Huntress: Win a Pair of Tickets to Paganfest 2012 @ Gramercy Theatre on March 31st

Win a pair of tickets to see Huntress at Gramercy Theatre on March 31st. The band is playing on the Paganfest America 2012 tour, which features Turisas, Alestorm, Arkona and Huntress.

Drop me an email at Mike.BrooklynRocks at Gmail Dot Com with the subject "Huntress Tickets" and a winner will be chosen at random. Be sure to include your first and last name in the email as tickets will be at will-call.



Huntress was birthed in the underground of Highland Park, California, clawing at the roots of heavy metal. Lead singer Jill Janus is an operatic banshee with an unparalleled four-octave range and lust for the occult. Born and raised in the Catskill Mountains of New York, she toured Europe as a teenage opera starlet. Upon her return to the States, Janus embraced Manhattan nightlife, creating Felliniesque cabarets and parties in a nihilistic club scene. Years later, Janus moved to Los Angeles and began the gestation period of Huntress. In 2009 she met underground metal band Professor. The universe spread her legs and delivered Huntress to Janus, combining former members of Professor, Dark Black and Skeletonwitch.

The powerful pentad signed to Napalm Records in November 2011. They unleashed their first music video for “Eight of Swords” in October 2011, directed by Simon Chan of Artificial Army. The song was produced and engineered by Chris Rakestraw of Sunset Lodge Recording in Silverlake, CA. Rakestraw will also produce their debut album, slated for release Spring/Summer 2012 on Napalm Records.

Links:
Huntress

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Jonquil Plays Glasslands on April 2nd with Keep Shelly In Athens

Last month, Oxford quartet Jonquil released their full-length debut Point Of Go and, more recently, the band just finished a series of high-profile shows at SXSW. Following SXSW, Jonquil is kicking off a short US tour starting in Chapel Hill, NC on March 21st and the local tour stop is at Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn on April 2nd. At Glasslands, Jonquil is playing alongside Keep Shelly in Athens and New Moods. Tickets are $15 and doors are at 8:30PM.



Point Of Go emerges as a glimmeringly positive step in a new direction, a record that is, in the words of the band, “far more poppy and accessible” than anything they’ve previously written. Recorded over a six-week period in a farmhouse studio it takes the band’s summery flourishes and intricate guitars, and strips them back to a set of immediate, direct pop songs. With influences rooted firmly in the past – from Fleetwood Mac to The Smiths, Chic and Earth, Wind and Fire to Arthur Russell – the quartet’s LP is an exercise in classic pop sensibilities held up by a modern backbone.

Links:
Jonquil

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Dead Fame - "Frontiers" CD EP Review / Shows at Lit Lounge & Pianos in March/April

Richmond post-punk band Dead Fame released their debut EP “Frontiers” early this year which shows the band’s sound firmly rooted in the darkly melodic melancholia of bands like Joy Division and The Chameleons. Dead Fame started in 2009 when synthesizer player Christopher DeNitto reunited with former band mate, guitarist KC Byrnes and duo slowly found additional players to give the group a “live band” sound. The group is fleshed out by bassist Sadie Powers, drummer Eric Klemen and singer/lyricist Michael Means. Given that Dead Fame is Eric and Michael’s first band, the group’s debut EP is strikingly mature.

The five songs on “Frontiers” all run about 4 minutes in length and the disc’s clean mix brings the band’s edgy drive quickly to the surface. The disc was produced by Cam DiNunzio [of Heks Orkest, Denali and others] at Black Iris Studios and he did a wonderful job of balancing all of the instrumentation. There isn’t one instrument that stands out over another but I was especially taken Eric Klemen’s innovative drumming and Michael Means’ world-weary, almost British-sounding vocals.

