Friday, March 8, 2013

Tagging Along with Tools of the Trade

It was the beginning of 2013, and I was in a car with Tools of the Trade, on their way to a one-off show in Kuantan, Pahang. It was a three hour drive, and we were all finding ways to kill the time while singer/guitarist Tiong drove. I sat in the back with their new drummer Yuss (who was previously with "emoviolence" bands Kias Fansuri and Building of the Heartbreaker Pyramids). Bassist Emi was riding shotgun and acting as DJ on the car stereo. Eventually we landed on LA grind kings Phobia. Noticing that I was bobbing my head to the the music, Tiong turned from the driver's seat and asked, "Hey Adrian, have you ever seen Phobia?"

"Uh, yeah, twice. Once in 2011 and once in 2002 with Circle of Dead Children, at CBGBs."

"Wow." He paused. "Any proof?"

I laughed. It was the first time someone had asked me for proof that I'd seen an obscure grindcore band; frankly, it's the first time anyone's cared.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Tales from the Blast Furnace

My buddy Metal Mike found another one of the cassettes I traded with him back in the day: in this case, Nile, Suffocation, and Immolation. Apparently the other side was "Brutality North of the Border: CRYPTOPSY."

Two things:

1) Even back then, my metal friends weren't safe from my bad one-liners;

2) I wonder if these tapes could help score my dream job of working for the Colbert Report, the only other place I can think of that has multiple headlines apropos of nothing.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Wormrot, Hell & Hell, WIDB, Graves of Demise, Demisor, and Bloodstone @Home Club, SG 3.02.2013

When I saw Demisor at Beatnik last month, their drummer Jali hipped me to a show he was organizing in Singapore. Hell and Hell from Japan were looking to play in the region; with Wormrot and my buddies Bloodstone also on the bill, a bus down to the Lion City became a foregone conclusion. Going to Singapore also afforded me another opportunity to return to KL with a gym bag full of bagels and vegan ice cream. [I'm not going to lie: Bagels and Vegan Ice Cream would have been my co-headliners.]