THE GOD DELUSION: by Richard Dawkins

If you're not an atheist yet, then you SHOULD be. And there are countless reasons why. These 2 books that I'm read recently and am about to briefly review here have confirmed in my mind that without a doubt, there is no stinking GOD and that religion IS, as Christopher Hitchens puts it in the sub-title of his book, POISON that destroys EVERYTHING. Free yourself from the religion trap now, it's an unnecessary prison and these 2 essential books are the life raft to guide you OUT of that prison and help you realize what a crock of shit GOD is.

An amazon reviewer, Harvey Ardman, put it like this:

"It won't convert many believers, not because it is wrong--it isn't--and not because it isn't well-written--it is--but because whatever else you can say about faith, it isn't easily extinguished. For those who have it, it is the only life raft on a limitless ocean. Those who don't have learned how to swim, or plan to. "

But if you ARE on of these that HAVE THE FAITH, be goddamned sure that you are ready to have it tested. I'm sure that most of the religious readers of this book will be unswayed from their opinions. In my experience, trying to argue with a religious person, especially Christian, is like talking to a wall, they're the most stubborn and snobby people on the face of the earth. Belief unquestioned is worthless, but Dawkins makes such a powerful and compelling argument for the non-existence of God that it really seems, to me, to leave very little room for doubt.

As a kid, I was sent to church at least 2 or 3 Sundays a month from when I was 6 until I was 13 or 14. After that, I refused to go to church anymore, except for a few exceptions out of respect for my mother or grandparents, like Christmas or Easter, special holidays and that kind of shit. From then until I was about 24 or 25, I was one of those fence -sitters (agnostic) but after meeting some key people and reading and watching a lot on the subject, especially science books, science documentaries, etc, I knew that there had to be another answer. If you put the basic pieces together, it's not that hard to imagine.

Think about real hard for a few minutes, a divine GOD who precisely designed everything in the vast universe and multiverse? Right down to every detail, like the eyes on very tiny bugs that we can't even see without a microscope? In 7 days? The only alternative could only be, of course, natural selection, as originally hypothesized and explained very well and very logically by Charles Darwin. This "GOD" that is supposed to love us will stab us in the back and send us to the eternal fires of hell if we get slightly out of line and not worship him every Sunday. It's simple, science has given us answers and solutions to many things and religion has not explained a thing that's even remotely believable. Not ONE FUCKIN' Thing. You'd think someone as important as GOD would have made it into the history books. The only record we have of his existence is the HOLY BIBLE, and everything in the modern New Testament Bible has been plagiarized from other sources from older religions. If you want the full story on this, watch Part 1 of Zeitgeist, or better yet, read the transcript HERE:

Evolution is not so hard to understand really, the basic fundamental principles. I don't consider myself to be a genius in any way, I'm actually quite stupid when it comes to practical everyday things. Anyway, we're not talking general relativity with shitloads of equations. It’s pretty simple stuff, really. But there ARE a few myths that have to be debunked. The most common is that evolution is just an random accident. It's not. Dawkins’ definition of evolution is a useful one: random mutations plus nonrandom cumulative selection. The natural selection part occurs with that cumulative selection — that’s where direction comes in. If it was random, we wouldn’t be here.

The other common myth is that we came from monkeys or great apes. I don't think that's true. Apes, monkeys and humans all came from a common ancestor millions of years ago. Evolution and natural selection require very careful balancing, so I don't think the famous progress ladder theory is right anymore like I used to.

Finally, the big question:What meaning does the universe have? What is our purpose? NOTHING. A star is just a blob of plasma, just atoms doing what they do under heat and pressure, nothing more, nothing less. Faith never entered the picture. So the meaning that's really important is what we put into life and what we make our life. GOD has nothing to do with "purpose" or "meaning" other than waiting around for some afterlife that may or may not be there. All the more reason to make this life a meaningful and fulfilling one.

I've been a proud atheist for about 10 years, but until reading this book, I hadn't fully grasped all the issues. This book is just an extension of what I've always been thinking about for years, but couldn't express in words. Now someone has, and I'm mighty thankful to Richard Dawkins for that. I just hope more people read it. I fear for most readers of the other side, this is a waste of time.

It's impossible to get into every issue that the book covers, so if I've sparked your curiosity even a little, pick up the book and read it. Read it twice, three times, absorb it, then pass it on to someone who may be sitting on the fence. Because I sincerely believe that we will never progress until religion is crushed, along with the corrupt political systems that supports religion.

