For those of us that still get a little queasy inside when we think of the tragic bus accident that killed Cliff Burton, this has been a really tough past year and change to stomach. Bonded by Blood and The Chariot both experienced van accidents; earlier this month, Decapitated survived an emergency plane landing in Warsaw, four years almost to the day after the horrible crash that killed drummer Vitek and left vocalist Covan in a coma. The tail end of 2010 found All Shall Perish and Pathology enduring accidents unscathed, and Makh Daniels of Early Graves losing his life in a crash.

It’s an unfortunate fact of being a touring musician that driving conditions aren’t ideal, and the vehicles that scrappy metal bands can afford usually aren’t in the best of shape. All the more reason to thank whatever god you disbelieve in that the members of Philadelphia noise-rock band Gods and Queens (frequent gig-mates of our own Justin Foley’s band Austerity Program) are all still alive after their van skidded and rolled off a highway in the Czech Republic, en route to Dresden, Germany. Here’s the full story, from the band’s frontman Jamie Getz:

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Our number one homie Justin Foley is currently doing a mini-tour with his band, The Austerity Program, and graciously offered to do a tour blog for us. We can never say “no” to Justin and wouldn’t much want to anyway, so we agreed! You can read his account of days one and two of the mini-trek here; the third day is below… enjoy!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011
New York

Philadelphia, PA last night, aka Quaker City.  We arrived in town with hunger in the belly and a bit of time to kill.  This second thing nearly killed us.  Thad and I never have time to kill; work, family, odd projects, people who need setting straight on the Internet – all of these things consume more time than we have and so things like leisure and friendships are usually left unattended.  And so, an hour or two after getting ‘the best vegetarian cheesesteak in Philly’ (it wasn’t bad – the bread’s the key thing) we had a few hours to burn.

We got a couple of beers (in daylight!  I mean, that’s straight up “Theatre of Pain” decadence right there) we ambled over to catch an early showing of Takashi Mike’s 13 Assassins.  Coliseum had seen it recently and said it was like ½ as good as Thor which means they thought it was awesome.  (The band is completely bonkers about Thor.)

Thad and I settled in to a theatre sparsely populated by seniors and the unemployed and were soon completely assaulted by the film.  I’m not going to spoil the movie for those who haven’t seen it, but it was pretty obvious that the whole thing was written backwards.  Basically the cinematic equivalent of a good Helmet song: here’s the gigantic riff that we’ll kill them with at the end, so what else do we need to put in the song to get to that riff and make it destroy?  Props to the movie also for giving us our theme for the trip: TOTAL MASSACRE. (Sometimes “massacre” isn’t enough.)

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Yes, this is TAP’s actual equipment, and yes, it is awesome.

Hopefully by now all MetalSucks readers are familiar with The Austerity Program, whose guitarist/vocalist, Justin Foley, has written some great articles and conducted some amazing interviews on our behalf over the past couple of years. He also introduced us to the idea of the Taco Riff, a concept that still seems really confusing to a lot of people, but resulted in some really fun articles nonetheless. (Go here to read everything Justin has ever written for us.)

You know what else is fun? Seeing The Austerity Program live. I actually think they’re like five times as heavy (and they’re definitely ten times as loud) in a concert setting, and Foley’s front mannerisms have a kind of Baptist preacher quality to them, which makes their shows a whole different experience from listening to their records. If you’ve seen them before you’re probably already stoked to see them again, and if you haven’t, well, you should get on that.

Here’s your shot — the band are doing some dates in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island in April and May, including a bunch with the always-amazing Coliseum. This is “as close to a tour as we get this year, we think,” the band says, so do not squander this opportunity.

Also, to our fellow New Yorkers — apparently the setlist for the 4/22 show is gonna be completely different from the setlist for the 5/15 show, so you should go twice, ’cause it will be a completely different experience each time. Also ’cause I told you to.

Here are dates…

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Released stealthily though Deathwish Inc. quite late last year, Blacklisted’s vinyl-only No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me secured a well deserved (Dis)honorable Mention on my Best Albums of 2009 post, as I’ve found myself listening to it more and more over the past several weeks. It doesn’t quite top the extraordinarily aggressive Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God, but frankly neither do most hardcore albums of the past decade. Though my proper review of the album will come later, you can check out the title track streaming at the band’s MySpace page. Blacklisted’s sound has evolved into something… else. If you own a turntable, you should buy the record here.

After playing a great one-off gig last week in NYC with The Hope Conspiracy, United Nations and Mother Of Mercy, Blacklisted will finally tour for the new album beginning next month. A handful of the U.S. gigs will feature Gods & Queens, a phenomenal noise rock band that formed out of the ashes of Versoma. The opportunity to see both them and Blacklisted on the same bill is as awesome as dipping a chocolate bar in a jar of creamy peanut butter. Yum. The tour wraps up later in March when the band plays the United Blood fest, which (as I’ve already reported) will include sets from Madball, Maximum Penalty, Cruel Hand and a whole bunch of others hardcore acts. All dates below.

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You read right, blog patron. For the mere cost of a compact disc, you can secure for yourself MILLIONS in return. But don’t thank Barack Obama for this imminent stimulus opportunity. Instead, thank the folks at Seventh Rule, the impressive indie that brought us Wetnurse, Light Yourself On Fire and now: Millions.

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My stars and garters, there sure are some super-spectacular noise rock bands plowing through their local scenes these days, a number of which remain criminally unsigned. Boston’s Disappearer is one such unseemly gang of morally bereft marauders, performing hard charging tunes that recall Unsane’s best moments cut with a moderate dose of stonerdom and even some Jesu-type metalgaze. The Stephen Brodsky produced demo (which you have no choice but to download for free!) will leave you dizzy with rage and hazy with bewilderment. The band is due for some shows soon in Allston Student Ghetto, MA and New York with such fine artists as Zozobra and prior “Why Haven’t You Heard Of…?” featured act Gods And Queens, the latter having recently released a sweet-as-hairpie debut on Robotic Empire.

-GS

[Gary Suarez can't believe it's not buttsecks. He also writes for Brainwashed and usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No.]

Josh Homme’s favorite band, the ever-defiant and unabashedly offensive Dwarves, needs no introduction to any of you awkward overgrown boys who stood gawking and giggling in the local Sam Goody at their album covers as even more immature adolescents. Fronted by miscreant Blag Dahlia, the group made itself known as much for its brash punk rock tunes as for intentionally, sacrilegiously tasteless artwork that could be considered pornographic to a hapless Palin-esque puritan. After a retrospectively hilarious Beatles-referencing stunt of “killing off” exhibitionism prone guitarist HeWhoCannotBeNamed, the band was evicted from the unamused Sub Pop and ultimately found a new home a few years later on Epitaph. Despite not having released a new album since 2004, the Dwarves carry on with live assaults for their rabid fans.

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