But like a mostly-absent father, I’m here after the fact with half-truth excuses and half-empty promises. A ballgame next week, perhaps, is how I’ll win back your favor. But I won’t be there. No, you’ll just be sitting on your porch, mitt in hand, like a sucker.
But let’s not get bogged down with those pesky details!
My kid got sick and I think I caught some kind of mutated version of her disease specifically engineered to make me more tired than I usually already am because I have been dragging ass this week. The good news is that I seem to be over it and I’ve got a wild hair up my ass.
I got my CSTVT vinyl in the mail today! Huzzah!
Pretty, I know. I also got the new Eisley album in the mail. Unfortunately, it’s not as pretty. I’m gay for female vocalists and even gayer for dream pop/shoegazer shit so I’ve had a boner for Eisley for a minute. Never mind the fact that they’re from Tyler, a city two hours away from me and those three foxy sisters that have starred in any number of my lewd, possibly illegal fantasies.
The tyranny of allergies has tightened its iron grip around me — my skull mostly -– and I do not know how much longer I will last. To be quite honest, I am not even sure this letter will find you.
Dramatics aside, I feel like utter shit. I get really bad allergies, and today I’ve got them bad. One time I even got a shot of steroids in the ass to combat a sneezing fit I had.
Sneezing fit. Geez, I sound like I’m Macaulay Culkin in My Girl. Next thing you know, I’ll get killed by stupid ass bees and Anna Chlumsky will be screaming about my glasses.
I sat down with Nick Nowell, lead singer of The Famine, a month ago to talk about their new album, The Architects of Guilt. The weekend prior, an assassination attempt on Gabrielle Giffords had occurred, and it dominated most of our pre-interview conversation and also bled into the interview itself.
It was somewhat fitting as The Famine’s new album is, in large, a statement of disgust of America’s current political climate. The album is out now, and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s heavy, passionate and intelligent — everything a good metal record should be.
This is the fourth of four parts that we’ve been posting throughout the week. Yeah, it was a long interview.
15 years ago, if you wanted to listen to a band like The Famine, you couldn’t just hop online and find them. You had to search for the kind of stuff. Do you think with kids now there is a dissociation or a detachment from bands? At least for me, there’s something visceral about holding an album in your hands. You know, having something tangible.
I think we might be the last generation that will really do that. Why would a kid run around and get yelled at by a guy in gym shorts when he can sit at home and play X-Box or surf the internet? Kids don’t seek out bands anymore — bands find them.
And why would kid who has been listening to Taylor Swift on the radio with the processed vocals and drums listen to something like Cattle Decapitation — which is awesome but very inaccessible — when they can listen to Killswitch Engage where they will recognize melody and verse/chorus structure. Why listen to A when B is sleeker and better packaged? But then you got C, D and E, which dilutes it even further.
You guys went on tour with Underoath, Solid State’s biggest selling band. How was that?
The guys from Underoath are all super nice and were kind enough to take us out, but at times we thought, “What are we doing here?” It was the biggest crowd of disinterested 14-year-old girls texting their boyfriends about how fat we were.
I sat down with Nick Nowell, lead singer of The Famine, a month ago to talk about their new album, The Architects of Guilt. The weekend prior, an assassination attempt on Gabrielle Giffords had occurred, and it dominated most of our pre-interview conversation and also bled into the interview itself.
It was somewhat fitting as The Famine’s new album is, in large, a statement of disgust of America’s current political climate. The album is out now, and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s heavy, passionate and intelligent — everything a good metal record should be.
This is the third of four parts that we’ll be posting throughout the week. Yeah, it was a long interview.
So why do TV shows and movies and art get a free pass, while music gets the shaft? Everyone throws away their Prince albums or their INXS albums. "I don’t want to be androgynous and I don’t want to hang myself masturbating, so I’m only going to listen to Further Seems Forever."
But they keep their David Carradine movies.
He was delightful in Death Race 2000.
I think that’s a great question, and I’ve never actually considered that before. But my response to that would be it’s because — and I’m not sure how this came about — for 25 years in this country, there has been a defined and reinforced market for Christian music which isn’t the same for Christian TV shows or Christian movies. Except for Bible Man.
Which is awesome.
It’s awesome in the same way Evil Dead is awesome. It’s like a… social experiment.
My earliest music memory is of being a six-year-old in a U-Haul van. My family was moving to San Antonio, and we had just hit the reemergence of civilization from in between the hundreds of miles of nothing that Texas is famous for. My mom turned on the radio and I remember hearing and loving Maneater by Hall and Oates. I was just a dumb kid that didn’t really understand how the radio worked, so I sat there expecting to hear the song play again relatively soon after. It didn’t. Bummer.
That memory came flooding back to me as I listened to The Bird and the Bee’s Interpreting the Masters tribute to ol’ H and O. That chick’s voice is fantastic. It seems like her voice wouldn’t be strong enough to hit certain notes — but when she does, it’s a delightful surprise.
Hey, you know how you can tell I’m getting old? I say shit like “delightful surprise.”
