Digital Liner Notes for ‘Delete Key’

Running Away.

Running Away

This is a brand new story about change and acceptance. i feel like it is an interesting enough story to share.

My New Home…

this place has been a good home. it has supplied me with a lot of things… and i feel bad to be leaving it. i really do.

but at the same time… i need to. i need to move on to another site, one with the things i need. and there are a bunch of reasons why the move has to happen, and i dont want to get into them all. but i will say that it HAS happened, and now my home is uprooted and pushed over to this address HERE.

i hope you can make it over to take a look.

Between Answers

today i have been listening to a song by the name of ‘Between Answers’ off of the new Rusty Hack-Saw Project album ‘Delete Key’, and it has really been making me think.

i am at a place musically where i am very happy. i am finally proud of my Rusty Hack-Saw Project music, it is the monster i have always wanted it to be, the Healing Bruise album is all but finished and soon will be pressed, the Concrete and Steam album will start up in the coming days, another new (as yet unannounced) band i am working with will be recording soon, and i am jamming with a group that i feel is the tightest i have played with in quite some time. all this and the new Rules of the Storm EP is finally going to get worked on come thursday.

but listening to that song off of ‘Delete Key’ has really made me feel better about things in my life. i am happy with it. i am happy with the album it is on, and i am happy with where i am going. i dont care if i never sell another album. ive already lived my musical dream. ive been happy with my creations.

so while some people hunt down dreams and destroy their lives for them, i can rest assured that i have created the artwork i have always wanted. and if i can help the guys i play music with do the same thing… then i’ll be even happier.

.

We Need More Men Like This…

at the 6:30 mark in this video Michale Graves says something very important.

while talking about how he is so glad and lucky to have gotten the chance to touch the legacies of both the Misfits and the Ramones he says that he would rather sit home and be poor than go out and take advantage of them.

it is just that feeling that i think separates Michale from so many other musicians, even ones i love. he plays his music because he believes in it. and it is not as though he is only playing in living rooms across the nation, he gets booked into some fairly well sized places, places better than my bands have played. but that honesty, that purity, comes across in his music. he doesnt pretend to be smarter or hipper than he is, he doesnt act tougher or more aware of the occult, he doesnt lie and play songs he hates just to pay the bills. Michale is a honest man. and a damn fine musician as well.

i remember when i found out one of my favorite singers was only playing shows to make money off his more profitable music. i have no problem with people working to pay the bills. i wish i could pay all my bills with my music, but there is something so dishonest and disgusting about a man who goes up on stage and lies to the faces and hearts of an ocean of fans. if i had known i was being lied to when i saw him sing i wouldn’t have gone in the first place. Michale doesnt do that. Michale sings his songs with all the passion and love he had when he wrote them.

i have seen Michale a few times and each time i have seen him i have felt his words deep within my bones. each time i have seen him i left smiling like never before. here is a man who is so dedicated to his music that he is willing to give up the bigger paying jobs just to do what he truly believes in.

so thanks Michale.

from a long-time fan, thank you.

i’ll always be first in line for your new music.

The Last Castle (2001) – A Review

if you havent seen this movie yet, then head over to amazon.com immediately.

there is a difference between being a good soldier and being a good man. a good soldier does because he is told. a good man does because he should.

the plot to this film if fairly simple, Robert Redford is a high ranking general who is both respected and idolized. then he screws up. his mistake costs 8 men their lives and he finds himself in a military prison. while he is there he sees the warden, James Gandolfini, abusing his power. so he rallies the prisoners to stop him.