The following dialogue is from BAD BOY BUBBY, and Australian film by Rolf de Heer

The Scientist: [plays organ music in church]
Bubby: Jesus can see everything I do... and he's going to beat me brainless!
The Scientist: Come down.
[Scene change; they are in a factory]
The Scientist: You see, no one's going to help you Bubby, because there isn't anybody out there to do it. No one. We're all just complicated arrangements of atoms and subatomic particles - we don't live. But our atoms do move about in such a way as to give us identity and consciousness. We don't die; our atoms just rearrange themselves. There is no God. There can be no God; it's ridiculous to think in terms of a superior being. An inferior being, maybe, because we, we who don't even exist, we arrange our lives with more order and harmony than God ever arranged the earth. We measure; we plot; we create wonderful new things. We are the architects of our own existence. What a lunatic concept to bow down before a God who slaughters millions of innocent children, slowly and agonizingly starves them to death, beats them, tortures them, rejects them. What folly to even think that we should not insult such a God, damn him, think him out of existence. It is our duty to think God out of existence. It is our duty to insult him. Fuck you, God! Strike me down if you dare, you tyrant, you non-existent fraud! It is the duty of all human beings to think God out of existence. Then we have a future. Because then - and only then - do we take full responsibility for who we are. And that's what you must do, Bubby: think God out of existence; take responsibility for who you are.

Another atheist book which I will review on here is Christopher Hitchen's "GOD IS NOT GREAT: How Religion Poisons Everything", which is a much less scientific book than Dawkin's book. It deals more with the unnecessary wars and violence throughout history as a result of different religions and their ridiculous beliefs and customs. Very interesting read.

Didn't This Guy's Mom Ever Tell Him Not to Bite Blasting Caps?

This photo has haunted me for a long time. This image has been stamped in my brain ever since I found it on Rotten.com about 9 years ago and will probably never leave. Every time I look at this photo, I wonder what was going through this man's brain before and after he bit that blasting cap and what was he thinking when this shot was taken? Apparently, this guy survived, but nobody has any photo evidence of what he looks like today after the massive reconstruction he underwent. This photo has since been taken off rotten.com, because the guy threatened to sue, but I was lucky enough to stumble across it again on one of my old archive CD's. The original story is now quite legendary and he was the 2nd Runner up in the 1997 DARWIN AWARDS.

"Man loses face at party." A man at a West Virginia party (probably related to the winner last year, a man in Arkansas who used the .22 bullet to replace the fuse in his pickup truck) popped a blasting cap into his mouth and bit down, triggering an explosion that blew off his lips, teeth, and tongue. Jerry Stromyer, 24, of Kincaid, bit the blasting cap as a prank during the party late Tuesday night, said Cpl. M.D. Payne. "Another man had it in an aquarium hooked to a battery and was trying to explode it. It wouldn't go off and this guy said I'll show you how to set it off." He put it into his mouth, bit down and it blew all his teeth out and his lips and tongue off, Payne said. Stromyer was listed in guarded condition Wednesday with extensive facial injuries, according to a spokesperson at Charleston Area Medical Division. "I just can't imagine anyone doing something like that," Payne said.

Yes, this is the true account of The 2nd runner-up account of a lad who succeeded in his attempt to set off a blasting cap by biting down on it is another strange-yet-true tale. On 18 March 1986, a 24-year-old man named Jerry Stromyer did indeed blow off his lips, teeth and tongue in this manner.

All I can say is, I wish I would've been there. What a complete moron...

The Amazing Fart Man

This is how fucked up TV has become in the last few years. Maybe ROTTEN MAN stands a chance, Ben Wilson and I have to film a pilot once I get my ass back to Vancouver. Beat that shit, CHURKO!

I'm Lovin' It!

I did these fake McDonald's ads a number of months ago just for the hell of it and posted them on Facebook but no one else outside the my small community of Facebook friends has seen them until now. I just got bored one day and was looking at one of the McDonald's bag designs and I thought I would do some of my own. A few people said I should send them to Kalle Lasn at Adbusters, but I think they're so tasteless that even Adbusters wouldn't run them. So anyway, here they are in all their sick and crude glory for all to enjoy.

I have tons of other ideas for mock ad campaigns on the back burner, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Nike, KFC, GAP, United Colors of Benetton, KODAK, Wendy's, and much more but haven't taken the time to execute them yet, some of them involve quite elaborate and expensive photo shoots.

Oh YES kiddies, I have plans, very special plans for this silly little world. No corporation will be safe! Boo Ha Ha Ha... no seriously, if things are taken too far, I may get sued or a term in jail, so I'd better restrain a little bit at least.

I didn't specifically target McDonalds, I just think the I'm Lovin' It campaign has gotten worn out, it's time for something new like "I'm Bulbous!!!" or "Barf it Up!!!"

I shamefully admit that I DO eat at McDonald's once in a while, and I feel guilty as hell about it. There's something about those Big Mac's and the crappy feeling they give me like I just ate a giant jar of lard...

