Have you got another confession to make? Are you a fool who has never tried egg foo young? Well, it’s time to be my hero and try out this ultra delicious recipe for a Chinese omelette packed full of veggies and smothered in gravy that will put you end over end and you’ll definitely want these to stick around.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup bean sprouts
• 1/4 white onion, diced
• 1/2 cup zucchini, grated
• 1/4 cup carrot, grated
• 3/4 cup bok choy or spinach, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced or shrimp or meat of choice
• 1 small clove garlic, grated
• 1 teaspoon ginger root, grated
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup broth
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 handful cilantro, chopped
• 1 tablespoon oil

Directions

1. Mix the bean sprouts, onion, zucchini, carrot, bok choy, mushrooms, garlic, ginger and salt well in a large bowl and set aside.
2. Bring the broth to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer adding the soy sauce, rice wine and mirin.
3. Mix the cornstarch into the water, add it to the gravy and simmer until it thickens.
4. Mix in the sesame oil reduce the heat to low to keep it warm while you cook the omelettes.
5. Squeeze any excess liquid from the vegetables, drain and mirin the eggs along with the cilantro.
6. Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat.
7. Pour 1/3 cup of the mixture into the pan and cook until golden brown on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side. Note: If the egg starts to spread out, push it back in with your spatula.
8. Serve over steamed rice and top with the gravy and extra vegetables if desired.

Try this recipe and you can have it all! This could be the one, let me tell you.

-KG

The rumors are true! Norwegian black n’ roll band Kvelertak have signed to Roadrunner Records. An interesting choice for both parties, but Kvelertak had a huge breakout in 2011 that no doubt afforded them the luxury of shopping around for the label that gave them the best offer. After critical success as well as other career highlights such as sharing the stage with Foo Fighters, it’s undoubtedly only going to get better.

The tracklist to their Kurt Ballou produced sophomore album Meir is as follows:

1. Åpenbaring
2. Spring Fra Livet
3. Trepan
4. Bruane Brenn
5. Evig Vandrar
6. Snilepisk
7. Månelyst
8. Nekrokosmos
9. Undertro
10. Tordenbrak
11. Kvelertak

The leading single from the album, ‘Bruane Brenn,‘ can be heard below:

Meir will be released March 26th. According to Roadrunner, we can look forward to Kvelertak North American tour dates that are to be announced soon. Get the mead ready, because it’s going to be a raging party.

- JR

Brendon Small is a remarkable fellow. Not only has he enjoyed the success of two animated series on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim (Home Movies and Metalocalypse), but the Berklee graduate is also a gifted musician and standup comic.

Small discusses Metal, why his next television endeavor won’t be animated, acting school, his heroes, and his hopes of returning to standup comedy.

So do you ever plan to revisit standup, and what was that like compared to acting, studying at Berklee, and then today, making cartoons?

It’s funny, ’cause my goals in standup are very specific and small from time to time because I enjoy doing it, I enjoy [it] when new stuff works. I’m kinda using it to develop some ideas right now, but there’s some other stuff that I’m working on. When I go up onstage, when you see me performing, it has nothing to do with the world of Metal, or anything. It’s more just related to my life and my family… it’s kind of almost more… about whatever’s going on in my life at any particular time. But it’s fun, I enjoy it. It’s harder than anything else you’ll do… I just kinda learned how to redo it, relearned the rules or whatever “not to do”. Stupid mistakes people [make] with the audience.

Playing Metal in front of 30,000 people is WAY easier than performing for a small room of 18 people.

Really? The pressure’s that different?

It’s just [that] comedy’s not guaranteed to work. It really is not. When you go see a comedy show, it doesn’t mean it’s gonna be funny. You’re trying something that may not work. When you go and see a Metal show, I can go and rehearse, I can sit with the drummer, I can write some songs, I can put ‘em on a CD, and… I can gauge whether people are enjoying themselves by sales on all that stuff. And then I can go and play them, and chances are good – unless I screw up – that what I give the audience is what they expect, and they’re excited and everything. But that is NOT the case with comedy. I could have a misstep from the very beginning and lose people who are actually fans, by maybe losing confidence in the moment… Even if you do really well at the top of your set, it doesn’t mean that the middle of your set is gonna go well. But you can also potentially get them back again.

Anyway… I’m still very fascinated by it, but you kind of get out of it what you put into it. You have some comics who just want to be standups for a living, then you have people that are gonna utilize it as a tool for writing.

Who are some of your standup heroes? You’ve worked with Louis C.K.

