It’s been a while since we heard anything from Early Man, the Brooklyn-turned-L.A. outfit who were one of the very first bands to usher in the current thrash revival. What have they been up to since the release of Death Potion, which came out last year? Why no extensive touring?

Turns out band mastermind Mike Conte has been up to something else entirely: writing the score for a brand new cartoon series on Cartoon Network called Secret Mountain Fort Awesome. Conte tells MetalSucks that “The score is very metal, lots of riffage, and the cartoon is also very metal, lots of classic toilet humor.” Sounds fun! He adds:

The creator of the show is a huge Garbage Pail Kids and Don Martin/MAD Magazine fan and the influences are clearly there but the show is definitely it’s own thing. There’s some killer guest voice appearances (Dee Snider plays a tooth fairy in one episode). There is a character called “The Fart” who steals the show in every episode. It’s technically a kids show but metalheads of all ages should be on the lookout, they’ll dig it.

Secret Mountain Fort Awesome premieres tonight on the Cartoon Network at 8:30pm. Check out a preview of the series premiere featuring Conte’s riffage here and the very metal end-credit music here.

-VN

On Wednesday, we broke the news that drummer Adam Bennati and bassist Tim Rampage have departed Early Man due to an unspecified “incident.” Now vocalist/guitarist Mike Conte has released his own statement on the matter, and while it also doesn’t specify the details of the split with 50% of the band, it doesn’t basically emphasize what we said earlier this week — that as long as Conte is at the helm, there will be an Early Man.

Here’s Conte’s statement in full:

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We just received an e-mail from drummer Adam Bennati announcing his departure from perennial MetalSucks faves Early Man “due to an incident that happened 2 weeks ago;” he says that bassist Tim Rampage “left the band a couple of days later.” While Bennati didn’t give us any further details regarding the cause of the split, he did give us this official statement:

Hey there everyone,

As you may or may not know, I am not accompanying the band on the US tour with Bonded by Blood and Evile in support of our new release, Death Potion. I had every intention of going on our headlining tour to support the record, but due to recent circumstances, this has become impossible. I’ve dedicated living my life as a member of Early Man for the last 7 years but I won’t be a part of the group’s future. Despite the sadness in that, I feel very optimistic and am looking forward to moving on to new endeavors. Though the group had to take an uphill road (in many senses) to make our second album materialize, I feel that Death Potion was worth the wait. I’m very proud of this record. From the experience, I take with me a lot of good memories of writing music, traveling, drinking beer and hanging out with Mike [Conte, guitars/vocals], Pete [Macy, guitars] and Tim, and other members in the past. I wish the guys the best in the future. I hope they find success and happiness. Thank you to all the cool people I’ve met along the way, all the friends I’ve made, all the people who have worked hard for the band, and all of the great musicians we’ve performed with. Thanks to anyone and everyone who supports or appreciates the group’s efforts.

Adam Bennati

We love Early Man, and Death Potion, so there’s no doubt that this a bummer; Bennati has been in the band longer than any other member, save for Mike Conte.

The flipside is that we also love Conte (full disclosure: he’s written for us in the past), and we feel confident that as long as he’s around, Early Man will continue to kick ass. And it’s good to see Adam being a mensch about the split, despite whatever “incident” caused him to leave. Hopefully Bennati’s “new endeavors” are as exciting as his old ones.

Get Early Man tour dates here.

-AR

Early Man front dude and friend of MetalSucks Mike Conte posted the below on his site, Whiplash, and it’s just too good not to post. The specifics, of course, need no explanation.

For more fun with Sesame Street and metal, check this out.

