Web Video Sandwich: Legends of June

Greetings all! I hope you're hungry for one heavy sandwich today. Again, sorry for those of you who wait with baited breath for me or Richard to post something, but when you think about it....shouldn't you be doing something more productive anyway?

Time for updates: I've decided to enter Script Frenzy for the month of April. The idea is that you spend the month of April to write a 100 page script. There's no prizes or anything, but it will force me to write. I can never work without a deadline. In fact, that's when I do my best work. Plus there's plenty of people who are participating in it so it will be a good chance for me to meet other writers. Even if they are amateurs like myself; the more I'm around it, the better my work will come out. That's been true for me even back in the ol' college days, my best work is always a reflection of those around me working as well. I'll keep you posted with that. Here's the link to Script Frenzy

For those of you on Facebook and happen to my friend on Facebook, I started doing that 30 Day Song Challenge. I won't waste my time with the rules but I'm having fun. Probably because many of my other friends decided to join with me on that game. My favorite way of interacting with my buddies is sitting around pontificating about each others' taste in music/movies/politics whathaveyou. What else if Facebook good for.

And speaking of blowhards: Boruff and I recorded the upcoming Film Concussion Podcast and it's a doozey of an episode. Stay tuned for more information on that.




Today's post will be a reflection of my childlike excitement for the upcoming month of June. I'll have THREE amazing shows in the NYC area and wouldn't ya know it, they sandwich themselves quite nicely. If you ever seen any of these bands listed or just a huge fan, then this explanation will be redundant to you. But for those who have not seen the light, allow me to give you some idea of what is going to be involved.

Let's do this in chronological order:

Starting with the Melvins. Recently, they announced two shows in Brooklyn. June 6th, they'll be playing the albums Lysol, Eggnog, and Houdini and then the very next day on June 7th, they'll be playing Bullhead and Stoner Witch. I decided to go to the first night. Partially because I'm barely familiar with Bullhead or Stoner Witch but mainly because Lysol and Houdini are two out of my three favorite Melvins albums. The last time I saw the Melvins was my first time seeing them back in 2009 during the 25th Anniversary of Houdini. So this will be a fine sequel.

I consider Lysol to be their best album. And by *best*, I mean it's the album that sets this band apart from other bands. It separates classics from legendary. You really need to hear the album all the way through. If you haven't, do so. Turn off the lights. Before you realize 7 minutes of your life has just been squeezed out of you by the crushing, slow and heavy riff of King Buzzo, the song gets new life by the head-smashing rhythm of Dale Crovers toms. And he hits those fucking things hard.

By the time Hung Bunny turns into Roman Bird Dog, it will be worth the trip. The whole album flows like this. Fantastic. I hope I feel it in my guts. I'm sure I will.

So for the video segment, here's an old video of a Melvins show back in 1992 with the mighty Joe Preston on bass. Fuck yeah!


Melvins - Hung Bunny/Roman Bird Dog from 1992



Earth is finally coming back to NYC. I've been waiting over a year to see this band ever since they opened for Sunn O))). This band is the roadmap I've used to find my way to this evolutionary step of my musical taste ever since I heard the first chord progression on Pentastar: In the Style of Demons album. Earth has been talked about on this blog before, but for the laymen out there, they are the drone kings. But, in reality, there's only one king. Dylan Carlson uses harmony in his distortion in ways that trap reality and enhance it that is rivaled by very few in the music world. Sometimes beautiful, some times scary, and always awesome.

Although I do long for those halcyon days of Phase 3: Thrones and Dominions and Pentastar when he was using that distortion pedal with a lot more reverb in the 90's, Earth has changed gears for the new millennium. And they don't show any signs of looking back. Which is good for them. They're more simple, direct and specific. But to the laymen, infinitely more tedious unless you're in to this sort of thing. Which, without a doubt, I am.

It's nice that this show is in between the sandwich because my neck will surely need a rest after the Melvins snap it off. Plus I like shows that are heavy and uber-introspective at the same time because it's rare these days. Earth is one of those bands on my "like to see before I die" list. Barring any unforeseen emergencies, I will shortly be able to cross it off my list.

This video is Earth playing one of their early songs, but updated with their new sensibilities and identity. The trombone is a nice touch too.


