Ripple Library - Chips & Beer Metal Fanzine

Reality has been preventing me from exploring a lot of the new music that the Ripple editors have been sending my way lately. There's a ton of cool stuff awaiting my judgement and I don't want to form opinions based on half-assed listening sessions. Something that has really caught 100% of my attention this week is the brand new issue of the metal fanzine Chips & Beer. That's right, an actual printed fanzine full of killer articles about obscure and semi-obscure metal bands that I didn't have to write myself. This is the third issue of Chips & Beer and I plan on tracking down the first two pronto.

What really caught my attention is the headline "New Yawk Street Metal Special." Anyone who's ever been around me for more than about 30 seconds knows how much I love obscure NY metal trivia and I am glad to report I learned some new tidbits to bore my friends and bandmates with. If this issue had come out a month earlier the article I wrote about Frigid Bich for the TheObelisk.net would have been much better. There's a lengthy interview with Frigid frontman Joe Leonard that answered everything I wanted to know about these ultra-obscure Long Island metal merchants. I discovered them through the almighty Kick*Ass magazine but had no idea that they were actually managed by KAM mastermind Bob Muldowney. He didn't want the band to do interviews so the image and myth would grow. He was certainly right about that!

There's a great interview with Jay Jay French of Twisted Sister that was also very informative. He gives a good synopsis of the cover band bar scene surrounding NYC (mainly Long Island/Westchester and New Jersey) and how it had absolutely no interaction with what was going on in the city with the New York Dolls, The Ramones, etc. I also did not know that Jay Jay was a Dead head in his younger days. So was Handsome Dick Manitoba, aka China Cat, of The Dictators, incidentally. Go figures. Speaking of The Dictators, guitarist Ross The Boss also gives a great interview about his heavy metal daze with Manowar. Danny Lilker of Anthrax, Nuclear Assault and S.O.D. also weighs in. Mike Schutzman, owner of the much missed metal mecca Slipped Disc Records, talks about the incredible in-store appearances he used to host for Motorhead, Slayer, Wendy O. Williams among many others. A bonus in the section of the zine are reviews of NY metal classics from the early days of Sir Lord Baltimore, Blue Oyster Cult and Kiss through Riot, The Rods, Blacklace and Overkill.

To balance things out there's a big article and interview with West Coast weirdos Cirith Ungol, a truly cult band deserving of more recognition. Below the radar current metal bands like Krypts, Ares Kingdom and Cauldron Black Ram were a complete mystery to me but they all have the right attitude and I look forward to checking out their jams. This is the best 7 bucks I've spent in a long time and with the change left over from my ten dollar bill I can go cop a tre bag at Valley Park in the Bronx! Thanks, bros!!


--Woody

http://chipsandbeermag.tumblr.com/

http://www.facebook.com/chipsandbeermag

Ripple Library - Vincebus Eruptum Magazine; Heady-Psych Music

Special treat for you waveriders.

We love Heavy Psych, Stoner, and Riff Rock around the Ripple.  How could we not with bands like Stone Axe, Poobah, JPT Scare Band, Mos Generator, and the rest of the crew on our roster.  And we also love the whole scene.  People making music and folks supporting the music with love, enthusiasm and abandon.  While there are lots of music sites to go to when you want to read about your favorite music, there's something cooler about a glossy printed magazine.  Particularly when it comes with a free CD introducing new sounds to your ears.

And that's Vincebus Eruptum.

Bill, from the Soda Shop, dropped issues 11 and 12 into my hands in the midst of a joint Soda Shop/Ripple Music vinyl buying frenzy.  3 stores, one day.  Chicago be damned!  So, after talking music all day, pulling out one cool piece of vinyl after another, what would a freak like me want to do the most?  That's right, break open the fridge and delve into a magazine to learn more. And that's what I did.

With the killer free "Acid Sounds Vol. 1" CD blaring from my speakers, Vincebus Eruptum #12 was my companion for an evening of acid, fuzz, stonerfied riff rock.  And what a blast it was.

First the magazine.  A little bit smaller than a comic book, with glossy page and cardstock cover, issue #12 opens with a perfect interview with Cathedral frontman and Rise Above Records mastermind, Lee Dorrian.  It perfectly captured that man's love of music, why he's still digging the record biz, and what he's attempting to do with Rise Above Records.  Mainly, release records he wants in his own collection.  From there, interviews with The Black Rainbows, Zippo, legendary Joe Hasselvander, Gentlemen's Pistols, The Freeks, Wight, and Grand Astoria fill the pages with stories of musical excess, fuzzy days and fuzzier chords, live shows and what not.   Add to that a stash of reviews of truly relevant stoner, psych, and riff rock reviews and we got a magazine of great reading.   It's one of those rare magazine to be read cover to cover.  I even checked out all the ads, looking for new bands from labels like Small Stone, Rise Above Records, Clearspot Distribution, Kozmic Artifactz, Black Widow Records, Blood Rock Records, Sulatron Records, Elektrohasch and Go Down Records.

