A New Punk-Grunge Legacy

View at 2:07 Lighton Beezer of The Thrown-Ups schools us on Punk and Grunge (by the way Hype! is a wonderful documentary on Seattle History).

It is often stated the Modernest movement died when Pollack died in 1956 in an alcoholic induced car collision with a white picket fence.  I remember thinking punk died in 1994 when Green Day performed at the resurrection of Woodstock. Eddie Vedder announced the death of Grunge in 2000 after seeing 70's pop teen idol Leif Garrett perform with Kurt Cobain's favorite band the Melvins a cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit.


We all have seen the pop culture establishment be taken and then mutate cultist purities as they assimilate them into capitalist conglomerate establishments for the broader market consumption.  In this case it rendered punk rock without its anti-establishment powers and grunge (a product of punk and metal) was left without its "whatever" ironic apathy.  So we are left with albums, bootlegs, t-shirts, you tube, reunion tours and memories.  We all walked away with this mind set that the scene is dead, the industry has taken and spit, polished and packaged our identity, that new "punk" band is a carbon copy at best and doesn't get it at worst. 


Perhaps though, there is a lasting imprint on the musical landscape that has lead to a current feel in the new underground scene.  Something just as edgy, with just as much dignity.  Something that is current and undefinable, but unmistakeably takes a quality from these memories.



Josh Homme and his many projects clearly have maintained the vibe, with a clear influence from the landscape of his western desert roots.



Another California ensemble, Hella, has taken the ball and blown it apart while swinging for the fences.



Tobacco is just one example of a marriage made in controlled chaos when you place punk and grunge aesthetics in a electronica groove.





Baroness birthed out of the humidity and seduction in Savannah, plays to the metal origins and the sympathetic line that Homme took post Grunge.


Some of this lasting landscape change may also be maintained by aesthetically like minded jazz influences initiated during the Post Modernist inception John Cage, and influenced by Mikes Davis, and maintained by John Zorn and friends currently.


The current state of the Rock Underground: While Indy rock has experienced a Phoenix effect highlighted by Pixies reunion tour.  Ska survived a scare in the 90's, but it is still no shame to be a Fishbone soldier.  Like Ska and Indy, despite Korn and Limp Biskit with FNM's reunion tour that undefinable Hip/Hop.Metal/Funk/Clown thing is still going strong.  Mod seems to be best at passing the mic with Morissy and the Cure acting like the Stones and bands like Interpol improving on their predecessors.  Hardcore will always be, as long as Rollins, Biafra, Exain and Buzz Osborn are walking. But Punk has been to embedded in the mainstream.  And sorry Vedder and Cornell, I would take a Cobain resurrection to recuperate Grunge.


Nevertheless, you can find a reverberant throughout the musical landscape...once you put your head to the ground.

Why I can't say I don't like Country Music!

My introduction to Country came through the two most unlikely vessels, my Jewish Rock ‘n Roll and Motown loving father and my love for comics.  Without the blues and country (folk, bluegrass) we would not have Rock ‘n Roll.  Now Chicago is a home for the blues (and my dad is from there).  Comics also have maintained a close connection with the blues (for common artistic historical paths in American culture) through the testament of Robert Cumb, Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes.  I certainly could have circled back through my introduction to noise in Post Modernist Art History class (via John Cage), or through John Zorn via Mike Patton (my biggest musical history vestal).  The obvious introduction would have been seeing who influenced Buddy Holly, one of my first musical memories, let alone the Beatles.  Skipped over was the most likely, my family history in Okalahoma, Texas and Georgia.  There was no mention of country music in these family dynamics, despite being one generation from growing up in Normand.  I would even say that my seven years living in Savannah, did little to inform me, it was a year or so earlier watching Crumb the documentary that opened me up to the Blues and then Country…well sort of.  My dad had exposed me to Johnny Winter (covering Bob Dylan) and Michelle Shocked (one of the over played tapes in commutes across the Bay).  I recognized Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams I as part of the background sound at my Oklahoman grandparents house.

But the big influences that have created my country and blues aesthetics, my foundation is currently in the music of Robert Johnson (my dad tried on this one), Skip James (Dan Clowes’s Ghost World) and Memphis Minnie (some light digging), Johnny Cash (despite their issues with comics creators), Johnny Cash (Walk the Line helped), Hank Williams (Hank III and the Melvin’s lead me here) and Patsy Cline (Natural Born Killers), Billy Holliday (she has been a staple for a long time) and yes Buddy Holly (who has always been there for me).

