New playlist: Pocket Dementia

This week I've got ten new tracks in a mix called Pocket Dementia, a play on the pocket dimensions theories of astrophysics. The pun popped in my head the other day...I love when that happens.

We start with some sludgy southern metal (YES!!) with West Chester, PA's Backwoods Payback. Their new album is called In the Ditch.

Then we start the math with a band I was already familiar with, Austin's female-fronted progressive pop-rock band Megafauna. They have an album coming in April called Maximalist, and this is the first single, "Haunted Factory." Very good stuff.

Belgium trio terraformer is next with some happy instrumental progressive post-metal. They also have an album coming in April called creatures. The artwork is pretty impressive.

Often these playlists get out of order while I'm uploading the tracks. Very annoying, Anyway, that's followed by another instrumental track called "Oceanic" by reg3n, a skilled djent band from Argentina. Somehow they snuck their way two spots up the playlist.

Fister/Norska split

A track by Portland doom/sludge band Norska is next from their new split with Fister. The track is called "Samhain," and it's wicked cool.

And finally we get a tune from Cincinnati's Kallus Valley, which was supposed to be fourth in the list. The title track from their new EP No Burning Fire is classic stoner rock, and it's good. I might check them out if they come up to Columbus.

Then we get loud and chaotic with French hardcore math band The Heretic Process. They have an album coming next month called Here/CHAOS/Begins. I'm guessing they scream in French, since everything on their Facebook page is in French.

Then it's Existential Animals with another instrumental progressive metal track called "The Zanclean Deluge," from their forthcoming EP Surrealith, which will be a free download. This one is very heavy and technical. It's great.

Then we have a four- or five-piece, female-fronted, doomy stoner band from Philly called Ruby the Hatchet (clever). They had a full album in 2012, and now they're back with a two-track EP called The Eliminator. The artwork is cool and the music rocks. It's always fun to hear a hot chick rocking like this.

I finished it off, as I often do, with a lighter math-rock track. This time it's Baltimore's Monsters of the Antipodes with a track called "Circle Ponies," released on their EP Houses last year. It's like a little dessert after a heavy meal.

I don't really have a favorite this week, but it's all good stuff. Enjoy.

Wild Throne complete EP streaming

Yes, the other two tracks from Wild Throne's EP are finally streaming on Bandcamp. Pretty good stuff. Check this out:





Also, I bought a Beastwood T-shirt from their Bandcamp today and finally have a fan account (I don't buy music as a rule). Now I'll be able to keep up with artists a lot better.

New playlist on 8tracks tomorrow!

An oldie from 4Mag Nitrous

I finally posted a song to YouTube, and it's apparently totally legal. Here's one of my top three bands, and everyone should know about them. From their 2004 self-titled album, here's NOLA's 4Mag Nitrous with "Gas Fumez." Love this tune so hard. That's an order.

Pigs - "Ello Kiddies"

Oh man, I totally missed an EP called Gaffe by one of my favorite bands, Pigs, back in October. Here's one of the tracks, "Ello Kiddies."

New playlist: Mad Cravin'

Time for another heavy, math-y mix on 8tracks.com. I call this one Mad Cravin'. Remember the Crazy Craving monster from the Honeycomb commercials?

We start with some heavy alt rock by new French band TACKLEBERRY, the opening track from their self-titled album.

Next is a new one from Seattle's Helms Alee, whom I'd heard a few times before. Their new album is called Sleepwalking Sailors. This track, "Fetus. Carcass." starts out sounding a little thin, but it soon gets a bit massive.

Italian band The Glad Husbands are up next with a track called "The Day He Made Up His Mind." It has a classic math rock sound with spoken word and groaning vocals. [EDIT: Turns out this release is a year-and-a-half old. Oops.]

Next is a new Canadian band called Dynomite Broad with "The Kraken," from their self-titled album. They're pretty talented, and parts of this song have kind of a math-y reggae feel. I dig it.

Things start getting a little heavier with the band Claw Marks American and a post-hardcore song called "Able Bodied." The playlist gets a little shouty from this point.

After that is Chicago's The Calm Before with more post-hardcore from a split with another band called I Made You Myself.

Then we return to Italy with heavy metal band Warknife and a song called "The Infected Enigma" from their second album, Amorphous.

