Saturday, September 4, 2021
Thursday, September 2, 2021
Weakling - (1999) Dead As Dreams Demo CS
Previously, I was a roadie for a band called A Minor Forest, from 1995 until the band broke up. However, I met the band in 1994 shortly after riding a 3 speed bicycle from Olympia, WA to Minot, ND. I lived in the Minot Collective Cultural Centre, an all ages collectively run music venue, rehearsal space (in basement) and general community center located in downtown Minot. Previously, it had been an Elks lodge, with a beautiful wooden bar intact. I was 21 in '94.
Andee Connors was the drummer, he also worked at Aquarius Records (and would later on release music under the tUMULt label name). AMF dudes & I fast forward to 1998 SF venue called Covered Wagon to see Mayhem play their first SF (America?!) show, and Weakling was going to open up for them. I remember there being SO much excitement in the air, outside the venue & vividly recall feeling like I was in a John Hughes film, very uncomfortable as everything about me (at least in my mind) screamed "fag/ weirdo" in the late 90's.
It literally reminded me of Port Hueneme High School in 1988. The heavy metal dudes, the hair, denim, studs, leather jackets, addidas... flashback. Weakling played, on time, during daylight. They sounded great & loud, with very long, riffy/ head bang moments. The songs seeming epic-ly long, that would never end, with synth sound very prominent and intense drumming. It was awesome. I was a huge fan of the C4AM95 – III 2xLP back then as well, and they shared a guitar player.
Anyhoot, years forward.. I find this tape in John's closet. I made probably 20 photocopies of the cover & dubbed tapes expertly. Sent 10 copies to Dead Gods noise store in Brooklyn, NY. Somehow, one got sold on Discogs for $150 but DG sold em for $1! What? Miracles... ICP.
Black Sabbath - (1972) Black Sabbath Vol 4 LP
Vol. 4 is the point in Black Sabbath's career where the band's legendary drug consumption really starts to make itself felt. And it isn't just in the lyrics, most of which are about the blurry line between reality and illusion. Vol. 4 has all the messiness of a heavy metal Exile on Main St., and if it lacks that album's overall diversity, it does find Sabbath at their most musically varied, pushing to experiment amidst the drug-addled murk. As a result, there are some puzzling choices made here (not least of which is the inclusion of "FX"), and the album often contradicts itself. Ozzy Osbourne's wail is becoming more powerful here, taking greater independence from Tony Iommi's guitar riffs, yet his vocals are processed into a nearly textural element on much of side two. Parts of Vol. 4 are as ultra-heavy as Master of Reality, yet the band also takes its most blatant shots at accessibility to date -- and then undercuts that very intent. The effectively concise "Tomorrow's Dream" has a chorus that could almost be called radio-ready, were it not for the fact that it only appears once in the entire song. "St. Vitus Dance" is surprisingly upbeat, yet the distant-sounding vocals don't really register. The notorious piano-and-Mellotron ballad "Changes" ultimately fails not because of its change-of-pace mood, but more for a raft of the most horrendously clichéd rhymes this side of "moon-June." Even the crushing "Supernaut" -- perhaps the heaviest single track in the Sabbath catalog -- sticks a funky, almost danceable acoustic breakdown smack in the middle. Besides "Supernaut," the core of Vol. 4 lies in the midtempo cocaine ode "Snowblind," which was originally slated to be the album's title track until the record company got cold feet, and the multi-sectioned prog-leaning opener, "Wheels of Confusion." The latter is one of Iommi's most complex and impressive compositions, varying not only riffs but textures throughout its eight minutes. Many doom and stoner metal aficionados prize the second side of the album, where Osbourne's vocals gradually fade further and further away into the murk, and Iommi's guitar assumes center stage. The underrated "Cornucopia" strikes a better balance of those elements, but by the time "Under the Sun" closes the album, the lyrics are mostly lost under a mountain of memorable, contrasting riffery. Add all of this up, and Vol. 4 is a less cohesive effort than its two immediate predecessors, but is all the more fascinating for it. Die-hard fans sick of the standards come here next, and some end up counting this as their favorite Sabbath record for its eccentricities and for its embodiment of the band's excesses.
Forced Down - (1990) Stifle 7''
The Story of Forced Down….. Forced Down was a band that started, essentially out of members of many other bands It became an idea, the idea became a sound, the sound had a look and identity… And it was all built out of what was not happening in our local scene… It never wanted a Label, it never wanted a scene, it wanted to be for everyone… This, at the very time the "scene" was becoming more and more cliquish…. we would not…from our artwork to our recordings and our interviews….. we were only to be, a band called forced down…. The band started in motion by Mike Down and Joey Piro…Mike was singing in local H/C heros "Amenity" who were based out of the south of San Diego in Chula Vista, (all thou he lived in Pacific Beach) and Joey was playing drums in SD Legends PitchFork… Led by John Reese, but based round, and practicing in the North County region of Encinitas…Mike would drive up with John and attend practices, tape recording their songs… He and Joey would talk about similar interests in music which led to them jamming out with a couple bass players
Forced Down - (1990) Rise 7''
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