-AR

Did any of my fellow New Yorkers see the headline on the NY Post this morning? “SUPREMA.” Seriously. I mean, come ON. I understand that Sotomayor is Hispanic (in case you somehow missed it), but she’s a fucking nominee to be a Supreme Court Justice, not the latest meal from fucking Taco Bell. Douche bags.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, here’s something awesome: a fan-made video for Early Man that mashes the band’s “Beware the Circling Fin” with footage from Masters of the Universe. After the announcement last week that they’re going to turn my beloved (if totally retarded) children’s cartoon into a dark, grim n’ gritty live-action movie (’cause everyone thinks they’re Chris fucking Nolan these days), it’s good to see that someone can still have fun with this shit.

The video was sent to us by Early Man/MetalSucks blogger Mike Conte, and originally appeared on Conte’s own blog. Thanks, Mike!

-AR

Swine flu got you down? Don’t get too scared, it was always part of the plan. Here’s a headline you should be much more concerned about: “ROB HALFORD UNVEILS NEW LINE OF SUPER CRAPPY T-SHIRTS“. WTF?? As if that isn’t horrifying enough in and of itself, the shirts look like they were designed by people with down syndrome that just couldn’t quite make the cut over at Affliction (as though Affliction Clothing isn’t bad enough). Jesus. If you want to get massively bummed out, head over to Halford’s new t-shirt line website, “Metal God Apparel” and grab yourself a sweet tee for a cool $54.99. Cheap!!

I see tons of douchebags trolling around Los Angeles in shitty shirts that look dangerously similar to these. It’s pretty sad. It’s a pandemic for sure. And there’s not really much we can do at this point. It seems even the Boston Red Sox have been struck with this “affliction” (pictured right). I hate all of you.

-MC

[Read more from Mike Conte at http://www.whiplashwhiplashwhiplash.com/]

Hello from the road, Metalsuckers! We’re one week into our tour with Portland rockers Red Fang. I am coming to you from a coffee shop called ‘Coffee Works’ in a strip mall in Charlotte, North Carolina. I gotta be quick because we’re about to take off for our load-in and sound check at The Milestone, one of my favorite venues in America. After starting the tour in New Jersey under about a foot of snow last week, we headed to Philly and partied like it was Tuesday night (because it was). I got to hit my favorite spot, Jim’s on South Street!

If you can’t get into one of these you are no friend of mine. I also drink the peppers like a shot. No joke:

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Hello Metalsuckers. WHIPLASH! round 2. It’s 5am Thursday, I’m in L.A. about to head to Burbank airport to catch a flight to NYC for the start of our U.S. tour next week. I’ve got a couple minutes before I go so I thought I’d pop in real quick and give you an update. We’ve spent the past week practicing some new songs off of our upcoming full length that we will be playing on this tour. I got into the habit a couple of years ago of filming practice sessions, as in just turning a little camera on and setting it in the corner during practices. It’s an easy way to record jam sessions plus it adds the visual element which can be an interesting little extra layer when listening back. Anyway, I had a camera running this week during one of our practices and have uploaded a little clip of one of our new songs called “By the Serpent’s Breath You Seethe” for your viewing pleasure:

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[In which the Early Man guitarist/vocalist shares his thoughts on the world, music, and the usual assortment of drunken adventures/misadventures. Enjoy. -Ed.]

Hello everyone, welcome to WHIPLASH! With this column I plan to give you weekly updates and a behind the scenes look into everything that is going on in the world of Early Man, whether it be drinking, touring, recording, drinking, shredding, drinking, etc., if it’s happening I’ll be writing about it. What I won’t be doing with this column is writing 9 page essays about the “current state of the metal scene” or “my take on the new Metallica record” or any other boring crap like that. Don’t you get enough of that horseshit already? WHO FUCKING CARES! If you want to see what’s actually going on out here in the real world with a working touring metal band, well…it’s your lucky day. And just to make this all that much more interesting I’m going to take your questions and answer them right here on a regular basis via video response. Ain’t technology grand? Just remember, no question is a stupid question, I’ll take them all. Any topic, any subject, fire away. You can send them to: whiplash@metalsucks.net.

Before I take off I’ll use this opportunity to bring you up to speed with what’s been going on over the past 6 months with the band.

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