Brooklyn’s Blackout is the type of band that likes to lay it on real thick. And that’s not to be mistaken with exaggeration; if Blackout excels at one thing on The Horse (RidingEasy) it’s putting down some of meatiest riffs committed to tape. Pretty impressive for a band that hails from a borough that’s become synonymous with food trucks, overpriced coffee and just being straight up soft.Continue reading
In Part II of our interview with Mike Scheidt of YOB, we talked about the popularity of the band and the wider acceptance of Doom Metal as whole the last few years. Although he refused to take credit for it, YOB’s killer albums have certainly been part of the equation. At the same time Mike remains grounded and remembers where he came from when the band played to empty clubs and heard crickets. Check out the piece below and make sure to catch the band on tour with Enslaved this spring.
“We are equal parts stoked, perplexed and surprised, so that is good. Part of it for us is longevity. We’ve been around and been around long enough to have seen it go from 50 people at a show to 500. The climate has changed and we have played big shows and things we certainly never set out to do. It has grown as we have grown. And we have also tried to focus and keep our heads down too, and focus on the music and why it is we love music, and love to play the music we love. I think metal in general has come more on the worldwide radar as art, as opposed to just deviant, meat-headed music as it did 20 years ago. Now it is being taken seriously much more so than before. We’ve worked hard to become a better, stronger band. I also think some of it has nothing to do with us. We’ve never tried to be an ambitions band, trying to get out there. We play Doom Metal. For a large part of our history, nobody really cared. Now that people do, we can’t really take credit for that. There are so many bands putting records out there.”
“When a bunch of critics and writers agree that they like our record, it’s totally an honor and humbling. It’s an interesting change. It’s taken a little running and getting used to. Those things come and go too. We acknowledge it. We are grateful for it. We keep working on, work on the music, the live performance. We just keep on keeping on.”
“We had no expectations to begin with. We are honored to share the stage with some of our heroes. The thing about a Doom metal show in the year 2000 was nobody was there by accident. Everybody knew what they were getting into. Those 50 people that we were there knew what they were getting into. Whether it’s a trend or not, time will tell how that will unfold. We’ve been doing it for so long now. I don’t see us deviating from that anytime soon.”
As a closing point, Mike made a profound comparison to the biggest bands of yesterday, and the line between critical praise and the commercialism of the mainstream today:
“Even 25 years ago, the metal bands that were big were fantastic. Really big. Iron Maiden. Judas Priest. Slayer. Motorhead. These bands are incredibly wealthy and they are all still good. And the fans haven’t abandoned them. Getting mainstream success today doesn’t mean the same thing today as it did for those bands. It’s a completely different world and completely different musical climate.”
WORDS BY KEITH CHACHKES
Choosing the 20th Anniversary of the South By Southwest Conference and Festival as the year to experience the mayhem in Austin, Texas made quite the impression on me. The music and tech (along with film and comedy) conference which once was influential upon the music and entertainment industry may have hit a cross point and I was there to witness it while it happened.
The past decade (give or take a few years…say six to eight years) saw changes within the entire event, as aspiring bands who flock into Austin’s Downtown areas to perform at the various bars along Sixth Street and Red River Avenue were competing against corporate sponsors such as Samsung and Activision, and now Doritos holding their own mini stage featuring Lady Gaga. iTunes held their own festival which featured major artists such as Coldplay, Jay Z and Soundgarden. The purpose of the event became a bit disjointed and the focus towards music slowly shifted away.
Sadly, the 2014 edition’s kicked off earlier in the week with a drunk driver who was involved in a hit and run outside of the Mohawk Bar (also outside of the Vans Stage where Les Claypool, X and ††† (Crosses) were performing), and killed a reported four people while over 25 people were hospitalized, which also drew international press and left a bad taste in many people’s mouth over the incident.
Rock and metal has traditionally been a minimal part of South By Southwest, and this year we managed to find a few bands who were playing throughout the week at a variety of bars and clubs.
The week began with venturing through the tail end of the technology portion of the conference, finding a number of startup music apps from South America, Europe and Asia. Many aspiring tech engineers found their way to Austin to showcase their products, and while some may become household names, it became a bit overwhelming figuring out what everyone was presenting.
This year’s edition also found various rock and metal showcases happening outside of the downtown area, and beyond walking distances as previously advertised. This resulted in us missing Kylesa and the Heavy Metal Parking Lot showcase, which was a huge thumbs down on the event’s part.
