Ha I kinda love this story’s headline up there cuz its few words describe the newest Boris release (streaming here) while simultaneously providing its title, New Album. Another band might name their album (and band) using a bunch of words of vague meaning that look like gibberish displaying on your RS feed and Twitter, so let’s hail Boris’ move to the compact for max impact in the viral world. I said hail!

On a third level, the “new” of New Album may refer its authors’ further immersion in a poppy, sunny, quirky J-indies sound (hinted at on this spring’s Attention Please) and departure from their various modes of blown-out guitar rock. They should’ve done it ages ago: New Album is a blinding ace that you could picture being loved less by Boris fans than by those bored with the band’s first 28 records and shocked by their fluency in spacey art-pop. On its awesome strength, Boris could forge a US conquest mega-tour with fellow JP unclassifiables Boat, Boom Boom Satellites, and Tokyo Pinsalocks. That would rip! For now, crank it up!

-ADF

Boris’ New Album is out Tuesday via Sargent House. Pre-order here.

At this past weekend’s FunFunFunFest in Austin, Texas, a heavy metal behemoth slayed all comers as far as garnering the positive headlines. No, I’m not talking about thrash legends Slayer, who closed out the fest with a brilliant set (review forthcoming) that made their Big 4 NY appearance look tame by comparison. I’m definitely not talking about The Artist Formerly Known As Mr. Kitty Litter AKA The Artist Now Known For French Onion Soup and A Wendy’s Chicken Sandwich AKA Mr. Glenn Danzig (see recap of his divantics™ here). Nope, I’m talking about Mr. Hollywood Hunk his own bad self, Mr. Ryan Gosling.

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Long-standing music website Pitchfork, heralded by many as “The MetalSucks of Indie Rock,” has been getting a healthy dose of heavy lately. This must be due to the return of writer Brandon Stosuy, a rad dude and devoted metal scholar we know from the NYC scene who helmed Stereogum’s metal division for quite some time. I’m not exactly sure of the timeline and current relationship between Stosuy and both blogs, but this much is certain: more metal is always a good thing, especially since Brandon covers an end of the metal spectrum we sometimes gloss over. This week’s Pitchfork premieres-du-jour: new tracks from Boris and Giant Squid.
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Butt rock reigns yet again, with Seether nabbing the top spot for the second week in a row. Boris and Cave In cracked the Top Hard Music charts with their new albums (hooray!), while Hollywood Undead and Asking Alexandria actually experienced sales gains for the first time since their new records debuted a few weeks back (boo!). Click on through to see what else charted and how much it all sold.

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Cave In’s White Silence is definitely the most anticipated release of the week, but new albums from Book of Black Earth, In Solitude, Inevitable End and two new ones from Boris make this a week to look forward to. Vic Vaughn goes at each one after the jump.

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Sean Yseult, bassist for the defunct White Zombie, has just released a memoir through well respected independent publisher Soft Skull Press. Yet my mild interest in this title hit a pretty severe low after reading some shoddy and downright untruthful marketing copy. I’ve bolded the offending passage below, which inflates her role in metal to comic proportions and completely discounts reality.

I’m in the Band charts White Zombie’s rise from the gritty music scene of New York’s Lower East Side in the eighties to arena headliners during the nineties alternative-explosion that followed in Nirvana’s wake, while sharing the unlikely story of a female musician who won the respect and adoration of male metal musicians and fans. From 1985 to 1996, Sean Yseult was the sole woman not only in White Zombie, but in the entire metal scene: bands, roadies, managers, you name it—with the exception of girlfriends and groupies, Yseult was in a world by herself.

Of course, the preposterous statement emphasized above is easily disproved within seconds, as any way you slice it it’s patently false. Not only were there female metal musicians before, during, and after Yseult’s tenure in White Zombie, but there were other female bassists in metal too, including Jo Bench (Bolt Thrower) and Lori Black (Melvins). I’m not even going to comment further on it; rather, I’ll let one of Yseult’s contemporaries reminder her that she wasn’t alone. Jucifer frontwoman Amber Valentine, take it away!

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No disrespect meant to Japanese doom squad Boris. Well, maybe just a teency bit… I certainly find them entertaining live, but I’ve never been able to get into their albums. But really this article is meant not to put Boris down but to praise Ian Astbury, frontman of The Cult and possessor of inarguably one of the greatest voices in all of rock. It’s hard to imagine a pairing in which Astbury wouldn’t overshadow everyone else; he’s got the absolute quintessential rock voice, often imitated never duplicated. And it gets even better with age.

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You ought to know the name Ian Astbury. I shouldn’t have to explain that he’s the frontman for The Cult, but perhaps I must for those of you who think that Avenged Sevenfold are the be-all end-all of hard rock. The Cult–not to be confused with Blue Oyster Cult–have been kicking ass for decades (with a couple hiatuses here and there), producing undisputed rock classics like “She Sells Sanctuary”, “Wild Flower” and “Rain” to name a few. Their 1999 album Beyond Good And Evil is a hugely underrated gem, dark and hard and infectious. (On-again-off-again member Matt Sorum played on the damn thing too!)

And while lineup changes have occurred throughout the years, Astbury’s incredible voice has arguably been the band’s central focus–and for good reason. So recent news that he’s collaborating with Japanese rock auteurs Boris is beyond exciting. Their new project, simply named BXI, have recorded a four-song EP which will come out in September in CD, vinyl, and digital formats on Southern Lord. Fortunately, we don’t have to wait to hear what this will sound like, as Astbury made an unannounced onstage appearance with Boris at the Sydney Opera House in late May. Video footage has made its way online and in the clip above you can check out a medley that combines original track “Magickal Child” with The Doors’ “The End”. It’s creepy and psychedelic and fucking boss.

