Writing is Fighting

Soo...What Did I Listen To This Year?

We are now in the throes of the "Best of 2011" music, film and pop culture lists, and I've submitted two and I am preparing to do a third for the Village Voice's Pazz and Jop music critics poll. As I have done for the past number of years, I reviewed a lot of music, but my personal preference veered towards listening to previously released material. As like in 2010, I was greatly influenced by going to shows as a reviewer, the Maryland DeathFest, which is always a great opportunity to check out new and previously established bands, and podcasts, my favourite being WFCS's Gateway to Oblivion, which might not be continuing in 2012.  DJ Dave Polce's musical tastes were simply incredible, and I was really happy to gain more musical knowledge and appreciation of those bands that fit into the stoner / doom realm. 

And I'm Back! Music News and Troubling Views

Lots of news and well.....views. the book has been keeping me busy - I started the round of edits / revisions a couple of weeks ago and it has been, while interesting as it's my book, extremely stressful trying to do that and work the day job, which has been pretty brutal. On top of that, I'm still writing for Exclaim! and Blogher.

 

I covered the most excellent Mastodon / DEP / Red Fang show last weekend, which was fantastic. I bought Red Fang's Murder the Mountains right after. DEP was great - funny, I'm not a fan of their music, but man, they know how to put on a live show. And as I wrote in my review, this was (thank god) the best performance I've seen of Mastodon. Despite the prog / hard rock of The Hunter and Crack the Skye their setlist was pretty heavy. 

Random Thoughts and Musings Pt. 29: When Metal, Race and Gender Collide

Sorry for the absence - life has been hectic. 

Okay, talking about metal.......Last week I reviewed the most excellent Napalm Death show, and a couple of weeks before that I covered the Kyuss Lives! show....I'll get to that a bit later. Before that I reviewed ( but didn't shoot) Pearl Jam, which isn't 'metal,' but it was great. I hadn't seen the band since the mid-nineties, so that was a treat. A couple of days after Pearl Jam, I shot the Weedeater show, which was fantastic! This was the third time I'd seen them in the past couple of years, and their best, to date. 

I had slightly slagged Weedeater - or at least one of the members  - in the past, and while this isn't a 'mea culpa' moment, seeing them perform was so incredible it made me re-think my inital comments - not to whether the rumours are true, but how they should define my fandom over the band.  They are, essentially, a electrified, sludgy Blues band, but some deep, Delta - kinda blues that gets you in the gut. After I stopped taking photos, I hung out in the back of the club and boogied my Black ass off. I don't know if I ever will meet them in person, but a major hat-tip goes out to them. Dixie Dave is simply a hard-working, incredible musician - and this was the third time I'd seen him play  in two different bands in three different cities, this year. Awesome. 

As for Kyuss Lives! Man, they put on a show. If you read the review I linked to above, one of the openers, MonstrO was a bit of a disaapointment but I wouldn't mind seeing them again to check them out. John Garcia was (I'm tired of saying 'awesome') but awesome - I was wondering what he would sound like after all these years. To me, being able to see Scott Reeder play bass was a treat - someone at the show later told me that he strings his base upside down. The nerdy part of me was totally thrilled! 

This story leads me into my next subject....so after the prerequisite three song-limit shoot, I hung out in the front and really enjoyed the rest of Kyuss Lives! set. I had decided to leave a bit early to catch a cab back to the subway but as I waded through the audience, some random white dude got in my face and yelled "fucking Nigger" in my face. I was shocked, and with about twenty white folks staring at ME - not the guy who just got in my face - embarrased. I continued walking, trying to shake off the shock and mild humiliation, and after walking quite a distance, grabbed a cab and made my way home.

Nevertheless, it ruined my evening. There was an earlier issue that had slightly dampened my mood at the show, but this ruined it. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't been carrying about 2 grand worth of equipment, that I had been a bit more reactive. If that was the case, I like to think that I would have ripped his nasty mouth off his face. But I didn't. I just went home and thought about why I am even doing this shit in the first place. 

This shit tires me. I have intereviewed a number of Black women involved in the metal scene in one way or another, and a few have told me stories like this. Hell, I've experienced this thing before. But I'm starting to get real tired. I spent more money getting to the fucking venue than I did shooting and writing the concert review.....and to get that shit from a fucking stranger? I was seriously bummed. 

As many of you (who still read this blog) have guessed, I also write about race, specfically for Blogher.com, where I've been writing for over five years. Last week was one of those times where my music life and my cultural activist life collided  - kinda. About this time last week, I read an infuriating article over at MetalSucks.net - I won't link it - and something went off in my head. After posting a brief rant on Facebook, my editor at Hellbound asked if I wanted to write about it, and I did. You can read the result here - not my finest piece of work, but adequate. 

