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Archive for the ‘Goblin Cock’ Category

SOUNDTRACK: ANAL TRUMP-The First 100 Songs (2018).

On Election Day 2020, what better music to listen to than Anal Trump

Anal Trump are a grindcore act made up of Rob and Travis Trump.

The true identities of Rob and Travis Trump remain shrouded in mystery. Are they the unwanted bastard children of the Philanderer-in-Chief? Regular citizens transformed into angry mutants by the deluge of toxic waste spewing from the 45th President’s mouth? Or simply two dudes from high-profile San Diego musical acts who decided to pay tribute to grindcore pioneers Anal Cunt through the words of a man who embodies that band’s name?

Indeed, the band is made up of Rob Crow (from Pinback, Goblin Cock and a dozen other bands) and Travis Ryan, vocalist for Cattle Decapitation.  They write classic grindcore songs.  The longest song on this collection is 29 seconds and it feels like an epic compared to the rest, most of which are around 3 seconds.

Most of the songs have a sample of tRUMP speaking (which is certainly a turnoff) that’s usually followed by a blast of noise and inaudible growling.

The First 100 Songs produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Rob Trump, boasts a hundred songs in eleven minutes — their entire recorded output to date. From 2016’s pre-election That Makes Me Smart! EP all the way through the newer material contained in Thoughts, Prayers, and The Golden Age of Willful Ignorance, this truly exhaustive overview covers all the bases. With songs based on actual quotes by the man (“I Like The Soldiers Who DON’T Get Captured”) to creative interpretations (“My Cabinet Is Nuanced As Shit”) to Putnam-esque bon mots (“Renewable Resources Are Gay”), there’s a smorgasbord of Trumpiliciousness! According to Rob, their material has a universal appeal: “One of the things about this stuff is that, since most of it is taken right from his mouth or ideology, a Trumpster should be fine with it as much as a Bernie person would enjoy laughing at it. It’s just a mirror and that, in itself, is terrifying.”

This album can be purchased on CD (all 12 minutes of it).  There’s a couple of songs where I thought I could hear lyrics,  There’s a couple of songs where there was actually a melody (and one song where you could actually hear a bass line).  But mostly this is just a lot of short noisy songs.

Rob and Travis Trump aren’t gonna fill your ears with talk of universal healthcare or equal voting rights or any of that socialist stuff — although they donated 100% of the proceeds from their EPs to non-profit organizations like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. They just want to point out that the most powerful man in the world is a hate-mongering clown, using shrieks and micro-riffs as their chosen vehicle. Anal Trump will soon take this show on the road with help from Justin Trump on bass and John Putin on drums, but as for their future plans? “I just want this ugly chapter of human history to finally be over.”

The best part of the album are the song titles.   Because there are 100, I have put them after the body.  

[WROTE: November 2, 2020] A worldwide embarrassment

Absolutely no story feels appropriate to post on Election Day, this global travesty.

When Barack Obama won all those eons ago, the world felt brighter.  I recall going to the grocery store and seeing another person and we smiled at each other and acknowledged what a good day it was.  

Four years ago, when tRUMP lost the election but became president because of an antiquated system that explicitly denies a democratic election, it was as if a dark cloud spewed bile all over the country.  We were supposed to have our first female president.  She was the most politically qualified person to run for office in my lifetime.  Like her or not, she served our country admirably and was poised to break the glass ceiling that has now grown several layers thicker. (more…)

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SOUNDTRACK: GOBLIN COCK-Necronomidonkeykongimicon (2016).

Goblin Cock is the hilariously inappropriate name of a heavy metal side project from Rob Crow of the band Pinback.  The album sounds very literally like a heavy cousin to Pinback with a similar (just much heavier) songwriting style.

The band members are: Lord Phallus (Rob Crow)-guitar and vocals; Lick Myheart-guitar; Tinnitus Island-bass; Mylar Grinninstein-drums.  (Probably pseudonyms).

Necronomidonkeykongimicon was the band’s first album in almost ten years after two albums in the early 2000s.  And Joyful Noise records had this to say about it:

Goblin Cock is a band from beyond time, beyond space, beyond your naive concept of dimension in METAL. Since before your pathetic “god” had supposedly “created” you and your kind, Lord Phallus was hunkered in a cybertimeship/fun-dungeon skating the layers of what was considered “true metal” in all societies and in all generations. Eventually His Majesty realized that he really didn’t care and launched a full-scale war against bland metal with an emphasis on ACTUALLY HAVING A GOOD TIME!