So why do I still struggle with defending country and blues, with the foundation finally being solid.  Well have you listened to what passes for country these days…what has made Country “popular.”  Rock has its own problems, but Country has it even worse.  Although, my daughter Savannah, loves it…but she is 2, she loves to dance, its accessible, its fun and she is so cute it melts my stone cold hart when we go to the Texas Road House.

So whatever happened to country music “I could love,” is that dream dead.  Heck no.  As with all good underground, fringe, quality music…it aren’t happening in the corporate tower.  There is a quite revolution.  So after Buddy Holly, did anything new come around worth listening to from those earlier influences of blues and country.  Has there been evolution or has it all been poor carbon copies and over produced hacks.

 
Here are seven to consider:

 Tom Waits is not Country music, but despite a heavy influence in urban and alternative culture, it is the Blues.  Now there are many more that can speak to the man and the music, so I will be brief.  Simply no one quite performs like he does and none of his cotemporaries embodies the Blues more so.  For those two reasons and his broad influence in my lifetime I would be remise in not mentioning him as a highlight and perhaps the most recognizable on this list.  







Michelle Shocked as previously mentioned was one that was on my fathers radar.  I can’t even begin to explain why.  My dad was the authority on cool music growing up until he went through a strange faze.  A combination of tapes became regular circulation in the commute from my Mom’s house to his across the Bay Area.  None were disastrous on their own.  But the combination made you wonder what had happened to the man who preached the Beatles, Neil Young, The Zombies and Motown. We had The Fine Young Cannibals, ZZ Top, Robert Cray and Michelle Shocked.  It was just odd.  Her strait forward Texas country music was balanced by an alternative leaning progressive activism, that worked for these Berkeley ears.  There was a naivety on my part to perceived a paradox, that as I age seems less real.  Her work  
still stands up as accessible, not over produced and honest country music.


House of Freaks are not really a country band, but they are folks music with a strong 80’s alternative foundation with stories that seem strait out of To Kill a Mocking Bird.  Knowing people from Richmond now I can see how this coalesced.  But when I was giving this demo tape along with a demo of Black Sabbaths Eternal Idol and demo by a band called The Name (not the European one…and if anyone knows how to get this let me know) by my step uncle (who I am still pulling for as he faces some tragic health issues this year), it was ironically the closest to my tastes at the time (see 80’s alternative).  When I play this album it brings worlds colliding for me, but it is really just a solid American music album with a great story in each song.

 Dieslhed is the easiest for me to explain.  I am from northern California, they are from Northern California (Eureka, along with Mr. Bungle).  The drummer is from my favorite band (Mr. Bungle…which features my only true obsession…Mike Patton).  So just like John Zorn it was inevitable that I come across it, and make the effort to try it.  The thing is though, partly because I have connections to mountain towns in California, VT and Colorado and partly because of my strong foundation in Blues and Country, this is the perfect country music to me.  The brilliant song writing, the strait forward content, the ironic fun stories (very Northern Californian), the strong percussion, the bare it all guitar and that perfect voice…well I just love it more then any other on this list.

Like Dieslhed, Mike Patton is to blame for Hank III (although if I had been paying closer attention in Savannah I would have made the connection…plus there is the Melvin’s, Helmet ect…)  Basically Hank Williams III is a good as his Dad is bad for country…and his dad knows it.  He channels his grandfather for the first half of his set and then channels Slayer for the second.  There is not much more authentically metal or country out there in the south.

Lucky Stars is purely a Mike Patton find (they were on his label and I saw them open up for Kid 606 and Melvins Fantomas Big Band).  You should have seen how these Southern California’s turned the harts and minds of these San Francisco Hardcore, Metal, Punk, Electronics, Experimental, Noise, Grunge fans…they soothed us into submission with their southern California charm.  No other band out there sounds more Tennessee produced then these LA kids.  You could see them on tour with Hank, Johnny and Patsy, but then the lyrics type their hand.

 Anyone knowledgeable about the history of Punk Rock and hardcore in the 1970’s and 80’s is aware of the strange influence Buddy Holly and Rock ‘a Billy had on it, via John Doe and the band X.  Now you can go back and find songs written and performed by John and Exaine that fit precisely this country model.  But just recently John Doe came out of the shadows accompanied by the Canadian band the Sadies (who come with their own strong Canadian country music roots) and they have produced a polished country music that I can actually tolerate.  In fact, I like it.  I would say the punk rock and the rock ‘a billy street cred gives them the pass, but it maybe my ageing mind that has helped me enjoy them.  I am here merely to mention, this may be another evolutionary step in the right direction.