Robert Redford says that he is done being a soldier, that he isnt a general anymore and he never will be again. and that is true. but he is still a man, and he is still a leader. throughout the film he uses the military system to show his authority, but while he is a prisoner, working with other prisoners, he isnt a general, he is just their leader. he is their Cool Hand Luke, if you will. Gandolfini turns in an amazing job as the insecure, emotionally fractured warden. every word, every bead of sweat, every inch of his body is in character to create a gripping and intensely personal character. the way he stands and waits to be addressed twice by all of his subordinates, the way he curls his lips when he speaks to Redford, the way his eyes flare when he watches the inmates through his huge office window… all of it paints the picture he was going for.

this struggle, not between good and evil, but between honor and insanity, is so wonderfully played out by the two master actors that you feel the fight in your very own skin. the little rebellious acts of defiance, of independence all make your skin stand on end.

now, there are some little holes. apparently the way the prison is set up isnt how normal military prisons work, and little leaps of faith are needed to accept things like the makeshift trebuchet. but nit-picking of any piece of art is to miss the very point of the creation. this film is about honor. it is about doing the right thing, not for yourself, and not for anyone else, but just because it needs to be done.

i could fill pages with detailed descriptions of every shot or scene in the film and all the symbols and messages i saw in them, but if i did that it may take some of the wonder out of it for other people. so instead i will say that this is a brilliantly acted film, and should be seen.

i cant recommend it enough…

Special Album Up For Sale…

So yes, the wait for ‘Delete Key’ is becoming long and annoying. i cant wait to get the album out there. so to buy myself a little time while i wait for everything to fall into place i have made THIS album available.

this album is a collection of instrumental mixes of the songs found on ‘Dragging Horse Bones’ and ‘Dust in Our Throats’. The collection also includes two unreleased songs. so for only $9.99 you are getting quite the deal. wouldnt you say so?

this collection symbolizes the end of the two albums. with this release i can say that i am “done” with both of them. im not going to advertise them, push them, or keep using songs from them. they albums are now finished, and i am not going to bleed them. they have sold… well enough, and i dont feel the need to re-mix them again, or keep talking about them. when i made them i believed in them fully, and while i still do, i think that in this short time my focus has changed. ‘Delete Key’ is a stronger album in my eyes and it pushes some of the emotions and ideas i had on these albums further. so this album, titled ‘Dragging Dust Bones in Our Throat’ is like an epilogue in a book. it is the last word on those songs, and the last part of the series. with this collection out i can look forward (to quote a classic thrash song, “looking backwards instead of forwards seems to me absurd”) to the next things in my musical life. the ONLY song from these albums that will be making more appearances is ‘Moments’. i have been working on re-mixing and changing up that song. so for the ‘Moments’ fans out there, dont worry, that song isnt banished to the dusty annuls of yesterday. otherwise though, songs like ‘Dragging Horse Bones’, ‘Details of a Punch’, ‘The Way I Pray’ and others will now only exist within those albums.

so i hope the offer of two albums worth of songs (i didnt include the two intermissions on the album) for the price of one album is enough to entice some of you. buy this album and think of it as the tombstone to the first chapter of Rusty Hack-Saw Records.

Buy it HERE…

Bloody Kisses – by Type O Negative

when we run to music’s strong welcoming arms we do so for a wide array of reasons. we can run into them to find humor, solace, solitude, and even a friend. music can make us laugh and smile, or it can cry with us and hold us close. it can be our best friend and our lover. a friend and a lover that will never turn their back on you. a friend and lover that will never leave you or forget you. and that is just what this album is.

this album has a few humorous songs, song to that make you laugh, or just smile. songs like ‘Kill All the White People’ or ‘We Hate Everyone’ are loaded commentaries on the band’s image. and a song like ‘Black Number One’ is mocking a wholly ridiculous section of their fan-base. but those songs arent what make this album so special. those songs are fun sarcastic jokes made by the bitter kid in the back of the classroom. the real gems in the album are the songs you dont hear about as often.

