The Metal Files

It’s not very often that I hear an album that grabs me by the throat with one hand and slaps me around with the other.  The forthcoming release by Austin, TX’s Ancient VVisdom (yes, that is with 2 Vs) does just that.  I was fortunate enough to get a promo copy of the CD from the band and have been listening to it a lot in the last couple of days.

I first heard the record a week ago riding around with their bassist and I just sat in his van tripping out a bit.  Trying to describe this band’s sound is not so easy.  It’s metal, but not what most would typify as metal.  My first thought when hearing them was mid-era Bathory with much better vocals and a lot less drum work.  Bathory’s “One Rode To Asa Bay” was the first thing that popped to mind.  That’s not a bad thing as I liked some of the more melodic Bathory stuff.  This album is very mellow…but heavy.

But this is still a bit different.  Nice clean vocals, acoustic guitar backed by electric more in the background for enhancement.  Drums are minimal, more used for percussive effect and not necessarily for just “playing the beat”.   All of the songs are catchy and very memorable.  Nathan Opposition’s (f. of Integrity) vocals fit perfectly.  The album conjures a little early Pink Floyd as well and to a lesser extent and surely unintentionally I hear some of the atmospheric tones used on Tiamat’s Wildhoney album, which was hugely influenced by early Pink Floyd as well.

The one rub for a lot of people may be the overtly satanic content of the lyrics.  You won’t miss it when listening to it as it’s right there.  For me personally, I’m indifferent to lyrics by most bands.  If it sounds good it sounds good…and this sounds good.

I’m attaching a song that they posted on YouTube but it will not be on the June 7, 2011 release on Shine Box Recordings.  It will at least give you an idea of what’s in store.  Highlights for me are the songs Alter Reality, Necessary Evil, Lost Civilization and World of Flesh, especially the 2nd half of that song.  The riff is just wonderful!

All I can say from here is buy it when it comes out.  It gets a 10/10 from me.

I’m the first to admit that I haven’t bought anything by Di Meola since his 1996 “…Plays Piazzolla” CD.  For me, 1983′s “Scenario” was my last favorite of the “electric era” and all those before it were all great.  Al is the man.  He’s got it all: technique, feel, speed, originality.  It wasn’t long after 1983 that he went more acoustic than electric style and really put out a lot of the world music stuff.  It just wasn’t my thing.  Sure it was Al playing some good stuff, but I loved that classic fusion analog stuff from the 70s and early 80s that he did.

I mentioned in another post about seeing Return To Forever a few years back and how great it was and also about missing a Di Meola show in Norfolk because he canceled the day of the show.  Luckily he didn’t cancel tonight.

Tonight’s show at the One World Theatre proved once again that this is one of the greatest places to see a show.  Great seating, great sound, intimate.  I was fortunate to score 2 seats on the center aisle, 2nd row and we had no one sitting in front of us.  Perfection.  My guitarist, Doug Morrison, attended with me.

Al comes on at about 6:10PM, says hello to the crowd, cracks a joke or 2 (Is Willie still here?”) and they go right into their set, opening with a song called Fire On Babylon.  He was on the acoustic for almost the entire set until they went into Midnight Tango and he strapped on his Paul Reed Smith and played electric for the end of the set and for the encore.  He was great.  Period.  His band was awesome (standup electric bass, drums, rhythm acoustic guitar, drums, percussion, accordion) and filled with all non-Americans except for his percussionist.  The real standout member was his accordion player, Fausto.  I’m rather neutral on how I feel about that instrument in general, but this guy was quite incredible.  The whole band was.  Al put down the shred on both the acoustic and electric like only he can do it.  He picks almost every note and his precision is incredible.  It was quite exhilarating to be sitting 10 feet from a musician that I have respected for about 20+ years now.

Even being unfamiliar with most of the material from tonight’s show, it didn’t really matter.  It was as I expected and more.  I’m looking forward to his next tour already.

I grabbed a setlist from the stage and this is the what was listed as “1st Set”.  There was another set to be performed at 8:30PM and I wonder if it was going to be any different.

