Probably wont be doing more reviews anymore.

I seem to have lost momentum to do writing stuff, maybe i'll come back to it, but for now there wont be another review for a while, if ever.

Here's why though, instead of writing, i've decided to join Weeklybeats and make music. Weeklybeats is a 52-week long project and the idea is to make a song every week. Whatever you want to do. There is no competition and no penalty if you miss a week, just simply get back into it. There are alot of brilliant stuff on it. I was thinking maybe after I finish my Diploma studies i will perhaps do mini-reviews of some stuff that i really enjoyed.

Here's my profile and the first 10 weeks of my music

Week 1 "Nebula Angels" (outer space-step)
Week 2 "Thought Ambulance" (happy chilled guitar amp processed tunes)
Week 3 "Michael Gira's Fucktorium (freaky outty goth stuff)
Week 4 "Voicer" (Dry samples of sowing machine sounds)
Week 5 "Whale And Friends" (average electro song-my baby brother was born that week and it was really hectic)
Week 6 "Sixty Six String Wing Sing A Long Appolyon" (Guitar only indie stuff)
Week 7 "Discuss//Disguist" (trip hop noisy tune-got 2 positive reviews from it)
Week 8 "Sixty Six String Wing Sing A Long Napoleon: (guitar only chilled drone stuff)
Week 9 "Return The Equine Joy" (no input mixing+3 bonus synths)
Week 10 "Adventure Bros Time" (My first LSDJ song)

Week 11 - My 2nd LSDJ song


Also, expect a release from yours truly later, what i intend to do is for those that arent aware of Weeklybeats or cant be bothered to go through all my pages to download songs is to create a compliation every 3 months or something consisting of all my weeklybeats compositions, for free of course, that way people can DL my tunes real easy.

Reviews for the track "Discuss//Disgust"

From Xenocrony
A really great memorable track with a really odd beginning and ending containing some almost piano-like slightly plucked string sound. Those parts are interested, but my favorite section are the really excellent beats and the ambient, sort of flute-like strings (the main melody is rather contagious). The emotional feel of the track also matches up pretty well with the track title.
From Andrew Kilpatrick's Meantime Blog
"Noise gives way to trip hop that creeps along with a solid beat and enough grooves to floor"

Jurassic Penguin

Right now my favourite comics/mangas are One Piece and Spawn, i also dig their animated counterparts, only wish that Spawn was released here locally but it isn't so i have to get it overseas in Region 1. I also like tennis. Cold opening paragraph over.


I seem to have a run of writing up reviews about bands that i know nothing about till i go see them at Blackwire because of another band that I want to see, and they end up leaving enough of an impression to buy their music and write something up about them. Maybe because it's more interesting to write about bands that i have no prior knowledge of. And just like Mr. Sterile Assembly, these guys who are dubbed thee Jurassic Penguin, are also from our "wannachupbro" neighbours of New Zealand, yeah i know, i could've think up of a million and one stereotypes and i went for the most obscure one, so sue me.


I wish i had something interesting to write about their live performance, but i had a few drinks that night so here's what i remember of it...chaotic, exciting and very good, enough to incite me to buy some merch and talk to them for a while. and they are good dudes, they make all their merch, CDs, tours, everything! Thats something i can appreciate, seeing as how they are fairly young dudes as well. Okay, onto the album/EP/whatever.

I forgot how much i paid for the CD, but it must've been alot, probably, cause there are 15 tracks on this album, and maybe its my unhealthy sharp attention to detail, but there seems to be a pattern of the order with the length of the songs


1-2 is 2:10ish,
3-5 is 1:55ish, 
6-7 is 0:59ish,
then it seems like it sort of breaks the pattern with 
8 being 3:55, 
9 is 2:52, 
10 is 2:10, 
11 is 3:19 and 
12 being 3:50 
before i realised that in itself contains another sort of up and down pattern. 


Then the last 3 tracks are 5:00, 1:42 and 11:44 respectively. This EP is all in all 46.24 minutes long, but i don't think the pattens even mean anything so whatever.


You don't have to think too hard as to where Jurassic Penguin got their influences from, its basically oozing out of the speakers, however saying Converge is too easy and unfair since Jane Doe has basically started a new generation of hardcore music and millions of bands are emulating their sound and presence, so that doesn't give J.P any credit. That being said it is the sort of hardcore punk that would fit the Deathwish lineup, and whenever thats a good thing or not would be entirely up to personal judgement.


