Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Joshua Norton Cabal/ Disgust


After around 18 months of delays the Norton/ Disgust split is out on Small Doses.

Disgust's tracks are predictably great and there's an unexpected xbrainiax cover. I did three tracks (in one), recorded around the same time as Between Two Fires.

You can listen to samples and buy it here

In the layout it looks like i'm crediting myself with the quote that comes from The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell. My fault entirely.

Reading:

The Dominion of the Dead - Robert Pogue Harrison
Chips and Beer - issue 1
Culture and Materialism - Raymond Williams
History of Sexuality vol 1 - Michel Foucault
The Immortalization Commision: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death - John Gray

Listening:

Wasteoids - demo
Owl Eyes - demo
Morbosidad/ Pseudogod 12"
Sutekh Hexen - Luciform 12"

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Some Random Thoughts of Relatively Little Consequence

Being the old guy at the show sometimes gets a little irritating, mostly it just adds to the distance i already perceive between myself and a lot of the human race.

My tour journals are frequently filled with references to the Peter Pan like nature of some local scenes; in parts of the US you are perpetually playing to a different group of under 20 year olds, no matter how often you go back over a period of years.

The biggest drawback of this level of transience is that discussions are sometimes perpetually stuck at entry level, see for example any internet discussion of power violence, something that everyone over the age of 30 was bored of ten years ago. It's hard to build on ideas and concepts if everything has to cycle back to the beginning.

Sometimes on tour i feel like i'm the man that time forgot, every year i get older than my audience. There's definitely something that reminds you of your own mortality to be found in touring in an underground band when you get over 30.

I've Been Looking at Everything Backwards Until Recently

The success of the international underground is one of a strange consistency and permenance despite the almost ever changing audience.

The audiences change, but the form of DIY shows stays the same; cram as many of your friends as you can into a small room with no adult supervision and go fucking nuts to a band. There's an undeniable beauty to that kind of simplicity.

The core values and approaches remain consistent despite the transient nature of the audience. It's almost like some kind of tenuous proof that the path many of us in the life have followed and are still following is a vital aspect of existence that's embedded into a wider consciousness. It's music and specifically the culture of music as an atavistic urge. I loosely verbalised an aspect of this eternal nature of ideas in the Blockade song Irrationalism Uber Alles.

Fellow old guy in a band, Sean from Suffering Luna,  sees shows in terms of Victor Turner's concept of Liminality. I'm just going to be lazy and pull a quote from Wikipedia here: Liminality refers "to in-between situations and conditions that are characterized by the dislocation of established structures, the reversal of hierarchies, and uncertainty regarding the continuity of tradition and future outcomes".

There isn't much of a conclusion to be had here other than to say that the comfort i find in underground culture is not to be found in the consistency of the audience (because it isn't consistent), but in the consistency of ideas and approaches.



Shank, 2003, a show that happened a life time ago by hardcore standards

Sunday, September 4, 2011

a small follow up

Buy tickets for Not Dead Yet here

the shows will sell out

for out of towners who don't know, Poor Alex Theatre and Hard Luck Bar are practically next door to each other, so if you're feeling flush you can catch bands at shows on at both venues, it looks like the line ups are set up so people can go between shows, but you should check first.

this place is cheap if you need somewhere to stay

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Chaos in Ontario?


I've finally agreed to Column of Heaven's inaugural Live Ritual Desekration Ov Filth and Impurity, which is Finnish for "we're playing a gig"

This is the night we're playing:

Saturday October 22
Poor Alex Theatre
772 Dundas St. W.
7pm - all ages - $18

DROPDEAD
SCAPEGOAT
VEINS
PICK YOUR SIDE (ex-Haymaker)
HOAX
COLUMN OF HEAVEN
OWL EYES
 
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the entry price gets you into the after show, the Direct Control show that's happening practically next door and the show at the Silver Dollar, but i could be wrong.

(It's true, i'm frequently wrong about stuff)
 
Column of Heaven line up: Bloomer, King, Nolan, Simpson.
 
There will be a Blockade tape available at this show that we recorded in our space a few weeks before our final show, left over copies will go to 20 Buck Spin and Absurd Exposition. It's basically our live set of the time and the only recording that had Bloomer involved.
 
Listening:
 
Bastard Noise/ Actuary split LP
Furze - Reaper Subconscious Guide LP
Unholy Majesty - demo
 
Reading:
 
Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Salvation in Southern Appalachia - Dennis Covington
Northlanders - Brian Wood