The Viking of National Public Radio rides in on Winter’s Wind. Lars Gotrich, NPR Music’s Online Music Editor and frequent contributor to All Songs Considered visits to ruminate on Spiritualty in music and culture, his genesis as a Holy Son of the American South to transcendent discussions on Talk Talk, Scott Walker and Leonard Cohen’s [...]
I've been battling a head cold all weekend. It sure does suck! Of course, lest you think I would deprive you of a Sunday Mix Tape, here I am to help alleviate those fears. RULES for uninitiated noobs: I give birth to a weekly Mix Tape to be deposited on your iPods or Zunes or [...]
Hey, troopers. I attend my first Halloween party of the season last night. In accordance with my rule of not buying a costume, I simply donned a purple v-neck and a "Hello I'm" sticker and went to the party as Jeff Probst. Host of the Jeff Probst show. So I just walked around smiling and [...]
• "Dude, it works." Or so says the guy who invented the Bug-A-Salt, the latest weapon in defending ones home against insects like spiders, houseflies and mosquitos. I assume this article - which appeared in the Wall Street Journal - means mosquito hawks, because regular old mosquitos are pretty fucking small. There's no way I could [...]
What an eventful weekend. Friday night we celebrated Tom's birthday (and I stayed sober! wow!) out in North Hollywood. Last night I went to a birthday party/murder mystery party that was both stupid and amazing in equal measure (and I didn't stay sober! wow!). Got home shortly before sunrise and managed to make it into [...]
In celebration of the upcoming 200th Sunday Mix Tape, I've decided to spend a few days this week taking a leisurely stroll down memory lane. My memory's lane. I've compiled 199 official Sunday Mix Tapes as well as a few compilations that arrived on a Monday or other random day. It's time to take a look back and examine why this feature has become such a huge success. Since I can't post 200 MP3s this week, I'm going to list what is - in my opinion - the standout track from each installment of the series. About half [...]
It's been over 18 months since I shared Coma Waering with you. Now it's time to discuss Weighing Souls With Sand , one of the most-beautiful, harrowing contributions to metal genre of the past decade. If you don't recall the previous post dedicated to The Angelic Process, I'll give some background information. The duo of K. Angylus and MDragynfly (who were also husband and wife) formed in Macon, GA in 1999 to begin creating self-described "ambient drone metal." They continued successfully for years with EPs and full-length albums including the aforementioned Coma [...]
I'm tired, man. I woke up at 7am again this morning. Nicci sang the national anthem at the Rose Bowl for the MS Walk-a-thon, which was really nice to hear. Too bad those walkers were antsy, it would have been super-cool if they relaxed a bit and let me sleep another couple hours. Oh well. I started to crash at work after about three hours, but I found my second wind and made it through the day without passing out. Nate, Nicci, Tom and I saw Kick Ass tonight, which I highly recommend. I haven't laughed that hard [...]
Nicci's workplace had their annual Christmas Party at Malo tonight, which meant a couple hours of heavenly eating and drinking. Right now I am full of carnitas, potato and eggplant tacos, beef and pickle tacos and chicken/chorizo quesadillas. I could not be happier. If that restaurant wasn't so expensive (or maybe if I had a better-paying job?) I would eat there every night. Well, not every night - I'd need to eat at Qdoba and Casa Bianca and Patra, too! Hey, how about a mix tape? RULES for uninitiated noobs : With [...]

The Angelic Process was a self-described "ambient drone metal" duo from Macon, Georgia. Formed in 1999, they create beautiful, heavy, VU's-always-in-the-red compositions. "Gorgeous swirling black ambiance, massive crushing metallic pummel, soaring majestic melodies, the sound somehow heavy and brutal, but washed out and gauzy, a thick My Bloody Valentine haze draped over everything, voices drift amidst the buzz like paper angels dropped into a roaring fire. Everything glistening and sparkling, glimmering and shimmering, then roaring and grinding and washing over you like some suffocating black tide." (Aquarius Records). Not just MBV, but The Swans, Neurosis, Earth and even Godspeed You! [...]