I sat down with Nick Nowell, lead singer of The Famine, a month ago to talk about their new album, The Architects of Guilt. The weekend prior, an assassination attempt on Gabrielle Giffords had occurred, and it dominated most of our pre-interview conversation and also bled into the interview itself.
It was somewhat fitting as The Famine’s new album is, in large, a statement of disgust of America’s current political climate. The album is out now, and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s heavy, passionate and intelligent — everything a good metal record should be.
This is the second of four parts that we’ll be posting throughout the week. Yeah, it was a long interview.
You don’t support the troops!
[laughs] I’m not that guy. I’m not that bleeding heart, but you can say, “I want all of our soldiers to do the job they were hired to do and come home safely, but I don’t want them to kill innocent people.” I think that’s an admirable line to draw, but a lot of people would then cast suspicion on that which seems silly to me.
Do you think metal, as a genre, should be more political?
I’m a political junkie, but I’m not gonna say I know more than anyone. These are my opinions. Fat Mike got a lot of flak for trying to enter the politics game, and people said, “You’re in your late 30s and you’re a noted drug abuser from a pop punk band.” And they, myself included, just rolled their eyes. I don’t want to be that guy.
I sat down with Nick Nowell, lead singer of The Famine, a month ago to talk about their new album, The Architects of Guilt. The weekend prior, an assassination attempt on Gabrielle Giffords had occurred, and it dominated most of our pre-interview conversation and also bled into the interview itself.
It was somewhat fitting as The Famine’s new album is, in large, a statement of disgust of America’s current political climate. The album is out today, and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s heavy, passionate and intelligent — everything a good metal record should be.
This is the first of four parts that we’ll be posting throughout the week. Yeah, it was a long interview.
The new album is called The Architects of Guilt. Where did that name come from?
Part of our nature is that we try to make sense of things that are sometimes really not meant to be made sense of. It deals with a variety of subjects, and while it’s not really a concept record, there is a theme to it. And I knew that I wanted to use the word guilt in the title because that’s a big part of the album; assigning it, accepting it, every aspect of it. The title sums up the album, which is about the extent to which we’re all culpable, and each song is a little vignette into different aspects of what that means.
So it’s not a concept album, but there are recurring themes?
Yeah, I’m not gonna tease my hair out and write graphic novels that take place on one of Saturn’s moons. My voice isn’t high enough. [laughs]
Not a bad week. The Famine, who you’ll be seeing plenty of around these parts this week, finally have that new record out. Then there’s Bob Pollard’s latest in a string of high wheat/low chaff releases — this time with his new band Lifeguards. And while the latest Bright Eyes album leaves a little to be desired (just like most of them), I’ll give Conor Oberst a pass since it’s about reptoids and all.
On top of that, we’ve got a Mogwai record that’s no slouch, a Forms EP you should check out, that new Deicide and a handful of other things I still need to make my way through.
:: Scion Rock Fest is hitting Columbus on March 13. Shrinebuilder, Pelican and YOB are rumored to be there. Regardless of who ends up coming, it’ll be a hell of a time in the Buckeye State.
Honorable mentions (because they came out in late 07 and I didn’t get into them until 08): Pelican – City of Angels Minus The Bear – Planet of Ice
10. Testament – The Formation of Damnation
Alex Scolnick is back doing metal. Chuck Billy didn’t die. All is right with the metal world. I have loved them since Practice What You Preach. So good to hear from them… and have them sound GOOD.
9. Russian Circles – Station
I dunno… just love em.
8. Don The Reader – Humanesque
Reminds me of Dillinger Escape Plan’s first album… you remember the one with the clown porn song? This is a great band. Spazz, but like, “spazz-lite.” It doesn’t make you have to shut it off and take a break. Kinda some Deadguy in there, too. Member them?
7. Meshuggah – obZen
I am with you everybody, they were starting to bore me for a while. But this album recalibrated what they do. Whoosh. How about that “bleed” song? Ridiculous.
6. Unteachers – Unreleased Demo
I know you haven’t heard it yet… but be patient, world. The Tantrum of the Muse clan is cookin’ up-a suma-thin’ good.
5. The Famine – The Raven And The Reaping
Wow. Best band at C-Stone hands down. They call themselves Suffocation doing Pantera covers… nothin’ wrong with that. Drummers: Take notes.
4. Becoming The Archetype – Dichotomy
I think they’ve arrived. The first two are different bands, but Devon Townsend pulled something out of this band and made them a third and better band.
3. Cynic – Traced In Air
They get the “it’s about time” award. I guess they can’t make Focus again, but this album is really good.
2. Torche – Meanderthal
Not my normal cup of sludge-rock, but I can’t stop listening to this album.
1. Textures – Silhouettes
Whew. Math-Metal? Tech-Metal? I dunno. But this is one of the top 10 best albums I’ve ever heard at all, let alone this year. Right up my alley.
Photos: Obits at the Black Cat
Photos: The Promise Ring at The Metro
Photos: Monotonix at Fun Fun Fun Fest
Photos: Valient Thorr at Fun Fun Fun Fest
Photos: Danielson, Welcome Wagon at The 930 Listening Room