Subtitles - Just A Little Bit Brighter digital EP

Turning the Rock N Roll up to 11 with this next one. Jonney of Subtitles, hit me up so that I might give his band an audio gander. "We (Subtitles) are a three-piece garage/punk/demon doo-wop band from the Midlands UK." Once again I was more than pleased that I have opened myself up to getting requests for reviews, as how in the hell would I have been turned onto this little bit of bitter sweetness. I got back to him, "Jonney, you guys fuckin ROCK! Refreshing to hear some modern rock n roll that stays true to the spirit and doing it right...snotty as all get out, you've done Lux and Poison proud." I asked him to give me his take on the band, "Subtitles are a three-piece garage band. Taking cues from Oblivians and Coachwhips but also equal parts Death Grips and Zach Hill. Expect more reverb than a Catholic church and songs about AMC's The Walking Dead and R Kelly. Part of DIY music collective Goodtime Recordings." Being a UK band I couldn't help but think of the Beatles, the trashed out, happy hooligan version of the Beatles...the UK Cramps you might say. That's a pretty easy comparison, a no-brainer, but I'm not familiar with the bands they compare themselves to, these guys are a good reason to.  I can only imagine, but you know this band must be a blast live, this studio stuff is just a taste and probably only partially captures the energy.  If I was you I wouldn't take my girl friend to go see them though, these slippery guys would sweep her right off her feet with their crooning and have her dancing naked. They have their own demented originals and then there's lots of these cover-like songs (riffage and lyrics), where they twist (and shout) and disfigure them for their own dastardly purposes, a nasty lot these Subtitles.  The band has a Facebook, a Twitter, and a Bandcamp, the latter of which is where is the tunes are at, of course.  Some of my favorites from this and the previous release... "I'm Gonna Get Spooned By You" [audio mp3="http://mustard-relics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/2.Subtitles-Im-Gonna-Get-Spooned-By-You.mp3"][/audio] "Cunthair Motel" [audio mp3="http://mustard-relics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/4.Subtitles-Cunthair-Motel.mp3"][/audio] "Stop Teasing My Cock" [audio mp3="http://mustard-relics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1.Subtitles-Stop-Teasing-My-Cock.mp3"][/audio] "New Religion" [audio mp3="http://mustard-relics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/3.Subtitles-New-Religion.mp3"][/audio]

Go below for all their tunes and chance to get some virtual music (unfortunately I did not see that they had any hard copies)...

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1349918948/size=medium/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/transparent=true/

[vimeo 55666496 w=500 h=281]

Subtitles - I AM AN ANIMAL from Two Headed Snake Productions on Vimeo.

Life Won't Wait by Michael Essington

I don't know what I like more, reading books or listening to music. I was listening to music in utero but I come from a long line of book worms. Books like "Life Won't Wait" make me lean towards reading (at least for the duration). ;-)  Mr. Essington picked up where he left off with Last One To Die, really this could be Last One To Die Part 2, or he could have gotten creative like they do with sequels in movie titles and called it Last One To Die With A Vengeance. The difference here though is that this is not a some lame sequel, instead it's just as freshly captivating as the first installment, no let down. Now I need to stop myself because I have some problems reviewing this book. First, I have been friends with Mike for several years now, followed his blog early on and most importantly I have a ton of respect for him as a human being (with so many assholes in this world, he gives us hope). On top of that, he bestowed upon this humble blogger a great honor by naming me in his acknowledgments, that as cool as being thanked on a record. The last problem I run into, is the risk of repeating what I said in my previous reviews of his books (and I already have). To put those worries to rest, I'll be blunt, if you dig outlaw autobiographies by someone besides a pretentious dickhead, something REAL, then you will dig this. Mike was/is an LA county Punk Rocker all the way, but if you were born anywhere in the US in the 60s, you can relate. Shit, just about anybody could relate to the plain and simple emotion of a life like his. This is exactly what drew me to Mike's writing in the first place, no bullshit. He's shown that he can write fiction too, as he did with his short story in Under a Broken Street Lamp, and I just don't know which I like better. Fortunately I don't have to pick his fiction or his non-fiction, it's an "and" thing, a simple equation, he writes 'em, I read 'em. You can get a sample of this latest book, to see for yourself, HERE. He's got a Facebook for the book and if you want to do the press thing you can go to his Createspace. You can also get the book there or you can get the kindle of it at Amazon. 30+ years later Michael is still going to gigs, so if you're in LA and you want to meet Mr. Essington, got to a Punk club or better yet go to any Symbol Six show and he's bound to be there.

