MUTILATION RITES - Tour Dates + New Release

Brooklyn-based black metallers *MUTILATION RITES have been furiously busy doing the devil's work since 2009, criss-crossing the USA (and Mexico!) bringing total aural devastation unto all who fall under their spell. They have just announced the beginning of yet another mammoth American tour, one that hits nearly every corner of the country and sees them sharing stages with the likes of Batillus, Hull, The Body, Weekend Nachos, Valdur, Necrite, Woe, and many other underground dwellers. The band will be appearing at this year's edition of SXSW as well as the Oakland Black/Death Fest, and are kicking things off with a hometown show with Eyehategod, Magrudergrind, and Misery Index tomorrow night (February 18th, 2011).


After a few lineup changes, MUTILATION RITES has solidified into their deadliest incarnation yet. Their sound draws from the poisoned wells of blackthrash, doom, and crust punk, as well as referencing the ravishing grimness and ice-cold tremolo picking of the mid-90's Scandinavian masters; the result is ugly, hateful, and distorted, just as a New York black metal band should be. The band features current and former members of Tombs, Disassociate, Curandera, Rabia, and Heuristic.


MUTILATION RITES are also gearing up to release three brand-new songs on cassette (courtesy of Poison Infiltration) as well as a split with Brooklyn bros BATILLUS on Shinebox later this year. The songs were recorded with Kevin Bernsten (of TRIAC) at Developing Nations in Baltimore, and will rip your fucking face off.


WINTER/SPRING TOUR FOR MUTILATION RITES FEBRUARY 23-MARCH 28
Friday, February 18 @ Club Europa ,Brooklyn, NY EYEHATEGOD, Misery Index, Magrudergrind, Strong Intention
Friday, February 18 @ The Charleston, Brooklyn, NY EYEHATEGOD after party with Woe
Wednesday, February 23 @ Helter Skelter, Pittsburgh, PA My Left Uterus, Free Clinic, Eric Ciora
Thursday, February 24 @ The Leathershop, Lima, OH
Friday, February 25 @ Crown Liquors, Chicago, IL Black September, Welkin Dust, Pilgrim
Saturday, February 26 @ The Monkey Bar, Milwaukee, WI w/ The Antiprism, Architects of the Aftermath, Subjugation, Embitterment
Sunday, February 27 @ The Rathole, Minneapolis, MN w/ Taboo
Monday, February 28 @ Nick and Eddies, Minneapolis, MN w/ Taboo
Tuesday, March 1 @ BFG House, Appleton, WI
Wednesday, March 2 @ Lothlorien’s, Madison,WI
Thursday, March 3 @ The Replay Lounge, Lawrence, KS w/ Mansion, and Melting Point of Bronze
Friday, March 4 @ Live Music Institute, Topeka, KS (matinee)
Friday, March 4 @ Detto’s Barn, Liberty. MO w/ Boreas, Sucked Dry, Weekend Dad, Bait Fish
Saturday, March 5 @ Blast-o-Mat, Denver, CO w/ Weaponizer, No Thought, Expurgate
Sunday, March 6 @ Salt Lake City Recording Services, Salt Lake City, UT w/ Doomed to Extinction, All Systems Fail, Moon of Delirium
Monday, March 7 @ Liquid, Boise, ID
Tuesday, March 8 @ Plan B, Portland, Oregon w/ Winter In The Blood, Heathen Shrine, and Grim Ritual
Wednesday, March 9 @ Charleston Music Venue, Bremerton, WA
Thursday, March 10 @ The Morgue, Seattle, WA
Friday, March 11 @ Black Forest, Eugene OR w/ Boogie Monster
Saturday, March 12 @ Oakland Black/Death Fest, Oakland, CA w/ Valdur, Necrite, Chronaexus, Pale Chalice, Pandiscordian Necrogenesis
Sunday, March 13 @ The Knockout, San Francisco, CA w/ Population Reductions
Monday, March 14 @ The Mountain Bar, Los Angeles, CA
Tuesday, March 15 @ Eleven, San Diego, CA
Wednesday, March 16 @ TBA, Phoenix, AZ
Friday, March 18 @ Triple Crown Tattoo Shop, Austin, TX W Hull, Batillus, Pack of Wolves, Lions of Tsavo (starts at 1 pm)
Saturday, March 19 @ The Phoenix Project, Dallas TX
Sunday, March 20 @ TBA, Houston TX
Monday, March 21 @ Siberia, New Orleanes, LA w/ The Body, Hull, Batillus
Tuesday March 22 @ The Archive Gallery, Atlanta GA w/ Vimur, Weekend Nachos, Death in the Dirt, In Ruins
Wednesday March 23 @ The Pony Pen, Savannah GA
Thursday March 24 @ Slim’s Downtown Distillery, Raleigh, North Carolina w/ Man Will Destroy Himself
Friday March 25 @ TBA, Richmond VA
Saturday March 26 @ TBA, Baltimore, MD
Sunday March 27 @ TBA, Philly, PA
Monday March 28 @ Lit Lounge, New York City, NY

