Even More Live Shit

A Metallica video that's shot live and directed by Wayne Isham seems pretty standard, eh? What could the boys do to change it up? How about using an actual live version of "Broken, Beat, And Scarred" instead of the album clip, warts and all?


Yes. The live Metallica juggernaut is fucking rolling through the world right now, catch it if you can. They're over in Europe as I type this dropping killer setlists after killer setlists. They just played "My Apocalypse" for the first time a couple of days ago, and by our count that's 8 of 10 cuts from Death Magnetic have played live. That just leaves "The Unforgiven III" and "Suicide And Redemption" to play.

No Bass, No Problem

We have a pretty standard riff on Relapse Records' grindcore act Pig Destroyer, a riff that's not much more than: (a) their forty-second songs make you want to kill people, and (b) they're a pretty fucking awesome band. As luck would have it, Pig Destroyer played here in Seattle this past Saturday and your Duty Crue was in attendance, rockin' out, gettin' sweaty, and dodgin' way too many flyin' combat boots. And while we could give ya a regular show review, we figured we'd mix it up and make this post-show post a:

Definitive List o' Top Six: Things I Liked About the Pig Destroyer Show

Let's begin!

6. Shit was Packed. I should've expected that when a band who plays maybe two shows a year comes to your town it's gonna a big deal, but I still didn't think they'd pack this place the way Meshuggah did. The place was nuts to butts -- some dudes even flew in from Alaska! Nice to know this many cats represent for something this insane.

5. JR Hayes. Guy in the faded Eyehategod tee and ancient flannel is also the world's most brutal screamin' duder? You bet!

4. Hot Wimmins. How is it that every single goddamn show we see has zero ladies, but Pig Destroyer pulls a ton of hotties who throw down in the pit and jump off the monitors?

3. Blake Harrison. The band's samples 'n noise guy is also metal's one and only hype man. Dude not only endorsed circle pit violence and told us he wanted to see actual blood out there, but I'm pretty sure he cued the intro from Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales between songs. Fuck yeah.

2. Dwarves cover. Band closed by covering the Dwarves' "Fuck You Up and Get High." Twice in fact, since one of the sixty-five crust punks somersaulting off the stage unplugged the guitar rig.

1. "Piss Angel". Song of the night and maybe the heaviest shit ever.

Another Monday Shuffle

This is a feature post for the Duty, known as The Sunday Monday Cool Down Shuffle. We load up the iTunes, hit shuffle, and write about the first 10 songs that come up no matter what. Got it?


10. 23 (The Youth Manifesto) - Behemoth - I heard this interview with Behemoth frontman Nergal where he talked about windsurfing and mountain biking. Blew my mind how a guy who hates Jesus could spend so much time at the beach.

9. Barbed Wire - Youth Brigade - SOA single aside, I don't like anything Dischord put out. Sorry, indie rock dudes!

8. Sirius - Pelican - Hey, Pelican plays here tomorrow night. What's the over/under on their setlist...six songs?

7. Boot Scraper - Lamb of God - This is my favorite Lamb record.

6. Classic Noodlanding - Do Make Say Think - Clooney put a Do Make Say Think tune in Syriana. Wonder how many folks picked up on that?

5. So Ends Our Night - Last Rights - Straight-edge hardcore from Boston, Mass. Grab your Docs and suspenders as ya get ready to stomp some drunks. Watch out!

4. I Can Hear Her Fighting With Herself - Jonathan Richman - Ric Ocasek produced this and even the acoustic guitars sound like phony synthesizer bullshit.

3. Couldn't You Wait? - Silkworm - Also the title of the upcoming Silkworm documentary.

2. Screwed & Tattooed - TurboNegro - Totally burned myself out on Turbo during 2007...this is the most I've listened to 'em since then! I can hardly believe it myself.

1. 100 degrees/Space Cadet/Demon Cleaner - Kyuss - Heaviest, groovin-est band there ever was.

Gettin' Arty With Granny M

If you listened to DutyCast Episode 12 then you heard my reaction to seeing the cover art to the new Dinosaur Jr record for the very first time. So here's what I was lookin' at:


Shrub monsters and wood nymphs, eh? Cool! I like it 'cause even though it makes Farm look like a fairies and ferrets prog-rock opus, it makes me think the band actually sat down and thought about the artwork for once. Most of you probably haven't seen the other Dinosaur records, but the liner notes are nothing but blurry photos and hand-scrawled lime-green font, and the cover art is....well, just check it out:


Here's Hand It Over, from 1997. Who knew Play-Doh was a viable rock medium? Someone tell Hipgnosis!