Black Sabbath - Walpurgis The Peel Sessions 1970 LP

Relentless!  A word that's never come to mind in describing myself.  More like "surviving", kinda like the guy facing the relentless onslaught.  When you think about a struggle though, a life long kind, most of what we face is self inflicted.  Not victims of some kind diabolical external force, but just day in day out trying to get the peanut butter off the roof of your mouth.  Nothing so dramatic as a comic book, a good vs. evil battle, I am not the Wolverine, the battle ground exists in my head.  Shit, your mind is your best friend (God I abused you old pal) and yet it's your worst enemy.  Really this GIF is what it looks like inside old Mustard's noggin.  Uh oh, I'm far too brain damaged to make any kind of attempt at getting deep...but I enjoy trying.  ;-) I've mentioned this before, and I've also mentioned before that sometimes things are worth mentioning more than once (Maximum Rock N Roll's review of my band Garden Weasel's demo said, and I quote, "Nothing you haven't heard a million times before"), I absolutely and irrevocably can't stand Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" or "Freebird".  Too many years in too many bars with idiots playing those songs over and over again.  I am close to throwing "Gimme Three Steps", "Call Me The Breeze", and "Saturday Night Special" into that lot, so that doesn't leave much left as far as LS.  With that being said, I never did explore any of LS's other stuff.  A few years ago, I started hearing tunes of their's that I really liked...a few, to be exact.  Stumbled across a place called The Witchwood Records and found two of said songs, from a live set they did on KBFH Show Cardiff, Wales, UK 1975-11-06. For your listening pleasure... The Needle & The Spoon Simple Man There was one more of their tunes I wanted to feature here but, after searching though about 30 bootlegs I could not find them doing it live. Had to settle for the demo version... Junkie Got this bootleg a while back, it's on Discogs, and I've seen them on black vinyl, but mine is on clear, #247/300.  Not sure why I got it, I have so many Sabbath records, guess I just wanted to have a bootleg.  And on top of that I just love Peel Session recordings, high quality, live in studio.  About the only recording I've found that I didn't like was SPK's, believe it or not.  And the cover, I just love the image they chose, it is so Black Sabbath.  The back cover is sweet too, with the vintage photo, not sure if it's from 1970, when most of these tunes were recorded.  And...and...and, it's made in Finland, maybe my only record from that under-represented Viking country.  There's a million BS live recordings out there, so maybe this will interest no one.  The first four tunes are the Peel Session ones, "Walpurgis" is "War Pigs" with different lyrics, all very cool, live and heavy. "The Rebel" is from a 1969 demo, very PRE-Sabbath (extra emphasis on the "PRE"). Lost In Sabbath had his/her take on the Peel Session (aka Radio 1) and you could download it from Frequency LSD, where you can find those alternative lyrics to Walpurgis (War Pigs). I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing (actually have it hanging on my wall)... Black Sabbath Walpurgis Fairies Wear Boots Behind The Wall Of Sleep The Rebel Was curious about this demo track so did a little more researching and came across the Big Takeover, where you can find a lengthy treatment on early Black Sabbath (Earth) demos and early recordings. Again at the Witchwood Records blog, I found the recordings that guy is talking about on the Early One Morning bootleg. Here's those other Earth tracks that go with "The Rebel"... Unknown Demo Early One Morning When I Came Down (this is called the "full version" but it's actually just a loop of a segment)