Pigs-You ruin everything

Dave Curran (bassist singer in Unsane), the drummer Jim Paradise, and the producer (Cave In, Converge, Made Out of Babies, Unsane, Keelhaul) Andrew Schneider are Pigs. They released in april 2012, with Solar flare records,You ruin everything, the first record of the band. And it's no surprise that what you get with it is high quality noise rock/metal, pissed off punk/screamed vocals, heavy grooves, vicious melodies, and dirty n' dusty atmospheres. As expected, songwriting, musicianship and production are top notch.

A highly recommended record for long drives and drunken nights.

Pigs bandcamp page.

the official sites :

www.solarflarerds.com/
www.pigsnyc.com/ 

Here are the replies of Andrew Schneider and Jim Paradise to my questions about Pigs (thanks guys!) :

-can you present the band for those not knowing you yet?

-AS. Andrew Schneider … I play the bass guitar, Dave Curran hits guitars and makes loud mouth noises

-JJ- Jim paradise, i play drums

-will Pigs be a live band? 

-JJ- has been and will continue to.

-AS. This year is a little funny as Dave is promoting the new Unsane Release with some hectic touring as well as doing sound for Melvins which is keeping him furiously busy . I am in the process of moving and rebuilding my studio Translator Audio which is about a 6 month endeavour and Jimmy is just opening his silkscreening business.  By the second half of the summer we will be playing shows again and we hope to make it your way by the end of the year or early next year.

-It seems to me that the listening of You ruin everything brings a feeling of frustration, unease and danger, do you agree? Is it intended?

JJ- yes , all of those feeling exist in our music. I can’t say that it is our intention. It’s just what happens when we get together in a room and write. We are older and individually have been playing for so many years. You get to a point where your sound is your sound. I personally feel most satisfied when im bashing the hell out of my drums. I think Andrew needs that loud fucked- up growly , rat pedal sound. And Dave plays guitar kind of bizzare and bombastic. All of that combined ends up uneasy and dangerous i guess.

-what drives you to play such a kind of music?

-A.S.- Pigs is pretty much the most organic band I have ever played in.  I could try to answer that question with some sort of heady philosophizing but honestly we find moments of time to be in a room together and this is what happens.  There is really no preplanning of what we want a song to sound like or where we want it to go etc., we just play off each other for a couple hours and there it is.  I guess we all like it loud.

-if Unsane is noise metal, then Pigs is more in noise rock vein, do you agree? How would you describe Pigs sound?

-JJ-  Noisey heavy rock. We like keeping a “groove” to our music, but all 3 of us tend to fuck with it a bit with subtle off-times or off song structures.

-A.S.- noisy and rock … that works … a poor mans AC-DC eightball

-how were the songs composed?

-JJ- it was a combination. A couple of the songs are older ones that Dave wrote and sent to me and the other original players in the band. The rest were me , Dave and Andrew writing together.

-what about the lyrics?

-A.S.- I still don’t know what the hell Dave is yelling about ….

-I think the cover art is a good choice, why did you choose this picture of two clowns as the cover art of You ruin everything?

JJ- I think there a few ways to view the cover, but i personally like the idea that McDonald’s ruins everything.

-A.S.- It still makes me laugh ….

-what are your goals for Pigs?

JJ- play more, record more

-tell us a joke.

no

-something to add?

-A.S.- Thanks for letting us talk about ourselves for a few minutes.

-JJ -we are very excited that our record is out and want to thank Mattieu and Solar Flare records. And thank you for the interview. cheers
 

Movie review : Balada triste de trompeta (2010)

This movie by Alex de la Iglesia (released in 2010) is one of the most intense that i've seen in the last couple of years. It is really emotionally violent, it's truly a shock. And at the same time it's truly beautiful. Rooted in the history of Spain, haunted by the violence of the civil war and the Franco regime but also a universal story about vengeance and desperate love. Remarkable characters, freaks but oh so human, flashy colors, deep red, blue, yellow, it has a kind of surrealistic quality. Clowns fighting for love and for their dignity in a world gone mad, a story of sensibility turning into violence. Its all about that and it's much more...

