I'm headed back to Japan for a few weeks in June and I'm already getting excited about it. Here is a bit of video footage I shot last time I was there. It really shows what a magical place it is.

Why? Because the city of Kobe is building a 1:1 scale model of Tetsujin 28 (thats Gigantor to us English speaking folks) right in the middle of the city. 18 Meters of awesome in an action pose.

Check out the official site here and have a look at this informational film:


And the original opening theme song:


And the English theme song:


And since you know you want it so bad, It's the Dickies doing the Engish Gigantor theme. There are a few versions of it available. This is the Flipside Vinyl flexi-disc version. I think it's the best.

I know, Stan Lee is a completely incredible guitar player. Hands down, world's best pick slides.

We went to see Thrones, Coffins, and a bunch of other bands at the Satyricon on Saturday. Coffins were really good; arguably some of the worst guitar solos ever played, but very sincere delivery. It was obvious that they were having fun playing music that they love. That was a real treat since some other bands on the bill were a little too cool for their own good. Stormcrow was particularly bad. Not only had their singer completely blown his voice out (two shows into the tour no less), but the drummer and bass player didn't even seem to be playing the same songs as the rest of the band. Really sloppy playing with lots of posing.... and don't get me started on their ridiculous hipster mustaches. I know, you're thinking "how could the great and mighty Italian Black Metal band Stormcrow possibly suck?" turns out, it wasn't the Stormcrow you were thinking of, it's some other guys who don't know enough about the music they play to know that there was already a band called Stormcrow... which isn't really a great name to begin with. It's a mess. Aldebaran opened the show which was kind of a bummer. They weren't very convincing live. Just because it's slow doesn't mean it's heavy and just because it repeats the same parts over and over doesn't mean it's meditative. I bet their album is really good though.

There goes Sentou of Coffins completely ripping a high-speed bass line.


Of course the real highlight of the evening was Thrones. Joe is right at the beginning of a tour that will take him all over the US and Europe. If Saturday's show was representative of what those shows are going to be like, everyone is in luck. To give you a better understanding, feel free to enjoy this video of the first song of the set. It's called Ephraim and you can find it on the Sperm Whale EP, if you can find a Sperm Whale EP. It's been out of print for a while now. Since the song is roughly 15 minutes long I can't post it on Youtube and it's too big for me to put on my Vimeo channel, so if you want to share it, you'll have to use the bookmark button or copy and paste a link to this post. Sorry.

Joe is a great guy and he's an incredible musician. He's been in just about every band you love, and a few you'll likely fall in love with soon. So do yourself a favor and grab a few of his albums... and one of his crazy cool medallions.

Pretty fresh.

You can peep a few more photos from that night in my Flickr stream.

Last night I went to see Belphegor, Warbringer, Exodus, & Kreator at the Hawthorne Theatre. As much as I dislike that venue, I had a really good time. I was lucky enough to get a free ticket from the undisputed coolest guy alive: Jeff Eliot. I got there too late to see Warbringer and I spent most of Belphegor's set in the bar bullshitting with folks. Exodus was really incredible though. I hadn't seen them since high school so I assumed they would have slowed down a bit. I was impressed. They were fast, technical, and fun. Kreator was great too. They were more than happy to give the full stadium metal show in a small venue. I also hadn't seen them in forever and all I can say is that they are even faster than I remember. I was able to shoot a pocket cam video of them playing a little number called Coma of Souls. I've posted it in my youtube channel in case you ever look at that. If not, here it goes now:

While their music was great, Mille's between song banter was priceless. His tenuous grasp on English diction and phrasing combined with his intense desire to be evil as fuck had me chuckling non-stop. I wish I would have had the presence of mind to record all the bits between songs, they were quite amusing. You can get a taste of it at the beginning of this video of Mille introducing Flag of Hate at the Wacken festival in Germany:

Good times.

Last night I went to see Thrones, Danava, Le Force, and Wildildlife at Berbati's. Danava was really good, LE Force was OK, Wildildlife was remarkably bad. Every one of their songs sounded like a throw away track from a 1980's Hawkwind album. Just terrible. The real highlight was Thrones. It's sort of a SunnO))) meets Melvins kind of sound cooked up by the inimitable Joe Preston. You can peep some photos from the show in my Flickr stream, but right now you can enjoy a few video snips from the show.

We went to see Buckethead at the Crystal this evening. It was pretty amazing. It was a dark show, so I didn't have too many photos that turned out well. Surprisingly, a few of the videos did. You can peep those after the jump.

An epic evening of rock. First, the coolest motherfucker alive hooked everyone up with free tickets to see The Sword, Down, & Metallica. The Sword was really incredible. It was cool to see that they were able to make the transition from clubs to arenas in no time and with no loss of excellence. Down, on the other hand, was a pretty big disappointment. Really, you'd think a band comprised of people from bands you really like would be extra awesome, but it just came across as tacky posturing. Metallica was hot and cold. lots of commercial hits, few old-school mini-epics. Lots of lasers and shit blowing up, but i would have happily traded it all for a really tight Creeping Death or Battery.

Luckily the show was over really early. Hal, Ward, and I had time to hop on the Max and get to the Satyricon just in time to see Torche rip it up. They completely slayed. Juan Montoya is a mind-blowing guitar player. It turns out that he's a really nice guy too. I'm really stoked that they are starting to get well known, they deserve it. I posted a bunch of photos and videos from both shows on flickr, but here are a couple you might like.

Fight Fire With Fire


Torche

When you need 750 watts per channel of crushing low end for your drone and doom needs, Ward at Monolith Loudspeakers can deliver. I stopped by the other night to have a look at what goes into it. 4 hours just to apply the tolex. Amazing.

So apparently I'm the Bobby Fischer of Tetris.

I think the only thing holding me back from tying the world record is apathy. It feels simultaneously awesome to have figured it out and kind of sad to know that it took me 23 years to do so.

So I've got a really big surprise for everyone for the entire month of September. I've got 30 chunks of audio guaranteed to confuse and disappoint even the most hearty of you. We'll discuss it further when it happens.

I'll be spending the weekend in the wilds of Paw Paw WV doing my best to reclaim the West Virginia Doubles title that Jake and I won a few years ago. I'm really looking forward to it, Great courses, nice folks, and the chance to spend some time with Jake and Nice Guy Jeff. I'll be sure to post all the photos as soon as I get back.

Alright, time to finish packing.

Coming home from Japan wasn't easy. I'm all jet lagged and sleepy but it's getting better. Hopefully I'll stop missing the people and places of Japan sometime soon. Here goes the last batch of photos. Feel free to check them all in their glorious hugeness in my flickr stream.