STIMULATORS – Loud Fast Rules!

By the early 1980s, the New York punk scene started to take on a new and more aggressive sound than heard before. The ‘70s brought a mix of New Wave and punk rock (Blondie, Television, The Ramones) through the doors of venues like CBGB’s, but by the 1980s that sound started to evolve. Bands started to up the beats per minute and added more distortion and speed to their guitars, while vocals got more and more aggressive — and so, the New York hardcore/thrash sound came to be.

On the crest of this crossover, the Stimulators were one of the first bands to start to incorporate this new aggressive sound. Loud Fast Rules features the band performing live back in 1980, featuring a 12-year-old Harley Flanagan on drums (Flanagan would go on to play drums and bass for the infamous New York City hardcore outfit Cro-Mags). The original release of Loud Fast Rules was released on cassette, so the audio on this re-release is about as good as you can expect from drawing the masters off of a mono-analog recording. The music itself is raw and driving, especially on the more fast tempo tunes like “M.A.C.H.I.N.E” and “Crazy House Rock.” There are also some more catchy pop-hooked songs featured here like “Dah Dah Dah” and “Blind Ambition,” and a cover of Kiss’s “Rock and Roll All Night.” There’s a lot of Ramones and Clash influence in these songs as well (and as expected).

Going back to Harley Flanagan, the fact he was only 12 years old when this was recorded blows me away. His drumming is clearly the highlight of this album, extremely tight. Re-releasing Loud Fast Rules will give the masses a chance to pick up a pivotal piece of New York music history, an album that influenced a generation of underground musicians not just in New York, but the world over.

(ROIR, PO Box 150-460, Van Brunt Station, Brooklyn, NY 11215)

ANARCHY EVOLUTION: FAITH, SCIENCE, AND BAD RELIGION IN A WORLD WITHOUT GOD by Greg Graffin and Steve Olson

It could be said that Greg Graffin shares a lot in common with the fictional character Indiana Jones. Both are professors at universities. Both have a deep desire to study history. Both have battled it out with Nazis — well, okay, maybe not exactly, but Greg did have to deal with the racist skinhead contingent in the LA punk scene in the early ’80s. Nonetheless, the one main bond between the two is a desire to understand the world’s histories through the study of facts and evidence.

Anarchy Evolution explores what is at the root of the inquisitive mind of Dr. Graffin when it comes to the subject of evolutionism versus creationism. The study of evolutionism through the works of people like Charles Darwin fascinated Greg as a child and proved to be a driving force in his life as laid out in this book, and, of course, in the lyrics to Bad Religion’s music.

Anarchy Evolution reads like two books in one. Half of the book is written in an autobiographical sense as Graffin details growing up in Wisconsin, his family, moving out west to LA, and the events leading up to the founding of Bad Religion with Brett Gurewitz. The other half reads like a textbook, with detailed passages that feel like they came right out of his lecture series at UCLA (where he teaches evolution). He ties the personal and educational together by drawing examples of how certain parts of his life (especially his teenage years) echo the natural effects of anarchic evolution — hence the title of the book.
Graffin challenges almost every aspect of religious rule in this book, well beyond evolution. He challenges the claim of an eternal afterlife and spends a good deal of time talking about the falsehood of natural selection. He also tackles the issue of being an atheist. Graffin himself doesn’t really consider himself a so-called atheist, but really a “naturalist” — as in someone who believes solely that no supernatural entities were or are involved in creating what we know as the universe. His naturalist worldview is based upon “observation, experiment, and verification.” He spends a good deal of time in this book detailing many of his adventures observing nature and gathering evidence in collegiate field studies, including an amazing story about a trip to the Amazon while working at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History in 1987. This trip would change Greg’s life forever.

Much of Anarchy Evolution could be considered adequate reading material for an introduction into the history of evolutionary biology. After all, this was written by someone who teaches this material to students at UCLA. So some of this material might be already common knowledge, depending on your educational background. If you’re not up on the subject of evolutionary biology, don’t be surprised if you have to re-read passages as some of this information is quite deep in facts, names, and dates. Luckily, there are nearly 50 pages of cited notes in the back of the book.

