GOKUTSUBUSHI Forever!!!

A couple of years ago a Japanese label called Captain Trip sent me this package with a handful of jewels. From the bunch, the one I remember the most was an album called Syouhu Wo Awaremu Uta from a freaky band called Gokutsubushi.

Gokutsubishi has the habit of freaking out in about every single song, usually after they have played the blues for a good five minutes. I especially love the vocals which are super gruff and rowdy but even more especially, I love the guitars. Like every other good hard rock blues psyche band Gokutsubushi have an articulate axeman who loves jerking off on his guitar.

Nowadays I can't find the CD, but I often revert back to it accidentally. For some reason my Ipod has the habit of repeating one track. Not sure what the track  is called as the characters are in Japanese.

BLACK COBRA Live Dates With KYUSS LIVES

The previously-announced second leg of the Kyuss Lives! North American tour dates this November, featuring BLACK COBRA and The Sword in support, has just expanded to include five brand additional dates including Los Angeles at the beginning of the tour, and four new East Coast shows at the end of the tour (Baltimore, MD, New Haven, CT, Huntington, NY, Montclair, NJ).

BLACK COBRA w/ Kyuss Lives!, The Sword:
11/17/2011 House of Blues - San Diego, CA
11/18/2011 Wiltern Theatre - Los Angeles, CA **
11/19/2011 The Regency Ballroom - San Francisco, CA
11/21/2011 Roseland Theatre - Portland, OR w/ YOB
11/22/2011 Showbox SODO - Seattle, WA w/ YOB
11/23/2011 Commodore Ballroom - Vancouver, BC
11/26/2011 Flames Central - Calgary, AB
11/27/2011 Edmonton Event Centre - Edmonton, AB
11/29/2011 Garrick Centre - Winnipeg, MB
11/30/2011 First Avenue - Minneapolis, MN
12/01/2011 Turner Ballroom - Milwaukee, WI
12/02/2011 Vic Theatre - Chicago, IL
12/03/2011 Crofoot Ballroom - Pontiac, MI
12/05/2011 The Palace Theater - Greensburg, PA
12/06/2011 Town Ballroom - Buffalo, NY
12/07/2011 Ramâ's Head Live - Baltimore, MD **
12/08/2011 Toadâ's Place - New Haven, CT **
12/09/2011 The Paramount - Huntington, NY **
12/10/2011 Wellmont Theatre - Montclair, NJ **
[** = newly announced tour date]

So I Renewed My Subscription to DECIBEL Magazine

So after only a couple of months of having cancelled my Decibel subscription I had to renew it. There was no way around it.

First, I kept on getting these e-mails regarding the upcoming issues and those kinda got me thinking and jonesing.  Second, three issues that followed the issue with Electric Wizard on the cover were so great  (Chuck Schuldiner, Ghost & Pentagram) I found myself making frequent visits to Barnes & Noble. Considering that the retail price plus the gas consumed adds up to quite a bit more than the per issue price of a subscription should have been enough to rethink my cancellation.

But the most important factor regarding my renewal was the fact that as far as metal writing goes there is no mag that comes even close to Decibel. If there is anything that Decibel has going for it is its editor Albert Mudrian. Period, the man has taste and the pull to gather the most talented staff. Also, as a side note, I am inclined to think that the few shit bands that get included in the mag are part of the price he has to pay to keep the mag afloat. I mean, the latest issue features Chimaira for fuck's sake!

Anyway, I have been reading metal mags since i was about eleven years old. I am hooked. So after I cancelled my subscription I thought I'd be able to replace Decibel with something else. There are a few great fanzines, but those don't come with the regularity of a real mag and would leave too much time in between without learning about underground music. The 'mainstream' (for lack of a better term) options available are not at all enticing; Revolver is for children and people with awful taste, Zero Tolerance comes in tiny size, is printed in eye-irritating colors and minuscule fonts and seems to have been designed by someone with Tourette's and Terrorizer's emphasis on folk and power metal gets on my balls, plus their design is fucking awful as well. And did I mention that Terrorizer and Zero Tolerance being imports cost $10. Fuck, not in this economy. Oh yeah, and then there is Hails & Horns, but please, does anyone read that shit?

So Decibel may be far from perfect  but still beats out the competition by a longshot. It is not only the writing - the finest I have seen regarding metal in my thirty odd years - but the well-thought out and always entertaining structure of the magazine (some of the regular columns are hit & miss but nothing is perfect) which elevates this periodical and puts it playing by its own standards. So yeah, I capitulate...

If You Ever Feel Like MEXICAN in TAMPA BAY

Around these parts people go crazy at the mere mention of TacoBus, which is for some reason an institution in the Bay Area. It is not that I don't like the food of the place, it is just that when I go there it is so packed it takes 15 minutes to find a decent table and secondly, and more importantly, the Hillsborough Ave. location smells like piss. Still, people love the dive and don't mind munching on a giant burrito right next to a puddle of brown water.

Not long ago I was driving around with nothing to do when I stumbled upon TacoSon, the mexican joint pictured above. I stopped by and have been back weekly ever since. The plates are delicious, big and super cheap. The place is also air conditioned and doesn't smell like a letrine. Also, their selection of hot sauces is much better than that of Taco Bus. TacoSon is located a bit out of the way, but believe me...it is worth the gas in bean farts.

