China fights back on Tibet

There’s a nice little war on Youtube regarding the current situation in Tibet. Here’s one of the main flashpoints, created by a Chinese-Australian:

I dare you to read through the mindboggling 141,770 comments (and counting)!

Fucking Champs – Flawless Victory

Here’s another live video–

the Fucking Champs — Flawless victory (12/31/05) live at the Bottom of the Hill! (from the album: The Fucking Champs – III )

For good measure, here’s Voivod playing Inner Combustion and Nothingface…

Jose Antonio Escobar–Awesome Chilean Classical Guitar Music

Wow, it’s like super melodic and complicated Chilean classical guitar…great stuff. Like Andres Segovia meets King Crimson, Captain Beefheart, and Bach.

Jose Antonio Escobar: Chilean Classical Guitar Music Podcast

Very beautiful and skillful stuff

Here’s his website

Here’s a more restrained piece:

Sesame Street Grindcore

There are some pretty sweet Sesame Street/Muppets death metal mashups floating around. Enjoy!

Drive Like Jehu–Hand Over Fist, Don Caballero–Slice Where You Live Like Pie, Germbox–Frankie Mayorga live videos!

Here are some more videos I posted on YouTube: 90s post-punk prog-rock goodness! Also see the Fucking Champs/C4AM95 video I posted above–Flawless Victory!

You should get Germbox’s Fraction of Exaggeration CD if you don’t have it–it’s amazing, sort of like Voivod’s Nothingface meets the Bastro and the Jesus Lizard and Drive Like Jehu.

Drive Like Jehu – Hand Over Fist – Al’s Bar

Don Caballero – Slice Where You Live Like Pie-Fireside Bowl

Germbox -Frankie Mayorga and unreleased intro

Compact Flourescent Lightbulbs and Mercury

CFLs…they save energy but can release the neurotoxin mercury if broken…unintended consequences???

The Bats, the Bees, and Apocalypse

Uh-oh…

the bees are dying off, and now bats are dying off too.

NY Times:

Bats Perish, and No One Knows Why

Lots of random theories abound–pesticides, cell phone and wireless internet signals confusing bees and bats, global warming, etc…

No bees and no bats…partial ecosystem collapse??? Who will pollinate the food, and who will keep away insect pests?

Bees Dying: Is it a Crisis or a Phase?

High Speed Dubbin–Prog Metal from Santa Rosa, CA

Here it is, I found this flier of the band High Speed Dubbin. Here’s the text:

“Averaging 21 years old in age, this Santa Rosa quintet’s hyper metal alternative rock are sonic assaults heavily influenced by the splendor of the cannabis revolution.

Their influences vary and cover bands like King Crimson, Rush, Bad Brains, Tool, and Primus. Chris Justin plays a five string lefty bass, Matt Hardwick, half Hawaiian and half Mascalero Apache, plays drums, Eric Carlson is the musical guitar prodigy and Eric Rosenbaum, a body piercer and tattooist, leads the attack with his throaty vocals. Their full length debut album is due for release in July with the band doing promotional touring in May and June, so watch for their show dates in your local paper. Look for their songs on the soon to be released St. Kilda compilation, Patron Saint of Pariahs.

1996 St. Kilda Records”

Looks like a Rob Hazelton exeutive produced the compilation, which didn’t have any High Speed Dubbin songs.
Okay, if you were in the band or are someone who knows anyone from the band, please leave a comment/e-mail me! I saw a great show they played at a co-op, Casa Zimbabwe, and heard a tape of a King Crimson cover they did, it was all very good!

Here’s a larger copy to preserve for posterity:

The Iraq War and Human Dignity

Ex-chief weapons inspector slams Iraq war as ‘tragedy’

” Writing in The Guardian on the five-year anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, Blix, who clashed with Washington in the run-up to the Iraq war, described the war as “a tragedy — for Iraq, for the US, for the UN, for truth and human dignity.””

“In his comment piece, he said the war was a “setback in the world’s efforts to develop legal restraints on the use of armed force between states” and added that in 2003, “Iraq was not a real or imminent threat to anybody.”

Blix wrote that had coalition troops not deposed Saddam, “he would, in all likelihood, have become another Kadhafi or Castro; an oppressor of his own people but no longer a threat to the world.””

Meshuggah – Obzen, Combustion and Voivod

Obzen–the soundtrack to floating abandoned in space (“Forgotten in Space”) , or the soundtrack to the construction of the Death Star. Like Voivod’s Nothingface on steroids. Seemingly impossibly, it’s like the best parts of Voivod, Fucking Champs, Tool, King Crimson, Godflesh, etc. Possibly the most sci-fi thing I’ve ever heard. This is heavy metal/prog metal…but the secret is that with all of the crazy polyrhythms, this is really dance music…

Meshuggah – Combustion (Couldn’t find a real video, this is a fan-play along, but is still great)

Meshuggah – Rational Gaze

Meshuggah guitarist and other drummer–medley

Their new album Obzen is very good. Some parts are as compelling to me as Voivod’s Nothingface. They’ve got lots more winding technical riffs than on some of their other stuff, as if they’ve taken in lots of Fucking Champs and Red and Larks Tongue era King Crimson and Voivod. The bass and incredible tight double bass-filled drumming especially remind me of a lot of the drumming in Voivod’s Nothingface album, as well as some of the discordant riffs, along with some Dimension Hatross, Killing Technology-like parts. Some of it is even like Voivod’s Phobos album.

Can’t wait to see Meshuggah on tour!

And yes, Voivod rule (for their seminal prog-metal/math-metal trilogy Killing Technology, Dimension Hatross, and Nothingface, as well as the 17-minute long prog opus “Jack Luminous”!!!

Obzen review, Decibel Magazine:

““This Spiteful Snake” doesn’t only nod to the stage name of Voivod’s frontman, but perhaps unsurprisingly recalls the Canadian legends as well, beginning as a perfect mid-point between Dimension Hätross and Nothingface, before slamming on the bass-brakes, to the point where you’re reminded more of Swans or Neurosis than anything within thrash metal’s legacy. “Pineal Optic Glands” continues the Voivod space-thrash mood, before “Pravus” explodes to bring this particular phase of the album to an end.”

To counterbalance all this harsh music you might want to listen to some oldies music!