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Aug 1 (Sat) - Black Pyramid, Presley [Last show ever!], The Modern Voice, Easter Bloodhounds - O'Briens Pub (Allston, MA)

8/1 - Black Pyramid, Presley [LAST SHOW EVER], The Modern Voice, Easter Bloodhounds @ O'Briens in Allston

[views:14242][posts:67]
Anchors Up (Haverhill, MA) - [deep_cover][ignorance][pitfall][randomshots][shoot_to_kill][the_bonus_army][think_again][villain][watchfire][yellow_stitches][black_pyramid][presley][randomshots][the_modern_voice]
[show listing]  _____________________________________
[Jun 26,2009 12:56am - RichHorror ""]
[img]
 _____________________________________
[Jun 26,2009 3:29pm - badsneakers ""]
yuh good
 ____________________________________
[Jul 12,2009 7:37pm - RichHorror ""]
http://www.myspace.com/blackpyramidkills
http://www.myspace.com/presley
http://www.myspace.com/themodernvoice
http://www.myspace.com/easterbloodhounds
 ____________________________________
[Jul 13,2009 5:29pm - RichHorror ""]

W3%20nli said:intense
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[Jul 15,2009 10:40pm - RichHorror ""]
yuh
 ____________________________________
[Jul 16,2009 5:12pm - RichHorror ""]
Finally….Finally…FINALLY!!! SOMEBODY GETS IT!!! As a purveyor of all things doom and stoner metal, I’ll be the first to admit that the scene is waaaay overcrowded with sloppy bands that think that the key to a good doom record is lots of bong hits and playing…real…slooooooow. And then a band like Black Pyramid comes along and gives me renewed hope for the genre and for metal in general. The band’s self titled debut combines all of the best elements that you could hope for in a doom album - heavy, rhythmic, groovin’ songs that are both well written and well performed.



A power trio from the great state of Massachusetts, Black Pyramid has not only studied diligently from the great book of Black Sabbath, but from bands like Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, Cathedral, and Pentagram as well. There’s definitely an old school doom vibe here that’s immediately recognizable and welcomed. Warm, analog tones and thick fuzzed out guitars are the order of the day here, enveloping the 9 songs on the disc in a smoked out embryo of heaviness. As I listened to the album (again and again), I kept feeling that the riffs, song structure and overall performance here are very Sabbathian, circa MASTER OF REALITY and VOL. 4. But the band manages to capture that classic vibe without sounding plagiaristic - and that friends, is a beautiful thing.



“Voices of Gehenna” is the first track after a brief intro, setting the mood just right. Drummer Clay Neely keeps the swinging beats going (a la Bill Ward in his prime) beneath vocalist/guitarist Andy Beresky’s bellow and bass player Gein’s low end distortion. “Mirror Messiah” could have easily been a Cathedral leftover, while “No Life King” has almost a folksy, Celtic inspired gait to it. “The Worm Ouroboros” could possibly be the spiritual successor to “Into the Void,” opening with some jazzy, wah wah drenched hooks before settling into the main groove of the song. “Wintermute” is by far my favorite cut on the disc; a little bit of “Planet Caravan” mixed with a little bit of the Obsessed’s melancholy, the tune is a gut buster that ends in a crescendo of punchy riffs.



Like the classic Sabbath albums of the day, BLACK PYRAMID will please a wide audience. Sludgy enough for the staunchest of doom stalwarts, the album has enough rockin’ in general to satisfy more mainstream fans as well. Rather than reinventing the wheel, Black Pyramid has opted to build upon an existing blueprint and make it their own. A solid debut all the way, I can’t wait to hear how the band follows this up.

http://www.metal-rules.com/review/viewreview.php?month=July&year=2009&pos=3
 _____________________________________
[Jul 16,2009 5:26pm - badsneakers ""]
yes! very excited for this show!
 ____________________________________
[Jul 16,2009 5:28pm - RichHorror ""]
This show is in or around bong hits.
 ____________________________________
[Jul 19,2009 2:12pm - RichHorror ""]
top 4 smoking drugs
 _____________________________________________
[Jul 19,2009 2:23pm - markrichardsmobile  ""]
Hopefully I'll be able to get work off for this. Damn the man.
 ____________________________________
[Jul 19,2009 2:25pm - RichHorror ""]

markrichardsmobile said:Hopefully I'll be able to stop smoking drugs long enough to go to this. Damn the pusherman.
 _____________________________________________
[Jul 19,2009 2:26pm - markrichardsmobile  ""]
Yeah that's more like it. I need to stop lying to myself. :(
 ____________________________________
[Jul 21,2009 7:51pm - RichHorror ""]
grav hits khed
 _____________________________________
[Jul 22,2009 10:52am - RichHorror ""]