My thinking about when writers 'joke' about women in metal , that they need to do something else. There are already issues about credibility for women musicians and fans and I don't think that you ( as a man) should use that in order to make a buck by further slandering them. After reading the many "Black women ain't shit" articles this year, the bruhaha over Revolver's "Hottest Chicks in Metal...er....Hard Rock" I had had enough. Coupled with the incident at the Kyuss Lives! show, I was a bit raw. But most importantly I agreed to write the response because I knew no one else would. 

This is the thing about writing about racism and sexism. You have to be brave in order to do it, because you are going to catch a lot of shit. Many people don't like confrontation - and neither do I, really - but because of that no one else - as far as I know - stepped up to the plate. On Facebook, the link to my post got passed around and it was amazing how many people said "well, I would have just ignored the Troll (the writer). " 

I understand when you tell people about an overtly sexist or racist incident and they respond with 'just ignore it.' When I was about 5 or 6 and came home from school and told my mother about some racial incident - not even fully understanding it myself but knowing that it wasn't fair - that's what I was told. I knew, from then that she was wrong but  that in the future, I would have to keep that stuff to myself. 

Well, not really. I did keep things 'to myself' for many years, until I realized that many times, when people say that shit to you and you don't respond, they think that they have won. And in some ways, they have, because even white or non-black folks who have witnessed the behaviour will not do anything either, even though they may secretly be offended. When I got to be in my mid-to-late thirties, I started talking. And writing about things. And while it might not make a dent in anyone else's life, it sure does in mine.

I don't like feeling like a victim, which is why I write. I don't particularly like when people get away with doing asshat things, which is why I responded to that particular post. I am am pretty passionate about the music I write about and love, and feel personally offended when I am told either that I do not belong in that scene, or that as a woman I 'should' be a certain way in order to get some silent approval or to get the male 'gaze........' it doesn't sit well with me. 

Next up: The bruhaha over Slutwalk. Ugh. I will say that Racialicious has been doing an amazing job in covering the movement and the lack of representation of women of colour within it. But I'll discuss that issue ( which is worthy of a entire post) at a later date. 

 

Hurricane Irene - Maybe Next Year, Afropunk

I started writing this post waiting for my shuttle to the Airport. I came down on Friday August 26th to cover the Afropunk Festival, but on the way to Buffalo to catch my flight, I got an email that the festival was cancelled due to Hurricane Irene. I called the company I had booked my flight / hotel with and I couldn't cancel or get a refund because it was a 'natural disaster.' I would have to pay to reschedule and would lose some money. I decided to carry on anyway. And while I had a pretty good time - lots of walking around and I was able to hang out with a few friends - I ended up spending more money, as my flight got cancelled on Monday, I had to pay for an extra night at the hotel, and lost a day of work - and also, lost work and potential pictures for my book because I didn't cover the festival for the publication I had been hired by. SHIT.

About Hurricane Irene: I was staying in Lower Manhattan and went down to the water on Saturday afternoon. It was dark and rainy, but not bad at all. I actually sat for awhile and looked over to Brooklyn. Saturday night was pretty bad, heavy rain and wind. All the stores had essentially closed down by Saturday afternoon and the trains stopped running at 12, so I felt a bit trapped. On Sunday, I woke up to the sun peeking out, there was light rain and the temperature was gorgeous. about 10:00 I ventured back to the waterfront and there were about 100 people ( mostly tourists) hanging around, taking pictures of essentially nothing - because there was nothing to shoot. The above picture was taken on Sunday at about 10:30. 

On Sunday afternoon I walked over to the World Trade Center area and then to Battery Park. The sun was shining, and despite it being extremely windy, the weather was slightly humid but pleasant. New Yorkers were out in full force, running, walking their dogs and cycling. You wouldn't have known that there was a 'hurricane' just hours before.  The subways were down and food was extremely scarce, as only a small handful of drugstores and independent cafe's open.

On Monday morning, I got up early and double-checked to see if my flight was still running and surprise, surprise, it was cancelled. They re-booked me on the same flight leaving on Tuesday, and unless I wanted to pay about $500.00 to book a flight on one of the handful of airlines that were flying that day, I had to spend an extra night in New York, shelling out an addition $200+.  Luckily for me, I was able to hook up with my friend Phil Freeman, who is running things for Roadrunner.com,  for lunch and at night, took the (now open) subway to Brooklyn to hang out with my man Fred from Brooklyn Vegan who took me to this club to see an incredible evening of music of solo performances by Mick Barr (Krallice), Kevin Hufnagel (Dysrhythmia, Gorguts) and Andrew Hock (Castevet). I'd met Mick before at MDF last year when Krallice played, and also because he is dating the wonderful Justina, who is an incredibly talented photographer whom I've known for a few years. It was an awe-inspiring show. I would highly encourage you to check out Krallice and Mick's solo work.

