Steff Metal

First of all – here is what I wore:

Ew, my stockings are falling down a bit. I need to get some garters.

• Black lace dress with lace tail. (Smoove, on sale for 50%)
• Black leather bustier (21st birthday present from a big group of friends. One day I will tell the amusing story of how we found this corset.) It’s beautiful and very unique – I think it’s been handmade. It’s lots of little scrappy squares of leather sewn together into the bustier. There’s no boning so I won’t call it a “corset” but the stiffness of the leather gives it a nice shape.
• Red ribbed thigh-high socks, from Sock Dreams (present from wonderful Mum and Dad Metal.) They’re so lovely and warm
• Steel-cap NZ-Safety boots
• Orange scarf, gift from Mum Metal, from Australia (not many of you would know this, but orange is actually my favorite colour. Or would be, if I could see colours.)

I have a tail!

Orange Scarf

I’ve seen Amanda Palmer before, when she came with the Dresdon Dolls in 2006, I think it was. They were most excellent then, but now, she’s incredible. Ten minutes before Hera, the opening act, was to start, she came out into the bar to give out hugs and sign stuff. I got me a hug, and one of my postcards signed. She’s tiny, and lovely. I went by my lonesome, but met up with my friend Levi and some of his friends, Max from the good ole Hawke’s Bay, sporting some fine steampunkey threads, Vince and Louisa (hi guys!) who were all very lovely. I squeezed my way to the front for the show.

Everyone’s jostling to get the three inches closer to the front of the stage, the lights dim, and nothing happens. Suddenly, everyone turns around. Amanda’s on top of the bar, dressed in a corset and star-spangled stockings, singing “he’s making whoopie” and strumming her Ukelele. She saunters up to the stage, sits down at the keyboard and hits a dramatic first note. Nothing happens. Que soundman – who manages to make the keyboard work. She opens with two songs from her solo project, Who Killed Amanda Palmer? – “Ampersand” and “Astronaut”.

Amanda Palmer

If you go to an Amanda Palmer show, you can’t expect to just stand there, arms folded, and watch. It’s an entire performance experience. You, as the audience, collectively create the experience. She encourages this. One of the first thing she said when she saw two of the girls in front of me trying to take photos of the setlist (why? I don’t know) was “Don’t worry about that. I don’t use it anyway. I normally just ask what you guys want to hear. I want you to tell me “.

Next, we had “Ask Amanda” where we all wrote questions down on scraps of paper and passed them onto the stage. The first one she pulled out wanted her to tell us about the first song she ever wrote. We asked her to play it: Herein follows the delightful video evidence (poor Amanda.)

She then performed an Exorcism on the first Twilight book.

Twilight Exorcism

What did we have next? More song requests: “Oasis”, “Half Jack”, “Coin-Operated Boy”, a brilliant cover of Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” (it has to be good for me to say this because I’ve never liked Michael Jackson songs. Don’t shoot me – it’s just not my thing). Then she played the song she wrote in Wellington, NZ, backstage during her last tour. I have a video of that, too.

10 Reasons Why Amanda Palmer is awesome

1. She’s a testament the power you have to touch people’s lives with music, especially when you reach out to fans over and above simply writing and releasing songs.
2. She’s a shining example of how an effective use of blogging and social media can grow your business and totally change your career
3. When she performs, she gives it everything she’s got. I’ve seen bands who “go through the motions” but when she plays, you feel as though you’re hearing this song as she writes it, with all the emotion dripping from her voice
4. She is clueless about pop culture
5. She’s beautiful, inside and out
6. She writes crazy, wild music about life in all it’s glory, beauty and folly
7. She loves Black Sabbath
8. She’s brutally honest and completely open
9. She creates am incredible live atmosphere because of her devotion to creating the show YOU want to see. Her shows are more a conversation between herself and the audience. I believe they call it “breaching the wall”. I wish more bands would embrace this – I’ve only seen one metal band do this, and that was Opeth.
10. She’s engaged to Neil Gaimen, which shows us all she has impeccable taste.

So yeah, I had a good night. How did you spend St. Patrick’s Day?

