Bianchi: It's Italian for "Stooge"

More often than not a Bianchi is found underneath a greased gooch and smuggled plums, but not this little gem. This bike has made its way in and out of my possession a few times, ridden by my Cuz, then his little duder, and now on to another good bud of mine.

I think everything on this bike is out of my parts stash. Stoke. Old school Haro Fatboy bars, some Promax levers, Gusset tensioner. That stem was on my Trek beer cruiser for years (RIP).

Mmm... look at that tire clearance. Sexy.

I live my life one trash build at a time.

Overdose - Two Wheels and Gone

 Also, here's some fresh jams. Highly recommended if you need rock and roll in your life. And who the fuck doesn't right now?

Genogeist - S/T

I recently saw a post from the label/distro Splattered Records mentioning a Portland area stenchcore band with a killer release. Well, I was sold right there. I love that Pacific Northwest style. Steeped in crusty buds and sludgy suds.

Anyways, check out the label, it's run by a dude from Denver who worked at the record shop Wax Trax and fronted a little band called Speedwolf. They are most excellent, and you should listen to them.  He has good taste and releases some cool shit.

Top right is my mix-masher, an old Yamaha 4 track I use for mix tapes. 

Man, those crusties sure know how to put together a complete album. I didn't listen to this before I bought it, but look at that packaging. Even if I found a couple good tunes but wasn't blown away, I would still say it was worth it. Fortunately that is not the case, and I am pretty stoked on this album. 

I partially attribute the awesome and extravagant packaging to them being artsy fartsy Portlanders (nothing wrong with that), but you can also obviously see (and hear) their love for classic crust albums and art. I really get less stenchcore from Genogeist, which I consider to be Stormcrow/Dystopia type Oakland Bay Area stuff, and more along the lines of Nausea/ Doom apocalypse punk. There is definitely a solid slab of fellow PDxers Hellshock mixed in. I wouldn't be suprised if there was some crossover between the bands, but I don't really give a shit to look it up.

A standout tune is Dataslave, which features a sick Extortion style speedcore riff that pops up throughout the song and blows my mind every time.

This is definitely the kind of music that puts me in the mood to work on some Necromu da or post-apocalyptic style minis.  I just find the music so evocative of a dystopian cyber punk existence. It's funny,  because in my limited research, thats how they describe the album. My first listen I didn't get it, but after I've made it through a few times, Fuckin' a. They nailed it. I imagine hanging out listening to it in my Necromunda gang clubhouse while cleaning my stubber, or going to see it in some Blade Runner-esque rock and roll club. Definitely got some ideas brewing for a Rogue Trader style piece I've been thinking about for a while. 

I highly recommend picking up a copy of this album while it is still available, or giving it a search and listening to it. 

If you can't get it at Splattered,  it is released by Black Water Records. Looking into it, I definitely need to put in an order there sometime, but that's a slippery slope!

Sometimes you shred...

And sometimes you don't.

I am a broken, broken man.

It sucks I haven't made a post here in a bit, but I broke my ankle a few months ago mountain biking. Not a whole lot of fun, straight up miserable, really, and unless you enjoy laying on the sofa eating frozen pizzas and watching TV, I do not recommend it. So it goes, man. Regardless, I'm hobbling around these days, and my last x-ray is in about 2 weeks. Hopefully I'll be cleared for contact after that. I'm currently trying to un-lazy myself, so I did some work on some Gundam models, sold some records online, and I've been wrenching on some bikes in the past few weeks. I also read a ton of sci-fi and Robert E. Howard books (he created Conan the Barbarian, obviously highly recommended). I'm slowly getting back to business as usual.

That being said, I did finish up a bike I've been building for my cousin. We'll shred soon, brother! It's not really anything rare or super special, but I tossed on some good parts, and it has some old school appeal. I present to you the Bianchi Ocelot. The drivetrain is built with all Surly parts, aside from the cranks which are a set of Truvativ FireX single speed cranks. She is pretty light for an old steel frame, and should be nice and nimble. If you have actually read prior posts here, you may recognize her.



Do you know the riddle of steel? For if not, Crom will laugh at you and cast you out of Valhalla.

Like I said before, I've also been selling off some records and CDs from my sizeable stash. I ran a death metal and grindcore distro years ago, and I have boxes of doubles, triples, and crap I just don't want. If anyone is interested I'll post up some of the cool/rare stuff I dumped off.

Unfortunately with the excessive amount of sofa laying and not working I've been doing, I haven't really had a lot of cash to drop on vinyl lately, however I did go record shopping in Philly shortly before I broke myself.

Crust punk? That shit sucks.

I highly recommend checking out Noise Pollution off South Street. Really, the shop is called Noise Pollution. Need I say more? I spotted some Plasmatics records at a different shop. I'd have loved to snag them, but they were too rich for my blood at $40 or so a piece.

The Dropdead is a first press of their self-titled album on dark purple wax. It's a cool record, and I've been searching for it for a while, unfortunately it is supremely annoying to listen to. The first side plays from the inside out. I'm sure you can imagine me trying to play it for the first time and getting pissed cause the needle keeps falling off. Fucking hilarious, guys.

I was stoked to find some DS-13. I wrote a bit about them in my Go Skate! post. If you like pictures of cool skateboards and ranting about punk rock, go read it.

As for the other stuff, I've listened to Disrupt for years. The price was right, and its a reissue on purdy white/black swirl wax. I'm a fan of Jack Control, so it was cool to find the Deathreat LP. Listen to his band World Burns to Death. Shred. Nuclear Assault single? 'Nuff said. I got taken on the Doom. $20 for a reissue. Lame.

I also traded my buddy a Municipal Waste album and a Tom Waits 7" for these guys. They came in about a week ago, but I haven't made it to the Doom 7" yet. The Nausea is just so good. I love female vocals in hardcore, and Amy Miret sounds like a total megababe. I also found out the bassist, John John Jesse, builds models and he is pretty wicked to boot. Check out this link for some killer Star Wars models he built.

Anyways, I'm running out of steam, and I'm at the coffee shop and my battery is about to die. However, rejoice! You idiots should be hearing more from me now that I'm doing better. 'Til next time... Shred hard. Shred gnar.