Municipal Waste

So I'm a pretty big Municipal Waste fan. A few years ago, when i first bought waste em all on tape at octopus ink when a friend mentioned them and crossover in the same sentence, i was immediately taken by how influenced this new band was by D.R.I. (another band who i worshiped in high school, and to a certain point still do today), and then i showed them to my best friend, and we got to get excited and drunk and run around in circles in his living room to their records for the better part of the summer of 2006. The party lyrics and the toxic waste theme, mixed with samples that we instantly recognized from our favorite movies (i fucking LOVE phantasm, the tall man scares the shit out of me) made me an instant a long time fan.

fast forward a few years and they roll through town on a big tour supporting lamb of god and some other bands i also didn't care to see, or had seen already, twice, not intentionally.

After watching live videos in small clubs with people flying over each other with the aid of a trampoline, naked stage dives, and booze fueled mayhem, i did not want to see this band from 20 feet away at the shaw conference center, surrounded by 14 year old mall goths.

so luckily soon after it was announced they would headlining across north america in the fall after their new album was released in august.

The night of the show i drove over to my buddy H's house (everyone we know is named matt, including him, so he's H) right after my nauseatingly dry legal issues for writers class. When i walk in he's already playing The DRI crossover tour dvd and i can smell the stank of weed in the air. We settle in and get excited talking about the show and what songs we want to hear. Then we walk from his house at the end of jasper to a bar for some food and a pint before heading over to the venue. Its around 7 when we get to the starlite room, and we notice their's absolutely no one there. we got their so early that we could hear Cauldron (formerly goat horn) soundchecking while having a few more pints in the bar under the venue. I haven't been this early to a show since i waited an hour and a half to see kideo at wonderland.

so we sat around and got drunk, and then they let us in and we got more drunk, and then cauldron went on. cauldron used to be goat horn who put out one of the best albums of the decade storming the gates.

im pretty sure it's out of print now, so you should download it and bask in its glory right now. and then pick up the new cauldron album, and wish it was as good as this.

Download (megaupload)

The last time i saw cauldron they played lots of goat horn, not so much this time, but they where the first band on and didn't play for very long at all. As i recall (my memory gets hazy at this point) they also skipped witch trail, which i thought was the highlight of the new record, but i really can't remember if they did or not.

so they finished and we retreated to the bar again, this time phil from municipal waste shows up at the bar next to me and i start to chat him up about his side project, cannabis corpse, and how fucking awesome i think it is. This cue's him to ask me for some weed, which i could not provide, sadly.

Then i mosey over to ryan waste and gush about how learning his songs made me a better guitar player, and i buy him and his buddy a shot. Then tony foresta shows up and right off the bat he starts with the silent bob jokes. I look like kevin smith when i wear a hat, i get it, but people fucking love to remind me. Anyway i tell him to fuck himself, and he apologizes, and is totally cool about it and i offer him a drink, but he takes it easy before the show. Then I'm outside talking some strangers ear off about doom metal and dave witte walks off the bus. I've followed this guys drumming since 2003 when he drummed for melt banana and burn by the sun, so i gushed to him a little bit about how excited i was to see him behind the kit. He was also super friendly and thankful, it was great. Then DFA went on. I was kinda bummed that they replaced the accused and phobia, but not a lot of bands would have filled that hole well, and DFA is members of poser disposer, who i've tried and failed to see for a couple years now. anyway, i only half watched their set and got more drunk. I noticed Jason Decay from Cauldron is wandering around, and i stop him and tell him how when he was here with goat horn four years ago he tried to fuck my fiance.

He was really apologetic about it and we both laughed and i bought him a beer. good times.

Then municipal waste hit the stage, and blew my ass right over. From what i can remember they played a nice cross section of old classics and stuck to the really stand out stuff off their new record Massive Agressive. The energy was high and the sound was good. The songs were faster than the album and they played for long enough to satisfy everyone. Unfortunately by this point i was fucking destroyed, and left before they finished playing. oh and H got kicked out for stage diving. He did one, and then got a warning, did it again and got kicked out. They let him back in, and then he did it again. Pretty awesome.

Then our buddy drove us home and I passed out on the couch.

If only every show could be as fun as municipal waste. They fucked me up! (i couldn't resist)

Past failure, future endeavor

So that halloween thing sure didn't pan out. haha. oh well.

I'm gonna try to write at least something in this everyday from now untill some other time when i wanna stop. I mean it this time. I've got to get better at writting to get a job writting. So I'll start tommorow when im at work and bored. I saw municipal waste last friday and met them all, and got way to drunk, and accused Jason Decay from Cauldron of trying to fuck my girlfriend, and i bought some sweat pants.

so that will be interesting, till then..

So i decided to do what so many other blogs do, and try to watch a horror movie every day for the month of october. Since the month is almost over and i decided to start this a day before Dedfest started (the annual edmonton horror film festival), I suppose im a bit of a little bitch. But thats ok. im trying.

Anyway, i dont wanna talk about the stuff at the festival, since i just wrote a short article about it today.

what i really wanna talk about is this...

I just finished watching this after two nights of trying to get through it and falling asleep.
Now that doesn't really colour my opinion of this movie at all, i was just really tired.