Steff

Italian growler Cadaveria

It’s a long-held belief among self-righteous metalheads that girls can’t do extreme metal. Extreme Metal is probably the most aggressive, angry, violent form of music there is, and every study ascertains its audience as overwhelmingly male. There’s a kind of “lost boys club” surrounding extreme metal, a sort of grymm forest treehouse with a badly handwritten sign on the door: NO GIRLS ALLOWED.

But is this assumption true? Can girls growl, scream, grunt, rasp and shriek as well as you blokes?

It’s a good question, and one I attempt to answer in my post No Clean Chicks Singing, which is up at No Clean Singing, if you care to have a read.

I’ve been investigating underground female-fronted extreme metal for the last couple of weeks, and I’ve found some wicked new bands. You can hear a few over at No Clean Singing, or wait for the upcoming Metal Mistape.

Goats Cheese and Satan’s Knees \m/
Steff

Yarrrrrrr!

Pirates, the oft-forgotten metalheads of the seven seas. Drinking and plundering and pillaging and sword-fighting and drinking some more, and making up phrases like “Yarrrrr!” and “Keel Haul!” and “But why is the rum gone?” What’s more metal than that, I ask?

The romanticised pirate life – more popular than ever thanks to the “Pirates of the Carribbean” franchise – appeals to many metalheads, and it’s no surprise (at least, not to me) that “pirate metal” will soon because one of our legitimate sub-genres.

Pirate metal bands share one common trait – they sing about pirates. The music is generally folk-influenced, but pirate metal bands can also play death, punk, thrash or power metal, as long as they wear silly hats and sing about wenches … and mead.

I’ve included a few of my favorite pirate metal (and pirate non-metal) songs.

Running Wild – Conquistadors

The ultimate pirate metal band, and proof that Germany produces some of the best metal. From the Port Royal album, released in 1988, when I was three years old:

Running Wild performed their last ever show (although they’re a metal band, so satan knows how many “comebacks” they’ll do) at Wacken 2009, and I was there, and it was awesome, and of course they played “Conquistadors”. I am up the front at this point (but you can’t see me):

Alestorm – Wenches and Mead

Who can’t admire a band that manages to write two albums and several EPs about nothing but pirates? I’ve been a fan of these guys back when they were a local Scottish act called Battleheart, with two shitty-sounding EP’s available for free download from their website.

As word spread, Battleheart grew more and more popular until they got enough interest to sign a record deal with Napalm Records, who asked them to change their name to avoid confusion with Battlelore, also on the label. They’re darlings of the Europe festival circuit, and lovely guys to boot.

Alestorm is a true success story for online promotion and word of mouth in the community, and they deserve success. From their 2008 album Captain Morgan’s Revenge, “Wenches and Mead”:

Running Wild – Jolly Roger

Deserving of two places on the Pirate Metal list, Running Wild’s classic from 1987’s Under Jolly Roger. My friend Jonowar used to sing vocals in a cheesy power metal band called Warbeast, and they covered this song, which was my first introduction to Running Wild:

This is a fan tribute video, and it’s full of cheesy wipes and silly effects, but it’s quite sweet. The sound is TERRIBLE, however. So if you’ve never heard the song before, listen to the first one, please!

Nick Cave – Fire Down Below

In 2006, an 2 CD album came out called Rogue Galley: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanties, featuring various artists covering old sea chanties, pirate songs and folk ballads. I heard my all-time favorite man, Nick Cave, was on the album, so of course I had to hear it.

It’s an odd mixture of styles – some songs you love, some you hate - with a thick leaflet of linear notes explaining the origins and history of each song. Nick Cave does two songs on the album, and this is the better of the two. I just love Nick’s voice over this riff. Warning: there are a couple of swear words in this.

Battlelore – Buccaneers Inn

Metal Archives defines them as Symphonic Epic Metal, and while I might debate this definition, I definitely like this song. From 2003’s Swords Song album, the Buccaneer’s Inn rips into the cool tinkling keyboard melody that manages to sound simultaniously like horses galloping, water dribbling and beer sloshing around in a near-empty tankard.