Just as good was the soundtrack for the night, the free CD.  I didn't know many of these bands before I listened to the free comp, but I'm a fan of a bunch of them now.  As on any compilation, there's high and low points dependent upon your taste.  I didn't care as much for the noise punk psych of Core, the shoegaze fuzz of Vibravoid, or the droning instru-doom of Colt38, but freaked for the fuzz assault of That's All Folks, the mellow psych-jazzy/folky prog of The Freeks, and the retro-bluesy freak attack of Tectonic Break.   E.X.P. brings a downcast, doomier vibe, followed by Vic Du Monte's garage/punk blitz, Zippo's space rock excursion, and the Electric Moon's futuristic garage warfare.  Killer stuff, all of it really. 

Top all that off with gorgeous cover by Kabuto, a pint-sized gorgeous DSW poster,  and spacey, cool-looking psych themed layouts everywhere and it's one gorgeous project. 

So, if you're deep into exploration of the world of heavy psych, acid rock, stoner rock, space rock and good 'ol mind-numbing riff rock, you should check this little magazine out.  It's quality stuff, delving deep into the underground world.  And most importantly, it's clearly a project done with love.

It's one worth collecting and keeping.  I know I will.

Vincebus Eruptum is distributed in the USA by The Soda Shop
and world wide by Vincebus Eruptum.  European orders through Big Cartel


"Acid Sounds Vol.1" exclusive CD compilation:

• 01 - CORE "Mood Disorder"

1996 - unreleased track from the "Revival" sessions - produced by Billy Anderson - Billy Anderson on lead vocals, Finn Ryan on drums, Timmy Ryan on guitar, Carmine Pernini on bass)

• 02 - OJM "Har(d)ucks"

2011 - unreleased track based on an old unreleased track ("Heavy" sessions) plus new vocals by David Martin

• 03 - THAT'S ALL FOLKS "Hypnotic Pulse"

2010 - track only published on the 300 ltd. 7" split between T.A.F. and ANUSEYE - Nasoni Records - Claudio Colaianni on guitar and vocals, Michele Rossiello on bass guitar and percussions, Max Marzocca on Drums, Angelo Pantaleo on keyboards and manual effects midi sampler

• 04 - THE FREEKS "Vitamin-D"

2011 - new unreleased track - Kenny Cunningham on piano and synth, Isaiah Mitchell on guitar leads and mandolin, Marco Forster on backing vocals, Ruben Romano on vocals, guitar, bass, drums and percussion

• 05 - TECTONIC BREAK "Maria"

2000 - unreleased track by this HALF MAN/SKANSKA MORD side project - Patric Carlsson on bass, Janne Bengtsson on vocals and harmonica, Mattias Nilsson on guitar, Peter Johansson on drums

• 06 - E.X.P. "DNA connect just like a kids tumble"

2003 - unreleased track from the never issued second album - mixed by Gary Ramon - LC  on bass, NC on guitars, JB on vocals, FB on drums

• 07 - VIC DU MONTE'S PERSONA NON GRATA "Man On A Mission"

2011 - unreleased track from the "Barons & Bankers" sessions - Written & Performed by Vic du Monte’s Persona Non Grata, produced by James Childs at Stujo in Los Angeles March 2011

• 08 - VIBRAVOID "Photosynthesis In Darkness"

2011 - not yet released track (due to release on "Gravity Zero" - 25th of February 2012 by Sulatron Records) - Written & Performed by Vibravoid

• 09 - COLT.38 "Amplesso in DOm"

2011 - unreleased track performed by C.C and E.R.

• 10 - ZIPPO "Night Jam #2"

2008 -unreleased track from the "The Road To Knowledge" sessions - registered by Andrea di Giambattista and Francesco di Florio at Twelve Studio (Tocco da Casauria, Pescara ITALY) , mastered by John Golden at Golden Mastering Studio (Ventura, California USA) - Davide Straccione on vocals, Alessandro Sergente on guitar, Silvio Spina on guitar, Tonino Bosco on bass and Federico Sergente on drums

• 11 - ELECTRIC MOON "Trip Trip Trip"

2011 - track only published on the 500 ltd. 12" split between ELECTRIC MOON and GLOWSUN - Sulatron Records - Written & Performed by Electric Moon