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We Are Dios.

Hawthorne, CA-based psych-rock quartet Dios released their new record yesterday on Buddyhead records called 'We Are Dios'. A sonic trip down the rabbit hole, it drums up feelings of Flaming Lips crossed with a spun-out My Morning Jacket and a tongue-lashing of Fleet Foxes-esque harmonies, if they'd stayed up for a few days working it out.

The record is a ton of fun to listen to, a headphone case for sure. Along with being an excellent home recording, its release through their website using Topspin Media tools and the arsenal of options for customization of your "dios Experience" is a treat. 

Fancy a painting for yourself or your own song by singer Joel Jerome? It's for the taking (although I can imagine the creepers coming out of the woodwork). She's so scrappy, make me happy.

Stream the album below, buy it here.

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Filed under  //  buddyhead   dios   music   reviews  
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Posted 21 days ago

My Top Five Records of 2009

In spirit of year-end lists, I thought I'd share my top five recordings released this year. Considering the cross of genres, they aren't in any real particular order (aside from the mental priority list I cooked up in my head). 

I really love sharing about music, so if you have any recommendations or a list of your own to drop please hook me up in the comments or on Twitter.

         
Click here to download:
My_Top_Five_Records_of_2009.zip (488 KB)

This is a quite valiant fourth studio effort from a group who single-handedly made it right to keep metal music in the larger audiences' ears this year.

Beyond just being a metal record though, it's a front-to-back Pink-Floydian experience that shouldn't be digested in bits or fall victim to tracks being separated. Swallow whole. 

I'm a bit jaded since I loved his last record, 'True Magic', so much but this really is a solid hip hop record. Lyrically and from a production standpoint it's smart, insightful, and stands toe-to-toe with any of Mos Def's prior albums.

If 'Black on Both Sides' was groundbreaking then 'The Ecstatic' is flat out innovation.

There's really nothing else to say about this record besides the fact that it is just absolutely punishing, brutal death metal. These guys made a pact twenty years ago to make death metal their priority, and now "anything else that comes with it is just a bonus".

'Blood Oath' is a seminal death metal album, and a highlight of 2009 for this group that is two decades deep into their career. 

Although rumor has it that this may have been their last record, it would definitely be going out with a bang. Sonically pleasing & narcotically subtle, Isis pushes the boundaries of instrumentation yet again with what I can only describe as an almost perfectly intricate imagination of their entire catalog.

Headphones please.

The French electronic duo have been pushing out plenty of pleasing aural experiences over the last fifteen years, and 'Love 2' is no exception.

A textured masterpiece primed and ready to somehow find it's way into some blue jeans commercial, the guys that brought you the amazing music from The Virgin Suicides expand on their already signature sound with a new percussionist and a healthy sense of experimental space.

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Filed under  //  2009   lists   music   reviews  
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Posted 2 months ago

Steven Seagal: Lawman

A hobby of mine that has remained very agile over the years is watching action flicks from the 80s-early 90s that by all standards of today would definitely fall in the 'B' Movie category. Think 'Universal Soldier', 'Lock Up', and the like. I remember as a child blazing through all of Steven Seagal's three-word-titled movies ('Marked for Death', 'On Deadly Ground', 'Out For Justice', 'Hard to Kill', et al) thinking "This is going to end soon. It can't go on forever."

Then an interesting one came. 'Executive Decision'. I knew something was up when the title was only two words long. Plus it starred Kurt Russell. Seagal plays Lt. Colonel Austin Travis, and falls out of an F-117 airplane less than a quarter of the way through the film.

This I firmly believe spelled the beginning of the end for Seagal's action-laden-martial-arts-inflected films. Flash forward over a decade and a half, and it turns out Seagal has been a Lawman for over 20 years in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Meet the next logical step (after the weird country album he put out in 2005) in a struggling movie star's career.

'Steven Seagal: Lawman' broke A&E's series launch ratings record, pulling in over 3.4 million viewers this past Wednesday. And for good reason: this show is like a dream come true for 'COPS'-loving, action hacks like myself.

One part street cop, one part zen master, and at least 2 parts of badass-cheesy-quote-overkill, Seagal is tracked through the streets of Jefferson Parish (in Louisiana, "Counties" are referred to as "Parishes", it's a French thing) by a team of cameraman as he rides shotgun in an SUV, explaining how simply studying a potential criminal's mannerisms and movements can dictate whether or not they are a threat.

A perfect blend of action cheese, decent production, and everything I love about 'COPS', 'Steven Seagal: Lawman' holds up to the hype and is a definite payoff for A&E. If you want to watch him teach other police officers how to break people's arms, see him looking ever-so-keen yet relaxed as he rolls the streets talking Zen Buddhism sense into soon-to-be convicted felons, or just firing guns on a range (my favorite) tune into A&E Wednesdays at 10 pm. No dissapointment there.

Links:
On A&E: http://www.aetv.com/steven-seagal-lawman/
Seagal's weird country album: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_from_the_Crystal_Cave

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Filed under  //  a&e   reviews   steven seagal  
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Posted 3 months ago