I’ve always loved how Battlelore keep their riffs incredibly simple and catchy – the focus here is on the storytelling aspects of their songs and the interplay between the harsh male and melodic female vocals.

I saw Battlelore live at Bloodstock last year, and wasn’t impressed (they had sound issues for 25 minutes, but the female vocalist isn’t strong enough to sing well live) but on record they still sound amazing. Clever geeks will pick up the LotR references:

Gavin Friday – Baltimore Whores

Another favorite of mine from the Rogue’s Gallery album – listen to the lyrics! (Warning: bawdy lyrics)

Finntroll – Jakten’s Tid

Not strictly “pirate”, and I have no idea what it’s actually about because I’m not fluent in Swedish, but Finntroll’s use of traditional Finnish humpaa really brings to mind a pirattey setting. This is another fan video, made for a school project, so show them some love!

Swashbuckle -Cruise Ship Terror

I saw these guys at Wacken last year, and they honestly didn’t impress me much, but I’ve been giving them a second chance, and they’re actually quite good. Swashbuckle has a dirty US thrash sound. It’s a lot less “catchy” than everything I’ve listed above, but worth a listen. A bit more raw and brutal, like pirates really were. This is from 2009’s Back to the Noose.

Yarrrrr! Any more wicked pirate songs to share?

Fire the Cannons!
Steff

Yet another interesting factoid I’ve discovered from the surveys submitted so far is that you’d like to see more music on the blog. I’ve been deliberately avoiding discussing music in-depth as I’ve been doing that on forums for years and find the whole “intelligent discussion” (read: petty argument over nothing) consists of writing imaginative insults for anyone who disagrees with you. Music discourse is so subjective, and so close to people’s hearts, I don’t want to touch it here, at least not yet.

But … I’ve had an idea. Do you remember the days before iPods. before CDs even, when you’d spend all Saturday standing by the radio, finger on the REC button, waiting for that song – the one you can’t get out of your head – to come on? Do you remember listening to those tapes of songs with the first seven seconds missing, and random DJ interjections during the bridge? The first “metal” record I ever had was a mixtape of Metallica songs I taped with religious fervour over the course of a month.

So in my new column, Metal Mixtape, I’m reintroducing the idea of mixtapes – random collections of songs that capture a mood, a feeling, an age. I’ll give you a list of 5-10 songs, complete with a youtube vid and a bit of DJ commentary from yours truly. These lists will be themed. While you’ll find mostly metal and metal-inspired songs, I’m going to include at least one non-metal song per tape, because I’ve also discovered a significant number of readers actually … gulp … don’t listen to metal.

I’ll add a little disclaimer for songs and videos with explicit content, too, so those of a weaker disposition. If you’re not of the metal persuasion, you’ll probably enjoy a lot of these tracks, but you might want to steer clear of anything labelled “death metal”, “black metal”, grindcore”, “extreme metal” or “brutal technical goregrind blackened deathcore with viking influences.”

I’ve had this sodden Subway to Sally song stuck in my head – mostly because it’s one of the few German songs my paltry language skills can translate. So this weeks theme is “Seven”.

Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

From their album of the same name, a classic from one of the all time metal greats. Everyone has their favorite Maiden album and song, and this is mine. I chose a live track because Maiden sound just as amazing live as they do on record. If you’ve never heard Iron Maiden before, listen!

Subway to Sally – Sieben

One of the best new bands we picked up in Germany, Subway to Sally sing “medieval rock”. I cannot get “Sieben” out of my head. WARNING: extremely catchy.

Symphony X – Seven

Arguably the best prog metal band alive today, Symthony X’s 2007 release, Paradise Lost (dealing with themes from Milton’s poem), featured some of their best work to date, including this gem. It’s track number 8 on the CD, and lasts for exactly 7 minutes. (for those of you unaware what prog metal is, think Pink Floyd, but extra amplified and with less drugs. Or more drugs. Or different drugs. Whatever.)