Pixies and the State of Fasion Part II of II

We walked out of the W, turned right, went across the street and into the Wang Theater.  The ornate classic city theater is actually impressive.  The juxtaposition of the environment that catalysts this moment 20 years ago with this arrival are somehow fitting.  The high sealing was accompanied by an appropriate sound track of looped sequence.  All music fitting for influencing the Pixies.  The crowed was diverse, which made for interesting seating arraignments (seating being the only issue that night).  Erin and I were sandwiched between; sell out drunk frat boys (that may have been trying to regain shreds of their progressive childhood) and two snotty music shique girls dressed in black.  I only mention theme, because they were equally annoying from opposite ends of the spectrum.  One two drunk to participate (or add your DK euphemism) and one two cool for school.  Who knows what they thought of us.  The diversity in all its cross-sections were present and really spoke to the amount of influence the Pixies had grown over the decades.  The opening act was preformed by the obtusely enthused Rain Machine (side project for one of TV on the Radio band members…you might recognize their songs Wolf Like Me and DLZ, two of my favorites from the last 5 years).  The girls next to us were quite rude about what was an amazing moment for Rain Machine… which basically started off with potential and then never left the ground with dorky luster, but no reason not to be happy for them.

20 years ago in this area of Boston, in some dank space the Pixies recorded Doolittle their junior effort.  The thing about the Pixies is that their best album depends on when you entered into the mix (for me it has been hard to shake my Bossanova bias).  However, Doolittle while it may not have my favorite songs (see Surfer Rosa), it is arguably the most solid start to finish album. With the B-Sides added in (much better live then on the recording) the show was not missing much, but just in case they still snuck in Where is My Mind? (from Surfer Rosa) in the end.  It was the ultimate in Fight Club and it was the ultimate in person.  Add in some amazing videography that conceptualized the albums themes in an eye opening way, you almost didn’t need the band there to have an amazing performing arts experience.  Then again, these are some of the world’s best stage performers (yeah I know, you wouldn’t think it looking at them…but trust me, they are).  It was absolutely a special anniversary experience, with historical context that elevated the moment.  It was wonderful having Kim Deal play bass and curator.  For Erin and I as parents and Vermonters we do not get to experience these types of events like we have in our youth, so it was really wonderful to be there and to have everything go so well, with such convenience.

The show ended and we left with the massive crowed.  Out front were a fire truck and two ambulances.  As we noticed this, a man on a gurney was being ushered through past us.  Too much show, I guess.  Just after that was an 8 foot green figure strapped to the back of pick up (he couldn’t have fit in the ambulance)…it was the Hulk.  We waived our way through stalled traffic and pasted the long line waiting to get into the W’s electric dance bar.  We were laughing at this point (at the Hulk and the line to get into the W, not at the man on gurney).  These drunk “girls” dressed ridiculously entered the elevator along with us and another “older couple.”  They were piping the DJ into the elevator.  The girls got off and the four of us laughed.  I commented that we had a bar in our rooms.  We could pull some drinks in the elevator instead of paying and standing in line down stairs…but hay we were all to old to pull off such a spontaneous idea.  Therefore, Erin and I had a good night instead.

The Media Arts Hights of this 21st Century's First Decade

The first Decade of the 21st Century was SO 21st Century.  While this dismal decade stood in stark contrast to the roaring '90's it improved in one small area.  The Aesthetics, Form, and Function of arts and popular culture.  The cyclical point of art brought us a less ambiguous next step after Post-Modernism.  While no broad term has stuck, I would define it as a nostalgic collage of juxtaposed and mashed pieces that serve a narrative.  Which reflect post-modernist sentiment with a reduction in resurrection and experimentation; so what comics have been doing all along. This increase in quality is as much a reflection on the 90's, as being perpetuated by dogged corporate and political misreading, the narcissism generation, and a culmination of unprecedented events almost entirely to blame on poor planning and slow policy change.

Without consuming everything and with my own beaten path, the following are what I would call the highlights of Media Arts of this the first decade of the 21st Century.  There are a number of easy explanations for art not seen here...I did not see it.  Nevertheless, there is plenty scrutinizing opportunities available.  So, let the fun begin.

Note: the bold items are from 2009 (some include other years).

