The Days of Lore

Black Friday: The silly and the sad

Friday, July 17th, 2009 | musiX | 2 Comments

It’s bad enough when bands reunite—only to return as a former shadow of themselves—but when they do so minus key members (especially the singer) it’s just kinda silly and sad … “sillysad,” which is now the official term for when a band makes an ill-advised and desperate decision to get back together. Of course, nothing should ever surprise me—people’s insatiable appetite for nostalgia always trumps dignity.

Smashing Pumpkins (Billy Corgan and no one else): Sillysad. The Doors: Extremely silly. Horribly sad. Alice In Chains—the darkest and most metallic of the grungies—is also back together sans vocalist Layne Staley because, well, he’s dead. Yet the band trudges on with vocalist William DuVall and will release an album of new material in September called Black Gives Way to Blue. Again, a little sillysad. The new song/video for “A Looking in View” sounds like Dirt-era AIC, but the whole thing feels icky. Besides, was the world really holding out for an Alice In Chains reunion?

Mind you, I was never a huge fan of the band, but I still think their 1995 self-titled album (and last with Staley) is great … much weirder and darker than the others. As these songs will attest.

“Nothin’ Song” - Alice In Chains

“Frogs” - Alice In Chains

Tags: Alice In Chains, Black Friday, Blink-182, Layne Staley, reunions, Smashing Pumpkins, The Doors, William DuVall

Black Friday Read Between the Lines Contest winner

Friday, June 26th, 2009 | musiX | 1 Comment

Congratulations to Mike Sargent—aka DJ Ratrace—of Arcata, Calif. He’s the winner of the Black Friday Read Between the Lines Contest. For those of you playing at home, click the band name below to see the logo it belongs to. Enjoy … umm … or be disgusted.

Ridiculously unreadable band logo No. 1: Korgonthurus

Ridiculously unreadable band logo No. 2: Explosive Diarrhea

Ridiculously unreadable band logo No. 3: Utarm

Ridiculously unreadable band logo No. 4: Nokturnal Mortum

Ridiculously unreadable band logo No. 5: Biological Monstrosity

Oh yeah, you can listen to DJ Ratrace and Jakob Sweden spin rare, obscure, bizarro, weirdo music on their radio show Los Ensemble Economique every other Tuesday from 10 p.m. to midnight at www.khsu.org. If you ask nicely maybe they’ll play some Explosive Diarrhea.

Tags: Biological Monstrosity, Black Friday, Black Friday Read Between the Lines Contest, Exxplosive Diarrhea, Korgonthurus, Nokturnal Mortum, Utarm

Black Friday Read Between the Lines Contest: Ridiculously unreadable band logo No. 5

Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | musiX | No Comments

Here ’tis—the final band logo in the Black Friday Read Between the Lines Contest.

Again, here’s how it works: Decipher the five gnarly, nasty metal band logos. The person who gets the most correct out of five will receive a classic metal album from the Black Friday Vault. You can view No.’s 1 through 4 by scrolling down.

Shoot your answers to mark@thedaysoflore.com. Deadline is midnight (PDT), Thursday, June 25, and the winner will be announced this coming Black Friday.

Ridiculously unreadable band logo No. 5: This four-piece growls in French … so it sounds kinda sexy.

Tags: Black Friday, Black Friday Read Between the Lines Contest, metal band logos

Black Friday Read Between the Lines Contest: Ridiculously unreadable band logo No. 4

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 | musiX | 1 Comment

Moving along in the Black Friday Read Between the Lines Contest. Again, here’s how it works: Decipher the five gnarly, nasty metal band logos. The person who gets the most correct out of five will receive a classic metal album from the Black Friday Vault. You can view No.’s 1, 2 and 3 below. I’ll post another one on Thursday.

Shoot your answers to mark@thedaysoflore.com. Deadline is midnight (PDT), Thursday, June 25, and the winner will be announced this coming Black Friday.

Ridiculously unreadable band logo No. 4: Not Scandinavian. Un-American. Wears corpse paint. Eats babies.

Tags: Black Friday, Black Friday Read Between the Lines Contest, metal band logos

Black Friday: Reading between the lines

Friday, June 19th, 2009 | musiX | 3 Comments

Historically in metal, a band’s image is as (if not more) important as the music itself. From the band’s name, to its garb, right down to the logo. Alice Cooper and KISS were better-known for what they looked like than the music they made (more true with the latter). When metal ruled in the late ’70s and the ’80s, it was all about image … until it regressed to absurdity before finally getting smothered by the always-fashionable flannel shirt.