quintessence said:This show will fucking rule.
 ____________________________________
[Jul 22,2009 2:42pm - RichHorror ""]
[img]
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[Jul 22,2009 2:48pm - SkinSandwich ""]
So, I see you have a few shows going on.
 ____________________________________
[Jul 22,2009 2:55pm - RichHorror ""]
With more in the works.
 _____________________________________
[Jul 24,2009 3:49pm - badsneakers ""]
up
 ____________________________________
[Jul 24,2009 7:13pm - RichHorror ""]
[img]
 _____________________________________
[Jul 27,2009 12:42pm - RichHorror ""]
This Saturday!
 _____________________________________
[Jul 27,2009 1:39pm - badsneakers ""]
yes!
should be interesting...Presley hasn't played together in four months
 ____________________________________
[Jul 27,2009 2:49pm - RichHorror ""]
Random 80's hardcore amidst stoned jamming plz
 _____________________________________
[Jul 27,2009 7:03pm - badsneakers ""]

RichHorror said:Random 80's hardcore amidst stoned jamming plz


load an ipod up!
or I'll have christian do it up..
 ____________________________________
[Jul 27,2009 7:04pm - RichHorror ""]
I meant like the time you played a Negative Approach song in the middle of your set.
 _____________________________________
[Jul 27,2009 7:11pm - badsneakers ""]
OH
haha!

i doubt we'll be doing anything like that..we'll be lucky to get our own songs down!
 _____________________________________
[Jul 27,2009 7:13pm - badsneakers ""]
you know what
I don't think we did Negative Approach before, i know ichabod has
we've done black flag nervous breakdown
 _____________________________________
[Jul 28,2009 1:23pm - badsneakers ""]
up
 ____________________________________
[Jul 28,2009 1:25pm - RichHorror ""]
Yeah, the Flag cover was what I was thinking of.
 _____________________________________
[Jul 28,2009 5:56pm - badsneakers ""]
cool
 ________________________________________
[Jul 29,2009 1:05am - Eyehatehippies ""]
Psyched for it.
 _____________________________________
[Jul 29,2009 9:06am - badsneakers ""]
yes
 _____________________________________
[Jul 29,2009 12:43pm - RichHorror ""]
From the fall of 2005...in the Noise Around Boston....

Presley – If You Don't Like The Effects, Don't Produce The Cause


"Classic" rock will continue to be hailed as such because of its adventurous nature and willingness to continually push the boundaries of songwriting and performance. Somewhere along the way the music lost its footing on the path carved out by bands that played the Fillmore Auditoriums in the 60s and 70s like The Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead, Deep Purple, Santana, and Chicago, and started to sound like…well, the worst aspects of those bands, i.e. the parts where the players forgot about the song. Revisionist history has made improvisation a dirty word in rock 'n' roll, which has made too many bands put themselves into easily classifiable boxes. Musical freedom has become a road seldom traveled by the multitude, which is why I find myself getting antsy after five songs and/or 20 minutes of most sets. What strikes me most about Presley is that their continually shifting tempos, rhythms, dynamics, moods and textures can hold my interest while they play what seems like one song for 40 minutes. They have a similar approach to electric-era Miles Davis in that they'll take pre-arranged parts and work them together through jams that'll have them sounding psychedelic, ambient, metallic and funky at any given moment. If I were to classify them I'd say that they're a psych/stoner rock band that holds equal appeal for potheads, beer drinkers and hell raisers. Christian Campagna's heavily effected and often droning guitar lines are augmented by Aarne Victorine's melodic bass and Breaux Silcio's drumming, which ranges from subtle cymbal splashes to near blast beat pounding. To cop a line from their third and latest release, ***Elizabeth***, they're musicians with deep record collections who're "Stuck in fuckin' Providence with the Memphis blues again" somewhere between Dylan and ***Daydream Nation***, Husker Du and Hawkwind.

"I guess the fact that we generally don't use a setlist," says Campagna on what sets Presley apart, "and have been playing a good amount of shows where we just string songs together without stopping. We have a number of songs written that don't have endings for the purpose of opening them up and trying to go somewhere else completely different. My roots will always be in traditional rock concerts, but after spending a good amount of time at shows where stretching out songs and creating music through group improvisation is normal, we wanted to try to adopt that aesthetic to more of a loud rock sound than most bands improvising on stage that I go see live. My influences come from all over the place. Some of my favorite guitar players are Adrian Belew, Jerry Garcia, Robin Guthrie from Cocteau Twins, and Richard Thompson. I love their approach to music and probably think of them when I'm sitting around at home playing. At one point at the beginning of this band we accidentally stumbled upon stretching out songs and improvising. Certain songs started getting longer in rehearsal and we discussed trying this on stage in front of an audience and have pretty much done it at every show we've played. One goal was to never play the same set, and to have every show be completely different from the last one. This has worked great for us so far and we're happy with what we do. I guess what we've set out to do with this band is frustrating and rewarding, frustrating in the sense that we have a hard time fitting in with many bands we play with, rewarding in that we can play a show with no real idea of what is going to happen. Granted we run the risk of alienating audiences, but I think the day we get on stage and play a bunch of four-minute songs that are all written with strict beginnings and endings it won't be rewarding anymore.