I’ve heard no indication that Astbury will join Boris for any of their upcoming U.S. tour dates, but that’s no reason not to attend. Those dates–featuring Russian Circles and/or Red Sparrowes–are below.

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This might be the least metal thing Boris has ever done. It sounds more like a Sigur Ros record! Still, this got me thinking perhaps I should have picked Wata over Atsuo in Reign In Blonde’s Hottest Chicks In Metal bracket.

If you’re still interested – and I’ll understand if you’re not - Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Vol. 3 releases in vinyl and digital formats on Tuesday November 24 via Southern Lord.

-GS

[Gary Suarez can't read your poker face. He usually manages WHOLLY DIVER (a Dio tribute site) and the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

I’m planning a trip to Japan next year, and like many Americans who travel to foreign lands I’ve been reading travel guidebooks so as to prepare for what promises to be an unforgettable vacation and possibly a life-altering experience. Naturally, while reading publications like Frommer’s Japan and Time Out: Tokyo, my choice of soundtrack has invariably included Japanese artists such as Guitar Wolf, Yoko Ono, and Boris. As I’ve stated earlier, the latter of these are releasing a trio of monthly seven-inch records for Southern Lord, the first of which came out in September. H.M.A. (Heavy Metal Addict) b/w Black Original, the second installment in the series, officially goes on sale next week in both physical and digital formats.

Above you’ll find the incredibly fucking weird video for “H.M.A.” Before you even ask: YES THIS IS THE OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR THIS SONG! Boris drummer Atsuo (aka fangsanalsatan) directed this thing–seriously! I’m not sure if this is meant to be some homage to 80s Japanese metal or to a specific band that I’m unaware of, but needless to say this video should not be viewed on psychotropic drugs.

Did I mention how fucking weird it is?

-GS

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

Earlier last month Southern Lord announced a new trio of monthly Boris seven-inch records entitled Japanese Heavy Rock Hits. The first “volume” came out last week, and fans of the band’s droning metalscapes will almost assuredly be disappointed considering its official description:

The first 7″, Volume One, “8″, features two newly recorded tracks. On Side A, the title track “8″ continues the spacey hard-rock sound established on their classic albums Pink and Smile, building from a mono, lo-fi wall of feedback into a ripping, slab of lush vocals, crunchy guitar and thunderous drums. Things get switched up on Side B with “ねえエヴリワン/Hey Everyone”, a chewy bit of power-pop bubblegum that sees the band mining a much lighter source for their sound. It’s a reminder that the most daring thing this band can do is record something so straight-forward it could easily be misconstrued as “alt-pop”. Dont fret its still got a dark core and is unmistakably Boris! Gorgeous tip-on, heavy-weight cardboard jacket designed by Stephen O’Malley.

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Our friends over at Crustcake tell us that there’s going to a Boris/Torche split a lil’ later this year:

The artwork you see above is from a post on Aaron Turner‘s blog, in which he talks about a new split 10″ between stoner/noise rock kings (and queen) Boris and down-tuned, doom-pop princes Torche. The artwork goes with the split, of course.

No word on a release date, but the album’ll come out here in the US on Hydra Head.

Holy shit, is that some cool artwork.

-AR

Andrew W.K., I Get Wet (Island, 2002)
Andrew W.K. – vocals
Jimmy Coup – Guitar
Erik Payne – Guitar
Frank Werner – Guitar
Gregg Roberts – Bass
Donald Tardy – Drums
Produced by Andrew W.K., John Fields, Scott Humphrey, TSD, Frank Vierti

It has been suggested by some of our commenters that I don’t belong here. Be it my distaste for deathgrind, my inability to appreciate the tr00 kvlt nature of Norwegian black metal, or the fact that I don’t give a flying fuck about Protest The Hero, I’ve always felt like an outsider around you people. Yet at no point did I feel so out of place than during the countdown of the 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far. Sure, I participated. I submitted a list. I presumed many of my picks would never make the cut (Unsane’s Visqueen; Zozobra’s Harmonic Tremors), but also acknowledged less esoteric favorites of mine from the past nine-and-a-half-years (Boris Pink; Down’s III: Over The Under) that I thought had a shot. Still, nothing could have prepared me for the sheer disappointment these past few weeks when none of my favorite albums made the goddamn list.

Rather than be mature about this sad state of affairs, I am now going to explain why everyone who voted in this poll is a fucking butthole for not selecting Andrew W.K.’s 2002 masterpiece, I Get Wet.
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Boris fanatics and headbanging skateboarders alike will definitely want to peep this awesome trio of customized “Feedbacker” decks. There are ones representing each member of the band and are at least semi-official. You can buy one of your very own from the Magic Bullet Records’ mailorder, and every skate deck comes with a free dropcard with which you can use to download eight Boris tracks, courtesy of Southern Lord. I doubt these will be available much longer, so you might want to hurry.

-GS

[Gary Suarez is more Queens carnivore than Brooklyn vegan. He also writes for Brainwashed and usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No.]

“Yes! Boris and Torche will tour together!” I remarked to myself as I read this bit of news on Lambgoat that Japanese sludge/doomsters Boris and doomy, majestic shoegazers Torche would tour together in the U.S. this summer. “July 10th in NYC at Webster Hall… wow, that’s a big venue for them!” I thought inwardly as I flipped through my planner. “Fuck! That’s the same day as the At the Gates reunion hits New York. Guess I’m not going to that one.”

Oh well.

-VN