Silver pants aside, Trans Am’s music (the early stuff in particular) carved an original and challenging sound from the get-go……the band somehow merged punkish sensibilities with electronic soundscapes with unexpected chops, and the result was a unique, forward-thinking stylistic adventure.

But it’s hard to accurately analyze these guys based on just one album; they’ve been around for so long now that it seems essential to note the various shifts and phases their sound has gone through. From the polished freight train self-titled debut powerhouse to the stripped-down might of The Surveillance to the dynamic ebb-and-flow of Surrender to the Night to the electroclash assault of Red Line to the vocoder-iffic travels of Futureworld and beyond…..Trans Am’s sound has (or had, up til a couple albums ago) consistently evolved leaps and bounds with each offering, a trait I for one almost always value in and of itself.

Some of you may disagree, but I personally think that the band’s recent efforts have fallen a bit short given the incredible foundation they had established. I guess we’re all entitled to our opinions, even if they’re wrong.

TRANS AM — “Ballbados” from Trans Am (1996)

TRANS AM — “American Kooter” from Trans Am (1996)

TRANS AM — “Love Commander” from Surrender to the Night (1997)

TRANS AM — “Carboforce” from Surrender to the Night (1997)

TRANS AM — “Surrender to the Night” from Surrender to the Night (1997)

TRANS AM — “Armed Response” from The Surveillance (1998)

TRANS AM – “Futureworld” from Futureworld (1999)

TRANS AM – “Cocaine Computer” from Futureworld (1999)

TRANS AM — “I Want it All” from Red Line (2000)

TRANS AM — “Village in Bubbles” from Red Line (2000)

TRANS AM – “Play in the Summer” from Red Line (2000)

-KW

Howard Zinn, Zelda Rubinstein, and J.D. Salinger all died within twenty-four hours of another. That’s crappy on all fronts, but right now I’d like to concentrate on Salinger.

On the one hand, it’s very sad that he’s dead because I happen to think he was a brilliant writer; on the other hand, it’s not like he’d written anything in a long, long, long time anyway, so it doesn’t feel like we’re really losing anything; on the other hand, his son Matt was one of the frat douches in Revenge of the Nerds and played the title role in the straight-to-video live-action Captain America movie, which is to say he and Mr. Salinger’s other remaining kin folk will almost certainly sell away his father’s ideals ASAP. Look for Catcher in the Rye 3-D, starring Zac Efron as Holden Caufield, to hit screens sometime in 2011.

Now that that’s off my chest, here’s a recap of what happened in the metal world this week:

• We definitely spoke to Lamb of God’s Chris Adler and think we spoke to the guy who may or may not actually be Andrew W.K.
• Eyal gave us a recap of NAMM, and The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley told us how he got into metal.
• Norway finally caught up with the nu-metal trend.
• The Insane Clown Posee have made multiple feature-length films. Gee, I wonder how we didn’t know that?
• Footage of a new Cynic song!!!
• Also, this.

Alright, it’s fucking freezing as fuck out there, but I’m gonna try and get my ass out and enjoy what’s left of my youth anyways. If you live in the NYC area, don’t forget that The Austerity Program play this Sunday January 31, in Brooklyn at Public Assembly (70 N 6th St) with White Suns, Immanent Voiceless, Daniel Malinsky. This your chance to thank Justin for all the awesome writing he did for us, or to tell him off for all the terrible writing he did for us, depending on your perspective.

See ya Monday!!!

-AR

Last year, former Billy Corgan Zwan-mate David Pajo released an LP of lo-fi acoustic Misfits covers. Surprisingly, these bare compositions–drowned in tape hiss–worked rather well. Now as open-minded as I am about artists reinterpreting the work of other artists to make new songs, I was admittedly a little taken aback when I heard about an upcoming performance that will feature classic hardcore punk songs converted into classical music.

Yeah, you read that right. THIS IS ACTUALLY FUCKING HAPPENING!

