Posts

Showing posts from October, 2016

�We Are X�: Soulful Documentary of Japanese Heavy Metal Band

Image
The band X Japan in the 1980s, as seen in the documentary "We Are X." Photo: Drafthouse Films As a kid, Yoshiki always wondered if he were from somewhere else � like Mars. A misfit child scarred by his father�s suicide, Yoshiki, trained in classical music, grew up to become a David Bowie -like man who fell to Earth. He revolutionized heavy metal music in Japan and, still going at 50, is trying to break into the American consciousness. Stephen Kijak �s documentary �We Are X� is a broad but surprisingly personal portrait of Yoshiki and his band, X Japan , which formed in 1982, broke up in 1997 and re-formed in 2007. The band began a push into the U.S. market about five years ago, and interviews include American friends and fans such as Kiss front man Gene Simmons and Marilyn Manson .  The film is a rush, all right, but it�s also a soulful look at Yoshiki, who although rarely without his dark glasses, still seems very revealing. He re

10 Questions with Ryan Clackner and Lucy Cochran of Stump Tail Dolly, from First Order Historians

Image
Read original post on First Order Historians Ryan Clackner and Lucy Cochran (sometimes separately, sometimes together) have toured, performed or recorded with Bob Wayne, Fifth on the Floor, Shooter Jennings, JD Wilkes, The Legendary Shack Shakers, Sarah Gayle Meech, Red Simpson, Travis Harris and many others. They�ve opened for Social Distortion, Tiger Army, Hank III, George Thorogood, Unknown Hinson, Roger Clyne, JJ Grey, Scott Biram and more. Ryan has appeared in multiple music videos, including �Hush Hush� by The Pistol Annies. The purpose of Stump Tail Dolly is to mess your head up with an off-center mix of metal and country with other influences snuck in for good measure. We are thrilled to have Ryan Clackner and Lucy Cochran of Stump Tail Dolly as our guest today in 10 questions. RM:  The first Stump Tail Dolly song I ever heard was �Billy�, and afterwards I sat there dumbfounded due to what I had just heard. Your music literally sounds like Waylon Jennings and Arche

The Art of Moving Tattoos!

Image
Have you ever imagined what an animated tattoo would look like? What if the black ink carved into your skin could suddenly materialize into a moving image? Well, say hello to   Ink Mapping, Video Mapping on Tattoos .  Portuguese video-mapping twins  Oskar & Gaspar , known for  projection mapping on the human face , brought the tattoos of artists  Eduardo Cavellucci  and  Igor Gama  to life in the first ever live tattoo video mapping event in Lisbon last year. They used a projector on human canvases to transform body art into dynamic spectacles. Using the models� tattoos as a base, Oskar & Gaspar build augmented labyrinthine visuals, from a black snake slithering up a model's� torso, to a manta ray floating across his thigh, to a mosaic mandala back tat spinning like a top. The video�s production team stressed that no post-production was used during the editing process of the short film, so the images you see below were all shot in live action. Check out some of their work b

The Politics of Punk Tracks Populist Protest Music Far and Wide

Image
DOA at Warehouse Live, 2014 In The Politics of Punk: Protests and Revolts From the Streets   (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers), Houston Press writer David Ensminger probes the conscience of punk by documenting its ongoing activism and outreach. Creating a people�s history of the movement's social, cultural, aesthetic and political life, the book features interviews with members of Dead Kennedys, Dead Boys, MDC, Really Red, Scream, Minutemen, TSOL, the Avengers and many more. In doing so, Ensminger highlights punk's community involvement and its broad, long support for political action groups, gays and lesbians, the homeless, the disabled, environmental issues, health research and other causes. Reprinted with permission of the publisher, the following excerpt is from the chapter "Undead Legacies." At the helm of D.O.A. since 1978, Joey Shithead � who told a fan at a recent stop in Houston that he wished to be even 10 percent as effective and productive

WhammyPhone is a Bendable Smartphone that Makes Music when Bent

Image
Flexible phones aren�t exactly a new concept as they have been seen in demonstration and prototype form several times. The last flexible smartphone that Slash Gear talked about was from Lenovo and the flexible phones it showed off were cool. Over at Queen�s University�s Human Media Lab some of the researchers have developed a device called the WhammyPhone. It�s being called the world�s first musical instrument for a flexible smartphone. The WhammyPhone allows users to bend the display and create sound effects as they bend it using a virtual instrument like a violin or a guitar. �WhammyPhone is a completely new way of interacting with sound using a smartphone.It allows for the kind of expressive input normally only seen in traditional musical instruments,� says Dr. Vertegaal, a researcher on the project. The screen of the WhammyPhone is a 1920 x 1080 Flexible Organic Light Emitting Diode or FOLED touchscreen. The screen shows keys that can be used to play sounds using sound s

Downloadable Flyers For Nashville Show Featuring Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

Image
What would Halloween be without a good mask. Be on the lookout around Nashville, TN for these flyers posted up by Stump Tail Dolly For their show with The Goddamn Gallows , Hillbilly Casino and Gallows Bound on 10.29 at the Exit / In. Click on images to download full size jpg file. Hillary Clinton show flyer cut out Halloween mask Donald Trump show flyer cut out Halloween mask

