a personal warm and fuzzy (hellbound appreciation)

This past weekend, Hellbound.ca, the metal webzine I contribute to (though not nearly as much as I'd like) won a Hamilton Music Award! We (I claim some small part of the "we" even though the kudos belong to other people) were nominated in the local online publication/website of the year award. And we won!

Check it out!

killing joke: music, technoscience, politics (and more)

Killing Joke's new album, Absolute Dissent, is out today. As I listen to it one more time to turn my thoughts into review words on the page (for exclaim!), I decided to surf over to Hellbound.ca and Kyle Harcott's interview with Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman.

Not everyone likes politics mixed up with their music, and you may not necessarily agree with Coleman's strong opinions on things like world government and technoscientific development. But if you're in the mood for an interesting and stimulating read (about and shooting off of the work of a tremendously significant band), I highly recommend it.

on cbc recently: psychiatric drugs for pets...

When my eldest cat first joined the keew household, the little lady came to me because she seemed to have psycho-behavioural problems. Before her human family decided to find her another home, she had been to see a cat psychologist and was on some kind of tranquilizer type pill for a while - all to tame her sudden aggression toward her new cat housemate, and none of it worked.

As it turns out, Daisy's former humans aren't the only ones to try out psychopharmaceuticals on their pet. And apparently it's big enough business to attract the attention of CBC journalists, whose investigative documentary "Pet Pharm" aired last week. If you're interested, the CBC website has some of the info, a trailer, and even the entire film available online.

week of concert awesomeness (MAdM, then HevyDevy)

madm574
uploaded by kill eat exploit the weak

I had the double pleasure this week of back-to-back concerts. The first event had the added appeal of taking place nice and close to home. I've been waiting for what feels like a very long time to see Melissa Auf der Maur headline a club show, and (cliches aside) it was so worth the wait. The night started off, oddly, with numerous references to balls, and it took a couple of opening bands for me to get into the right mood. But I moved, I sang, I headbanged, and I eventually gushed - while MAdM herself signed a couple items from my huge bag 'o merch.

Concert two was another headlining treat - the Devin Townsend Project - my first time seeing HevyDevy headline since (I think) 2003. He was a delight, always an incredibly dynamic performer but in especially fine form, playing some of my favourite songs. As a friend commented, he's a fascinating and amazingly talented metal hippie muppet.

And to top it all off, there were time-space alien otherworld references abounding on both nights!

What could possibly have made this any better? Seeing both performers two nights in a row instead of having to alternate between them!

I reviewed one show but not the other. For more gushing over Auf der Maur check out exclaim.ca.

because Everyday Is Halloween...

If, like me, you're not yet ready for Halloween to be over for another year, this might help you keep the spooky spirit undead... we Hellbounders put together one helluva collective Halloween soundtrack for this month's staff playlists.

Happy (day after) Halloween!