Abysmal Radio (5-1-11)

Welcome to the first installment of Abysmal Radio, brought to you by The Sonic Abyss: The Best Music You’ve Never Heard. Enjoy the music and when you hear something you like, just click on the link next to the song to buy through Amazon.com. Click on the band name to visit the band website.

I hope you discover your new favorite song:)

Cheers,
Moose

LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S ABYSMAL RADIO

This week’s jam (in order of appearance):

HIM – In Venere Veritas    Click here to buy
Skeleton Key – Wide Open     Click here to buy
Crash Karma – On My Own     Click here to buy
Hot Head Show – The Lemon EP     Click here to download free
The Damned Things – We’ve Got A Situation Here     Click here to buy
The Sword – Tres Brujas      Click here to buy
Dillinger Escape Plan – Farewell, Mona Lisa     Click here to buy
Amorphis – My Kantele      Click here to buy
Catherine Wheel – Black Metallic      Click here to buy

Cage The Elephant Goes Wicked Platinum!

Cage the Elephant has received the platinum award for 1 million digital downloads of “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked!”

Congratulations guys!  This was the song that originally made me a fan and will probably always be my fave.  A stone cold classic.

Take a moment from your busy schedule and turn it up LOUD …

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t99bpilCKw&w=480&h=390]

Weekly Abysmal Video – 4/24/11

This week’s WAV comes from north of the border.  Crash Karma consists of members of influential Canadian bands The Tea Party, Our Lady Peace and I Mother Earth…including one of my all-time favorite drummers Jeff Burrows.

This vid is for one of my two favorite tracks off their self-titled debut, a real gem and one of last years 10 Most Truly Abysmal CD’s.  Check it out and, as always, enjoy Abysmally…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_beK-DLtiI]

CLICK HERE TO BUY Crash Karma MUSIC THROUGH AMAZON.COM

Weekly Abysmal Video – 4/18/11

I first heard this song in the opening credits of that dreadful movie “P.S.” back in 2007.   Hey, it was leftover on the DVR from before my ex-wife left so I thought I’d check it out.  Can’t tell you how it ended…I fell asleep.

It started out great.  Well, I can’t remember what was going on in the movie, but this was the song playing in the opening sequence.  The soundtrack is pretty righteous, too, with Yo La Tengo and a true underground classic “Pablo Picasso” by Citizen Cope.

Anyway, this song still haunts me from time-to-time and it’s no fun to be haunted alone.  Enjoy Abysmally…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPRzeWVZ56k&w=480&h=390]

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE P.S. Soundtrack AND AMBULANCE LTD MUSIC THROUGH AMAZON.COM

Weekly Abysmal Video – 4/12/11

This week’s WAV comes thanks to my friends at the Bullshead Public House and General Sutter Inn in Lititz, PA.  Pandora radio was playing at last week’s Spring Cask Ale Fest and this gem came on and they told me it was an English band called Friendly Fires and that the video is very cool.  I absolutely agree and the song is quite addictive.  It’s not what I normally listen to, but it’s just undeniably catchy…and the video is one of the most creative I’ve seen.

This song makes me want to dance…and I’m a terrible dancer.  Some of you have seen that first hand.  Some of you have pictures.  Some of you have video.  Please don’t show anyone.

Enjoy Abysmally…

CLICK HERE TO BUY Friendly Fires MUSIC THROUGH AMAZON.COM.

B002JPQ7E2

Clutch – Live at the 9:30 Club (DVD)

2010 Weathermaker Music

(note:  I wrote this right after the release of this DVD last year, but noticed that I saved it as a draft and never posted it.  Sorry…)

Being the total Clutch homer that I am, I pre-ordered my copy of this…just so I could get my own 2-foot long Clutch logo sticker which I now proudly display in my studio:) Clutch is the band that turns me into a 15-year-old again…when nothing mattered but music.