So as i hinted earlier, this is the metallic-twinged emotional hardcore that fans of Hope Conspiracy, Poison The Well and Coliseum would enjoy, and these guys sure know how to pack the punch in their tunes, further enhanced by an omission of slick production, though it seems a bit obvious that this album was recorded on different days in different settings.


One profound extent here is that Jurassic Penguin know how to write up some satisfying wall-smashing melachony hardcore hits, complete with crushing riffs and menacing vocals, but when every song they write is top quality, it can be quite counter productive.


The only thing that lets the album down here is that as many rememberable songs are here, there are some forgettables here too, but it isn't because there are filler tracks here, theres plenty of variety, doesn't fall under the trap that many bands do and drags unnecessary parts out and there's enough momentum to keep your attention. I found however that it was a problem when i had a hard time picking out my favourite songs because there was so many and together they all meld in too much with each other.Had this maybe been split up into smaller EPs the individual songs would have a bigger impact than altogether where some tunes hog up more spotlight than others, which is a shame because most of, if not all of the songs here are winners but having them all together just misteps that magic of intensity that is well captured here. 


That is my only constructive criticism though, and maybe it crawls along personal judgement i was talking about earlier with this particular sort of hardcore music, and yes i know Jane Doe was also roughly the same length, but thats like comparing your brothers small speed metal band to Iron Maiden. Maybe they put all the songs on one album because of reasons other than creative intuition. For the record I have nothing against long albums, i listen to Sunn O))) for crying out loud.


Jurassic Penguin should have more bigger exposure, and this album will lead them on the right path. It's the likeable and accessible hardcore that would win many people over. It's got everything that you want in all of its tense-drenced glory. And like i said earlier, every track here are winners and there's nothing more you could ask with a collective of music full of strength, vigour, angst and youth. If you had a mountain-pushing machine you wanted to use to push a mountain over, put this on as fuel and it will knock it down and reduce it to pebbles. Through and through it is utterly relentless, even if ofttimes a bit misguided, Jurassic Penguin can very well be the next band to take the torch of metallic hardcore.


http://jurassicpenguin.bandcamp.com/album/your-ideas-are-getting-worse 




UPDATE: I gotta tell ya, you don't get more chilled and awesome guys than Jurassic Penguin, i had a chat with Chris from JP and theres also the comment below this post from Matt. 


I had a hunch that this was more of a collective of songs than a proper written album, and to be blunt i was worried that what i said would break these guys hearts or something, maybe make for good inspiration to start a emo/metalcore band perhaps but still. 


However my fears were more than naught, they really seem to appreciate that someone has taken the time to write up a review of their material, and i still mean i say its got some amazing tunes on it, but when you buy this album, which you totally should, instead of expecting an album, instead try expecting a collection of songs written by young dudes going through this crazy thing called life and how releasing an album at all is worthy of achievement.


 So yeah thanks heaps guys. They will be coming back to Australia sometime around early next year, they also have some new songs up aswell as another release in the works. Keep an eye on it!

Aural Masturbation Vol.1: Undoom

I would really really like to get involved in composition, particularly for video games and even film, unfortunately i need equipment to hone my skills, which i need money for, which is why i hate working at macdonalds because being a 18 year old student casually employed is about as rewarding as when your teacher decides to give all the class a lolly and as excited as you are, you realise as soon as she starts from the other end of the class, you are only going to get those crappy cardboard bananas that no one else wanted, and you are pissed, yet theres nothing you can do about it.

So im going to put the few tracks i have composed up here if anyone wants to listen to it. Criticism is welcomed, praise would be a bonus.

This track is so far my favourite, its called Undoom because it was going to be a doom song, and the beginning synth was something i was experimenting with in Reason, my own original Combinator synth. The doom song was going nowhere, so i was playing on the synth when i incidentally played this happy riff, thought it was much better, scrapped the doom song, bashed out the fundamentals in under 3 hours, called it Undoom because it was a happy song.

Made with Reason, Pro Tools, a bass and a packet of chips. The cat drawing is mine, i have not picked up a pencil or a whiteboard texta in a while, which im not too proud of, hopefully that will change once i get tafe done and over with.