1. Fire on Babylon
2. Brave New World
3. Misterio
4. Double Concerto
5. Turquoise
6. Oblivion
7. Full Frontal Contrapuntal
8. Capouiera
9. Midnight Tango/One Night Last June
10. Race With The Devil On A Spanish Highway (encore)

I first caught Naam last year when they were on the bill with Voi Vod at SxSW 2010 and instantly became a fan.  Their breed of space rock, stoner rock, metal, psyche rock or whatever other monikers you want to give it really set well with me.

A month or 2 ago they stated that there would be no showing at SxSW 2011 because of management issues or something but ultimately they got it done and ended up doing a few shows around town.  I was able to catch the one at Headhunters on Friday.  They were on the back patio which is tiny and I was one of the last folks in the door…and that put my fat ass right in front of the band.  A little too close from a band’s perspective in my opinion but having everyone in their faces didn’t seem to matter at all.  They pushed through their set with intensity and the crowd really liked them a lot.  They were loud, heavy, solid.

Naam does it right.  They are tight and I really like the way they do their vocals by enhancing them with a lot of chorus, delay and reverb.  It fits with their music perfectly.  I’m especially impressed with John Bundy’s bass playing.  That guy works his Fender Precision bass like a $9 hooker.

Can’t wait to see them again!

You can buy their stuff on iTunes or via All That is Heavy.

It’s not very often that I hear/see a band that makes my jaw hit the floor and makes me want to run around and tell every person that I know to check them out.  That’s what Portland’s Danava did for me this year at the SxSW music festival.  I had never heard of this band until a few days before the festival when viewing the showcase at Valhalla that also featured Christian Mistress and Zoroaster, 2 other bands that I like a lot.  I didn’t get a chance to listen to them before the show so I went into this cold.

Dang!  These guys kicked into a 70s style jam fest that hit me right in the nuts.  When i say “jam” I don’t mean like some hippie jam band improv type of thing, this music was well-thought out riff-oriented hard rock.  I heard elements of a lot of my favorite bands like Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash, Hawkwind, Allman Brothers, White Witch, Thin Lizzy and even more modern 70s worship style ala Witchcraft.

One of their defining attributes is their riffing style.  Lots of movement all over the fretboard with the 2 guitarists playing some great melodies.  Add in the bassist playing the same riffs behind them and it’s pretty badass to watch and hear.  He’s really a damn fine bassist in general.  It’s great to see a band that obviously rehearses a lot.  They’ve been on the road quite a bit over the last few years as well and that has a tendency to tighten a band up as well.  Mix in the clean vocals (very early Ozzy-era Sabbath/Bobby Liebling) and you’ve got a great mix.

After their set I was looking for some merch to buy but they didn’t have it handy.  Fortunately their music is on iTunes and I downloaded their entire catalog a few hours after seeing them (3AM!).  I was happy to catch them again a few nights later for free for a quick set.  Just great.  Period.

Highly recommended!

I’ll post reviews of some of my favorite happenings later, but here are some quick posts about some of this year’s SxSW happenings that I found.

• Flatstock 29 – Flatstock is a poster art show where artists from all around showcase their wares andoffer them to the public for sale.  Since my first year of attending SxSW (2007), there has been a guy there named Brian Mercer who I think is an incredible artist and a helluva a nice dude.  I think I have bought a poster from him every year and got to see him away from the art show in a few clubs during the week.  I highly recommend his work, no matter if you’re a collector or you need some work done.  Check out his site:  Mercer Rock.  There were a lot of other good artists there but most made posters for bands I had no interest in.  Local artist Billy Perkins who sings for Butcherwhite was showing as well.  He has a current collection of works in process called “77″.  I picked up his Ace Frehely poster at FunFunFunFest a few months ago and this week picked up his Alice Cooper poster.  I love his style.  He also does band posters as needed.

• Wednesday night I wanted to get into the Warbeast/Arson Anthem show at Emo’s.  The line was insanely long and none of the bands on the whole bill were really worth waiting that long for.  I can catch Warbeast again as they play Austin pretty regularly.

• That same Wednesday I did get to catch Chicago’s Easy Action at the Ale House.  I had seen them a year or 2 prior and enjoy their brand of garage punk rock.  I met up with my friend Diane Kamikaze from WFMU.  We met last year at VoiVod and became fast friends.  She’s awesome and I’m glad I got to see her and her friend every day during the festival.

