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As you may be aware, MetalSucks recently invited  musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere to tell us what their favorite albums of 2011 have been. But the always-unique Eugene S. Robinson of Oxbow fame turned in a list of a somewhat different nature. The silver lining is, his list is so great that we opted to run it anyway! And so please enjoy Mr. Robinson’s list of “Top Ten Records for Making Everybody in the Room Uncomfortable…”

10. Sylvia, Pillow Talk – Sure, she started Sugarhill Records, which was on the map for giving birth to what Morrissey (more on him later) would call “pop thuggery” in the form of hip hop, and sure, she just died, but nothing says “douche chills” like her making fuck noises on this record. For like twenty minutes. Complete with baby talk and the lyric, “What I’m teaching you tonight, boy, you never learned in school.” In fact, any song with fuck noises in it gets on this list. Think I’m a prude? Try playing this shit when your mom’s around. Also, why does heavy metal, outside of Black Flag’s Slip It In, have so little simulated sex going on in it?

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Kenneth Thomas, in a tunnel.

If you care about heavy music and still believe that art should trump commerce every time, you owe it to yourself to check out Blood, Sweat & Vinyl: DIY in the 21st Century. I’ve written about Kenneth Thomas’s music documentary in these e-pages before. After watching the film a second time, I’m even more convinced of its importance as both a document of bands that you rarely (if ever) got to hear from outside of the concert hall, and argument for the importance of underground music makers, making music underground. Thomas chose to keep the focus tight, centering on the musicians, artists and label heads associated with three independent labels that are doing things their own way: Hydra Head, Neurot Recordings and Constellation. While there are certain characters that emerge as the spiritual ballast for the film – Aaron Turner of Isis & Hydra Head, Steve von Till of Neurosis & Neurot, and Efrim Menuck of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, in particular – the overwhelming sense is of a giant inter-connected family of passionate people, united by nothing other than a desire to pursue truth and clarity through music.

Aside from a couple off-camera giggles during an adorable scene with Justin Broadrick (Jesu/Godflesh), Thomas himself doesn’t show up in his film. So we figured we’d find out what the director had to say about his opus.

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It’s a Saturday night in Greenpoint, a still-Polish neighborhood smothered by hipsters and transplants orphaned by and priced-out of neighboring Williamsburg. My favorite part of Brooklyn is not actually living there, and this neighborhood is blessed with the city’s worst train line: the G. Somehow, I make my way to Europa, a nightclub that not-infrequently hosts rock concerts that end early, via three different subway transfers just in time to catch the last two songs of Bison B.C.‘s set. This frustrates me since they’re one of the few metal bands that consistently impresses me. Their last two melodious albums have both made my year-end lists, and in the live setting you can tell that they’re simply a bunch of unpretentious guys who just wanna rock.

But Bison aren’t really why I came. Oxbow is why I came.

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Black Flag will never reunite in any form that even remotely satisfies its generations of fans. But perhaps the coolest “not-quite-a-reunion” yet has just been announced.

Chuck Dukowski, Black Flag’s original bassist, has just recruited Eugene Robinson from Oxbow/Vice contribution to front a new band called Black Face. They’ve just recorded four songs that were written around My War-era Flag but that nobody in the world apart from Chuck has ever heard before. The tracks are called “Monster,” “I Want To Kill You,” “Where Will We Run,” and “Leave Me Out to Rot.” The band, which features former Oxbow drummer Tom Dobrov and Insects vs. Robots guitarist Milo Gonzalez, are also going to start playing all the songs that Chuck wrote for Black Flag live.

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One of the things that I love most about underground metal is that so many diehard fans fulfill so many roles within the metal community. A lot of the kids that you see at the grind show are also in bands. The dude rockin’ out at the front might own a distro. That girl might run the screenprinting service where all the locals get their band shirts made. Another guy might be taking photographs for his blog, or promoting the show, or running a small label on the side. Extreme music requires extreme commitment.

Filmmaker Kenneth Thomas is one of those extremely committed folks. He’s a filmmaker with 15 years of experience, mostly in documentary work but also in producing music videos and EPK footage for Isis, Neurosis, Queens of the Stone Age and tons more. Back when he was living in Los Angeles, I would see Thomas at most every show I went to. Sometimes he had a film camera with him; sometimes he was just rockin’ out with everyone else. After five years of work, he’s just about to release his latest project, Blood Sweat and Vinyl: DIY in the 21^st Century.

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If you can’t figure out why you awoke this morning with a persistent boner (like me) or a tingly bottom (uh also like me), let me tell you it probably is related to Hydra Head’s announcement that tomorrow brings the premiere of a new Cave In jam! Welcome to Horny City. Population: you.