Oh, Louis is great, Louis is probably one of the best. That’s how I got started, when I started Home Movies – was when I was on a show with Louis C.K. in Boston, and Ron Lynch, who’s hilarious… Louis is doing something kind of brand new. I mean, he has been doing that for years. I mean he was on my old show, Home Movies, he was my father. He played my father and he was a recurring actor on the show before he became the super, super, number one world famous standup. I love Bill Cosby, I love old schoolers – I love Woody Allen… those are probably some of my favorites. I mean, there are some people doing great stuff out there, but I like people that can go into the longer form. There’s something about Bill Cosby – he just seems so incredibly relaxed, you’re engaged in every moment… I almost feel like he’s improvising it. Maybe he is; that guy’s just a master.

When you were doing film and acting with your friends, did you use any particular method or technique? How did you approach acting?

[With] acting, I didn’t really know what I was doing. Only recently, in the last year, did I really start studying. I wanted to start studying acting, understanding it better. I have some other projects that I’m excited about trying out in the near future, and I just wanted to make sure that I really submerged myself in the world of acting out here. I found some really great instructors, and went and tracked down Garry Shandling’s acting coach because I’m a huge fan of his. I also love Garry Shandling, by the way. He’s been one of my heroes since I was like 11 years old. So I went and tracked down his acting coach and I started studying with him, and it was incredibly humbling. I learned a lot about acting, and it made me a lot more confident. I’ve done things before, tons of pilots and stuff, where I truly did not know what I was doing, and I probably could have done a better job had I had a couple [more] tools. These classes really helped out with that.

[I studied]… some Meisner stuff… Uta Hagen’s whole world of stuff, that was something that was really big.

The Meisner method is pretty crazy, isn’t it?

I don’t even remember how to categorize what was going on in Meisner, but I think that’s what Uta Hagen’s style was. I read her book… It’s about getting up and doing it, it’s just like standup or music – you gotta get it out there, and do it wrong, and do it right, and critique. The best thing about Uta Hagen’s style was self-criticism. Going through a scene and realizing what worked, what didn’t, and why. Why do I feel like that first part was happening, and why do I feel like I was lost at the end? Where was I, where was my mind? Be able to direct yourself, be your own director. That’s the ultimate kind of thing, I think, that makes you a better director, it makes you understand space better, spatial relationships between actors. A lot of that stuff I brought into the 4^th season of Metalocalypse just to kind of up the ante, and just try to do tiny little things to enhance the show.

You always have celebrated Metal musicians doing guest voice work on the show. Do you have any particular favorite instances out of your time working with these guys?

In the Metal world… Usually it’s a very simple and quiet and nice process, whenever someone comes over – we don’t put people on the spot, and they don’t put us on the spot. We just want to make sure we’ve got something that both parties feel good about, as far as performance…

The coolest thing I’ve done though, for me as a guitar player, is work with people like Slash, and Joe Satriani, and Steve Vai… and be able to cultivate friendships with Satriani and Vai. Now they’re actually a huge part of my recording world – they’ve helped me with equipment (like purchasing stuff). I wanted to get some microphone pre-amps and Steve Vai said, “Hey, come on over and tour my studio, and check [this] out, I’ll show you exactly what’s going on in my world.” And Joe Satriani sent me a video tape of all his pre-amps, and sent me some links on eBay, where to get them, stuff like that… It was incredibly cool and nice of these guys. You realize that most of these people that are successful in the world of music (or otherwise)… there’s a really good reason. They’re really good “people” people, and really nice guys.

Another huge highlight was working with Werner Herzog this past season.

How do you get involved with the people doing guest voice work? Do they approach you, or you them?

I always end up approaching them. I thought there’s this one voice that I knew would be a recurring [one], I wanted to have him do a whole bunch of voice overs and he would [bear] the delivery of some pretty hefty information on the show. I always thought in my mind that it should be someone with the kind of drama[tic sound] that Werner Herzog has. And somehow we managed to talk him into it. He was incredibly easy to work with and just a gentle, nice person. Just impressive, and as wonderful as we’d hoped he’d be.

So yeah, it’s always me going, “Do you think we can get Malcolm McDowell?” or, “Do you think we can get Mark Hammill?” Just puttin’ “the feelers” out and then – for Herzog – I’d heard that he’d said no to some shows, but for some reason the script that we sent him, he said yes to. He was really cool.

How is it having Mr. Luke Skywalker doing regular voice work?

