Ricky Gervais reads Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier"

I posted a Karl Pilkington clip the other day, and as I have been listening to the podcasts all over again (plus the brand new one, The Ricky Gervais Guide To The Earth), as well as enjoying the old XFM stuff and watching the first episode of the animated HBO show The Ricky Gervais Show, I find myself becoming a bit obsessed. But in a good way.

Here's another podcast snippet - Ricky reading Rupert Brooke's 1914 poem The Soldier.

(mp3) Ricky Gervais - The soldier
Excerpt from The Ricky Gervais Guide To The English (2009)

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #51

Ol' Bobby G from METAL! requested a mix with a cold, wintery theme. So here it is. You know me, I aim to please. I'd do anything for my dear readers.

Perhaps this will serve as a sort of companion post to this one.

(zip) MP3 Shuffle #51 (93 mb)

1. Big Business - Cold lunch (2008)
2. Mammoth Grinder - Frozen (2009)
3. Desultory - The chill within (1993)
4. Amon Amarth - The arrival of the Fimbul winter (1994)
5. Mayhem - Freezing moon (1994)
6. Formicide - Frozen death (1987)
7. High On Fire - Frost hammer (2010)
8. Judas Priest - Winter (1974)
9. Probot feat. Lee Dorrian - Ice cold man (2004)
10. Metallica - Trapped under ice (1984)
11. The Bronx - I got chills (2003)
12. Celtic Frost - Triptych: Winter (Requiem, chapter three: Finale) (2006)
13. This Empty Flow - Snow blind (1996)
14. Anathema - Emotional winter (1999)

Pay for your music.

A few more that I couldn't quite fit in:

(mp3) The Sword - Winter's wolves
Available on Age Of Winters (2006)

(mp3) Neurosis - Cold ascending
Available on Enemy Of The Sun (1994)

(mp3) Cirith Ungol - Frost and fire
Available on Frost And Fire (1980)

(mp3) Municipal Waste - Black ice
Available on Hazardous Mutation (2005)

(mp3) The Devin Townsend Project - Winter
Available on Ki (2009)

(mp3) Obliteration - Nekropsalms evoke the frozen age
Available on Nekropsalms (2009)

(mp3) Witchcraft - Lady Winter
Available on S/t (2004)

Karl Pilkington is greatest man alive

The Manc mong talking about the time he saw two bugs duking it out in his garden. I have no reason to post this other than I find it fucking funny.

And I mean the title of this post literally, by the way. The Pilk is a genius. Put him in charge of the world and it will be sorted in no time at all. He makes a lot more sense than Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant give him credit for.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot - head like a fucking orange. And all that.

(mp3) Karl Pilkington - The wasp and the cricket
Excerpt from The Ricky Gervais Guide to Society (2009)

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #76

(mp3) Jucifer - Birds of a feather
Available on L'Autrichienne (2008)

(mp3) Strapping Young Lad - Centipede
Available on No Sleep 'Till Bedtime (1998)

(mp3) earthtone9 - Tat twam asi
Available on arc'tan'gent (2000)

(mp3) Sawyer - He gave what he could
Available on On The Seven (2000)

(mp3) Pitchshifter - Dead battery
Available on Deviant (2000)

Upset Simian Endeavor

Oh how I love Patton Oswalt.

Hear him rip on a hipster and his ridiculously named band. Recorded in Atlanta in 2002.

(mp3) Patton Oswalt - Angry monkey project

New Deftones track

So then, Deftones have released the first track from their upcoming sixth album Diamond Eyes (set for release on May 18th), their first with former Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega.

The follow-up to 2006's Saturday Night Wrist was supposed to be an album called Eros, but about a year ago the band decided to shelv it because it wasn't good enough and record a new one, which turned out to be Diamond Eyes. It is said Eros will still be released in some form in the future though.

Deftones pretty much dropped off my radar after 2000's excellent White Pony, and apart from the singles I haven't heard anything from their subsequent albums. Not sure how I feel about this new song Rocket Skates. I dig that riff and it has a nice groove, but it doesn't really go anywhere. But with bands these days having the peculiar habit of releasing the most mundane off their new album as a preview, perhaps the album as a whole will turn out to be worthwhile.

