Music Video Of The Week: Blood Money by Dope

I am super excited right now to debut a music video from a band that I feel is so underrated and deserves more credit than they deserve. I am talking about the band Dope who burst onto the scene in 1999 with their brand of industrial styled Nu-Metal with Felonies and Revolutionaries. Fast forward now to 2016 and the band has unveiled their highly anticipated new album Blood Money Pt.1 which is the band’s first since 2009’s No Regrets which comes out Ocotber 28TH. To help celebrate the great news, the band has unleashed a music video for the title track of the album and the video is sick. The video kind of has a Purge feel to it with all the unique characters that pop on screen which includes a bloodied sexy chick dancing and grinding. Edsel Dope appears in the video in a suit in some scenes while in others he is strapped to a chair where he is being brainwashed with the ideals of sex, drugs, rock, blood money, etc. Edsel talked about the album with excitement saying, “Its been a long time coming, and I’m very happy with how the new album came out. I’m super excited for fans to hear the entire record and for us to get out there on tour and feed off of each others energy.” The band also has a reunited Die MF Die lineup which consisted of Edsel along with Acey Slade, Virus and Racci Shay as the band hits the road. You can also pre-order some cool swag with the new record which you can check out here. Check out the video below as well as the track listing for the new album, and the tour dates.

Blood Money Pt. 1 Track Listing:

1. Intro: Confessions of a Felon
2. Blood Money
3. Shoulda Known Better
4.  Lexipro
5.  Hold On
6. 1999
7. Razorblade Butterfly
8. Drug Music
9.  A New Low
10. Hypocrite
11. X-Hale
12. End of the World
13. Selfish
14. Numb
15. Violet

Dope’s “Die Mother F–ker Die” 2016 Tour

09/13 – San Francisco, Calif. @ DNA Lounge
09/14 – Portland, Ore. @ Hawthorne Theatre
09/15 – Vancouver, British Columbia @ The Rickshaw
09/17 – Seattle, Wash. @ Studio Seven
09/18 – Spokane, Wash. @ The Pin
09/19 – Idaho Falls, Idaho @ The Falls Venue
09/20 – Denver, Colo. @ Herman’s Hideaway
09/21 – Colorado Springs, Colo. @ Sunshine Studios
09/22 – Omaha, Neb. @ Sokol Underground
09/23 – St Louis, Mo. @ Firebird
09/24 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ The Cabooze
09/25 – Des Moines, Iowa @ Lefty’s
09/26 – Sioux Falls, S.D. @ Big’s Bar
09/27 – Waterloo, Iowa @ The Reverb
09/28 – Stevens Point, Wis. @ Live On Main
09/29 – Chippewa Falls, Wis. @ Every Buddy’s
09/30 – Battle Creek, Mich. @ Music Factory
10/01 – Flint, Mich. @ Machine Shop
10/02 – Madison, Wis. @ Sonic Boom
10/03 – Toledo, Ohio @ Realm
10/04 – Chicago, Ill. @ Concord Music Hall
10/05 – Cleveland, Ohio @ The Agora
10/06 – Columbus, Ohio @ Park Street Saloon
10/07 – Lancaster, Pa. @ Chameleon Club
10/08 – Stroudsburg, Pa. @ Sherman Theater
10/09 – Rochester, N.Y. @ Montage Music Hall
10/10 – Toronto, Ontario @ Hard Luck
10/11 – Ottawa, Ontario @ Mavericks
10/12 – Montreal, Quebec @ Pirahna Bar
10/13 – Amityville, N.Y. @ Revolution
10/14 – Worcester, Mass. @ Rock N Shock @ Palladium
10/15 – Baltimore, Md. @ Fish Head Cantina
10/16 – Fayetteville, N.C. @ The Rock Shop
10/17 – Atlanta, Ga. @ Heaven – Masquerade
10/18 – Lake Charles, La. @ The Centerstage
10/19 – Austin, Texas @ Dirty Dog Bar
10/20 – Houston, Texas @ Scout Bar
10/21 – Dallas, Texas @ Trees
10/22 – Merriam, Kan. @ Aftershock
10/23 – Oklahoma City, Okla. @ 89th St. Collective
10/24 – Lubbock, Texas @ Backstage
10/25 – Gallup, N.M. @ The Juggernaut
10/26 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Joe’s Grotto
10/27 – San Diego, Calif. @ Brick By Brick
10/28 – Las Vegas, Nev. @ Counts Vamp’d
10/29 – Anaheim, Calif. @ City National Grove of Anaheim
10/30 – W. Hollywood, Calif. @ The Whisky