Beyond, from 2007. The sofa and mannequin legs suggest this photo was shot in a Goodwill just before it was demolished. Also that the layout was 20 minutes past due.


Bug, a seminal indie rock record released back in '89. Looks like a charcoal drawing on a grocery bag. One someone sat on and left outside.

See, now how great does Farm look? Album cover of the year!

DutyCast Episode 12: Angry Men

We're on time and ready to bring the funny. Eat it and smile!

• Devon kills a peeber and Matt marvels at them airport idiots.
• We bury the late nineties heavy music scene.
• Flea and Jason join the 'Tallica HOF extravaganza.
• Ace Frehley doesn't even care about Ace Frehley.
• Apparently Morrissey = Danzig. Who knew?
• We ride out on some garage blues stomp from The Black Keys.

Listen Now:

Subscribe in your iTunes here.

Download the mp3.

ChickenFoot Is Go

The wait is over! Old man supergroup Chickenfoot has announced June 7th as the release date for their debut self-titled disc. Here's all them tunes:

1. Avenida Revolution
2. Soap on a Rope
3. Sexy Little Thing
4. Oh Yeah
5. Runnin' Out
6. Get It Up
7. Down the Drain
8. My Kinda Girl
9. Learning to Fall
10. Turnin' Left
11. Future in the Past

So let's see here: 10 songs 'bout bonin' and one about Tijuana drug lords. Sammy is in his usual fine poetic form. Yikes. Check out "Soap On A Rope" here at let us know whatcha think.

Grandma Mascis Tends the Farm

Reunited indie rock legends Dinosaur Jr announced June 23rd as the release date for new record Farm. Yeah! Huh? Tracklist, you say? You bet!

1. Pieces
2. I Want You To Know
3. Ocean In The Way
4. Plans
5. Your Weather
6. Over It
7. Friends
8. Said The People
9. There’s No Here
10. See You
11. I Don’t Wanna Go There
12. Imagination Blind

I'm super excited for my favorite band to release some new shit, but c'mon Farm? Farm?!? That's somehow the stupidest title I've ever heard and the most genius. Guess I couldn't expect anything else from Dino mainman J Mascis -- guy plays like Hendrix and looks like a cat-lady! Talk about Heavy Duty!

Watch Dinosaur play the new tune "I Don't Wanna Go There" right here, and be sure to check out the solo at 2:02. And then the one at 3:28. And then...well, you get the idea.

Track By Track Duty Attack: Mastodon's Crack The Skye

Since I don't give a hoot about lyrics and the meaning behind this stuff, I don't have to worry about trying to figure out what the fuck Mastodon is trying to do with their new record Crack The Skye. Wormholes? Stephen Hawking? Russian Czars? Who cares! More time for air bass. Let's get to it:

Oblivion

Acckkk! Clean vocals! Hey, everybody's got to feed their family. The best chorus the band has written, and probably ever will.

Divinations

The obvious first single does a nice job of bridging the gap from Blood Mountain's direct assault approach to Crack The Skye's space jam aspirations. Love the wacky guitar tone on the solos and the vocal style Brent Hinds uses on the verses. Dude sounds crazy.

Quintessence

This song is Leviathan lite. It's got all the proggy elements mixed with some big guitar riffs to close things out, but without the grunt and gruffs of their waterlogged classic. And any prog-rocker has to have some keyboard action. Hopefully this chick will get a shot at as their touring keytarist.

The Czar

A barrage of classic rock riffage sandwiched between John Carpenter-eque slow jams. Spooky.

Ghost Of Karelia

Listen to that tasty bass on the verses. These dudes are amazing. Any band that can make me to do "air everything" on a song has got my attention.

Crack The Skye

By far the heaviest song on the album and Scott Kelly from Neurosis gets all the good screamin' parts. Kelly being on a Mastodon album is becoming a tradition, and he gets a much bigger role here. The must have need someone who's still really pissed do some croakin' to make up for the rest of the record.

The Last Baron

Since the album leaked with only the first six tracks, I had spun the rest of the disc about 100 times before hearing this epic closing track. It's going to take awhile before it all starts to flow together. I would have preferred something closer to the slow burn of "Hearts Alive" as a closer, this song is all over the place. I'm sure it'll make more sense once I listen to the complete album more.

Final Thoughts

How about that! A concept record that has no boring interlude bullshit parts and clocks in at only 50 minutes! That is how it is done. This album should put Mastodon in that rare category of a "metal" band that can go anywhere they want with their material and fans should follow.

I've always thought this band was heavy metal version of The Who. Four amazing musicians who wow with their solo prowess but somehow come together to form a unified attack. Whoa, that's sort of like Voltron. So there you go. The Who = Mastodon = Voltron. You heard it here first.