(mp3) Deftones - Rocket skates
Available on Diamond Eyes (2010)

Entombed side-projects galore

Any avid reader of this blog would know my love for Stockholm's metal heroes Entombed. I've dedicated several posts to them, and included them in many of my mp3 shuffles. And as we all know, they made the best album of the 90's.

As I posted yesterdays mp3 shuffle (which not only included Entombed but also Haystack, a band featuring Entombed's then-guitarist Ulf Cederlund) I couldn't help but think of all of the side-projects the Entombed lads have been involved with over the years. Here follows some of my favorites:

This first one is the debut album by death metal duo Comecon, on which Entombed singer L-G Petrov provided the vocals. I admit it's not technically a side-project, as L-G sang on this after he had been fired from Entombed. He would soon rejoin the band, but that's a whole different story.

I really like Megatrends In Brutality which often sounds more like late 80's Sepultura than "regular" death metal, with L-G's vocals sounding quite a bit like a young Max Cavalera. A bit strange, since he's never sounded like that before or since. The drum machine also gives the album a light hint of Nailbomb. A forgotten gem for sure.

(mp3) Comecon - The future belongs to us
(mp3) Comecon - Good boy Benito
Available on Megatrends In Brutality (1992)

Next up is Leadfoot, starring drummer Nicke Andersson (here on vocals and guitar) and the aforementioned Cederlund from Entombed, and singer/guitarist Nix Wahlgren and drummer Jocke Ericson from The Nomads. If I understand it correctly. Feel free to point out how wrong I am.

Leadfoot existed for less than a year and only did one recording session, during which a four song demo was put together. Andersson would later thank the experience in Leadfoot for giving him the confidence to front his own band The Hellacopters a year later.

(mp3) Leadfoot - Suckerpunch (1993)

Speaking of The Hellacopters, here they are. They formed in 1994 and as mentioned Nicke Andersson was the frontman for the band's fourteen year existence. Other members were Andersson's childhood friend Kenny Håkansson on bass, Robert Eriksson on drums and Dregen from Backyard Babies on guitar.

There's not much to say about the Hellacopters other than that they were one of the best band in the history of music. Download, listen, worship.

(mp3) The Hellacopters - 24h hell
Available on Supershitty To The Max! (1996)

(mp3) The Hellacopters - Colapso nervioso
Available on Payin' The Dues (1997)

Ulf Cederlund had, and I suppose still have, a big love for American noise rock and started his own band Haystack in the mid 90's while Entombed was on semi-hiatus due to snafoos with their label.

I wrote quite extensively about all of this almost two years ago, so click here for more info. If you like Unsane and/or The Melvins, it would be a crime not to look into Haystack.

(mp3) Haystack - Inside
Available on Right At You! (1996)

(mp3) Haystack - An object I can't control
Available on Slave Me (1998)

Daemon has been covered on this blog before, right here to be precise, so click that and have a look. A death metal band formed by Andersson and Konkhra frontman Anders Lundemark. Andersson played on the first album, Seven Deadly Sins.

(mp3) Daemon - Sloth
(mp3) Daemon - Gluttony
Available on Seven Deadly Sins (1996)

Retro death metallers Murder Squad formed in the early 90's by Cederlund and singer Matti Kärki and bassist Richard Cabeza from Dismember. Peter Stjärnvind from Merciless played drums. Stjärnvind would later join Entombed in 1997 when Andersson quit to devote himself to The Hellacopters full time.

The first album came out in 2001 and was a glorious exhibition of old school death metal, festering with bile and maggots. In July 2008 I wrote the following about the second album Ravenous Murderous: "Old school death motherfucking metal. The kind that stinks of sewage, vomit, piss, and maybe some bongwater that someone spilled on the couch the night before. The kind that never gets laid and will die with a beer gut."

Very well put, David. Very well put indeed.

(mp3) Murder Squad - Bloodfreak
Available on Unsane, Insane And Mentally Deranged (2001)

(mp3) Murder Squad - Spunkslut
Available on Ravenous Murderous (2003)

Stjärnvind and Entombed's then-bassist Jörgen Sandström (here on guitar) formed the doom metal supergroup Krux with Candlemass' bassist Leif Edling. Fredrik Åkessson from Talisman (he would later play with Arch Enemy and today he's in Opeth) played lead guitar and Mats Levén of Therion and Yngwie Malmsteen fame handled mic duties.