Dudman (live+EP)

What’s this? Another review so early? Yeah I know. I seldom ever do this but I’ve had a good run of awesome music lately and I figured since there will be yet another long absence before anything new is written and since there’s fuck all to do in Dural except play music, Half Life 2 and watch Arrested Development all day when I’m not working and suppose to be studying I may as well write some more reviews.

So this one is an interesting one, because I’m almost certain that there is not a single review of this 7” anywhere, if not at least one that is written in English. 

Dudman is a hardcore band hailing from Japan, good luck finding any information about them on the internette. I only heard of them when I saw them on the 17^th of September at Blackwire Records, which admittedly I only went to because Internal Rot and Doubled Over was playing (if you love grind and you missed out on this gig, you definitely missed out alright) and I have to say they left an amazing impression on me! Maybe its because I am a complete sucker for any hardcore band that sounds like they can fill the support slot for a Das Oath gig, but Dudman sounded so relentless and energetic, something that a lot of western hardcore bands fail to grasp. Punters that night didn’t knew any of their turbo-punk-charged material and yet they were jumping off the walls, including myself, and the whole band itself had a fun-tastic aura about them, especially when the vocalist Shuugo (names from the liner notes) was doing his rounds of the lamented “buy our merch” segment of the gig in gleefully broken english.

After seeing Dudman, I’ve decided to reinstate my mission to listen and watch as many non-western foreign bands as possible. Sure I know the big ones like Boris, Melt-Banana, Boredoms (all which the gigs were over 18 when they came over >_<) and of course some of the legends like G.I.S.M, Fuck On The Beach and Gerigeogegege aswell as the countless irritatingly addictive pop as fuck theme songs of every anime that i've ever watch (especially the theme songs of certain works from Gainax and Studio Ghilbi…TO-TO-ROOOOO) but so far I can only count all the obscure Asian bands I listen to on one hand. Musicians over there have so much to offer, and yet hardly anyone here is paying attention (except Tenzenmenn, who is a boss at this sort of stuff so ima go hassle him for some more bands) and basically im going to broaden my horizons outside the western world, cause hell, if every band over there is just as awesome as Dudman was, then I am truly missing out.

Okay enough of that, onto the 7”.

This 7” is released under the Denied A Custom label, and they made that very VERY clear…

Lets talk about self-control for a second here, now this is not a point of criticism, but when I went home to open up Dudman’s 7”, I was not prepared for this;

HOLY CRAP! what’s up with that?  Is this normal in Japan?...okay well surely I wouldn’t be complaining (I’m not but onwards) if these were all stickers..

Ummm, these are the only stickers here, real tiny ones too, that and there was another sticker on the plastic sleeve that I carefully peeled off and placed on my guitar.

Well, there are some pretty sweet stuff in here, that paper shuriken is neat, and these couple of amusing notes in broken English is cool aswell. 

It also came with the main Japanese lyrics aswell as an English translation and supposedly another set written in kanji or something, not sure. It even has a small little bio of the band and the label. Not many labels do that so thats kinda cool i suppose.

But what am I going to do with these? I suppose I should just take the incentive of checking out these bands since theres only like 7 of them on 20 pieces of paper before cutting out the drawings and the band logos and gluing them on a collage. Like I said its not a point of critisim, but I certainty did not expect this at all, I supposed it’s the labels way of advertising, which has no doubt worked.

Onto the tunes now…and this is debatable, but I don’t think there is such thing as bad hardcore anymore, there is amazingly awesome and amazingly dull, but it’s difficult to point out what makes a hardcore band great and what doesn’t….what? Buried In Verona? They ain’t hardcore and the Bee Gees are more br000talz then those wankers..okay i’m getting off topic here. I guess you can only evaluate hardcore by their motivation, individuality, their riffs of course, possibly lyrical themes (which in my books is not a massive priority, though I don’t care much for childish lyrics either),  their production, their….zazz…..and overall relevance really, there is almost no way of doing hardcore wrong if you are doing it right in the first place, just whenever you hold your own as either a unique or a mediocre band.