The Monday Cool Down

This is a feature post for the Duty, known as The Sunday Cool Down Shuffle. We load up the iTunes, hit shuffle, and write about the first 10 songs that come up no matter what. Got it?


10. "Trainwreck" - Mastodon - The Shuffle doesn't want us to forget about the old-school Maston with all the Crack The Skye love going around.

9. "Angel From The Coast" - Thin Lizzy - Man that tone is tasty.

8. "Birthmark" - Deftones - The mid-to-late nineties heavy music scene is getting worse and worse as the years past.

7. "Breed" - Nirvana - Sometimes I forgot how good this band was.

6. "From Sinking" - Isis - I like getting into Panopticon v. Oceanic arguments, mostly because I think I'm the only one who votes for the Panopticon.

5. "World On Fire" - Corrosion Of Conformity - If you only listen to metal, you would be right to assume it's pronounced "FIYEAHHHH!"

4. "Jailbreak" - Thin Lizzy - My dad's band in junior high had a special pedal to make the siren sound when they cover this song. As if you need any more proof who has the coolest dad ever.

3. "Clean It Up" - Butthole Surfers - I'm glad I already ate. Do I have to listen to the whole thing?

2. "Sail To The Moon (Brush The Cobwebs Out Of The Sky)" - Radiohead - My little sister used to love Sailor Moon. She 17 now and I feel old.

1. "Strolling Astronomer" - Fu Manchu - I bet Scott Hill doesn't remember how to play this song.

DutyCast Episode 11: It's Number One... TWICE!

Even though it has only been a few days, the Duty boys are back again with the funny. This week:

• Matt and Devon get domesti-micated.
• Lyrics? Hum a few bars and we'll fake it.
• The Priest is Back! But with what tracklist?
• Gojira + headline tour = our champagne flutes a-clinkin'!
• Top Six Bands We Wished We Liked More
• Devon plugs The Worship of Silence, Matt re-plugs the Fu

Don't forget to vote on our "favorite catchphrase" poll! It's there on the right. No, your other right! And, no, we didn't forget the P-Deuce.

Enjoy!

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What I Like About Mastodon

Oh boy do I love a good shtick and one of the most underused is the singin' drummer. Sure you got yer Don Henley and Phil Collins and that guy from the Romantics, but metal has been sadly lacking in the skins con pipes category. Well, uber-drum god Brann Dailor from Mastodon has changed the game and lays down the vo-kills on the lead track "Oblivion" from Crack The Skye. And it is huge.

This isn't some Peter Criss bullshit wanker ballad, Dailor is rippin' through sick fills while flexin' those vocal chords. This band just shot up even higher in the "bands who make we want to quit trying to be a musician because they are fucking amazing" category. Time to go back to the woodshed. 

DutyCast Episode X: We Finally Got It Up

Whew. Matt 'n Devon defeated those computer goblins and go looooooong on Episode Ten of the DutyCast. And for your week's listenin' pleasure:

• Devon digs the Shandling, Matt unleashes on Wrath
  
• Are other metal-heads lame?
  
• Neil Young must be stopped
  
• We almost predict the future
  
• A List o' Top that'll be the talk of the town
  
• Das thrash is gud, ya?
• Matt takes some Angel Dust
• And more!
  

Don't forget to vote in this week's poll! 

Enjoy:

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Ooops

So we had some technical difficulties with the computers at Heavy Duty HQ so there will be a slight delay in uploading the latest episode of the DutyCast. We are workin' hard and we should have the award winning metal chit-chat-fest up on Saturday night. So what to do while you wait?

How about checking out this clip of the opening montage of the new HBO show "Eastbound and Down," which features music from Duty favorite Early Man!

Be the Ultimate Bohab...Just Like Us!

So I don't listen to GWAR like I used ta, but that didn't stop me from spendin' my entire Sunday afternoon reading "The Bullshittin' Board," the band's official fan forum. Now even regular ol' geek-chat internet flame-war yapping sucks some major time outta me, but this board knocked me the fuck out with threads like "Ask the Sexecutioner???" and "The Rebohabilitation of Hunter Jackson."

And why you ask? Well, dig this: both threads are nothing but posts from former GWAR members! And the things are like fifty pages long! Bassist Beefcake the Mighty, extra character dude The Sexecutioner, and most likely some other fellas who ain't yet been outed as GWAR family members contribute paragraphs upon paragraphs on how this metal band of dopesick space monsters started and how they scraped the whole thing together in the early days. Along with tales about getting loaded, touring in a salvaged school bus, and getting wasted, there's a really nice story where the guys play their full slop-spewin' show at a take-out Mexican restaurant. Awesome, right? This stuff's great even if you don't like the band!