For the Bad Religion fans out there, this book will also please your need for random stories about people and places involved in the creation of the band and the making of some of your favorite albums. So while you’re learning about why Greg Graffin was arrested in high school, you’ll also be learning about a certain type of ant that lives in the forests of central Mexico.

Anarchy Evolution is clearly a work of love by a man that loves his work. His views on religion don’t aim to offend, but rather to question the religious status quo. He simply refuses to believe in something that he can’t observe or investigate, as it goes against his naturalist worldview. He studied the evidence and came to the conclusion that there is no supernatural being issuing a hand of assistance (or dominance) in creating the world and universe as we know it today, tomorrow, and in the distant past. He invites you to question the answers and make up your own mind by doing your own investigating and observing. A very insightful and interesting read.

THIEVERY CORPORATION – It Takes a Thief

Eric Hilton and Rob Garza started the DJ’ed dub and lounge sounds of Thievery Corporation nearly 15 years ago with a minimalistic approach on their debut album, Sounds From the Thievery Hi-Fi. The album featured a mix of mostly DJ’ed dub beats with little live instrumentation, some sampled vocals ,and a couple guest vocalists.

Since then, Garza and Hilton have evolved their sound by encompassing a rotating roster of world music’s who’s who, creating a sound that intertwines the world of down-tempo electrified lounge with the acoustic cultural sounds of planet earth. It Takes a Thief takes 16 of the Corporation’s “best of” tracks and displays them for all to hear. Unfortunately, there is not one track featured from that debut album. What can be found on this album is a collection of tracks mainly from the 2000 release The Mirror Conspiracy all the way to present day, with their newest album Radio Retaliation.

As expected, “Lebanese Blonde” (you know, the one from the movie Garden State), featuring the amazing vocals of Pam Bricker, is on here, along with other great ass-shaking  tracks like “Sound The Alarm,” “The Richest Man in Babylon,” “Warning Shots,” and “Vampires.” There are also some really nice laid-back tracks on here, including “Sweet Tides” and “Until Morning.” The compilation also includes the song “The Passing Stars,” a track that appeared as an instrumental on the album The Cosmic Game under the title of  “A Gentile Dissolve.” This particular version features vocals sung by  Bricker.

In all, It Takes a Thief does a fine job showcasing Thievery Corporation’s style and musical capabilities. A good album for someone who just found out about Thievery Corporation  and aren’t too familiar with their music.

(ESL Music, 1849 Calvert Street, Washington, DC 20009)

Show Review: Megadeth and Slayer at the Long Beach Arena, 8/30/10

Megadeth Front-man Dave Mustaine
 

Getting both Megadeth and Slayer to tour together again wasn’t an easy feat to say the least. It had been nearly 19 years since they shared a stage on the “Clash of the Titans” tour and feuds between Megadeth’s front man Dave Mustaine and Slayer guitarist Kerry King deteriorated much of the respect between the bands over the past two decades. Through the animosity and name-calling, both Mustaine and King have buried the hatchet and moved on within the past year, thus giving birth to the “American Carnage” tour.

The tour was initially slated to kick off in January but was postponed due to Slayer bassist/vocalist Tom Araya’s need for back surgery, as the pain was too intense to tour through. The tour was eventually rescheduled in April.

“We canceled two tours, and I don’t feel great about that, but I couldn’t deal with the pain anymore, and that’s now completely gone,” said Araya in a press release. “I know the fans are excited to see the band — the tour is on, we’re keeping our word, there will be no more cancellations.”