It’s pretty cool. The first time you meet him, it’s a very star-striking moment where you’re going, “that’s simply Luke Skywalker, any way you slice it. It’s really him, and I’m talking to him, and we’re looking at each other.” And then later on he turns into just a regular nice guy, who’s incredibly lucid and funny and sarcastic. You take away all the Star Wars stuff from him, and you’ve still got an amazingly talented guy who’s full of tons of range. I didn’t just hire him because of Star Wars, I wanted to hear his audition for the show. And I heard it, and I was like, “Thank God, that’s exactly what I was hoping for!” He had the perfect take on this character that I was hearing in my head without directing him to do anything. He just naturally kind of did what I’d hoped he would.

I was like, “This is absolutely no problem, I’m not simply satisfying the Star Wars nerd side of me, I’m actually casting a part where the actor is going to do a great job.” And it was also to satisfy the Star Wars nerd, but…

Yeah, his work in Batman: The Animated Series was fantastic as well.

I think I was in college or something like that, or I was away from TV for a few years, but I didn’t really know about [that show]. But I heard people loved [Mark as] the Joker. But all the stuff he does is really great, too.

And how about working with Brian Posehn as a co-writer?

He’s the only other Metalhead in the world of comedy. [Everyone else] likes wimpy indie-Rock stuff, which is fine every once in a while. I think they’re all sensitive people in the world of comedy, even though they act all tough. They really like to listen to mellow, soft music about their feelings and stuff. Posehn’s the only one that likes Metal. So we would talk about Metal occasionally, and then I did the show, and he came up to me one day and he goes, “How is it that there’s only one TV show that’s on about Metal and I’m not working on it?” So I said, “Well, come and do some stuff.” He’s a great writer, he helped out a lot with the 3^rd and 4^th seasons. In addition to being recognizable and funny, he also understands the craftmanship of writing. It’s not only “fun”, it’s kind of a long struggle to organize events and timelines, character wants and needs and all the specific parts of the scripts. And he gets it, and he brings a lot of his own personal experience to the table, which is probably the most valuable thing you can do as a writer or an actor.

Have you begun season 5 of Metalocalypse, and is it true that it will be the last installment?

I don’t know… if it’s going to be the last. I’m going to see how much story I can get through [with] the thing that I want to do, and I’ll know by next spring exactly what the future of the show is.

Did you have any cool guests in mind that you’d like to have on season 5?

No, we don’t really think that way. We have some voices to test, sometimes people are available and sometimes they’re not. With this season, we had people from the world of Rock N Roll and Metal and all that, then we also had people like Werner Herzog and doing voices. John Hamm was a fan of the show and had been watching it, and he’s like a big comedy nerd, too, so every time I was going out performing I’d see him backstage. And I was like, “I should do something with that guy.” That guy’s got some amazing range in the voice, you wouldn’t recognize that it’s him! He can do tons of stuff.

So I really don’t know, it’s just too early to say for some of that stuff.

What’s the current status on The Barbarian Chronicles?

Oh (chuckles). You know, I told Adult Swim about that show. I really liked that show. I said, “Hey, you know what? I’ve got this little show that’s completely developed and ready to go…”, and I’d already told the guys [at AS] about it and they’re like, “Yeah, well, we should do that.” and then I said, “But you know… I don’t think I really want to.”

Really?

I want to do one thing at a time. If I’m going to start developing something else, I don ‘t think it’s going to be animated. I think it’s going to be live-action. That doesn’t mean that I’m not going to do more animation, I’ll do more, but I think the next thing that I do has to be something completely different from what I’ve done before.

So how are you juggling all of your Metalocalypse/DETHKLOK duties in addition to your new side project, GALAKTIKON?

[GALAKTIKON] was something I did in between all the other stuff, so there wasn’t too much juggling. I just knew that I had about, like, I’d work on this a little patch at a time in between Metalocalypse stuff, and I just put it out there. People have been buying it… it’s been crazy. And people have been enjoying it. It’s really nice, I completely put it out by myself on my own label. All I’d wanted out of that project was to finish something that I had started, which I think is the most important thing you can do as a creative person – to not drop the ball, and to finish the thing you started whether or not people want it.

I mean, if you’re sitting there with half of a screenplay, and you never get around to the other half, it’s just like death. It’s like, “If you can’t finish that, what can you finish?”

Or, if you’re in the middle of animating your own pilot that you’ve done yourself, you’ve got to finish it, you must simply finish it. Even if it sucks, you have to get through it. You will come out the other side a better creative person.

How would you describe GALAKTIKON to people who haven’t heard it yet?

