This is Daniel from Tennessee here, just doing an obvious plug for the second album of mine that I just put up for download. I am proud to present this to Errorvizion and to the world. Follow the links.

It’s been described as a perfect blend of organic and electronic, darkwave, psychedelic and beats, and has gained approval by some of the Disaro camp.

PREVIEW TUNES FROM THE RECORD “ALL THE STONES REST FOR RAIN” HERE.

DOWNLOAD THE RECORD HERE.

Galaxy Hut was scraping tater tots off the ceiling and clearing out the smell of a blown PA Monday night after DC’s after Screen Vinyl Image took the stage with Sisters Of Your Sunshine Vapor, in support of the Detroit band’s second full length Spectra Spirit. For fans of the loosely defined Shoegaze genre, that killer bill joined by an extensive list of brews and vegan friendly menu shot thoughts of the looming workday to hell.

Suspense built as echoes of ghostly reverb howled, and it would have been fitting for a curtain to lift as Sisters Of Your Sunshine vapor emerged from the fog. Bass matched the guitar in the effects game, creating a wash of cosmic echoes, while gritty vocals rolled around in the dirty riffs bringing it all back down to earth.

The band had sex and soul a bit reminiscent of Jim Morrison if he met with a little Ride. Tight and technical yet highly musical drums allowed for tension and release, proving each member to be crucial and a force to be reckoned with.

Few bands could leave us with a Velvet Underground cover and a pleasant taste in our mouths, but as vocalist/guitarist Sean Morrow chanted “Run Run Run”, heads bobbed, shoulders swayed… and I think it’s safe to say we all headed to the merch table, which gladly accepted credit cards.

The sonic trip continued as Screen Vinyl Image took the wheel, and the walls shook while our eyes adjusted to the strobes. It’s so nice to know they’re here if you’re looking for a DC band to consistently blow your mind (and possibly your amps). But take note, bust out your pleather, shades, and bone up on your John Carpenter movies if you want the full effect.

Though the duo has been quoted as “a little loud” like Jesus got “a little crucified”, there’s an intricacy that’s typically missing when racks of electronics enter the equation. They’ve mastered a formula for sonic assault most bands get dead wrong, keeping the audience focused and on the edge of their seats (if they’re stupid enough to be sitting in them).

The set opened with “Tomorrow Is Too Far”, a song drenched in hypnotic beats, giving fans of Depeche Mode eargasms and driving out the faint of heart. It almost felt like a sin to put earplugs in as they blasted through one chest pounding song after the other. We were even treated to a special light show for the grand finale, as a very large and roadworthy speaker glowed after enduring a nightmarish swell. Thankfully no band was unlucky enough to have to follow.

The Cricket Cemetery family runs red with thick blood. Label mates, Bitter American, a true testament to the hardcore punk rock of the 80′s, tore the seams from the carpet as they destroyed a set to pieces at American University this last Friday.

Honest, and angry, and certainly not kids, friendships and working relations be-damned, I’m honestly a die hard fan of this group.

Incidentally, their first release, “21″ just dropped on the Cemetery. All promotional hype aside, it’s well worth picking up: HERE

Yes, I know, if you are familiar with my maiden Not a DJ Mix, you will recall that I made a lot of promises. They included an entire series of me explore mixes manufactured from sounds outside of the traditional “DJ” sphere. You said “Yes,” you said, “Please”, you said, “MORE.” I replied with “…”

However, my promises is not lost in a well of tears, it is merely moved along the space/time continuum. Besides, Vol. 2, which I’ve had planned from the very zygote, is more of a winter situation anyway.

But all is not lost, as I have two sub mixes to toss chumly out to the sharks for the interim. Starting with the only holiday worth celebrating, I sacrafice unto you an offering of Not a DJ Mix Vol. 1.666: Halloween.

Somewhere after my obsession with vintage Thai rock n roll compilations, I decided to embrace my ultimate cliché, and begin collecting Halloween vinyl. What better way to continue this series, and savor the short gasp of time before the bastard takes over everything, than to cobble together a short mix, recorded live from The Castle (my house, which is very much a castle, but not some sweet club you’ve never heard of), with two tracks each from some of the best of my slabs of Samhain sounds?

Herein lies a body of terrifying sounds, hellacious tales, and tarantular songs. Take note, as some of these are quite famous albums from the genre.

