I have a friend who swears that the basement of her workplace is haunted by a g-g-g-g-ghost… She also mentioned an affinity for reality shows about paranormal activity. So naturally I asked her if the ghost at her workplace came before she started watching said reality shows or vice versa. What do you think her answer was?

My humble apologies to the apparition-believers among us — I don’t mean to sound so skeptical. As a matter of fact, I suspect there are plenty of cosmic/extrasensory phenomena I have faith in that many of you might scoff at.

Destiny?

Fate?

G-d?

Unicornzzz?

MS Mansion Monkeys????

(That last one is undeniably real)

In any case, it’s hard not to appreciate m-m-m-m-music about g-g-g-g-ghosts, right?  Let’s get our spook on after ze jump…

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Though Fucked Up, Made Out of Babies vocalist Julie Christmas and the annual free tech-metal comp Mecha Organa are completely unrelated in just about every way, they all concern heavy music and they’ve all got new tunes. So:

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No, I’m not endorsing this American indie flick that just opened last week:

Nor am I hyping this Chilean movie from a couple years ago:

I do think if y’all haven’t seen Super Size Me (starring Burley O), you should check it out:

But c’mon people, this is a MUSIC blog………..

And thus I would like to invite you to join me right past the jump for a little tribute to the SUPERGROUP.

Shall we?

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By which I do not mean that Ms. Christmas has found God. I meant “CHRIST!” more in a “screaming random shit when you orgasm” kinda way.

‘Cause while Made Out of Babies’ often seemingly badshit crazy (in the best possible way) front lady announced her first solo album, The Bad Wife, back in June, now the album has a November 9 release date via Rising Pulse Records, and — score!!! — not one, but two tracks from the album have been released: “Bow” and “July 31.” And if for some reason you were worried about a Baby-less Christmas, well, don’t be. These songs are just grand: original and visceral and elegant and scary and intriguing and all the things you’ve loved about Christmas’ work with MOOB, Battle of Mice, and Spylacopa. I can’t wait to hear the rest of this album.

Check out the new songs here.

-AR

Made Out of Babies’ masterpiece, The Ruiner, came out exactly two years ago today, and to be honest, I was hoping there might be a new MOOB album in the not-too-distant future — especially after watching them absolutely annihilate live earlier this year.

Well, the bad news is that there’s news on the MOOB front, vocalist/batshit crazy front lady Julie Christmas will be releasing her first solo album, The Bad Wife, sometime this fall. Our first taste of the album will apparently be a song called “July 31st,” which will appear in a feature film called Wrong Turn at Tahoe. The movie stars Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Harvey Keitel and was directed by the dude who made the barely-watchable P2, so I’m assuming the Christmas track will be the best thing about the flick. Luckily, Ms. Christmas is doing a video for the song, so hopefully none of us will ever have to suffer through Tahoe to hear it.

And that’s not all Julie has been busy with!

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In the second tragedy to befall a Brooklyn drummer this Autumn (the other being the freak death of Maserati’s Jerry Fuchs), Spylacopa drummer Troy Young was shot and killed in his own apartment, according to the NY Daily News [via Metal Insider]. Spylacopa was (is?) an experimental project that featured members of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Candiria, Isis and Made Out of Babies. Young had also logged time in bands The Spines and State of Emergency.

“Drummer Troy Young, played on the Spylacopa EP, was shot to death in his apartment. Sad day. Talented drummer and nice person, 29yrs old,” read an update on Dillinger Escape Plan / Spylacopa frontman Greg Puciato’s Twitter page.

The Post reports that Young was shot once in the shoulder, and that the bullet pierced his heart. No suspects or motives are known at this time.

I can’t speak to Young’s talent the way I could to Fuchs’, as I’m really not too familiar with his work outside of Spylacopa… but any guy who can hang with the rest of those dudes has got to be quite talented. And any time the metal community loses a member is always a sad day. Please share your memories of Troy Young in our comments section.

-VN

Candiria needs no introduction, but even those familiar with the band might not know that guitarist John LaMacchia is one of the most hard-working men in underground metal. In addition to his work with Candiria — who are releasing Toying With the Insanities Volumes 1 and 2 this September — LaMacchia runs Rising Pulse Records, the label that will be releasing the aforementioned new Candiria albums. He’s also a member of Spylacopa together with members of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Isis and Made out of Babies, and and he’s co-writing and producing a solo album with Julie Christmas of the latter. In a phone conversation earlier this month, I chatted with John about the new Candiria sets, the aforementioned side projects (which are only the tip of the iceberg), the current status of Candiria, and some local bands he digs. Our chat, after the jump.

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A couple of months back I published an article declaring that Spylacopa, the new supergroup featuring John LaMacchia (Candiria), Jeff Caxide (Isis), Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan) and Julie Christmas (Made Out of Babies / Battle of Mice), was sounding surprisingly tame for a band whose members usually spit such intense venom. Now I eat my words.

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If I told you there were a new supergroup on the block that includes John LaMacchia (Candiria), Jeff Caxide (Isis), Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan) and Julie Christmas (Made Out of Babies / Battle of Mice), you’d think the result would be some kind of furious explosion of heavy, right?

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