Music

Music bleg

/ hsoi

Lynyrd Skynyrd have a new album (to be released Sep. 29, 2009), “God & Guns” coming out. Check out the video for the first single, “Still Unbroken”. Supposedly you can listen to all the tracks this week here at CMT’s The Leak, but as of this writing it’s not working. “Still Unbroken” sounds pretty cool tho.

KISS has a new album coming out called “Sonic Boom”, much to the surprise of everyone that thought they were actually going to retire some 13 odd years ago on that first (of many) farewell tours… but to the surprise of no one that knows Gene Simmons likes to make money. 🙂  All the tracks are available for streaming. It’s really not that bad. It feels like a return to their 70’s albums, but certainly with a hint of the 80’s in it too. Really, one of the better albums they’ve put out.

Megadeth also has a new album, “Endgame” and you can stream the whole album on their MySpace page. I haven’t paid much attention to Megadeth the past some years, but this album rocks. Mustaine’s guitar playing is awesome. There’s rumor going around that “the big 4 of thrash” (Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer) might do a tour. You hear various things from various sources which makes it sound like yes it’s actually being talked about but no one wants to really say anything until all the details are worked out and the contracts are signed. It would be logistically interesting, and certainly an ego-filled endeavor. But hey, if Megadeth and Slayer can tour together these days, maybe it could work out. Anthrax would have to get their shit together, and hopefully Metallica wouldn’t feel a need to be the kings of the roost (they may be the most commercially successful, but like Slayer was ever commercial? And bands that have to go on either before or after Slayer always have a rough time). Still, if it was to happen, I’m sure lots of money could be made.

Sunday Metal – King Diamond

/ hsoi

Theatrics have always been a part of music, especially metal. Alice Cooper, KISS, GWAR, amongst others. Then there is King Diamond, known not just for putting on a show but also his frequent use of falsetto and penning concept albums sometimes having the story span multiple albums (e.g. “Them” and “Conspiracy”).

I’ve always wanted to see King Diamond live and almost had a chance to, but then King injured his back and has been on the shelf for a while. I hope he heals up and is able to be back on the road in full capacity soon.

Greedy much?

/ hsoi

Don’t get me wrong. I think money is just fine. If you can amass a giant mountain of it and sit atop it, more power to you.

But this is ridiculous.

#1 – some things come and go, but the music industry refuses to evolve, which might include parts of it are to die off.

#2 – they refuse to let market forces do what they do

#3 – their ideas are so bad they know they can’t sell anyone on them, so they turn to Congress to line pockets, call in favors, scratch backs, and get laws passed to stave off death and evolution as much as possible. Can’t get your way? Use the force of law. Bad idea.

#4 – To force payment for the 30 seconds? Fine. The solution is simple: Apple (and other retailers) stop offering the 30 second snippets. See what that does for your revenue stream.

The music industry is having a tough time only because the model is changing. Better is to go with the flow than to try to stem the tide… the rush of the water is too powerful.

Wither COC

/ hsoi

Corrosion of Conformity is one of my favorite bands. Their 2005 album, “In The Arms of God” I view as a masterpiece.

But that also demonstrates one problem. That was 4 years ago. What’s been going on?

Oh yeah… Down.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Down too. But Down isn’t COC, and COC isn’t Down. I don’t blame Pepper Keenan for working with Down, because they’re far more successful than COC ever was; man needs to make money and pay the bills. Pepper being one of the main songwriters for Down still means a lot of that Pepper J. Keenan lyrical and musical talent is still present. But still, I keep hoping that time will be taken off from Down and COC will be focused on.

I guess I shouldn’t hold my breath:

“It’s a real band now and not a side project,” guitarist Kirk Windstein told Rock Music Menu. “It’s everyone’s main focus and we’ve toured extensively, we’ve been to 27 countries in the last two years, started touring before the record came out, and played everywhere.”

“We’re kind of, for lack of a better term, taking it more serious because it is everybody’s main focus, and while we still do other things, it’s our real band now which it never really was in the past.”

I guess that means we won’t see another Crowbar album for a while either (it’s been 4 years there as well, tho Kirk was also doing Kingdom of Sorrow). *sigh*

Still, I don’t give up hope for another COC album. But if ITAOG ends up being their last, then at least they went out on a high note.

Meantime… I do wonder what Woody is up to.

