Lost Track off of the Thor Soundtrack

In anticipation of Thor opening in theatres soon, I give you(courtesy of Metal Hammer) quite possibly, the best metal video ever. The band is called Bad Habits. I'm speechless. 



Although, if I had the mighty hammer of Thor, the first thing I would do with it is take a god like swing and drive Donald Trump's head down into the Earth's core, where his unearthly ginger coiff would blend in perfectly with the boiling magma that swallowed him whole. 

Start Spreading the News

Holy Moses! They are RISEN! I just caught wind at Brooklyn Vegan of an appearance of Kyuss Lives! At Terminal 5 in New York this September... Kyuss Lives is all original members of the groundbreaking motherhucking best stoner rock band ever..KYUSS.......errr, without Josh Homme on guitar.   Travesty? Calamity? Yes!! NOO!!! I'm still going!!! Brant Bjork on drums, Nick Oliveri on bass, and the legendary John Garcia on  vocals.  And some guy named Bruno on guitar.

Then they tell me Clutch and Corrosion of Conformity are playing a Manhattan Booze Cruise in July. Yessssss!!!  You see, PBR Tall Boys and sea sickness cancel each other out! So, I'm good.

Gerard Smith, Rest In Peace

Gerard Smith was a friend of mine. We crossed paths while working at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City from 2000-2004. We were both artists, trying to find our way. He was much more successful with the process. We had a friendly, extremely sarcastic rapport while working through the long ten hour days at the museum. I nicknamed him "Boxcar" for his nomadic, yet fascinating life as a musician and busker, mostly at the Bedford Avenue stop on the L train in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He practically lived his life out of a rucksack back in those days, sleeping on friend's floors and patching together hard labor, freelance jobs to support himself, for the privelege of living in NYC. Most of the dreamers in NYC do the same, I know I did. He would often be seen down on the Bedford platform, working through his songs on an old acoustic guitar, mostly for cigarette money, and good coffee.

Gerard gave me a burned CD of his original songs, which I still have, and will pull out and give another listen to today. I digress, as the news of his passing hit pretty hard this morning.

Gerard made good. And life in Williamsburg strangely paid off for him. Upon my first return to New York after moving to San Francisco in 2004, I ran into him at Verb Cafe, a popular coffee shop on Bedford, where most of the card carrying hipsters in the hood java-ed up regularly. He was working behind the counter and told me things had been going well. He was in a new band with a guy named Kyp, a former employee at the Verb. We chatted briefly, hugged and I was on my way. We never saw each other again, but I read about him from then on. That was pretty easy. He would turn up often in my daily web crawl for music news.

Gerard and Kyp's band turned out to be the immensely diverse and popular TV on the Radio. Gerard had switched to bass from that rustic axe of his. I assume he was having the time of his life. The band is 4 albums into a brilliant career, and has been on best- of lists with every album release, experiencing world tours and TV appearances  galore. He was a rock star, damn it.

The news just over a month ago of Gerard's cancer hit me like an ice cold slap in the face on a brutal February morning. Lung Cancer. Jesus.  He would not be joining the band on tour in support of their latest album Nine Types Of Light, and was seeking treatment.

Lung Cancer. I know it well. My beloved sister was stolen from this earth by Lung Cancer just under three years ago. Nobody lives more than five years with Lung Cancer. There are barely any symptoms except for back pain, headaches and a rough cough. Yeah, every day aches and pains and "cold like" sickness.  What lung cancer does is disguise itself for years, growing pain free until it wants to travel to a spine, a liver or a brain.  Fuck Lung Cancer.  Every time I read about lung cancer somewhere, I die a little inside as well.

Gerard Smith died yesterday at age 36, a mere month or so after his diagnosis. I will miss his wide smile, his playful guffaw in response to our sarcastic sparring, and his endless artist spirit.  See you on that train ride on the other side, Boxcar. I hope to ride those rails with you, someday, somewhere.

Seething Beatle

Found this over at Letters Of Note.

  It was apparently published 20 years ago, and strangely now, on the anniversary of Linda McCartney's death.

The anger just flows out of John in this response, retort to Linda. It is obvious to me that he was productive, but lost in the overwhelming confines of his love for Yoko, and, like the other Beatles, aimless and exposed following the death of Brian Epstein.

