WE ALL KNEW

Heading up to Westport, NY tomorrow to spend a long time there painting, drinking beer, playing drums, and hanging out. I'm a little stoked without going totally nuts- it'll be better than hanging out in Kinderhook and avoiding everyone, but I'll be farther away from the city and Julia and that is not so pleasant. However, I'll probably be able to make it down to Brooklyn at some point, and she will come visit me up there and we will go to Six Flags. I like her very much and want to spend as much time as possible doing fun things with her.

I'm listening to Kreator's second album, Pleasure to Kill. I have to say, this is one of the only raw-thrash classics that I just can't totally get into. It's fast and thrashy and stuff, but for whatever reason it just doesn't catch my fancy. I know a lot of people think Seven Churches (Possessed) or Welcome to Hell (Venom), say, are overrated as fuck, but I think both of those albums are the shit, particularly the former. Just listen to "Holy Hell" and I dare you to avoid banging yer head at some point in that song. To go against Kreator even more, they recorded a totally boring album with the guitarist from the mighty Coroner. How could you make boring metal with that guy, he makes someone like Kirk Hammett look totally second-tier.

Oh, I have also been watching a fuckload of World Cup. I've watched almost all the matches, and my team, the Netherlands, is still in that shit. They play Brazil on Friday. Can they win? Julia says "no," and I will be an unhappy man if she is correct. Spain looked great against Portugal today, I don't "want" them to win, but I think they may have what it takes this year...

HEY

HOW IS STEPHEN STRASBURG PITCHING? HOW ARE HIS CHANGEUPS? ZOMGZ HE'S GIVEN UP TWO HOME RUNS WTF IS UP WITH THAT WHAT PITCHES WERE THEY ON. CHANGEUPS?!?!?!?! HE SHOULD STOP THROWING CHANGEUPS OR WORK ON HIS MECHANICS OR SOMETHING BECAUSE IF PEOPLE CAN HIT THE BALLS HE THROWS THEN HE IS NOT AS GOOD AS WE THOUGHT HE WAS.

NOW WHY ISN'T HE PITCHING FOR THE WASHINGTON NATIONALS TONIGHT I KNOW HE PITCHED LAST NIGHT BUT WE WERE PROMISED A SUPERHUMAN...?!?!?! I HAVE NO INTEREST IN WATCHING THIS GAME NOW

Diplo wearing a sick DEATH shirt

Summer

Well, it's been summer vacation for a few days now. I've been bumming around my mom's apartment while "housesitting," which has involved a ton of Simpsons, plenty of sleep, some plant-watering, some eating, some running, and lots of metal.

My mom's neighbor just came in with either one or two dudes (I'm not going to guess what their relationship is) and said that she learned at the bar the other night that my mom had a son who is staying here right now (true, that is me), and that "he watches the Simpsons and listens to hardcore music a lot." I'm going to go ahead and say that she pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one, for an OUTSIDER.

Anyway, it's 3 AM, so I guess I'm getting back into my terrible sleep schedule. I need to wash all the dishes and hide my 40s before I go to bed. I brought two here, drank one, and couldn't bring myself to have the other, so it's still unopened and in the fridge. My mom would have a heart attack if she saw that, oh man.

I had a long conversation with Julia today (via ichat, naturally) about our definitions of "love" and it was weird. I like to tell her that I love her because I do, and I associate tiptoeing around the word with being fourteen and having no idea what it meant, but I guess I can see where she's coming from. I miss her.

Musicwise, yeah, it's been all metal so far. At first it was looking like all-black metal, but I'm in love with the new Darkthrone, Circle the Wagons. It's so, so good, I've listened to it about ten times in the last two days and I've started to write a review of it for posting on one of the websites I contribute to. I also just keep coming back to Possessed's Seven Churches, which is considered a prototype for "death metal" but to me just exists as a somewhat-sloppy thrash album with this really fucking evil tinge to it, which, I think, is why it stands out to me versus something like the second Kreator album, which is considered a classic but which I never really got, for some reason.

I am also currently just getting beaten over the head by the fourth Coroner album, Mental Vortex. Coroner's one of those bands who you never really hear about, at least in the US, I think because everything they did that wasn't fairly par-for-the-course (though technically adept) thrash was just too progressive for your average thrash fan. However, I'm really looking forward to memorizing all the time changes and sweet guitar parts this baby has to offer. Jesus Christ, these guys were technical. One of the reasons I love, say, Carcass (who I compare almost every early-90s metal band to) is because they could write fairly straightforward, awesome metal while adding little flourishes to it to remind you that they could shred. At this point, though, Coroner were nothing short of mindbending: their guitarist's all over the place while remaining completely in control, and his rhythm section is with him every step of the way. Somehow I have little difficulty seeing these dudes pull these nightmarishly complex songs off note-for-note live. They also hit you with a tambourine during the groovy 4/4 parts, just to show you who's boss. I've had this album for a while and it never hit me, but now that it has, I have a feeling that this is gonna be on repeat all summer long. Dare I say this is more complex than later Death? Or do I have an... OVERACTIVE IMAGINATION?

RIP

"You're a Rainbow in the Dark"