell yeah, brutality on a monday night...and the week was yet to be concluded...keep it gloomy y'all.

week of epicness part deux...

If my evenings this week could have been bottled, the only name they could be marketed under would be 'awesomesauce'. looking back over the past week i've seen awesome performances, been privy to opportunities to purchase awesome new underground metal vinyl, cassettes, or cds, and hopped around in a couple of pretty prolific pits.

the week of epicness began last saturday, october 9th at the hemlock tavern. on the bill were Serpent Crown (sf), Spellcaster (portland), Evil Survives (manitoba), and Midnight Chaser (sf). going in the only band on the ticket i was familiar with was evil survives, and even then it was mainly due to the fact that serpent crown is one of the many local metal outfits featuring Will Carroll (of Death Angel, Scarecrow, Old Grandad...) on drums. in all of my eagerness to see them, i naturally miscalculated my bike commute to the hemlock and totally missed their set. fuck you murphy and your fucking laws (i'm flipping off the hypothetical "murphy" as i type).

as i entered the back of the hemlock where the stage is after wading through crowds of fleet week yuppies (though, with all the sailor outfits i just assumed it was some pride event) on my way in, i arrived to a band assaulting eardrums as their front man thanked everyone for coming and that they hoped to come back soon...yup, i missed the second band, Spellcaster, as well! worried that my $7 dollar admission fee might have been for naught (as just that brief glimpse was enough to convince me i needed to buy Spellcaster's album...what if i had missed the best bands?!) i nervously sipped my beer awaiting Evil Survives. what came next, did not disappoint.

from the instant they took the stage Evil Survives proved themselves a force to be reckoned with. slashing speed licks supported by a skull rattling bass and gut pummeling blast beats with searing vocals tearing through the mix in a style that exemplifies some of our favorite aspects of classic NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal...y'know, the prolific post Black Sabbath stuff like Iron Maiden, Saxon, Judas Priest...). despite an audience that seemed content to hang back as far away from the stage as possible, Evil Survives rocked it as if playing to a packed arena. fortunately the small performance space that is the hemlock tavern was put to full use as the lead singer belted lyrics from the pit occasionally using audience members standing idly by as supports during vociferous headbangs. as far as the riffage went, the guitar talent of Evil Survives clearly showed strong influence from the likes of Dave Murray and KK Downing, augmented by a tangible love for thrash and early american death metal. in many ways, at the end of Evil Survives' set i felt like i had just been treated to a performance by Helloween in their prime.

as Evil Survives left the stage, I was already telling myself that Midnight Chaser's performance would have no bearing on the fact that the night had already reached extreme levels of badassitude. luckily, Midnight Chaser brought it with the same over the top energy that had defined the night thus far. at that point in the night, the crowd was warmed up (and boozed up) enough not to need much more than some loud driving rock. Midnight Chaser tore through some old school power metal styled party rock that had the audience grooving right away. the only downside to the show came about 20 minutes later when Midnight Chaser had to end their set abruptly due to a broken guitar string. audience members waited, unmoving, as the guitarist scrambled around looking for a replacement string, but as the search continued last call was, well, called, and the music had to be shut down for the night. despite being unable to see Midnight Chaser's entire set, missing most of Spellcaster and all of Serpent Crown, it was a seriously epic night at the hemlock, and just the beginning of a show going week so epic, my ears are still ringing. what happened next?! keep checking back and you'll see, otherwise, keep it gloomy y'all.

week of epicness...

dude. DUDE. this week has been fucking awesome! Spellcaster and Evil Survives last Saturday, Red Fang and Valient Thorr on Monday, Grayceon and Deadsea last night...fucking awesome. is this post gonna be a full on review? no, cuz sandeep is fucking exhausted, but a massive review will follow this weekend...maybe after i've figured out whether i'm going to the Hightower show at el rio or the Kowloon Walled City (though i will see KWC for free with Saviours next thursday at the SF tattoo convention pre-party at thee parkside...) show at the hemlock tavern this saturday night...more to come, keep it gloomy y'all.