“Bloody Kisses”, “Set Me on Fire”, “Too Late”, “Blood and Fire”, “Cant Lose You”, and “Suspended in Dusk” are monolithic beasts of beauty and somber depression. if you can identify with the feelings in those songs then they quickly become some of the most honest and powerful paintings in the world. the music itself is gorgeous in its layout and orchestration. the fuzzy guitars dance with the rumble and bumble of the bass, while the truly Gothic sounding keyboards claw at the air, and former drummer Sal Abruscato plays the most haunting and emotional drumlines imaginable. all the musicians shine on this album, but the drums stand out as masterful. at times they sound like boxes falling down stairs, and at others they are precision hits mapped and planned out to a tee. the power from behind that kit helps to push this album further and further into its much deserved classic status. Josh Silver plays some wonderfully atmospheric keyboards throughout the album, helping to make the music even more insular and all encompassing, and Kenny’s guitars help to keep the music grounded basically in metal/hardcore territory.

lyrically the album is even darker and depressing than the music lets on. the songs are about loss. loss of love, family, hope, and even self. the words are beautifully chosen and unapproachabley well fit for their meanings. singer/bassist Peter Steele has a lot he wants to say, and most of it is hard to hear, but for those of us out there who feel similarly, it is actually nice to hear that someone else is in the same hole.

im not going to recommend this album, i am just going to say that it is without a doubt in my mind one of the most important albums to come out of the strange world of goth-rock, if not THE most.

Danzig IVp – Danzig

it is impossible to bring up the name Danzig without hearing people talk about how he was knocked out by the fat guy from Northside Kings, or doing a horrible atonal impression of him singing his accidentally signature song ‘Mother’, or how he is an uncontrollable jerk that no one can stand, or how he is just the zombie elvis, or a balding faux-satanist from New Jersey, but all of that aside, he is an amazing songwriter.

the Danzig-era Misfits were groundbreaking. Samhain was… also pretty good… and the first four Danzig solo albums are perfect works of goth/doom/blues rock art.

of his first four solo albums (though i would hardly call them ‘solo’ albums as the backing band of Eerie Von on bass, punk rock royalty Chuck Biscuits on the drums, and the awe-inspiring powerhouse John Christ on guitars is one of the best compiled bands of all time) this fourth one named 4p (after a “satanic” movement) is without a doubt the most powerful.

the albums brooding pensive production shrouds the blues and doom songs in cobwebs and mystery. the tinny production of the self titled first album is gone, and the murky feel of the second is gone as well. here Rick Rubin finally got it perfect. the sound of the album alone is beastly. and this production isnt the best part of the album. the best part of the whole album is the songwriting. never before (and never after) has Danzig sun over better riffs or drum beats. his three ‘backing musicians’ play their hearts out on this album, and it shows.

the first song, Brand New God welcomes the listener into a world filled with acrid smoke and stinging trebles, balanced out with thundering low-end. but the real ride, the real beauty of the album doesnt start until the second song.

while the whole album is wonderful, and there isnt a single song i would call bad (nothing less than great actually) the string of songs from track two to track seven is a perfect block. those six songs in a row are among the very best in Danzig’s entire career, and easily the best consecutive songs on any album he has ever sung on.

Little Whip kicks off the block with music straight out of a crypt. the dark and skeletal music slowly builds up to become a ferocious monster. a riff heavy beast that, combined with a storm of drumming from Chuck and Danzig’s New Jersey accent, simply overpowers you, forcing you to listen on.

Cantspeak comes up next. the music is backmasked to add a little more atmospheric strength to the already ghostly music. here Danzig sings, not croons, not wails, but sings. it is strange to hear at first. but his calmed down vocals lend power to the song. the song sounds like death walking. it is set to a powerful walking beat, and carries baggage. within every second of the song there is clearly more being said. there is always more to the song, more emotion, more power, more meaning than we can pull out. the song isnt snarling or barking like many of the other songs on the album. it doesnt spit in your eyes. the song just stands there in a beaten and faded leather jacket smoking a bent cigarette. this song doesnt threaten you. it doesnt need to. it just looks at you.