Brendon: There’s a lot of Dethklok [elements]… basically, I [am in Dethklok], Gene [Hoglan] played all the drums for Dethklok, Brian Beller is the bassist for Dethklok nowadays… I did music that I thought was a little more melodic, and I wouldn’t put it in the Dethklok world. And I wanted to experiment with vocals, and put melody in the vocals, because there isn’t any in Dethklok

And you’d said that the GALAKTIKON album was supposed to be a kind of audio-visual comic?

I knew that I just wanted some kind of story, and I thought, “I don’t think I’ve heard some intergalactic divorce story… wouldn’t that be interesting?” The other idea was: What if Superman and Lois Lane had this messy public divorce? And it was just humiliating for Superman, because he’d lost all his money and stuff? And later on, to further humiliate him, she starts dating Lex Luthor? How would he feel about that, what would that do to his ego? I thought, “I’ve got all this music… and I didn’t write the music with any story in mind, but I thought… Oh, this is kind of telling ME a story!”… so I kind of started inventing from there.

Also, I wanted to write a story that was something I hadn’t heard before. I didn’t want to write a bunch of individual songs about my feelings, or something. Who cares about that shit?

All bets are off as far as influence, because I can pull from anything that I like. If there’s a Weezer moment, I’ll go for it. If there’s a Soundgarden moment, I’ll go for it… Foo Fighters… I hear the kind of stuff that I’m influenced by, it’s all kind of in there in a big wad.

Speaking of Soundgarden, you directed a music video for them and another for The Damned Things. Are you going to be working on directing any more music videos?

It’s fun, I mean, it’s a lot of work but it’s totally fun… The Soundgarden s a really cool experience going to a wider-screen format and just navigating the world of compositing and animation a little bit more, and we definitely took that into season four [of Metalocalypse], all the stuff we had learned experimenting with different things for the Soundgarden video. The Damned Things was really fun because it was a live-action thing, which was so much easier to do than animation. It takes so much less time. Live-action – I would love to do that, because it gets you outside, and you can do it so much quicker. Animation… it took a year and a half to do 12 quarter-hour episodes in season four.

That sounds really tedious!

It’s completely tedious. And then taking all that and making sure all the music is in place. But it’s pretty satisfying too, because it’s your own show and you can do whatever you want!

And you’ve said before that while making cartoons has been a dream job, you don’t really care to watch much animation yourself. What do you like to watch?

Lately, I think we’re in an amazing era of TV. Maybe animation hasn’t really caught onto that just yet… But we have some of the worst TV on air right now and some of the best that TV’s ever seen. Like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad, and all the big nerdy shows. The craftmanship there is amazing. I love Louis C.K.’s show, and whatever History Channel stuff.

I’d rather not watch other cartoons, but I think South Park is probably one of the funniest animated shows that’s on right now. That’s the one that has a real reason for being on the air; it’s a satirical playground that they keep alive, and their show gets better in my opinion. I would have to say that that’s probably the best animated show I’ve seen.

You’ve said you’re of Lithuanian descent. Have you ever been to Lithuania or become really interested in your heritage?

My Lithuanian descent is very faint, because my mother’s full Lithuanian, her mother who died recently was Lithuanian, and we don’t know who my mother’s father is. So that’s where the family tree ends, so we couldn’t really go back that much further. I guess I know about 1930′s/1940′s Lithuania was a pretty shitty place to be, because it was under communist rule, and it was time to get out. But before that, I don’t know that much, except at one point – there are different places around the Baltic Sea and/or Scandinavia that claim to be the most depressing nations in the world. Lithuania had the highest suicide rate at one point. It also has a lot to do, I think, with the amount of light they’re getting.

—————————

Brendon Small is currently on tour with Dethklok, with support from Machine Head, All That Remains, and The Black Dahlia Murder. You can check out the remaining dates of the trek below:

11/13 – Fargo, N.D. @ The Venue
11/14 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ Myth
11/15 – Milwaukee, Wis. @ Rave / Eagles Club
11/16 – Chicago, Ill. @ Aragon Ballroom
11/17 – Kansas City, Mo. @ Midland
11/18 – St. Louis, Mo. @ The Pageant
11/20 – Denver, Colo. @ Fillmore
11/21 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ Great Salt Air
11/23 – Seattle, Wash. @ Showbox SODO
11/24 – Portland, Ore. @ Roseland Theater
11/26 – Oakland, Calif. @ Fox Theater
11/27 – Hollywood, Calif. @ Palladium
11/28 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Marquee
11/30 – Dallas, Texas @ House Of Blues
12/01 – Austin, Texas @ Stubbs
12/02 – Houston, Texas @ House of Blues
12/04 – Orlando, Fla. @ House Of Blues
12/06 – Chattanooga, Tenn. @ Track 29
12/07 – Charlotte, N.C. @ Fillmore
12/08 – Atlanta, Ga. @ Tabernacle

