Ufomammut - Eve (2010)

5th full length from Italy's Ufomammut.  1 song / 5 parts / 44 minutes.

Distressed metal for the hazy journey to the earth's core or through celestial oblivion.

Geologists & observatories should monitor this band's riffs.

Synth layered atmosphere resembling a space launch from ignition to explosion.  Rocket boosters spew hemp smoke for a doomed & ascent. Minimal oxygen as the droning deprivation continues.

What's our vector, Victor?

Immort Ale - Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

Dogfish Head have been brewing this beer for fifteen years.

Pours bloodshot mahogany with burgundy tracings. Aromas of dark berries and spiced vanilla with a splash of syrupy sherbet. 

Tastes equally sweet and smokey. Gin drenched raisins roasted over a maple wood fire.  11%.

Beer Beer!

Cyclops Barleywine - Elysian Brewing Company

Vierte una tonalidad anaranjada rústica espesada. Los aromas del caramelo cremoso cubrieron sobre el caramelo de la cereza del regaliz.

Vino rojo condimentado con las pasas y las voces bajas azucaradas de la vainilla. El final amargo de la fruta cítrica salta adentro hacia el extremo. 9.85%.

Online Translators Rule:

It spills a thickened rustic orange tonality. The aromas of the creamy caramel covered on the caramel of the cherry of liquorice. Seasoned red wine with you pass and low the voices sweetened of vanilla. The bitter end of the citric fruit jumps inside towards the end. 9,85%.

Sinatra

                         Lone Survivor of La Puente Massacre

Supergoose DIPA vs. Seattle Beer Week 2010 DIPA - Hale's Ales Brewery

                            Forget Mayweather vs. Mosley.

Round 1: ABV
SG: 7.1%
SBW: 8.3%
10-9, SBW

Round 2: APPEARANCE
SG:  Dense polished sienna with draped lacing.
SBW:  Crispy pumpkin with amber hues.
10-9, Supergoose

Round 3: AROMA
SG:  Syrupy citrus and mango aromas.
SBW: Very layered with pulpy pineapple and sugar coated cherry.
10-8, SBW

Round 4: TASTE
SG:  Puckering and prickled grapefruit with a coniferous hops finish.
SBW: Sticky caramel & floral sweetness sharpened with lemony flavor.
10-9, Supergoose

DECISION : Supergoose
SBW is nicely balanced but SG falls into my interpretation of a DIPA.

Now Playing: YOB - The Unreal Never Lived

Samson Nap

Interurban IPA - Fremont Brewing Company

Named after the 'Waking for Interurban" statue in Fremont.

Glowing Herculean smoked orange.  You could solidify it and forge it down into gold for legal tender.  Plump pine resin with tangerine.

Grapefruit and peppered lemon nectar. Floral, grassy, and softened with crispy pale malts. 6.5%.

Stranger to Reason.

Floor - Below & Beyond (2010)

8 CD's with roughly 100 tracks including a 32 page color booklet documenting everything one should know about Floor.

5x as many sweetened riffs as Baskin-Robbins has flavors.  Coated in molten caramel fossilized sprinkles.

Dinosaurian rumbling and viscous guitars down tuned to the point the strings are walloping against the 'floor'.  Early gnarled vocals fit just as well as the later melodic ones.

Heavier than....

The Immortal IPA - Elysian Brewing Company

Golden with faded cantaloupe highlighting.  Silky cap leaves feathered lacing. 

Smoked floral and leafy honey with toasted citrus aromas.

Freshly ground grapefruit zest rounded with pale malt and candied pear. 6.21%.

We're the Princes of the Universe!

Cut from the Depths of Space

Old Guardian Barley Wine - Stone Brewing Company

Scorched orange with fizzled carbonation.  Oily cedar soaked cherry with bursts of citrus melon fragrances.

Sugary tart red wine laced with peppered pine.  Honey and toffee compliment fruity resin. 11.1%.

Top Round London Broil + Barley Wine = Post Workout Nutrition.

Protecting Kittens

Solstice Pale Ale - Fremont Brewing Company

Light crisp pastel blonde with a ring of ivory heading.

Fresh and airy with banana and pear aromas sheared nicely with sharpened freshness.  Grassy lemon zest tang balanced against buttery spice grain. 4.2%.

Wherever Forever Is.

The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)

Tenth release by Oklahoma's The Flaming Lips.

Several years back my friend (equal parts Texan and surfer) recommended me this album and now it safely makes into my top ten of the decade ('00-'09).


Laced with catchy and textured hallucinogenic undertones then cut with blips of digital electronics and organic acoustics. A quirky science fiction orchestra that will dilate your pupils.

Apocalyptic lullabies for psychonauts and those suffering from decompression sickness.

Tracks:
1. Fight Test
2. One More Robot/Sympathy
3. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Part 1
4. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Part 2
5. In The Morning Of The Magicians
6. Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell
7. Are You A Hypnotist??
8. It's Summertime
9. Do You Realize??
10. All We Have Is Now
11. Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon (Utopia Planitia)

Dreams are brief madness and madness a long dream - Arthur Schopenhauer

Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout - Great Divide Brewing Company

Pours shadow black with subtle dark toffee tint.  Creamy roasted peanut butterscotch layered with mocha and plum aromas.

Sweetened smoked cocoa malts with lush toasted vanilla undertones and a pinch of oily hops. Gluttonous, like coffee ice cream turned into beer. 9.5%.

Happy Earth Day.

Peter Steele (01/04/62 – 04/14/10)

Beatrice

                                         Matt's bengal.

March Madness

                        ≈113,000 out of 5,000,000 as of 03/27.

