Gjenferdsel – Varde (2010) [Ketzer] // Grade: A

Not much is known about Gjenferdsel. Their story seems pretty tried and true these days. Two men born and raised in Norway got into black metal and formed a band in 2002. Seems like it’s a no-brainer that their newest album, Varde, would be an easy project. Preconceptions aside, Gjenferdsel really work for their sound. For 38 minutes, you’ll find yourself stomping and banging your pencil on your desk. Varde has a sound that’s in high demand these days and Gjenferdsel is doing a damn good job at producing a solid black metal album.

From the minute-long “Vardøger” to the catchy riffs in “Intet” all the way down the track list to “Desember,” each track toys with the Norwegian sound. You’ll hear bits of Mayhem, moments of Burzum and even some Emperor in there. Varde is no candy-coated metal album. It’s energetic as hell and the tracks just line up one after the other with non-stop blast beats and blood curling vocals. With tribal drum lines and distorted riffs “Iaktatt” makes way for “Nid” and before you know it, you’re on the last track, “Manngard.” After the song dissipates, you’re left fulfilled and energized, just like an Alka-Seltzer after a solid night of drinking.

I’m not pitching Varde as the best black metal release of the year, but it’s a damn good one. There’s no chin-scratching or deep meaning. In 38 minutes you’re torn through a frigid forest and brought up to speed on 20 years of black metal. There’s a little bit of everything in this album and that’s good enough for most people.

So I guess I’ve been on a cyberpunk kick lately. Well, let me back up: I’ve been on a kick of borrowed books (that happen to all be cyberpunk-ish) lately. My absolute evangelism for the likes of Klosterman and Sedaris has yielded an unexpected (but entirely predictable, I guess) side-effect: that being that when I foist a book or two upon a friend or acquaintance, they in turn foist a book back onto me.

Which is both convenient and potentially awkward, as anybody who enjoys binge-buying at Barnes & Noble or Amazon like I do. As much as I love the book store, I don’t like to go there every time I need a book to read…rather, I’ll wander in on some random Tuesday and walk out with 7 or 8 books…maybe one I’ve heard of, one that was next to that, one from the endcap, one with pictures….etc. That sort of pattern not only makes for more than a few unread copies of Gravity’s Rainbow and one-volume Civil War histories laying around the old orifice, but also…it sort of pre-plans my reading attack for a foreseeable future.

Illustration by Jason Courtney

So, when someone hands you (perspective change!) a book the next time you see them after a time when you handed them a book and DEMANDED that they read it—they’re eyes possibly wet with adulation and a somewhat desperate hope that you will relate to that thing that they relate to so much, etc.—it has the potential to rock the rig off the rails, so to speak. Pock the pig off the pails. You can delay the reading of said tome for a while, but if you’re not careful, you become that asshole who never gives beloved books back.

So really, it’s a Catch-22. Also: Go read Catch-22.

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This is a good few days old but I just got wind of the fact that HBO has finally let some info regarding the second season of Eastbound & Down come out and I know there are some Kenny P fans on here. It looks like the show and Kenny will be moving to Mexico with none of the first season’s cast returning besides “best friend” Stevie Little.

I’ll miss baby bro, John Hawkes and hopefully they find some way for Craig Robinson reprise his role and seek some revenge, but I’m glad that season two starts fresh with a brand new adventure for Kenny. I was afraid that they’d make Kenny make amends for leaving high school sweetheart, Katy Mixon at a gas station. That was a pretty perfect ending and I’m ready for more Danny McBribe action south of the border!

There is really no premiere date and as I’ve come to expect with beloved HBO shows it could be another year before we’re graced with more Kenny Powers in our lives, but at least he will be back. More information on season two over at Deadline.

Cccandy – Lonesome Berlin (2010) [Avant!] // Grade: A-

This creepy-cool cover art sort of belies the album. It’s weird, but not scary. Cold, but not brooding. Drugged-out and color washed. Think of it this way: If Cccandy lives in the same rouge-soaked world as 1983 cult film Liquid Sky—and it totally does, with all the grime and glitter and awkward decadence—then every song on Lonesome Berlin is the French boy equivalent to Adrian’s classic “Me And My Rhythmbox” scene. The actual equivalent, of course, was ADULT. (like, almost to the point of mimicry), but even though Lonesome Berlin sounds nothing like Resuscitation, it has the same exotic simplicity. That effortless 8-bit thing that gets you by being just a little off-putting.