[Excerpt] A Night in a Haunted House – Sounds to Make You Shiver

Pipe Organ/Violin – Halloween Horror

Goon River – Introducing Frankie Stein and His Ghouls

[Excerpt] The Ghosts From Outer Space – Ghostly Sounds

The Blob -Little Stevie and The McQueens -Horror Rock Classics Vol. II

[Excerpt] The Story of Halloween Horror – Halloween Horror

The Bat – Monster Mash

Count Dracula – Sounds of Terror

Phantom Piano – Sounds to Make You Shiver

Dinner With Drac – Monster Mash

Lullaby of Ghost Land – Introducing Frankie Stein and His Ghouls

The Nightmare of Lost Souls – Sounds of Terror

Cemetery Girls – Barnes and Barnes

Outro – A Night in a Haunted House – Sounds to Make You Shiver

all images in this post by nathan jurgenson

The house where Poe lived and wrote many of his stories is in trouble. When the city of Baltimore threatened to cut funding to the Poe House Museum, musicians inspired by the writer took action. There was a benefit show last weekend at the Velvet Lounge in Washington, D.C. Two local bands–Lions and Tigers and Whales as well as Lenorable–captured Poe’s spirit: LTW’s chaotic horror and Lenorable’s dark suspense were the perfect musical embodiment of the brilliant short stories that made Poe so famously influential.

I snapped some photos of the two bands and caught up with Ian and Lisa of Lenorable.

“The city makes millions off of a football team named after the author’s work, but wants to balance its budget by cutting that part of their city’s history?” -Ian, of Lenorable

The phantom HC outfit which goes under the name of LTW is a perfect example of the label’s dilapidated take on hardcore, as their Total Garbage 7″ brings the noise like it aint no thing. LTW deliver three relentless hardcore blasts of rabid drumming, loud as fuck basslines, demented barked vocals and a production sound that is dirtier than CBGB’s toilet.

What is really going on here is a demolition and reorganization of hardcore’s bare essentials: short punk riifs, explosive layers of distortion and crazy breakneck rhythms. This ultra-sped Black Flag bastard of a son is combined with tons of feedback, well placed psychedelic breaks and some silent parts that indeed leave you wandering “what the fuck?” For sure, this would go down better with fans of powerviolence, fastcore, grind etc compared to the typical hardcore fan.

I guess Cricket Cemetary reinvents the hardcore of a new generation and, quite possibly, this is what the hipsters will soon be listening to (hopefully not). In either case, my ears hurt!
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The LTW – TOTAL GARBAGE 7 INCH will be out early November on cricket cemetery. Limited to 150 copies with hand screened covers. LTW plays at the red palace October 26 in DC with Beasts of no nation & the mostly dead. Check that shit out, it’s going to be a rager.

http://takeyourshotfanzine.blogspot.com/2011/10/record-review-ltw-total-carbage-7.html

http://takeyourshotfanzine.blogspot.com

I’ll be writing things here, and posting photos, and other things you do on blogs.

Today I’ll introduce you to my band and leave it at that.

Like many, my introduction to The Faith was the legendary split with Void. Of course everyone today seems to talk about how amazing Void’s side is (and it is), but a few years ago I found myself playing The Faith side just as much. Songs like “You’re X’d” and “Face to Face” not only stand up with the best of DC Hardcore, but with Hardcore as a whole. When revisiting The Faith’s catalog one tends to forget how intense Alec MacKaye’s vocals were, which is what really set them apart from any of their HarDCore contemporaries. Instead of  just the normal brash screaming and pushing everything all in one verse, Alec had a way of making these minute blast songs almost melodic without compromising or losing any intensity.

This past week Dischord re-issued Subject to Change on vinyl (re mastered and with demos), we’ll have that review up tomorrow, for now here is an interview I did with Alec MacKaye of The Faith last week. We not only do we talk about the re-issue, but what the early shows were like, recording the demos, and how the Faith/Void split came to be.

Faith – Aware 

When The Faith started did you view The Faith picking up where the Untouchables left off?

No- if anything, Faith was S.O.A. continuing. When Henry left to join Black Flag, he suggested that I start playing with Michael and Ivor. But when we started playing together, we knew we were going to be different than our previous bands. Ivor had only done one show with S.O.A. Michael had some songs that hadn’t gotten sorted out, so those, along a couple of S.O.A. songs with new lyrics were what we started with. But really, we started pretty fresh. People learn and change quickly at that age. I knew Chris Bald from Wilson High School and brought him in to see if it could work and something gelled, as they say.

How did the idea of finally issuing the demos come about?

Ian came up with it. He was thinking of ways to get some of the old stuff remastered and back out and when it came to Faith/Void split, well it was hard to figure how to pull that apart. He hit on the idea of getting the demos out instead…

What are some of the things you remember most about recording that first demo?

Mostly the anxiety of being in the studio. We didn’t know how much time would really need to mix after getting the tracks down… We were really happy to be at Don’s though. It was when he had his studio in his basement. The vocals booth was in the laundry room, the control room was next to the furnace, the instruments were set up in his daughter’s play room, with dolls and a chest full of dress up clothes… Don was and is a masterful, calm and inspiring person.

The Faith added a second guitarist for Subject to Change, how did that change the dynamic in terms of song writing? Was song writing easier?

