Though nowadays my bailiwick at MetalSucks is hardcore, those who have followed this column from the start will recall that I started out with a focus on noise rock, a subgenre that peaked in the 90s and has experienced a glorious resurgence over the past several years. At the start, I used this space to turn readers onto bands like The Austerity Program, Cable, Disappearer, Goes Cube, Kowloon Walled City, Pissed Jeans, and Wetnurse, to name a few. You dig those acts, right? Yeah, I thought so.

Replete with a name straight of a cinephile’s spank bank, noise rockers 400 Blows have returned after six years of relative silence with Sickness And Health, and let me tell you, ladies (ha!) and gents, it’s a beaut! If you don’t recall them from earlier albums like Black Rainbow or tours with bands including At The Drive In and The Locust, here’s your chance to catch up with our exclusive stream of the new record!

If this sorta thing floats your boat, go ahead and pre-order the CD, download, and vinyl editions here. Hey, and this Friday, the band kick off a series of dates opening for noneother than those noise rock instigators Butthole Surfers!

[this streaming promotion has ended]

-GS

If memory serves, the Spawn movie which came out in 1997 was pretty terrible, but we did get one great thing out of it: the soundtrack. It was pretty much like the Judgment Night soundtrack, only instead of combining metal bands with rap acts, it teamed up metal bands with electronica acts. And every song on it was innovative and amazing.

No, I’m totally kidding. The soundtrack sucked almost as bad as the movie.

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The above video (which I first saw on Movieline) is of Mad Men star Jon Hamm doing a reading from My Dad Was in ZZ Top, a new book by Conan writer John Glaser. The book uses allegedly “found” documents to tell the secret history of rock n’ roll — Hamm is reading a chapter about the secret origins of the Butthole Surfer’s moniker.

Sadly, Hamm will not be at the MetalSucks sponsored Heavy Metal Literature Night at Hank’s Saloon on Thursday, February 17 — but lotsa other cool people will be! Members of God Forbid, Tombs, and The Austerity Program will all be on hand to do readings from some of metal’s greatest tomes, including Motley Crue’s The Dirt, Led Zeppelin’s Hammer of the Gods, Slash’s Slash, Marilyn Manson’s Long Hard Road Out of Hell, and more; MS’ own masters of mischief, Axl Rosenberg and Vince Neilstein, will also be on hand to read and DJ, respectively.

Oh yeah, and, of course, we plan to get pretty drunk.

Even more details coming next week!!! Get excited!!!

OK, I’ll admit that I did a cartoonish double take over my Thanksgiving leftovers when I read that THE JESUS LIZARD ARE REUNITING “for a very limited series of live dates in 2009,” according to the band’s former label Touch & Go, which will also be reissuing four classic albums from the group. This news bodes well for noise rock enthusiasts following a robust year of notable reunions (Bailter Space, Killdozer!) and continues to see more such gigs this month from the likes of:

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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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