Now slam that against an electro culture currently enamored of all things high gloss—even bedroom projects like Memory Tapes reach for the sheen—and Cccandy feels suddenly more deviant. This cryptic project (ostensibly one-man, presumably French) isn’t totally lo-fi, but it definitely doesn’t rely on Ableton or Logic to do its bidding. It’s just neon proto-electro or a lightning shock of minimal wave; haywire robots in cotton-candy costumes, synths buzzing and tangling over static rhythmbox beats. Spoken-word vocals in an echo chamber, like a fucked version of Soft Cell’s “Sex Dwarf” running on broken tape in the background. One of Lonesome Berlin’s best tracks is “Acid A Gogo”, and you know what? The entire album lives up to that name. I mean, you could pony to this stuff at Danceteria. It’s mega-fun, both happy and confrontational, real performance art electro born of French disassociation. Even if, you know, it’s not actually French.

You can stream the whole album via Avant! over at Soundcloud, but jump now if you want a real copy. It’s limited to 300, and trust me: you’ll hate yourself for missing this.

At a recent show in Boston, Extraneous Noise set up their cameras around the club to capture Neon Indian in concert. They final product is of the band performing “Should Have Done Acid With You” from their debut album, Psychic Chasms. Personally my favorite song off the album, but then again who doesn’t love a song about doing acid with a girl? The video not only does a great job of capturing the warm and energetic glow of a Neon Indian show, but band frontman and backbone, Alan Palomo wearing our Sweet Jane sweater during the performance.

This isn’t the first time we’ve noticed Alan rockin’ Мишка in the spotlight recently. Alan sported our Black Magic sweater for press shots (picture above) and during this past SXSW. It’s always awesome seeing a band you love and a guy as talented as Alan reppin’ Мишка as hard as he has been.

As an added bonus for those who may have missed it… back in December, The Vidiot who must have been just as enamored with the song as I am, even did a whole episode of Kill With Video set to “Should Have Done Acid With You” featuring loads of distorted video and the Slush Puppy.

Yesterday we gave you the scoop on the upcoming opening reception and after-party for our small collaboration pack with Stockholm’s Monkey Bizz and ShitxFaced crew. Today, we’re going to bring you a closer look of the Crewneck and T-Shirt that ShitxFaced designed.

The Crewneck features the Drunken All-Stars pentagram crest with an ever adorable and obviously inebriated rink rat pushing around a puck while the Drunken All-Stars tee has loads of depraved flips on vintage hockey patches, cards and just general Hockey memorabilia. You knew Russians and Swedes love their hockey… and smoked fish!

Both of these have produced in limited quantities and will only be available at Monkey Bizz in Stockholm, Sweden. They won’t last long!

Monkey Bizz
Malmgardsvagen 24
16 38 Stockholm, Sweden
+46-823-2112
info@monkeybizz.se

Last week while in town for their show at the Knitting Factory, Toxic Holocaust made their way over to 350 Broadway to grab some gear. Later that evening they threw down a raucous set alongside fellow brothers in Thrash, Municipal Waste and Attake and then followed that up promptly by cutting loose at the Charleston at the after party we threw with our buds at Chronic Youth.

The guys were pretty hyped over some of Spring t-shirts and I have a feeling come one of these remaining dates they may even give their usual band tees a break in favor of one as they rock out with Municipal Waste through the rest of April and May. To catch the guys as they come to a city near you check out their next scheduled tour dates.

If you’re nowhere near any of those dates the bands are hitting up, then why not enjoy Toxic Holocaust’s brand new video for “Lord of the Wasteland” from their last album an Overdose of Death… One of the Bloglin’s 40 best albums of 2008!

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725

J/M/Z to Marcy Ave.
G to Broadway
L to Lorimer

AC/DC – Highway to Hell (1979)

Vs.