STIFFS, INC. Nix Nought Nothing (Onion, 1995)

I wanted to post a download link to Nix Nought Nothing but I was unable to find one. I am sure there are links floating around somewhere, I am just not in the mood to spend twenty-five minutes searching for one. 

When I first started Deaf Sparrow it was my mission to dig up bands that I had loved in the past. Stiffs, Inc. was one of my first assignments. If I remember correctly, somewhere around 1995 I read a review of this album in Rip Magazine. Then I went to a The Wall music store located somewhere in Philadelphia and bought a copy of it.

At first listen, I hated it. At second listen, I thought it was just as unbearable and annoying. But I kept my copy which I dusted off when I moved to Missouri to attend undergrad school. Little by little, I kept on going back to Nix Nought Nothing until I realized I was forever sold on its Buzzcocks' like exuberance.

I know Stiffs, Inc. have a small cult following because I have been contacted several times regarding the Oral History piece on the band I posted here.  I never intended this piece to be so long. At the start I just wanted to do a brief interview with one of the members of the band regarding the album. To my surprise, guitarist Paul Boering and the rest of the band were very eager to work on a comprehensive interview which ended up taking about two weeks to edit.

Anyway, I was just watching the show Oddities on the Discovery Channel when a familiar character showed up at the store with the intent of selling some sort of pump. The face and the attire got my attention. When the host of the store Obscura mentioned that his name was Whitey and that he was a regular at the store I realized that it was Whitey Sterling, the eloquent vocalist of Stiffs, Inc.

I love Nix Nought Nothing. I really do. It is brattish and youthful. It is upbeat and humorous. It brings back great memories and I wish, I could find a download link. If you are a fan of 70's punk I urge you to get it. You can find used copies for next to nothing online.

NEUROT Recordings Signs ACROSS TUNDRAS

Creating unique moonshine-soaked organic rock in the hills of Tennessee, ACROSS TUNDRAS seamlessly meld classic rock, folk, country, psychedelia, and doom into an original, organic style of rock that defies classification and bleeds true Americana. In true nomadic style ACROSS TUNDRAS have previously set-up camp on multiple labels including Crucial Blast and Forgotten Empire, have now found a home with Neurot Recordings.

Stated Neurot/Neurosis' Steve Von Till on the signing: "It is with great honor that Neurot Recordings welcomes Across Tundras to our home. Their past releases have shown immense dedication to spirit and commitment to growth and sonic evolution. Those are traits that we admire and look for when declaring kinship among those also on the quest for emotional release through sound."

ACROSS TUNDRAS' Tanner Olson this week also made a statement on their induction into Neurot's family: "The opportunity to stand alongside such a talented and driven group of artists and musicians is something we have been working along time for. Neurot Recordings releases the most inspired and original music out there, and its a huge compliment that they see us as kindred musical spirits. Eternal gratitude to the Neurot family for believing in us and giving a proper home to our nomadic sounds."

