We’re all in cahoots that Tron Legacy is going to slay when it comes out, right? Judging from the teaser trailers and all the images released by Disney, it seems as though they are handling the reboot of this franchise perfectly. A Daft Punk score seems like the fix of Nuke on top of this sundae, and Hypetrack has leaked sample tracks to stoke the fiends even further. The drops are much more ambient than I expected when first learning Daft Punk was doing the score. It really, REALLY works.

Click Here to Listen to tracks of Daft Punk’s score for Tron Legacy

Entrails - Tales From the Morgue (2010) [F.D.A.] // Grade: A+

Sometimes it takes a while for a band to get their footing. That’s the case with the Swedish death metal band Entrails. After playing numerous shows and releasing two demos, they finally put out a full-length. Sure, that may not sound like a huge deal but when you take into account that Entrails have been around since 1991 it begins to solidify. Seriously? Almost 20 years of playing and never putting out a full-length? If that doesn’t add some background to the band’s story then I don’t know what will.

In the golden age of death metal, a few bands stuck through the trends and the horrid Göteborg sound I harp on so much here. Entrails is one of those bands and Tales From the Morgue marks this slightly nostalgic throwback in stone. Great songwriting, classicly-compressed riffs and tons of great sound clips will have your feet tapping at your desk. If you can make it through the first track “Intro – Tales From The Morgue”, you’re in for a long ride! Taking older tracks from previous demos and re-recording them in a legitimate sound studio gives the album some extra life. It’s over 20 years in the making for chrissake! “Blood Red” sold me on the album and it’s the first song. Amazing lyrics and composing that took the classic death metal sound and made it into a legitimate genre. No gimmicks just jams.

Want a bit of a pick-me-up? “Voices” are there for you. Kicking it into high gear and offering up another dose of death. “Voices tell me what to say and do”. Sing it man. More distortion and more chaos is on the way with “Breath Of Blood” and “Entrails” with the latter offering up a blast beat clusterfuck right off the bat. Here’s where you can notice the transition between the old and new songs. “Stormy Death” and “Euthanasia” are well-composed and show a great deal of growth in the band’s songwriting. “Euthanasia” has one of the sickest intros I’ve heard to date in any death metal album. This is the shit nightmares are made of. Slowing it down a bit and opening up the circle pit is “Evil Obsession” which is once again offset by a somber intro into “Triumph Of The Sinners”. That’s one of the key moves that the band has mastered: breathing room. There’s a chance to digest it all, even if it’s force-fed to you in vomit-inducing gulps.

Like all good things, Tales From the Morgue must be laid to rest. But they’re not putting you under without a few choice cuts and chops to your sternum. “The Morgue” is easily one of the most sincerely powerful tracks on the album. The story telling and terror that goes into the lyrics is comical in some demented and overly-serious way. Want something a little easier to fade away to? “The Curse Of Death” is there, ending the album with a slow and serious intro, followed immediately by perfect percussions and the vocals that I’ve become obsessed, or possessed with rather. Everyone’s on the “old school death metal” kick as of late, but few deliver like Entrails. With almost two decades of decapitation under their belt, these Swedes mean business. Step into the morgue, if you dare! Tales From the Morgue is a must-have.

On another seemingly ordinary day in Los Angeles at the Мишка store in Echo Park, one of the most notorious 80′s guitar slayers dropped in to cop our (initially shelved) exclusive LA Death Adder tee and least but not least, share some memorable stories from his brief but epic run in pop culture history. None other than Billy Bob Brockali of The Rock-afire Explosion band is who we’re talking about here. So after a quick run to the coffee house, we sat for a quick talk and little did we know but the whole gang of Мишка LA mascots joined in on the festivities.

I don’t really know if they were more interested in the LA Death Adder tee we just released or the fucked up story of how The Rock-afire Explosion band got their jobs hijacked by Munch’s Make Believe Band. After talking us to sleep, Billy Bob cracked open some Love, Sex, Fear, Death reading and almost threw up after reading about torturing dogs.

In any event, we over here at Мишка LA are excited to bring this limited run of LA Death Adder tees to life. They come in 2 color-ways of black & magenta and grey & blue. Who knows, maybe we’ll get another visit from Billy Bob or perhaps hard-hitting drummer Dook LaRue will pop up.

Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
213-546-4234

“ATL Get Pitted” Preview from Wish Atlanta on Vimeo.