But there’s big fun today too! So that we have a use for our various states of arousal, MetalSucks is proud to unveil Hydra Head’s killer new free sampler of recent, unreleased, and upcoming jamz by the likes of Oxbow, Neurosis, Discordance Axis, and Clouds. This is rare and tasty stuff, like the hard-to-find Cave In cover of “N.I.B.” and an exclusive Austerity Program remix of a Pyramids jam. Get it here.

–ADF

If you’ve made it through THIS AWESOME DAY so far, then the least I can do is share with you this super-important email message that I received from Hydra Head noise rock bluesmen Oxbow:

What you will read and how you will read it – these words off of an actual physical artifact – will be an experience shared by increasingly fewer of you given the quickly shifting relationship between art and commerce; but we are entrusting you with this dictum: explain it to the rest. That: this SONGS FOR THE FRENCH is a highly conscious effort to do things exactly as we ourselves would never do them in order to create a compelling bridgework between THE NARCOTIC STORY of yesterday and THE THIN BLACK DUKE of tomorrow. Lyrically, musically, thematically this march into intuitive mind has been Russian rouletted into existence, with OXBOW ceding control where control has never been ceded. [Song order? Chosen by Golden Mastering. Intervals? Also Golden Mastering. Some lyrics penned in an in-studio state of fugue.] All randomized and all pointing purposefully toward everywhere. Or specifically: an untoward level of clarity. Of this we are clear. Yes, of this we are clear: the ship is sailing further from land. And truer words have never been spoken.

Translation? NEW OXBOW MUSIC!

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Way back in March, I expressed my sheer delight at the promise of Celan, a new group that unites Unsane frontman Chris Spencer with Oxbow guitarist Niko Wenner. The other week, the formidable noise rock combo quietly released its debut Halo (buy it buy it buy it) on Exile On Mainstream Records (whose site was recently hacked) during a month that yielded far more publicized metal albums from dinosaurs like Megadeth and Europe, as well as an embarrassingly over-promoted record from (ugh) Shadows Fall. Of course, my role on this website (other than indulging my love for 90s grunge acts) is to expose you to the kind of awesome stuff you probably missed or haven’t even heard of. Celan is one such example.

Europeans who read this site should be forewarned that Celan is about to begin a three-week tour of the continent that hits cities in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. No word yet on U.S. dates, but perhaps if some of you go out and buy the album, we may have a chance.

-GS

[Gary Suarez is madly in anger with you. He usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

When Oxbow first released its debut album Fuckfest back in 1990, most of you were listening to Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer (Lord knows I sure was!). So it’s almost forgivable nearly 20 years later if you still haven’t heard this cathartic, manic, and, yes, bluesy noise rock record. Thankfully, the dudes at Hydra Head Records will give us all a chance to redeem ourselves when they rerelease this filthy beast on September 15. I got my first crack at Fuckfest this morning, and it’s even better than I had expected, from the twisted classic rock of “30 Miles” to the sprawling cacophonous discord of “Hunger”.

Oxbow doesn’t seem to like updating its official website very much, but fortunately the band has a more active Twitter account packed with rumors (what’s this about a tour with Shrinebuiler and Dillinger Escape Plan?), new album updates, and UK dates for November. West Coasters may want to get themselves over to San Francisco this month, where the band will play two shows (August 20 at The Eagle; August 31 at The Victoria Theater).

-GS

[Gary Suarez sings songs for the French. He usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

The lack of new music from New York’s noise rock royals Unsane has been a source of sadness for me considering the vicious and vibrant Visqueen record on Ipecac a few years ago. Every few months, I find myself visiting their MySpace page in the hopes that we might get a news of another album or even some tour dates. Thankfully, as I learned today, its members have gone on to new and interesting projects. Vinnie Signorelli drums for the talented post-metal combo A Storm Of Light, while bassist Dave Curran is making some cool shit with his fellow Pigs. I already knew about those two, but I was especially pleased to discover that Unsane’s founder Chris Spencer has a new project called Celan, which unsurprisingly bears a sonic semblance to the project he’s been toiling in since 1988. Check out tracks like “One Minute” or “All This And Everything” from the band’s upcoming album for Germany’s Exile On Mainstream Records and tell me they wouldn’t be out of place on an Unsane album. Other members of the band include Niko Wenner from Oxbow, so needless to say, I’m pretty fucking pumped for the forthcoming debut Halo, which will hit America officially this coming September.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be watching the Lambhouse bonus DVD from Relapse and laughing my ass off at the abundance of SKATEBOARD FAIL in the classic “Scrape” video.

-GS