I'll continue to go back and forth between my unrealistic, fan boy alliance with either John or Paul. But today I'm in Paul's camp. John sounds level headed for a scant sentence or two, but for the most part is a vitriolic poison Paul arrow.  John even chastises Linda for addressing the letter to merely "John Lennon" and not "John and Yoko"!!!!!   Man , my lost weekend would STILL be going on if I had to come home to that. She'd be Yoko All-Alone-O...

Furthermore, I just had "Do The Oz"( b-side to Power to the People) pop up on my Ipod yesterday and the incessant screeching(disguised as bullshit art) by Yoko in the sideground made me want to divebomb off of a white ladder, into a caterwaul free void. The vocal styling is akin to the sound of a high heel piercing a bunny's brain.

Maybe, that's what he was REALLY angry about.

Then again, the anger sounds brilliant on the Plastic Ono Band album, one of my all time favs, despite the title.

Soundgarden Summer Tour 2011

Soundgarden, Those Flannelled Freaks in their Forties are going on tour.

Well, Shit! I was right. I've only been waiting for this for a decade and a half.  Four dates have been announced to the faithful(so far), and drop kick me Jesus Bocephus!,  one of them is in Philly on July 13, just announced as a national holiday! Fuck that Liberty Bell, shit, let's rock.

If you live in Toronto, eh? LA, or Denver you also got some good news yesterday as well, although it has nothing to do with a fair and balanced budget or the sudden cancellation of Dancing With the Stars.  The shit's gonna spray out of the fan in either an all out Civil War or a world deleting Mayan prophecy in 2012, so get your riffy kicks while you can, you jaded fogey rockers.!

Go to www.soundgardenworld.com/tour     for details.

I'm Betting on a Soundgarden Tour

I just got a tweet from soundgardenworld.com at 5pm EST that said :

Do you think Soundgarden is going to tour this year? Signup for a free account by Midnight PDT tonight and stay tuned.


I already have an account. So I'll just sit and wait.


It's happening. I said it here first.

Post of Note

A simple synapse, nerves collapsing, cerebral m-80 bouncing around.
There is very little common ground.
Discussion concussion abuse and contusions.
Dreams being sloppily drawn optical illusions.

Ugh.

Yeah, poetry.  Poetry on a music blog. Kinda lame. Really personal poetry. But it's my blog.

Then again, why do I blog?  Is it a selfish quest to entertain or inform?

Or is it to fill a white void where conversations allegedly escape to.............from.

When you spend most of your working life working alone,  in off- white rooms, vacant, swelling with shadows and echo
Spend most of your performing life industrially working on lyrics,

wood-shedding in edit , perfecting for stage and studio, and then having neither your audience nor your own band members ever even ask you about your work, your interpretation, your message.

Having your close friends and family , most of whom have read 1/100 of the books you have read, seen nothing of which you have seen...easily amused and impressed with whatever half ass prose pours out of me.

But still you are addicted to words, and hope someday to reach somebody, to complete a conversation you've been forced to have with yourself for decades.

Is this why I blog?


Literary loneliness?


It's a mystery. I've never seen any of you. And a troll or a stranger or newbie would have no idea what to think of this mess.  But "this blog was a blog of note" so I better robotically "follow, right.?

Literati lemmings lusting to learn.

Emptiness to fill with argument , memories to burn.

Final Vinyl

This aint' morbid curiosity! This is Rock and Roll!

A company in the UK called And Vinyly is offering up a service to press your ashes(or someone you know and love) into a vinyl album upon your last exit from this mortal coil.

Having had death in my family quite recently, I was startled when I clicked on this link http://www.andvinyly.com/

But I set my brittle, crusty emotions aside and found the humor, wonder and downright awesomeness of this idea. At first I thought that my remains could be added to a pressing of one of my favorite albums. If this was the case, I would have picked either XO by Elliott Smith, Reign in Blood by Slayer or The Free to Be You and Me Soundtrack.

But alas, this was not the case.  You can have your last will and testament, a personal message or soundtrack, or just plain warm blank cracks and pops: the spooky sound of needle hitting groove.

I think its a great idea. My kid could take me out of a sleeve and play me anytime he wanted, and I could leave a slew of backward messages, dirty little secrets or voodoo curses or anyone who had done me wrong.

I'm pretty sure this company is legit.  Let me know what you think. What would you put on yer final vinyl?????

Peace and Love, Peace and Love

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