“Heigh Ho” sung by the Seven Dwarves

I couldn’t think of a “seven” themed non-metal song that wasn’t by Interpol. Bleargh. If anyone can suggest one, pop up in the comments!

Venom – Seven Gates of Hell

You gotta love Venom. These English lads were one of the first metal groups to embrace the whole “Satanic” ethos in their lyrics, stage names and album art. But their satanism was purely for giggles, although the irony was lost on many fans, who later became the forerunners of the Black Metal scene. Wikipedia says Venom have found “little commercial success or critical acclaim” and, well, you can understand why. But they’re good fun.

Therion – Seven Secrets of the Sphinx

This Swedish metal band has changed sounds several times over the years, putting out black, death and melo-death albums, before settling on their heavily classically influenced choir sound, of which this song is a shining example. Plus, this is live at Wacken 2001. \m/

Annihilator – Sixes and Sevens

From 1990’s Never, Nevermind, Canadian thrashers Annihilator give us another take on the number seven theme. This is dirty thrash metal at it’s best, and they get bonus points for always having wicked lyrics.

The Seven Gates – the Serpent’s While

A classic death sound from French group Seven Gates, now signed with Heavy Artillery records in the US. Most death metal sounds the same to me, and this is no different, but it’s “good” same.

Can anyone suggest any more good “Seven” songs? I deliberately left off Helloween’s “Keeper of the Seven Keys” because, honestly, I don’t like it. Also, there’s no video to the Lefay song “Seventh Seal” which is wicked and you should check it out.

Horns up! \m/ Let me know what you think of some of the changes I’ve made.
Steff

I – and many others – await with eager anticipation the new Burzum album, which has changed titles from Den Hvite Guden (The White God), to Belus. The name change has come about because of the racist connotations of the previous name, which apparently Varg had “no idea” would be misinterpreted. Accident or deliberate publicity stunt? I’ll leave it to you to decide.

Belus

Belus will be released March 8 from Byelborg Productions. All the details of the track listing, lyrics and ordering info are now available. You can hunt around on Youtube and find a few previews, and I bloody love what I hear.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: I abhor Varg’s racist and political views. Reading his website gives me the creeps, but his music sends shivvers up my spine – the good kind of shivvers. He creates this world inside your head – a play of light and shadows, melody and static, order and chaos, which I suppose is a little like him.

Filosofern is probably one of my all-time favorite albums, ever. He captures something beautiful and primal in that static. I’m not a fangirl, I won’t ever stick up for his opinions, but I do believe he has unquestionable talent for creating beautiful music.

You can read about Varg’s earlier article about the release and his forthright opinions on the modern black metal scene on the Burzum website.

The album will be an exploration of Varg’s interpretation of the White God (Belus, Apollon, Baldr, Belenus, Bragi, Byelobog, Jarilo …) and the events that mark his yearly life.

Den Hvite Guden – like the other Burzum albums – will also feature releases of older tracks. “Urak-hai”, from 1988-89, and “Dauði Baldrs” from 1993, although both have lyrical and stylistic changes to match the new concept.

Black Speech

In other Burzum news, Varg has approved a book by Antony Cummius called Burzum: Black Speech, which is a collection of fantasy stories based around Burzum lyrics, and as soon as I get my hands on a copy, a review will appear. Varg is also now in Urban Dictionary. he’s moving up in the world.

When our motley crew ventured into Oslo in August, we didn’t expect to encounter one of the best up-and-coming prog metal acts, but we caught Cloudscape with Pagan’s Mind at ProgFest in Oslo, and they kicked our ass.

Coming from New Zealand’s black & death-oriented metal scene, it was such a treat to see a club show with such talented prog bands. We brought an album which we listened to all the way to Bergen (which is a rather long way). And now, I’m lucky enough to have Cloudscape’s Mike Andersson to answer a few questions:

Tell us a little about Cloudscape’s last album, Global Drama. What are the concepts behind the songs on this release, and how has it been recieved so far?

A weird answer maybe but, I think you catch my drift ;).

Global Drama have been recieved really great from fans and media and we are extremely happy that most of the reviews we’ve read thus far have turned out fantastic:).