Tuesday? That was pretty much a shitshow. I got my flight but to make a long story short, it took me 13 hours to get from NYC to Toronto, thanks to a horrible bus experience. I've never been looking forward to getting back home in my life! But I'm back. Sigh. 

Anyway, the trip was interesting. I love NYC and always have a good time there, but I'm out a substantial amount of money and missed a lot of opportunities that would have been extremely beneficial for my career. But I can't be totally dejected, as NYC had to take these steps to protect the city, and as the customer service person at Expedia told me, you can't fight Mother Nature.

 

Random Thoughts and Musings Pt. 28: YOB, Revocation and Yes, Varg Again

Reviews and Interviews

Hey Y'all! 

First, I have a couple of new things up at Exclaim! this week: First, the new album by Revocation, which I enjoyed. It's good to work out to, as I reviewed it at the gym ( yes, I multi-task). I saw these guys play almost two years ago in Toronto and was impressed by their live show. The album though, really shows how talented they are. 

In July / early August I wrote a concert review, an album review and interviewed Mike from YOB - all three are now up. It's funny because I only really got into the band in 2009 and met him in person last March, and never thought I would have the opportunity  to have a chat with him. I didn't tell him I'd previously talked to him in person during our phoner, as I'm personally tired of the "omigodiloveyourbandyou'resocool" sthick and just wanted to get the piece done, as I had a deadline. But again, cool dude - he knew how to be evasive in answering his questions - but I still got a lot and it went a bit better than the In Flames interview I did a month ago.

I'm feeling really rusty, as I've been interviewing people for the book for the past year, and doing less pieces with bands who have albums coming out. Hopefully that will change a bit. 

Summers Eve's Douche-y Ads about my "Wunder Down Under"

This week, the third of a set of commercials for Summer's Eve Cleansing Wash (douche) were publicized via YouTube and other places. As with all three (which target women from various entho-cultural / social groups) this last one, which targeted African-American women, was what I like to call a 'race-fail.' See the video above for all three and commentary.

YOB, Dark Castle & Sons of Otis.....and some other stuff....

 

Whassup folks?

So last Friday I covered the YOB show in Toronto, and it was great. the show was at this nightclub so I was a bit leery of the setup, even though I'd been there a few times before. It actually turned out okay, as the stage was a good size, but it was placed in a way where ( as you can see from the pictures) there was no definitive block between the stage and the audience. People could literally stand beside the stage, which meant that in many of my pictures there were random people standing in the background. 

Pictures from Maryland Deathfest 2011

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So yesterday I posted some photos I took from Maryland Deathfest up on my Flickr. As I continue learning about photography, I have realized that perhaps it is not the best idea to go crazy with uploading photos. Out of about 4,000 shots over four days, I've spent the past month slowly whittling them down and out of 139 I chose to upload, I selected about 74. National Public Radio (NPR) might be posting some via a post they are doing on the festival, so I didn't want to over-do it. 

Enjoy! 

Tombs, Vilipend, A Storm of Light and .....Ghost?

 

A couple of weeks ago I covered the Purity Control / Vilipend / Tombs / Storm of Light show for Exclaim! It was great, despite the lacklustre turnout. I've been to a lot of shows in Toronto, and most of the time I am a bit disappointed with the audience.  This evening was no exception.

Now, I'm an old fart and also have  delusions of grandeur - If I'm really reppin' someone, I expect everyone else to love them, too. Perhaps the promoters didn't do a great job, but more realistically, there was a lot going on in the city on the same evening and the show started early. Granted, the place (Sneaky Dees's which is a small to mid-size small venue) was full for Tombs and A Storm of Light, but barely anyone was there to see Purity Control and Vilipend, which was a shame as both bands were fantastic.

Maryland Deathfest IX: A Recap

Whoa, what a week. I just got back from Baltimore, Maryland a couple of days ago from Maryland Deathfest, and my head is still reeling.

Where to start? 

For the second year in a row, I drove down with my friend David Hall, who runs Handshake Inc., a film company that produces the Maryland Deathfest: The Movie. For the third year in a row, Dave and his crew went down to film the 45+ bands that performed during the 4-day festival.