Here is a band that definitely deserves our attention. I have spent many afternoons listening to Western Sky Ride, an album that is 80% awesome. Highly recommended.

PENTAGRAM - Last Rites Album Artwork and Track Listing Revealed

AGOURA HILLS, Calif. – February 14, 2011 – PENTAGRAM, the band that has been churning out widely admired hard rock/doom metal for over four decades, has just revealed the track listing and artwork to the band's highly anticipated full-length album Last Rites. Last Rites, out on April 12th via Metal Blade Records, contains 11 new tracks of behemoth tunes that fans have been clamoring for since the last Liebling/Griffin masterpiece was released in 1994 (Be Forewarned).

Last Rites track listing:
1. Treat Me Right
2. Call the Man
3. Into the Ground
4. 8
5. Everything's Turning to Night
6. Windmills and Chimes
7. American Dream
8. Walk in Blue Light
9. Horseman
10. Death in 1st Person
11. Nothing Left

Cover art for Last Rites was handled by Mo Moussa (MoMoussa.com) who is best known for his work with Marvel & DC Comics. Mo Moussa's other credentials include New Line Cinema, Nickelodeon as well as the four major TV networks. A Philly native and a huge fan of underground music, his work also graces the covers of several of his favorite local bands including Total Fucking Destruction.

That is one of the worst covers ever. Hopefully the contents of the album won't be as cliched.

GRAVEYARD Awesome Artwork for New Album

Psychedelic doom rock band GRAVEYARD from Gothenburg, Sweden have unveiled the artwork for their second full-length studio release, Hisingen Blues.  The album was produced, recorded, and mixed in 100% analog by Don Alsterberg (JOSÉ GONZALES, JUNIP, SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES, THE INTERNATIONAL NOISE CONSPIRACY) at Don Pierre Studios in Gothenburg, Sweden. It will be out in Europe on March 25 and in North America on
April 19th.

The band shares details about the album artist, Ulf Lundén:

"We wanted a cover that wasn't your average rock/metal cover, and our friend Ulf Lundén was just the right guy to do it. We had seen his work for his own band, Bombus, and we knew he had a wild imagination. So we just let him loose. He put us up against the green screen, took his photos and that was that. A couple of weeks later, he showed us what he had done. We were astonished by his work, a perfectionist indeed. We got what we asked for, a cover that isn't average. Rich with details, swamp/jungle feeling, weirdness and a lurking evil feel to it."

Ain't that a beauty? Saw these guys live opening for Clutch. Unfortunately to get to Clutch I had to sit through a whole show of The Sword. Graveyard kicked it though. Wonderful mellow stoner tunes. Good vibes all around. Looking forward to this one.

RAZOR Announce First Montreal Show inYears

Canada's RAZOR are announcing their first show in Montreal in over five years at Foufounes Electriques on Friday April 29th,2011. Playing only a few shows a year they are also set to headline the 2011 'True Thrash Festival' in Osaka, Japan on February 11 and the show in Montreal will be one the only shows they play in North America all year.The show will also include support from Riotor as well as FTME an S.O.D. cover band. Tickets are available for purchase online at www.razormontreal.info and instore tickets will be available on February 18th, details for in store locations can be found at www.razormontreal.info.

LIGHTNING SWORDS OF DEATH Announce Tour With MASTER

Los Angeles black metal heathens, LIGHTNING SWORDS OF DEATH, are preparing to level the masses on a month-long U.S. tour supporting Czech Republic-by-way-of-Chicago death metal legends Master. The band will join the tour on March 4 in Brooklyn, New York and march through 30 cities throughout the country before winding down on April 3 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The band will be joined by Ohio thrashers Mobile Deathcamp on select dates.

Commented vocalist Autarch of the journey: "This is a pilgrimage reaching many places in our own country we have yet to poison with our gospel. We shall bring them the great gnosis of kaos, death and ecstasy. We will teach them to strangle the mundane with intestines of the apathetic."
 