Blast from the past

Fuck. These are funny. Someone posted these on Facebook and I can't believe they are the same person. These were all taken in design college, probably 1992-93 I guess. College. What a fun time. Getting sloshed every weekend in PEI, going to Myron's pub, then after hanging out out at Subway, too drunk to finish our subs. This doesn't seem that long ago but I guess it was. I can't believe how fucking skinny I was. Now I have a bulbous ass. Really bulbous and gettin' bulbouser by the minute. I know that's not grammatically correct, but hey, I don't see no grammar police, so I'll say it like that. Ha.

Nothing much has changed since then, except I don't drink anymore, I'm married and I never go out, but I'm still a geek collector, then it was comics, now it's CD's, DVD's and design books. It was funny to look at some of my design shit when I was home last winter. I did this poster titled BEGINNINGS, which was supposed to be a poster introducing the first year student's artwork and I think my poster was the worst. I should've scanned it or taken a photo of it to post here. It was a drawing I did of this hellspawn creature coming outta hell, looked like a demo cover for a really bad black metal band, complete with hand-done type which looked like dripping blood or something melting. Everyone in my class thought I was completely insane.

It's amazing to look back at that time and then look at my shit now and see how far I've progressed. It's also funny that I don't have 1 goddamn piece of corporate work in 10 years of working in the design world that I'm happy with. It's all shit, done for corporate suit-and-tie clients with very narrow and self-sastifying objectives. That's advertising!

Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

Ernie and Bert go BRUTAL

This is a lesson in grindcore from the scum of Sesame Street! Die! Tickle Me Asshole! Die! Die! Die!

Hairy Chest = Sexual Harassment?

OK. This recent "Hairy Chest/Naked Man/Sexually Harrassing/Disgusting Festival Man" or however you want to twist it has gone too fuckn' far. This controversy is a classic example of how the Japanese media takes one little miniscule, unimportant molecule of an issue and blows it up into a worldwide debate.

First, read the original MAINICHI News story here.

As most of you with a straight head would agree, this is just completely fucked and it shows how fucking spineless JR Rail is and how desperate the media is for stories. If anything, the poster is quite funny, the expression on the guy's face gives me quite a chuckle. But I find it about as offensive as a garden hose.

OK, I can point out a million things that would be considered more "offensive" and "sexually harassing" than this poster. How about the fact that you can legally buy pretty racy spank books of 10 year bikini chicks in any idol shop in the country. How about the fact that I get a mountain of unwanted porn related fliers in my fucking mailbox every year. How about the fact that you can walk in any convenience store and see extremely big breasted idols on normal weekly magazine covers, clearly on display. How's about the noise from Pachinko parlors? How about the large number of police officers raping women recently?

I find the smell of the pollution in Shinsaibashi, Namba, Umeda and pretty much every other area of Osaka very very offensive. I find it offensive that half the female population has to spend every 5 minutes looking in the mirror checking their make-up on the train or in public, also stinking up the air with their shitty perfume. I find it very offensive how much a public servant makes in a year.

I have a mustache and beard. AND CHEST HAIR. Am I offensive???.......er . . ... Wait. Don't answer that question.

Anyway, I can't see how a POSTER qualifies as sexual harassment anyway. Uhh, if I'm not mistaken "harass" is an action verb and if I look up SEXUAL HARASSMENT in the dictionary it says 1. comments about sex, physical contact, etc. usually that happens at work, that a person finds annoying and offensive 2. the repeated making of sexual advances or obscene remarks to a person, especially in a workplace. As far as I know, the guy in the poster did not sexually harass anyone. The guy reportedly apologized on TV about his offensive chest.

Maybe the reason they banned it is because the guy in the front looks like he's taking one up the poop chute, hence the strange facial expression...

THEY CALL ME TRINITY / TRINITY IS STILL MY NAME

I'm extremely happy that these 2 classic Terence Hill/Bud Spencer spaghetti westerns have finally been released domestically in decent versions. THEY CALL ME TRINITY and the follow up TRINITY IS STILL MY NAME have been released umpteen dozen times in inferior versions ranging from absolute unwatchable crap to not-so-bad-not-so-good crappy version. It's a goddamn mystery why anyone hadn't got around to it sooner, especially since these are supposed to be 2 of the most successful and highest grossing films of all time in the spaghetti western genre. Apparently TRINITY IS STILL MY NAME made twice as much as THE GOOD, THE BAD AND UGLY at the box office.

It's nice to see them FINALLY mastered from the original negatives. I've never seen these films look so good. You can buy 'em seperately, but you may as well just get the Twin Pack, put out by Hen's Tooth Video late last year. These films are very special to me. The first time I watched these 2 films, I was only a young wipper snapper about 14 or 15, my dad had rented them on video, and I remember my dad laughing like a hyena at some of the scenes. I did too.

