Attention Blah Blah Blah

I have decided not to make this blog as a Mp3 Blog like what I intended a couple months back. I don't think I have all the time in the world for the hassles of uploading some mp3s on some servers. That doesn't mean I will not post any mp3s from bands that I think worthy of others attention, it just that it won't be my main objective anymore. From now on, you will have to endure some of my ramblings and whinnings about anything that I think fit to be on this blog.

Have a nice day.

despise....

Hari Raya is just around the corner.

The only good thing about Hari Raya is my Mom's rendang daging...

God, I can't even remember when is the last time I actually bought Baju Melayu for Hari Raya...

Happy Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all...

Vitamin X Live In Malaysia

Yup you read that right, Vitamin X will be in Kuala Lumpur in a few weeks time for their SEA stop over. This will be awesome... well at least to those who have waited for it. Me? Well let just say that I am still crossing my fingers for the Infest reunion above anything else. So... anyway, there is an interesting discussion over ricecooker (click here) for the past couple of weeks regarding this. Yeah, shit talking behind the computer screen is fun but at least do it with dignity (is there such thing?).

But that's punk rock for you. It won't be punk rock without the spineless shit talking on the internet.

YouthCore!

I went to Singapore a couple weeks back with the guys in SelfMadeGod and Mass Separation. Saw two awesome shows and was blown away by a handful of Singaporean bands. It was definitely one of the best weeks of my life. Anyway here’s one of those handful bands that blown me away who called themselves Under Attack.

The first time I heard about them was a few months back when one of the band member passed me their demo CDr. It was surely one of the best demos I’ve heard this year. Hell it even end up on my playlist for weeks. I love listening to the kind of hardcore these guys are doing. It is short, fast and loud and although it is all textbook stuff, they are doing it with a passion that I don’t seem to find in some of the bands that have similar style with them. Shit these guys are fairly new but they sure kick the hell out of some other (Malaysian & Singaporean) bands that have been doing this for a while.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to catch one of their shows on my most recent trip to Singapore and boy do they know how to rip it up. It is fun, energetic and crazy at the same time. These guys know what the real deal man. No pretentious fastcore bullshit!

So here are a few mp3s from their demo and their upcoming release that I heard will be 4-way split with a few more SEA hardcore punk bands. I must say that I can’t wait when that one comes out.

From the demo

Hardcore by the Book
Kebebasan
Old School Hardcore Ain’t Cool Anymore?

From the upcoming 4-Way split

Youthcore!
Punk As Fuck, Fucked As You
Shoot and Kill

Hey check out their Myspace!

Note: the mp3 links have been removed!

a note....

Been a while since I last updated this blog. Got so much shit to cover. Check out in a week or two.

Bleeding in the Snow

For fans of Neurosis, Isis, Mare, Cult of Luna etc. Check out Snowblood from Scotland. I came across this awesome band after checking out the Collective Zine’s message board. This is definitely something that I can enjoy for days. The have posted two songs from their upcoming album and you can check it here on their website. Heavily crushing and sinister this will surely go down well with most who love this kind of music.

Pelican - Interview

I don’t think there is anything more I can say about Pelican. Thanks to Trevor for answering it. And if you haven’t got the new album, buy it here.

1. Hey man, how are you doing? How is the weather over there?

I'm doing real well, thank you. Just got home from a few shows with the band and now I am trying to do some hardcore relaxing before our next stint starts this weekend. I'm in North Carolina right now, and
the heat is sweltering, so my girlfriend and I have been hiding in a darkened room trying to keep cool.

2. What's up with the band? Are you preparing for the upcoming shows in Japan? Will this be the first time you guys going to play shows in Japan? Do you expect anything or looking forward for it?

Just got back last week, actually. It was our first time over there. The label which releases our albums in Japan, Daymare, invited us over to do four shows. They were all big successes, so hopefully it won't be long before we're asked to come back over. In addition to the opportunity to see and tour Japan, which we had dreamed of for a long time, we got to play with many of our favorite Japanese bands - Mono, Boris, Greenmachine, Church of Misery, etc. and got to catch a Corrupted show on our day off. It was a great trip.

3. So there will be a US tour this coming August, how long will this be and is Pelican touring with another band? Is this upcoming tour to support the new album?

Yes, this Sunday we are hitting the road for five weeks in support of the new record. The majority of the tour will be with our labelmates Big Business. We'll also be joined by Breather Resist, the Panthers, and Red Sparrowes for different legs of the tour.

4. So you guys are going on tour with your own money or…?

Yes, Japan was the first tour that wasn't paid for with our own money. Luckily we do alright on the road so the tours have started to pay for themselves rather than us having to slave at our jobs back home just to pay to play for people. The idea is that the better the tours go, the more we'll be able to do them, so we're hoping this tour is a success.