LIGHTNING SWORDS OF DEATH will be touring in support of The Extra Dimensional Wound, their second full-length, released via Metal Blade Records last year. The record, which Stereogum commended for being 'brutal, icy hot, super heavy, [and] full of lurching grooves, was released on vinyl in December via Canonical Hours Records and is available as a deluxe gatefold LP featuring two 200-gram discs with a 12-page booklet and expanded artwork in a limited edition of 500 copies.
LIGHTNING SWORDS OF DEATH U.S. Tour 2011
w/ Master, Mobile Deathcamp
3/04/2011 Europa - Brooklyn, NY w/ Strong Intention
3/05/2011 Diablo - Buffalo, NY w/ Strong Intention
3/05/2011 Montage Music Hall - Rochester, NY (late show) w/ Strong Intention
3/06/2011 Popeye's - Peekskill, NY w/ Strong Intention

Mobile Deathcamp Joins Tour
3/07/2011 Now That's Class - Cleveland, OH
3/08/2011 The Summit - Columbus, OH
3/09/2011 Macs - Lansing, MI
3/10/2011 Vollrath Tavern - Indianapolis, IN
3/11/2011 Reggie's - Chicago, IL
3/12/2011 Fubar - St Louis, MO

Master/Lightning Swords Of Death Only
3/13/2011 The Bourbon Theater - Lincoln, NE
3/14/2011 The Marquis - Denver, CO
3/15/2011 Club Vegas - Ogden, UT
3/16/2011 El Corazon - Seattle, WA
3/17/2011 Branx - Portland, OR
3/18/2011 Thee Parkside - San Francisco, CA
3/19/2011 The Metaphor - Escondido, CA
3/20/2011 The Blvd. - Hollywood, CA
3/21/2011 Ub's - Mesa, AZ
3/22/2011 Launchpad - Albuquerque, NM
3/23/2011 Emo's - Austin, TX

Master/Lightning Swords Of Death/Mobile Deathcamp
3/24/2011 The Rail Club - Ft Worth, TX
3/25/2011 007 Rock Bar - San Antonio, TX
3/26/2011 Walter's - Houston, TX
3/27/2011 Rouge - Fayetteville, AR
3/28/2011 The Muse - Nashville, TN
3/29/2011 Hideaway - Johnson City, TN
3/30/2011 Volume 11 - Raleigh, NC
3/31/2011 Tremont Music - Charlotte, NC
4/01/2011 Club 306 - Roanoke, VA
4/02/2011 Mojo 13 - Wilmington, DE
4/03/2011 31 Street Pub - Pittsburgh, PA

GARY MOORE - Dead at 58

As a metal fan I was always a fan of guitarists. As a fan of guitarists I was really into virtuosos until I found out I could get much more joy out of masturbating myself instead of seeing other people masturbate. As a teenager, after hearing Still Got the Blues on South American radio, Gary Moore became my favorite guitarist. Here was a guitar hero who for once service the music instead of himself.

My admiration for the Irish blues man grew larger once I got into Thin Lizzy and realized Mr. Moore had been part of the greatest Irish band to have ever existed. 

After 1992's After Hours, Moore's popularity waned in the new world and I Iost sight of his work. More recently I have written badly about his early work with his band Skid Row. You can find the post here.

Just a couple of hours ago I was moved after I learned Gary Moore died in Spain on February 6th. As of February 8th, his Wikipedia page rules a heart attack as cause of death while early reports that appeared in Britain's Sun tabloid mentioned, 'choked to death on his own vomit after a night of hard drinking', which prompted outrage from the musician's fans. Whatever the cause of death, it is a tragedy that a great soulful musician has been robbed from us at such a relatively young age.

Thanks for the music Gary Moore.