Black Hole of Calcutta - review & interview (2012)

Black hole of Calcutta

If you like grindpunk and black metal mixed with crushing results then this band is for you!

With their first self titled record released in January 2012 Black hole of Calcutta from Seattle/Portland succeed brilliantly in mixing every kind of musical extremism (grind, punk, black metal, sludge, etc) without losing in cohesion and identity. So what you get with this record is twelve short good songs filled with speed, heaviness, old school black metal or crust riffs, blast beat, d-beat, and pissed off vocals. All that makes it a pretty cool and intense record!

Check it by yourself on their BC page.

They accepted to answers to a few questions (thanks to them!) so you can read it below :

-can you present the band, its members, what was the project at the start, how it evolved etc… ?

Currently the band just consists of 2 members Ian and Jesse.  The other members Ben and Spider are still kind of involved also but only when they are available since we live all over the West Coast. 

The project started with all 4 of us, just playing fast music.  We soon had 14 songs that we recorded.  At that time it was just a fun project but not as serious.  We didn't know what to do with the songs so we asked a few bands that we enjoyed if they would be into doing a split 7" with us.  To our surprise, quite a few of them agreed.  From then on we were a serious project.  

-what can you tell about your self titled record(s)?

Hmm, We recorded them with our friend Scott Barwick.  And we're happy with the way they turned out and stoked to be involved with the labels and friends who have helped us out.

-what about its cover artwork?

 Everyone is going to have a different take on the art, so I don't want to go that into detail about it...  But the art for our first LP was done by Meg Adamson.  She is an amazing artist and friend from Portland Oregon.  The Mother Teresa art was done by Matt Loomis.  He is another amazingly talented person who we have known for a long time.  He has done all the art for our other band The Makai.

-I read on your blog that you plan to release a split with Magnicide, that’s exiting, when will it be released? How did you get in contact with them?

Magnicide rules!  They are a great band and such nice guys.  We are so excited about that release!  We got in contact with them by just writing them an email one day, we communicated and the split just fell into place.  We've been planning that record for a long time.  

The release has been taking a long time because one of the labels, Morbid Reality, has had some financial trouble.  But he seems to be back on his feet, so hopefully we will get the record pressed soon.  If no progress is made soon, the readers of this interview should hit up Morbid Reality to see what's up.

-your music sounds a bit like a fresh and dynamic mix of different extreme musical style, was it a choice from the start to do that, or is it just what results when you play music together? Has it something to do with the fact that you played in many other bands?

Thanks!  I'm glad you like it.  I wouldn't say it's too conscious of an effort. I think it just comes from listening to all kinds of styles.  I love grind, power violence, black metal, hardcore and everything in between.  All those styles go so well together, I don't see a reason for them to be confined to a genre.  

-your lyrics are mostly about social issues or dystopia. Do you think the occupy movement goes with a growing critical awareness in the US? What is your hope for the future?

Yes, I think the occupy movement is a part of the growing social awareness in the country.  The occupy movement was growing but was basically shutdown and hasn't really regained its strength it had.  I think people are slowly becoming more aware.  It's really sad to think about, but there are so many problems that are fundamentally horrible.  It seems as though more people are beginning to realize this, but doing something about it is another story.  

I could write forever on my hope for the future.   

-is your critical stand a drive for playing extreme/pissed off music?

I think our music is a great release for these feeling.  

-do you fell like being a part of a scene? Is it easy to find places to play in your area? Looks like there’s many good band coming from Portland or Seattle.

I guess we're part of scene, but it's hard to define it.  I think we don't think of it too much these days.  It's more like friends.  We've been doing this so long through various bands we know a lot of people who are involved in extreme music and the diy underground.

There are tons of good places to play in Portland and Seattle, and great bands too.  I would say, houses and basements are our favorite place to play over here.  Portland especially has a few great spots.

-which bands from your area would you recommend?

