While strolling Echo Park Ave the other day, infamous LA emcee Busdriver dropped into our humble Echo Park abode to peruse the wears and share a few laughs. Fresh off a tour in France & Australia a month ago, Busdriver came had come back to Los Angeles to recharge the battery before heading back to Europe for a couple of solo shows alongside the legendary Grandmixer Q-Bert.

Before his June West Coast tour, Busdriver will be rockin’ at the Canterbury Park Soundset Festival in Minneapolis with Atmosphere, Redman and Method Man among many others. Take a listen below to one  So if you’re anywhere near Europe, Minnesota or California, do yourself a favor and check him out.

Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA
213-536-4234

For an alien-action-mystery movie, Alien Private Eye sure has a lot of dance scenes in it. Lemro is a really good dancer though, so it’s cool. I got this movie in a VHS lot I bought on eBay. There’s a price sticker on the case that says “Cheap Price: 39.95.”

Naked on the Vague – Heaps of Nothing (2010) [Slitbreeze] // Grade: B-

There’s plenty of post-punk referencing music out there. But for every 100 bands that add a few hints of the genre against an album of melodic indie pop, pop/rock or electronic rock, there is one Naked on the Vague, fully embracing the dark, loud and raw elements of the genre and reminding us that much of authentic post-punk was meant for dingy clubs and art spaces, not festival singalongs.

The Australian duo’s follow-up to The Blood Pressure Sessions, the recently released, Heaps of Nothing, is not an easy listen. Opener “Black Lettuce” is a dizzying instrumental mix of guitar and drum machine, a foreboding noise collage that will leave those unfamiliar with the act hesitant.

But before you write-off Naked on the Vague, give vocalist Lucy Phelan the respect of sticking around to experience what is the most genuine sounding no wave voice to exist outside of no wave. Fans of Zola Jesus will find similarities in Phelan’s drawn-out, moan and drone words of “Blank Minds”, but that is only the tip of her range and from there she spirals down into the gutter on “The Joke”, issuing a monotoned manifesto of words you can’t quite pick out over bandmate Matthew Hopkins’s thunderous guitar. Phelan proves she is capable of more than growling on “These Days” which to call outright melodic would be absurd. There’s more than enough obscured vocal distortion for her words to blend into the track’s backing noise, yet at moments she soars above the dark mass in melodic gothic splendor.

While instrumentally their formula of keys, drum machine, guitar and electronics is capable of all manner of massive, psychedelic noise it often feels like Heaps of Nothing is a storm that could do with a break from the lightning. With the exception of “Treading Water’s” melodic guitarline, the album’s seven other tracks fall neatly into one of two categories; heavy droning or crashing assault. The result is a seamless album, but one that blends almost too well for any element of the instrumentation to rise above and stand on its own legs.

Heaps of Nothing is an album requiring patience, but those with a little imagination and a desire to escape into the void will find payoff in the duo’s subverted notes.

Curren$y – King Kong

Curren$y – 16 Switches

Jim Jones & Curren$y- Go

Wiz Khalifa & Curren$y – The Life

Curren$y – Where Da Cash At

Braces on my fangs… Prolly’d? Yes? No? Either way, read more about it here.

P.S. I don’t care what the newscaster says, being a wannabe werewolf is still being Goth in my book.

Black Tusk – Taste the Sin (2010) [Relapse] // Grade: B+

Hailing from the same stomping grounds of the once great DAMAD and the later Kylesa, Black Tusk has been cultivating their sound for years through intense touring, several EPs, splits and one other full-length. One thing’s for sure, they’ve put in their time and since their last full-length, Passage Through Purgatory, in 2008, have sure been busy. I’ve caught their live act a few times and the energy of the two frontman, Athon and Andrew on stage is matched by few. Fast forward to 2010; the year after Baroness’ Blue Record and Kylsesa’s Static Tensions and Black Tusk is looking to make a bigger name for themselves with Taste the Sin. It’s hard to not draw strong similarities between Kylesa and Black Tusk but I think there’s more to this band than worshiping their home-town friends.

The dueling vocals and sudden pauses in “Embrace the Madness” is something that always translates well to their live performance. It’s a powerful track that engages the listener right off the bat. Followed by “Snake Charmer”, a song that evokes the spirit of High on Fire and early sludge of the 90′s. Once again, Athon’s and Andrew’s vocals battle it out, one responding to the other in a madness-inducing entanglement like two cobras wrapping around each other. Like a nightmare, “Red Eyes, Black Skies” marks itself on the scorched Earth as a epic war cry. A straight up 2-step battering ram!

Continuing the good times, Taste the Sin delivers track after track and once you hit “Twist the Knife”, goosebumps arise on your arms and you realize one thing: maybe these guys are embracing the spirit of Kylesa? Is there anything wrong with that? I don’t think so. Many bands have precedents and it only makes sense that Black Tusk would be into one of the bands they looked up to going to shows. I think the one thing that differentiates them from Kylesa is the heavy use of percussion. Maybe it’s the mastering, but James’ drums interplay with the riffs and bass lines so well. It’s hyper-evident when comparing Static Tensions to Taste the Sin with the latter being much darker and heavier.

Every album has its high point. Most albums start off strong and fade out, leaving you with a case of metal blue balls. That’s not the case with Taste the Sin. The last three tracks are all correlated and straight up rip! “The Take Off”, “The Ride” and “The Crash” tell a story. A time-lapse of events that lead to the album’s ending. “The Crash” doesn’t even have to try at this point. They’ve got you hooked and at the first howling vocal line, you’re ready to fuck some shit up! Do I hear D-Beat? Yes.

One thing’s for sure, Black Tusk’s crust-infused, sludge fest Taste the Sin doesn’t have to try to be anything special because it already is in my top 10 list of 2010. The water in Savannah, Georgia is breeding some fucking killer bands. I can’t wait to hear their next split and catch them live again! It’s a highly-recommended album.

Order you copy of The Erotic Photography of Ellen Stagg!

I’m proud to announce the first coffee table book of my work from . It is a 100 pages full of my favorite images from the start of my erotic project from 2005-2008.  There are Images of Justine Joli, Jelena Jensen, Aria Giovanni, Kimberly Kane, Ryan Keely, Joanna Angel and many, many more.

The whole book is full of NSFW big colorful images that are so sexy you’ll tire the pages out! Plus anyone who orders the book is entitled to a free a membership to my site Stagg Street! I have free memberships for 6 months or a full year depending on the size (8 x 10 or 11 x 13) of my book you end up getting .

Check after the jump for a few NSFW outtakes from the book, oh my! (more…)

Yo yo yo yo, Ninjasonik have a video out and that’s great and all but they’ve had like FOUR already and so it’s not that big a deal. Cerebral Ballzy on the other hand just put out their FIRST music video and that makes it big news.  People only care about the first child, right?

Here’s the video for “Insufficient Fare”. It’s a whole lot of skating, drinking and hopping turnstyles, like you know.