Yeah, I know. Worst headline ever. Sorry. I’m trying here, I swear.

ANYWAY, writing about “Cuts,” the new Tiger Flowers song which just premiered on Noisecreep, our pal Carlos Ramirez asserts that “If the folks at NFL Films had any guts, they’d license out a track from Tiger Flowers. The New York City noise mongers specialize in the kind of music that would fit perfectly with their slow-motion montages of violence and glory.” Well put, Carlos!

A rough version of “Cuts” appeared on MS’ very own NYC Sucks compilation earlier this year, but now the better, remixed and remastered version is out in the world. You should definitely check that shit out here, especially if razor-sharp chaos is your thing. (Carlos compares it to Jesus Lizard, Helmet, and Botch — which is apt and flattering.) It will be on the Tiger Flowers EP, which comes out on September 20th as a digital release only, and which is an all-around face ripper that NEEDS to be on your radar.

-AR

Any boxing buffs in the MS readership? If the name Tiger Flowers sounds familiar to you that’s because Theodore “Tiger” Flowers was the first African American heavyweight boxing champ. But for the rest of you it’s probably because NYC band Tiger Flowers and their heavyweight riffs appeared on Volume 1 of our completely free NYC Sucks compilation released this past winter. The song on the comp, “Cuts,” was just a sample of the visceral carnage this band has in store; now armed with a freshly inked deal with The Path Less Traveled Records, Tiger Flowers are set to unveil their self-titled EP on September 20th.

“Drag,” a nine-minute epic of crushing intensity at both breakneck and plodding paces, is now available for streaming at Gun Shy Assassin. The song perfectly encapsulates what this band is about; dragging you through the dirt with their jarring, angular, post-hardcore inspired attack, first fast, then slow, then fast again, then slow again… just to fuck with you. This music is straight up mean.

Stream “Drag” at Gun Shy Assassin then come back here and tell us what you think. The Tiger Flowers EP comes out on September 20th as a digital release only.

-VN

IT’S HERE! IT’S FINALLY HERE!!! Volume 1 of NYC Sucks, the completely free comp we’ve compiled to spotlight some of the best metal bands currently dominating the New York metal scene. This volume features fourteen songs by as many bands, who run the gamut of genres, from death to tech to prog to grind to black to hardcore to doom and more. We truly feel that this is a great sampling of all that New York’s thriving metal scene has to offer, and we’re beyond proud to be sharing it with you — absolutely, 100% free of charge.

You can stream, or, better yet, just download the comp below. It contains high-quality 320kbps MP3s, and as well as a PDF of digital liner notes with information about all the bands. Please help get the word out… send the comp to your friends, put it up on torrent sites, submit it to .rar Mediafire blogs… just spread the friggin’ music by any means necessary!

And don’t forget that Volume 2, featuring thirteen more great bands and songs, will be out on February 22nd!!!

—> DOWNLOAD NYC SUCKS VOLUME 1 HERE <—
(includes 320kbps MP3 files, Album Cover, PDF Liner Notes)

1. East of the Wall, “The Ladder”
2. Made out of Babies, “Invisible Ink”
3. Tiger Flowers, “Cuts”
4. Black Anvil, “The Evil of All Roots”
5. Naam, “Frosted Tread”
6. Batillus, “The Children of the Night Make Their Music”
7. Meek is Murder, “Sundowners” (demo)
8. The Binary Code, “Encircled”
9. Castevet, “Stones”
10. Hung, “Desert of Sad”
11. Wizardry, “The Falconer”
12. Pyrrhon, “King of All Tears”
13. Mutant Supremacy, “Epitaph”
14. Incendiary, “Victory in Defeat”

Vince brought the shits back with him from Egypt and in the past twenty-four hours I’ve been hit with a cold so bad that I’m probably gonna go to sleep right around the time I hit “publish” for this post. So before I pass out, here’s a run-down of what we did while Vince was playing Camel jockey:

• We spoke to Mutiny Within’s AJ Jacobs and producer/mixer Kevin Antreassian.
• As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa discussed fate versus free will on L O S T.
• We premiered “The Last Horse” by Tiger Flowers.
• We checked out new releases by Xasthur and Borknagar and read a book by Andy McCoy, too!
• Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy is recording with Avenged Sevenfold; black is white, up is down, cats love dogs.
• The new Bullet For My Valentine song makes a lot of people angry, either ’cause you had to tweet about it just to hear it or simply because it exists.
• One thing MS Suckalos seem to agree upon: Jake E. Lee was not Ozzy’s best guitar player.

Okay, NyQuil time. See ya Monday!!!

-AR

You guys know about Tiger Flowers already, right?

The good gents in one of NYC’s best, noisiest and most esoteric up and coming metal bands have offered us an exclusive stream of their brand new track “The Last Horse.” Check it out in all its cacophonous glory below, then check out some of the band’s other material on their MySpace page. Tiger Flowers go on a mini-tour of the Northeast starting on February 17th; their raucous live show is not to be missed.

-VN

[this promotion has ended]

Tiger Flowers are one of those bands that actually do defy categorization in the face of hundreds of <insert metal micro-genre here>-copycats who claim they do. They have elements of doom, hardcore, metal, post-punk and Dillinger-style atonal freakouts, a hodge-podge of punk and metal that inexplicably works really fucking well when all thrown together. The band brought their furious live thunder to Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory when they opened the kick-off date of the Metal As Art tour last week, matching the absurdity of their recorded works pound for pound with their frenetic live attack.

Our Bro-stadons over at Brooklyn Vegan are offering up an exclusive download of the brand new Tiger Flowers track “The Weight,” a song that displays all the best of what the band has to offer. New Yorkers can catch the band for free at The Studio at Webster Hall this coming Monday, January 18th, while other East Coasters can catch them on tour in February (dates also at Brooklyn Vegan — scroll down).

-VN

It always happens this way; you wait and wait and wait for a band you love to come around, and when they finally do they’re playing at the same time as that other band you’ve waited and waited and waited for. So it is tonight in NYC, FOUR-fold. So if you’ve still got an open card for the evening, check out at least one of these awesome shows, and if you’re ambitious and have deep pockets lined with cab money, check out all four! It’s a great night to be a metal fan in NYC, with headliners Wetnurse, Origin, Amorphis and Kataklysm sitting atop 4 totally well-rounded and deep tour bills.

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