the song blends perfectly into the next tune, Going Down to Die. now this is a dark blues song if i ever heard one. where Cantspeak just looked at you, this song ignores you. the feeling this song evokes is one of solitude. you can just imagine the band playing this song all looking at each other and just ignoring everyone else. the friends, the fans, the family, all of them, they arent in the picture here. John Christ’s solo in this song is painful and beautiful all at once. it morphs perfectly along the music with Danzig’s sorrowful voice. this song doesnt threaten you either, but not because it doesnt need to, but because it doesnt care to. this song has better things on its mind.

the next song is the best song on the album. Until You Call on the Dark. this song is made out of razor blades and electrical tape. Von and Chuck play tightly and create a backbone that could support a bridge. Danzig’s voice is a trapped animal all throughout. he screams, wails, howls, and bellows like a demon. but the star of the song is the doom and gloom riff by John Christ. his fingerslides and little squeals all add more power and authority to that razor sharp riff every time it returns to the music’s forefront. the feeling i get when i hear this album is a dark and violent one. its that same feeling you get right before you destroy something. its that feeling of pent up fury and aggression. its that feeling of losing yourself in a trance-like anger. people joke about Danzig’s use of the descriptor ‘violence’ for his music, but here there is no other word. this song is violence.

the next song is Dominion. it provides a much needed break from the violence of the previous song. but only for a short time. the song’s drums are played masterfully by Chuck, and Danzig turns in one of his best vocal performances of the 90s. again John Christ’s soloing deserves a mention. the guitar is less an instrument than a part of his tongue. and that is true of the other two musicians in the band. Eerie and Chuck are both masters of their instruments. and here on this song, while the music stays relatively laid-back, they prove that there is nothing that they cant play together.

while the next song, Bringer of Death, is the last int his block of perfect songs, it shouldnt be thought of as the last good song on the album. it just so happens that it is the last in this line of perfect songs back to back. the cloudy billowing smoke of the song creates a claustrophobic feeling for the listener. Danzig shouts in an almost possessed way as the song grows foggier and foggier. finally the fog breaks and over sharp sustain Danzig chants in his ‘built for chanting’ voice.

this album is a little forgotten gem that i would hate to love alone. no the album doenst have ‘Mother’ on it, and no chant of ‘go go go go!’ is anywhere to be heard on the CD, but that shouldnt matter. this album is a work of art that i want the world to hear.

sadly the direction Glenn took the band in on the next few albums was less to my liking. not bad at all, but it lost the magic of this album. the band without the monster rhythm section of Chuck, and Eerie, and the guitar mastery of John Christ just wasnt the same at all.

but pick this album up, i cant recommend it enough. and if you like this one, go backwards and pick up Danzig III, How the Gods Kill.

A Book Came Creeping From the Swamp…

some people need time to live a life that others dont understand. some people need to travel a long highway all on their own. no car, no friend, no food, no escape. some people need to walk before they can sit.

its a hard thing to deal with for the people left in the dust. for the people who have to stand around and watch their friends or loved ones walk away into the sand by themselves the loss can be almost harder than they can take. but in the long run it isnt. in the long run it is just what everyone needs. yeah it is horrible, but growth and change is nothing less than something dying to give life to something else.

so with this in mind, i have decided today to start my new book. a book about a highway. a long stretch of road that serves as a carrier, a friend. a road that takes the place of all the people we leave and lose. a road that helps us like our failed friendships never could have. the idea has interrupted the planning i was doing for another book idea, but this one is more pertinent… more current. im not sure of what i want to call it yet… which is weird because i usually figure out the title early. i do know that this book will be a more somber affair and will really hold some of the styles of my darker short stories. the book will be a companion piece, and based int he same universe as ‘The People of Garrison Park’, but it wont be taking place in that small town. if ‘The People of Garrison Park’ was a weighty Romantic piece of work, this one is an American Gothic slab of work. i dont know how long this will take to write… ‘Garrison Park’ took 3 (almost 4) months. so maybe that long. hopefully less.

once i finish this one i will begin on ‘Clowntown : New Jersey’s Rubber Nosed Utopia’, a decidedly lighter work.