It's been a while

Well, it certainly has been a while (no, I am not going into the particulars here), suffice to say that the absence of content has not been entirely because of my laziness…entirely. It has been a busy and good several weeks though since any updates hit here; so we’ll try not to get into a long expose but hit on some brief lives.

A couple weeks back, I got better acquainted with someone at my wife’s aunt’s birthday get together, and it turned out that he was a DJ at WLFR (the old radio station that allowed me to spin some records on the airwaves). Well, this meeting gave rise to a semi lengthy discussion on the love of vinyl records, hosting a radio on WLFR, and some of the going’s on concerning the station. Lots of reminiscing and such went on through the conversations, as well as talking about everything going on with the station now. Low and behold the station’s 25^th anniversary was coming up shortly, and the station managers were throwing a bit of a celebration in its honor; so, I was invited and decided to go.

Gholas is just about through writing our first full length, and we are shooting for a late January of 2010 recording session. On a personal level, I am very excited about the songs and hope they come out as we envision them. I am also hoping to record a Fissures album before the end of this year.

I did get to see Rorschach on their reunion tour, which was awesome. They were super tight and played a large amount of material. It definitely brought on a great deal of woolgathering and nostalgia.

Jenn’s tattooing is moving along, and she is getting better and better. We have the Richmond tattoo convention coming up in November that we are both looking forward to attending.

...and Let Me Introduce You To Some Friends of Mine...

...By the Grace of God

And that was my introduction to Louisville's punk and hardcore scene. The resulting burst of energy as "Remora" from the band's debut record For the Love of Indie Rock hooked me forever (I still think it is one of the greatest punk rock songs ever). This EP does not let up at all for the next 15 or so minutes; it is pure energy and passion blasting through your speakers, headphones, what have you. Not a single song is bad and it rips like the great punk records do, and this is great.

"Yeah! Self worth derives from affliction..." follow an umistakably explosive drum and guitar intro to "Remora"; This is just a great punk rock song with one hell of a riff. Following that beast up with an equally fiery track called "Goliath" is perfect; the breakdown in this song makes me go nuts everytime I hear it, and when Rob Pennington screams "Fuck Your Crusade", it is priceless. The driving and melodic sound of "Pallbearer's Hymn" is just what belongs next on the EP along with the rolling drums and guitar squeals and short group sing along is perfect.

"November's Lie" is the crown jewel of For the Love of Indie Rock. The song is fast paced and contains one of the most under rated and amazing pieces of punk music on wax at about the halfway point of the song. Guitarist Duncan Barlow's wail of frustration into the instrumental breakdown is amazing and when By the Grace of God brings it back up with another amazing and much more melodic breakdown, it caps the song exactly the way it needs to be.

For the Love of Indie Rock slams down a poignant, superb example of melodic hardcore with "Fissures". I never can resist singing along to the words, "When We Can't Move On". Pennington shows why he is one of the best writers of emotional hardcore lyrics with this song.

The band closes the record off with the crunchy "Navigator" (sounding the most like Endpoint than the band ever does), the tense "Ipecac", and a cool cover of Poison Idea's "Plastic Bomb".

I owe so much to By the Grace of God. Not only were they great, but this EP introduced me to Louisville punk and hardcore.

75% of the Year Is Already Over???!!!

They were not lying when they said that time flies as you get older. I remember a while back when I would dread this time of the year because it meant going back to school; actually, I still dread it because that means fighting with the ridiculous amounts of school buses on the roads in the morning. In any case, this year was a hectic one so far; graduate school has really kicked my ass, but I remain optimistic as I have almost completed it. I know I failed on so many of the goals that I set out to achieve this year, but there is still three months left.

September, this sucks. At least we all have the awesome fall weather to look forward to.

Doghouse Records?

I remember Doghouse Records; I remember them well as the label released some of my favorite records back in the day: Threadbare's Feeling Older Faster and Midas, Cable's Variable Speed Drive, and the Endpoint albums (If the Spirits Are Willing, Caste, Aftertaste, the Last Record, etc). Hell, Split Lip (Endpoint JR.?) was also on the label. Later the label was responsible for releasing albums from the criminally underrated As Friends Rust; the self titled EP, Won, and an early retrospective An Anthology of Short Fiction And Non-Fiction.

I guess the release of pop garbage like All American Rejects should have clued us all in what the label really was headed for down the road.

Well, the David Moore album is the final nail in the coffin. I know that the label released records in the past with him (see Split Lip and their eventual emo pop garbage evolution into Chamberlain), but that does not mean every record the guy does should be released. His solo album, My Lover, My Stranger is the absolute worst pop tripe. It is so slick sounding and just the type of garbage you would see on VH1.

Well Doghouse, welcome to the land of adult contemporary music...you deserve it.

You should give back all your old albums to their artists because I would be embarrassed to have released anything with you.

Song Writing

Have you ever hit what you think is a turning point in your song writing?

I think that Gholas did just this past Saturday. We wrote a moody damn song that seemingly is what my brother and I have been going for composition wise since we started writing together again. It is not often that I listen to my own songs over and over again, but I genuinely love this song. It is one of the ones that I am most proud of at this point.

I cannot wait to record this in a studio.

Gholas show highlights

OK, so yes this is a little late, but I wanted to mention the show that Gholas played with Battlefields (from the Dakotas area) and Overmars (from France) and Hulk Smash (from Philly area) because of how much fun it was. Battlefields was excellent, playing some of the songs of their latest record from Translation Loss of which the name escapes me. Hulk Smash was entirely entertaining, a two piece assault on the ears.

Gholas played a shorter set, playing one song off our EP, and three songs off of our upcoming full lengths, provided we can record them. Except for some broken string issues, the set was much better than our one the previous night. It felt good to play it.

Overmars was awesome, quite a bit of Neurosis and Swans influence going on with them from the sound and presentation. They had great visuals that somehow came off nicely in the small space that is the Khyber. Definitely the high point of the show was seeing and then talking with them afterward, nice group of people.

Motivation is dead

It is times like these that being honest with oneself is necessary. My motivation is dead right now. This is why these posts are so few and far between right now. Vacation seems necessary, but it will not be happening for quite a while.

At least GREYMACHINE and Jesu are delivering right now. And a new Coalesce EP coming in November brings a definite smile to my face.

I am on the lookout for possible recording dates for Fissures right now, and I am hoping to have something out before the end of the year.