Couldn't Sleep Last Night - DOGTOOTH

Couldn't sleep last night indeed. So I ended up watching the Greek movie Dogtooth. Twice.  It was about 3:30 a.m. when the movie finished and by then I had been shaken so hard I was unable to get any sleep until the following night. 

I am not an Academy Awards historian but I bet this has got to be the most disturbing movie to ever be nominated for a Best Foreign Film Award. Admirable if we consider that the gathering of old farts who pick this and that for this ceremony have us used to Driving Miss Daisy type of fare. A pervert must have squirmed his way through their puritanical ranks.

The word 'weird' does not begin to describe the extremes Dogtooth reaches. And one needs not be shown any grotesque images to realize that Dogtooth is going to be a unique and shocking cinematic experience. As the movie opens, the father is driving a woman to his house to fulfill his son's sexual desire. Once there, communication is minimal and the sex is quite explicit. Judging by the son's expressions we could deduce that pleasure is the last thing he gets from sex. But he is a boy and his father at least understands his urges. The daughters are then left to discover sex on their own and so they do, with each other.

For a good while it is hard to get a grasp of what Dogtooth is all about. The language the protagonists use is rudimentary and the acting is minimal. And when I say minimal I mean there is rarely any acting, as each sentence is delivered with the grace of a sack of flour and the phisicality the actors display is non-existent, maybe because our physical movements are to a degree learned from interaction and these greeks have been deprived of the outside world. Regardless, I guess you have got to have some acting chops if what you are going to do in front of a camera is give somebody a handjob or get your head bashed in with a VHS tape. By the way, both of those scenes are pretty cool.

Once one is in the loop and those distinctive dry notes Dogtooth strikes about every second stop distracting us from what is really happening it is obvious that director Giorgios Lanthimos has created a whole separate world, one in which the patriarch is an absolute dictator and his family has become an aberration, they have been minimized to play peons in this world of his. The world outside does not exist to them. And the promise of escape, says the father, will only come true when their canines (hence Dogtooth) appear.

If you are going to watch Dogtooth I suggest you prepare for incest. Explicit incest. And also prepare for violence. The physical violence this movie shows is hard to watch but is not as intense as the emotional violence this movie unleashes. In the most memorable scene we can observe what to them (the characters have no names) equals a fun night out. 'Out' meaning the living room. 'Fun' meaning the son playing guitar and the daughters dancing like a couple of epileptics whose last bit of memory is a scene of Flashdance. If their parents are in delight of the show, they sure are good at concealing it. As we understand it, this may be fun for them, but for the moviegoer it is pure fucking torture.

Somebody called Dogtooth an 'erotic horror film'. I disagree. The sex shown here is far from erotic. But the horror is all too real.

HATRED SURGE / MAMMOTH GRINDER Split -Tour Dates

Two of Texas' most crushing Metal acts join forces on this split release on Cyclopean Records, laying waste to the drum-trigger-happy modern metal scene with seven tracks of the raw punk-fueled-fury of classic Death Metal and Grindcore. This sets the bar as the heaviest material to date for each band, featuring members of INSECT WARFARE and IRON AGE.

HATRED SURGE have recently joined forces with Rahi (aka Gargling Urine) of Insect Warfare. The four piece recorded for their split LP with Mammoth Grinder on Cyclopean as well as recording their tracks for the highly anticipated BRUTAL SUPREMACY compilation (Mind Eraser, Iron Lung, Scapegoat) on Painkiller records. Rahi's vocal attack takes Hatred Surge's whirlwind of grindcore, power violence and death metal to another level of aural and sonic extremes.