Adding to the music, Michael Means’ lyrics are detailed and interesting: “As far as lyrics go, it is usually several "pictures" or contexts that feed into the lyrics. It seems to be that several ideas always go spinning around, interacting with each other, leading to the lyrical fabric for each song, with the music helping to spark or trigger many of those ideas and pictures. So for instance, "Glass Jacket" isn't about one thing - it’s more contextual, with various themes working off the other to create an overall effect. ” (from Magazine33's 2011 interview with Dead Fame).

The disc starts out strong with the dark and raw sounding “Frontiers” which starts with prominent keyboards and a pulsing bassline before heading into a big chorus. This track is followed by the edgy Chameleons sounding “We Can Run”. The band changes pace on the slow burning “Glass Jacket” but keep the high-energy and drive consistent across the disc. What makes Dead Fame exciting is that they have been able to put their own personal imprint on a well-traveled genre.



Dead Fame is playing two local shows at the end of the month. The first is at Lit Lounge on March 31st and the second is at Pianos on April 1st. At the Lit Lounge show, Dead Fame is playing with Praha Depart (from Japan), Keeps (NYC), and Good Morning Valentine; Cover is $6. At the show at Pianos, Dead Fame is playing with Autodrone, Star Fawn, and Labirinto and cover is $8.

Links:
Dead Fame

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King's X Offer 1991 Concert Recording to Fans Who Donate To Help Jerry Gaskill's Medical Bills

As Jerry Gaskill continues his recovery from a heart attack suffered late last month, King's X are offering a download of a previously unreleased 1991 concert to fans who donate money to help offset the drummer's medical and personal bills.

Available for download via the Molten Music website ( click on the poster), Burning Down Boston: Live at The Channel is a 90-minute, 13-song concert recorded at the height of the band's 1990 tour in support of Faith Hope Love. In addition to purchasing Burning Down Boston, donations can also be sent to Jerry Gaskill c/o World Entertainment Inc., P.O. Box 3095, Sea Bright, NJ 07760.

Jerry's medical condition is improving - he is no longer in ICU, but is still hospitalized battling pneumonia. He can sit up, and is showing signs of recovery that have his family and the band encouraged.



Links:
King's X

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Michael Schenker Group - "Hard Rock Legends Vol. 2" (Live at Rockpalast 01/24/81)

The opening of the Rockpalast vaults is exciting as this German TV program has been broadcasting full-length live performances from an eclectic range of artists since 1974. One of the first releases out of the vault is a concert from Michael Schenker Group (MSG) which was recorded in Hamburg on January 24, 1981.

This 60 minute live disc captures MSG during their peak early years and the timing of this concert catches the band squarely between 1980’s The Michael Schenker Group album and 1981’s MSG follow-up. Aside for vocalist Gary Barden, the lineup from the first disc had already transitioned out so, this time out, the lineup is filled out by UFO bandmate Paul Raymond (keyboards, rhythm guitar), Cozy Powell (drums) and Chris Glen (bass). Of the disc’s eleven track, seven are drawn from The Michael Schenker Group album and the remaining four come from Schenker’s most recent stint with UFO.

After braving Michael’s “Live and Drunk” 2007 tour and being somewhat bored by The 30th Anniversary Concert: Live in Tokyo, this Rockpalast concert helps me remember why I liked the band in the first place. The early lineup of MSG was a great hard rock band and MSG, at their peak, could rival the Strangers in the Night lineup of UFO. This live recording shows Barden’s voice and Schenker’s playing in top form, both of which are complemented by Cozy Powell’s phenomenal drumming.





Given the strength of the band’s performance, it is hard to pick one or more “standout” tracks as I’ve done with other reviews. The crowd responds strongly to the UFO tracks “Lights Out” and “Rock Bottom” but Schenker and the band sound great on the MSG tracks as well. Of the solo tracks, “Armed and Ready”, “Lost Horizons” and the instrumental “Into the Arena” are probably my favorites due to Schenker’s stellar guitar work.