1.    Big Book of Frank, Jim Woodring (comic)
2.    The Acme Novelty Library, Chris Ware (comic)
3.    Queens Of The Stone Age-Rated R (album)
4.    Love & Rockets, Los Hernandez Bro. (comic)
5.    The Venture Bros. (tv)
6.    Eightball: The Death Ray, Ice Haven, and David Boring by Daniel Clowes (comic)
7.    Lost in Translation (film)
8.    Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics, and the Social Life of Art by Kerry Freedman (text)
9.    Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli (comic)
10.    Eagles Of Death Metal-Peace Love Death Metal (album)
11.    The Royal Tenenbaums (film)
12.    iPod/iPhone (tec)
13.    Takashi Murakami ("fine art")
14.    Jason’s Hey Wait!, Why are you Doing This?, I Killed Adolf Hitler (comic)
15.    Pixar (films)
16.    Shag ("fine art")
17.    Freaks and Geeks (tv)
18.    The Daily Show with John Stewart (tv)
19.    Mad Men (tv)
20.    The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (novel)
21.    Mario Galaxy (video game)
22.    The Complete Calvin and Hobbs-Bill Watterson (comic)
23.    From the Lower East Side to Hollywood: Jews in American Popular Culture by Paul Buhle (text)
24.    The Comics Journal (magazine)
25.    White with Foam, Mad Love (album)
26.    Optic Nerve, Adrian Tomine (comic)
27.    The Cheese Monkey-Chip Kidd (novel)
28.    Krazy & Ignatz, George Herriman (comic)
29.    Interpol-Our Love to Admire (album)
30.    Facebook (tec)
31.    Pixies (Live Music)
32.    Humbug, Harvey Kurtzman et al. (comic)
33.    Juno (film)
34.    DC: The New Frontier, Darwyn Cooke (comic)
35.    America’s Best Comics-Edited by Matt Madden and Jessica Able (comic)
36.    An Inconvenient Truth (film)
37.    Ghost World (film)
38.    Carnival (tv)
39.    Sabra Fields ("fine art")
40.    McSweeny’s Quarterly No. 13 –Edited by Chris Ware (comic)
41.    Blackalicious-Blazing Arrow (album)
42.    Elf (film)
43.    Justice League Unlimited (tv)
44.    Cirque De Sole (live performance)
45.    Wii (tec)
46.    Robert C. Jackson ("fine art")
47.    Tom Strong, Alan Moore & Chris Sprouse (comic)
48.    It's Blitz!, Yeah Yeah Yeahs (album)
49.    Weeds (tv)
50.    Fantômas-The Director's Cut (album)
51.    System Of A Down-Toxicity (album)
52.    NPR (radio)
53.    Tomahawk-Tomahawk (album)
54.    Lord of the Rings (films)
55.    MSNBC (tv)
56.    Dan in Real Life (film)
57.    Whip It! (film)
58.    Judd Apatow’s Films (films)
59.    The Complete Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz (comic)
60.    Spider-Man II (films)
61.    Jack Cole and Plastic Man –Art Spiegleman and Chipp Kidd (text)
62.    Dillinger Escape Plan-Irony Is A Dead Scene (album)
63.    O’Brother, Where Art Thou? (film)
64.    Simpsons (tv/film)
65.    Orbital-The Altogether (album)
66.    Lost (tv)
67.    Iron Man(film)
68.    Promethea, Alan Moore & J. H. Williams III (comic)
69.    Thursday Comedy Primetime on NBC (tv)
70.    X-Men II (film)
71.    Battlestar Galactica (tv)
72.    Everything is Illuminated (film)
73.    The Family Stone (film)
74.    The Great Women Cartoonists-Trina Robbins (text)
75.    Shepherd Farley ("fine art")
76.    Fair Weather, Joe Matt (comic)
77.    Gorillaz-Demon Days (album)
78.    Star Trek (film)
79.    George Sprott, 1894-1975, Seth (comic)
80.    Sponge Bob Square Pants (tv)
81.    Secret Chiefs 3-Book Of Horizons (album)
82.    Big Love (tv)
83.    Little Miss Sunshine (film)
84.    The Fog of War (film)
85.    Hellboy (film)
86.    Fantomas-Melvin’s Big Band(Patton), Kid 606, Lucky Stars (live performance)
87.    Doubt (film)
88.    The Authority, Warren Ellis & Bryan Hitch (comic)
89.    Milk (film)
90.    The Powerpuff Girls (tv)
91.    Avengers Forever, Kurt Busiek, Roger Sternand & Carlos Pacheco (comic)
92.    V for Vendetta (film)
93.    The Golem’s Mighty Swing, James Sturm (comic)
94.    Stranger then Fiction (film)
95.    Firecraker (film)
96.    Bjork, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s (live performance)
97.    Roketo (comic)
98.    SNL (tv)
99.    That ‘70’s Show (tv)
100.   Munich (film)

Them Crooked Vultures

Yet again another “supergroup.” Them Crooked Vultures unlike resent incarnations are just that, even if the album doesn’t quite get there. It is under normal standers an excellent album. Nevertheless, under ridicules expectations or pessimism it struggles slightly.