For more on Brendon Small, visit his official website. Dethklok’s Dethalbum III and Brendon Small’s GALAKTIKON are both out now on Williams Street Records

- LJ

Rock and Roll is Black and Blue

01. Terrified
02. Get Up
03. Legs
04. Just A Beautiful Day
05. I Don’t Care
06. You Wear Me Down
07. Type Of Girl
08. Always Away
09. Conceited
10. Don’t Do This
11. The Masochist
12. I Believed In God
13. I Believed In God (Reprise)

[10/09/12]
[Bad Taste Records/ Aquarius Records]

In every metal-head’s life, there was a time when we listened to accessible music albeit classic rock on prime-time radio or the pop stars that our young minds were susceptible to. We all started with commercial and arena friendly jams and whether you’ve abandoned that kind of music completely, revisit it for nostalgia’s sake or you simply still enjoy it like a lot of us used to it still exists. While commercial music still has plenty of innovative and legendary bands such as Muse and The Foo Fighters respectively, there is a lot of rock and roll that just won’t stay dead. The AC/DC‘s, Metallica‘s, Aerosmith‘s and Kiss‘ of the world have long overstayed their welcome for the sake of monetization while not bringing anything new to the table. They take a lot of spotlight from bands who are the least bit interesting and fun. Enter Danko Jones, a Canadian hard rock three-piece that beckon a refreshing take on vanilla rock music.

Firstly, don’t expect the modern messiah of rock music; this is hardly a band stretching into new territory. Danko are textbook rock n’ roll and many of the riffs here can be traced back to the Led Zeppelin and Cream days of the 60′s and 70′s. Old riffs don’t stop Danko from putting on a show though. He is an incredibly charismatic performer and doesn’t hesitate from changing the status quo in subtle ways. Each track on this album has an element that keeps it above mediocrity. Notably, Danko utilizes several techniques that are ‘ballsy’ when it comes to radio rock. The songs are punchy and rhythmically entertaining while Danko’s voice handles the majority of the melody. The trio are a tight group and exploit each others strengths in the best of ways; the fuzzy bass tone, the pummeling percussion, concise guitar work and anarchic vocals. By listening to the interplay between instruments and how they compliment each other, you can tell the group cares about their niche and spends a lot of time refining their ability. Even if it is generic rock, you have to give them credit where it’s due. These guys are at the top of their game.

Rock and Roll is Black and Blue is an enjoyable listen at the end of the day. The lyrics are hardly enlightening but after listening to conspiracy theorists, science fiction enthusiasts, philosophy nuts and misanthropists all day, it’s almost refreshing to hear someone sing about dives, bar fights, getting laid and getting paid. Accompanied by a vocalist who is willing to yell for four bars with no instrumental support, and compete against his own guitar work for the spotlight, it’s bordering on the line of fascination.

Supporting Danko is a rhythmic duo who are more than capable of handling their duties in some of the the more technical bands that we feature on this site. The bass tone is huge, fuzzy, and confrontational which is just another aspect that removes Danko from the mass of unworthy rock bands ever so slightly. The bassist, John Calabrese, isn’t afraid to take the spotlight with bass fills interspersed throughout the tracks. And it would be unfair to leave out Atom Willard who is just a beast on the kit. Atom utilizes some complicated fills and accents the beat in creative ways. Whether it’s his punk driven beat on ‘Conceited‘ or the crazy fills on ‘I Don’t Care‘, it’s safe to say he is underrated.

RARIBAB isn’t new by any stretch of the word,  but Danko Jones has managed to be just passionate and dedicated enough to kick this release (and several of his past albums) out of the void. Their songs are catchy and his sound is distinguishable. Sometimes, that’s all you need. If you’re a fan of unbridled rock n’ roll with absolutely no meandering bullshit, check this out.

Danko Jones – Rock and Roll is Black and Blue

3.5/5

- CD

Brendon Small, creator (and pretty much everything else) of Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse and Home Movies, is finally poised to release his side-project this year with Brendon Small’s GALAKTIKON. Described as a “High Stakes Intergalactic Extreme Rock album,” GALAKTIKON seemingly rips a page out of Devin Townsend‘s Ziltoid The Omniscient and will be an over-the-top rock opera of sorts with influences from modern black metal, Queen, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer. Here’s what Brendon said in a statement:

“This album should be thought of as an audio comic book, an over acted chamber drama, a ridiculous premise that takes itself way too seriously all the way to the end,” states Brendon Small.

