Saturday, March 6, 2010 No Comments
Hey 
so… so far 2010 has been relatively uneventful. Blame snowpocalypse… I do. Haha… sigh. Ok, so metal is not revving our engines right now… I know it’s just a drought. I, in fact, have plans to see Unearth in Richmond in two weekends, and Mastodon in April. The Mayhem lineup is looking, um, interesting – Lamb of God will be a fucking blast. Ozzfest may be coming back… we shall see. What I know is that I still support the scene and am waiting for the next thing about which to be truly excited. And when that happens, I will report it here first. In the meantime… Anima is alright. They kinda sound like Whitechapel. But… I prefer Whitechapel. Oh, and tonight I dedicate to Vehemence and God Was Created… and it looks like Howard Jones may have knocked up a pornstar. Whoa.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 No Comments
So I started this blog with full intentions of being timely… haha, i’ll try to move my ass a bit faster next time – nevertheless, here’s my two cents:
Ah, the Grammy’s. As much of a movie buff as I may consider myself to be and love the Oscars, music is my passion and the highest awards for music are in the form of a little golden victrola called the Grammy.
Since this is a metal blog, out of the 110 categories, there are only 2 with which we will even bother to concern ourselves. The first is Best Hard Rock Performance, whose perspective nominees this year were as follows:
Inside The Fire – Disturbed (from Indestructible)
Visions – Judas Priest (from Nostradamus)
Wax Simulacra – The Mars Volta
Saints Of Los Angeles-Mötley Crüe
Lords Of Salem -Rob Zombie (from Zombie Live)
Snaps for the Crue nomination (I got mightily attached to Motley Crue last year after reading Nikki Sixx’s autobiography “The Heroin Diaries”… go buy that book if you wanna see what it was like to be high, famous and covered in groupies in the 80’s.) The winner this year was the Mars Volta, which is a fine choice.
The second (and most important category) is Best Metal Performance; these were the prospective nominees:
Heroes Of Our Time -DragonForce
Nostradamus -Judas Priest
My Apocalypse – Metallica
Under My Thumb – Ministry
Psychosocial – Slipknot
I’m not gonna say a word about Judas Priest being nominated in BOTH categories… not a word. If you guys know me at all, you know how I feel about the latest Slipknot record and why a LIVE Rob Zombie record would be nominated as one of the top five anything is completely beyond me… But as much as these nominees trouble me, HEY check it out, whaddyknow, for the 51rst Annual Grammy Awards, METALLICA wins again. For sure, back when Jethro Tull was winning the metal/rock category every year, slighting the shit out of Metallica who was up for the their …And Justice For All Song “One” and was pwned… when Metallica finally won for “Enter Sandman” in 1992, all of us metal people (and even a bunch of nonmetal people) shared a gigantic sigh of relief. FINALLY a metal band, winning the metal category, the way it should be.
However, do you know who votes for the Best Metal Performance Grammy? People who are in the Academy – the same people who vote for best Country Duo and best R&B song also vote for the best heavy metal record. How the fuck do THEY know who to vote for? AH! They DON’T. Wouldn’t you think that a genre (which is riddled with subgenres) as specific and complicated as metal deserves to be voted on by people who are actually in the metal scene and understand the genre on which they will be casting their vote? I’d say the same about jazz, by the way… and perhaps classical music.
Last year, Slayer won for a RE-ISSUE of Christ Illusion. Up against metal heavyweights Mastodon (who in my humble yet highly educated opinion should have won for Blood Mountain) and Lamb of God, along with perhaps a band who I love and respect but should be placed in an industrial category (which doesn’t exist) and not a metal category, but again, that’s just me… Minstry. But honestly, you know what’s going through our Academy Voters’ heads as they stare at the gargantuan multi-page ballot? “Hmmmmm… Slayer. I know that name! Let’s vote for Slayer!” And thus, Slayer goes home with the Grammy, not actually because their song was the BEST. But because their name is the MOST recognizable to the random ass people who get to vote. Just as I’m sure Metallica went home with the Grammy this year because everyone is so stuck in the past with the Jethro Tull nonsense from 20 years ago,
I still hold to the idea that one day, I, too, will be a recipient of a Grammy Award due to something incredible that I had a hand in, but really, winning a Grammy these days doesn’t say much about your talent or work ethic or the fact that you were actually better than everyone else. I suppose it’s music-industry appropriate – you can get far if they just know your name.
Sunday, February 15, 2009 No Comments
Holy fucking shit. Got to say I’m less and less impressed with the music scene here in Columbus. Anyone else check out the lineup for “Rock” on the Range? Are you kidding? Who in their right mind is going to pay $40-$80 and stand for 2 days and listen to this stuff? Oh yeah that’s right 1/3 of Columbus will… They’ve been promoting the hell out of this show around here and it’s really damaging my calm.
“Oh Butters, calm down it’s not that bad.” No? If you have a brain and a pair of eyes you could probably guess the ONE name in the entire lineup I’d deem worth seeing (if you say Hinder, I will punch you in the baby-maker).
I’m reminded of some poetic words from Suicide Silence: “The creation that is sickness. This is time to destroy everything and never rebuild”. Forgive them, Dio, for they know not what they do. Reading down the list of bands for Rock on the Range I half expected to see the Jonas Brothers. No, that would be too up-to-date for this show…maybe New Kids? (Now THERE’s a show. I would pay to see them open for ATR). But HEY…who am I to tell you NOT to go, I’m just some d-bag.
Hit the jump to see the full line up….. *blows brains out*
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