5. Tell me something about the new album. Is it the progression from the previous recorded materials? Are you guys happy with the output? What can the listener expect from this new album?

The album is much more diverse from our previous efforts. Whereas "Australasia" was heavily repetitive and distorted practically the whole way through, the new album makes use of a lot more changes throughout the songs, including many quiet passages. I guess the easiest way of describing the change is that the album is more song oriented than riff oriented, as our older material tended to be.

6. From the track list of the new album, I'd noticed that there is a track call March To The Sea, does this track have any relation to the March Into The Sea songs off the March Into The Sea EP?

Yes, it's a new recording of the song from the EP, with some changes made in the structure of the song. The most notable difference is that we excised the acoustic outro, since it seemed to eat into the continuity of the album quite a bit.

7. I have to say that the song March Into The Sea is probably on of the best songs I've heard from Pelican. Is it intended to be 20 minutes long because it really sounds like a combination of one or more songs in it? Can we expect more 20+ minutes songs from Pelican in the future?

We'd talked a little about dividing the song into movements, like a classical piece, but that ultimately seemed a little pretentious and uneccessary, so, yeah it's one twenty minute long song. I guess I can
understand the feeling that it seems like a lot of songs happen in its midst since we cover so much different territory within its boundaries, but I think the song itself is sort of indicative of all the different tones and ideas that we want to explore as musicians. It's a tidy bundle of chaos, really.

8. I found out that your new album had been leaked on the Internet for a while now. How does the band see about this? What do you think about kids downloading the whole album from the Internet instead of buying
the real album?

If I thought that no one was going to buy the album because they could just as easily download it, I guess I might get pretty bummed. It's a lot of hard work and very costly to make an album, so the ultimate goal of any independent release is to at least break even; and I am always gripped with terror when we are releasing something that the whole thing is gonna sink the ship, so to speak. But while the downloading phenomenon has definitely affected peoples' propensity to peel open their pocketbook to buy a new record, I don't think it's
necessarily a negative change. I think people that download music still spend money on music, downloading just gives them a chance to check out more stuff and broaden their musical palette. Technology has always forced change in the music scene/industry, and we are undergoing a time of dramatic change - downloading is here to stay and artists will have to find different ways to make their art come to fruition is they want to survive.

9. How was the SXSW show the band did a couple of months ago?

Shows with large bills always tend to have quite a number of duds on them, so it was amazing and an honor to participate in what I think might have been the best large assortment of bands I have ever seenplay on one stage in one night. The highlight was probably Oxbow; as music and performance the band drops my jaw every time I see them.

10. It seems that there are a lot of bands who are musically similar with Pelican and are gaining a lot of popularity within the 'extreme music' scene (i.e. Cult of Luna, Mare, Jesu etc), is it safe to say that this kind of music is going to be the next trend? Do you think MTV will catch up and starts hyping this kind of music?

The rarity with which music that is sincere and uncompromised "catches on" tends to suggest to me that MTV will not take an interest in bands affiliated with our scene or our label. I think that that's fine - business interests and corporate affiliations only bring negative effects with them. Those types' interest in music is predicated on the belief that there are material rewards to reap from it, which shifts the attention from sincerity to sales. Artists don't need that shit fucking up their work.

11. There was a Justin Broadrick remix on the March into the Sea EP. How does that come about? Is there any plan to do a remix album like what Isis did? Are you guys planning to do collaborations with other
like-minded musicians?

We toured the UK with Justin's band Jesu, and we got to talking about potential remixes and stuff while we were on the road with him. There's a remix of the same song, "Angel Tears", by another friend James Plotkin that'll show up on a split 12" EP with Mono later this year. We don't have any plans for a remix record, but we may comission remixes for future releases since the results we've had so far from these experiments have been very good. As far as collaborations, I guess we haven't really sought anything out to this point, but we try to never rule out artistic posibilities.

12. Is there any plan to do an acoustic album in the near future?

Laurent, Bryan, and I do all the initial songwriting on acoustic guitars, so a project of that sort would not be too surprising, but there's no plans for such a release at this time.

13. Anything else you want to add?

We apologize for the actions of our destructive government and culture. There are peace loving people in the United States and hopefully someday shit will change. Thank you very much for the interview.

Peace,
trevor

municipal waste - hazardous mutation

The new Municipal Waste is awesome! I stumbled upon it on slsk earlier today and have been listening to non-stop. Thanks to whomever that leaked it on the internet! From what I gathered it have been leaked for weeks now… haha for me for knowing this so much later.

