I said Mosque, not Mosh

Giving a New Meaning to the Term “Bombtrack”

In recent years, a new subculture has begun to use the medium of punk rock to share its views with like-minded music fans and the world at large. Anarchists? Well, if you paid any attention to punk rock over the last 25 years or so, you’d know that anarchists are already making ideological punk music. Luddites? Well, there is a sizeable acoustic punk scene, but they still use modern means of recording, distribution and conveyance to shows. Washed up, trashy, talentless twenty-something rehab urchins with astoundingly poor judgement? No, but good guess!

The subculture in question is (drumroll, please): “progressive Muslims”

12 Rock-themed Films that don’t suck

Rock’n'Roll Movies That Don’t Suck!

* Hard Core Logo (1996) This poignant Canadian adaptation of Michael Turner’s novel follows a legendary (fictitious) Vancouver band on a reunion tour that involves, among other things: faking a benefit concert for someone who’s not dead, the schizophrenic bassists involuntary mid-tour lithium holiday and, uh, I think Joey Ramone is in there, too somewhere.

* Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey: Filmmaker/academic Sam Nunn combines his two loves in life (metal music and anthropology) in this documentary which views the evolution of heavy music from a cultural standpoint, featuring deluded groupies, appalling album art and Nordic black metal fans who might possibly be taking themselves a bit too seriously.

*Pink Floyd’s The Wall (1982) Yeah, sure; The Wall is more overwrought than any other film listed here. Is it melodramatic? Ohhh, yes! Pretentious? You bet your sweet ass! Still, in what other film could you see a scene like this:

Loretta Lynn will mess you up!

You’d best close your face and stay out my way if you don’t wanna go to Fist City…
‘Cause I’ll grab you by the hair a the head, and I’ll lift a you off a the ground.
Damn straight. She’s so Ghetto!

Band of the Month: Ghostland Observatory

ЯR   April’s Official Band: Ghostland Observatory   ЯR 

Ghostland Observatory is the band The White Stripes could be…if they didn’t buy their own hype and if they were able to laugh at themselves. Oh, yeah–they’d have to get a helluva lot funkier, too. Yes, GO are the indie-rockers that let their audience in on the joke. Should you be surprised that they hail from Austin, TX? Probably not. Equal parts early ’80s new wave, electro-funk and late ’60s garage punk, Ghostland are proud to be weird and “weird” is something they do better than almost anybody else.

That’s Dr. Rock Star, to you

Consider this hypothetical: You’re a graduate student studying aerospace engineering and things are cranking along fine when your campy little musical project begins to take off. EMI and Creative Artists are calling your home phone number and you still have a statics dissertation to work on. It is apparent that you must make a choice between 2 engaging, potentially-lucrative careers: one working out differential equations for uniform accelleration thrust and one doing lines of blow off of a hot blonde’s backside during drum solos. We all know which one Brian May chose more than 30 years ago (although the groupie/coke scenario may not have been a part of his rock star experience, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Band of the Month: Where’s Moo

This month’s BotM was written for us by Deviant. Thanks, handsome.

ЯR   March’s Official Band: Where’s Moo   ЯR 

 

Band Of The Month: Where’s Moo
or
Get Those Damn Kids Off My Lawn

Maybe it was the shots of Fernet–a digestif drink popular in San Francisco–or it could have been the heavy pot billowing from my mouth, but the music playing on Michael Mangum’s computer sounded aurally pungent, like a mix of the familiar with the futuristic, the dystopian future with the familiar rocking past. I was blown away by the guitars seemingly playing power ballads in slow motion, with a lead singer who sounded like a young Michael Stipe.

“Hey…this is pretty good. Who is this?”

“It’s me,” Michael replied with a grin on his face.

Apparently the dope was great because I’d forgotten that he’d gotten up to play his music to me. I was understandably red-faced.

February Band of the Month: Six String Sonics

ЯR   February’s Official Band: Six String Sonics, The   ЯR  

  

One day, guitarist/producer Gil Kuno woke up, looked at a guitar and thought to himself, “This instrument is far too conventional” and set himself to change it.

Ultimately, he arrived at the solution: instead of one player with a six-string guitar, he’d arrange to have six players, each with his/her own single-string guitar, tuned in the same configuration as a standard electric guitar. This results in weird, disjointed tunes that are much less chord-driven and packed with odd, layered melodic runs. Now, most musical revolutionaries would be satisfied with creating music quirky enough to make Kraftwerk say, “Damn, dude!”. However, this wasn’t enough for Gil Kuno. In order to make the project even more bizarre, he’d grab members of some of Japan’s biggest alternative/avant garde bands to play the instruments (which include the 6 1-string guitars, electronic drums and a two-story electric bass which requires 2 people to play). Not weird enough for you yet? Well, it wasn’t for Kuno, either…

WTF Films: Rock n Roll Crazy Night

 

Years ago, in a time known as “The 80s”, humanity was enlightened and entertained by a new subgenre of film. These Canadian cinematic offerings were set apart by their heavy-handed moralistic tone, actors who had no business acting, directors who had no business directing, epic heavy metal soundtracks and, usually, John Mikl Thor.

Now, to carry on the lineage of Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare, Shock ‘Em Dead, and Black Roses, comes Michael Keeves’ and Josh Clark’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Crazy Night - an 80s-centric short about evil rocker Cain, whose nefarious plan is to brainwash the town of Rock Haven’s youths into becoming his long-haired, sleeveless t-shirt-wearing minions. It is up to a group of high-school friends and their wise public school-employed janitor to stop the evil plot.

Band of the Month: The Chubby Chasers

ЯR   January’s Official Band: The Chubby Chasers   ЯR 

 

Hip-hop has always embraced a culture of fatness. A big, bassy rhythm is a “fat beat”. A cool stereo or article of clothing might be called “phat”. And those ridiculously fat gold ropes Erik B and Rakim wore back in the day? They were phat, too. Look at the legendary hip-hop artists, from the Fat Boys to Biz Markie to Notorious B-I-G, whose body types were just another part of their artistic personae. It should come as no surprise, then, that a rap act would come along to celebrate the females with a little more to love! (Nearly 2/3 of Americans, including yours truly, are overweight– a clear majority. It’s about time the popular culture–if sometimes begrudgingly– accepts this.) Enter the RationReality Band of the Month: The Chubby Chasers.

Bitches Love Soylent Ape

In honor of Soylent Ape‘s birthday, I’m posting his favorite youtube:
Mindless Self Indulgence’s Bitches, set to Pokémon clips. And guess what!? It doesn’t suck!

Good job, thebuttmaster – I’m sure your mommy is proud.