They've released two albums so far, and both are fabulous.

(mp3) Krux - Omfalos
Available on S/t (2003)

(mp3) Krux - Pirates
Available on II (2006)

Lastly we have another band featuring Ulf Cederlund. The indie-rockish Alpha Safari featured three former Misery Loves Co members as well - singer Patrick Wirén, bass player Patrik Thorngren and drummer Olle Dahlstedt. The latter replaced Peter Stjärnvind as Entombed's drummer in 2006.

Dahlstedt also played drums on Kelly Clarkson's smash hit Since U Been Gone in 2004. How fucking awesome is that?

The correct answer: Extremely awesome.

(mp3) Alpha Safari - Disappear
Available on Commercial Suicide (2004)

(mp3) Alpha Safari - It wasn't designed for us (b-side)

Alright, that'll keep you busy for a while. More Entombed next week, don't miss it.

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #50

I can't believe I've done fifty of these things, feels like I just started this flawless, weekly traditional yesterday. Time sure flies when you have a great taste in music. Trust me, I'd know.

I strongly advice you to check out all the other Friday mixes here and here.

(zip) MP3 Shuffle #50 (55 mb)

1. Poison Idea - Plastic bomb (1990)
2. Black Flag - My rules (1980)
3. The Hives - See through head (2004)
4. Limp Wrist - Dead weight (2009)
5. AC4 - Coptown (2009)
6. Abhinanda - The rumble (1998)
7. Mastodon - Megalodon (2004)
8. High On Fire - Ghost neck (2010)
9. Haystack - Black sheep (1996)
10. Entombed - Something out of nothing (2000)
11. Nirvana - Scentless apprentice (live, 1993)
12. Spiritual Beggars - Entering into peace (1996)

Pay for your music

Them Crooked Mormons

The ramblings of a nutcase appeared today in the comments for my post on Tool's 2005 album 10,0000 Days:

"fuck you you think your fucking god or something

I wanted to use a photo to put on my I toons from 10000 days and I end up with your narcissistic copulating blog about purchasing my own music as not to be a fucking god damn cheap bastard cunt and want you to know your self indulging atmospheric ego of yourself looks great for yourself I am sure and you will never understand what the fuck I am saying because these words make zero sense to an overly indulged obtuse narcissist with thinking errors of grandiose and assuming ideas have kept you in your psychotic reality of paranoia and extreme thinking. The tuff ass picture is great but how does it compare to your real photo? I elaborate due to the fact that I have bought the album twice now because the first time some mother transient fuck face of a scrotum stole my radio and tool cd's out of my car and broke all the windows out.

I dont bitch and moan about it but when I find ass fucks giving a statement about being cheap bastards and not purchasing music and instead steeling it, I find an anger response that sets me into a murderous state. Speaking of states I am from utah and any fucking biasis you have against that you can also take those and vas tu faire encule chez les grec. Or if Italian is better for you: Vas fan cullo puta des stranzo. Tu mas merde eh je deteste pour ton malade neuropsychological pathology. Get therapy and take care of your irrational thinging before you realize that your whole putain life is a waste of fucking time. Dont tell me what I am and what to do you fucking cretin de merde!

Hopefully this draws a laugh and you find humour in it or else you really may need to relax more!

Crazy people are far more interesting than the borderline personalities that make life pointless and this is why a .45 slug to the pre frontal cortex is much more effective than finishing life as a neuroleptic sociopath with goals of detering other living organisms the right to simple freedoms in life. Sell yourself to whatever demon/gods you want but keep your self glorified limits and expectations of others to yourself and take care of yourself instead of telling others what to do. And this goes for myself and everyone else."

Yeah, I know it's rough in Utah, Brandon. I have no bias towards your state, but I watch Big Love y'know, I know all about it. Do you have someone you can talk to? Your eight skanky wives don't count, I bet you're sick of the sight of them already.

No, it did not draw a laugh, because I worry for you. Take care of yourself, and God bless. Perhaps these songs can cheer you up?