I thought signing with Earache will make these guys lame and shitty (as with most Earache bands with the exception of Cult of Luna)… but I was wrong. The new album really kick ass and it is a good continuation of their first long player. I think it will go down well with those who dig em before they sign to Earache and this definitely will expose them to those who never heard of them before. I don’t want to debate about the whole sell-out thing since it is none of my business. If you don’t like a band for signing to an “evil” records label… just shut up and stop listening to them.

Since I am not interested to piss anyone from Earache, I will not post any songs that I acquire from slsk, instead I will list a couple of links that people can use to check it out.

Go here and here (yeah it is troublesome but you won't regret it) for some hard-hitting crossover thrash. Oh yea, check out the Earache page as well for some hard-hitting news about the Waste.

bandung thrash

I have decided to feature another Indonesian band after the Domestik Doktrin post last week. Another band from Bandung, Indonesia (Domestik Doktrin is from Bandung too you know) that plays it fast and couldn’t give a fuck about slowing it down for the non-ADD crowds. Anjing Tanah is probably the first Indonesian fast hardcore bands that I’ve heard a couple of years back. I never thought that Indonesia got any fast hardcore bands before discovering Anjing Tanah but I was wrong. There are tons of them over there in Indonesia!

Often compared to Charles Bronson, the band’s version of snotty fast hardcore really put them above their ilk in Indonesia and as far as I am concerned, I’ve had never listened to any good Indonesian fast hardcore bands that can be compared to Anjing Tanah. But then again do we need that? I definitely don’t need another Infest… and can live with the fact that there are no bands that want to be the next Infest. Just let the dis-bands do all the worshiping ok.

I don’t think they are still around. Well that is what kids in Bandung have been telling me. As far as I know, they only managed to record a demo and a full-length (correct me if I am wrong about this) entitled “Thrash is The Path to The Dorkside.” Here you can find all the tracks from the Diminuendocorruption demo. It is not a good representative of their later works, but this should do for now. Keep an eye in the future, who knows, maybe I won’t be too lazy to rip some of their later stuff.

01 - Budaya Timur Harus Mati
02 - Hanya Ada Satu Kata Buat Bintang Rock- Ngetot
03 - Detik-Detik Terakhir Di Dalem Kehidupan Kurt Kobain
04 - Revolusionaris Kon-Tol-Porer
05 - Bakterimukaantiagnesmonika
06 - Band Hardcore Majalah Hai
07 - 24 Jam Diberakin Iklan
08 - Negara Itu Semacam Lobang Pantat, Semua Orang Punya Satu Dan Pasti Bau Tai
09 - Pemberontakan Cuma Bikin Tebel Kantong Para Banjingan
10 - Berak Di Depan Jendela Fucktory Outlet Yang Ke-1000 Sekian Kota Bandung
11 - Rocker Yang Telah Mati Semua Membusuk Di Neraka Jahanam
12 - Seluruh Dunia Boleh Dinuklir!!!
13 - Invasi Pasukan Puser Di Layar Televisi Anda
14 - Strategi Koporat Kapitalis Progresif

Mp3s linked removed. Check me out on slsk. User ID: hatta

sepakat untuk tidak sepakat

Domestik Doktrin from Indonesia was here in Malaysia recently. For those who have no idea who Domestik Doktrin is, just take note that they have 7” on 625 Records. If you know about 625 Records you probably have a rough idea how Domestik Doktrin sounds like. If you want to know about 625 Records, click here. Check this out for more info about Domestik Doktrin.

I managed to catch 2 of their shows (they probably played like 5 shows in total). Both were awesome and fun. The first show was at a jam studio (practice space) that could probably fit 70 peoples in it. It was fucking wild and it was a total miracle that the place was still intact and in one piece after the show. Watching Domestik Doktrin reminds me why I love DIY hardcore punk in the first place.

Here are a couple of mp3s from Domestik Doktrin’s latest release Phundamentalphun. Those who are familiar with Domestik Doktrin will find this to be a little bit different from the 7” that 625 Records released not too long ago. It seems that they are also caught with the whole “Tragedy-Epic-Crust” craze that is popular these days. I haven’t listened enough of it to give out my opinion about their new release but I will definitely say that, as of now, I prefer to listen to their first 7” than this new release and a lot of people that I know would definitely say the same thing too. Some even describe Domestik Doktrin new material as a very bad metalcore… Drop a line to propamedia@gmail.com if you want more information about the CD. It is limited to 300 copies and serves as a discography CD since it has all the songs that they have recorded up to this point.

Domestik Doktrin - Beauty is in The Eye of The Stock Holder
Domestik Doktrin - Gossip vis-a-vis Casusbeli

Note: Links removed. It have been weeks for fucks sake!

extreme aggression

Kreator live in Malaysia? Fuck yeah!