The Stuff starts out simple enough, with a couple simple guys who find some white shit is leaking out of the snow at the old mine. The old bearded bastard plants his finger in the pulsating white goop and after sniffing at it, decides to taste it. I thought that was a pretty bold move, but he's pretty happy about it, and when his buddy, lets call him Jimmy Joe because he doesnt fucking matter for the rest of the movie, mosies on over and tries out some of the white shit too. And he likes it, he really likes it! Enough to instantly suggest they market and sell it.

Next up you're treated to this creepy lady telling you how much she used to like ice cream. She uses a really inapropriately whispered/husky voice, that I could have done without. But it sets up the tone for the satire a la Roboco that permeates the rest of the movie.

Then this kid sees the stuff move in his fridge and later goes apeshit at a grocery store knocking the shit all over the place.

That's probably the coolest part of the begining of the movie. Seeing that kid go off on all those tiny cartons made me wanna go, i dunno, fucking destroy all the margarine in the dairy aisle. I wish i was as cool as that kid when i was ten.
Then we get to meet Mo Rutherferd. Who entroduces himself as a sleazy piece of shit. He tells the same lame joke about why everyone calls him mo, in two adjacent scenes. Which i thought was pretty funny. "you know why they call me mo? because whenever people give me money i always want mo". "you know why my friends call me mo? because whenever they give me something i always want mo". Awesome.

This little d-bag is trying to infiltrate the company that makes the stuff, to find out what it is and how to talk 'em down, for the big ice cream company that hired him. This guy is actually the main character of the movie, which i thought was a pretty cool twist, its not everyday you get to follow around a sleazy con artist who rips off everyone he can on his journey.

Then nothing happens for awhile, he investigates, people eat the stuff like fucking crazy, and you get to hear some pretty bitchin 80's style jingle's, complete with fur coat clad bikini ladies walking around and eating the stuff, and spandex wearing ladies flipping around inner city new york all to the madeningly catchy stuff music.

Just one lick is never enough of the Stuff! yeah, watch it and try not to get that shit stuck in your head.

Next up the kid (danny, i think..) figures out his whole family are fucking crazy, in a spooky stepford wife kinda way, and he tries to fool them by eating shaving cream, it doesnt work and the dad dips two fingers to taste that shit, which i thought was creepy. then the kids running away and meets up with mo and they go find the military.

then of course the stuff turns people into zombie things and white shit gets everywhere.

It's just like the blob, or at least what i think the blob must be like (never seen it) , except the blob probably had a bigger budget and therefore more gore and therefore was more entertaining than the stuff. but the stuff has enough of a brain and plot that you can forgive it, at least for a little while. The problem with The Stuff is not enough of the stuff exploding out of people, the way it does this fella above, towards the end of the movie. It definently dragged out a bit. but watching movies over three days, and then restarting them from scratch on the third day, could only feel like it dragged on abit. Kinda like how this post dragged on.

The stuff was ok. not the best, but ok. I was expecting a little more gritty new york, and a little less boring wandering around. that black guy mo meets up with at the ghost town DEFINENTLY should have been in the entire movie. scrap the ad woman, and give me more chocolate chip charlie please. also more blood and more face spewing explosions. oh and more of the stuff spraying all over that guy on the wall. that part was awesome. actually the stuff was pretty fucking cool. there was just a few spots where pacing might have been an issue. i bet if i revisit this movie in a year, and im drunk with some buds, ill have a better time. Its only 6 bucks at HMV right now, so nows the time to check it out. I'd recomend it to fans of They Live and The Blob.

Pink Eye(s)

This morning amid the feverish dreams i was having between the jolting 10 minute snooze alarm hits one in particular stuck out. I was lying in my bed and could see a large comfy lounge chair begin rocking violently back and forth of its own accord. Then, on some sort of t.v. shelf, a half rotten torso began crawling towards me with a knife clenched in its teeth. This freaked out the dream version of me and i ran upstairs to reiterate my terror to my brother.

Then i woke up and my right eye was crusted shut.

Half-asleep, i rubbed the crust out of my eye and picked what i could out of my eyelash and hit the snooze button again.

Then i realized i had to go to school this morning as an important assignment was due at 8 sharp. So i talked to my dad, who decided to take 10 minutes to diagnose me with pink-eye , and took his jeep to school. I decided to grab a gory compilation of goregrind featuring Dahmer, Exhumed, Impaled and Impetigo to listen to on my morning commute as it seemed fitting given the grue and puss that was leaking out of my peeper.

Fast forward to later today when i call ahead to work to try to get the time off. The fella i ask to stay late says he can't, the guy i call to cover for me says he can't and suggests i call another fella who then laughs outloud and says i caught the "stink-eye" which i thought was pretty funny. So now here i sit in the biggest suburb of edmonton in a pair of my dads sweat pants listening to saint vitus, and looking at stupid shit on the internet.

Oh wait, one of the fellas just showed up, looks like i might get outta here after all.

edit update

I did get outta there, and went home. and finished fall out 3. It didnt end all that good.

but on a cooler note i developed pink eye in both eyes now, and yellowy green snot started leaking out of the new pink eye which looked something like this...

so thats something.

Also my experience with pink eye really makes me want to see the movie of the same name. I saw an add for it in an old rue morgue, but they never bothered to review it which is a bad sign.
Looks pretty bitchin from the cover, but i think it's one of those made by a new production company dealies, i.e. it probably sucks. oh well.