GALAKTIKON is pretty much Dethklok in a shiny melodic rock package, featuring legendary drummer Gene Hoglan and Dethklok live/studio bassist Bryan Beller, as well as retaining mixer/engineer Ulrich Wild. Obviously, this is quite the departure from Brendon’s work in Dethklok, but should be just as excellent given the roster’s quality!

Brendon Small’s GALAKTIKON is due out this April. We’ll follow up with more information as it becomes available! In the mean time, hit up the project on Facebook for up-to-date information!

- JR

It’s pretty hard to describe the amount of fucked up that goes into the process of picking a Grammy nominee, let alone a winner, but it’s clear that the group of people involved in those decisions are never all that concerned with which artists have put out the best releases. Normally I wouldn’t pay attention to things like this, but this year I was actually invested in quite a few “mainstream” releases; judge me all you want, but I love me some Lady Gaga and Kanye West.

With that said I can’t help but feel that the Grammys have missed the mark once again with their announced 2012 nominees. Maybe it shouldn’t matter to me, but it just feels wrong to leave an album like Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy out of the Best Album nomination slot. It was easily one of the most eclectic and widely acclaimed hip-hop albums of last year, and having him on the list just seems like it would pull the publicity and attention that these sort of Entertainment Galas thrive on. Now I get that Kanye has caused problems in the past, but depriving one of the few eligible and truly talented men (despite what you think of his personality and presence, he is definitely talented) out of an honor like this just seems to cheapen the award ceremony even more than it has been known for in the past.

I know Mr. West isn’t the only great artist from the mainstream that was left off of this list; bands like Bon Iver, The Antlers, and Florence and the Machine were also left off the list in place of truly mediocre and terrible acts like Bruno Mars, Adele, and Rihanna — a woman with a great voice but some truly awful music to accompany it. Sigh. My only hope is that Foo Fighters or Lady Gaga get the prize for Best Album, but I won’t be holding my breath.

Anyways, here’s the full list of 2012 Grammy nominees. Feel free to peruse the list and grimace at the choices. A few good Metal bands have been nominated for best Hard Rock/Metal act. So I guess you can get excited about that. /End Rant

Record of the Year
Adele, “Rolling in the Deep”
Bon Iver, “Holocene”
Bruno Mars, “Grenade”
Mumford & Sons, “The Cave”
Katy Perry, “Firework”

Song of the Year
Kanye West, “All of the Lights”
Mumford & Sons, “The Cave”
Bruno Mars, “Grenade”
Bon Iver, “Holocene”
Adele, “Rolling in the Deep”

Best New Artist
The Band Perry
Bon Iver
J. Cole
Nicki Minaj
Skrillex

Album of the Year
Adele, 21
The Foo Fighters, Wasting Light
Lady Gaga, Born This Way
Bruno Mars, Doo-Wops and Hooligans
Rihanna, Loud

Best Pop Solo Performance
“Someone Like You” — Adele
“Yoü And I” — Lady Gaga
“Grenade” — Bruno Mars
“Firework” — Katy Perry
“F***in’ Perfect” — Pink

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
“Body And Soul” — Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse
“Dearest” — The Black Keys
“Paradise” — Coldplay
“Pumped Up Kicks” — Foster The People
“Moves Like Jagger” — Maroon 5 & Christina Aguilera

Best Dance Recording
“Raise Your Weapon” — Deadmau5 & Greta Svabo Bech
“Barbra Streisand” — Duck Sauce
“Sunshine” — David Guetta & Avicii
“Call Your Girlfriend” — Robyn
“Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites” — Skrillex
“Save The World” — Swedish House Mafia

Best Dance/Electronica Album
Zonoscope, Cut/Copy
4×4=12, Deadmau5
Nothing But The Beat, David Guetta
Body Talk, Pt. 3, Robyn
Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites, Skrillex

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
Duets II, Tony Bennett & Various Artists
The Gift, Susan Boyle
In Concert On Broadway, Harry Connick Jr.
Music Is Better Than Words, Seth MacFarlane
What Matters Most – Barbra Streisand Sings The Lyrics Of Alan And Marilyn Bergman, Barbra Streisand