How do you think Global Drama stands up against the band’s previous releases? Have you done anything different on this album?

Global Drama is definietly more thoughtout compared to its predesserors. Of course we are very satisfied with our debut and our second album Crimson Skies but, with Global Drama we’re more mentally prepared. There’s a nice balance between the more brutal/raw songs and the more melodic and atmospheric songs, which creates a nice atmosphere and varied album.

We dug really deep in our minds to find the right touch and atmosphere to create and record Global Drama. So, even if I am proud of our first 2 albums I must say that Global Drama is without doubt my (our) favourite album thus far.

To support the new album, you’ve done a few shows and festivals around Europe over the last two years. How have you seen the fans reaction to your songs?

I’m happy to say that our audience mostly rocks like crazy during our shows and supports us really great:). We have played live as support band in a club for a crowd that didn’t know who we were but, normally we manage to get them hooked, hahahaha.

When we played live at Bloodstock Open Air in England in 2008 the audience was AWESOME. I mean, we entered the stage at 11:00am and infront of us there were about 3000 metal fans rocking with us through the whole concert. That was really cool and memoriable considering the early hour of the day.

A crowd favourite that we always play live is the song called “Under Fire” from our first album. If the audience for some reason have seemed “mellow” they always wake up when we play that song … it’s become kind of a metal classic in a way.

Coming from the NZ metal scene and seeing you guys perform in Oslo, I was blown away both by how tight your were as a band, and how much support metal is given in Scandinavia. I noticed in Europe the focus of metal seems geared towards folk/viking bands. How is prog metal being recieved nowadays?

Thank you very much, we enjoyed being on stage in Oslo and it’s great to hear that you enjoyed our show:).

Well, I think prog metal depends on quality and promotion just like most other genres. The music biz ain’t a dance on red roses anymore which is sad but, nonetheless there are many fans that support the genre wholeheartetly, which is deeply appreciated. We can’t say enough of thanks to the metal fans that support Cloudscape and other bands to keep us/them going.

When I saw you guys live I noticed you didn’t have a keyboard player. Why is that?

That’s a choice we made when we formed the band in 2001. Since we don’t use the keyboard layers as a “solo instrument” we decided to have them pre-recorded in a backing track instead.

By doing that we’ll keep the whole sound atmosphere even when we play live. But, of course there are times when we think that a keyboard player would be great to hire but, we are already 5 members in the band and we have known each other for many years now, so we are like a family. The fact of the matter is there are many bands that have a keyboardsplayer that use backing tracks nonetheless …

Since your debut you’ve played some big festivals – Sweden Rock, Bloodstock, Progpower, etc. What was your favourite festival experience? Tell us how playing festivals differs from playing regular gigs? Which festivals do you hope to play in the future?

First of all I must be honest and say that we love to be on stage no matter if it’s a big festival, small festival or a club. What is important to us is to deliver our music the best possible way for the audience and feel the feedback and support from the crowd and hope that they enjoy our music and show.

But, personally my favourite show is the one we did at Bloodstock Open Air in 2008. I mean, we were prepared and thought that we would perform live for a few hundred fans but, there were close to 3000 metal fans in the audience which was a fantastic surprise and experience :).

The biggest difference between playing a single club gig compared to a festival is that it’s more stressful at a festival. It’s rare to have lots of time to gear up and get started;). But, the actual show is more or less the same. The best thing with a festival of bigger size is that you’ll get the chance to perform live for curious metal fans that might not have heard about the band before. At a club it’s normally die hard fans that is in the crowd supporting you which is really cool and overwhelming at times. Normally it’s more intimate performing live in a club, which is a cool feeling.

The bottom line is, either way we love to be on stage ´performing live. As long as we feel that the audience enjoys our show we are happy:). That’s what’s important for Cloudscape.

Festivals we would love to visit is any good and suitable festival wherever in our world but, a few prestigious festivals that we would love to visit for a live performance is the German major metal festival “Wacken Open Air”. There’s another festival called “Bang Your Head” and “Rockhard Festival”. “Gods Of Metal” in Italy would be awesome to visit and a REvisit at “Sweden rock Festival” would of course be very appreciated;).