Portland:  Nux Vomica, Honduran, Transient, Elitist

Seattle:  Samothrace, Deathraid, Scourge Schematic

-what have you planned for 2012?

We actually don't have any plans right at the moment.  We just did those 2 lps and we have a few other releases coming out soon that have been taking a while.  But other than that, we're just writing songs and trying to figure out what to do next.  We've got quite a few tours that we're talking about, but nothing is in the works quite yet.

-when are you touring Europe?

 We would love to!  Right now for us it's a money issue and trying to figure out what time is best.  It's expensive!  But we will, hopefully soon.  We always talk about it, there just needs to be something to set it into motion.

-something to add?

Thank you so much for the review and interview!

If anyone out there wants to help set up future shows/tours, help release a record, or just say hi, contact us at blackholepunx@hotmail.com

Suffering mind

Readers of Blasting days sure have noticed that I love grindcore. And I do because of bands like Suffering mind. They are old school grindcore activists from Poland, and since they formed five years ago they did a lot to keep furious grindpunk alive, radical and intense as it should be. They also carry the anti-authoritarian stand and DIY/underground ethics of original grindcore and that's an important thing.

Musically wise it's blast and d-beat at every stage, barking like a mad dog screamed vocals, short and fast songs. musicianship and production are really good. All that makes Suffering mind one of the best band in that style. They don't invent something, but what they do they do it better than hundreds of bands trying to play this kind of music. Suffering mind don't try. they do it, and they do it the way it should.

They released two LP's (one called At war with mankind in 2009, and another, self titled, in 2010), and countless splits with many cool grind bands (for exemple a split with Phobia coming in june, check their BC page, see link below, and you'll easily see how active they are in recording splits...).

Suffering mind official website

Suffering mind bandcamp

Dopefight / Gurt split 

Out just a week ago, this self released split features two tracks by Dopefight from Brighton and two tracks by Gurt from London.

Dopefight plays a cool and agressive stoner/sludge, they released two years ago a really good LP called Buds (read a review of Buds along with an interview  Here), their two songs on this split are in the same vein.

Dopefight side of the split on BC

Gurt music can be described as a cool mix of sludge and 70' heavy blues. they released in 2011 a very good LP called Redwin (and also a live album).

Gurt side of the split on BC

If you like heaviness, groove and dirty agressive sludge you should try these bands and check out this split.

The Gurt guys answered by mail to a few questions (thanks lads!). read it below :

-can you present Gurt, its memebers and its history from it’s formation up to now ?

4 Lads who wanted to break away from the norm and combine Blues and Extreme music, these boys were Gareth Kelly (Vocals), Simon Edwards (Drums), Jamie McCathie (Guitar) and John Hughes (Bass)… we spent the last 2 years meeting fellow Doomers and running our own filthy nights to get a legion of sonic titans to rule the UK. Sadly Jamie and John both had to leave our mission to go to other countries to continue the battle. So, we now have our new version 2 line-up with Rich Williams (Guitar) and Dave Blakemore (Bass).

-you released your first full length, Redwin, last year, what can you say about this record?

It was great fun and incredibly well produced for a sludge record, we had a guy (Phil Kinman) mixing and mastering it who had been used to doing a lot of Metalcore bands so it was way out of his comfort zone. But I think that it has a very different sound to what we are like live.

-how did you get to release a split with Dopefight?

We are good friends, as we were lucky enough to be put on the same bill as them early on in our time as a band and have been BFF’s ever since. We both admire each others music greatly so it seemed like the perfect thing to do and luckily it has been a very well received collaboration!

-One of your song in the split was on your live record/DVD, was the other written for he split?

No, both of the songs have been around for quite a long time and it was an excuse to record them. People that have seen our live shows will probably have heard them from as early as April 2011.

-you cover classic rock song, played by Hendrix or Led zeppelin, is it just because you like these song, a way to pay tribute, or a way to highlight the fact that your music is root in the classical blues/rock tradition?

All 3….. We try to cover the really inspirational artists from the 70s but also try to choose songs that people would not normally hear done in such an extreme way.

