Million Dead

The alternative music press was making lots of good noises about these guys a few years ago; but every time I heard something by them I was left feeling distinctly underwhelmed. Then they split up, almost certainly as a reaction to my continuing apathy.

Thanks then to James (a fellow wage-slave from The Big Gay Department Store), who encouraged me to give them another go by copying both their albums for me in exchange for a copy of the majority of the Fugazi back catalogue. I like tape-swapping, even if it is done using those shiny round disc-like tapes.

Turns out that the songs I'd heard were just a bit lame, and the rest of the time they sound more like this.

Frontman Frank Turner is now a well established and relatively successful solo folk-punk troubadour; drummer Ben Dawson plays in the mighty Palehorse (as he did whilst in Million Dead, in fact). Actually, he plays drums for a lot of bands. The other two are doing other stuff, presumably.

Website: http://www.milliondead.org/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/amilliondead

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_dead

Crippled Black Phoenix

What a miserable bunch of bastards. Crippled Black Phoenix are cobbled together out of bits of Electric Wizard, Mogwai, and some other bunch of people. Which doesn't really give you an idea of what to expect, but when you hear their prog-doom-folk "endtime ballads" it does all make some kind of sense.

They released their second record at some point earlier this year, which I haven't listened to yet; so I'm looking forward to hearing it all live when the UK tour kicks off at The Croft next week.

Website: http://www.crippledblackphoenix.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/crippledblackphoenix

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crippled_Black_Phoenix

Faith No More

Man, I used to dig these guys back in the day ("the day" being around the early nineties). Then I kind of forgot about them for a bit, and so they broke up. But I sneakily started listening to them again, and so now a good few years later they seem to have reformed. Huzzah!

One of the things that makes Faith No More so terribly splendid is the diversity in their music, and the ease with which they drift from one style of music to another; all the while still sounding like the same band, making it sound bloody great and not like it's just some humorous diversion.

A lot of it has to be to do with Mike Patton's vocal. The man has a distinctive and frankly incredible voice; even if it isn't immediately apparent on early efforts, such as here on Epic.

They did a confusing, but cool, cover of Easy not long after...

...and then just started doing whatever the fuck they wanted. Good for them.

In all honesty, I'm not sure how I feel about this "re-union". I'm sure I read somewhere that Mr Patton wasn't interested unless they were going to push forwards and do something different... as it is they seem to have mostly been doing the festival circuit, playing a "greatest hits" kind of set.

Fuck it. What's it got to do with me anyway? All the old records are still cool (apart from Angel Dust, that's a bit ropey), and I'm sure that if they do put out anything new it'll be wicked.

Website: http://www.fnm.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/faithnomore

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_no_more

3 stages of pain

These northern noisemongers weren't around for too long. They formed in 2001, and by 2005 they had gone out in a blaze of apathy.

The two records they made in that time were bloody brilliant if you like that sort of thing; which presumably most people didn't. But if you like savage hardcore sprinkled with a bit of melody, the occasional prog-ish tendency and some almighty grooves, then click below for choice cuts from each of their releases; debut effort With Chaos In Her Wake...

Conflict Of Self Interest

Southern Bullet

Forget The Lies, This Is How We Operate

18 Wheeler

...and follow up Black Heart Blues.

Dirty White Shoes

Black Heart Blues

Jesus Gonna Make My Dyin' Bed

Am An Yeller

Website: http://www.undergroove.co.uk/bands/3sp.aspx

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/3stagesofpain

Wikipedia: ain't none