Check it out and prepare to kiss your Saturday morning goodbye. Many thanks to the GWAR guys for once again puttin' the Heavy Duty on cloud nine.

Still No Word on Those Sweet 75 Bootlegs Though

While the Internet's grunge fansites may be abuzz about Krist Novoselic's admission that there will be NO MORE Nirvana rarities releases (hey, not like we needed 'em anyway), the big news for us at the Duty is Krist Novoselic's admission that he's the Master of his local Grange Hall. Whoa! How 'bout that? The Grange Hall! The Master! That guy from Nirvana is now the guy you call when you're trying to book your neice's quinceanera or host your county-wide Bingo tourney. Ha! How great is that?

I kinda wanted to make fun of the fact that the same dude who precipitated a major musical and cultural shift is now arguing with retirees about who's on Thursday's litter detail at the local playground, but the truth is that when I think about how the guy who not only precipitated my own obsession with things like Dinosaur Jr and the Electrical Audio forum, but also got my friends to check out Jello Biafra, punk rock, and sharecropper blues I think that the K to the Nov is the noblest cat around for dedicating his time to betterin' his community instead of putting out shitty records and living off his legacy rehashing tired Cobain nostalgia. In fact, I'm pretty glad to live in a world where a guy like this, a guy who could be knee-deep in promotions for yet another steadicam-shot Nirvana dvd comp is instead only a minor internet presence focused on his backyard garden and his beat up camper van.

You can keep up with Krist's thoughts on community organizing, sustainable democracy, and even music at his blog over at the Seattle Weekly, and be sure to check out his recently dictated 85-page oral history (!), something I'm currently printin' out for inclusion in the Duty's permanent bathroom readin' collection. Nice!

Lamb Of God Goes Number Two In Front Of The Jonas Brothers

Well folks, what this does this mean for metal? Lamb Of God's new pummel-fest Wrath finds itself between Taylor Swift and The Jonas Brothers at #2 the goddamn Billboard Top 200, and I couldn't be prouder. Lamb Of God didn't go mainstream, the mainstream has come to them.

The best part is Wrath is no sellout record, in fact it's harder and faster than its predecessor, yet sold more copies and debuted higher. Nice to see the fans can download the shit out of something and still be good fans and pick up a copy. I'm anxious to see how Crack The Skye sells to see if this is a trend.

Let's check out where Wrath ended up around the globe:

Canada: #1
USA: #2
Australia: #8
Japan: #14
Norway: #20
U.K.: #25
Netherlands: #52

I Also Would Have Accepted "Tonite" and "2Nite"

As promised on Episode 9 of the Heavy DutyCast, I ran my own search and came up with my very own Definitive List o' Top Six: Songs With "Tonight" in the Title (That're Also On Devon's iTunes)! Enjoy!

6. "Get High Tonight" -- Busta Rhymes -- Still can't decide if Busta Bust is funny or terrifying. Can yoooouuuu?

5. "Tonight We're Meat" -- Silkworm -- Worst Silkworm record makes me the most nostalgic? Weird!

4. "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" -- Ramones -- Or any night!

3. "Woman Tonight" -- Felt -- Thought I liked the hippity-hop for a coupla weeks during '05. I was a little mistaken.

2. "Party in the Woods Tonight" -- Jonathan Richman -- Yes, I have every Jonathan Richman album. Every. Single. One.

1. "Tonight's the Night" -- Neil Young -- C'mon, it's about a dead guy for Pete's sake!

Can You Spare Some Change?

Alright folks! As you might have noticed, the metal blog you know and love has gone through some changes and we hope you like them. With all the wild success Devon and I are having with the Heavy DutyCast , we thought we'd infuse some new life into our web presence. And as always, we like to make it easy, so we'll do it with bullet points! 

• New look! New colors! Same shitty content! 
• We now are posting under our own names, Matthew and Devon. 
• Other Shit You Should Read sidebar helps you sink more time. 
• Easy Button to subscribe to the site! 
• We now have a poll question of the week! Make it count! 
• Search the Duty archives via date or subject matter.

Leave us some comments and let us know what you think of the new look. 

DutyCast Episode Nine: Extra Lazy Man

This week Matt and Devon come early (in a good way) with this week's DutyCast action. Here's what the boys discussed:

• Apparently it's GO-JEER-AH.
  
• We didn't want to see The Haunted anyway.
  
• Spinal Tap gets "Unwigged." 
  
• Heaven And Hell's pun-tastic new song titles!
  
• We yap about our favorite podcasts. 
  
• And more!
  

Listen and enjoy:

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