(mp3) The Bruisers - Lunatic
Available on Still Standing Up (1996)

(mp3) Queens Of The Stone Age - Everybody knows that you are insane
Available on Lullabies To Paralyze (2005)

(mp3) G.B.H. - Maniac
Available on City Baby Attacked By Rats (1982)

(mp3) Bigelf - Crazy
Available on Closer To Doom (1997)

(mp3) Giant Squid - Mormon island
Available on The Ichthyologist (2009)

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #75

(mp3) Sick Of It All - Scratch the surface
Available on Scratch The Surface (1994)

(mp3) The Jesus Lizard - Gladiator
Available on Liar (1992)

(mp3) High On Fire - Razor hoof
Available on Surrounded By Thieves (2002)

(mp3) Shining - Längtar bort från mitt hjärta
Available on V: Halmstad (2007)

(mp3) Deftones - Hole in the earth
Available on Saturday Night Wrist (2006)

Happy Valentine's day, consumers

I did a Valentine's post yesterday on the other blog with Richard Hawley, Outkast, Billy Bragg and others.

Then I remember Marilyn Manson also had a song about this the most contrived "holiday" in the sad, consumerist society of today.

Enjoy it.

(mp3) Marilyn Manson - Valentine's day
Available on Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death) (2000)

Polisens egna rättshaverister på extraknäck i tuben

Civilsnutarna Martin Bergström och Carl Larsson trakasserar och hotar en kille i Stockholms tunnelbana.

För hela historien, läs här.

(mp3) Necros - Police brutality

(mp3) The Dicks - Dicks hate the police

(mp3) Black Flag - Police story

(mp3) Dead Kennedys - Police truck

(mp3) The Bruisers - Police oppression

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #49

For a while there these Friday mixes were getting a little soft and fuzzy, but lately they've been harsh as fuck. And this week's is no exception.

This is one of my own personal favorites so far. It's so damn good it has to be heard to be believed.

I know what you're thinking: "Only ten tracks? What a gyp, I'm not gonna waste my time downloading that shit". Well, it just so happens the average song length here is over six minutes. Over an hour of hellish brutality, squire.

To be precise, it's exactly sixty minutes and twenty five seconds of ear-shattering death metal and black metal, with sprinkles of doom and grindcore. Y'know, all the basic food groups.

Well worth your time.

(zip) MP3 Shuffle #49 (85 mb)

1. Moment Maniacs - Time for war (1999)
2. Mayhem - Buried by time and dust (1994)
3. 1349 - Celestial deconstruction (2005)
4. Dissection - Night's blood (1995)
5. Entombed - In the flesh (2000)
6. Cathedral - Phantasmagoria (1993)
7. Nirvana 2002 - Further beyond (1991)
8. Opeth - The twilight is my robe (1996)
9. Repulsion - Black breath (1989)
10. Obliteration - The worm that gnaws in the night (2009)

Pay for your music

Machine Head feat. Peter

Machine Head did an awesome thing in Vienna last night - they let a fan named Peter (or is that Pieter?) play Aesthetics Of Hate. Peter and his friends had a banner with them that read "Let me play AOH - seriously I can play it", and the band decided to let him come up and give it a go.

Dude did a damn good job too:

(mp3) Machine Head - Aesthetics of hate
Available on The Blackening (2007)

(mp3) Machine Head - Thrash-terpiece (Aesthetics of hate demo)
Available on The Blackening Special Edition (2008)

Electric Wizard galore

Liz Buckingham is the sexiest woman of all time.

Why? Because she's the only woman who's ever played in Electric Wizard.

(mp3) Electric Wizard - Devil's bride
Available on S/t (1994)

(mp3) Electric Wizard - Doom mantia
Available on Come My Fanatics... (1997)

(mp3) Electric Wizard - Burnout
Available on Supercoven (ep, 1998)

(mp3) Electric Wizard - Funeralopolis
Available on Dopethrone (2000)

(mp3) Electric Wizard - The outsider
Available on Let Us Prey (2002)

(mp3) Electric Wizard - Eko eko azarak
Available on We Live (2004)

(mp3) Electric Wizard - Witchcult today
Available on Witchcult Today (2007)

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #74

(mp3) Opeth - Bridge of sighs
Available on Watershed (special edition, 2008)

(mp3) Cortex - Animals (...Looking At Me)
Single (1986)

(mp3) System Of A Down - Know
Available on S/t (1998)

(mp3) Motley Crue - Dr. Feelgood
Available on Dr. Feelgood (1989)

(mp3) Foo Fighters - Stacked actors
Available on There Is Nothing Left To Lose (1999)

Zach Galifianakis

This blog has turned into Uncle Metal Bastard's Comedy Corner recently. But I have been listening to a lot more comedy albums than music ones lately, so that's just how the cookie crumbles.

