Monday is Labor Day here in the States, which means Americans will be taking the day off of work and BBQing with friends and family. It also marks the unofficial end of Summer for people who are too beholden to the Western calendrical structure to realize that nothing actually changes from one day to the next (not to mention that the date of Labor Day moves every year), and that September is actually still quite summery in feel.

So, we’ll be closing the gates of the Mansion a bit early today. I’m not sure what Axl is doing, but I’ll bet it involves his vaporizer. I’m going up to the uber-metal environs of Woodstock, NY, birthplace of MetalGF, to spend the weekend pondering what the hell I’m going to do with myself when the sun goes down at 4:30 every day in December. Fuck my life.

You know who else is from Woodstock? 3. The band 3, whose logo looks like a giant dong. And I’m incredibly psyched to report that 3 are going to be releasing their new album Revisions before year’s end (October 27th, Metal Blade). The band’s last album The End is Begun was a fucking phenomenal piece of crazy, tripped-out, artsy prog metal with big riffs and hooks accented by frontman Joey Eppard’s unique acoustic picking style. 3 are a band that are truly unique amongst their peers.

My year-end Top 10 list just got that much harder to compile.

-VN