Mark Di Giuseppe's Stranierofono

Image
Since 1986, Mark Di Giuseppe-"The Legendary Straniero", has been thrilling audiences around the world with his unusual inventions and music. Born in Chicago and now based in Italy, Mark has travelled to many countries and borrowed from many cultures. His musical styles range from Jazz to Rock to Classical to Folk to Reggae to Punk. He sings in English, Italian, Neapolitan, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish, Russian, Portuguese and Rom (Gypsy). In the show Mark sometimes not only changes musical styles, but his physical appearance thanks to a large selection of comical masks, wigs and props In this video, he is performing "Dancing With the Bride" on his legendary invention. His instruments are his own inventions. Nowhere else can you find instruments like "The 1 Man Bandit", (the classic "on the back" type one man band taken to the extreme, and miniaturized featuring amazing digital effects to create vocal harmonies from just one voice, a voc

Drywall Art Sculpture

Image
This video features Bernie Mitchell from www.drywallnation.com Bernie is an artist who takes a very unique approach towards his work using only drywall compounds to create wonderful works of art. Bernie started a simple form of relief in the early 1990s. In his profession as a drywall finisher, he was experimenting with raised panels on wall surfaces where natural light had a positive effect as a relief form. Then he began using items such as wheat and barley stalks to leave impressions in the wet joint compound, and his experience with large pictorial carvings in leather led him to applying the same ideas as wall relief. Today, Bernie is a drywall contractor and he puts his creativity to work designing, constructing, sculpting and finishing specialty features in shoreline homes and cottages. He prefers to use birds as his main subjects � blue heron, osprey and loons � but he also enjoys sculpting horses, wolves and dogs. This website was established so Bernie could teach

The Trailer for L7: Pretend We�re Dead Brings the Punk Rock

Image
Even among the grunge-punk bands of the late �80s/early �90s, there was something foot-stompingly primal about L7. The band�s music was fuzzed-out, four-on-the-floor rock that didn�t earn the sobriquet �heavy� so much as prove why the term should be applied to music in the first place. People didn�t go to L7 shows for Rush-style technical wizardry; fans were there for the raw three-chord churn of distorted mayhem. And, as the trailer for a new documentary, L7: Pretend We�re Dead , reminds us, it kicked ass. After reuniting in 2014 following a nearly 15-year hiatus, director Sarah Price ( The Yes Men ) has put together a portrayal of the avowedly feminist group, culling more than 100 hours of archival footage and pairing it with new interviews to create a document of one of the grunge era�s most iconic bands. From the early days in California to single-handedly creating Rock For Choice, the band�s members have had a far-reaching influence beyond their music. Launched via a K

Buzzoven, Set To Release Violent Hits CD on November 4th

Image
Buzzoven, Set To Release Violent Hits CD on November 4th Buzzoven are releasing their latest collection of Violent Hits on cd and digital format November 4th. This album is a collection of their tracks, that is repackaged and featuring art from Christopher Parry / Sinister Illustration. Order the album now 1. Intro 2. To A Frown 3. Splinter My Eye 4. Drained 5. Toe Fry 6. Paintake 7. Vagabond 8. Mainline 9. At A Loss 10. Kakkilla 11. Crawl Away 12. Whiskey Fit 13. Symptom 14. Locked Up 15. Junkie 16. Red/Green Featuring Bonus Hidden Tracks Buzzoven, Set To Release Violent Hits CD on November 4th Buzzoven, Set To Release Violent Hits CD on November 4th

Harley Exhaust Pipes Change Colour

Image
Heat reactive, and heat resistant compound, that allows you to apply THERMOX paints to super hot items like brake calipers, turbo housings and exhaust systems. See more about thermo heat reactive paints at http://www.thermox.com.au

�All Things Hard, Harsh & Heavy� - Show Listings, on the HEAVIER Side, Throughout North Carolina

Music ranging from punk to hardcore, metal to metalcore, grind to doom, and goth to industrial! This is a list of all shows and events across NC, spanning from Wilmington to Asheville! Oct 02 -Russian Circles, Helms Alee / Motorco(D)             -Skankfest Sunday Matinee: Regatta 69, Konrad Kuechenmeister, The Spectacles, High & Mighties,              SiBANNAC / Cat�s Cradle(CH/C)             - Blind Path Booking presents: Fall River Massacre, Filth, Lordis, Hounds, Sustenance, From Wrath To Ruins              / The DHP(F)             - Crank It Loud presents: Alestorm, Nekrogoblikon, Aether Realm / Arizona Pete�s(G)             -Coheed and Cambria, Saves the Day, Polyphia / The Orange Peel(A) Oct 03 -Saint Vitus, The Skull, Witch Mountain, Demon Eye / Kings Barcade(R)             - Crank It Loud presents �To Hell With the Devil 30 th Anniversary� tour: Stryper / The Throne Theater(W)             - 5&10 Entertainment presents: Sevendust( rescheduled show ), Crobot, AuxiliA