Zach Galifianakis is, as we all know by now, a comic genius. I saw him all fresh faced and beard-less on The Late Show back in 2000 with Janeane Garofalo guest hosting while David Letterman was away having heart surgery. David Cross and Bob Odenkirk were also on the show that night - definitely a great evening for comedy.

I remember being completely knocked out by Zach's performance (he did his one-liners-while-playing-piano thing), but I could never have imagined he would turn into the revered performer that he is today. I thought the brave joke about working as a nanny and touching the little boy's penis would blacklist him right then and there.

Here's an 80 minute interview I found at A Special Thing. It was made in 2006 and Zach is suprisingly open and un-sarcastic about every topic, ranging from his upbringing in North Carolina, to the lean years as a struggling comedian in New York, to his failed late night talk show on VH1, to the TV series Dog Eats Man, which he was working on at the time.

Highly recommended.

(mp3) Zach Galifianakis - Interview 2006

Lady Gaga + Meshuggah = ♥

Ah so you liked the Lady Gaga/Behemoth thing, did ya?

Very well, here's another one, with Meshuggah this time. Almost as good as the Behemoth one. Both of 'em were made by someone named Pallomember, so all credit goes out to that dude.

(mp3) Lady Gaga & Meshuggah - Bleed-a-razzi

The Friday MP3 Shuffle #48

I don't remember what I was going to write here, because it was all wiped out by the season premiere of Lost.

What the fuck was that? It's fascinating how a tv show can continue to take left turns at every stop without ever jumping the shark. This last season will be epic. It will be fucking biblical and it will forever go down in the history books as one of the finest television productions of all time.

Since you're may be wondering: I made this mix weeks ago before I was aware of when season six of Lost would be begin, so the opening track here is a complete coincidence.

Or is it?

(zip) MP3 Shuffle #48 (81 mb)

1. Neurosis - Lost (1994)
2. Deathspell Omega - III (2005)
3. Cobalt - Blood eagle sacrifice (2007)
4. Deathbound - The process of destruction (2010)
5. Slipknot - Metabolic (2001)
6. Pantera - I'll cast a shadow (2000)
7. Mistress - Whiskey tastes better (2005)
8. Nirvana - Paper cuts (1989)
9. Fireside - Drown (1994)
10. Machine Head - A farewell to arms (2007)

Pay for your music

Lady Gaga + Behemoth = ♥

Negative Nancys be damned - I love Lady Gaga. That bitch got balls. Perhaps literally.

I'd totally lick those balls. I'd nibble her foreskin too. Then we'd cuddle and watch the sun rise.

(mp3) Lady Gaga & Behemoth - Ov fire and bad romance

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #73

(mp3) Fireside - Left rustle
Available on Do Not Tailgate (1995)

(mp3) Scorpions - Wind of change
Available on Crazy World (1990)

(mp3) Korn - Reclaim my place
Available on Follow The Leader (1998)

(mp3) Chris Cornell - Seasons
Available on V/A - Singles Motion Picture Soundtrack (1993)

(mp3) Marilyn Manson - Count to six and die
Available on Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley of Death) (2000)

Blackwater Park - "Dirt Box" (1971)

We all know Opeth's Blackwater Park is the best album of all time, but what about the band that inspired its title? Well they were no chumps either, my friends.

But while their music was great, their story is neither long nor interesting. They were based out of Berlin, consisted of one limey and three krauts, and Dirt Box was their only album.

That's it. Seriously, that's all there is to tell.

(mp3) Blackwater Park - One's life
(mp3) Blackwater Park - Indian summer (recommended!)
(mp3) Blackwater Park - For no one (Beatles cover)

Buy Dirt Box @ Amazon.com.