Sebastian Meissner, Germany’s well-known producer of electronic music, who also works under the name Klimek, collaborates with Kwartludium, one of Poland’s most innovative classical/avant-garde quartets. Together, as Solid State Transmitters, they perform an homage to the artists and sound of California’s infamous punk label SST Records, often described as the most influential and popular underground indie label of the 1980s. Essential songs from the SST catalog will be reinterpreted in a surprising, strikingly beautiful manner, to reveal their persisting uniqueness and relevance.

Now I’m familiar with Meissner’s folktronica-ish Klimek material, and I’m not much of a fan. So it doesn’t fill me with confidence that this ensemble’s take on SST bands like Black Flag, Husker Du, Meat Puppets and Minutemen will be at all to my liking. It sounds like some seriously pretentious, ironically artsy hipster bullshit, if you ask me. Let’s not forget that SST also put out a whole mess of Saint Vitus records back in the day too.

Even though this February 4th concert at David Rubenstein Atrium at New York’s Lincoln Center wont cost you any money to attend, it might potentially cost you loads of credibility. See you there? I hope not!

-GS

[Gary Suarez usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

MetalSucks Maniac Tom Fassnidge opines:

I’ve been e-mailing the Mansion about Dyscarnate for months, with no rebuttals or mentions on the site. Please if you don’t like them, shoot me down, but kills me that they don’t really get mentioned anywhere.

Well, gosh, I’m sorry, Tom! I honestly don’t remember having seen your e-mails before. But then, we get a lot of e-mails, and I don’t entirely remember what I did last night, so I guess the blame lies with me and me alone.

ANYWAY, Dyscarnate! Yeah, Tom, I’m enjoying this band. It’s no-bullshit American-style death metal, which is kinda funny since these dudes are from the UK. But, hey, they invented metal in the UK, and we all know the Americans have stolen plenty from other countries, so whatever. It’s clear these dudes grew up on the classics. I’m not sure if I like them as much as you do, Tom, but if they were a part of the right tour, I’d check them out.

Give Dyscarnate a listen here, then come back and let Tom know what you think.

-AR

“Welcome to the Band Explodo Tour 2010” announced guitarist David Davidson after two bouts of boner-inducing death/thrash mayhem from his band Revocation. Maybe that title didn’t carry the gravitas of the tour’s actual name, “Metal As Art,” but it was apt. Revocation’s van had broken down in Arizona earlier in the day, requiring a hasty switch into a rented minivan and the borrowing of much equipment; just a couple days into the month-long string of dates, their tourmates The Binary Code had totaled their own van. This particular gig had hot-potatoed around three other Los Angeles venues before finally resting at grindcore/metal haven The Blvd., and if that weren’t reason enough for audience members to give up, L.A. was in the midst of its worst rainstorm in years.

But metal’s for survivalists. Surely each of the three bands on the tour – rounded out by French experi-metallers Hypno5e – long ago accepted that suffering for one’s art is a prerequisite of induction into heavy metal’s spiny embrace. Despite the terrible vehicle karma all three acts launched themselves into their performances like they were playing for their room and board. Which they kinda were, considering that both The Binary Code and Revocation both asked the audience if they could offer a place to sleep that night.

Click to read more…

Suckalo Zoker emailed us yesterday to plead with us “Forget Opeth… In Mourning is the real deal…” and Suckalo Viking_xxx did the very same today, demanding “Don’t be gay, you know you like them!” While I find both claims to be overly exaggerated, it’s the thought that counts; In Mourning ARE the shit!

The Falun, Sweden outfit just released their new album Monolith in Europe this week; Americans will have to wait until February 16th to get a physical copy, but hey, newsbreak, The Internet exists and international release dates don’t matter! iTunes Sweden has the album available right now*, and you can also stream all 8 tracks on In Mourning’s MySpace page for the time being.

While Opeth are certainly an apt comparison, In Mourning are definitely not mindless imitators. But don’t take our word for it… go listen to Monolith now. This is some seriously good shit.

-VN

*You can access international iTunes stores by clicking the US flag (or UK, or wherever you are) in the bottom right-hand corner of your iTunes Store homepage.