I'm sure this pair of slapstick clowns need no introduction to some of you, but for the uninitiated, these 2 films made Bud Spencer and Terence Hill overnight international superstars, ushering a 25 year association for the 2 actors. They went on to work with some of the most famous Italian directors in the biz, most notably Sergio Leone (Terence Hill starred in the brilliant MY NAME IS NOBODY), Sergio Corbucci and Luchino Visconti. Actually, It's fuckin' crazy how many films they made together. If you want to get an idea of just how many films they made, you should check out http://www.xs4all.nl/~hopmans/Budhill.htm, the interface is terrible but the info within very useful. Also, there's an international site for Terence Hill at http://www.terencehill.com/

If you're even remotely interested in the spaghetti western genre, you can't miss these 2 ground-breaking films.

MacBook Air? Yeah, that's about all it is. Air.

What the fuck is this? Looks cool, nice and sleek design, the world's thinnest notebook. Great, great, great. But where's the beef? No CD/DVD combo drive. What's a laptop without that? The ad is exactly right. Stick it in an envelope and mail it to someone. Anyone. They want us to hook up a DVD drive on the plane if we wanna watch a movie? Put a CD/DVD reader/writer and MAYBE I'll buy one.

To me, this is one more step Steve Jobs is taking to sell more of his stupid i-Pods and for people to start embracing mp3 technology more. Well, I ain't going for it. You rat fink bastards can HAVE your stinking i-Pods! Fuck mp3's!!!! I'd rather lug my entire CD collection around on the bus or plane (cases and artwork included) than buy one of those monstrosities. i-Pods are one of the reasons musicians don't make money anymore. We're entering the download age and let me tell ya, I DON'T LIKE IT!!! If I sound old and not "down with the scene" well FUCK YA! Every time I see an i-Pod ai wanna smash it on the ground. My fucking wife even wants to buy one and I keep telling her NO!

Yes, I download like everyone else, but if I like what I hear I go out and buy it, especially if it's an independent artist. YES, I BUY THE CD! You know why? I'm an artist, and a total music geek collector and movie collector. I like to look at the liner notes, appreciate the cover art (not a fucking jpg of the cover art), smell the nice printing job, I like to get the whole experience. i-Pods and mp3's are slowly DESTROYING that experience. I shudder to think about when I have kids, are they gonna be reading novels and magazines on a screen? Are they gonna be just downloading shit and not browsing through record stores? Are record stores even gonna exist in 10 years?

Anyway, NO, I will never get rid of my books, records, CD's or DVD's and burn my CD collection to mp3 format. NEVER! Even if CD players become obsolete, I'll have to go to the antique shop and pick one up in 40 years I guess.

Call me old fashioned, I couldn't give a cold dead monkey's spunk. i-Pod's and mp3's are evil. EVIL. Crap on you for owning one. MacBook Air? Phooey! Double Phooey...

JAPAN: The air conditioned nightmare

I'd like to address something that I think needs addressing and that I believe I ranted about a long time ago, perhaps last winter. That is, about the excessive amount of air conditioning in Japan.

I live in Kansai, and it seems to be the worst here, although everywhere i go, it's a fucking air conditioned nightmare. I can't take public transportation without sweating my balls off. I can't go inside a store, mall, or an other public place without the heat being blasted so high that I have to remove half my clothing to feel even remotely comfortable. Even in open outside ares like train platforms, the heat's blasted to make people feel more "comfortable".

First of all, it's not really that cold. You want to experience real cold, go to Russia, or Canada in the dead of January. Second, people are already dressed for the weather. Actually, people are wearing winter clothing as early as September or October, when the temperature is still sweltering hot and humid in most places in this country. Third, it's a big fucking waste of money. Japan prides itself recently on "Warm Biz" which is supposed to be get people to be more environmentally conscious and wear an extra later or 2 rather than using heat. What the fuck is the point? None.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I have too much fat and I sweat too easily. But it seems to me that people care more about showing off their latest winter fashions than being comfortable anyway, so I'm wasting my breath.

Some days I get so furious that I feel like stripping off all my duds right on a crowded train and fanning myself with a sensu (Japanese folding fan) just to prove a point. But my point would be completely ignored, because even if I WAS naked, people would turn a blind eye to it. People are fucking pussies in this country and they don't want anyone invading their comfortable little world for fear that they might have to get involved. To prove this point, I recently watched one of those public sex porn videos featuring Ran Monbu, who's pretty famous. Anyway, their are basically 4 parts to the movie. Part 1 takes place in a convenience store. Ran Monbu is filmed pissing into an empty cup ramen bowl, then she sucks a guy's dick until he blows his load, all the while people are just walking around like nothing is happening.