How did Cloudscape get started? I know the band rose from the ashes of Doctor Weird. Why did the band rename and change direction? What do you think has given Cloudscape the success that Doctor Weird never had?  

It’s hard to say why Cloudscape found success and Doctor Weird didn’t but, personally I was more driven when we started up Cloudscape which ended up with Cloudscape signing management deals and record deals. The music of Doctor Weird wasn’t bad at all but, when looking in the mirror I think there was a lack of memoriable songs and catchy songs. There was also a lack of variation and the songs we had as a whole seemed monotonuos compared to what we achieve today with Cloudscape.

The reason for “renaming” the band was simply because we started over from scratch in 2001 and the fact that I started to sing. In Doctor Weird I was keyboard player and there was another guy who was the singer (curiosa: The Doctor Weird singer sings backing vocals on 2 songs on Global Drama) but, when he left the band on mutual basis I said to my partners in crime that it’s time to start over from scratch as a new fresh band and that I wanted to be the singer considering I’ve always been a singer in all my previous bands except for Doctor Weird.

The main focus with Cloudscape is to compose songs with strong melodies and arrangements and spice it up a little with some progressive elements. But, nonetheless I think Cloudscape is more of a “melodic metal” band compared to a “progressive metal” band. The ones who listens to bands like Symphony X and Dream Theater often finds our music to be more straight forward melodic metal while the fans of bands like Hammerfall or Europe finds Cloudscape quite progressive in the vein of Dream Theater, hehehe.

How has been in Cloudscape changed your lives? What’s it like being part of the Scandinavian metal scene? How has the music scene changed since you’ve been involved in it, and what do you think the future of metal holds?

It’s of course great to be a part of the Scandinavian metal scene. Even though we have only been in the music biz for about 5 years I must say it has changed drastically.

It’s much harder to get good promotion nowadays and support from the music industry because of labels selling less and less albums. There are sadly already a few labels that have gone bankrupt. Record labels do not sign bands anymore (some do but, it’s more rare nowadays). The bands themselves have to work more with promotion which is sad in one way because I would much rather focus on my songwriting and play live, instead of working on promotion. Back in the day the labels did the promotion job or had a company do it for them but there’s no economy left to do that and it’s only the “big names” (bands) that still get lots of promotion.

It’s a really tough business nowadays but, we hope to see better days to come and we really hope that our fans and our fans to come will support Cloudscape and the genre by attending to our shows, spreading the word out on the internet and buy our albums either in digital or physical form. But, even if it’s “dark times” at the moment we love to be here and we are happy to have come this far nonetheless:).

Describe a typical week in the band’s life? How do you balence band committments with your jobs and families?

Well, basically we rehearse 1 evening per week. Most of us have dayjobs and families so, of course respect have to be shown from both parts etc. Personally I have the luxury to be engaged to a very supportive and understanding woman who understands me and my music when it comes to songwriting, promotion and other music/band related things + she helps me out a lot:).

A week musically is never the other one alike but, in general I think I except for the weekly rehearsal dedicates around 10 hours per week for my musical works. Some weeks I work more and some weeks I work less….it all depends. My family is most important for me.

What was the first album you ever bought?

It was a Vinyl single back in 1981 (Kiss – Heaven’s on Fire) followed by Come án Get It with Whitesnake. 

What bands and albums have you heard recently that have stood out to you?

The latest Symphony X, Frost, Pagan’s Mind, Rush and Whitesnake albums. All of them are awesome!

What was you best ever live music experience?

When I saw “Rush” in “Globen” (Stockholm) in 2004 (anniversary tour). A MAGICAL performance from start to finish.

Many of our readers are aspiring musicians. Do you have any advice to help them get their own projects off the ground?

Well, like I said earlier it’s very hard nowadays to get recognition from the music industry but, there’s a lot to be done through the internet by using www.myspace.com and getting the word out. If you’re a single musician without a band, please don’t be afraid of keeping your eyes open to replace members in bands if such thing happens. I mean, my good friend Anette Blyckert took a chance by sending Nightwish a demo with her singing when they were on the search for a replacement for Tarja Turunen.