…this guy:

Obviously, I’m lying. But I saw this video on Invisible Oranges (as part of a piece in which Cosmo Lee wonders “What is it with bassists and pigtails?”), and… well, if I didn’t share it, I just wouldn’t be doing my job.

-AR

In the interview with “Andrew W.K.” that you’re about to read, the man on the phone with me uttered these words:

It’s been very tricky for me, and that’s why I hope you understand and other people are able to grasp is that I’ve been trying to deal with this as much as I can and have many different people to please or satisfy. Not just my friends and the people who like what I’ve been doing in music, but people that I’ve worked with for a long time before anybody had any idea of who I was. I’m trying to do the best I can with all these different responsibilities.

What the words on the e-printed page don’t communicate is the level of concern and earnestness in his voice, and the slow manner in which a person speaks when they’re trying to be very careful about the words they use. And that was the tone of this entire interview, encapsulated by that one quote; through the course of my 45-minute chat with “Andrew W.K.,” I got the impression that the man on the phone with me was really, really worried that he was about to blow it, that if he said the wrong thing the floodgates would burst open and he’d be fucked.

Could it be that the man I spoke to is just one of many actors slated to play the role of Andrew W.K.? Could it be that his advisors — of which he talks frequently in our chat — have advised hm to perpetuate these rumors for the sake of publicity? Who knows. Then there are evasive statements like this one which popped up throughout our interview:

Regardless of whatever confusion there was, there should be no confusion about the fact that I am Andrew W.K. and can go out there and be it and have people understand that.

To me, uttering the words “I am Andrew W.K.” could be total truth if the idea of “Andrew W.K.” was a construct from the very beginning. If Andrew W.K. is just an idea, then anyone hired to play the role could say “I am Andrew W.K.,” as in “Right now I am in the role of Andrew W.K.” and not be lying at all. I also find it very curious that the man I spoke with said he can “go out there and be it” as if he isn’t inherently Andrew W.K. but has to go out and “be” or act the part. And several times throughout the interview he answered questions specifically phrased to determine whether or not the man with whom I was speaking was the same man that performed at other events with the simple statement “I am Andrew W.K.” which would fit through the above ontological loophole.

Okay, yeah. So I guess the situation is, as I’ve stated earlier in our interview tonight, that on one hand I was wanting to follow some advice that was presented to me on how to address this and that advice involved certain language that was deemed the most appropriate on how to not avoid the truth but address the issue in a way that allowed me to still retain my own standing. See, it’s even hard for me to talk about this now because, again, this video wasn’t meant to be seen like this. It wasn’t anticipated that this kind of questioning would come up and the very nature of how I spoke that night was based on limitation that I’m still within now.

“How not to avoid the truth?” That seems like an admission that there is truth being hidden. And seeming admissions of defeat such as this one:

I wouldn’t be in this situation if I didn’t sign up for it a long time ago… I’m just really sorry. I’m really sorry that I can’t answer these questions better. I can keep trying. I’ll continue to, and I have been. I feel like I’ve been doing better. I feel like most people that are close to me understand what’s going on. Some people have a sense of what it is and let it go.

Wow. Loaded. What situation did he sign up for? Doing better at what — learning how to not to answer questions directly?

Of course, Andrew and his team could all just be laughing at the insane amounts of publicity this conspiracy theory has given his new album.

Read my interview with “Andrew W.K.” after the jump. It’s a doozy.

Click to read more…

I was recently traversing these here interwebs, and happened to come across an interesting blog called What Fucked You? that has many, many, many downloads of entire albums from several genres — not too much in the “metal” realm (aside from Finnish doomsters Unholy or unless if you count Motley Crue’s first album…..which I most certainly do NOT), but a diverse blend of musics nonetheless.

Chiggity check checkit…

-KW

My focus today is going to be on Creator Destroyer, a self-proclaimed “progressive death metal” band from Florida. Now, there might not be anything wrong with that description, except that the band doesn’t have a single progressive element to their music. Their EP, Unintelligent Design, is an entirely straightforward deathcore album, complete with Job For a Cowboy-esque vocals (midrange and layered a lot) and tons of breakdowns. There is a noticeable Born of Osiris influence; guitarist Nick Capp uses a LOT of those odd-timed chugging riffs that follow no noticeable pattern.