The next scene is in a public phone booth, and actually a few guys stop and watch for a few seconds, but quickly move on. The last (and best) scene is on a crowded train. Ran Monbu plays with herself with a vibrator, then starts kissing another girl and feeling he tits for a few minutes, then if that's not enough, she starts sucking a guy off, then the guy is doin' er doggy style until he finally drops a big one all over her face. ON A CROWDED TRAIN!!!!! With little to NO reaction from anyone. There's people literally inches away reading the paper and shit. How many other countries could this happen but Japan?

Anyway, I digress from my original rant. The excessive air conditioning is not necessary, in my opinion. I feel strongly enough about it to actually petition, but my efforts would probably be in vain.

After enduring roughly 8 months of warm weather (4 or 5 months of which is intolerably hot and sticky), I look forward to the fall and the winter, and YES, I look forward to the COLD! but everywhere you go in Japan, they gotta make it feel like summer all year round.

Police want ban on using mobile phones while riding bicycles: a very sensible idea...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071227p2a00m0na014000c.html

Well, I'm happy to read the above article. This is about a report filed on Thursday that proposes banning cyclists from pedaling while: using a mobile phone; listening to music with headphones on; and randomly ringing the bell to avoid trouble with others. A very good idea i think. But even if this law is passed, how many policemen will strictly enforce this law? And how many people will even comply with the law?

I think it they should pass another law to go along with this one. Anyone talking on a cellphone, listening to music, or ringing their bell for no good reason should be SEVERELY BEATEN TO DEATH AND ANALLY RAPED WITH A BICYCLE PUMP. I don't know how many times I've been riding my bike, and some moron nearly crashes into me because he's got his head down, on his phone, not paying attention to where he's going. It happens to me on a daily basis almost. The other type of people I hate are the ones who are going through a red light and nearly cause an accident. Osaka has to be the worst place for bad motorists and cyclists in the world. Just driving my bike in one hour, I usually encounter 4 or 5 times where someone nearly causes a major accident because they're talking on their cellphone or their buried under their headphones and they can't hear what's going on.

Bottom line is this. If you're going to go out in a crowded public area, you have to be able to use all your senses and be aware of other people around you. So even if you're walking and listening to music, that's rude in my opinion.

Another proposed ban they were talking about not too long ago is walking on escalators. Now this one is just plain ridiculous. In Osaka, the rule is stand right, walk left. Easy, right? But no, there's always the idiot who doesn't get the program and stands on the left, blocking people who are trying to get by.

Well, apparently there have been a few cases of people getting pushed or shoved because they didn't comply with these simple rules. One woman said a guy shoved her kid out of the way saying something equivalent to "Get the fuck out of the way!" in Japanese. Well, in my opinion, he was a bit out of line, he should've said excuse me a few times first, then if she didn't move, push through by all means.

Anyway, people should fucking know better than to just stand on the escalator. Escalators were invented for a few reasons, 1. to save time and 2. to make it easier for the elderly who have a hard time climbing stairs. They were not meant for lazy assholes. So get the fuck out the way next time.

Now that we're on the subject of dangerous cyclists, let me address one of the most dangerous groups of all cyclists: Old People. I think there's more accidents caused by senile old farts who just don't know how to fuckin' drive because they're too old. Osaka's Obaachan are the absolute worst. They are a fucking menace to society. They go through red lights, they incessantly ring their bells at people, they always cut you off and never apologize and they pretty much think the whole road is theirs, ignoring every road rule in the book. I think if you're past 70 at least, you shouldn't be on a bicycle.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been discovering so much new metal recently that I decided to just talk about all of them in one post instead of individually reviewing them.

As I mentioned in my last post, I've recently been getting into the doom band Sunn O))) as well as a few other bands. After hearing a slew of Sunn O))) material in the past few weeks, i've still decided that the essential is still BLACK ONE. But all their releases seem to have something to draw me in. I haven't listened to WHITE 1 yet in depth, I've just skimmed it, and it sounds like it's worth diving into. I've already listened to WHITE 2 twice, and it's a good one, it's worth it just for the last track "Decay2". I have the Japanese 3-CD edition of this, and apparently, the 2nd and 3rd disc was originally released on Archive as a double disc set that was only sold at shows. Some people were reportedly paying 100 bucks for the original. Well, sadly, it's not that interesting actually, but Sunn O))) freaks would probably burn me at the stake for saying so. Anyway, enough about Sunn O))). I talked about them enough in my last post.