As I pulled into the Long Beach Arena parking lot, it was clear Tom’s words were spot on. The fans were beyond excited to see both Slayer and Megadeth team up again for a tour as a 2010 version of Heavy Metal Parking Lot played out before my eyes. Fans young and old partied it up in the expansive parking lot. Taking in the loud music blasting from car stereos (mainly Megadeth and Slayer) and some brews before converging into the arena. I also couldn’t help but notice two older gentlemen holding signs reading “REPENT OF YOUR WICKED HEART OF UNBELIEF,” “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN,” and “ASK ME WHY YOU DESERVE HELL.” Clearly these men were God-fearing faith-filled individuals who were there to confront the concert-goers of their enjoyment of the evil sounds of heavy metal. As people passed these two men in line, they were randomly flipped off and one young man even dropped his pants and bent over, exposing his bare ass. The consensus was clear: they sold their souls for rock and roll!

Upon entering the arena, I could hear Testament warming up the crowd with their music. Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control, I missed just about all of Testament’s set.

As Megadeth set up for their performance, I strolled along the arena floor taking in the scene. The crowd was still pouring into the arena, filling in the seats on the upper level and taking up space on the standing room only arena floor. Shouts of “Slayer!” could be heard randomly throughout the arena, all while the PA system cranked out “Walk” by Pantera, causing the crowd to chant out the chorus in unison : “RE...SPECT...WALK!”

Eventually the lights turned off and the stage turned blood red as a heavy fog crept across the entire span of the stage. Behind the drum kit, the artwork for the album Rust in Peace was featured predominantly and Jello Biafra’s spoken word piece “Message From Our Sponsor” played as one by one the members of Megadeth took the stage.

Being the 20th anniversary of Rust in Peace, They proceeded to play the album in its entirety. Mustaine dawned a custom Rust in Peace Flying-V guitar and put that guitar good use through solos during songs like “Hangar 18” and “Rust in Peace…Polaris.” Key interaction and communication between Mustaine, bassist Dave Ellefson, and guitarist Chris Broderick were noticeable as all three played very tight. At times, the vocals were hard to hear over the guitars but for the most part the acoustics were rather impressive, especially for an arena show. Mustaine’s vocals were mostly on point, but it’s clear he doesn’t have the pipes he had 20 years ago (plus, look at what he did to himself over the years…the man is lucky to be alive).

At one point, during the song “Dawn Patrol,” Ellefson and drummer Shawn Drover were the only two people on the stage. As Ellefson drove out the bass line that served as the base of the song, Megadeth’s “mascot” Vic Rattlehead walked out and acted out the lyrics spoken backstage by Mustaine. Dressed in the business suit as he appears on the cover of Rust in Peace, this definitely added a theatrical feel to the show. They finished off the album set with “Rust in Peace…Polaris” and left the stage, only to come back a few minutes later to perform an encore.

As an encore, They played “Trust,” “Headcrusher” (off of their newest album Endgame), “À Tout le Monde (Set Me Free)”, “Symphony of Destruction,” and, lastly, “Peace Sells.” After a rousing cheer from the crowd, Dave and crew left the stage…now it was time for Slayer.

I will say this for the record : Slayer has some of the most loyal and hardcore fans ever. Even while watching Megadeth during their encore, this guy stood next to me — clearly enjoying what he was hearing and shouted “Megadeth!” only to back it up with “…but it’s all about Slayer!” You could feel a difference in the crowd once it was time for Slayer to take the stage. Like a calm before a storm, you knew you were going to be witnessing something special. Once the house lights turned down, the music started and the huge white sheet covering the stage dropped to the ground revealing Slayer and all hell broke loose.

They started out with the title cut off of their newest album World Painted Blood and then went into playing Seasons in the Abyss in its entirety, since it also is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Musically, Slayer is about as fast and as brutal as you are going to get when it comes to thrash metal: lighting fast guitar riffs provided by Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, backed up the driving deep bass lines of Tom Araya and insanely fast drumming of Dave Lombardo. These guys have been on top of their game since the ’80s, and tonight’s performance was no exception. Sporting his usual getup of catcher’s knee-pads and a Raiders jersey, Hanneman was simply unstoppable with his screamin’ solos on songs like “War Ensemble” and “Dead Skin Mask.” A few times during their performance, King and Hanneman had dueling solos, one trying to one-up the other. Araya seemed to be feeling fine as he belted out song after song, even allowing the crowd to fill in for him on “Expendable Youth” and “Dead Skin Mask.” Lombardo’s drumming is something amazing to witness live as he pounded out song after song for a good 80 minutes with amazing accuracy and power.