Well the dynamic changed – and the joy increased. It was so cool having Eddie in the band and it helped the sound stay solid on stage, as well as added a lot of depth and strength. Guitar parts that were hard to pull off live, were suddenly attainable for both Eddie and Michael. Song writing changed, too. Eddie brought a lot to the band. For me, the other impact was having watch out for yet another guitar swinging for my head. Eddie nailed me good at a 930 show and still have a scar on the top of my head from it.

Faith – In the Black 

Subject to Change seems really focused, I’ve always enjoyed a song like Unititled which was just a well executed hardcore song, followed by the almost stooges-ish Subject to Change. Was in purposely done to make Subject to change almost more melodic than the Void split?

We weren’t purposely trying to be different from ourselves – we are just growing and changing. Read the title of the record again! We also spent a bit more time mixing Subject To Change. As much as we liked doing the split, we thought we could do better almost as soon as it was out.

Your vocals were always what I thought were the most interesting about The Faith, they weren’t the typical “hardcore” vocals, and it seems bands like Die Kreuzen would borrow from them almost. They seemed melodic in a sense, would you say this is what helped push the songs in different directions on Subject to Change?

Thanks for that. I actually don’t know what to say to say about my voice. I was just doing the best I could with what I had to work with. I would say that by the time we recorded Subject To Change, we had played and rehearsed a lot more – we had grown into the songs as well as gotten more in tune with each other. More confident even in allowing “mistakes” to occur (as opposed to when we were younger and trying to nail things tight). And we had Eddie in the mix which was huge for us.

In the American Hardcore book it said you sang so hard you would hyperventilate. Is this true? That must have freaked people out.

I suppose its true — but I don’t recall anyone freaking out. I always finished our sets as far as I know.

Keep in mind, the shows were often wild all over. Some of the shows were unbearably hot, too. Imagine an overcrowded church basement with all the windows and doors shut to keep the noise from bringing the cops… I remember watching a kid go into a full seizure in front of me on the steps at the Wilson Center. He just stiffened up and planked, face firs,t hand at his sides, onto the steps. I never did that.

Why did The Faith break up? Was it odd to have an EP come out and not be in that band anymore?

Being in the Faith was a bit like harnessing fireworks. After a while we just got so we didn’t want to do that anymore. I know we were proud of the way Subject To Change turned out and really wanted it released. It was worrisome, because in general, it didn’t make sense to put out a record if the band was no longer around to do shows and sell records– especially if there were other bands to put out. I am glad Subject To Change was pressed then, and I am really happy to see it getting re-released now! It looks so cool with a red sleeve and still sounds great!

Who’s idea was it to do the split with Void? Was it always meant to be a split? 

Pretty sure that was Ian’s idea, too. I think it was just that neither band had enough material recorded to warrant a whole album, back then we always tried to fit as much music as mechanically possible onto albums. Void and Faith were definitely into each other’s bands but our approaches to music were so different that there there isn’t much point in comparing the two sides… though people always do. Its like comparing red vs. blue; The two things have their particular jobs to do. They are never close enough to compare, only to contrast and to compliment– and that’s the whole idea. I suppose it could be interesting to attempt to verbalize the ways that blue is different from red …

Looking back ’79-’83 do you feel that hardcore and especially the harDCore scene is romanticized at all? Do you enjoy or read the books and movies that have been made on hardcore in recent years? Do you feel there are some bands these books and movies have glossed over that they should have included?

– I wouldn’t say the scene is romanticized too much, in general. Some people do have astonishing, sometimes curious recollections, but I think that is bound to happen. And that can be fun to hear. As long as there are other voices to bring some balance (and discerning people to look for them and listen to them) some modicum of truth will be settled on.

I always read books about punk history and I always assume that some portion of it is bullshit. Anyone trying to contain a bunch of complicated, incongrous information and assemble a readable/watchable narrative for a book or an article or a movie is bound to cut out things that impede flow, eat up minutes, or interfere with the set-up of who is good and/or bad in the story and what was important, etc.

Trenchmouth were an amazing band to see. I wish they had made it into a studio! All there is is some cool rehearsal tapes on Scott Wingo’s web page. I would like people to listen to the two Limp Records samplers to hear the music that came just before hardcore, to get a sense of some of what we were listening to.  