Let's move on to KHANATE, which features Stephen O'Malley from Sunn O))) on guitar, James Plotkin (Atomsmasher) on bass and electronics, Alan Dubin (O.L.D., Burning Witch) and Tim Wyskida (unknown to me until now). I think I like this band MORE than Sunn O))). This shit gets right under your skin and makes for quite a disturbing, uncomfortable listening experience. The vocals of Alan Dubin remind of an extremely pissed off Bon Scott (old AC/DC) spit through an assortment of effects to make it sound like a possessed, melting robot. The music itself is painfully slow and brutal, swallowing you in its' vast abyss of darkness and insanity. The closest thing to this I've heard to this kind of brutality is SWANS - Cop/Young God era or HENRY ROLLINS' Hard Volume. FOETUS - Thaw also comes to mind, so if you're into any of those albums, you'll love this. This is an entirely different beast of the doom genre, pretty much as far away from formula as you could get. These are not really "songs" in the conventional sense, but torture experiments that test the patience of even the most forgiving human beings. I've only got 2 of their CD's, I picked up THINGS VIRAL first, then their 1st self-titled CD. It's hard to pick which one I like better, but I think I'd have to say their first has been getting more play than THINGS VIRAL. I have yet to pick up their "EP" titled CAPTURE AND RELEASE (2 songs almost clocking in at 40 minutes is an EP!!??). The Japanese pressing includes a DVD, so I'm looking forward to getting that. I have the Japanese pressings of the 1ST and THINGS VIRAL and they both include a bonus disc with lots of alternate versions of tunes from both albums. So if you're sick and tired of the so-called "Nu-Metal" you might want to try these guys out. Buy it and throw a party, see how long it takes for the party to split after slapping this on.

The next release I'm gonna briefly review the new BORIS/MERZBOW live collaboration titled DOCK DREAM. This is not the 1st time these 2 giants have collaborated. There have been a number of releases as well as performances, most notably and recently, the brilliant SUN BAKED SNOW CAVE. I'm not gonna say much about this. Of course it's good, but is is it necessary? Hmmmm. Disc 1 is my personal favorite out of the 2 discs, containing more of their longer, more darker material mostly, with an awesome 35-minute version of FEEDBACKER, one of my favorite BORIS pieces. The 2nd disc contains more of their more shorter, rockin' out balls to the wall tracks off PINK, AKUMA NO UTA, another long track, from DRONEVIL and some other short ones. The choice of material is good, but I actually prefer the live material from the ARCHIVE series. Merzbow adds his sound nicely, not overdoing it. BORIS fans will be all over this of course, and likely there'll be about 10 different versions of it before the year closes out. The artwork and package, by Shizu (who I don't know) and Fangsanalsatan respectively is really amazing. This IS a good solid live album by 2 legends of noise/psych and I'm sure it will not disappoint fans of either band.

The Next CD is a split from 2 well-know doom bands, GOATSNAKE and BURNING WITCH (featuring Alan Dubin from KHANATE). This is actually getting pretty pretty hard to find, so I was lucky to find it. Burning Witch only put out a few 12" EP's, and couple splits, including this one with GOATSNAKE, the other split with ASVA, who I haven't checked out yet. but want to. Well, even though there are only 2 tracks on this split by Burning Witch, Dubin's vocals are pretty different than KHANATE. He uses more of a shrieky type voice with this band, whereas his vocals with KHANATE are far more angry and scary, with more effects and variation. The 2 tracks on here don't disappoint though, they're chunky as hell. The other 2 tracks by GOATSNAKE are good too, but i prefer the intensity and slightly more uncomfortable feeling of Burning Witch. GOATSNAKE sound very much like ST. VITUS, and it's not surprising since one of the tracks is actually a St. Vitus cover song. Definitely worth picking up, but not worth the collector prices it's going for on ebay, which are anywhere from 30 bucks to 100 bucks.

On to the last band and CD I'll mention in this post. CULT OF LUNA's Somewhere along the highway. My friend recommended this to me a few weeks ago, so I decided to take a chance on it and pick it up after reading a few reviews of it. I gotta say, it's pretty amazing stuff. It really reminds of a cross between GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR and OLD MAN GLOOM, mixed with some other doom and prog rock influences. Apparently it was recorded in some fuckin' barn in the middle of nowhere in 7 days. It wasn't at all what i was expecting. Coming from Sweden, I was expecting it to be a much darker affair, washed in black metal synth and too much reverb, and overly silly vocals, but what i got was a beautiful, hypnotic affair with many surprises and just plain excellent songwriting, tight compositions with the right blend of heaviness and melody. Maybe this could quite possibly be a doom version of Dream Theater. Yes, it's that good, and I'm sure repeated listens will reap even more rewards. Not sure who this LUNA dude is though... I just like the music.

Sunn O))) - Black One

Black One. Fuckin' right it is. This is not mere black metal, my friends, this is a terrifying journey into outer reaches of hell without even the slightest glimpse of hope or light coming in to save you from it all. This is as cold and bleak as it gets. After the first couple of tracks, you'll be scared. After about half an hour as the sound has slowly enveloped you, it becomes emotionally damaging. Just picture a baby seal getting clubbed to death or a dog screeching as its skin is being slowly boiled off and you might get some picture of how this might sound. In the words of the immortal Pinhead from Hellraiser, this will TEEEAAARRR YOOUURR SOOOUULLL APAAAAAART!!!!

