Hey guys, I have recently picked up a CD that will be in my CD player forever and on my Top Ten list for a long time. "He Is Legend" is the name of the band, and the CD is entitled "I am Hollywood"(on Solid State records). I read about it in the latest A.P., and decided to check it out. Needless to say I am not disappointed at all, I am actually very thrilled. It was one of those times when you buy a CD on a whim and end up with one of your all time favorites. Usually when you buy a CD on a whim, you end up with SHIT or something that's OK at best. Count my lucky stars, not this time. Anyways, I bought it 2 weeks ago and haven't taken it out since. They are very diverse, and extremely tight. They played a "hardcore/rock/metal/punk" hybrid (for lack of being able to put them into words, I must rely on a stupid label). It's up-beat and poppy at times, heavy and crushing at other times, and slow and drony sometimes. The music is phenomenal, technical, and tighter than a cat's ass. The vocals simply amaze me. I thought at first there was two or three guys singing, but NO it's all one guy; he goes from melodic singing to screaming and throws in some growling "death". His variation in vocal styles is QUACK-FUCKING-TASTIC! I thought Nathan from BoySetsFire was amazing, wait until you get a load of this guy, he kind of reminds me of Daryl from Glassjaw just because he has suck a wide range. A.P. said they were recommended for fans of Glassjaw, Thrice, and Dead Poetic. I would like to expand on those three: also for fans of Underoath, Cave-In, Every Time I Die, Boy Sets Fire, etc. Do YOURSELF A FAVOR AND CHECK THESE GUYS OUT.

http://www.heislegend.com/main.html

And check out their video for "The Seduction" here:

http://www.acquastrada.com/hil.html

The video is pretty cool, I mean what other hardcore band has puppets in a video? Come on, check'em out. THEY ROCK MY NUTS OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-mikey

top

Hey guys,
Have you heard Jonah's new band, Gratitude? I guess OneLineDrawing is over, and so is New End Original, so check out Gratitude.

http://www.gratitudemusic.com/
http://atlanticrecords.liquidbuilder.com/gratitude/

I guess their CD's dropping March 8th, through Velvet Hammer/Atlantic Records, so it should be easily accessible. It should awesome, since pretty much everything Jonah does is golden.

Other music I recently picked up:

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of the Dead - "Worlds Apart": Yes, the new Trail of Dead CD is finally out. Good, solid, rockin' tunes! Would you expect anything less from this 3-piece powerhouse? Fans of their other stuff should dig this too. Kick ass rock'n roll, get it now. Oh yeah, the intro is eerie as hell. "...look at these cunts on MTV with their cars, and cribs, and rings and shit. Is that what being a celebrity means? Look, boys and girls, here's BBC. See corpses, rapes and amputess. What do you think now of the american dream?" - Worlds Apart (track 3)

The Black Maria - "Lead us to reason": This is good stuff too. Kyle Bishop, former vocalist of Grade, is in his band, although he only sings back-ups and plays guitars. I bought because I loved Grade, so I thought I would check this out. I like it alot. Catchy, melodic, rock n roll. I LOVE the drum line on "our commitment's a sickness" (track 4), the interlude at the end is so stuttered and catchy. I had it in my head for a week, damn them anyway. I get a chill from "The Lines We cross" (track 6), with piano and singing crashing into the end verse. You should check this out...

Bright Eyes - "Digital Ash in A digital urn" & "I'm wide Awake, It's Morning":A two CD set, sold seperately, but each going in it's own direction. "Digital Ash..." is more of an indie/rock (for lack of better term) album. Good heartfelt songs, with a dash of electronics mixed in. "I'm wide awake..." is more of an acoustic/indie/alt-country (again, for lack of better tag) album. Also, good heartfelt songs. I don't know which one I like better, I guess it depends on my mood. Right now I like "I'm wide awake, It's morning" more, but tommorrow it might be different. You can check out some tunes at:

http://www.saddle-creek.com/bands/brighteyes/.