Best Rock Performance
“Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” — Coldplay
“Down By The Water” — The Decemberists
“Walk” — Foo Fighters
“The Cave” — Mumford & Sons
“Lotus Flower” — Radiohead

Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance
“On The Backs Of Angels” — Dream Theater
“White Limo” — Foo Fighters
“Curl Of The Burl” — Mastodon
“Public Enemy No. 1″ — Megadeth
“Blood In My Eyes” — Sum 41

Best Rock Album
Rock ‘N’ Roll Party Honoring Les Paul — Jeff Beck
Wasting Light — Foo Fighters
Come Around Sundown — Kings Of Leon
I’m With You — Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Whole Love — Wilco

Best Alternative Music Album
Bon Iver — Bon Iver
Codes and Keys — Death Cab For Cutie
Torches — Foster The People
Circuital — My Morning Jacket
The King of Limbs — Radiohead

Best Traditional R&B Performance
“Sometimes I Cry” — Eric Benét
“Fool For You” — Cee Lo Green & Melanie Fiona
“Radio Message” — R. Kelly
“Good Man” — Raphael Saadiq
“Surrender” — Betty Wright & The Roots

Best R&B Album
F.A.M.E. — Chris Brown
Second Chance — El DeBarge
Love Letter — R. Kelly
Pieces Of Me — Ledisi
Kelly — Kelly Price

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
“Party” — Beyoncé & André 3000
“I’m On One” — DJ Khaled, Drake, Rick Ross & Lil Wayne
“I Need A Doctor” — Dr. Dre, Eminem & Skylar Grey
“What’s My Name?” — Rihanna & Drake
“Motivation” — Kelly Rowland & Lil Wayne
“All Of The Lights” — Kanye West, Rihanna, Kid Cudi & Fergie

Best Rap Performance
“Look At Me Now” — Chris Brown, Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes
“Otis” — Jay-Z & Kanye West
“The Show Goes On” — Lupe Fiasco
“Moment 4 Life” — Nicki Minaj & Drake
“Black And Yellow” — Wiz Khalifa

Best Rap Album
Watch The Throne, Jay-Z & Kanye West
Tha Carter IV, Lil Wayne
Lasers, Lupe Fiasco
Pink Friday, Nicki Minaj
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West

Best Country Solo Performance
“Dirt Road Anthem” — Jason Aldean
“I’m Gonna Love You Through It” — Martina McBride
“Honey Bee” — Blake Shelton
“Mean” — Taylor Swift
“Mama’s Song” — Carrie Underwood

Best Country Song
“Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not” — Jim Collins & David Lee Murphy
“God Gave Me You” — Dave Barnes
“Just Fishin’” — Casey Beathard, Monty Criswell & Ed Hill
“Mean” — Taylor Swift
“Threaten Me With Heaven” — Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Will Owsley & Dillon O’Brian
“You And Tequila” — Matraca Berg & Deana Carter

Best Americana Album
Emotional Jukebox — Linda Chorney
Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down — Ry Cooder
Hard Bargain — Emmylou Harris
Ramble At The Ryman — Levon Helm
Blessed — Lucinda Williams

Best Blues Album
Low Country Blues — Gregg Allman
Roadside Attractions — Marcia Ball
Man In Motion — Warren Haynes
The Reflection — Keb’ Mo’
Revelator — Tedeschi Trucks Band

Best Folk Album
Barton Hollow — The Civil Wars
I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive — Steve Earle
Helplessness Blues — Fleet Foxes
Ukulele Songs — Eddie Vedder
The Harrow & The Harvest — Gillian Welch

- EC

If this comes off I’m sure it’ll be great; despite some negative criticism of The Hunter, I still think Mastodon have more than got ‘it’.

Bassist and vocalist Troy Sanders let slip the news in this interview with MTV Canada:

With the support Record Store Day received from the likes of Deftones, Foo Fighters and Rush, I’m sure there’ll be a plethora of additional support for RSD 2012, which I believe is happening on April 21st.

- CG

So over the weekend I finally got around to checking out the Foo Fighters latest, Wasting Light. I’ve never been a huge fan, but I have nothing but respect for Dave Grohl and the boys for consistently delivering high quality rock records. And since Wasting Light has sold about a billion copies so far and has received nothing but high praise, I decided to give it a spin.  Sure enough, it is a damn fine rock album. BUT-one thing I was really looking forward to that slowly drove me nuts while I was listening to it, is their brand new three guitar attack-specifically, the lack of it.