Anette wasn’t very known before but, now she is VERY well known and have even changed her last name to “Olzon” since she became the singer in Nightwish, hehehe;).

What I mean is, don’t be afraid of taking the chance when there’s a chance to take:).

What does the future hold for Cloudscape? Any chance for an Australisian visit?

Oh, that’s really hard to say. We are struggling to find a good booking agency to work for us. We have played at lots of festivals and done lots of single gigs but, never a tour which we really hope to do as soon as possible. We would certainly love to visit Australia for shows and many other countries too but, right now our main focus goes to complete the songwriting for our fourth album. But, when a gig opportunity comes we rarely say no:). Spread the word and let organizers know that metal fans NEED to see Cloudscape live definietly helps :). 

Thanks for talking with us, Mike!

The pleasure is all mine and thank you Steff for talking to me:). 

Cheers: Mike Andersson (Cloudscape. Full Force). If you wanna know more about Cloudscape or listen to a few tracks, check out the official Cloudscape website, the Cloudscape myspace page or Mike’s myspace page.

This was the first band interview on Steff Metal, and I hope to do more in the future. If there’s a particular band you’d love to see on the blog, or you’re in a band yourself, send an email my way, and let me know.

Horns up \m/
Steff

Last night I saw what might have been the best show I see all year. I’m serious – ACDC, Behemoth and Metallica have a lot to live up to.

Rodrigo and Gabriela met in Mexico city while playing in a thrash band Tierra Ácida (see, you already know it’s going to be good). As many musicians do, they moved to Europe, the land of metal opportunities.

But they weren’t exactly playing metal anymore. I can’t really describe what they do – it’s not flamenco metal covers, it’s latin-inspired semi-accoustic, percussive heavy metal.

After taking up residence in Dublin and doing the local pubs and street corners, they got their break doing support for Oxegen. In 2005 they did the Europe festival circuit, and haven’t looked back.

They have five albums to their name, including two live albums. Their major influences are all the greats: Metallica, Megadeth, Testament, Slayer, Overkill, Exodus. Their self-titled album kicked the ass of both the Arctic Monkeys and Johnny Cash, when it was released in 2006.

They waltz around the stage, seemingly as if they’re still on a Dublin street corner. They play music that makes you bang your head, and that’s what the entire seated theatre was doing – punching their fists in the air and banging their heads.

Rodriguz is pretty good, but it’s Gabrialla who really owns the show. She’s a little ball of fiery energy, her hands a blur and swearing like a trooper with her beautiful accent. She’s stands out as the real energy of the duo.

They pluck, strum, hit, whack, knock and brush the guitars, producing an amazing percussive sound by utilizing the entire instrument, not just the strings. There’s nothing subtle or high brow or backstreet hippie cafe accoustic guitar here. They’re playing metal, it’s just got this groovy latin folk theme running through it, and they’re missing the twelve-foot-high Marshell stacks. They even did a little Dimebag tribute (always appreciated).

They’re currently touring the world promoting their second album, 11/11, which isn’t covers this time but you really should check it out anyway, because it’s quite something. Alex Skolnick of Testament does some guest work on the album, as well as Strunz and Farah. You can find information on their official website, or check out the Rodrigo y Gabriela myspace page for a few streaming songs. A great review at popmatters tells some really crazy stories about the band and their beginnings.

We all have them – our guilty music pleasures. The bands we turn down when the phone rings. The CDs we hide in our sock drawers in the hope our kreig mates won’t find them, the MP3’s we store under the codename ‘backup files’ on our iPods.

I’ve brought a few embarrassing albums in my time – Spice Girls, Ricky Martin (I know, I can’t believe it either), and that cute Irish girl band, B*Witched. While we do occasionally drag them out for dancing at random parties, I don’t actually listen to them anymore.

But the songs / bands on this list … I still love them. I know. I’m terrible. Please don’t hurt me.