My first introduction to Sunn O))) was the collaboration with BORIS called ALTAR. That was good too, but by no means either band's best output. This was my first "real" introduction to Sunn O))) and I still think it's their best and if you only pick up one album by them, this should be it. So far, I've heard this, White 2 (which is also great), Flight of the Behemoth and Oracle. I've only listened to Flight of the Behemoth once and I think that one's gonna have to grow on me. This is not stuff to listen to breakfast to, so I doubt it'll be frequenting my CD player. It's more like one of those albums you dig out once every few months and revel in it's darkness and ponder about life itself. But Black One is different. Despite being as punishing as it is, there's also something about it that brings me back for repeated listenings quite often.

I haven't heard the Grimmrobe demos or White 1 yet, but I heard Grimmrobes is not really worth picking up so I'll probably leave that one.

I don't consider myself a big fan of doom, I just like a few of the bands. There are so many bands it's impossible to listen to everything, and I'm into so many more kinds of music. Anyway, if I listened to nothing but doom and black metal, I might start growing claws. But I've recently been getting into these guys, Khanate, Burning Witch, Boris, Beherit and a few other bands of this genre.

Also check out the recent BORIS/MERZBOW - Rock Dream, and KHANATE's "Things Viral" both of which I will probably review shortly.

SODOM - The Final Sign of Evil

Fuckin' rights!!! Sodom decided to revisit their early days on their latest album, The Final Sign Of Evil, which is a re-recording of the band's 1984 EP In The Sign Of Evil along with 8 more tracks that were originally written for what was supposed to be a full album, not just an EP. The full album was never released because their label at the time didn't give them the opportunity to finish it because they didn't like the 4 songs they heard, so they just released it as a 4-song EP. Shame shame shame.

Vocalist/bassist Tom Angelripper even brought back the band's original drummer Chris Dudek (Witchhunter) and guitarist Josef "Peppi" Dominic (Grave Violator) for this CD. The production on the album was done by the band's webmaster, I don't know why. But it sounds like it was recorded on a 4-track with bad gear back in 1984. It's truly raw, but also very effective. I love all the 80's thrash bands with horrible production. It sounds like mud, but that's how thrash was meant to sound, in my opinion. I'm so glad they didn't decide to make them sound modern, like most bands would.

The re-done songs from the original EP hold up very well, and are pretty much like the originals. The new material good stuff with some dirge-like tunes. Angelripper's harsh broken-glass vocals and the cheesy pitching effects are just like he used to use on "Evil" and "Obsessed by Cruelty".

If you're a Sodom fan or love 80's thrash in general, you'll definitely need this. Here's hoping they will also do a re-record of Obsessed by Cruelty.

Tourettes Guy!!!

I don't know if this guy is for real or not, but this is sure some funny (and at the same time, disturbing) stuff. I've heard that he WAS really diagnosed with Tourettes Syndrome but he just fakes these videos to make people aware of Tourettes in hopes they will make a donation. This video is a compilation of the "best of", so if you wanna see everything, go to the site: http//www.tourettesguy.com. The site is actually down at the moment, but it should be up again soon.

Another thing I just learned is that he apparently died after being invloved in a bad car accident. He had been out of the hospital for a couple of days staying with a friend when he suffered some medical complications. He just passed away during the night.

Also, I heard that the dudes who run the Tourettesguy site be releasing all the videos along with one last new video in a high quality DVD format in memory of Danny. This DVD will be free to download, but you will also be able to purchase a physical copy. All proceeds from the DVD will go to Danny's family.

Here's a LINK to samples of his raging and swearing in case you wanna stick em in a song or something.

piss on you

I love this video. The Chapelle Show is pure genius.

BLOODCOUNT - Seconds

This is a triple disc set which captures both the quartet and quintet version of Bloodcount. I've finally had time to digest it so I guess I'm ready to review it. Listened to the discs twice, and the stand-out disc for me is the first one, which contains 3 lengthy compositions, SCRAP METAL, YES, DEAR and MR. JOHNSON. Great production, very clean, but yet not too polished. Michael Formanek shines on both discs, and the interplay between Tim and Chris Speed is magic.

The second live disc contains more bluesy groove-oriented compositions, and is actually quite accessible for Tim Berne. I'm a bit disappointed that Marc Ducret is only on the DVD and not the other CD's, but that's no biggie.

The DVD is a little disappointing in my opinion, it's badly shot and it gives me a fucking headache looking if I stare at it too long. It's too shaky in most places and there's way too many annoying close-ups. It's mostly b/w with some color sequences of the band running around Paris. There's a few places where it looks like very short clips of erotic movies were thrown in for good measure. Why, I don't know.I think I'll extract the audio and just listen to the music, which is awesome. Marc Ducret really fuckin' rips it up on this version on EYE CONTACT.