In Dudman’s case, they stand out as much as a explosive monster truck crashing through your ear doors before setting them on fire! It’s the blistering sound wave assault that can make Trash Talk blush. Full on all the way, no useless melodic bits or feedback drones (which I do enjoy, but has been a bit tedious as of late), does have one movie sample, but its this cool samurai thing so yeah, totally cool.

Even if there is not a single original riff left in existence (since Slayer has already thought of it) they are nicely constructed and arranged, never falling behind and always impacting, the vocals are also suit remarkably here, coarse and stunning, like they always should be. The production is harsh but not in a barely listenable one microphone way, in the proper “We are all going to kick down your speakers and punch you in the neck full on yeah” sort of way, which is the right way in my ears.

Lyrically its could’ve been typical hardcore stuff. HC represent, wondering about life, not being a square etc etc, and it is, but if I had to grade, it’s above-average from the norm, there are some real gold string of words here. Allow me to enlighten:

Like A Violent Swordsman

"Whisy-washy daily life. Half-way measures. You should think about your way of dying. Life and Death are opposite sides of the same coin. You live without any fixed aim, or you live for nothing but death? We won’t share our fate with you. While there is life, there is hope."*

Thrash Selfishit” (Exterminate your fuckin’ selfish)
"You will take care of yourself so much? Were you so angry with them for their making fool of you? You steal various things from some places so that you can assert yourself in life. You are as good as dead when you accomplished it."*

Usually not the sort of lyrics you expect from a hardcore band as ruthless sounding as Dudman, but these are some insightful lyrics, simple worded, but insightful. Most of their other songs follow along pretty well, sometimes they do get a bit imaginary, but nothing too stupendous. Of course they don’t speak these in English so I reckon that makes it better…and yes just to remind you that these are translated lyrics so of course it’s not grammatically correct, let’s see you write lyrics in another language!

The most important thing here is that it keeps you hooked all the way, it’s the kind of hardcore that motivates me to shoulder tackles down some buildings, juggle babies around and swing myself off a ceiling fan and land into a dumpster bin full of glass shards, rolling down a steep hill towards the oncoming propane truck. Dudman has created an identity and a slew of fast-packed punch-down tunes that sadly had they originated from a first world country, they would be more known. I’m not entirety sure why they chose to tour to Australia, but I’m glad they did. Goes to show that hardcore, and music overall isn’t dead, it just migrated overseas.

I assume that none of you know Dudman so this is for fans of Straightjacket Nation, Das Oath, Limp Wrist, Coke Bust, Fuck On The Beach and pretty much any liberating thrashcore with zero to minimal palm muting, drums at a BPM of one hundred million and a vocalist that sounds like he has to record his words quickly before going back into his asylum cell.

*NOTE: These are surely copyrighted lyrics, regardless don’t be a shit cunt and plagiarize them, capiche?

Actually before i go,  please read how awesome this is:

I dont; think better words have been spoken, especially the last line, i too would rather fail in originality than to succeed in imitation!

Lou Reed & Metallica

If you dont know what i am talking about, go here.

AND FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS MUSICALLY CORRECT,  QUIT IT WITH THE OFFBEATS AND PLAY IN FUCKING TIME LARS URICH!!!!!

Clips from my first house gig

 First house gig had the awesome lineup of Let Me Down Jungleman, Fat Guys Wears Mystic Wolf Shirt, HK's first show, Mclovin's last show, and some band i found bumming around Rooty Hill that call themselves Ghosts.

watch this

then this 

now this

R.I.P baby chair

p.s there was titties there as well. honestly!

p.p.s.s You should go to Goatfest!

p.p.p.s.s.s You should still go to Goatfest!

Royal Headache

So yet again another long absence from this page, I’ve barely had time to myself since tafe started and I was somewhat egged on by a good friend of mine who also owns a blog to write another review. Pretty soon I might put my compostitions up aswell just so I can get people to listen to my tunes. That would be cool. Nothing else has happened much except I saw Blood Duster and got my copy of Lyden Na on double LP signed by the band, organizing another bigger house gig minifest called Goatfest! which you should definitely go to and I’ve finally completed my Space Ghost Coast To Coast collection, getting some essential albums on LP;

Boris – Pink
Cocteau Twins – Blue Bell Knoll
Big Black – Songs About Fucking
Slices – Crusing
Insect Warface/Carcass Grinder split

Man Is The Bastard/Locust split

Converge "On My Shield" single

…oh and I’ll be getting a baby brother soon next year, that’s exciting.