Word has been trickling out - K.Angylus, of the husband-and-wife duo The Angelic Process , passed away in late April. No official cause of death has been announced. The final Angelic Process record was the mammoth Weighing Souls With Sand , which ironically was about coping with a spouse's death. Last year, Angylus suffered a hand injury which rendered him unable to play music, and The Angelic Process went on hold indefinitely in October. Million Year Summer I will always associate Weighing with sickness, for different reasons. Last [...]

Ok then let's have a bit of noise and distortion. Boris - Message (Southern Lord) Taken from the "Message/Floorshaker"EP but this track is also on the bands fine "Smile" album. Buy Here Extreme Noise Terror - Religion Is Fear (Deathwish Inc) This is taken from a split 7" single which Extreme Noise Terror share with Trap [...]

30. the great deceiver - 'life is wasted on the living' [review published on issue #163 of Terrorizer magazine] Shame that metalcore has become such a dirty word, otherwise it would be a perfect term to describe bands that actually can appeal to the sensitivities of both hardcore and metal audiences by doing a bit more than just mixing clean and rough vocals and doing a lot of breakdowns. As it is, it’s hard to describe The Great Deceiver’s new album without alienating the genre purists by the end of [...]

For my final "Friday Top Ten" of the year, I always like to write about the news music that has found its way into my possession over the course of the previous 365 days. In 2005, I think I devoted a paragraph to each of my favorite 25 records. Last year, I wrote three-word reviews for my favorite 50 records. This year, I'm upping the stakes, with one all-encapsulating sentence for the best 100 new records. Strap your safety belts on, because this is going to be a very, very long music-related entry. The Top 100 [...]
I feel like such a waste of life. I got absolutely nothing accomplished this weekend. This is like a dead zone or something. Ken and his lady-friend Katie have flown out to LA from Jersey and are here staying with us for about a week, but all we've done is thrown a big party for Nicci's sister, played some music with Ilya, gotten really wasted and sat around giggling or napping. I think I've been caught in one of those phases where all the days run together to form a linear system of increasingly hazy moments. It's kind of fun [...]

Hello beautiful friends. I trust gravity is not keeping you down on this beautiful Sunday, is it? Unless of course, you're living in Vermont (as pictured above, six years ago), where temperatures are starting to drop already. After a miserable, rainy Friday night, the rest of the weekend has been beautiful. And how did I spend my time, you ask? Why, getting drunk on Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale and Port Brewing Wipe Out IPA of course! Today I joined a local bird-watching group for a picnic and some vino in the park. Then shared tasty [...]

There is just no easy way to describe The Angelic Process , which is quite the compliment really. In their case it’s the problem that there is just so many things to list that the band weaves into one large cacophonous but beautiful sound. Descriptive words like “drone” or “ambient” could very easily be thrown in here somewhere and that would be that, but it would only be discrediting what The Angelic Process has done on their latest release Weighing Souls with Sand or really any of [...]

Kronos After what seemed like a slow start, metal in 2007 has shifted into high gear. Great releases flood in from the underground daily. In Left Hand Path #009 , we've reviewed over 30 discs, including must-have splits from Baroness/Unpersons and Eibon/Hangman's Chair, Harvey Milk reissues, Marduk, Municipal Waste, Abigor, Glorior Belli, Irepress, dark ambient from the Cold Spring label, and much more. The Angelic Process - We All Die Laughing Kronos - Suffocate the Ignorant [...]
Today was quite pleasant, thanks for asking! My early afternoon was spent with Fawn and Brian checking out a community garden where they want to buy a small plot to grow their own herbs and vegetables. We talked to a guy named Dana who maintains two plots filled with cacti, and he showed us around the grounds. Apparently at the top of the hill a beekeeper keeps several colonies of bees to harvest their honey. I was mortified, to say the least. I saw two frames from a short distance and refused to get any closer than that. I don't [...]
The Resonance Of Goodbye - The Angelic Process . mp3