All in all, Creator Destroyer like your pretty generic deathcore band. The constant breakdowns really piss me off and the guitar riffs are almost as simple as Whitechapel’s. The drumming is boring and mechanical, and the vocals sound like Oceano. I hate Oceano.

Also, look at this picture of the band:

Now, I have dreadlocks myself. But this is fucking retarded. Unintelligent Design is right.

-DM

A LOT of you have been emailing us about A Textbook Tragedy lately. The first time an email came in with a link (PS, the amount of emails that still come in with NO LINK is absolutely mind-blowing) I checked out the music and I wasn’t that impressed. But the emails kept coming so I tried again. And I’m still not impressed.

While the Canadian lads in ATT undoubtedly have chops, that’s about where my interest in them ends. Suckalo Kurt Thornley begs, “i know the name sounds a little emocore but i assure you they are not.” Actually, they are. The pretty sing-songy vocals in the chorus of the first song on their MySpace page are not a good start. Neither are the slew of tactics that are borrowed from other popular heavy subgenres. Good-cop/bad-cop? Check. Gang vocals? Check. Time signature changes that feel contrived and aren’t that interesting to begin with? Check. Big, stupid breakdowns? Check. A little dissonance and weedily-weedily? Check. There are a few interesting riffs here and there, especially on their older stuff, but that’s about the only redeeming quality I can find here.

Yawn. This band is signed in Canada and the U.K. but not (yet) the U.S. I hope they sign to Victory.

-VN

Stereogum just premiered the new video for Big Business’ “The Drift,” and… wow. This is the best video of 2010 so far. The animation, by Wesley Belak-Berger, is killer – and supports my theory yet again that more bands should try making music videos in which they don’t really appear. (The band is seen here only as still photographs incorporated into the animation.)

“The Drift” is on Big Business’ Mind the Drift, which is out now on Hyrda Head.

-AR

Yes, that’s right — the spectacular photography exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum is ending after this weekend, so if you haven’t gone to see it yet, go tell your awkward nephew that you are unfortunately going to have to skip his Bar Mitzvah……..but l’chaim!!!

And yes, whether you realized it or not, Tina did indeed once rock.

Info on the exhibit here.

-KW

Yesterday’s commentary on the disappointing new Raintime single had two positive effects. 1) Everyone’s favorite negative nancy Ziltoid actually agreed with me on something, not just that the new single is weak but that 2008′s Flies & Lies was a good album [just watch, he'll come back now and say something else], 2) Some modern power metal fans came out of the closet to share new bands with us, amongst them Suckalo Andy Synn to tell us about Communic.

Mr. Synn also made a good point, namely that bands like Mercenary, Firewind, Raintime and Communic aren’t really power metal. As he put it so succinctly, “No frilly shirts, no lyrics about orcs/elves/woods/battles, just big riffs and big vocals.” True enough. But I guess that if radio programmers today are calling MGMT and Vampire Weekend modern “alternative” then we can call the aforementioned bands modern power metal by the same extension.

So, Communic are pretty fucking rad. The songs on Communic’s MySpace page are exactly what I’d want from any of these bands… just big riffs and big vocals. And the cheese factor is definitely there, but that’s why we like it.

-VN

I have always wanted to like Fear Factory as much as people tell me I should. And I thought that Demanufacture was pretty okay. But mostly, I just getbored listening to Fear Factory. It all just kind of blends together for me.

And so it goes with Mechanize. Last week a friend told me that she doesn’t really like Fear Factory, either, and she thinks the album is super; so I listened for a second time. Nope. Doin’ nothing for me. And now I’m listening as I type this. Boy, that Gene Hoglan sure can play the drums, huh? I think he has a real future ahead of him.

Look. It’s not terrible. I just don’t get why people think it’s so great.

Mechanize comes out February 9 on Candlelight, but it is now streaming in full here (but only if you have a Facebook account… blurgh). Give it a listen, and then tell me why I’m an idiot for not seeing the genius of this album. And next week, Sammy O’Hagar should have a thoughtful review from a person who actually understands this band.