Back to the stats

/ hsoi

And now, let’s delve back into the blog stats search terms….

the 3 things everyone should know

  1. Treat others like you want to be treated.
  2. Freedom is something we must give to others if we wish it for ourselves.
  3. Don’t eat the yellow snow.

muscovy duck shit

Yes they do, and in copious amounts.

how to shoot snub nose well

Practice. Get some training. Practice more.

is a ar rifle good for home defense

Yup.

opeth smokes what cigarettes

Why would you care about this, unless Mikael asked you to run down to the store and buy him a pack?

how fast can 9mm clip empty

Well that depends. First, find me a 9mm clip. Oh, you meant magazine. Gotcha. We might need to care about how many rounds are in it as I can sure empty 1 round faster than 10 faster than 20. Then we need to know by what means are you emptying it: using your fingers to shave rounds off the top, loading the magazine into the gun and shooting all the rounds. Or of course, the fastest way is to just get a cheap aftermarket Glock magazine, load it up, drop it on the floor, let the baseplate shatter and you’ll see really how quickly you can empty a 9mm magazine. 🙂

truth on shotgun spread

Yes, pellets fired from a shotgun do spread out. That’s the truth.

To really know how that spread works out, you’ll have to take a particular shotgun, with a particular choke, with a particular load, and go try it yourself. Set up some cardboard (large piece of it, 2′ to 3′ per side at least) against a good backstop. Step back to your desired distance to shoot from, then shoot. You’ll see how it spreads out… or more specifically, the pattern of how the load’s pellets disperse. This can vary from shotgun to shotgun, from choke to choke, from load to load. So really, the only way to know 100% how things will go is to check it yourself.

do you really need anything more than 9mm

Last time I made homemade ice cream, a gun didn’t help me at all…. I needed a lot of other things to accomplish that.

But if you mean for self-defense, 9mm with good modern self-defense loads works just fine. Caliber is important, but more important is shot placement. 9mm caliber bullets will do their job so long as you do your job.

is a buckshot rifle good for self defense

I didn’t know rifles could shoot buckshot.

how to use 3 dot sight

Don’t.

how to line up three dot sights

Again, don’t.

why are there three dots in my sight

Because someone was under the mistaken notion it was a good idea. If you can’t replace them with better sights, at least black out the dots on the rear sight.

can a 13 year old shoot a 9mm

Sure. Tori Nonaka handles one just fine. With proper technique and practice, they can certainly handle it.

Sunday Metal – Aerosmith

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

I wouldn’t say Aerosmith is a true metal band, but I would say that you cannot deny the foundational influence that Aerosmith had upon the bands that followed them. From the hard rockin’ blues style, to the legendary escapades of the Toxic Twins and crew backstage, they certainly helped to shape what was to become metal.

Updated: Ugh. Seems the video I had queued up was removed from YouTube.

But, here’s footage from The Midnight Special in 1974, performing “Train Kept a Rollin'”.

Sunday Metal – Loudness

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

I guess it was 8th grade? or maybe 9th… either way, I just remember riding on the school bus and always seeing this one kid with a proper 80’s metal hesher look, and without question his favorite t-shirt to wear was his Loudness “Thunder In The East” t-shirt. He wore that thing constantly. That was how I was introduced to the Japanese metal band, Loudness.

Akira Takasaki is an awesome guitar player.

Sunday Metal – Carnivore

/ hsoi

Before there was Type O Negative, there was Carnivore.

Three men, dressed up as if they were out of a Mad Max movie, in a post-nuclear apocalyptic New York City, and singing songs about the same. Brutal, unforgiving, unapologetic.

I remember when a friend of mine back in high school first played a tape for me. We had no idea who the band was, but we thought the songs were hilarious (no, we didn’t take it seriously, and neither should you) and the music was good. Later we came to learn it was Carnivore. While the band was short-lived, they left the mark, reforming now and again to play shows. Apparently there will be a new album in 2009.

Sunday Metal – Ugly Kid Joe

/ hsoi

Their name was a play on another band’s name, Pretty Boy Floyd. Ugly Kid Joe was also quite the opposite to PBF in every other way. While most people knew Ugly Kid Joe for songs such as “Everything About You” and their cover of Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s In The Cradle”, Ugly Kid Joe had rather a good metal sound. Tracks such as “Goddamn Devil”, “So Damn Cool“, “Don’t Go”, “Jesus Rode A Harley”, much of their later albums (especially “Menace To Sobriety”), quite heavy with just a hint of funky.

On the album recording of “Goddamn Devil”, Rob Halford provides guest vocals… hearing The Metal God screaching “I’m the Goddamn Devil!” is just awesome. 🙂