’Sup, Y’all? I am oozing snot from every orifice and no big pharma cold remedy or holistic goddess approach seems to be working. Literally crying, coughing and blowing my nose simultaneously while wheeze-laughing at the spectacle of the travesty that is the New York Jets. I tuned in to the game after seeing Josh Eppard from Coheed and Cambria tweet: “Granted Idk much about football. But do the Jets wish they had Sanchez back? Is Geno like, the worst QB in the league?”
Anyway, I’m fresh back from New York City with my photographer friend and local resident Nicole Terpening after a weird hex was put on us that caused our press credentials for a dubstep show at Webster Hall to be screwed up (our penance probably for agreeing to go to one in the first place). Literally everything went wrong last night from meet-and-greet times to the spectacle of watching bro-step dudes trying to take pictures of large-framed girls’ butts for Instagram to a security guy at the MAKJ DJ show we were supposed to be attending being incredibly rude even after we’d already been through four other security check points. It was too bad also, because MAKJ as an artist is pretty fun and has some cool music videos that actually are enjoyable for a genre that can be pretty trite these days. We ended up bailing and missing the show, then taking a late train back to our beautiful Upstate, wary of leaving anytime in the near future. Seriously, why bother these days? My friends the Bad Brains are on HBO for Foo Fighters’ new Sonic Highways series. O+ Festival was awesome this year. We have Halloween parties from DJ Sterling (as Bela Lugosi) at Stockade to the big Chronogram BSP Nightmare On Wall Street event on Friday, Oct. 31. Rhett Miller of Old 97’s fame is doing a Tin Roof Session in New Paltz tonight if I can slime my way out the door. (Editor’s note: This happened already. I think Morgan wrote this on Sunday.) There is not a lot of incentive to risk Ebola, loud subway passengers or dubious gyro meat when home offers so much to choose from. I love New York City, but step that game back up! I am staying around Kingston (at least until Victory Records alternative rockers Islander play Gramercy in December).
Cavalera Conspiracy
Special treat for you ghouls and gals this week. I had the pleasure of interviewing Brazilian metal legend Max Cavalera of Sepultura/Soulfly fame this week for Metalriot.com (one of my usual blog haunts). Max has a new album due out with drummer brother Igor for their latest band, Cavalera Conspiracy, called Pandemonium and I think it is a strong contender for thrash album of the year. Google the new video for “Babylonian Pandemonium” for lightning-fast riffage and footage of Brazilian slums that you didn’t get to see during the World Cup. Max was recently in Poughkeepsie with his main band Soulfly and crushed it as usual alongside openers Circuit of Suns and Necroptic Engorgement. The author of such metal classics as “Troops Of Doom”, “Roots, Bloody Roots” and “Downstroy” was happy to share his reflections for Hudson Valley fans on what scary movies freaked him out over the years.
“Oh, man. Yeah. The Exorcist. That shit’s crazy. Even today,” says Cavalera. “I like a lot of the Stephen King movies a lot. Misery. The Shining. Desperation with Ron Perlman. He’s a great actor. Too bad they [expletive] killed him on Sons of Anarchy.” Yes, that’s right folks. This column is improving by leaps and bounds. Editor Dan Barton will be rolling his eyes that I have gone from Game of Thrones spoiler reveals in my articles to getting heavy metal’s elite to spoil other shows, though Perlman’s Clay Morrow character has been kaput for awhile now. (Editor’s other note: It’s the week before elections. Spoilers for a show I may never get around to watching are the least of my [expletive] worries.)
The glee this bring me is a slight condolence for the nerve-wracking news that the next film series reboot from Hollywood’s scraped-dry think tank is The Crow. Please, leave well enough alone. At least the new Constantine series on TV is awesome and properly reverent to the acclaimed Hellblazer comic books it is based on, unlike the awful pastiche of various story arcs and mishandled characters that was the hellish, non-British Keanu Reeves film, Tilda Swinton excluded. Where are the tissues?
New Grape and the Grain
Daniel Grimsland of local faves The Grape and the Grain and Three checks back in with us this week to give the scoop on The Grape’s pending new album release show at BSP.
“We have been working on this record for over a year,” Daniel says. “It’s finally coming out on Nov. 4! It was really an amazing process working on it over time like we did. Instead of getting into the studio, and busting everything out in a few days, which can also be a great way to record, and I do enjoy that process, doing it over time we were able to really listen to the songs and make the changes we wanted. I couldn’t be happier with the end result. I’m also very excited about the album release show that we are having at BSP on Nov. 8. Joining us will be Lovesick from Kingston and Cosmonaut from New York City. We are going to have limited-edition screen-printed CDs available at the show, and vinyl will be available in the new year, so be on the look out for that!”
The Nov. 8 show is $6; doors 8:30, show begins at 9.
Until next week, drink chaga and eat brains with a side of Sudafed. I love you, freaks and geeks.
Join the family! 
