So this season on America’s Next Top Model Tyra has decided to include a transvestite. Besides the fact this is a feeble way to claim that she’s pushing the boundaries of television, I think it’s going to be interesting. The problem with the whole thing is that Isis, the said man woman appears to be a crackhead with a way to skinny body and a jacked face.

Hmmm… is Tyra Banks trying to reteach us the true essence of beauty or was this the only transvestite that showed up to the auditions? Personally, I think Tyra has a misunderstanding of progression through the media. I could ramble on about true reasons to her thinking that dressing up in a fat suit and walking around town, thinking it’s cutting edge, but I’m a lil’ low on potassium and eating this banana is making me gag a little bit. I give you Isis.

I found out about the instrumental fucking badassness that is Russian Circles the old fashioned way, at least for me. I hadn’t even ever heard their name when I got their CD submitted for review by their publicist. The sad fact about review copies is that, being that we get about A HUNDERD a day around here, very few of them actually get listened to by yours truly, rather they get farmed out to our stable of review studs, or fucked directly off into the shit pile. But Russian Circles had that certain air about their CD, it just looked like the band responsible for it didn’t give a fuck. I mean, check it out:

Plus, it was on Suicide Squeeze, a label responsible for many similar such surprise bands-that-rule scenarios in the past (including one of my fav bands EVAR, The Six Parts Seven). Sweetening the pot even further was the fact that Station was produced by Matt Bayles, who is responsible for both some of the heaviest (Mastodon, Norma Jean) and some of the most epic sounding (Isis, Minus the Bear) records around. Not coincidentally, epic and heavy would be the two adjectives I would be most likely to use when describing Russian Circles. Less stoned than Isis, but more ballsy than Mogwai, the six jams on Station are long, but not drawn out, combing molten riffs with gently tapped melodic passages to create a musical backdrop for all sorts of gangster ass shit. Seriously, this record kicks fucking ass. Period.

Even more badass is the fact that the band’s current tour with Daughters is actually coming through Chico next month, so I get to jack them off not only in print, but in person too! Dates after tha jumppPppPppP: (more…)

God bless them, I really hope we elect Big Business as President of the United States in 2008. I think they’re running under the Melt Your Fucking Face Big Business/Melvins ticket.

When I see Big Business the only adjective I can think of is “presidential.”

Damn, I guess W really lowered the bar for that.
If you’re a Californian, you have 3 opportunities to check out Big Biz and Isis next week. Don’t blow it.

Hey Interpals!

Been having some trouble with the Myspace show posting thing, they wouldn’t let us enter the venue for some reason.
So for the record:

Sunday, November 18th–Isis and Big Business
in San Francisco at
SLIM’S
333 Eleventh Street
San Francisco, CA

Monday, November 19th–Isis and Big Business in
San Luis Obispo, CA at
DOWNTOWN BREW
1119 Garden Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

and finally
Tuesday, November 20th–Isis and Big Business
in Los Angeles at
THE TROUBADOUR
9081 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90069

There!

Melvins have some shows coming up around new years, more on that later. Thanks to all who came to our shows this year. We had a great time, hope you did too.
Taste the Power!
BigBiz

The thing about Eugene Robinson, is he’s probably the most bad ass human that has lived. Ever. It’s like all those stupid Chunk Norris facts, except real. I could list all the shit he’s done, and is doing (which include being a professional fighter, a Stanford educated journalist and current Senior Editor at Maclife magazine, and frontman for the fucking badass Oxbow, who just got done touring with Isis) but all you really need to know is, that his new book Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You’d Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking comes out next week on HarperCollins. Read an interview with Eugene at SFist and then buy the fucking book.

1. Outdated Memes

2. Shameless Linkz

3. YouTube

4. Late Breaking News

Listening to Isis is like getting donkey punched with an oven mitt: rugged yet soft, visceral but subtle. They yell things you can’t really understand but that makes it better. We’ve already listened to Panopticon twice today in the office. I would suggest you do likewise