Awesome Music: SEASICK STEVE

Hello again everybody, sorry for the lack of updates. Theres more to come I promise!

I used to call this feature Band of the Week, but I'm too lazy and eradic to remember to update it each week. So from now on this feature will be called...

Awesome Music

(it sucks, I know)

SEASICK STEVE

Seasick Steve's music is blues. However, the curious thing about Steve's Blues is that it is happy, uplifting and gloriously stripped down. The lyrical content mainly consists of tales about hobo-ism and the lifestyle it dictates. This includes train hopping, the police, rocking chairs, prison at christmas, sleeping rough and mississippi bound parasites, amoung many other things.

Now, this Gentleman is very interesting indeed. He was a real life train hopping hobo for many years and eventually came around to settling and becoming a record producer and engineer but in a very loose sense, as the engineering seems to mainly consist of creating make-shift instruments, such as the "mississippi drum machine" which is a small box made out of mississippi license plates that Steve thumps his foot on.

He hasn't released much material, but the album "Cheap" with the Swedish band "The Level Devils" which, apart from having some fantastic Blues songs, also has some stories told by Steve about his travels, which are very interesting to listen to.

I personally love this mans work because it is so honest and stripped down. As much as I enjoy alot of complex, multi instrument and electronic based music, it is nice to find something that is stripped down and uncomplicated but fucking awesome. The riffs slay and lift you up straight away, all combined with a lyricism and voice that reminds me of Tom Waits, you cannot really go wrong.






Recently I have been listening to:
Killswitch Engage (oldskooool, hehehe)
Your Demise
Genghis Tron
Between The Buried and Me
Bring Me The Horizon
Skinny Puppy
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Rolo Tomassi

Recently I have Watched:
Prom Night (1980)
Angry Video Game Nerd
Summer Heights High
Evil Dead
Suspiria and Deep Red
Demons

More film related updates soon! I PROMISE!!!!

Band of the Week: ROLO TOMASSI

Hello everyone, sorry about the lack of frequency in my posts on here, but girlfriends and job hunting have been of the utmost importance recently, but nonetheless I am here to inform you lovely people (if you're there) of this weeks Band of the Week:

Rolo Tomassi

I have heard alot of strange classifications of Rolo Tomassi, like Spazzcore and Indie Metal (wtf?) and their myspace doesn't help much with descriptions either; other/progressive/punk. However you want to try and pidgeonhole Rolo Tomassi, they are artistic, creative, innovative and very different. For me, they sound like The Locust playing Mr Bungle covers or vice versa. From synth infused math rock to mad circus-like "pieces" (as apposed to traditional songs) , then to long doomy grinding passages and then over to long Jazz sections and movements, Rolo Tomassi seem to have it all, including a very hot screamy front women! They do all of this through a musical proficiency that is not encountered all that often, especially not from a bunch of fresh young-ens from Sheffield.

They have existed since 2005, when some of their members were only 16 years old. In 2005 they released a demo, which was followed by a ltd editon Tape and a split with Maths. Then in 2006 they released the Rolo Tomassi EP, which, I have to say, is just pure brilliance. It ticks almost every box I could ask for from a band and achieves it all in 6 tracks, coming in at 23 minutes and 26 seconds.

Rolo Tomassi have a new album called "Hysterics" out on the 22nd of September, which I feverishly demand you to buy on release and they are touring throughout September and October at many small different venues including a FREE show at The Old Blue Last in Shoreditch on the 22nd of Sept which I will definetly be at, I might even come back to Cambridge to see them at The Portland Arms.

If you are a fan of The Locust, Dillinger Escape Plan or Cutting Pink With Knives then I highly recommend you to check them out, or even if you are looking for something a bit different and new. You can buy a 7" from the Holy Roar store or you can buy they full EP off of iTunes (as I had too) as it has now sold out!

Myspace
Holy Roar Records

Hope you all enjoyed this weeks Band of the Week, give me some feed back or whether or not you enjoyed the band.

Being the poor jobless dickhead that I am, I havn't been able to go to any shows recently, plainly because I can't afford it, meaning I've missed Gallows, Cancer Bats, The Ghost of a Thousand and Dead Swans, boohoo! So I was chuffed to find out yesterday that Holy Roar were doing this free show:

only to find out today that it has been cancelled because Bossk have split up and Tortuga dont have a drummer, fuck. Oh well, at least I have the Rolo Tomassi free show in September.

On a different topic entirely, my awesome younger brother got his GCSE results today and he fucking slayed them! WELL FUCKING DONE OTTO! So we are going to go out tonight for a meal and get him drunk, if the staff dont notice his 16, hehehe.

I have been listening to -
Dead Swans - Southern Blue
Your Demise - Blood Stay on the Blade EP
The Postal Service - Give Up
Between The Buried and Me - Colors (still one of the greatest albums ever made)
Kate Bush - The Whole Story
Kate Bush - Sensual World
Duran Duran - Greatest

I have been watching -
Transformers: The Movie (still fucking awesome, reminds me of why I was silly enough to get a transformers tattoo)
Mean Creek
Maury
Judge Judy
Audition

WELCOME BACK! new BotW

Sorry for the month long hiatus on this thing. A month ago I moved into our new house in London, and only just got the internet, which is awesome. So for my first post back, a bit of a stock one but nonetheless; (belated) Band of the Week!

DEAD SWANS

Dead Swans are awesome. I have been fucking stuck on them since I saw them supporting Gallows at the Diamond Skulls launch party gig at the Camden Underworld. They used the theme music from John Carpenters Halloween, then, without warning the band and some friends in mexican wrestling masks run on stage, the masked moshers front flipping into the static audience causing a great big old ruckus. The gig was pretty fucking awesome, but as they are still fairly new, the crowd reception left a little to be desired. I look forward to seeing them at a headline gig with a responsive crowd.

Dead Swans play hardcore, but not cliched - verse, chorus, bridge, breakdown, chorus hardcore. Their hardcore brings to mind Refused, a dark Suicidal Tendencies and Converge, but sound completely current and relevent. With double kick drumming being kept to a minimal, and more inventive drumming techniques being thrown out, the structuring of the songs is refreshingly different and non formulaic, but the songs are not dragged out affairs, with most of the songs on their mini album "Southern Blue" not even hitting 2:00 minutes long. Lyrically, they come across as honest and pure, yet poetic and artistic at the same time. But, don't get me wrong, Dead Swans are heavy, infact heavy as fuck, at times, but also melodic and progressive, without resorting to clean vocals as a cheap injection of melody.

Dead Swans should go on to be very successfull, if the future promised by "Southern Blue" is anything to go by.

Their aforementioned mini album "Southern Blue" is available on iTunes (but DRMed, sort it out guys), from thirtydaysofnights store for only £5, and they have plenty of snazzy t-shirts up for grabs too, two of which I have already purchased! Also, check out their MYSPACE for a listen of some of the songs they have available, and to check their tour dates so you can go and grace them with your prescense!




Soon I will be doing some photo posts about our wondeful new house and on some of the disgusting horror movies I have been occupying myself with, while job hunting has turned up nothing for me.

I have been listening to:
Dead Swans - Southern Blue
Your Demise - The Blood Stays On The Blade EP
Fantomas - The Director's Cut
Rolo Tomassi - EP
Katy Perry - One Of The Boys
Skinny Puppy - Rabies
Skinny Puppy - VIVIsectVI

I have been watching -
Alan Partridge
Bucky O'Hare
Ross Kemp on Gangs
Porno Valley
Robot Chicken
Don't Answer The Phone
Lucio Fulci films
The Re-Animator Trilogy
What Dreams May Come

Seecrest OUT!