In a parallel universe, with competent referees and where Duke doesn't have a pact with the devil, it would have been a four point Baylor win and my cat would have been a prophet.

I finished in the top 97.9%.

Tricerahops Double IPA - Ninkasi Brewing Company

Ninkasi Brewing Company is located in, Oregon's second largest city, Eugene.

Polished orange with glowing golden tangerine undertones.  Halo of frosty resined foam.  Fresh floral and dry hopped aromas.

Lemon candy hops cut against cookie sweetness. Oily pine soaked apple with a honey lime tinge and white wine finish. 8.8%.

Ligers are the largest big cats in the world.

1st Day of Spring Sun

El Jefe Weizen Ale - Hale's Ales Brewery

Hefeweizen's are German wheat beers.

Pours a murky corn straw yellow.  Fruity aromas drenched in spiced bananas cut with fresh apple and bubblegum.

Herbal undertones with kiwi and light lemon zest.  Clove laced pears with subtle grassy bitterness. 4.5%.

I believe in UFO's.

High on Fire - Snakes for the Divine (2010)

Fifth studio album from Oakland's High on Fire.

Matt Pike has been dishing out Hessian riffs, like Genghis Khan administered invasions, for two decades.

Tribal drums and monstrous bass detonations compliment the shrapnel crunch and harpooning solos. The album fits in somewhere between their earliest work and their last release with the right amount of thundering noxiousness.

Vocals remind me of an astronaut Lemmy gargling hot tar and Jameson. 

Tracks:
1. Snakes For The Divine
2. Frost Hammer
3. Bastard Samurai
4. Ghost Neck
5. The Path
6. Fire Flood & Plague
7. How Dark We Pray
8. Holy Flames Of The Firespitter

Bonus tracks which, unfortunately, were not on my copy.
9. Mystery Of Helm
10. Eyes And Teeth (live)
11. Cometh Down Hessian (live)

Taxpayers should support a Department of Metal.

Spaceship Needle

Stand By Me - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1986) - 99¢ Record #8

The film and tunes can be credited for an entire generation's fascination for backyard camping, leeches, and the 50's.  

Tracks:

1. Everyday (Buddy Holly)

2. Let The Good Times Roll (Shirley & Lee)
3. Come Go With Me (The Del Vikings)
4. Whispering Bells (The Del Vikings)
5. Get A Job (Silhouettes)
6. Lollipop (The Chordettes)
7. Yakety Yak (The Coasters)
8. Great Balls Of Fire (Jerry Lewis)
9. Mr. Lee (The Bobbettes)
10. Stand By Me ( Ben E. King)

Turn this movie into a video game?  Kids, who make Vern look trim and socially graceful, trek through the virtual wilderness on a corpse tracking expedition only to find Ray Brower is a zombie.

Full Sail Hop Pursuit - Full Sail Brewing Company

Full Sail Brewing Company is employee owned and located in Hood River, Oregon.

Pours a crispy light copper with blonde hued lacing. Cascading lemon grass and roasted toffee aromas.

Clean pine hop profile with floral undertones. Sturdy malt spine curbs the subtle bite.  Dry toasted finish. 6%.

Happy Birthday Will Clark.  Why isn't he in Cooperstown?

Hooded Menace / Anima Morte - Split 7" (2010)

Doomentia Records release featuring instrumental offerings from Finland's Hooded Menace and Sweden's Anima Morte.

Each band, from a different spectrum, churning out a cover from the other in an homage to vintage horror movie scores. 

HM start off with a lumbering, distorted, and sinister groove. These Knights of the East bring a monolithic and mummified tone that crawls from the dusty crypt. Retro and atmospheric.

The AM track could have literally been pulled from any 70's Italian horror film.  Foggy and progressive but with a surprisingly tranquil aesthetic. 

Lovecraftian keyboard and prowling organ. 

Perfectly creepy artwork for a very accessible record.

Tracks:

1. A Decay Of Mind And Flesh (Anima Morte cover by HM)

2. Grasp Of The Beastwoman (Hooded Menace cover by AM)

If I had to relive one day a la Groundhog Day it would be Halloween.

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY!

Here's to the few who forgive what you do & the fewer who don't even care.

Brother Dege - Folk Songs of the American Longhair (2010)

Dege Legg, from Louisiana, comes armed with a dobro and echoing voice.

Ten masterful tunes spiced in Cajun delta blues and steeped in bubbling bayou mushroom tea.


Recorded in a shed in Southern Louisiana these sonic vignettes are equal parts foreboding, mysterious, and inspiring. Tunes for the weary eyed freight train hopper or the soundtrack for a rustic Americana slideshow.

Up tempo Gulf coast pyschedelia that even at its bleakest will have your feet tapping. Enough good things can't be said about this album.

Tracks:
1. Hard Row to Hoe
2. The Girl Who Wept Stones
3. Too Old to Die Young
4. To Fill a Hole
5. House of the Dying Sun
6. The Battle of New Orleans
7. Dead & Gone
8. The World's Longest Hotdog
9. Old Angel Midnight
10. Black is the Night

Burnt out in Free Town.

Lazy Boy IPA - Lazy Boy Brewing

Lazy Boy Brewing is located about 25 miles northward of Seattle in Everett, WA. 

Pours ripe coppered amber with whisps of golden banana tint.  Head is full with a pane of lathering froth.  Fresh floral and pine aromas. 

Balances between creamy caramel sweetness and brisk grapefruit bite. Grain and citrus peel in the finish. 6.2%.

I prefer a lazy saint to an industrious sinner.