As always, great package design Steve Byram, this time not his usual scribblings and fuckery but a more minimalist Byram. Looks like he's been playing with Adobe Illustrator, gettin' more digital and shit on us.

More good news is that Bloodcount is going to tour with some new material, which means we may see some future Bloodcount releases. let's hope so. For now, we have a nice blast from the past to tide us over until the next Bloodcount meal...

Miles Davis Complete On The Corner

Jesus, there's just a ton of great sets coming out this month. Soon after I found out about the Glenn Gould 80-CD "complete" original jacket collection, I found out that Columbia/Legacy is laying yet another Miles Davis boxset on us, this time, THE COMPLETE ON THE CORNER sessions. Well, I've already read many good things and bad things about it.

Bad first. The price. They have it retailed at 140 U.S. dollars on Amazon. Fuck. Double FUCK. Is that necessary??? It's only 6 discs, so when you do the math, it's about 23 bucks a disc? C'mon.......... That's waaaaaaay too much. The next bummer which I read about is that it has the worst liner notes of any Miles Davis Box. The next bummer is that that it contains music already released. So really, there is not a great deal of new material. This collection SHOULD be called The Complete 'On The Corner' and 'Get Up With It' Sessions, because all the songs from that 1974 release are here, too. Even some stuff from Big Fun, is on here here, via the twenty-one minute epic, "Ife."

Nevertheless, I still want to get this set. Great design, by the look of the pictures I've seen already (as with all the Columbia/Legacy Miles boxes). I haven't seen it in stores yet though. I'm gonna wait for the price to drop however, or a good deal on ebay. By the way, this apparently THE LAST deluxe box that they will release, so I'm a little relieved at that. I'm always thinking "What are they gonna put out next??!!!" this is it, from this label anyway. i don't think THE CELLAR DOOR SESSIONS counted as a COLUMBIA/LEGACY release, because there's no number on the set. For example, The JACK JOHNSON set was number 7, ON THE CORNER is number 8. THE CELLAR DOOR SESSIONS was released between those boxes.

Sooooo, I don't have this set yet, but I am looking forward to getting it, at which time I'll try and review it here. I do own the original CD of ON THE CORNER, but I've never owned GET UP WITH IT, nor have I heard that one, so I can guess that I've heard about 30 to 40 % of the material that this set covers. I DO know that ON THE CORNER is considered by many to be the most controversial of his career, many calling it Miles "sell-out" album at the time of its' original release. I hardly think so. This album, in addition to Miles' other albums around the same period, was the blueprint for so-called "funk jazz" that followed it and continues to this day. If you want to hear Miles "sell-out", pick up Doo Bop", one of his worst albums, but still not that bad.

Glenn Gould Complete Original Jacket Collection

Holy Shit, I can't believe this is out. A pretty good description of it can be found here or check the Glenn Gould Foundation site for more information.

The only thing is, I don't see any mention of the CBC radio broadcasts, which is a pretty important part of his career. So, as good as this box looks, I'd like to know if it is truly "complete" or not. It's still a great looking collection at a pretty reasonable price. I wouldn't call myself a Gould fanatic, but this set just looks so yummy, and I'm a sucker for large expensive box sets, so I'll probably end up buying at some point, but I'm gonna wait for awhile for a sale or a price drop. Probably in a few months, you'll be able to find it on ebay for under 150 bucks.

At any rate, this stands as quite a monumental testament to a legendary Canadian artist and I'm sure if you appreciate classical piano at all, this set would provide hours of inspiration.

I already have the 12-CD Original Jacket Collection of his Bach works, so I'm satisfied for now, at least.

PAT METHENY Secret Story Re-issue

I have been anticipating this release for awhile since it was announced on Pat's site a few months back. Even though I own the original, this re-issue is certainly worth getting just for the bonus disc, which contains extra 5 tracks.

This is the first Pat Metheny CD I ever owned, so that's probably one reason why I still tend to like this one so much. I remember the day I walked into a small used shop in PEI and this was playing on the stereo. I was immediately hooked and I asked the guy what it was, he showed the cover to me, and I asked him if it was for sale. I quickly snapped it up after he said YES.

This is NOT really a jazz album, it's more like a soundtrack to a movie, very cinematic and breathtaking. Many people think this is one of Pat's worst albums just because it's too "world" and not jazz. Yes, it does contain some world instruments and a Cambodian choir on the first track, so I guess it's world, but who gives a shit. It's just a great album to me. Yeah, it's kinda gay and cheesy, but I'm one appreciates good cheese and Pat Metheny is definitely top quality cheddar in my book.

I haven't really compared the remaster to the original, but it sounds great to these ears. I remember the original sounding really good, so I can't imagine how it could be better, but I'll have to closely compare them one of these days.