The place is located here:

7521 N. 56th St.

Tampa, FL 33617

Endorsement: JALAPEñOS

My favorite recipe involving jalapeños is simple:

Two slices of bread
Turkey (not the shit kind sold at Wal Mart)
Cheap American cheese (you can actually replace this with any other kind of cheese. I don't give  a fuck)
Mustard

Mayo

Knife
Plate

Place one slice on top of the plate, add turkey, then squirt some mustard and spread mayo with the knife, then add some cheese, and top it with about three whole jalapeños sliced thickly. Finally, add the other slice. Take big bites, and swallow really fast or if you are a pussy, the roof of your mouth will get scorched.

I know that's kind of a stupid recipe but it's my favorite sandwich. Tastes better than hot dogs and Kobe beef burgers that go for about $20.

Anyway, time to finish watching The Lincoln Lawyer with Matthew McConaghuey. Marisa Tomei is also in it, hope she shows her tits.

BAJO LA PIEL - Watch It If You Find It

In this day and age, where almost every movie ever made is available for free download online, it is still impossible to find a link to this old Peruvian film, let alone a good quality hard copy.

I watched it for the first time a few years ago, after I found an old taped straight form the TV VHS copy at a small video store in Queens, NY. The movie is excellent, especially if what you dig are good thrillers. And I could notice all this, despite the fact that the image quality and even the audio where so shitty, there were entire segments where I could barely make out the actor's faces or hear exactly what they were saying.

The movie involves a small town cop who falls for a Spanish archeologist who likes to get fucked a bit too freely. The cop grows jealous and shit starts flying. Bajo La Piel is the  type of movie that Hitchcock would have made, had he been born in Peru. Bajo la Piel is also the type of movie that fucking Facets should have in its catalogue, but that tragically, it hasn't.

HESHER - Fuck the World and Fuck This Movie

I know we are supposed to be digging this movie just because it has some metal in it and because the lead character is played by the kid form 3rd Rock From the Sun, but for reals, I could only stand about the first twenty minutes of it, which by all means were actually pretty funny. It was not that the movie took a turn for the worse, but that it actually didn't go anywhere.

There is this kid, right? He gets shit in school, his dad is played by the goofy flabby guy from The Office and he has a beard because I guess when your family dies, you just stop shaving, because that means you don't give a shit. And then there's his grandma, who is this old bitch that really doesn't count and actually only comes into play in the last part of the movie.

Anyway, he misses his mom because she just died in a car accident. Enter Hesher, a long-haired hippy who prefers shitty tattoes and really, truly doesn't give a shit about anything or anyone. Hesher just hangs around, without a shirt and really just speaks non sense for a good while. Not much happens then. Oh yeah, there is Natalie Portman who is all made up to look like a dorky ugly, and actually the kid is in love with her, but inevitably, it is Hesher who ends up putting his pecker up her bird nest...  Anyway, this movie sucks. Fuck it...it sucks almost as much as the Iron Lamb record, which I am listening to right now, and actually, really fucking sucks. 

CELDA 211 - Recommended Viewing

I have thought several times about cancelling Netflix. Especially since they spiked their prices and didn't even bother sending me a notice.  Mostly it's because I don't get to watch too many good movies.

Lately, this Spanish film was able to captivate me. That's kind of a prissy word, ain't it? Anyway, you get the idea. Good plot, good acting. Very tense film. Not a lot of fighting, but enough build up to compensate for the lack of physical violence.

I guess Celda 211 won a few awards in Spain. The eyebrows of Luis Tosar should have gotten their own statue. Motherfucker is hairy. Bald but hairy. Which is like the biggest irony God ever created...if he exists. Otherwise we can just say life sucks...

Anyway, I tend to like movies where the protagonist/good guy dies. And that happens in this one. Not only that, but so does his pregnant girlfriend.  I hope I didn't just ruin the experience for you...

BRåKIN BRåK, Stupidest Black Metal Cover EVER

No joke, these ruskies are for real. Because nothing spells grimness, and blackness and evil like a bunch of goofy animals dancing....

Wait a minute, is that a fox playing a violin?

...and how about them squirrels, eh? They are so cute!

LOS SAICOS, ¡Demolición! The Complete Recordings

Was home about fifteen years ago and read an article in some glossy mag about this band, which apparently no one had bothered listening to in at least twenty years. It had taken a small Spanish boutique label to unearth all their recordings. They had pressed 500 10 inch vinyls, which sufficed to include the totality of their work.

A few of these copies had made it down south, so I rushed to Galerias Brasil to score my own. I paid $20. Once I heard it, I was blown away.

Years and years have passed. The Black Lips helped spread the word and now their work is being reissued left and right, remastered and cleaned. My 10 inch copy sounds like shit; jumps, skips, not so virginal sounds taken straight out of the 45's. Just how it should be.

Demolition

I Never Forgot How Great They Were - REVEREND BIZARRE

I Forgot How Great They Were - SLEATER KINNEY

ANNTHENNATH, States of Liberating Departure Out Through WOHRT Records