I hope they won't cancel it. Fingers cross...

I Grind, Pt 1: Damage Digital

I was lucky enough to catch a Damage Digital show right here in Kuala Lumpur way back in 1997. It was probably their second visit to Malaysia. I don’t remember how I managed to miss them the first time they were here but I definitely didn’t want to miss them again, especially after hearing a lot of good things from people who managed to catch their first show. If I can remember well, Damage Digital was also the first Japanese band that I saw live. And it was really an experience.

Maybe I ‘m exaggerating things, but few can deny the quality of the bands coming from Japan. They might not be the most original but they made it up with other things, most notably are their live performance. From my very limited experience there are hardly any bad memories from watching a Japanese band… well maybe with an exception for Fuck on the Beach. But then again, they were horrible in the first place.

Although often time compared to Discordance Axis, Damage Digital (DxDx) is not a straight up carbon copy of Discordance Axis. Yes there are definitely similarities between them, and as far as I know, Discordance Axis was probably in Damage Digital’s long list of influence but they are definitely not a Discordance Axis rip off.

Damage Digital will definitely be on my top ten all time favorite grindcore bands alongside Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Brutal Truth and Discordance Axis. I can hardly find any new band that can match the sheer ferocity and OTT intensity that were produced by DxDx, be it on recorded material or live performance. Sure there are lots of new grindcore bands out there but quite frankly none of them interest me at all. But hey, I’m open for recommendations as long as the band is not affiliated with Relapse.

I think recently someone in the US was kind enough to release a DxDx LP. As far as I know Crimes Against Humanity is carrying ‘em in their distro. Check DxDx own website for details. Here a few mp3s from their previous releases.

00 void

A couple of months ago I wouldn’t believe that I will be enjoying Sunn. I was even skeptical of people saying that they are really into whatever this band is doing. I doubt I can enjoy this band without being high… I was wrong.

I don’t really know how to explain but I was kinda bored with what I’ve been listening to lately. The last gig I went to were really a so-so affair and I was pretty burned out with the whole “loud-fast-rules!” stuff that I’ve been listening for a while. It was boredom that made me decided to check out some off the stuff that I don’t usually listen to. So I went to check out some off the cds and cdrs that I have and found a cdr of Sunn’s Flight of the Behemoth album. I don’t know how long I have it with me but one thing for sure; I hardly listen to it ever since I got it. It is weird. While I can definitely enjoy Burning Witch, Khanate (two out of many Sunn’s Steve O' Malley bands and projects) and Corrupted, I can’t really get into Sunn. It is too monotonous for my likings and “un-heavy” unlike those aforementioned bands.

I uploaded those songs to my iPod and decided to listen to it the next morning while going to work. I should add that my morning playlist are usually stuff ranging from metal to grindcore; it is definitely a perfect way to start off my day – anything by Slayer (up to the Undisputed Attittude album) usually do the job.

What happened the next morning was really amazing. Amazing because I was listening to something that I never thought I would listen and enjoying every minutes of it. It was the perfect soundtrack for my little journey to the workplace. My mind was really empty. I felt like I was numb. I could care less about the whole world and what would await me at the workplace on that particular day. I have found my new favorite band and I don’t need any drugs to get into it. Escaping the mundane of everyday monotony is beautiful and I have found the perfect soundtrack for it.

Here are a couple of Sunn mp3s. Enjoy yourself but make sure to keep all the sharp objects away.

Sunn's BOW 1
Sunn's Richard

when forever comes crashing

I don't really have much to write about. One thing is certain, I am not happy with myself. My zine project has been lagging for a while and I haven't submitted anything for my friend's webzine for a very long time. This is not something I am proud off.

On a positive note. I got a good fat bonus from my employer. Nothing to shout about but it sure makes me a happy person for a couple of days. Oh, have I told anyone that I got a raise along with that big fat bonus?

I was in Singapore last two weeks ago. I went there as a roadie/shitworkers for my friend’s band that played a gig there (as a part of a mini tour with a German band). The last time I was in Singapore in when I was still in the band. There’s nothing much to write about Singapore. We didn’t do any of that tourist thingy, all we did was sleep on someone’s floor, played/watched a kick ass show, hang out with the Singapore kids, sleep on someone’s floor and…. Well that’s basically it. It’s rock and roll (without the excessive sex, drugs and alcohol part) and there are no other ways to enjoy it.

... and here I am, updating this while listening to Converge’s When Forever Comes Crashing… I am not a very happy person... but at least my life isn't miserable.

hunting dead bodies

It is definite. SHIKARI is no more.
Everybody, thanks for the support. It has been 5 amazing years!

...thanks for the truly amazing and inspirational music.