The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet (1968)

The Game is simple… if only one could exist which would it be? What’s more important… personal relevance, cultural significance, or simply being the better album all other things aside? Choice is yours…

Iron Man #25
Wait a second! Tony Stark, who has been drooling all over himself in a hospital bed, is all of a sudden returned to full capacity? A week before the premiere of the movie. That’s a weird coincidence. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. The dude has been crapping his linens for six months and now he’s rocking out in a sexy new Iron Man suit? Seems convenient. Hmm. Snark for Stark aside, I’m pretty jazzed for this comic book. It’s been well-documented and groaned over that my man-clit is seriously engorged over a) Tony Stark and b) Matt Fraction for a while. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m a broken record, I know.

That said, this shit is consistently one of my favorite comic books. Even if you don’t want to ejaculate over the latex wet dream that is Black Widow, and even if you don’t care for RDJ and the movie franchise, I’d still recommend this shit. This is a jumping point for everyone (again how convenient), but in case you missed it: Stark had a shitload of blood on his hands, and a Green Goblin on his ass. Fraction managed to intertwine interesting concepts of human consciousness when he had Anthony formatting his brainpiece like a hard drive, and the by-now redundant trope that features Tony dealing with the idea that his technology has been used for muy malevolence. But yeah, let me not kid myself. I want to stroke Stark’s mustache and see him repulsor the shit out of some assholes in this edition. The tagline is “The Marvel Universe Starts Here”, and riffing off the the forthcoming Heroic Age, it makes sense.

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Green Lantern Corps #47
Featuring uh, lanterns and shit. Anyone have any recommendations for DC comics? ‘Cause I have a confession to make. I’m not really a DC guy. I just don’t have a strong affection for Plastic  Man, and uh Animal Chick, and whoever the fuck else there is in the community. There’s a zillion universes, and the whatnot. It’s not that I’m prejudiced against them, it’s just that I don’t really delve into the universe that much unless someone makes a recommendation.

I’m not a Marvel Zealot or whatever. I always find it hilarious and sort of sad when people ascribe to one universe only, and fanboy rage at the suggestion that perhaps they’re missing something. It’s like fucking gang wars. Lines are drawn. Fat kids in Superman and Spider-Man t-shirts spit and write polemics about why their universe is superior. As I’ve often said, I tend to venture where the writers I dig are. I mean, Grant Morrison made Animal Man fucking awesome.

It seems like people are cheatin’ themselves by drawing these odd lines of demarcation.

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Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of the classic pulp novel The Killer Inside Me is the first movie of 2010 I’ve been highly anticipating. I’ve been a fan of the book and of noir master Jim Thompson for about a decade, so when this movie was announced last year with Casey Affleck as the lead, I couldn’t have been more excited. Then the six minute sales trailer was released back in November and it became apparent Winterbottom wasn’t going to sugarcoat the book’s violence and S&M aspects.

Then in January 2010, the film screened at Sundance to much uproar. Jessica Alba, who plays prostitute Joyce Lakeland in the film, walked out of the movie halfway through. Afterward, Winterbottom had to answer to an outraged audience (mostly women) who saw the film’s graphic violence towards women gratuitous and glorifying. But there’s no such thing as bad press and the film was scooped up by the brass at IFC.

So is The Killer Inside Me really that violent and misogynistic? Yeah, it is. The two scenes in question are downright brutal. The woman sitting in front of me was covering her eyes and crying at one point. But it’s not gratuitous in the least bit. Remember that this is a movie about a perverse, misogynistic murderer and it’s told from his point of view. And Winterbottom explained in an interview, we’re not supposed to enjoy watching violence. Watching a woman get beat is supposed to make us cringe. In my opinion, Winterbottom used his violence effectively and it’s in no way glorified.

But I don’t want to harp on the film’s violence because Killer is way more than that. They nailed the book. From the jazzy opening credits over Little Willie John’s “Fever” to the end, I was hypnotized by the film’s seductive mood and aesthetics. It’s challenging, gorgeous, hilarious, and as pulpy as a whore’s caved-in face.

Full review/rant after the jump

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