Thanksgiving is just around the bend, so I think it’s about time to get into the turkey frame of mind. Everyone knows that Thanksgiving is for, well, giving thanks (obviously). But it’s also a day when many Americans stuff their faces with more food than they can shake a stick at. So the holiday is as synonymous with gluttony as it is thankfulness. In the spirit of stuffing (and gravy and pie), this playlist features five metal songs about overeating. Naturally, some of these songs feature things that you wouldn’t necessarily want on your Thanksgiving plate, such as human flesh (shout to all you zombies out there!).
Get ready to loosen your belt and fill up on these gluttonous metal songs before you hit the Thanksgiving buffet. Continue reading ‘Metal Monday: Metal Gluttony for Thanksgiving’
In 2008 musicians Kristen Wagner and Josh Shapiro met in a West Hollywood cafe and decided they needed a change. Frustrated with their former bands, they chose to join forces as musical partners. It proved to be a songwriting match made in heaven with Kristen taking care of lyrics and vocals while Josh pounds out the electro-rock fused backings. Under the moniker Bullet & Snowfox, the duo is heating up the L.A. scene with infectious tracks like “Bad Days” that display a punk at heart attitude and a new wave finish. The handful of the band’s songs circling the web demonstrate a common theme: these kids are determined to make fans dance their feet off and have fun while doing it. Bullet & Snowfox is currently working on new material amid word of the possible involvement of the best DJ/Producers in the biz, Baron von Luxxury. We suggest you bite the bullet and check out the rest of their tracks available on OurStage.
Published by
BethanyLeavey on
November 13, 2009 in
Playlists and Rock.
Tags: Clinical Trials, Drew Barrymore, Mystic Knights Of the Cobra, playlist, punk, Punk on the Rocks, Rock, Roller Derby, The Bayone Bleeders, The Jolts, The MINUS LOW FI, Whip It.
While roller derby enjoyed waves of popularity in the past, including televised bouts in the 1970s, the release of Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut Whip It brings the sport of roller derby back into the spotlight. What started as traveling teams of co-ed endurance racers doing laps around a portable banked track in the 1930s transformed into a modern day, all-girl DIY phenomenon, with teams sprouting up all over the US and all over the world. Today, the most popular form of roller derby is flat track where points are scored by “jammers” passing “blockers” on the opposing team, and players often use pseudonyms inspired by pop culture figures like “Jodie Faster” and “Killery Clinton.”
Continue Reading Punk On The Rocks: Roller Derby Wreckers
Published by
Munson the Destroyer on
November 9, 2009 in
Playlists and Rock.
Tags: away-team, beyond agony, creep, machiavellian, metal, metal monday, metal videos, OurStage@, revoltons, second thief, Sicarus, the spektrum.
Unlike many genres of music these days, the metal community is still making music videos with as much fervor as ever. By and large, metal video features some of the same common traits. Here’s a list of things you need to make sure you put in your metal video so that people instantly know it is a metal video, without even listening to the song:
- All members of the band must be wearing black. Color is not an option.
- Band members are required to headbang, scream, shred, look angry, act violent.
- Under no circumstances, should any band member look happy. Smiling is acceptable only if it is, in fact, a maniacal grin in response to a grotesque and heinous crime.
- Video location is key. Consider a mountain top, boiler room, abandoned industrial park, hell, motorcycle rally, graveyard, bar, cave, crime scene, the woods, car accident, prison or desert as your backdrop. Really, anywhere dark will do.
- The more closeups of band members playing their instruments the better. Except the bassist. No one cares about the bassist.
- Bonus points for covering props in blood and/or setting them on fire. This is metal to the max.
- For solos, it’s best to focus the camera on the performer of said solo. This is just good manners.
- When considering video themes, stick to war, vikings, violence, politics, sacrilege, inclement weather conditions (e.g. snow, rain, thunderstorms), evil, zombies.
- Rapid camera changes make for a more extreme video so switch up the camera angle whenever possible. Shake the camera if need be.
Obey these rules to ensure your video is as metal as it can be. Follow all nine of these rules, and you have probably created the most metal video in the history of music videos. Now that we’re clear on the precepts of metal videos, let’s check out some awesome OurStage examples that may (or may not) abide by these rules:
On a side note, check out this post from Away-team.com giving some press to the current Hard Rock and Metal number ones!
Jersey Boys: The Years Gone By
Every musician chases his or her own particular muse. For rappers, it’s verbal dexterity, the gift of flow. For funk/soul purists, it’s the groove. And for the legions of pop-punks out there, it’s hooks. Irresistibly kinetic, irrefutably catchy hooks.
Like every pop-punk band, The Years Gone By focus their songwriting around those powerful chord progressions that define a song. They fill in the gaps with the usual trappings: snotty, call-and-response vocals; wiry and careening guitars; drums and bass driving at breakneck speeds. The strident “Tell Someone Else I Don’t Care” is three minutes of Sturm und Drang, Jersey-style. Guitars scribble across a wash of distortion and crashing cymbals while singer Nickolas Madore leads the fray with a nasally sing-along chorus. “Tear Down the Stars” is a technically precise, if forgettable, ballad that’s perfect for slow-dancing in a suburban high school gym. Look, when you’re a pop-punk band, you gotta keep the teens happy. And in that regard, The Years Gone By pass with flying colors.
