I remember Halloween...

Halloween is almost here, and I'm seeing that many of my friends are getting in the spirit by holding parties and dressing up this year. Going along with this, I thought the blog could do with a special seasonal entry - complete with some music that would work perfectly at your theoretical Halloween party.

Hour of the Wolf.
An Arizona-based horror punk band made up of 4/5ths of Life in Pictures, a now-defunct metal-core band that was a hell of a lot better than most other metal-core bands. A couple years ago I bought some vinyl off their singer, Hank, and he's a nice dude. Also, his band is one of the few non-Danzig horror punk bands that doesn't suck complete ass. They've put out an EP, a split and have a 10" coming out soon. Catchy, trashy fun - very highly recommended.
Hour of the World - Power of the Wolf (192 MP3)

Bloody Panda.
Based in New York City, Bloody Panda are a sludge band with a Japanese opera singer as a vocalist, and when used together these two elements make for one evil-sounding band. I don't recommend playing this at a party, but if you were too cheap to buy candy for the little tykes, opening the windows playing this a high volume should make them too shit-scared to knock on your door. Throw out that CD of cheesy ghost noises, this will work much better.
Bloody Panda - Pheromone (192 MP3)

Portal.
Put this into the same category as Bloody Panda - not party music, but scary as all fuck. Play this after the party's over. Picture it: you've had your fill of entertaining, you drop some acid and put on this record; if you wake up the next day and haven't pulled all the flesh off your face, you're harder than most. After years of hypnotising Australian audiences they're doing their first set in America at Maryland Death Fest. Brutal.
Portal - Outre (V0-VBR MP3)

The World/Inferno Friendship Society.
My favourite band. Ever. Evereverever. Not only do these guys put out sweet records and put on the best live show I've ever seen, but they're a good Halloween band if you're going for the old-school cabaret punk vibe. Every year they have a special Halloween show called Hallowmas, and they have a live album from one of these shows which fucking rules, but this is their latest studio release and it once again ups the ante for this amazing band.
The World/Inferno Friendship Society - Addicted to Bad Ideas (V0-VBR MP3)

Alive.

Kinsemo: a form of post-hardcore music created by Chicago's Kinsella brothers - Tim and Mike, namely. This music takes form as many different outfits: Cap'n Jazz, Owls, Owen, American Football, Tim Kinsellas, Make Believe, Joan of Arc, etc. Bands such as Noyes, The Promise Ring and other outfits that include former Kinsella contributors are deemed 'Kinsemo by association.'

Now that we have the education portion of this blog out of the way, let's talk about Victor Villarreal. Victor was the guitarist in Cap'n Jazz and Owls who made a single EP under the name Noyes before literally disappearing. Nobody knew where the hell this guy went; all they knew is that he was a heroin addict and wherever he was he was probably up to no good. This is a shame for any person but in the case of Victor, a guitarist that has been massively influential on countless players and bands, it was particularly worrying. Would we ever hear from him again?

Well, it took seven long years but the answer is a resounding yes. Victor is back, clean, and brandishing an acoustic guitar and singing in a solo project done under his own name. This came out earlier this year and I'm really kicking myself for not discovering it sooner. Rumour around the Internets was that he was gearing up for a new Noyes release, but it looks like this is what eventuated instead. And if we get more Noyes and I'm wrong, I'll be nothing but happy about it.

This album shows off a different side to Victor than we're used to hearing. From past output we expect him to be playing along, lending his talents to a bigger whole and letting his fingers do all the talking. This time around he's playing and singing, and while he doesn't go as crazy with the former as he used to, these being simpler songs - he puts forth a good amount of noodling for all the guitar nerds but keeps the focus on playing and singing sincere and honest music. Much of the album is about the passing of his brother, and some of the proceeds from sales are being donated to Mission USA Prison Ministries in his memory, so if you dig this one, getting your hands on a physical copy would be the thing to do, which you can do here.

Here's a video of Victor playing one of the songs on the record, and hard proof that he's still got it.



Victor Villarreal - Alive (V0-VBR MP3)