First I was going to review Counter/Transference by Fat Guy Wears Mystic Wolf Shirt but Ausgrind beated me to it and I figured we don’t need another hapless reviewer telling you how bloody brilliant it is, but hell I’ll do a short version anyways-Holy fuckballs FGWMWS is hands down right brilliant and you should get it!!!!! Redirect yourselves to a better-written article here and then if you want come back here.

Okay now im going to review a album that I haven’t seen any other reviews of, to my knowledge at least, and that is Royal Headache’s new LP.

There is something I’ve realized while I was listening to Royal Headache’s new album-what if we were to just strip back all the bullshit and just have simple, almost embryonic tunes where we can sing love songs without eyes being rolled, where playing simple chords and beats and deliciously catchy songs isn’t frowned upon. At the end of the day you can play for money, play for the love of music, but you can’t fake yourself and your abilities, and that’s why this album may very well be my album of the year, if not a lifetime.

Lets talk about the overall production first off. If you told me that this was released in the late 70’s by an American band I would have been completely convinced, but nay, its released in 2011 by an Australian band, in talking everything from the artwork cover to the sound quality, which sounds like Husker Du recorded their music in the Beach Boys tiled bathroom with one microphone, which amazingly enough the lo-fi clarity never actually stands in the way of the music, unlike many other similar bands.

The tunes here like I mentioned earlier, are all hits, its pretty rare for me to listen to an album more than 5 times in a space of 24 hours but I cant get over how criminally distinctive this album is. It doesn’t make its way to be impressive, but that counter-reacts in the best way possible, from the reverbed drenched howlings of Shogun and his boyish innocence of his words that can outmatch the early Ramones, to the well-constructed nonchalant chemistry that holds the band together. This album clocks in about 26 minutes and it  containts everything from the steady beat of “Psychotic Episode” to the more show paced instrumentals of “Wilson Street” and of course the quicker and peppy tunes like “Back and Forth”, "Girls" and “Really In Love”. 


With many songs here that goes through the sweet emotions and the bitter, but without the dramatic left-turn out of the composition itself, to make it a bit more clear you know how when bands write a sad song the whole band gets sad and everything sounds SAD to make it clear that it’s a FUCKING SAD SONG? You don’t find this here at all, there are no stereotyping false intentions here,it is the pinnacle of telling a story thought a song minus the dreary enchantment that many artists fail to grasp.Royal Headache can go through the themes of  love, hate, excitement and depression without being something they’re not and that’s why this is one of the most original album I have bestowed upon in a while.

“WHAT? ORIGINAL YOU SAY? OH REVIEWER YOU UNACQUAINTED IMPERCETIVE LOAF I HAVE ONLY HEARD THESE RIFFS AND 4/4 DRUMS A MILLION TIMES FROM BANDS THAT ARE 5 TIMES BIGGER THAN THIS ONE!”

I speak of originality in the element of the vibes of emotion and the magnetism that is offered here. sure you can string a few chords together, but can you convince me you will play them with feeling and contrast? That’s is what I don’t get anymore from the slew of punk bands that are dominating the market with their pseudo-emotional punkcore bullshit (Skyway? Bitch please) and is what I exactly get whenever I listen to this LP.

Then again now I am perhaps contradicting my self by stripping away all the bullshit and maybe im overanalyzing this.

I will say one more thing though; I find there are 2 types of albums, one that has everything face-value, quick at the start to make an impression, only for it to get weary after a few listens, then there are the albums that hardly sound amazing at first, but after a couple more turns you discover more and more beneath it and ends up growing on you

 Its just so relieving to listen to an album that has the best of those two categories, its hooks you at face-value while you keep discovering the youth of these songs over and over again. It’s the true revival of the foundations of punk music that many bands emulate, but never actually get it correct, Royal Headache don t go out of their way to make a statement, but its within their own magic that they have made something so romantic without the tacked on egotism.

I don’t know how to explain it, but I love this album, it wont ever get a Grammy, hell it wont even show up on the Triple J Hottest 100, but for those to find this gem will be more than sastified, maybe even find hope in the Australian punk scene again.

I have asked Royal Headache to play Goatfest!, heres hoping they will play it!