Red Octopus - layers upon layers of psychadelic goodness

i don't get why some metal heads or so anti-prog. prog is super fun! it's all spastic and abrasive and confusing to people that listen to all that mainstream bull shit that's always on the radio. in my mind, prog is the purest spirit of metal in musical for, a big, loud, unapologetic fuck you to folks who dont get it or like it. when you start through heavy elements of psychadelic rock, prog only gets more fun. case in point, san diego's Red Octopus. walking into thee parkside last month for a Hightower show, i was hoping the other bands on the bill would be pretty prolific. from Walken, to Pride Tiger, to Frontside Five, i've seen some pretty badass supporting bands courtesy of Hightower. Red Octopus is definitely the latest addition to that list (oh and Hightower's new album...freakin' sweet, review to come...soonish). claiming oneself to be in a psychadelic band can definitely pigeonhole one's sound. for me it invokes mental imagery of Jimi Hendrix spasmodically expressing his way through a full body performance of 'Voodoo Chile'...a ridiculously high standard to achieve. it's no surprise that many bands well worthy of referring to themselves as psychadelic bands prefer the label of 'math rock' as they use their extremely non-traditional time signatures and riffs to fight for musical legitimacy. some bands can totally pull it off, while other slip into the 'noise rock' category making them inaccessible to many music fans (especially during live performance). keeping in tradition with greats like King Crimson, Red Octopus goes out of their way to provide awe inspiring musicianship held together by a tightly mathematical rhythm section supporting ethereal lead grooves to keep your toe tapping despite being totally mesmerized by the enticing wall of sound this power trio puts forth. providing just enough of that gritty noise we would hope for from an extremely talented prog band, layered with dooomed out grooves, catchy melodies, and intensely headbangable moments.

Red Octopus' set that night was maybe 45 min or so, which was the perfect amount of time for them to power though 2 (yup, just 2) songs as the audience struggled to fight the urge to applaud at each down tempo breakdown. the tenacity and focus with which Red Octopus attacked their instruments was mesmerizing convincing me that i wasn't about to leave thee parkside without either a recording of their stuff or very explicit instructions on how to get one of their recordings. luckily their EP was for sale (or really just available for folks will to throw some cash down for it) on unlabeled burned CDs which came in a fun card stock sleeve which featured Red Octopus' logo silk screened on the outside (which the guitarist did in his bedroom after creating the stencil off a pen sketch!). the show was an unmitigated success with audience members converging upon the band to share congratulations, ask about recordings, and a slew of other questions around musical influences, song writing technique, and nerding out on their gear (they had some SWEET fucking gear). waking up the next morning and having the opportunity to give Red Octopus a listen in a state of *ahem* sobriety was mind blowing. the sheer power of this band's stage show is audible through one's headphones. though their recordings might be extraordinarily hard to get your hands on, it'll be well worth the effort. keep it gloomy y'all.

Floating Goat & Hellbeard - 9/19

a distinct memory of mine from the first Hellbeard show i ever experienced out at the merchant's saloon in oakland is midway through the first song the reggae loving friend of mine i had been dragging to metal shows for the past couple months turned to me with a huge smile on his face and mouthed 'fuck yeah!' the slow sludgy, booming, percussion laden grooves and intense vocal nodule inducing vocals brought a heaviness that no one could not sway to. from then on we made it a point to check out Hellbeard any chance we had. a couple more east bay shows happened, and each one had me searching for a merch table so as to buy a recording, but they never seemed to have any. then for a while...Hellbeard just seemed to drop off. my hope was that there was recording happening, but i really had no idea.

so yeah, i was pretty fucking stoked when i walked by force of habit records (a badass shop by the way) and noticed a flyer announcing Hellbeard and Floating Goat playing together at the parkside, i stopped dead in my tracks. Floating Goat?! It'd been a while since i had seen Floating Goat. the epicness that was the Walken cd release show last november was uncanny. though not the firs time i had seen floating goat, the excitement of the night made it the most on point and hard rockin' performances i had ever seen the band put on...until last sunday night that is. Floating Goat layed into their groovy, old timey, chunky, doomy, sound with a gut wrenching intensity. despite the twenty five odd person sunday night audience, Floating Goat electrified thee parkside. persoanlly, i was really hoping to hear them play 'half alive', but they closed out with the groove-tastic 'heaven's burning', which was pretty fucking epic.

after Floating Goat, the wall of melodic sludge that is Hellbeard took the stage. totally living up to my memory based expectations, Hellbeard threw the fuck down. those funkily syncopated sloshy down-tuned legato licks left the audience swaying at pace with the waves of sound. much to my excitement the band was also selling cds and i was finally able to take home some Hellbeard for myself. all in all, an awesome fucking show, and some fun new music to block out the sounds of muni with...keep it gloomy y'all!

metal swim...the Bay OWNS!!!

so this post is gonna be a quick one. don't worry, you'll get more from me (in the form of a review of sunday's floating goat/hellbeard show), but, did y'all see this 'metal swim' post on adult swim's website? apparently they're putting together a compilations of "16 rare or unreleased tracks form the heaviest bands in existence". not sure how they plan to back that claim up, but there is a super impressive bay area showing in their mix! Death Angel, Ludicra, Saviours, Black Cobra...i fuckin' love the bay.

http://www.adultswim.com/promos/201009_scion/index.html

keep it gloom y'all.