Seemless - "s/t": This is Jesse Leach's (former Killswitch Engage vocalist) new band, along with former members of Overcast and Shadows Fall. Despite their former bands, this is a melodic metal/rock album, not a balls-outhardcore album as you might think. It reminds of Corrosion of Conformity, old Soundgarden, or even a bit heavier Alice In Chains. Melodic vocals, thick bass/guitar lines, good drumming. Nothing stunningly new, but still good nonetheless.

http://www.seemlessband.com

-mikey

top

Hey, long time no talkie. Whatcha up to? I just got the newest Handsome Boy Modeling School, "White People", and it's fucking awesome! Did you get it yet? If you didn't, you need to make a point to go buy it. There's an assload of guest appearances: Del, Casual, Mike Patton, Chino Moreno, De La Soul, Mike Shinoda & Chester Bennington (of Linkin Park - big deal), Dres (black sheep), RZA, Omar & Cedric of Marz Volta, Kid Koala, etc.etc. Did you get the "Romances" CD, by Mike Patton and John Kaada?

Talk to you later.
-mikey

top

Hey guys, did you get my e-mail regarding The Fire Theft (ex-Sunny Day Real Estate line-up)? Well, I went out and bought the CD, and let me tell you - it is AMAZING!!! I was bummed out when Sunny Day called it quits, but this CD is equally as satifying as any of the Sunny Day Real Estate CD's, so now I feel a lot better. I watched a movie the other night called The United States of Leland, it was a pretty good movie, but the soundtrack had my interests peaked pretty much throughout. They're was a few Pixies and Frank Black songs, but there were quite a few other songs that really caught my attention and stuck with me. I felt like I knew the voice, but I couldn't put a name with the voice. I made sure to watch the music credits to see who was in charge of these great tunes. Low and behold Jeremy Enigk, the singer from Sunny Day Real Estate & The Fire Theft, was in charge of the music for that movie. He has some of his solo stuff on there, "Imperial Teen" is the one I remember off hand. You can check out this song if you go to the United States of Leland's website ( I forget what it is off hand-I just typed it in a yahoo search) it has 3 of the songs from the movie to play in the upper right hand corner. Beautiful!!! Anyways, you should really look into acquiring The Fire Theft CD. I think you would be very much into what is going on in the CD, orchestra/piano/ROCK N ROLL. The Whole CD is great, song 10 "rubber bands" sticks out as a killer instrumental (although there is some singing at the end). I also got the new CodeSeven CD, "Dancing Echoes/Dead Sounds", and it is really good. It is a whole new band from the days of old. They have branched off further into the new Cave-In/Radiohead realm. Check it out it's worth a listen, I like it alot. Another CD I picked up is called Hiero Imperium: Buildings. It's a sampler of what the Hieroglyphics crew has been putting out solo, and it's only $6.98 anywhere. A crazy things occurs on this CD, LadyBug Mecca (of Digable Planets) resurfaces into the world of hip-hip. That's cool I thought she fell off the face of the earth, since I haven't heard anything of Digable for years and years. One more CD I picked up is Frank Black Francis, it's a 2-CD solo thing from Frank Black (aka Black Francis). Disc 1 has early acoustic demos of future Pixies songs from 1987; disc 2 has re-recordings of old Pixies that he recorded last year. It's a good CD, raw demos where he sounds out some drum parts and verbally notes where the bass will come in, but yet a good quality recording. And last but not least I have attached some Ipecac news for you kiddies to put in your pipe and smoke. How do you like those apples?
-mikey

top

Hey guys, just picked up some CD's that might be of interst to you.

1)Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains - "The Big Eyeball In the Sky" - Have you heard this yet? It's Les Claypool, Brain, Buckethead, and Bernie Worrell (of Bernie Worrell and the Woo Warriors, former member of the original Parliament/Funkadelic, Talking Heads, and Praxis). I am about 3 songs into the CD right now, and it's funky like a three year old shit sandwich with extra peanuts. It rocks!

2)Walking Concert - "Run To Be Born" - this is Walter Schreifel's new band, you know Walter the singer from
Quicksand and Rival Schools. Good stuff.

3)The Blood Brothers - "Crimes" -
This is the new Blood Brothers CD. Let me tell you, then you can tell me, we'll tell eachother...It Rules!!!!!! Rock on with yo' bad selves.

See ya later.
-mikey

top