Rolling Metal Thread 2009

It's available on eMusic now if you roll that way.

I can pretty much guaranty that I could walk down to 2nd Avenue Records in Portland and pick up the new Katatonia.

We are spoiled here with culture.

Oh, I'm sure I could drive down to Metal Haven and pick up a copy, I was just trying to make the point that, like it or not, if you are a metal band trying to break America - you need to get your record in places that aren't metal specialty shops.

I just phoned 2nd Avenue. They thought they might be sold out, but they checked and still have a few copies for sale.

Y'all should move here.

Trust me, the thought of Portland or Seattle has been discussed in our household many a time since our vacation out there a few years ago.

i bought it on amazon cuz i'm lazy like that.

I downloaded it so I can see if I want to order the deluxe LP cuz I'm fickle like that.

even crazier is this: peaceville's catalog is huge and you should really be able to buy darkthrone albums in every mall store in this country.

I want to see Darkthrone play on the ice skating rink in Lloyd Center mall. I mean, Tonya Harding practiced there. It's fucking grimm.

Darkthrone CDs are very plentiful where I am. One mall chain has Transilvanian Hunger and A Blaze in the Northern Sky as part of their 2 for $25 deal, which is nice to see. Maybe "Canadian Metal" won them a bunch of new fans up here.

So Earthless are opening at the Baroness show tonight and I expect to like 'em based on shit you guys've said. If this proves true, what should I buy from their merch table?

all of it

but the live roadburn double lp is a real must have

Yeah I'll probably only have $$ for one thing.

Definitely get Live at Roadburn, but I recommend CD not LP, because it's two long jams, one per disc. Absolutely killer.

Thanks guys.

The eternal question (Do you wear a band's T-shirt when seeing them live?) in poll form: http://bit.ly/4YZjAj

My friend and I were discussing this. We came to the conclusion that it's cool to wear a band shirt to their own concert once they've been around for 25 years, or if they are your very favorite band and it's your first time seeing them.

For Maiden and Rush, it's definitely acceptable. I don't do it myself, but I actually have no problem with folks who do.

sometimes it's just easier to go ahead and put the new t-shirt on than carry it around all night.

But then what d'yo do with the shirt you wore in?

you wear the new shirt over it

wasn't it always kind of a badge of coolness to wear the old rare t-shirt from before the band was popular? or was that just the badge of geekiness?

i often wear shirts for loosely affiliated bands. napalm death at jesu &c

i used to do that when i bought more band t-shirts. i should start buying them again. i wore an ancient aphex twin shirt to a sunn0))) show sort of on accident (was wearing it under my dickies hoodie and i had to take it off). not sure if that is cool or nigel.

xxxxpost yeah, just put it on over the t-shirt you're already wearing. tougher if you have an oxford or sweater or something.

we're talking metal shows, though, aren't we?

yeah, so pretty much you're just putting it on over another t-shirt.

Surely it's best to wear a shirt from every tour the band has done at the same time, layered in reverse chronology.

Over your Oxford or sweater.

usually head to shows straight after work, so I've worn sweaters to metal shows plenty of times. sometimes with collared button-downs underneath, even!

Wore my Severe Torture shirt to a Dead Weather show a couple weeks ago, which turned out to be quite an OTM description of the evening.

I've been wearing my levi jacket with the 2112 back patch everywhere for the last few months and you would not believe how many handshakes I get from strangers.

I can believe the amount of pointing and sniggering you get too

Nah. The days of blindly hating Rush are subsiding.

Baroness has made my favorite record of 2009, but I really felt Earthless (whom I'd never heard before) was the best band on the stage on Friday night at Bowery Ballroom -- to the extent that Baroness seemed kind of dull by comparison. Why would ANYBODY voluntarily follow that?

really? i saw that show on saturday and i thought earthless was really dull. tbh my buddies who play blues rock covers in local bars could just ditch their vocals and songs to focus on jamming and they'd sound a hell of a lot like earthless.

I can't speak for the show itself since I haven't seen them on this tour, but I could totally understand Earthless being boring to a certain type of person. But your second sentence is just whaaaaaa? Its kinda like someone looking at a Pollack painting and thinking "hmm, well, if I had the space I could do THAT".

i cry bullshit too. Earthless are great, go fucking prove you and your buddies can do better.

haha damn guys.

they just sound like an instrumental jammin power trio to me. it's a little boring.

I wasn't clowning you for calling them boring! Twenty minute jams aren't for everyone, I was just clowning the second part about "oh its pretty easy to do".

Hahaha, yeah I thought they were completely, insanely epic. And I don't typically dig 45-minute single-song instrumental sets (in fact, the idea of a 45-minute single-song instrumental set is completely nauseating to me). Dunno why exactly, but they blew me away.

i dunno man, i mean they're good musicians, but like lots of people are good musicians.

I don't get Earthless, either. I wanted to, as a big fan of Loop and Circle and stuff like that, but they just sound like a bluesy jam band to me.

No, I can totally understand where you're coming from, but it just crushed me. Maybe because I didn't know what to expect, and then they delivered something SO humongous and psychedelic and loud. But I just loved it. Would (and will) see them again.

BTW did you guys like Baroness? As I said, they were kind of ruined for me, so opinions from people for whom they weren't ruined are appreciated!

yeah i thought they were good. appreciated some of the blue record material more in a live setting.

Meshuggah live album in early 2010. Title: Alive. Track listing: Perpetual Black Second, Electric Red, Rational Gaze, Pravus, Lethargica, Combustion, Straws Pulled At Random, New Millennium Cyanide Christ, Stengah, The Mouth Licking What You've Bled, Humiliative, Bleed. Listening to it now; it's extremely well recorded and awesome.

Earthless are fucking epic live. If you weren't into it, you just weren't standing close enough.