Now I'm just bored and its real late.

So here are some youtube videos of all of the metal bands that 4 of my friends in Pittsburgh, who are totally not into metal (favorite bands include Van Morrison, The National, Les Savy Fav, The Minutemen, The Kinks (other bands I'm into outside of metal/hardcore), etc.), are into (who somehow came across these bands by themselves, even though they are some of my favorite metal (and black metal at that) bands). Melodies are real good at all times, with the exception of Krallice who sometimes go into super angular/mathy/jazz-via-metal-over-drive (due to their lead guitarist's history in bands like Crom-Tech and Orthrelm)... although ya'll probably won't like the vocals. Still, it strikes me as strange that my best friends in Pittsburgh, who are mostly all against any metal or hardcore of any kind, like these bands without me having told them about them, so I figured I might try to at least show you guys what the word on the other side of the old-school rock/contemporary rock/indie realm is about (totally not meant to be derogatory - you know me, I listen to all kinds of lame (i.e A-Ha, Depeche Mode, etc...) music).


Wilby, I tried to find some videos of a band called Dark Storm for their drummer, but Youtube has failed me this one time. Aside from Hella, I haven't heard such a multi-faceted drummer as Hella, or Isis, or (as I know you really like, and as musicians anyway, I really respect (even if I'm not so into their music)) Coheed's as this guy from Dark Storm - his drumming, and especially pace, are absolutely out of this world. Anyway, at least try to enjoy what I'm throwing up. Not expecting it, though...

Wolves In the Throne Room - Vastness and Sorrow - From Olympia, WA
* Nick, you might like these guys at least philosophically due to their involvement with various different agriculture movements (mostly leftist). They live on their own 100+ acres of farm land, growing their own food and trying to use as little natural resources as possible - hence their constant canceling (aside from the roadburn festival in Holland) of shows outside of their state, and also hence their monthly shows on their own property (in the middle of the woods, with a bonfire and all).


Nachtmystium - Assassins - From Wheaton, IL
* Maybe the most appealing to those not really into metal as they have draw some pretty serious influence from the 60's and 70's psyche rock bands (Pink Flloyd at the top of that list, in more than sound only). This is the band that all of the dudes I know agree on liking.


Krallice 0 Wretched Wisdom - From NYc, NY
* These guys are at once the most listenable (as in, in the vein of Weakling - a pretty melodic Black Metal band) and also the most avant/challenging (as in their lead guitarist's participation in bands like Crom-Tech and Orthrelm) black metal band from America.


P.S. Wolves in the Throne Room have on their 3 (well, 2 released and 1 upcoming) albums a woman from some LA hardcore band that I can't find any info about whose voice is phenomenal. On their 2 released albums, there are 4 tracks a piece, and on 2 tracks of those 4 this woman sings opera-quality vocals - real beautiful stuff. That juxtaposed against their incredibly atmospheric music is possibly one of the best things I've heard vocals vs. music stuff wise since I started listening to Magma (who I think destroys King Crimson (even though King Crimson kicks some serious ass))... Its so good that sometimes I go to bed to the tracks she sings on of Wolves in the Throne Rooms' .

The Watchmen

So I got tickets to go see the midnight show of The Watchmen tonight. I got pretty much the last tickets, and even though I was kind of skeptical about how it would be, I got them anyway because it was going to be an awesome date - $80 or so on dinner followed by a movie. Well, I spent the $80, but I didn't see the movie. Instead, I broke up with my girlfriend of 7 months.

The fuck?

P.S. Sorry to be a downer.

Don't Eat the Food, it's Poison Food

Watch more Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! videos on AOL Video

Happy Birthday

Making out in England just became a little more dangerous...



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/7923986.stm

Nick Got A Job

One of us has become employed. And so, here it is for your viewing pleasures.

Enjoy.

Employed!

So I got the Americorps position in Troy New York working on the Veggie Mobile. It's almost exactly what I'm interested in, mainly, local food and local hunger and poverty issues. The truck drives around the Capital Area (Troy, Albany, Schenectady) selling fresh and local produce to under served low-income residents and assisted living seniors. Everyone I've talked to at the organization sounds really cool, and my direct boss's favorite album is The Kinks "Arthur" which I took as an excellent sign and bodes well for my time there. So, I'm moving to Troy for a year. It's a relief to know what I'm doing and to be able to get out of my house and out on my own again, especially since I'm working on stuff I'm really interested in. Check out their blog, it's kind of out of date but gives a good idea of what they do.

http://theveggiemobile.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=22

That dude living at my house...

   is pretty cool. Funny guy too, both in speech and temperament, although unfortunately only I can really tell the former aspect is so because no one else understands him - he speaks only a little bit of english. We had this dinner reception to go to tonight with him for all of the members of the group he's in (I think 34 total), and we sat around joking and talking to all of the natives, and eating all the food that everyone made for the event (which was really extensive and pretty damn good, especially for a bring-your-own style buffet).

   We went to the Andy Warhol museum (to which I never go because I really hate the guy, more or less) to see this exhibit of painted Darth Vader masks. I thought it was a pretty cool idea, and I was blown away by the pieces, but by far the best part of that specific experience was the incredible amount of Star Wars fans in full Vader/Storm Trooper/Boba Fett/Imperial Guard outfits walking around taking pictures with people...

I got choked by Darth Vader. It was sooooo cool.

The funniest part of the night, however, was dinner. He's totally Japanese in that he supplements all parts of a meal with one kind of alcohol or another - it didn't really seem to matter to him, as he had a few beers, probably about a bottle of wine, and some sake interspersed between glasses. By the end of the dinner, he was good and jolly, asking question after question in broken english, and telling all present "I so happy." We got home and saw that Rocky 1 was on, and boy was he excited. He went to bed around 10.

So far so good.