the of mirror eye

* Thrones: Oso Malo (10.0 mb) | Django (5.0 mb) | The Anguish Of Bears (8.5 mb)
From White Rabbit : Kill Rock Stars : KRS283

Thrones is the solo band project of THE heaviest player in the stoner doom metal world, Mr. Joe Preston. His resume is a doom metal fanatics wet dream, being an ex-member of Earth, Melvins and Sunn0))). Currently playing with High On Fire and countless other doom metal bands.

Thrones is a fascinating little project as it lets Mr. Preston get all freaky with bass, guitar, synth and drum machines. He gets to really stretch out and experiment with his own bad-self, not only with the super down/dirty/heavy music, but also with some more “odd” little pieces (i.e. Django). So, let down your hair, raise up those horns and get ready to rock to the heaviest dude in the world.

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* Spacemen 3: Take Me To The Other Side ( 10.0 mb) | Walking With Jesus (7.0 mb) | I Believe It (8.0 mb)
From Live At Spielboden : May 20th, 1989 : Dornbirn, Germany

I first posted about this band, Spacemen 3 way back in Dec, 2004 (look here) and decided that now would be a great time to do a repost about them. For me, this band really epitomizes the primal/drone rock ‘n’ roll side of things. They do more with one or two chords than someone like Yngwie Malmsteen could ever hope to do with his “…jaw-dropping technique of lightning fast harmonic minor scalar riffing.”

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* Undertow Orchestra: Closing Down My House (9.0 mb) | Criticism As Inspiration (8.5 mb) | The Devil Is Beating His Wife (7.5 mb) | I Do (7.5 mb)
From Live At The 40 Watt Club : Feb 06, 2006 : Athens, GA

Well, this is kinda (really) cool. A bunch of indie/americana rockers getting together for a collaborative tour under the banner of the Undertow Orchestra. So, here’s the line-up.

David Bazan: From Pedro The Lion (look here). An incredible songwriter, able to write unironic concept albums about good and evil in this world.

Vic Chesnutt: A writer coming from the Southern Gothic tradition.

Mark Eitzel: Frontman for the American Music Club, brilliantly melding rock, country, blues, folk, punk and lounge into one great whole.

Will Johnson: Frontman for a number of bands, including Centro-matic. A powerful alt country songwriter.

Scott Danbom: A musician in Centro-matic.

They all share the stage and rotate between each others songs. Alternating between lead and back up. It’s a pretty cool idea and the execution is fantastic. These players are really able to get into each others musical ideas and come up with something new.

Hope you enjoy this. Warning, Closing Down My House has a semi-raunchy/funny joke at the end.

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* Mantronix: We Control The Dice (7.0 mb) | Music Madness (8.5 mb)
From Music Madness : Traffic Entertainment : teg7651cd

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I know precious little about old school hip-hop. Most of my hip-hop type listening is the new breed of indie hip-hop. But every once in awhile, I like to break out the old classics like this electo-hip-hop masterpiece, Music Madness by Mantronix. I mean, just look at them (up above). If that doesn’t give you a warm feeling in your special place, then I don’t know what else can.

Mantronix is the duo of Mr. Kurtis Khaleel (aka Kurtis Mantronik ) and Mr. Toure Embden (aka MC Tee). They got together in 1984 and quickly caught the ears of pretty much everyone with their debut album. Their second album was just as good and lit up the clubs with its unique blends of synthetic polyrhythms and turntable work. Even though this album was released in 1986, it still sounds just as fresh now as it did when it was first released.

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* The Dirtbombs: Chains Of Love (5.5 mb) | Cedar Point ‘76 (3.0 mb) | Shake Shivaree (2.0 mb) | Do You See My Love (For You Growing)? (7.0 mb)
From Live At The Magic Stick : June 14th, 2002 : Detroit, MI

After The Gories imploded back in 1992 (look here), lead dude Mick Collins needed something else to occupy his time. And The Dirtbombs were just that something. Originally a side project that Mr. Collins brought together in 1992, the band was formed out of his desire to bring the rhythm and the bottom back to rock ‘n’ roll. Thus, a two drummer, two bassists line-up with Mick on guitar.

With three “concept” albums (a notorious hater of long playing albums, Mick Collins has decided that each album will have a certain sound. i.e. a pop album, a soul album, a punk album, etc.) under their belt and a whole crateful of singles (a notorious lover of the singles format), this band has become one of the leaders of the dirty rock ‘n’ roll sound.

Ah yet, the list. HERE’S where the ugly truth about The Dirtbombs finally rears its head: This band has a beginning, a middle, and an end. I sad down and worked out everything I want to do with this band, musically speaking, and when I finish it all, The Dirtbombs go gentle into that good night, where hopefully there’s a bar with a decent jukebox, serving Guinness. This whole thing is a big, loud, touring kinetic sculpture MASQUERADING as a rock band. Here’s how it works out: The full-lengths are standalone pieces. I’m just experimenting with sounds here; none of it means anything. The live show is another thing. You’re gonna get the best rock ‘n’ roll show I can deliver. The singles? Much closer to the live show that the albums: loud, spontaneous, hastily convened, maybe a little out of tune, probably only on take beyond sheer improvisation. More like collectible trading cards than anything else these days. a collectible trading card you can get up and have a bolldy good spaz to on the dance floor.

(Mick Collins)

These tracks are from a great sounding live show at the Magic Stick in their hometown of Detroit, MI. Just on the basis of this recording, it sound like they put on one hell-ov-a high energy, dancin’ fool sort of evening.

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* The Gories: Hey, Hey We’re The Gories (3.0 mb) | Stranded (3.0 mb) | Nitroglycerine (5.5 mb) | I Think I’ve Had It (2.5 mb)
From I Know You Houserockin’ : Crypt Records : CR-CD-04241

This here’s the Gories from Detroit, hot off the press.
It’s gonna jump on you baby, and it’s gonna stay in your dress.
Here it comes!

From the late ’80’s to the early ’90’s, The Gories blasted people away with their brand of off-kilter punk/rock/garage/soul/blues. With the line-up of Mick Collins (lead guit-box/vox), Dan Kroha (rhythm guit-box/vox) and Margaret Ann “Peggy” O’Neill (cave stomp drums), this band not only rocked the house, they rocked the alleys, the trashcans, the bathrooms and the streets. This is the real deal, folks. Rock ‘n’ Roll played the way it was meant to be played, all raggedy assed, loud and raw.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), they only released three LP’s and a handful of singles before internal frictions got the best of them.

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