I would side Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Probot, Queens of the Stone Age), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Eagles of Death Metal) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin)’s little project on the side of supergroup history with the likes of A Perfect Circle, perhaps not Tomahawk, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Fantomas or Cream. Well ahead of Temple of the Dog, Audioslave, Peeping Tom, Ozzy Ozborn and The Dead Weather. Thankfully not with the likes of Bad Company, Bad English, Journey (Don’t Stop Believing…aside), Don Dokken, Damn Yankees, Velvet Revolver, Oysterhead and perhaps the worst ever…Chickenfoot.

I would note that the album graphic design is top rate and builds an iconography deserving of this class. While the album certainly is dominated by the aesthetics Grohl and Homme created with QOTSA’s Songs for the Deaf there is hints of strangely a Cream or a Rolling Stones feel…not necessarily a Zepplin one with Jones presence. The harmonizing falls either in classic QOTSA or a Cream sound. The additional touches sometimes feel Stones. Over all this is a solid contemporary rock album that you would expect from these three. It is nuanced yet drives. It would make for a great show…I may have to ad them to the bucket list.

Review: MadLove's Debut

On second listening MadLove grows wings. This year to date has produced only two albums worth your verge of economic collapse dollar, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ It’s Blitz! and MadLove’s White With Foam. It is only coincidence that these two albums are similarly influenced. The previous albums of this past decade that have lived up to this hype are as diverse as: The Melvins, Stereolab (2008), Norther State, Spandex Tiger, Queens of the Stone Age, Battles, Fishbone, Fiest, Imperial Teen, Goon Moon (2007), Wolfmother, Mars Volta, Narlse Barkely (2006), System of a Down, Gorillaz, QOTSA, Hella (2005), Jill Scott, Eagles of Death Metal (2004), Darkness, The Strokes (2003), Dillinger Escape Plan, Balckalicious, QOTSA (2002) Tomahawk, John Zorn, Fantomas, Orbital (2001), Pantera, Aisler Set and QOTSA (2000). Anyway, MadLove lives in the aesthetic of its contemporaries like Interpol, The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, Blond Redheads, Elysian Fields and Bjork. As well of course, pulling from their influences The Cure, The Smiths, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees ect…it is the aesthetic that appeals to me most among rock sensibilities. White With Foam boasts five “five star” tracks (Rats With Wings, Thread, Absence & Noise, Left With Nothing and All the Nerve Endings), but I would still characterize the entire album as sitting in a solid rock pocket. While never grabbing you and thrashing you around with a hook that lives on to tease you with that damn song you can’t get out of your head. MadLove founder Trevor Dunn is the unsung foundation of most previous projects he has been a part of. As a drummer I assume he is a bassists bassist. He does not live in the stratosphere of Jack Bruce or Les Claypool. He is not my favorite kind of bassist (female…hay there is just something hot about a girl with a bass), so he is no Jone Stebbins, Alicia Vanden Heuvel or Kim Deal. But he is Mike Patton’s favorite and he is likely the bassist I have seen most live as a member of Mr. Bungle, Fanotmas and his own jazz trio Trevor Dunn’s Trio Convalescent. He has also played with genius John Zorn, so he is certainly always in good company. He really is the Clark Kent (mild mannered, but still super) on stage. This all feeds into the characterization of this new album. Don’t let the glasses fool you. He has assembled an international mix of underexposed talent. Lead vocalist Sunny Kim (South Korea) has qualities that hark of Bjork, Jennifer Charles, Karen O and a female Paul Banks…of course. Hilmar Jansson’s (Iceland) guitar is at times under stated, straightforward and at other times captures subtly contemporary jazz experimentation, truly though it is just solid rock guitar like again Paul Banks. Ches Smith comes with the same sort of Jazz background as Dunn, but plays in the pocket just as Dunn does on this album. At times Dunn and Kim exchange vocal roles and the result is more Kim Deal and Francis Black (Pixies) then John Doe and Xaine (X). But really it is neither, both just sit in that pocket. In the iTunes days of play lists and the post mix tape world this album reminds you of the joy of listeing to an album all the way through.