Album Of The Week: Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails

Every week, I get into certain moods when it comes to music where I consistently listen to the same bands until I change it up a week later. That was definitely the case this week as for some reason I was in the mood to listen to some Nine Inch Nails. So for this week’s album of the week, I chose the album Pretty Hate Machine. The album was released on October 20, 1989 and it was the debut album from the band that at the time featured Trent Reznor (vocals, arranger, programming, production, engineering), Chris Vrenna (programming, digital editing), and Richard Patrick (Guitar). The album was very successfu for the band as it peaked at number 75 on the Billboard Top 200 charts (it spent 115 weeks on the charts) and it went 3X platinum. According to one report, it was the first independent record to achieve platinum status ever. A lot of it sounds immature to me now. At first it totally sucked. I became completely withdrawn. I couldn’t function in society very well. And the LP became a product of that. It’s quite small scale, introverted, claustrophobic – that’s the feel I went for.” That is what Trent said in 1991 when he reflected on the album.

1. Head Like A Hole– A track that starts off sounding like your prototypical industrial song before it kicks in to a perfect marriage of drum machine beats and angst. This was the second single off the album and one of the more popular tunes. 5/5

2. Terrible Lie– One of my favorite tracks off the record that sounds a machine press with synths and cool electronic beats in a track about a man who is losing his faith in God due to his universe crumbling. 5/5

3. Down In It– A cool industrial dance track that reminds me a little of Ministry with the sound in a track that could be about Bipolar disorder. 5/5

4. Sanctified– that industrial beat with a cool ass bass line that always catches my attention in a track about a woman who has complete control over him. 5/5

5. Something I Can Never Have– a brilliantly eerie track with that ominous piano playing with the machine like drum beat in a track that talks about unreciprocated love. 5/5

6. Kinda I Want To– The track has such an 80’s dance beat to it in a track that is about a man struggling with a tabooish (devilish) temptation. 4/5

7. Sin– a very industrialized Depeche Mode like track that talks about sexual temptations once again. 4/5

8. That’s What I Get– Another synth heavy track with effects in a track about being heartbroken. 4/5

9. The Only Time– a bass driven track with the synth beats in a track about the infatuation with a new girl. 4/5

10. Ringfinger– This track contains samples of Prince’s Alphabet St and Jane’s Addiction’s Had A Dad in it and its lyrics deal with not being able to please your loved one. 4/5

My Final Thoughts– I have to be honest and say that I am a huge fan of the first half of the album over the second half as you can see from my grades. Nevertheless, I still think this is one of my top three Nine Inch Nails records of all time. He literally opened the doors to industrial in mainstream America with this record. There are so many classic tracks on this album that it’s very hard to dismiss it’s importance. I am going to give the album 4.3 stars out of five for a final grade.

Cover Of The Week: Closer by Father John Misty

You might be asking yourself, who in the heck is Father John Misty and why is he covering one of the coolest and dirtiest Nine Inch Nails tracks? Those are all great questions and I will attempt to answer them for you right now. J. Tillman is a very talented multi-instrumentalist who had been on the scene for quite some time until he decided to front his own band called Father John Misty. Apparently, Father John Misty has taken the indie rock scene by storm and they have dominated. During a recent performance at the Riviera Theater in Chicago, he told fans in the audience, “It’s a little sappy, but I would like to play my favorite love song for you” and then they started playing Closer by the Nine Inch Nails. Closer is one of my favorite Nine Inch Nails songs and Father John Misty does a tremendous job covering the track. He even sets the mood in typical Nine Inch Nails fashion with the green lights and the silhouettes. Check out the amazing performance below and check out Father John Misty.

