Just because Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s J. Randall and I don’t see eye to eye on certain issues doesn’t lessen my respect for the man as an artist — and his latest endeavor is definitely worth checking out. He’s launched his own label, Grindcore Karaoke, and is giving away the imprint’s inaugural release, Wadge’s Grindcore Lu’au, away for free download.

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Image from J. Randall’s blog. I’m assuming he made this; the car model is actually called the “Hako.”

Hey, remember yesterday, when we told you about that free EP that Magrudergrind are giving away in conjunction with Scion? Well Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s J. Randall apparently isn’t too happy about Magrudergrind associating themselves with the corporate entity — or any metal band associating themselves with the corporate entity.

In a recent blog, Randall criticizes Integrity for failing to live up to their name “w/ their recent Scion showcase at the ROXY,” and then takes Magrudergrind to task for working with Scion, too: “Heres a band that was to ‘punk’ to give Relapse a record but is down to float a fuckin’ ‘SCION’ logo on the front of their album cover? WTF?” Randall doesn’t even think Scion is getting anything out the deal:

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So as you’re no doubt aware, Halloween is on Sunday, and as you’re hopefully aware, we’re holding a “Heavy Metal Halloween” contest with SPV. The deadline was announced as being on midnight on Halloween, the logic being that people would snap their photos before they went our partying; but Vince wisely pointed out that people might not get to upload those photos right away. So now we’re extending the deadline to midnight on November 1. Hope that helps! If you need a refresher on the rules, go here.

Here’s what else happened this week:

• We debuted a new music video by Nile.
• We also debuted new music by Havok, White Arms of Athena, and Shred Sean and Allan Tecchio.
• Daath’s Eyal Levi talked about trust issues while The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks talked about football.
• We spoke to J. Randall from Agoraphobic Nosebleed and our old pal Eyal from Daath.
• We checked out the latest release from Kylesa, and a new book by the Cro-Mags’ John Joseph.
• We went on a “Reader’s Choice” local scene binge.
• We prayed for the end of karate mosh pits.
• We watched Abigail Williams lob a dildo at Iwrestledabearonce.
• We defended Phil Labonte’s angelic singing voice.
• Sergeant D. taught you about bands you would have hated/ignored in ’95.

And that’s all she wrote this week. Don’t forget that our own Gary Suarez is playing in a Jesus Lizard cover band on Sunday night. Swing by if you can!

-AR

Nowadays, fucking everyone is on Twitter — the President, Snooki, Napalm Death, Lady Gaga, and pretty much every famous/infamous/inconsequential figure imaginable is out there constantly micro-blogging away. One entity I never expected to stumble across on there was Agoraphobic Nosebleed vocalist/lyricist/mindfucker J. Randall, but lo and behold — he is indeed a tweeter. An offhand remark about his desire to do a few interviews about recent happenings in Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s world caught my eye, and I couldn’t help it: I took the bait.

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Given his godly tenure with Pig Destroyer, I’d never question Scott Hull’s songwriting skill. Given his confidential government IT dayjob, it’d be inadvisable to criticize the dude anyway, lest I find myself the unwitting victim of extraordinary rendition to Uzbekistan. But it’s still a welcome surprise that for the first time in over a decade, Hull’s other grind band, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, has songs notable for something other than their brevity. ANb’s third full-length, Agorapocalypse, has nothing on 2003’s 3-inch, 100-track Altered States of America in terms of novelty. What it does have is groove, structure and listenability up the ass. I just listened to it three times in a row and it’s not even 9am. And my ass hurts.

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