The album has 13 songs in 36 minutes–this is not an epic recording or anything.  But despite their brevity, these aren’t blistering punk songs either.  Rather, the songs work primarily in some of the heaviest metal styles (Slayer comes to mind) but also add some really alt-metal sounds (like Tool) in the bridges and choruses.

The first song, “Something Haunted” starts with a classic doom sound.  A distorted, vibrating series of notes–old school metal, including a heavy chugging riff. When he starts singing he sound a bit like Ozzy, but more like an alt-rock Ozzy (with a better voice).  When the bridge comes in, it feels more like Tool than dark metal.  The chorus soars to unexpected alt rock highs and somehow segues tightly back to that opening heavy riffage.  The song is three and a half minutes and is one of the longest songs on the album.

The second song, “Montrossor” starts so quickly, I initially thought it was still part of the first song.  It opens with fast double bass drums and equally fast riffage.  The bridge is a super fast followed by a slower melody (complete with crashing cymbals) that ends abruptly after two and a half minutes.  It ends abruptly and shifts gears into “Stewpot’s Package” which has that same old school style heavy deep opening riffs.  But again, it’s followed by a shift to more Tool-like sound for the bridge.  The chorus shifts gears and sounds almost like an XTC chorus.

“Youth Pastoral” is an instrumental with a practically heavy jazz riff.  The middle grooves all over the place as it shifts gears and style but fits perfectly together.

“Flume” opens with a slow menacing riff and Crow’s clipped singing until the much heavier chorus.  But, really, the most amazing thing about this song is that at the 1 minute mark, he sings the word “hey” for a full twenty-six seconds. It’s astonishing how long he holds that note.  The rest of the song is sung much more quietly, which seems fitting.

“Bothered” is heavy grooving with some excellent back and forth on the guitar parts. A shouting chorus is followed by a kind of guitar solo (more like an instrumental break than a solo proper).  A slow, heavy Soundgarden-esque riff opens “Your Watch.”  The chorus stays in that style, which never sounds like a Soundgarden song (the vocals are very different), but would fit comfortably on their playlist.  It’s followed by “The Undeer” a fast heavy chugging song that’s over in 90 seconds but only after a kind of mocking “la la la” vocal in the middle.

“Struth” opens with a slow drum fill followed by a n old school Black Sabbath-y riff.  The quietest part of the record occurs near the end of this song with a cool-sounding guitar melody (and effects) as the song slows to a pretty end.  But “The Dorse” resumes the heaviness with some intense double bass drum and pummelling guitars. This is another instrumental, but much heavier with some relentless pounding guitar and bass and an almost victorious guitar melody on top.

“World is Moving” is a quiet song that almost doesn’t fit on this record.  It opens with a complex guitar melody and some off-kilter time signatures.  The vocals are quiet and hushed for most of the song until it starts building up by the end.

“Island, Island” returns to the heaviness with a an intense riff and loud crashing drums.  It’s li e classic metal song with lots of drums taking the fore. There’s a catchy melodic middle that is bookended by ferociously heavy chugging guitars.  The middle of the song is about as heavy as this album gets with the thumping guitars and drums all in double time.

“Buck” ends the disc with the longest song–almost four minutes.  It’s slow and grooving and has a feeling of an 80’s sci fi film as the end adds a swirling synth sound.

Despite the band’s name, which will certainly turn off some, this album isn’t silly or overly vulgar.  It’s just some great songwriting in a bunch of heavier styles.

[READ: October 20, 2020] “Life Without Children”

Here’s the third story about COVID that I’ve read.  I’m not going to continue keeping track, but I am marvelling at how many have been published already.

This one is from a different perspective than I’m used to.

In it, Alan, an Irish man in his sixties, is in England on business.  His wife back home in Dublin tells him about all of the quarantining going on in Ireland.

Social distancing is a phrase that everyone understands. It’s like gender fluidity and sustainable development.  They’re using the words as if they’d been translated from Irish, in the air since before the English invaded.

Where he is in Newcastle, it’s like nothing has happened.  He is very careful about what he touches.  He cleans everything.  He envisions the particles floating in the air between the drunk men in the Hawaii-Five-0 shirts.   (more…)

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