"Coming from a musical family, music has always been a huge part of my life," he continues. "My dad worked for A&M in the 70s and 80s and we got to see a good amount of concerts at a pretty young age. Seeing KISS as a kid made me want to play music. Later on, my cousin Al inspired me to actually go through with it; he was a founder of Boston's SSDecontrol and his drive in that band was intense. The three of us have a great understanding of each other when it comes to playing music. When we originally got together the ideas were pretty loose and miles away from what we do now. I remember thinking it would be a great idea to sound like Sunny Day Real Estate meets My Bloody Valentine. We played together for almost a year before playing our first show. We had a second guitar player for a while who recorded our first two records with us, and our sound definitely changed when he joined, and again when he left in 2003. I don't like the first record at all. It was the first record I ever recorded where I was actually singing and the results are pretty weak in my opinion. The vocal tracks were all pretty much done in one take, as our engineer wasn't interested in having us. I think where it was our first batch of songs our sound was still developing. We do play one song off of the record still, 'Donald Fagen.' Our second record we did with Steve Austin of Today is the Day and that was one of the most amazing experiences we all have had in the band. He was great to work with, a super nice guy, and ended up playing keyboards on a good chunk of the record after coming up with some parts he thought would add some depth to the record. That experience and record are something I will always look back on with pride. The most recent one we recorded with our friend Jason is our current favorite. Jason had seen us live a number of times so he was able to capture our sound as close as anyone has. The songs are pretty straight forward and all in a normal tuning as opposed to the DADABE tuning the majority of our songs are in, yet we were able to stretch them out a little live right there and we all agreed that for improvising in the studio in most of the songs in one take came out pretty close to what we do live."

Campagna has an addictively readable Livejournal site, and this revealing entry a few years ago: "With the huge amount of jazz mp3s from the 20s, 30s, and 40s I'm loading on to my hard drive I'm bored with rock music again. I bought that Cure record last week and it's about as exciting as me getting up a few minutes ago and taking that sip of water, just boring guitar and vocals music, too wordy. How many obsessive love songs can you hear before you need to listen to someone who's dead now blowing a horn for ten minutes instead? That shit excites me. These shitty sounding recordings from 1932 with a simple little melody and a solo or two have so much more power and energy than anything anyone is going to release this year. My friends, coworkers, people I know on the net, etc. will keep eating all of this garbage up though, never looking back to see where all of this began. All of this is having an effect on writing lyrics now. I don't want to sing. I fucking hate writing lyrics. I drag my feet with this process, and the results are always awful. I can't read them, or listen to my voice singing them without wanting to go deaf and blind. I'd like to turn the band into a band that just goes on stage and improvises for an hour and leaves. We're at the point where nobody really cares anymore anyway, so why now? I don't think any of us have any ideal to impress anyone at this point. I could certainly care less about the 'rock scene' or whatever you want to call it."
To what does he attribute the marked drop-off in club attendance in recent years? "The short obnoxious answer would be because there's nothing really worth going to see, but I guess the whole world of music is different from where it was in the 80s and 90s. Back then there was no internet, and things were generally slower. You would have that one friend that would come to your house and say, 'Check out this record, this is The Wipers' – now everything is so fast and people have shorter attention spans and you can buy something on the internet and find out that 'If you like this, you'll also like this Avenged Sevenfold record or whatever…' People are so taken with celebrity now. They spend all their money to see these bigger acts and have no idea that there is this whole underground music scene going on, especially in Boston. I would think the average person going to see someone like Meatloaf or Sting wouldn't know what to do with themselves at a real rock show. I saw Eric Clapton for the first time a few years ago and it was the most boring concert I ever saw. The crowd was just sitting there listening to him plod through his hits. Galaxie 500 live was more exciting than that show. Although the scene is frowned upon in most musical circles, the jam band scene is doing a great job of keeping up the tradition of what a rock concert was like when I was younger, at least in terms of sheer energy."