• I did get to see quite a few bands throughout the week that just didn’t do a thing for me.  I won’t mention any by name but here’s a photo of one band from France that was pretty terrible except for their drummer.  The caption should read, “My shorts are more FuBu than yours!”  They were a ‘metal’ band, by the way.  Luckily most of the other bands on the bill saved the night.

• People watching during SxSW is pretty interesting.  The influx of hipsters and gutter punks is crazy.  The hipsters seem to enjoy wearing vintage 80s “fashions” that really don’t fit.  I don’t know…most of what I see on them looked bad back in the 80s and still looks bad now.  I guess everyone’s got their thing, that just isn’t mine.  I’ll stick to my 80s looks of black t-shirt, blue jeans and black boots.   I at least wash my hair and bathe regularly.  It’s also cool meeting some of the foreigners who attend the festival.  After seeing the Bobby Liebling movie “Last Days Here“, I ran into some guys from Japan who were commenting on the patches on my jacket.  I told them I was seeing Loudness pretty soon and one of the guys pulls out his travel case with a 25th anniversary Loudness sticker on it.  He mentioned that their new drummer is a friend of his.  We had a quick discussion about Japanese metal and then parted ways.  The saw me again on the street the following night and handed me a CD of some J-Pop stuff.  Nice guys.
• Street food/food trailers are a big thing in this town nowadays and even more so during the festivals.  Simms’ BBQ trailer at the corner of 7th and Red River is top notch in my book.  Their pulled-pork sandwich with pickles and onions really tastes like a McRib.  At least this is real pork.  Everything from this place is good.  The other usual suspects did me right as well like The Hot Dog King, Kebabalicious and Jackalope.  I did hit a veggie burger place yesterday that was pretty awful.  I hadn’t eaten since the previous day and there was no line there…I now know why!  I could not add enough pickles, spicy mustard and bbq sauce to drown out the nasty drabness of that burger.  Lesson learned.  Besides eating the street food, I am pretty sure I managed to lose some weight over the last few days.  I did tons of walking and my feet and knees are aching, but it’s a good thing.
• Saturday morning I was able to catch The Rods at Cheapo Records at 11AM.  While I’ve never been a fan of them, I wanted to go see them for posterity’s sake and to get the book signed.  Mission accomplished.  Their set was lively and some of their true fans were there and that was great to see.  They were solid, I’m just not a big fan of their style of hard rock.  Their bassist, Gary Bordonaro was really good though.  I ended up seeing Gary and Carl Canedy on the street later that night as they were loading in for another gig downtown.  Apparently Wendy Dio was in attendance for that one!  Pretty cool.

• I got to run into a few folks that I’ve wanted to meet for a while.  On Friday I ran into Wino from St Vitus at Scoot Inn and snapped a quick photo with him.  Dude’s a legend.  I didn’t make the Vitus show that night but heard it was good.  earlier that day I went to the D’Addario showcase and to see The Alex Skolnick Trio.  It was a fun show and Alex is a damned good player.  He was giving out free copies of his latest CD.  Repping for D’Addario was Frank Aresti from Fates Warning.  Oh man.  I’m a freak for early Fates Warning and especially the John Arch era.  A friend of Frank’s told me he was going to be there so when given an oppurtunity I chatted with him a bit, snapped a photo or 2 and got him to sign the book as well.  He told me a little about the upcoming album with John Arch and how John’s vocals still sound the same after 25 years.  I can’t wait for it to come out.  Before leaving I got to snap a show with both Alex and Frank.  That will be a moment cherished forever.
• The Texas Guitar Show was pretty weak.  Much smaller than last year and I’m sure the economy has a lot to do with that.  Nobody was making deals either.  I did find one 80s Fender Jazz bass that I was interested in and he had it listed at or slightly above book value.  I offered a few hundred less and he said “all prices are what they are.”  Fine, I put my credit card back in my wallet and moved on.

All in all this has been a fun week.  I’m super tired, my feet and knees are killing me, I think my liver stopped working and I think I could go without seeing another band for a good week or 2…but I will make one more trip out this evening when Danava plays again.  They were my highlight of the festival along with spending time with Pentagram, both of which I will post about later.