Single Of The Week: Take Me To Heaven by Filter

It has been quite some time since I covered anything from industrial rock giants Filter. Richard Patrick, who remains the band’s only original member is back with some new music and he has revealed it to the world through Soundcloud. Patrick and Filter revealed the tracks Take Me To Heaven which will be off the band’s newest album Crazy Eyes which comes out April 8TH via Wind-Up Records. Patrick talks about Take Me To Heaven saying, “Take Me to Heaven’ was written after my dad just died, and where I’m coming from is I’m trying to find if there’s an afterlife and I’m trying to believe in it. It’s very hopeful. There’s no more authentic and real that I could have gotten as a singer and lyricist.” He goes on to add, ” This record is more experimental and crazy. It’s where I am today. I wanted to go to some scary, weird places instead of doing that big-ass guitar sound again.” Check out the track below and be on the lookout for tour dates here.

Soundtrack Saturdays: Gun Love by Slade Craven

I love movies that actually take the time to create a fake band with real songs for their film to make it feel more authentic. We saw that last week with Steel Dragon and now we get that with the straight to video film Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal. Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal was the third film int he Turbulence series and this time it took on a different direction than the previous three films. Slade Craven (played by John Mann) is a famous metal musician with a lot of haters, but it doesn’t phase him as he prepares to play his final show on board an Airplane for the world to see. The only problem is that the plane is then taken over by terrorists and a very deranged man. One of the cool things about the film is that Slade Craven manages to perform one song which is also our featured song for today called Gun Love. The song is pretty cool as it has that Industrial rock feel to it similar to bands like Skinny Puppy, Ministry, and so many more. The film also stars Rutger Hauer, Craig Sheffer, Joe Mantegna, Gabrielle Anwar, and so many more. Check out the track below:

Soundtrack Saturdays: The Awakening by The Damning Well

Sometimes in this life when a bunch of awesome musicians get together to create a song for a soundtrack, it sounds so amazing that you wish those group of individuals would get back together to create even more music. That is exactly what happened with today’s Soundtrack Saturdays selection from the Underworld Soundtrack which was released back in 2003. Underworld was a film that took the Vampire and Werewolf genres and gave them a really cool and brand new outlook that was also the subject of much controversy. The film starred the beautiful Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Bill Nighy, Michael Sheen, and so many more in a film where the Vampires and Lycans (Werewolves) have been at war for a long time. One of the death dealer vampires (Beckinsale) is tracking the lycans when she notices that they are hunting a human (Speedman). She has to make a decision eventually whether to kill the human who has been bitten or go against her clan and defy them. The soundtrack featured a lot of great industrial metal acts along with some experimental acts like Puscifer, Renholder, Skinny Puppy, A Perfect Circle, and our featured band today called The Damning Well. The Damning Well was a band that was comprised of Richard Patrick (Filter), Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit), Josh Freese (Guns N Roses), and Danny Lohner. The track this supergroup of sorts recorded was called The Awakening which was an in your face industrial metal like track. The track definitely leaves you wanting more wondering what could have been if this project went forward. Check it out below:

Soundtrack Saturday: Show Me Your Spine by PTP

You are probably wondering who in the hell is PTP and what movie soundtrack did they appear in that I would include for my Soundtrack Saturdays post? PTP (or Programming The Psychodrill which was a J.G. Ballard song) is probably one of the shortest lived side projects that Al Jourgensen of Ministry has ever been involved with in his whole entire career and believe me he has had a lot of side projects. The track Show Me Your Spine was written by Jourgensen, Paul Barker, and Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy and it was featured in the film RoboCop (not the remake, but the original 1987 film). The song is briefly played when RoboCop (Peter Weller) goes into the club to grab one of the villains named Nash (Ray Wise) to question him about his murder. The sounds of the music sonically represents the Wax Trax sound that was known for having arpeggio melodies, Loud Drums, Fairlight orchestral hits, and the distorted vocal style of Ogre. It’s one of those tracks that I can actually imagine a club spinning because it has that feel to it where you would dance. Check out the track below:

