MetalSucks

Despite being such a huge fan of Big Business’ Here Come The Waterworks, 2009’s Mind The Drift honestly doesn’t stand much of a chance of making it into my year-end Top 10 list. The same cannot be said, however, for Sculpted Beef, the brief vinyl (and digital) debut from White Shit, Jared Warren and Coady Willis’ side-project with Andy Coronado of Wrangler Brutes and Monorchid. Contrasting significantly with the slightly proggy art-metal Warren and Willis explore with their other bands, White Shit make brash, lo-fi hardcore in the Black Flag/Minor Threat tradition. Here, sprawling riffage and avant-garde percussion is violently tossed aside and replaced with filth, fury, and snot-nosed wit. And it’s all done pretty fucking well.

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Down, Melvins, and Weedeater are playing a show in New York City tonight. Holy crap in my pants, I cannot recall the last time I was this excited about a metal show. Three of my favorite stoner metal artists on one bill! The tour continues throughout September, wrapping up in Louisville, KY on the 28th. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this incredible tour is that none of these bands have new albums out. So basically, this one is for the fans. And the money. WIN-WIN!

In related news, those darned Melvins will be releasing a remix album called Chicken Switch via Mike Patton’s Ipecac imprint the day after the Down tour ends. Of course, ever the contrarians, the band has opted to provide entire albums as source material, as opposed to single songs. Participants include a whole mess of freaks, including Merzbow, Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, and David Scott Stone, the latter of these boasting an impressive resume recording and playing with Big Business, Fantomas, and The Locust (as well as the Melvins). Drummer Dale Crover is also a member of the doom colossus known as Shrinebuilder, which finally revealed its FUCKING AMAZING first song to the public and is playing a handful of live gigs.

-GS

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

While headbanging and throwing the horns at an indie metal act along with countless others in a packed crowd, the last person you expect to see rocking out is a dude from The Sopranos. Well, that’s exactly what I spied with my little eye during the Big Business show in New York City last night.

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According to those bearded weirdos at Hydra Head, Mind The Drift, the third album from Big Business will be available for consumption this coming April. (For you depraved losers who still require turntables to maintain an erection, the vinyl will be available later this month.) If you’d talked to me a few months ago, I’d be downright thrilled for new music from these guys. But after my palpable disappointment with “Gold and Final”, I remain skeptical as to whether or not this record will even come close to the mighty metal mined on Here Come The Waterworks. Much to my surprise and, yes, dismay, the inclusion of guitarist Toshi Kasai (Dale Crover’s partner in Deaf Nephews) on the two (out of eight) new tracks streaming at the band’s MySpace page left this fan less than impressed.

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2009 is a big year for big boys Dale Crover and Buzz Osbourne. Indeed, the Melvins plan to fucking commemorate twenty-five long years of making music to make you sick. How exactly do these sludge metal monoliths intend to do that? Why, by playing anniversary shows, of course!

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It is with a heavy, cholesterol-afflicted heart that I report the news that Big Business has posted a new song to their Myspace page that kinda sorta sucks.

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Shrinebuilder, the project that features in equal measure Wino (St, Vitus, Hidden Hand), Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Al Cisneros (Om, Sleep), and Dale Crover (Melvins), will be in the studio with Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Big Business) from January 9th through January 11th, according to a press release sent exclusively to MetalSucks by the band’s publicist. Shrinebuilder’s debut full-length is set for a summer 2009 release on Neurot Recordings.

Scott Kelly has announced that he will report live from the studio via http://www.weburnthroughthenight.blogspot.com beginning no later than Saturday, January 10th.  Look for guest blogs by other members of Shrinebuilder as well as possible in-studio photos from the band.

-VN

One of the very first “sign this awesome local band” posts I wrote for this site way back on June 20th of 2007 was a show review of the crushingly heavy New York stoner/doom metal band Hull. They opened for Big Business that night and literally blew them away; several months later I saw them open up for Early Man at the same venue, and once again they stole the show. Hull’s live shows are just that powerful. So it is with extreme pleasure and excitement that The End Records has given me the opportunity to announce to the world that they have signed Hull to the label.

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We confess: we didn’t know shit about The Giraffes until today. But we know good music when we hear it and we pride ourselves on diversity (within metal, that is); so when we were offered the opportunity to premier a new track by Brooklyn’s own The Giraffes, we jumped at the chance.

“Smoke Machine” from their forthcoming album Prime Motivator is a ripping blend of thrash, classic metal, punk and even elements of boogie/surf guitar. Fans of Metallica, Big Business and Clutch alike are about equally as likely to dig the eclectic blend of rock and metal The Giraffes have going on here.

Prime Motivator drops next Tuesday, November 11th on Crustacean Records; if you dig this track, we think you’ll dig the album too.

The Giraffes – “Smoke Machine”

Now that you’ve all come down from the Death Magnetic food coma, perhaps you’d be interested in reading about something other than the latest output from four millionaires. Back away from the ledge, you pimply faced virgins, because it’s time for your noise news.

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