MAMMOTH GRINDER fresh off of the release of 2009's Extinction of Humanity (Relapse/Cyclopean) and 2010's Obsessed with Death 7" (Hell's Massacre/Painkiller), returns with two new tracks. Sharing members with Hatred Surge as well as serving as the backing band to Mind Eraser frontman Justin Detore's INNUMERABLE FORMS (Hell's Massacre), Mammoth Grinder, Hatred Surge, Innumerable Forms, and Sweden's Miasmal (Members of Martyrdöd) will team up to tour in support of the release including dates at 2011's MARYLAND DEATH FEST

Hatred Surge, Mammoth Grinder, Innumerable Forms, Miasmal Tour Schedule
for May:
May 17th Austin,TX
May 18th Denton,TX
May 19th St Louis,MO
May 20th Chicago,IL
May 21st Cleveland,OH
May 22nd TBA
May 23rd Boston,MA
May 24th Brooklyn,NY at the Acheron
May 25th Philadelphia,PA at the Barbary
May 26th Maryland Death Fest
May 27th Maryland Death Fest
May 28th Maryland Death Fest
May 29th Maryland Death Fest
May 30th Richmond,VA at Strange Matter
May 31st Atlanta,GA at Wonder Root
June 1st New Orleans,LA at Siberia
June 2nd Chaos in Tejas
June 3rd Chaos in Tejas
June 4th Chaos in Tejas

SAXON LEE and the SHADOWS INTERNATIONAL - DAMN That Shit is GOOD!

I have been listening to the song "Mind Your Business" non stop for the past three days. And I still can't get enough.

Being an obsessive audiophile whose music listening habits average about 10 hours a day / 5 days a week of heavily distorted music, my eardrums often scream for a break from so much heaviness. When that happens I often times go back to one of those Afro Beat compilations issued by Soundway Records. The feeling I get from those are exactly the opposite of what I get from metal; relaxation, tranquility, peace, calm. And frankly, the desire that those beats would go on forever.

Like every good audiophile, I can't love only one style. Having grown up in Latin America my early years were molded by Latin music. Styles like salsa and cumbia were loathed in my youth. Now that I am older and wiser, I can listen to some of those oldies that blasted on South American radio non-stop and appreciate them for what they are. I believe I owe this music open-mindedness to my love for Afro Beat.

Like most. I came to Afro Beat by way of  Fela Kuti. This must have been in the late 90's. I was in college, deep into pot smoking, heavy drinking, couch-potatoing and foreign movies. The depth of Kuti's music, the layering of instrumentation, the extended jams and the free-flowing nature of his compositions converted me into a fanatic. It would be a good few years until Soundway Records would start issuing the Nigerian High Life comps, but my taste buds were by him forever changed.

What can I say about this beautiful song that can't be thought after its deep appreciation? That its funky guitars are sick. That the vocalist's raspy voice is also smooth? That's its intangible soul and funk influences are palpable? And much more...

According to the Soundway website

Saxon Lee & The Shadows International were born out of The Martins Brothers Dance Band, which was originally based in Port Harcourt. They started back in the 1960s and made afrobeat part of their repertoire, quite soon after Fela began his string of hits with Africa 70. Mind Your Business was first released as a shorter 45 version on Decca’s Afrodisia Records before being re-recorded on this LP from 1973. The singer Pax Nicholas later went on to record a solo LP (Na Teef Know de Road of Teef) for Tabansi records.

And that's all we need to know.

Illegal DOWNLOADERS of the World, BEWARE!!!

Illegal downloaders of the World Beware. Mmmmhh, on second thought nevermind.

In what's pretty much a move we were all kind of expecting, Google (AKA God) has made a change to its Instant Search feature in order to give us the idea that they really care about all this illegal downloading business.

Starting on January 27th, Google has blocked a list of  names for websites such as Megaupload, Rapidshare and BitTorrent from dynamically displaying results as we type our search queries. This move comes after Google announced in December that it had planned a handful of copyright protection initiatives.

Of course, what we all care about is whether this will affect our ability to search, find and download brand new albums like crazies? The answer is NO. All you have to do is keep on typing your query, something like 'download shitty Metallica album Megaupload' and the results will be the same.

As of now, Google can't, or just doesn't care enough, to find out which files are being downloaded illegally and hence, they can't prevent the results from showing up. So enjoy it, while you can, I am pretty sure that in the short run, more drastic measure will be taken.

Read full article here...