Despite reading an interview with the Foo Fighters in Guitar World a few months back stating that they have all these crazy, interwoven guitar lines throughout Wasting Light and Grohl saying something to the effect of “with three guitarists, you have to be really careful or everything turns into a big fucking mess…”, I found myself desperately searching each track for a part, ANY part, where I could even tell there were three different guitars playing. Much less playing three separate parts….

Which brings me to my point, and I think all bands with three guitarists (Periphery, Whitechapel, Chelsea Grin, Iron Maiden) suffer from this.  I’ll call it “trying so hard to not overplay that everybody underplays” syndrome.  Or to reference Grohl’s statement above, they try so hard not to make a mess with their three guitar attack, that they end up sounding like they don’t have three guitars at all.

For God’s sakes man, if you are going to have an extra dude taking up space in your tour bus, sharing your food and your money, at least have a little FUN with it.  Make it a crazy fucking guitar “mess” once in awhile, ya know? I understand the concept of “keeping things tight” on your recording, and I believe the triple guitars probably pays off the most in a live setting. But goddamn-I would be hard pressed to pick out a single part on an album of any of the bands I listed above as something that can’t be performed live with two guitars or less. If you know of a good example, please share it with me…

It just frustrates me to see bands take on this approach and completely fail at making it interesting. Danza’s Josh Travis and Veil of Maya’s Marc Okubo, for example, are the only guitarists in their respective bands. But that doesn’t limit their creativity in the studio or their nut-crushing live performances in any way. So a band with three presumably competent guitarists? That should open things up BIG TIME, the sky is literally the limit. What’s stopping Whitechapel from playing certain riffs or sections in three part harmony? What’s stopping Periphery from writing a few crazy proggy sections where all three guitars are doing something completely different but complementary to each other? What’s stopping Chelsea Grin from doing, well, anything interesting with their three guitarists?

You tell me. Feel free to weigh in on the subject in the comments below and share some examples of the ‘triple axe attack’ done right. Stick around, because in an hour, our US editor Alkahest is going to argue the other side.

-JB

Mastodon let their fans know that they’ve recently stepped into the studio to write and record their new album by uploading a series of photos in the album ‘New Album Recording April 2011′. The above photo of the legendary Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Probot, Tenacious D, Them Crooked Vultures, etc if you somehow forgot his legacy) was tucked neatly at the end, leading rock fans everywhere to salivate in awe at the possibility of Dave contributing to the new album. Dave is certainly fit for Mastodon’s sound, just as Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Them Crooked Vultures, etc) fit in perfectly in “Colony of Birchmen” from their album Blood Mountain. Hopefully this ends up being more than friendly goofing off and we see a recorded collab between Dave and Mastodon; it’s just undeniably sweet and should be excellent!

Expect to hear more about this soon enough. We’ll have the record later this year!

- JR

Nachtmystium

Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. II

01. Cry For Help
02. High on Hate
03. Nightfall
04. No Funeral
05. Then Fires
06. Addicts
07. The End Is Eternal
08. Blood Trance Fusion
09. Ruined Life Continuum
10. Every Last Drop

I’ve never really been into real black metal, but the genre of post-black metal intrigues me. Beautiful ambient and shoegaze influence juxtaposed against the chaos of black metal made something different to me, and I enjoyed it. While I don’t see myself actively listening to and enjoying a lot of black metal outside of the occasional Emperor song, Nachtmystium are a strong middle point in the post-black/black metal spectrum of things, utilizing psychedelic influences and an experimental mindset. Nachtmystium are not your run of the mill black metal band, and Addicts will more that likely divide a lot of people in the black metal scene, which has its obsessions with remaining true to the genre.

For example, on the song “Nightfall,” Nachtmystium takes on a very catchy blackened punk sound with clean backing vocals and a classic rock bluesy solo, “No Funeral” takes a synth line and a dance beat and runs with it, and as Scott from Hook In Mouth put it, “Addicts” kind of sounds like a Foo Fighters song. This album confidently melds classic 70′s rock and roll, black metal, and hints of industrial to create something that’s actually kind of catchy. Some will say that black metal isn’t supposed to be catchy, but Nachtmystium makes it work well.

It’s obvious that this album would be different than Assassins, and despite the Part II suffix, this is an entirely different album and a logical progression, perhaps losing a tiny bit of their black metal sound along the way. This is a great follow-up to Assassins, and while it may find its place more comfortably in the ears of hipsters and casual listeners than in the ears of the so-called true and cult, this album stands up to be pretty great.

Nachtmystium – Addicts: Black Meddle Part II gets

4/5

- JR