White Whaling

Published May 12 2005, 03:47 AM by webteam

Here, fishy fishy fishy. . .

TONIGHT:
Mastodon, Crystal Method, Cary Brothers, DAT Politics & Hrvatski

Fuuuuuck, dude. FUUUUUUUCK! (Sorry: when it comes to Mastodon, OTD reverts linguistically to first-period 10th grade smoke-out on the South Lawn, getting thowed on cheeba shotguns, SoCo shots, and mandatory recitations of South of Heaven lyrics.) Yeah, the clown video's a little disappointing, especially for a band that just made the Moby-Dick of heavy metal. But dude, "Iron Tusk" is the most brilliantest gigantonormous sound ever. (And if we had our Pazz and Jop picks back, by the way, ish would be moved up a spot.) Somehow, we're not going to this show. And we're mad about it. So, to repeat: FUUUUUUUCK!

Mastodon, "Blood and Thunder" (video)
Mastodon, "Iron Tusk" (mp3)
Mastodon, "Blood and Thunder" (mp3)

1. As they say, life goes on. Hopefully not as gnarly, tho, as in the new Ramallah song "Life Goes On." Latest wreck-shop from Rob Lind (Blood for Blood, Sinners & Saints) is total slaughter. For one, it's a song for dead mothers. For another, it's almost kinda-sorta a rap-metal song -- and yes, we know it's not really a rap-metal song, just the kind of rhythmically-shouted tough-guy metalcore (hey, we love Youth of Today as much as the next brah) that foreshadowed the weak shit back in the late '80s/early'90s. Here's what's really good, though: the guitars are Lamb of God like whoa, and the "hey ma" pre-chorus is the kind of thing you can see shed lawns full of Anger Management stans dry-humping their best friends to. Then the payoff: those Springsteen-sized nah-nah-nah-nahs that extreme metal never-ever pulls off right, with a shadow of Wu-Tang piano that sends garbage-pail kids to the knife drawer.

Ramallah, Life Goes On (mp3 via Thorp Records).

2. Retirement: officially over.
Memphis Bleek feat. Jay-Z (prod. by Just Blaze), "Dear Summer" (mp3 via Spine Magazine).
Teairra Mari feat. Jay-Z, "Make Her Feel Good" (DJ Noodles remix) (mp3 via Sinternet.)

3. Kano new shit. Check first over at Lemon-Red, who's also got the live MIA trax from Kimmel's show, then over here: Kano, Remember Me (mp3 via the Mack). The fault of all these bloggers OTD's been lurking. Kids got us hooked on grime. As habits go, smack would've been less expensive, and not quite as time-consuming.

4. System of a Down, "Old School Hollywood." (mp3) Thank the guy who did that killer S-O-V remix; he's all about SOAD's vocoder steez. If you are too, then follow us back to the vaults and rip it back to the source:

Powerman 5000, "Megatronic." (mp3, unreleased). OTD still has dreams about might have hit the fan about four years ago, if the usually-awful PM5K had actually released their shelved disasterpiece Anyone for Doomsday. "Megatronic" was the sine-qua-non of vocoder metal. Actually, there isn't much metal on it at all. It's pretty close to a straight-up Battlestar Galactica electro track, a good bit before most rock people fucked with that stuff.