This has been a long time in the making. Atlanta-based streetwear shop Wish teamed up with my homies at No Brakes ATL to get together on a 3-year anniversary race. Because they love Мишка so much, they asked us to work on a little collaboration project with them. Enter the “Get Pitted” Georgia peach iconography of the DART line.

To help promote the event, Wish put up this nice little “ATL Get Pitted” preview video. Solid background guys! Now everyone go to the event this weekend and get pitted!

The Books - The Way Out (2010) [Temporary Residence] // Grade: B

The Books’ Nick Zammuto has a favorite irrational number. Twelfth root of two. It’s a music theory thing, this algebraic situation thematically responsible for the flickering electro-folk of “Beautiful People”, and the fact that Zammuto can pinpoint it directly—and do so well enough to dub it favorite—speaks tomes about the collagist duo: they approach music like scientists, mathematicians. Like archeologists. Zammuto and partner Paul de Jong unearth facts and figures, forge songs from the forgotten discourse of numbers, dates and New Age self-help tapes. And maybe they’re nerds about it, maybe, but maybe that’s the only way; Matmos are nerds too, you know.

Not that any of that matters. Since 2002′s Thoughts For Food, Zammuto and de Jong have presented themselves solely as makers of albums; two pretty normal guys stitching together found samples and acoustic harmonies—all manner of cello, guitar, far-out vocals—into songs that shouldn’t make sense but then, out of nowhere, make perfect sense. And if you were ever able to see the seams, finger the stitching or at least suspect it, The Way Out mediates all that. This fourth album (and first since 2006) is the smoothest of the lot, built from a pile of collected Talkboy tapes and Gandhi bytes, some I’m Okay, You’re Okay recorded meditation. Tracks sweep from cartoonish knocks and Bladerunner stutters (“A Cold Freezin’ Night”, feat. aforementioned kid’s Talkboy) to fuzzy arpeggios growling on a dime (“I Am Who I Am”) and the haunted acoustic tracks quietly punctuating the thing: “All You Need Is A Wall” and “We Bought The Flood” are beautiful in the way respite is beautiful. A break from so much clatter.

But even this album, this best of The Books’ best, doesn’t channel much in the way of spontaneity. You get the sense that everything here is air-tight and controlled, that every click and clack, every staticky sample and slide guitar, was meticulously considered, then mapped out. Favorite numbers, remember? And that’s not qualitatively a bad thing, but it is a thing; if you’ve never cottoned much to the science of sound, chances are you’ll struggle with 35% of this album—comparable, in all fairness, to the 60% you would’ve struggled with on albums past. But then, if that’s the case, you’re probably not paying attention to The Books anyway. However smooth and (comparably) visceral, The Way Out is still music for sound nerds. Witty music for sound nerds, fun and sometimes gorgeous music for sounds nerds, but…you know, the facts remain.

I. Mater Suspiria Vision – The Drone Cabinet of Doctor Trance

II. PWIN ▲▲ TEAKS – Phantasmagoria (Mater Suspiria Vision Remix)

III. Mater Suspiria Vision – Rasputin (Ghost Drone Edit)

IV. Mater Suspiria Vision – Love Machine (Video Edit)

V. Mater Suspiria Vision – I Show You Secrets (Temple of Drone Trance Remix)

Daniel Pinchbeck – a 2012′er I can actually get behind

I’ve always avoided the 2012 Doom Merchants and their far fetched forecasts of apocalyptic disaster. For decades they’ve been selling the paranoid paranoia and hocking self-published books typed in a priori fonts of unaccountability. The sky will boil. Water to blood. Ohh oh your city lies in dust, my friend. Brochures of a wasteland vacation for the cataclysmic tourist. And now that will call for the holocaust opens in less than 2 years, all the sopranos are changing the lyrics to our favorite song.

Well, we never really meant that the world will explode into shards, little boys and girls, it was just metaphor. An allegory for the awakening that is truly at hand! What I really meant is… well it’s all explained in my new revolutionary book that will change the way you see the world! Step right up!

Daniel Pinchbeck and Graham Hancock discuss the real 2012… great stuff in here

How much money has been made off some ancient calendar whose scribes figured they’ve done enough heavy lifting for the time being? Map out 2013 later, we’re late to the Shaman’s Ayahuasca vision quest ceremony! How’s this theory: It’s the end of an epoch where one astrological cycle ends and a new one begins.