-seems like your main inspirations are 60/70’ rock and sludge, is that right? How did you get the idea of mixing the two? What are your other influences? How would you describe your music?

Spot on, we all have a love for both Blues and heavier Sludgy bands and try to portray that love in a simple and catchy way, some of the best songs are the simplest! We would much rather be known as a blues band first (although the vocals are definitely NOT traditionally that style).

-how do you write the songs?

Traditionally Jamie and Simo had main influence in our writing style and my (Gareth’s) lyrics I fit in to the riffs at a later date, but we are always in the room together when writing and it generally is a lot of jamming to see what works and what does not.

-how is the scene in London, is it easy to play here, with good bands and in cool places?

The London scene is thriving at the Moment with promoters like Desertscene, When Planets Collide (which I run), Human Disease promo and Psykomajik being the 4 main people responsible for bringing everyone together in London. There is also Irongiant in Brighton, Buried in Smoke in Oxford and Heretic Promotions in Birmingham that all work together closely to ensure that the scene has grown to the size that it has and the success was proven by Desertscene this year with the first ever ‘Desertfest’ Festival which involved over a 1000 people invading North London to see nearly 100 bands over a weekend. That was an INCREDIBLE success and it only going to get better!

-which other band from London and around would you recommend?

Sedulus, Diesel King, Dead Existence, Trippy Wicked, Slabdragger, Sea Bastard, ENOS, XII Boar to name but a few!

-are you looking for a  record label to release your next stuff or do you prefer the DIY way?

DIY all the way… It is so much work but you have complete control of how and when your music is released! Record Companies know they are on their way out. It would be nice to have some sort of distribution deal though as help is always needed in getting your music in the shops and abroad…

-what do you plan for 2012 and for the future?

Get back playing live a lot more, Record another Split or NEW EP and sort out a European tour!!

-do you have a cool joke to tell us?

(Q)What’s the difference between a Ferrari F40, and a pile of Dead babies?

(A) I don’t have a Ferrari F40 in my garage at home!

-something more serious to add?

Politics, thats pretty serious ain't it!

Uncle acid & the deadbeats-blood lust

Uncle acid & the deadbeats. With a name like that you just can't lose! so it's no surprise that their first record, Blood lust, released in 2011 by Rise above records is a winner.

Old school doomy heavy metal, stoner, psychedelic rock, a very 70' sound, a black sabbath meets Blue oyster cult vibe, all that enters in the making of Blood lust. Of course just that would be cool, but not enough. Right. What makes blood lust a really cool and enjoyable record, a record above the mass of the revival old school 70' rock/metal wave is great songwriting. That's the key. A great sound, good musicianship, really cool vocals, good riffs and melodies, but above all that, great songs, the capacity to absorb the listener in mysterious and menacing atmospheres through dark psyched stoned trips. That's all this record is about. Really cool stuff!.

Dephosphorus/Wake split 7''EP

Both bands featured on this split made a great impresion in 2011, Dephsphorus with Axiom (see review Here) and Wake with Leeches (see review Here). So I had great expectations for it and I'm glad to say that it's a new success for both bands. 6 songs, 3 for each band, all killer, no filler. Prepare for a non stop blastbeats and riffing feast!

The 3 Dephosphorus songs are a really interesting and crushing mix of black metal, grind and crust and the songwriting is really good so it really makes songs, with a distinct Dephosphorus identity and atmosphere, and not a hodgepodge of different elements. Unit is a fast song with an almost slayeresque intensity but keeping the Dephosphorus sound and complexity. the two other songs are more midtempo but also really good. If you want to know more about Dephosphorus (and you really should!) I suggest you read the interview with their singer Panos Agoros that I did last month, Here (below the review for Axiom).

and Here is the BC page for the coming Dephosphorus full lenght (only two songs for the moment).

The songs by Wake are more straightforward, with a less complex songwriting, but they have a cool old school grind/punk vibe, especially Veil of Odin that ends the split.

I'm asking Wake for a written interview, so keep an eye on this post...

The split is released by 7 degrees records