1. The Rasmus. Hot, hot, HOT Finnish beauty Lauri. SIGH. Rasmus love. I will NEVER apologise for loving these guys. CDH hates it when I tell him he looks like Lauri.

HOTTEST guy EVER.

2. Avril Lavigne. I love her voice. Her new album – The Best Damn Thing – is pretty crap, though. But as far as attitude-girl-pop goes, it ain’t half bad.


Boy howdy, Avril sure grew up!

3. AFI. I don’t like all of their stuff, but Sing the Sorrow and December Underground are brilliant albums. Their lead singer is butt ugly, but boy can he work it.

4. Incubus. They’ve got this whole Sunday afternoon smooth-as-mustard style.

5. Suzi Quatro. She’s totally rockin’.

6. CDH insists Nick Cave should be on this list. I disagree. Nick Cave is cool. Perhaps my all-consuming obsession with him isn’t, though.

7. The Black Eyed Peas. I can’t explain why “My Humps” makes me want to dance SO MUCH.

8. Shonen Knife. They’re this crazy Japanese all-girl pop band. I’ve been listening to them since the early 90s. They sing about ice-creams and wind-up toys and going for a picnic.



9. Mago de Oz. I do not understand why eveyone hates them. Tin whistle in a metal band? What’s not to love?

10. Manowar. They make me feel all warm and giggly inside.

Who couldn't love these guys?

What are YOUR Embarrassing music loves? C’mon, don’t let me be the only one admitting these horrible, HORRIBLE beasts still get regular air-time in my shitty 90s stereo.

Super Snuggles and Shoggoth Kisses
Steff

I got the idea for this post from hearing friends complain about their boring jobs taking away from their Metal Time (like Hammer Time, but with tighter pants).

We’d all love to make a living doing what we love, but when you love metal, it can feel like there aren’t any opportunities for entrepreneurs. Oh Contraire! I’m an expert when it comes to thinking up hair-brained money-making ventures for aspiring creatives. Here are ten of my best, or worst, depending on your perspective :).

Top Ten Ways to Earn $5 from Metal

1. Play in a heavy metal band. The scene don’t survive without you amazing, talented musicians. In New Zealand, three bands play for $10, and all the bands split the proceeds. If you play in a four piece band you only need to get 6 people through the door (paying patrons, that is. Your mates who climbed in the bathroom window don’t count) before you’ve earnt $5!

2. Invent a new genre of metal and name it after yourself. You’ll make millions in scene points and hair-product endorsements.

3. Write a popular fan zine and sell it. Once you’ve covered the cost of paper, ink, labour, tickets to gigs to review, disribution, and website hosting, you’ll make around 0.75 cents per zine. You only have to sell 666 copies to make $5. Now THAT’s kreig.

4. Start a metal blog – a good one. Sell band endorsements for inflated sums of money.

5. Photograph gigs and bands and metal mayhem. Sell your work to bands needing album photos, myspace pictures and artistic wall hangings.

6. Design band logos. With today’s unreadable black metal logos, you don’t even need to know how to spell.

7. Design death metal myspace skins. You know you want to.

8. If you’re a beauty-school dropout, offer cut price haircuts and corpsepaint makeup sessions.

9. Brew a new kind of non-hangover-inducing mead. Bogans will buy gallons of the stuff.

10. Cut up your old metal t-shirts and sew them into attractive household decorating items, like throw pillows, doillies, and beanbag covers. As the metalhead population ages and matures, they need less concert couture and more doom decor.

Can you think of any more?

Super Snuggles and Shoggoth Kisses
Steff

Pretty self-explanetory

1. Hammerfall: sunburnt metal
2. UK Subs: ghey punk
3. Doro: raspy blonde
4. Running Wild: Piratical oldies
5. Dragonforce: posing silliness
6. Epica: epic pyrotechnics
7. Turisas: giggle rasputin
8. Korplikaani: Folk Pit
9. TBO: German admirer
10. Amon Amarth: Growl Vikings

This german's ride completly covered in decals. He had fantastic metal taste :)

Super Love and Shoggoth Kisses
Steff