That's followed by a band with only one song on Bandcamp, a Norwegian groove/thrash/death metal band called Abode. The tune is called "King," and yes, it rules. Their forthcoming EP is called Self-Inflicted Damage.

After that is Baltimore's SwampHög with a mid-tempo sludge metal song called "Dead Reckoning."

And we wrap it up this week with punkier indie math sounds from an Orlando band called Neat Freak. They have a new four-track EP called Too Late. This track, "You're It," ends with a long bit of storytelling. Kind of interesting.

Lots of good stuff here, but I didn't find anything exciting enough that I'd want to hear it all the time. But this mix will be great for an intense workout.

I won't be making a mix next week since I'll be on vacation in the Keys all week. Back in March.

Blast from the past: Keelhaul

Here's a great blast from the past:




New 8tracks playlist coming tomorrow!

New Playlist: Empire of the Eaten Sun

My new playlist on 8tracks this week is called Empire of the Eaten Sun. You can play it in the sidebar. It's named after the bad guys in one of my favorite new webcomics, Mega Hyper Ecchi Overload Groperion, by Andy Pinkard. I'm a big fan of Pinkard! Comix, possibly the biggest. When I went to look for an image to go with my mix, I found out that a green lion eating the sun is an alchemy symbol from the Middle Ages, I guess. I wonder if Pinkard knew that.

I just realized that this comic has its own soundtrack on 8tracks, made by Pinkard. 

All the tracks on my playlist were released on Bandcamp in the last couple of weeks, as usual. My playlists often get a little weird, but this one's more off the beaten path than usual.

EEPEETOO by Steady States

We start off with the afore-promised tracks from Steady States and Edgecrusher. I'm really liking this Steady States band from Kansas City, which is not to be confused with the much more popular Steady States of England. These guys plays heavy, mathy noise rock with just enough twang to get me really fired up. Love it. I chose a track called "Whitecaps."

Edgecrusher's new single "Undertaker" is dark groove metal with a big southern drawl. I've never heard such sounds from Russia before. Pretty impressive.

UI is a one-man metal act out of Oakland, as far as I can tell. His new single "Teknatura" puts death metal vocals against a progressive noise metal backdrop. It's dark and interesting, but it's a bit quiet compared to the rest of the playlist.

We get a lot louder with the new single from Texas five-piece Can't Kill the Ugly, "Verse One." I'm pretty sure this is a new release, even though it's a bonus track on their 2012 album. I think they probably stuck it on there very recently, since that album was only put on Bandcamp in the last week or so. This is powerful southern metal with yelling vocals and plenty of changes and riffs. It's great.

Then we get super loud with a track from Florida's Vileplume, an experimental garage band that just put out a three-track demo called Weaving Out Of. I don't include many demos in my playlists, but this one's pretty cool, if a tad raw. I find the track "Hialeah SuRf?GnarGnar" hard to describe. It's three minutes of punky instrumental craziness, like Hella on acid. Just take a listen.

That's followed by a heavier track called "veglia opaca" from a new Italian band called Squieti on their new album Impronte Nella Cenere. It's fairly basic post-hardcore, but I dig it.

Then we get a little crazier with some chaotic hardcore from a new Baltimore band called Neck First. They have a five-track release called I Can Feel My Skin Crawl, and I chose the last track, "Thread Through."

We stay on the hardcore path with a seemingly comics-inspired Massachusetts duo called Frank Castle., which always ends with a period. It's pretty hardcore.

Then things get especially weird with a Canadian act calling themselves Mr. Guelph. Their track "Landscape Destruction" starts fast and noisy, and then they stop and wax poetic before falling silent and then suddenly launching into more chaos. Truly crazy stuff from a three-track demo called & His Profligate Sons.

 Then we go a little electronic industrial with Induxcorp and their self-titled demo track. I really went crazy with the demos this week. Induxcorp are from Mexico, and they make dark instrumental sounds with a technical, progressive edge. I can't really tell how this was made, but it's cool.

We finish it off with a Turkish five-piece called Kinesis and a track called "Kireç." This is nice, heavy math rock with sung vocals, and I dig it a lot. Their new five-track release is called Lavdanom, and the cover art rocks.

The last one might be my favorite release of the week, followed closely by Steady States.

Enjoy!