The soundtrack to this morning's commute was Hangover Music Vol. VI by Black Label Society. It's cool 'cuz you get to see Zakk's melodic side, but here and there his crazy chops are still on display.

The first book of 2009 is On The Road With The Ramones, which I'm just about done with. It definitely falls under essential reading for any Ramones fan. Comprised largely of interviews with the band, crew, and other associated characters, the book reads a lot like an extended version of the film "End of the Century" (essential viewing for any Ramones fan). Like, the movie just touched on themes that are further explored in the book (e.g., Joey's mental illness, Johnny's almost comical right-wing/conservative mentality, and so on).

The first show of the new year will be Luna Mortis @ Station 4 @ 8 p.m. on the 16th!

That is all.

Notes from the Metal Underground:

Last night Jason and I went to Station 4 in St. Paul for the following:

Doro (headliner)
Fatal Smile
Seventh Calling
Cold Colors
Sirens Of Titan
Krepitus

The opening band, Krepitus, was pretty impressive. The singer/bassist had a really powerful voice -- kind of that metal/hardcore* hybrid of shouting and singing, along the lines of the latest Shadows Fall CD. But then he could hit some pretty damn high notes as well here and there. Sirens of Titan was cool as well -- kind of like Queens of the Stone Age with better lead guitar and vocals (sorry, Josh Homme). Definitely a "groove" thing going on, reminiscent of Sabbath.

The metalfest continued with Cold Colors -- they had this crazy deal where for $20 you could get all four of their CDs plus a free T-shirt. What's a metal junkie to do? I'm now the proud owner of their entire collection. The shirt is kind of ugly, but it does say "pure american wuss metal" on the back, which is damn funny! Seventh Calling was a high point -- very reminiscent of early American thrash metal. The singer/guitarist could sound a little Halford-esque on occasion, which was pretty amazing.

Fatal Smile came on next, and it was like being in a time warp -- pure mid-to-late-80s glam/hair metal. They hit the stage swinging, and commenced to assault the audience with choruses along the lines of "S! O! B!" with no trace of irony whatsoever. The singer looks like he's from Skid Row, the bassist and guitar player look like they're from Motley Crue, and the drummer is easily one of the prettiest dudes I've ever seen! They even had groupies. Doro came on next, and was pretty cool but we were getting a little tired by that point, as it was way past our bedtimes. She did a really cool version of Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law," which you can find on YouTube if you're so inclined.

Earlier on Sunday lonely_doll and I went to Cheapo, and I found this for fifteen bucks:

Hollywood Rocks!

Oh my goodness, there's some choice cuts on this thing! Example: Warrant singer Jani Lane was apparently in a band called "Plain Jane" before Warrant, and they apparently recorded a cover of "Time Warp." Yes, that Time Warp. It's also got "12 O'clock High," by Odin, who some of you may remember from The Decline of Western Civilization Part II.

Cold Colors is cool. I'm listening to one of their CDs and the song that's on has got kind of a mid-tempo Danzig/Sisters of Mercy-esque feel.

Other than that, I managed to make it to the gym in this crap weather, which always makes me feel better. I have to be back at work at 5 a.m. tomorrow for the "kickoff" of Documentation Training Week, so I should probably crash pretty soon. It wouldn't be so bad, but I also have to be at work at 9:30 p.m tomorrow, and I still haven't quite figured out how that's gonna work. I might do something crazy like work 'till 2 p.m. or whatever, hit the gym, take a nap, and go back for the second session.

Happy SPRING, guys!!

*always a good idea to mix Black Sabbath with Black Flag, you know?

I just applied for my first ever passport! They assured me that I'll have it in time to travel to Canada in the pursuit of Heavy Metal -- the processing time is 4-6 weeks and we're leaving June 8th. I left work an hour early to make sure I got here on time -- they say more snow's on the way tomorrow so I wanted to get it taken care of today. Anyway, there was no line or anything, so I picked the right day!

According to the Dept. of Homeland Security, Canada would let me in with my birth certificate and driver's license until sometime next year. However, if the government works anything like anywhere I've ever worked, they could just go ahead and change the regulations at any time and fail to notify anyone who may be impacted by the changes.

It looks like my VISA card will be accepted pretty much anywhere, and it sounds like I can get some Canadian money at TCF, so I should pretty much be set to go! Originally I was thinking early June would be bad timing for a Heavy Metal Road Trip, since I'll have just moved and just got done with a week of training. But the more I think about it, the more I realize the timing's perfect, you know? After all that work, I'll be able to load up the car with piles of metal albums and hit the road to see one of the best metal bands of all time.

Yay!

Never hurts to plan ahead, right?

Work is sending me to something called "Better Process School Training" June 3-5, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. From what I can gather, this is a super intensive training on things like HACCP and thermal technologies in food processing and so forth. My coworker just went a few months ago -- I'm actually thinking it wouldn't be a bad idea to borrow the book from her and try to get through some of it before the training.

"Flight of the Valkyries" show on Saturday, June 28th. Nothing against work mandated training or anything, but this will almost certainly be about 50,000 times more fun.

Busy busy busy...

Man, I saw the craziest metal band EVER at 7th Street Entry tonight! UNEXPECT sound like if Danny Elfman hooked up with Primus and Dream Theater and started a prog/death metal band. VISIDEON was also cool. Echoes of Eternity was supposed to be the main band but had to cancel 'cuz the singer's got bronchitis, so they added a local band to the lineup and dropped the ticket price to five bucks. It's a drag 'cuz I was looking forward to seeing 'em, but it was still a hella good time. Jason introduced himself to Swordlord and thanked him for bringing all these underground metal shows to the cities. Swordlord was like, "Hey, it doesn't happen without your support, brother. Thanks for coming out." I thought it was funny he called him "brother" like in ManOwaR's "Die For Metal."

Unexpect and Visideon are both on the next Flight of the Valkyries lineup at Station 4 in June. I expect (no pun intended) Jason and I will go.

Now for some rich chocolatey Ovaltine, and then off to bed. Cheers!