The Me Decade is when the metal logo was truly birthed—a single, defining brand that could be easily seen and recognized on records, posters and, most importantly, T-shirts. Bands like Motörhead and Judas Priest went with classically ornate logos, while the aforementioned KISS chose a simple, very memorable signature lighting-bolt “SS” (turned into backwards “ZZ” when the band toured Germany). It carried over into the ’80s when it was all about the logo—Metallica, Exodus, Slayer, RATT, Anthrax, Dio, Def Leppard, AC/DC—all of which could be found scrawled on notebooks and in bathroom stalls, or crudely written or carved on school desktops … or so I’ve heard.

The tradition carries on today. In metal if you don’t have a tough/menacing logo, you might as well be playing Showtunes. Especially in black metal. In fact, in the world of black metal a band’s logo might be the first, and sometimes only, identifying element. It doesn’t even have to be legible for chrissakes, as bands are seemingly trying to one-up each other in keeping their names a mystery to the world.

So. For this Black Friday, I’ve scoured the bottomless pit of the Interwebs to find the most unruly, tangled, illegible band logos possible. It is your duty to try to decipher them. I’ll post one new logo per day (not including Saturday and Sunday) through Thursday, June 25. Shoot your answers to me at mark@thedaysoflore.com. The person who guesses the most band names correctly out of five will win a classic metal album of my choosing. Yes, this means all five people who both listen to metal and read TDoL have a chance to win a disc. It will, of course, be an incredible metal masterpiece.

Deadline is midnight (PDT), Thursday, June 25, and the winner will be announced next Black Friday. It will take a keen eye. It might also help in some cases to be fluent in Finnish.

Ridiculously unreadable band logo No. 1: This band comes from—you guessed it—Finland. They enjoy long walks in the snow, and their lyrics are as unintelligible as their logo.

Tags: AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Anthrax, Black Friday, Def Leppard, Exodus, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, KISS, metal band logos, Metallica, Motörhead, RATT, Slayer

Black Friday: Lego my Ulrich

Friday, June 12th, 2009 | musiX | 1 Comment

Someone with a lot of time on their hands put this vid together of friendly, always-smiling Lego men doing a rendition of Metallica’s “Whiplash.” There are even pyrotechnics. It’s like something I would have done as a kid if I had a camera and patience; except it would have been with KISS … and I probably would never have finished.

Tags: "Whiplash", Black Friday, Lego, Metallica

Black Friday: The Chickenfoot that ate Van Halen

Friday, June 5th, 2009 | musiX | 2 Comments

That headline is a play off the old Bill Cosby stand-up routine “The Chicken Heart That Ate New York City” … umm … no one? It’s from the album Wonderfulness. 1966. It’s a giant chicken heart that eats the city … anyone? OK.

Supergroups are a bad idea for the following reasons:

Emerson, Lake & Palmer
The Firm
Audioslave
Oysterhead
Velvet Revolver
A Perfect Circle
Temple of the Dog
Contraband
Damn Yankees
Zwan
Heaven and Hell
Damnocracy/Savage Animal
Tinted Windows

Exceptions:

Mad Season
The Highwaymen
Fantômas
The Traveling Wilburys
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Actually, I’m still not sure about Tinted Windows. I may actually like them … but don’t quote me on that. I repeat, DO NOT quote me on that.

Adding to that longer list is Chickenfoot, a supergroup featuring the Red Rocker Sammy Hagar, former Van Halen/Hagar bassist Michael Anthony, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and guitar wunderkind Joe Satriani. How can I convey my thoughts on this summit of super musical minds? Let’s see. Superbad idea. Superbad name. Superbad music. Superbad fans. Superbad album (out today!). Superbad cover art. Superbad, bad, bad.

Bad.

What is it about former Van Halen vocalists that makes them join forces with other well-known axe-slingers? (Diamond Dave went with Steve Vai; Sammy goes Satch). Maybe Gary Cherone will pick up Yngwie Malmsteen … or just go crawling back to Nuno. In other VH news: Rock Band will also release a Van Halen edition. Looks cool, but it features Eddie’s son Wolfgang playing bass with the original lineup instead of Michael Anthony. It is unlikely that I will ever play this game.

Tags: Black Friday, Chad Smith, Chickenfoot, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, supergroups