In fact, things have never been better! We’re in great shape. Look at how much money we all have! Look at all the businesses that are booming and we all just got a raise! Oh wait, scratch that. Well, at least our water is clean, right? Oh yeah. Well at least we aren’t in the throes of everlasting holy war. What’s that you say?
(more…)

For me, one of the biggest rewards of being a bicycle blogger is traveling to various cities and diving into their culture. In some cities, the culture is spearheaded by one body or shop. When you go to San Diego, the cycling scene has been sparked by none other than Velo Cult. Sky and the team prove that no matter where you are, you can ignite passion in cycling. Southern California may not strike you as a region rich in bicycles but that’s because you’ve yet to enter the cult.

Ever see that show Horders? Sure you have. It’s all about people who collect relentlessly and refuse to discard anything. While the team at Velo Cult isn’t that bad, you can see a certain degree of passion in their ever-growing stock and personal stable.

Like any bike shop, regardless of clientele, doing repairs is what keeps them afloat. I always say that you can tell what kind of shop you’re in by the bikes in the repair stand. Whether it’s a cruiser with a flat or a carbon fiber road bike getting a new groupo, what’s in the stand tells a lot about the work the shop is known for. Take this beauty for example. Pure Italian steel.

Hanging from the rafters like pieces of art, the collection at Velo Cult is inspiring enough to make even non-cyclists appreciate the soul craft that went into constructing them.

I love Eddy Merckx bikes…

The Campagnolo tool set is a collector’s holy grail. No one did it better than Campy and still, to this day, the Campy tool set is one of the most sought-after pieces of cycling history.

When I stepped into the cult, they offered me their version of Koolaid.

Just look at that mechanic’s area.

The guys are also working on a book that’s filled with, um, bike porn.

Here’s Moose, the shop dog. He guards the guys from the delinquents. If you’re diggin on these photos, check out more at my blog and my Flickr. Thanks to Sky and the crew at Velo Cult for showing me around!

Puffy Areolas - In the Army 1981 (2010) [Slitbreeze] // Grade: B-

Have you been itching to have your mind melted lately? Look no further than effing awesome band Puffy Areolas and their debut album In The Army 1981. It is start to finish hardcore eardrum ringing loudness that I just can’t get enough of! The group has released CD-Rs and tapes in the past but they’ve always been hard to come by. The bloggers out there that have had the chance to see Puffy Areolas live have been ranting and raving at how these guys are so stellar live and judging from this album I can totally see why the hype.

The Ohio based 6 piece band are an experimental hardcore shitgaze group that lie somewhere in between thrash punk and psychedelic music. Tracks “Escape from Guyana”, “Noble Riot”, and “Fuck Your Pretzel” straight up rage with Krauty’s screeching vocals mixed on top of heavy reverbed guitar and kickin’ drums. “Puking in Piss”, “Heart Attack” and “Get Me Out of Houston” showcase the band’s psych side due to the unpredictability of the instruments and infusion of some crazy sax and some odd synapse flying spacey sounds. It’s “1981” that is the  real winner off because it perfectly mixes all those elements that Puffy Areolas experiments with on other tracks and brings it together in a cohesive mess for the ears. It is more likely to win over listeners not familiar with this genre but still kills in the brain rattling noise department. With their “I don’t give a shit” attitude, Krauty’s raspy screams of “DEATHCRAZE!!” epically noisy guitars, and pulse racing drums, it’s “Deathcraze” that yanks my chain the most off this album.In The Army 1981

If anything, In The Army 1981 has definitely sold me on scoping out Puffy Areolas live. They’re one act that hipsters better put the iPhones away somewhere safe because this band is going to make you thrash and spaz out HARD.

The Vinyl Frontier is a documentary film by Daniel Zana that explores the world of vinyl toys. I remember last SDCC Daniel premiered the trailer for this film (see above), well a year later and he’s done with the movie getting a premiere at the San Diego Comic Con Film Festival. Here is a little of what Daniel had to say about making the film:

I started the film about 4 years ago with the desire to document an incredible art movement that I was just starting to get into myself. As I began collecting these toys, i wanted to know more about the process, the artists, the works inspiring the toys, the collectors, etc. So I set out and contacted as many interviewees as I could find to get a more accurate view about the vinyl toy world. The result is a feature length documentary film (my first) that features over 35 artists, collectors, scholars, and toy makers who shed some light on the fascinating and somewhat new mode of expression.

The film premieres Friday July 23rd at 5:55 pm at SDCC. For those of you that are not there (like me) but live in NYC (like me) There is going to be a screening at the ACE FEST, on Saturday, August 28th at Tribeca Cinemas. Daniel and a number of artists from the movie will be in attendance, so make sure you check it out!