The Dirty Dog Bar held a few cool showcases, including the Relapse Showcase featuring Obliterations, Primitive Man, Nothing, Christian Mistress and Windhand, as well as the Metal Injection and Metal Sucks parties throughout the week. A fairly decent sized club, they held one of the few hard rock and metal showcases throughout the week, which immediately attracted fans as well as industry types.
The Metal Sucks party featured East of the Wall and Whores getting the crowd riled up, while Mutoid Man, Iron Reagan and Ringworm drawing much of the attention for their powerful live performances.
Metal and Lace Bar held a variety of rock bands throughout the week, as we found German metalcore outfit We Butter The Bread With Butter terrorizing an intimate crowd, while LA rock outfit Aeges and Brazilian groove-punk-metal outfit Fresno both grinding out riff after riff and showing the crowd how it’s done.
Across the street at Beer Land, a 1 am appearance by Invsn, featuring Dennis Lyzsen formerly of Refused, found their way onto a small stage but appeared larger than life. Musically, Invsn is Lyzsen’s rock band and not as angst fueled as Refused, this band is definitely highly anticipated and worth checking out. This show may have been a last minute booking (much like most performances), but they still won over the crowd.
Over at the Swinghouse Studios showcases (at Rusty’s on 7th Street), it was largely rock and alternative rock bands, with occasional surprises such as Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes doing his solo set and Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine performing with the Last Internationale in front of 20 people (?!). While there were surprises throughout the week, such as San Francisco electro-alt-metal band Death Valley High and an appearance by Semi Precious Weapons with a brief appearance by Lady Gaga in the crowd, their club was regularly filled with curious spectators.
But the highlight included a Mapex Drums drum off set with Animals As Leaders drummer Matt Garska and Periphery drummer Matt Helpern doing an impromptu set on the street, as well as both bands playing full sets in front of eager fans who got to see them both on a small stage, with Ben Kenney of Incubus and Dug Pinnick of Kings X witnessing them causing a ruckus.
Crosses played a set at Emos, which the new location is 15 minutes away from the downtown area, which cut into their draw. But the intimate crowd got to see Chino Moreno and gang perform their new album. While Crosses shows his ambient side, they do put on quite a powerful live show and rarely let up.
The weekend ended with catching a few minutes of Brazil’s Eminence, a neo thrash outfit who rarely makes a US appearance, as well as LA power pop/punk outfit The Dollyrots at Headhunters. Yes, the Dollyrots are not a metal band but they throw down as hard as one. Their singer/bassist Kelly Ogden keeps the tempo high and their memorable set list covered much of their latest album Bare Foot and Pregnant, including a highly energetic medley of ‘Da Doo Run Run’ (by the Crystals) and the Ramones ‘I Wanna Be Sedated.’
Yes, South By Southwest is part conference and part Mardi Gras into a two week event. The sad reality is that the focus needs to return to music and less on other things as the true purpose of why it is happening (aside from alcohol consumption and mass partying) is truly lost.
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Rei Nishimoto
I have been asked more about the Ghost B.C. the last few years , and what I think of them as a legitimate band than any other question about music. Insanely catchy, totally blasphemous, and seemingly playing a joke on all of the humorless hipsters and elitists who hate them more than a tech death fan hates emo kids moshing at a show. While part of me says all of Ghosts entire being is gimmicky, and the band would be just solid if it were a bunch of dudes, there is no denying the quality of the players, or the songs. When the dust settles years from now, I believe they will be remembered for the impact they made on this era of music, and not the aura and schtick that makes people discount them.
This EP is really not that much different than their other recorded covers, or really any of their recorded output. Except that this EP was produced by Dave Grohl, and these are some of the best and most fun covers the band has done to date. The title track is the Roky Erickson song ‘If You Have Ghosts’ which is pretty evil sounding compared with the original. They give it their own bombastic treatment, as you’d expect them to, and it works well. Despite the hilarity of the idea of this band covering ABBA, I can’t really get past the fact that I hate ABBA deeply, as every self-respecting metal fan ought to. Still, ‘I’m A Marionette’ works as a cover, and I suspect this will be the big hit that carries this album. Army of Lovers‘ ‘Crucified’ has no irony at all actually, and is also one of the top songs herein. The best cover, and perhaps the best cover the band has done is Depeche Mode’s ‘Waiting For The Night’. This rendering is down right bliss inducing, whether you count yourself a DM fan, or not. The live version of ‘Secular Haze’ from Infestissumam is solid. Sonically the cross between the carny vibe and church music is great, and just cements the intelligence of the band to me. Once again, nothing new from this band, but still enjoyable.
8.5/10
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Keith (Keefy) Chachkes