As they finished up with the album set, they continued on playing a few songs as encores including “South of Heaven,” “Raining Blood,” and ending the show with “Angel of Death.” Throughout the show, the crowd sang along almost louder than Araya’s vocals and many let their long locks fly as they banged their heads to the music.

Much like Megadeth’s set, Slayer played very tight and the guitar solos were nearly flawless, but one thing set Slayer’s performance aside from Megadeth’s was their relentlessness. Slayer’s ability to relentlessly manhandle the crowd with their music and energy proved to be the highlight of the evening. Honestly speaking, Slayer’s set proved to be one of the most energetic musical experience I have witnessed. Don’t get me wrong, Megadeth put on one hell of a show as well, but when you factor in Slayer’s rabid fans and the excitement instilled by Slayer’s music, there’s no doubt about it that Slayer stole the show!

Seeing one half of the “Big Four” in thrash metal was an amazing experience. As I was leaving the arena, some random guy slaps me on the back and says, “That was one hell of a show, wasn’t it?” Yes, my friend, yes it was!

PICTURES - Megadeth at the Long Beach Arena - Long Beach, CA - 8-30-2010

MAD CADDIES – Consentual Selections

After 15 years, five full length albums, and a rotating roster of musicians, the Mad Caddies are pulling out all the stops and are finally releasing a “best of” album. Consensual Selections features 22 cuts from the Caddies past plus two new tracks. For those unfamiliar to the the Caddies’ sound, their eclectic ska-punk sound is mixed with various musical influences. From polka (“All American Badass”), to Spanish (“Just One More”), and even pirate dirge (“Weird Beard”), the boys from Solvang, California have remained true to their whimsical yet musically impressive roots year after year, album after album — even if the California ska scene has returned to its underground two-toned cave in recent times.

The tracks selected for this album do a really good job representing the essence of the Mad Caddies. Most of the tracks here focus mainly on the Caddies music after their debut album Quality Soft Core, although they did add “The Bell Tower” and “Preppy Girl” to show off their oldest material (where’s “Crew Cut Chuck?”). “Save Us” and “Why Must I Wait” are two previously unreleased songs, both of which don’t disappoint.

Consensual Selections would be fitting for someone new to the Caddies, but for those who have been singing along with these tunes for nearly two decades, this is a fine tribute to one of the best third-wave ska acts to come out of the Golden State.

(Fat Wreck Chords, PO Box 19360, San Francisco, CA 94119)

THE ADICTS – Life Goes On

After 35 years of being a staple of the English punk rock scene, The Adicts are still tearing it up. Amazingly featuring all original members, they’ve released their eight studio record Life Goes On. Being only familiar with their older material (mainly their infamous album Songs of Praise), I have to admit that this new album features a much more matured sound than that of their youth — although, there’s still strong evidence of that silliness and bouncy feeling found in so much of that UK punk from the ’80s.

That bouncy pop sound can be heard through much of the album, especially on songs like “Spank Me Baby” and the title track “Life Goes On.” The song “Gangster” throws an audible wrench in the sound of the album, with a sound that could be described as an electronically twisted acoustical piece likely to be found on a soundtrack to some David Lynch spaghetti western. There is a instrumental cut of “Gangster” featured as a bonus track at the end of Life Goes On. Otherwise, the album stays pretty consistent with The Adicts style of punk, very light hearted and carefree.

Musically, these vets of the UK punk scene still have it. It’s a fun album with a lot of sing-along moments that The Adicts have been bringing to us for over three decades.

(Century Media, 2323 W. El Segundo Blvd., Hawthorne, CA 90250)