Michael Schenker Group - Markethalle Hamburg, Germany, Jan. 24, 1981
Armed and Ready
Cry For The Nations
Victim Of Illusions
Natural Thing
Feels Like A Good Thing
Into The Arena
Rock Bottom
Lookin’ Out From Nowhere
Lost Horizons
Doctor Doctor
Lights Out

Links:
Michael Schenker

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Deathamphetamine - "The Lost Album" CD Review / Show at Saint Vitus on May 17th

Boston’s Deathamphetamine is one of the more unique bands that I’ve heard in a while as their music blends grindcore and death metal with a bit of thrash thrown on top. Adding to the band’s sonic attack is remarkable clean production which highlights solid guitar riffs and solos along with hints of melody beneath the grime and grind.

The Lost Album is the band's first full length cassette release, a concept album about an apocalyptic future where all of their cynical paranoid conspiracy theory lyrics turned out to be true. In real life the original masters of this album were stolen during the recording process before they could be completed. So the concept of the final version ties the real and fictional events together, a story where the recording is finally found in the future by the last man left on a hostile mutated Planet Earth.

The disc starts with a short track, “The Story So Far”, which sounds like a worn-out horror movie sound-effects tape on its last legs before the music settles into the core sound of the disc. The second track, “1-1-2-3-5”, starts with some grinding riffs before the dual death and black metal vocals kick in amidst the blast beats. “Losing It All” shows the band bringing a bit of crust punk into the mix with some hoarse and clean gang vocals along with clean thrash guitar riffs and solos. “The Black Moment” is the closest thing to a rock track on the disc and it has a melodic guitar & bass driven build-up to where the death metal vocals kick in. “More Sauce for the Goose” is a solid hardcore number that breaks toward the end of the track for a brief movie soundtrack interlude. “Stalinizer” brings some falsetto (Rob Halford style) vocals into the mix and the disc goes out with “The Last Man” which is a fully-developed metal/rock track that grinds to a halt for a final run through a different snippet of broken film soundtracks. As much as the band is all over the place stylistically, The Lost Album comes off as a cohesive body of work.

The Lost Album is available as a digital download or on a limited edition cassette, which is available in four different colors from Obscenity Cult Records.

Deathamphetamine are playing St. Vitus Bar in Brooklyn on May 17th. (No information about the show is posted yet)



Links:
Deathamphetamine

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Iron Claw: Scotland's "Lost Pioneers of Heavy Metal" Releases New Single 'Final Hours'

Capping off a year that found Scotland's Iron Claw being hailed as the Rock n’ Roll comeback story of the Decade, Iron Claw has roared back to build upon the momentum and notoriety gained in 2011.

From 1969 to 1974 Scottish Heavy Rock band Iron Claw plowed across theUK, blasting out relentlessly heavy doom-laden, heavy blues rock. In and out of the recording studios, the band never officially released an album, but the bulk of their recorded output finally saw the light of day in 2009, released as a self-titled CD by Rockadrome. 35 years had passed since their last recording, but it was as if time had stood still. 2009 found a hungry audience, salivating at the heavy riffs and earthshaking rock that was Iron Claw. Stunned by the overwhelming response, the lads of Iron Claw started talking and soon, the band had reformed to work on new material. The buzz began to build.

Rightly hailed as one of the silent legends, the pioneers of British Heavy Metal and Hard Rock, with their Ripple Music debut, A Different Game, Iron Claw proved that their role in Rock History shall never go unspoken again. A hard biting, bluesy album found the band re-energized and vibrant on their first ever official releases.

After separating with vocalist Gordon Brown, Iron Claw conducted an extensive, nationwide search to find their new lead singer, Dumphries native, Gary Hair, then immediately ducked into the studio to put their new vocal chords to work. Now, having emerged fully refreshed, revitalized and a bit meaner, Iron Claw are ready to unleash their new single, "Final Hour" onto a rock-loving world. As bassist Alex Wilson puts it, Gary brings a "heavier direction to the band, more hard rock energy and passion. This should mark a return to an even heavier, rockier Iron Claw sound." A sound befitting of a band that has rightly become legendary among underground metal fans.



Links:
Iron Claw

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