Earth - Ouroboros is Broken live



SLEEP. Gods of our time. Legendary riffers of the Weedian realm. What can honestly be said. I caught both shows last fall. If they'd have played a third, I'd have gone for that one. Amazing show. So much to my surprise when I found that they are returning again. Once again with Neurosis drummer Jason Roeder. Too great. I know a good deal of the readers here made it on their last tour. You can now be jealous of the return of the return of the marijuananaut.

This video will brings those who saw back to that moment when the first riff of Dopesmoker drops (y'all know what I mean), and to those who did not, this will make them wish they had.

SLEEP!!!


Sleep intro


So there you have it. Three legendary bands. One great month. I love living in NYC for this. All I'd need is Neurosis to play in June (ha!) and I'd be set and probably wouldn't wake up from the coma. Enjoy and envy me!


Command Image: Concert Command!

Doom and Drone, Sludge and Stone Part 5: The Sludge.

Well it’s 2010, and we hope you’re prepared for an onslaught of awesomeness from we here at Lack of Command. More on our developments as they…well as they develop. In the meantime, let’s start of off 2010 by getting our hands dirty with another DDSS lesson. REAL dirty.

Sludge.



Sounds nasty right? Metal’s sub-genres often have a degree of rebellious dominance in their nomenclature. Thrash Metal. Power Metal. Death Metal. Hardcore. Even Stoner and Doom metal has some semblance of a “fuck you” power to the names. But Sludge Metal? Isn't that the crap (literally) that forms at sewage treatment plants? What in the name of all that is good and holy could sound like that?

Well…something like this:




That’s right, we return to the Melvins. That’s off of their very first album, “Gluey Porch Treatments. Bringing the tones of west coast punk and hardcore to the lowest of low tones. The Melvins really do deserve a whole post on their own. Not just there historical and musical influence, but because trying explain The Melvins to anyone who hasn’t heard them can be quite the chore.

During the death of punk’s wave across the country starting in the west, The Melvins managed to roll it’s way to the south. I’ll paraphrase what Phil Anselmo (Pantera, if you don’t know, you really should) said “While kids everywhere else were listening to Slayer, we were listening to Gluey Porch Treatments.” Like gasoline to the fire, when you combine the low and slow metal to drunk and stoned southerners, what happens is immediate combustion. Actually in this case, it’s more like coagulation. A pissed off bunch of hillbillies with names like Acid Bath, Crowbar, EYEHATEGOD, and Harvey Milk made sounds like this.



You think it’s the low quality of the Tube, but don’t be fooled. Eyehategod is really that dirty. This was the first song I heard when somebody wanted to show me sludge metal, and to this day I think it’s definitive of the genre. It has all the characteristics, guitar feedback, a bass so down tuned the strings are falling off, and as slow as the current in a Louisiana swamp. As you can see, they speed it up for a little bit, but then they get tired and have to slow it down even more.

Fat. Drunk. Lazy. That’s the Southern sound my friends. CT, frontman from Rwake and KMBT Dj has a documentary coming out about the southern sound. Here’s the trailer. Watch for Hank Williams III, Phil Anselmo, and Jimmy Bower (southern sludge superhero of bands like Eyehategod, Crowbar, and Down) offering CT a hit of weed.



The south is and always will be the land of the oppressed. It’s oppression that is either attached or self-induced. From the bankruptcy of the Civil War defeat to the victims of Jim Crow and to it’s tragic devotion to an unforgiving church. That oppression is what fascinates the rest of the country. We can see the agony and the ecstasy of the struggle for freedom. Sludge metal is a good device for demonstrating this. It shares the same spirit of struggle that comes with American music.

Sludge isn’t the only example, but it’s another chapter in the discourse of music from a region that birthed us rock and roll. It’s lyrical content ranges between cosmic wars, to hard drugs, to raising a family. But it’s the music that makes it unique to their region. Soul. Sludge is the icky sticky soul of metal.



You read it right folks. The band’s name is Alabama Thunderpussy. It’s like Lynyrd Skynyrd covered Black Sabbath.


That sludgy shit has laid the ground work and loosened the soil for some of the best bands in the game today. Punk gave us the means to do it ourselves, but sludge gave us an overdrive!


First Command Image for 2010: COMMAND-O'S!!!!