If you buy into the Clutch thang, you’ll undoubtedly be happy with this. First, you have the live show which clocks in at around 90 minutes. Clutch is a machine live…and you never know what the set list will be from show to show. Unlike so many corporate bands (Def Leppard comes to mind in a big way), Clutch doesn’t forsake their early material when it comes to their live shows.

In fact they celebrate it…and it’s testimony to their songwriting that early songs like “A Shogun Named Marcus,” “The House that Peterbilt,” and “Escape from the Prison Planet” sound even better today in a live setting with Clutch’s modern deep-fried groove and resident vocabularian Neil Fallon’s more melodic vocal stylings.

The latter song is on this DVD in full-force as our fave Maryland boys play their self-titled 1995 disc in its entirety in this live set. 1995’s Clutch album is a bit of an underground classic, but I never truly appreciated the songs until I heard them live. Truth is, I always felt the production on that album was way too thin…but man do these songs just burn live and it’s such a kick to hear a rabid crowd singing along to “Escape…,” “Spacegrass,” and my two faves “Rock and Roll Outlaw” and “I Have the Body of John Wilkes Booth.”

I could go on and on…and most of my friends are probably tired of me talking about Clutch. Lol   Just a wonderful band and a wonderful live document here.

The second CD is a 100+ minute documentary following Clutch on the road with both band and fan interviews. Loads of fun with a band that’s unbelievably humble considering how good they are. Listening to Jean-Paul “The Master” Gaster talk about drums is mesmerizing. A lot of thought goes into the sounds both he and the entire band make.

This is a band that cares.

We all should.

Rating:   5 out of 5

Thank You Hot Head Show

Special thanks to Jordan Copeland and the Hot Head Show bunch (that would be Vaughn Stokes and Beatamax) for the totally cool signed vinyl copies of the Bummer/Hotel Room single.  And for the note signed “Abysmally Yours.”  I’ll get Shorny B and King Mike their copy ASAP.  The perfect antidote for the illness that is modern radio.

Way too cool.

And the music’s like nothing you’ve ever heard, in case you have missed my previous posts.    Sample a bunch of their music and download The Most Truly Abysmal release of 2010, The Lemon EP, by clicking on this lengthy sentence. By the way, the EP download is free, courtesy of the HHS dudes themselves.  You can read my review of The Lemon EP here by clicking on this abbreviated sentence.

Enjoy Abysmally…

Weekly Abysmal Video – 3/6/11

It’s been a little while, my friends.  Too many distractions for this happily divorced, ADD, rockhead, proud father of 3 to navigate through.  In the process I’ve reconnected with my old friend Kyle Haik, formerly of 80’s indie cult heroes Wild Kyle and the Kangaroos.  He reminded me of our high school days, where I bought him a Helix album (I believe it was “Long Way to Heaven”) for his birthday one year.

Yes, we’re kickin’ it REAL old school this week with a vid from Helix…not from the aforementioned album, but the one that first brought them to national attention back in 1983.   Man, those were the days…when music was pretty much all that mattered and the 12 months in between Iron Maiden albums seemed like an eternity.

Here, in all its 80’s glory, is this week’s WAV dedicated to my good friend Wild Kyle and to the memory of late Helix guitarist Paul Hackman.  Rock on…and enjoy Abysmally…

CLICK HERE TO BUY No Rest for the Wicked AND OTHER HELIX MUSIC THROUGH AMAZON.COM

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EIW5si21HA&w=480&h=390]

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE ACTUAL VIDEO ON YOUTUBE

Scott Ian Tweeted About The Sonic Abyss!

Scott Ian Tweeted about The Sonic Abyss today.

SCOTT IAN Tweeted about this here music blog!

I’ve been a fan of his since “Fistful of Metal” back in 1983 and he’s absolutely one of the funniest and most honest and intelligent rockers in interviews.  Man, this is just too cool.

Scott, thank you for the years of great music and for yet another great ROCK album.  You rule, man.