Single Of The Week: Suffer In Silence by Coal Chamber Featuring Al Jourgensen

I hope that Coal Chamber fans are foaming at the mouth to hear brand new music from the band as their new album Rivals is gearing up to hit the shelves and your online store on May 19TH through Napalm Records. The band had already unleashed the track I.O.U. Nothing earlier in the year and they have been playing it during their live sets as we saw on Yahoo Live. Well, the band has unleashed another new track for all of you to hear and it features a really cool special guest on the track as well. The song is called Suffer In Silence and it features the legendary industrial pioneer Al Jourgensen of Ministry on the track. Lead singer Dez Fafara commented on Al being on the track, “Al has been a close friend for many years, he’s a legend, and literally was the only guy I asked to be a guest on this record. He came over to the house, we had BBQ, a hell of a lot of wine, then I had the pleasure of watching him in my home studio do what he does! I f—ing love this song so jam it loud!” Mikey Cox brutal beats kick off the badass new track as the band absolute jams and one of the cool things about the lyric video is that it shows you both Dez and Al singing their parts on the track. Coal Chamber are on a little bit of a break as they get ready to tear up South America and then Europe following in the summer, but if you’d like to now where they’ll be then click here for all the dates. You can also check out all the different pre-order bundles there are for the album Rivals by going here, but check out the track Suffer In Silence below:

 

Soundtrack Saturdays: The Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails

For this week’s Soundtrack Saturday song, we are going to the David Lynch film Lost Highway, the psychological thriller that starred Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, and Robert Loggia. The song we are pulling from that soundtrack is a favorite of mine, but not of Trent Reznor’s in It did after all sit on the CanThe Perfect Drug. Trent explains in an interview with BBC Radio 1 Rock Show that, “the only thing I think I really don’t like that much is The Perfect Drug song. It was one of those things where you have a week to do a track for a movie, the mindset that you kind of adapt in that situation, or I did, was ‘let’s go in and experiment and see what happens, and it’s not, y’know, whatever comes out of it, it’s not the end of the world’. And I think what came out of it, married with a bloated, over-budget video, feels like … the least thing that I would play to somebody if they said play me, y’know, the top hundred songs you’ve written, that probably wouldn’t be in the top hundred. I’m not cringing about it, but it’s not my favorite piece.” He may not have liked the song, but it was a track that I and many other Nine Inch Nails truly enjoyed with it’s high in your face tempo matched with dance club fueled beats. It did after all sit on the Canadian charts for 208 weeks in a row which has to mean something. Check out the track below:

Nine Inch Nails Gets Mashed With Taylor Swift

You may be asking yourself what in the world is a mashup and if you’re old I can completely understand that question. A mashup is when you take two completely different songs and you take elements from one of them and you mix it with the other. The key though to making a great mashup is being able to have both songs flow flawlessly as if they were meant to be with each other and it was originally recorded that way. That is the true sign of an amazing mashup when it can do that and there have been some amazing mashups that are out there and Isosine is an amazing mashup master. This time around he has taken The Perfect Drug from the Nine Inch Nails from The Lost Highway Soundtrack and he mashed it together with Taylor Swifts Shake It Off from her album TS1989 to create Shake It Off (The Perfect Drug). What is scary about this mashup is that Trent’s lyrics dominate over the music of Taylor Swift and it’s actually really good and it passes the test. The song flows flawlessly and it feels like it belongs together. Check it out below and to check out more from Isosine, visit his Youtube site here.