Subject to Change (Plus first demo) is out now on Dischord Records. Buy it here

from her website www.fattyd.com (NSFW)

But you’ve slipped some bullshit by me. In 2010, adult film star and beautiful goddess April Flores (note, this link is NSFW) approached your company about a line of clothing for bigger ladies. You wonderfully blew her off stating, in paraphrase, that your company wasn’t interested in catering to that market. Honestly, if I had known that then, I would have walked on it. I was probably too busy watching Flores reclaim the definition of beauty and disrupting the hetero-normative, male centric, white, straight sexual paradigm with fury, vengeance and beauty. The fact that you couldn’t get on board with such an amazing artist, activist and feminist is appalling, especially since you have never shied away from the adult industry before. After all, your adds mimic softcore pornography and you embraced Sasha Grey at the height of her adult film career to sell socks. I admire the shit out of Sasha Grey, too. And I thought that was a bold move on your part, to sell sex with such an articulate, challenging actress. The dynamic was awesome and powerful. But I wonder what she thinks of you snubbing Flores because she doesn’t fit in to your companies ideal of what beauty is. And just so we are clear, American Apparel, April Flores is stunning. She has a charm, personality and playfulness about her being that makes the pale, pasty, kids you normally depict looking starved and fucked up even more pathetic.

It seems the backlash you all received for this triggered change. I was very, very happy about this. You decided to introduce plus sizes for women into your catalog, creating cuts for more body types. This is was actually awesome news. A company, that is fashionable and functional, finally embracing the broad spectrum of what beauty is. And then, you kinda mis-stepped.  And honestly, when I heard about your campaign to find the next American Apparel model to sell your plus sizes, I gave you another pass. You utilized poor language in looking for “the next BIG thing”. It was insensitive word play. That should be pretty obvious by now. But you know what, not the worst thing you could have done. Language is tricky and word play can get you in trouble sometimes. It was dumb, clearly it was dumb.

Photo By Shannon Skloss www.shannonsklossphotography.com

Enter Nancy Upton. This awesome, 24-year-old Texas lady wasn’t to psyched on your ad campaign and talent search. So she decided to make a statement, entering the contest, posting in provocative(and often very beautiful) shots that included food. Not healthy food that we should all indulge in, but the kind of fat, gross, high calorie, low healthy nonsense us American’s shovel down with rapidity. Upton wanted to make a statement and she did. She also won your contest. Which honestly isn’t a surprise. I voted for her myself, because I felt like she created the kind of open and honest dialog this country needs when it talks about health, and body image, especially where women are concerned, and beauty. I also thought utilizing your platform, in contrast with your linguistic blunders was totally appropriate.

Up to this point, you and I were still cool American Apparel. It seemed like you were gonna take your lick with grace. I realized that obviously, Upton wouldn’t be your model and I didn’t even expect you to open a positive dialog with her about the project, your future ad campaigns or any of these issues. That wouldn’t have bothered me either. Upton’s activism was enough in my opinion to at least create some kind of public discourse. I wish the story of Flores had flourished a year ago like this one, because as much as I admire Upton, I think additional factors made the Flores debacle less succulent for blogs and press outside of queer porn bloggers and the adult industry. People didn’t want to touch it because it’s hard for the public to believe that a woman of Flores’s stature could be a porn star. Oh and also, porn is still taboo in this fucked up culture.

So why did your creative director Iris Alonzo have to write that open letter to Nancy Upton? I realize since then that you have reached out to Nancy and are making a modest, if less than humble attempt, to meet with her and continue this discussion. But seriously, I just can’t take the bullshit in this letter from you. It’s more corporate double speak trying so hard to evade responsibility for being stupid. And you’re not even fucking BP or Coca Cola or one of the other millions of shitty, unethical, violent, corrupt companies that exist. You aren’t perfect as an organization and a participant in capitalism, but you are so much better than this letter. So much better. You could have humbly taken the shot, recognized your mistakes, reached out to Upton and the public and your loyal customers and maybe even increased the dialog. You had an opportunity to make the real changes in the industry this letter states you desire to do, and instead you acted like an insulted politician and lashed out. And that was it for me.

Whatever becomes of this campaign, this debacle with Upton and the rest of your company no longer concerns me. I can no longer, in good conscience continue buying your products, recommending your company or associating myself with you any further. I’m not happy about this at all, either. But if you refuse to take corporate responsibility and be humbled by negative reactions from the public when they have a fucking point, then you are no better than your competitors and the other mongrels that are only concerned about profit margins. I will not use your products in my personal life, for any band or creative project or extol the softness and warm feeling I once received from putting on an American Apparel shirt nearly every day of my life. It’s over between us American Apparel.

Sincerely,

Erik Gamlem

Please Note: The views and opinions expressed above are those of the author alone. They do not necessarily represent the views of  the other writers or staff here at Error Vizion. This opinion piece was written by Erik Gamlem without prior consultation with the other members of Error Vizion. If you have some hate you want to rock, direct it at him. He’s a big boy, both literally and figuratively, he can take it.

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday.  This has been a real big year for the label (the only year, but that’s ok).  I wanted to celebrate this evil, tooth decaying holiday and rep my hood a little at the same time. 

Ringspun cotton-limited to 32 pieces-sizes youth large through extra large.

These damned garments will be in my hands October 7 th.  Get in touch. 

Ian over and out.