-AR

Well here’s a nice juicy rumor to end the week. From Blabbermouth:

“According to The Pulse of Radio, the JANE’S ADDICTION fan web site Xiola.org has reported that VELVET REVOLVER and ex-GUNS N’ ROSES bass player Duff McKagan is writing and recording with the band, following the departure of original member Eric Avery for the second time in the group’s troubled history. After JANE’S reunited for a third time in late 2008 — with Avery on board for the first time since the band originally broke up in 1991 — and toured last spring with NINE INCH NAILS, the band began feuding once again as it tried to record new music, with recent rumors suggesting that Avery was headed out the door…

“…There has been no official announcement about McKagan from JANE’S ADDICTION themselves, except a brief post by frontman Perry Farrell saying that the band was working with a new ‘writing partner.’”

Click to read more…

Scooter Ward, as photographed by Neil Zlozower.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, through some amazing technology created by the MetalSucks Mansion Monkeys, we are able to take you inside the brain of an intelligent person as they are subjected to a recording by Cold:

Holy shit… what is this garbage? Do people really like this? Seriously? There are people who like this. Of all the music in the world, this is what some people choose to listen to. Uh-huh. Are the people who made this drek aware that they’re doing such a shit job? Do the members of this band actually listen to music?

Well, as it turns, the answer is, “No.” No, they don’t actually listen to music. So says Noisecreep:

Click to read more…

I don’t want to jinx it, but lately it seems that society is drawing closer to a public consensus that Kiss sucks donkey ass. There’s a social parallel: Time is disposing of the fearful kooks who oppose gays/non-whites/drugs/Nergal, and as a result the day is in sight when we’ll all be cool/high with each other while enjoying scarier Behemoth records. Likewise, the time will come where no Kiss fans will walk the earth puking money into the wallet of Gene Simmons for no other privilege than to perpetuate a shitty band’s shitty brand. And really, thank you, poor deluded children of ’70s disco-rock crossover, for proudly snapping up those Kiss shirts, thongs, enemas, pizza pans, and diapers; the rest of us can identify/destroy you with none of the effort it takes to flush out a fan of, say, The Scorpions or Bullshit For ValKilmerTime (or whatever).

It’s amazing that such a charmless, joyless band could enjoy such sustained suck-cess. Cuz sane people will tell you that those Kiss records don’t even achieve the absolute bare minimum of being performed, produced, or mixed well — whether or not their cynically manufactured songs themselves are any good. (Save for the delightfully retarded “Heaven’s On Fire” and actual scores like “I Love It Loud” and “Detroit Rock City,” the entire catalog could be catapulted into the sun.) Only Earth’s most resentful and contemptuous dickfaces could charge money for such sub-garbage product. I mean, shit, I gobble Tums in the lobby of Jack In The Box, knowing that tonight’s pre-dinner will tax the capacities of my crap factory; but for my money I am certain to receive burger-shaped food. If Simmons ran that dump, you’d order and then be handed a blurry picture of a barf puddle photocopied onto a dryer sheet.

Click to read more…

God bless corny ’80s PSAs and news pieces. Thanks to Shelby Cobras of Illogical Contraption for this one.

-VN

Last week I was galavanting around the west coast so we didn’t do a funny photo caption contest, but the week before we offered up two CD copies of Buzzov*en’s Violence From the Vault rarities collection. Here are the two lucky winners and their entries:

• Brian \m/(-_-)\m/: “Having completely lost all business after the departure of Joey Jordison, the remaining Murderdolls hire themselves out as Santa’s elves in an attempt to put dinner on the table”
• Jizzmaster3000: “And have you been a good boy….., girl……., whatever this year?”

This week we’re giving away a ten pack of CDs from Prosthetic Records; even if you don’t like everything on that label you’re guaranteed to get at least a few releases you do like. Just come up with a funny caption to the mind-boggling photo below, sent in by Suckalo Kyle, and post it in the comments section using a real email address (or if you’re logged in using Facebook, just post your email address in the comment itself).