SHATTURDAY SHTUFF TO BAY AREA TO: JUDGEMENT DAY/AQUARIUS RECORDS/DANCIN’ IN THA REIGN

Happy end-of-Summer, y’all!!! Take that however you wish, but I for one am super-psyched for the Fall….fuck this crazy heat, fuck Summer woes, fuck Shania Twain, and fuck you too! Being a good sport n all, I’m prepared to enjoy one last wave of Summer and then let’s move on to the uber-beautiful Autumnal glaze…

HAVING SAID THAT, not all of us have even experienced the “Summer” yet.

Out west in NorCal Country, our Bay Area Brethren are just now gearing up for their Summer, which pretty much starts around now/early September, and you know what that means? More crackheads! More BBQs! More casual sex! More crackheads!

And so, in honor of our besties out westies, I present to you a few smatterings of tings to get your Bay Area Summer in gear…

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The band Judgement Day kinda blew my brain when I saw them at an outdoor food fest a couple weeks ago. They are a trio — drums, cello, violin — and they are metal as FUCK. Unpossible, you say? Wait til you hear their chugga-luggaz and shreddie-poos….riffage and dissonance like (many of) you’d (prolly) never expect from strings, and progressive/heady to boot! Odd time sigs wee.

I saw them do a stripped-down acoustic set where the drummer was playing a bucket set with double-kick (!) and it still felt heavy heavy. But then I listened to their electric recordings with a bonafide drum kit and holy shiz I cunt believe it! Twat jew say?

All choking aside, these guys riiip. And if you live in the Bay Area, you have a chance to see them rock a killer show TONIGHT at the Great American Music Hall in San Franny with proggy post-rock staple From Monuments to Masses (this is actually their last show ever…..metal tears/cebollas) and Sillian Rail. Don’t shank on this one, sure to be a bittersweet night of spectacular muzak.

Otherwise you can catch Judgement Day on the road next month on the West Coast (tour dates and awesome videos on their website or myspace). Well worth it!

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I’ve been meaning to write something about Aquarius Records for some time.

These guys not only have an amazing boutique-y record/cd shoppe in SF’s infamous Mission District, but they also put out a sensational weekly list of new releases/new arrivals, and there is ALWAYS guaranteed to be plenty of shit you’ve never heard of that will blow your mind, from grindstomp to metalgaze to low-fi to indian funk to turkish whorehouse jamz….I kid you not. From their list:

...we'll always be here with our ears to the ground, and with cds full of
metalcore pitbulls, death metal parrots, gamelan playing elephants,
recordings of glaciers cracking, ice melting, zamboni's, life support
systems, drag races, audience applause, and of course self flagellating
Norwegian dwarves, moaning telephone wires, recorded exorcisms, acapella
straight edge metalcore, high school battles of the bands, movie theater
organ music, Christian psychedelic folk, Bhangra Black Sabbath as well as
all the metal, indie rock, electronica, punk rock, reggae, dub,
sixties psych, krautrock, classic rock, country and anything else your
heart may desire.

They ain’t lyin! This is where I first heard of a little band called Baroness way back when, as well as The Psychic Paramount. Good looks…

And they always have album cover art and soundclips on their website. Yes, ordering albums online is a piece of cake, and yes, you should check them out for new and old music from all over the world, in many many genres (plenty of them heavy as F).

Support their cause!

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This video pretty much speaks for itself. Along with this, one of my faves of the year.

Have a nice Summer? See you in the Fall for plenty of shanshanshennaniganzzz…

-KW