John Zorn : The Crucible

If you come across this without the prerequisite appreciation; if not love for free jazz (miles davis), noise (john cole) and metal (black sabbath) then you will arrive with an aliens perspective, likely repulsed. This is not an album I would freely play in my home; my family would not appreciate these elements in combination. As Mike Patton’s free jazz vocal solo emerges in the midst of the first track Almadel I finally began to see where Mike Patton is headed with these collaborations of late with John Zorn and company. I am quite sure he has not reached the result, but now I can see the journey bears fruit. There have been great highlights surrounded by curiousness in their collaborations in the past (Mr.Bungle’s first album, Pranzo Oltranzista, Elegy’s third track, Great Jewish Music Series, Ennio Morricone’s The Ballad of Hank McCain, to name most of the great). As of late, they have been on a journey mixing the basest worlds that Zorn and Patton emerge from, worlds invented by John Cage and Black Sabbath. However, in the projects like Moonchild and Astronome there has been an antithesis to palatable, something that in my opinion each artist needs to keep the audience engaged in the process of pushing boundaries. I often in the most accessible of Patton and Zorn’s work am left defending its genius to others. In the previously mentioned projects I have found myself questioning as others certainly would…what is this crap. The Crucible is the pay off or at least the beginning of it.

This process and success would not have been achieved without trusted and tried partners to go down this path. Zorn relied on longtime collaborators drummer Joey Baron and guitarist Marc Ribot. Basest Trever Dunn who has collaborated with Zorn and is an accomplished free jazz composer adds a special connection with his life long friend and metal & anti-genre collaborator Patton.

In Almadel the album explodes in a beginning that is structured much like some of Zorn’s best Masada pieces with catchy nuanced harmonized palatable Jewish bookends.

Shapeshifting brings with it garage rock fused chaos. Dunn’s base pounds while Patton builds the influence of both the Tasmanian Devil and Yamatsuka Eye with a control that persist through the album. Baron’s cymbal work builds with equal parts jazz technician and rock force.

Where Mr. Bungle left off with The Bends, Maleficia continues with an eerie whisper that shows you the inside of Patton’s mouth while Zorn’s sax echoes through high through the allies between skyscrapers.

Ribot takes over in 9x9 with a blues based clearly and admittedly, zeppelin grove that is sandwiched between two other rock influences of different eras, that escapes me. His solo is superiorly executed “real” rock blues. The song almost gives permission to the exclusivity of the underground to explore and enjoy the over exposed in rock. A gift Patton gives often in lighthearted covers, but it is unusual to find it on projects of Zorn’s outside of Naked City.

The sax and vocal harmony remerges in Hobgoblin a free jazz influenced track that highlights the best of Baron’s cymbal work. In this song, the onslaught has time to breath in classic jazz posses where the cymbals settle into the abyss. A surprising perhaps subconscious display of Patton’s post Mr. Bungle and Faith No More carrier comes through as you hear reference to the vocal works of Rahzel and Dokaka.
Dunn provides a slow relentless base grove that could be mistaken for a Obituary or Suzie and The Banshees song in Incubi feeds into Yoko Kanno like city night sax playground for Zorn and company.

The espionage soundtrack kicks it up a notch in Witchfinder a hesitant journey with metal rhythm and Yamatsuka Eye desert drive grove. This is just a flat out fun rock track.


The Crucible comes full circle with Initiate where summations of elements converge to build a hard driving chaos with wispy night sax and cymbal accents. Patton and Zorn crescendo and then like Wyle Coyote fall off a cliff rapidly with the enthusiasm of Taz into an even deeper abyss of echoing sound. Only to clime as steady and steep pace that exceeds any heights previously created with Patton’s voice and Zorn’s sax. It plays right back into the explosion that began the album.

The packaging while appropriate and to the point seems to play to close to the cliché of Japanese influenced American Horror films of the past few years…or maybe I am reading to much into it. I just hate those films and the previews even more. It is a black and white photo of a smoldering crucible…what’s wrong with that. I am usually underwhelmed with Zorn’s packaging, unlike Patton run projects.

I digress.

As time passes, Patton has begun to hint that he is slowing down and his tour schedule seems to play this out. Should there ever be a performance of this album live I would suggest it is a not to be missed event. It will likely play 12 times in Europe and twice in the US (NYC and SF) if I were to guess. Not because it is the greatest album, but because what Zorn and Patton do with a descent records when played live can be unbelievable.