(Mike Baldino)
 _____________________________________
[Jul 30,2009 11:52am - RichHorror ""]

bennyhillifier
 ______________________________________
[Jul 30,2009 11:11pm - badsneakers ""]
[img]
 _____________________________________
[Jul 31,2009 12:02pm - RichHorror ""]
Psyched
 ________________________________________
[Jul 31,2009 2:28pm - Eyehatehippies ""]
Tomorrow. It's gonna rule.
 _____________________________________
[Jul 31,2009 3:47pm - badsneakers ""]
[img]
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[Jul 31,2009 4:25pm - W3 nli  ""]
will be at
 ____________________________________
[Jul 31,2009 4:39pm - RichHorror ""]
Let's get facken tanked.
 _________________________________
[Jul 31,2009 9:13pm - W3 nli  ""]
yuh
 _____________________________________
[Jul 31,2009 11:14pm - RichHorror ""]
[img]
 ________________________________________________
[Jul 31,2009 11:22pm - markrichardsslamtrak  ""]
Rich, shall I bring the Insect Warfare shirt to you? I'll probably be there around 9:30 or so if I'm even able to get there before work.
 _____________________________________
[Jul 31,2009 11:23pm - RichHorror ""]
Yes sir. If you can't make it we'll figure something else out.
 ________________________________________________
[Jul 31,2009 11:25pm - markrichardsslamtrak  ""]
Word up son.
 ____________________________________
[Aug 1,2009 8:06am - badsneakers ""]
this picture!
 ____________________________________
[Aug 1,2009 12:02pm - RichHorror ""]
I thought it was pretty fantastic, myself.
 _____________________________________________
[Aug 1,2009 12:16pm - MarkFuckingRichards ""]
Doesn't look like I'll have time to make an appearance Richard. Let me know when you want to do some PayPalage.
 ____________________________________
[Aug 1,2009 12:20pm - RichHorror ""]
Sure. Might not be for a week or two. Are you going to the show on the 14th with young David's other band?
 _____________________________________________
[Aug 1,2009 12:23pm - MarkFuckingRichards ""]
I'm hoping so, but alas, I'll most likely be stuck working. :(
 ____________________________________
[Aug 1,2009 12:23pm - RichHorror ""]
If so, give him the shirt and I'll give him the money to give to you at the show?
 _____________________________________________
[Aug 1,2009 12:32pm - MarkFuckingRichards ""]
Sounds like a plan to me, sir.
 ___________________________________
[Aug 1,2009 3:12pm - RichHorror ""]
BLACK PYRAMID

...And The Gods Made Doom
by Matt Smith

Anyone who knows me or reads my reviews is aware of my worshipful tendencies toward Northampton's Black Pyramid. What else can I say about them without sounding like an über-nerd fan boy, so I will let the interview do the talking, or let the guys from Black Pyramid, guitarist/vocalist Andy Beresky, bassist Gein, and drummer Clay Neely, do the answering to my vast array of questions at the Beresky homestead in Northampton as they geared up for their CD release show that night at a club called The Eleven's right down the street. (How was that for a run-on sentence?)

GASP: Okay, you guys already know how much I love the album by the review I wrote in the last issue of and by my verbal praises, and I have to say I love the production of the album. This was recorded at Black Coffee Sound Studios, so tell me about your studio, Clay.

Clay: It's just a small scale facility where I've run a recording studio for the last four years and it's mainly been local business. I worked under Matt Washburn for about a year just apprenticing before I moved up here in 2005 and started it, but day to day it is what it is, it's cool.

GASP: It's right in Northampton?

Clay: It's outside of Northampton, like 15 minutes from here.

GASP: What town?

Clay: Wlliamsburg.

GASP: So it's close to Northampton, cool! I love the recording, I think the balance is perfect between the guitars, bass, drums, vocals, it just sounds awesome.

Clay: Well, a lot of the credit has to go to Matt (Washburn) who mixed it. I mean, I engineered it and took care of the meat and potatoes of it and that shine that everyone is talking about is a direct result of him. He only spent two days on it so he had to do the whole thing...

Andy: I thought he spent three total?

Clay: No, he was here three days but he spent two days working on it...

Andy: Yeah, and the other day he was just hanging out.

Clay: He rushed in and he did it on my monitors using all my outboard gear and my plug ins and he did a king hell job, he's really the guy to thank for that.

GASP: You said you worked with Matt before?

Clay: He was my mentor, and I worked under him as an apprentice for like a year in Atlanta. I think the most memorable session was when Mastodon recorded "The Bit" for the Melvins tribute album and that was in like 2004 so that was like right when Leviathan was happening and they were just starting to get really big and they still go to Matt for pre-production and shit.

Andy: He did their edits right?

Clay: Yeah and he redid their first album that Relapse just did...

Andy: Oh, the Lifesblood thing...

Clay: Yeah

GASP: Cool! Excellent, that's great, having seen you guys live so many times and to finally hear the album I have to say it really captured the live sound because it's the kind of shit where I can like totally crank it in the car or wherever and it sounds fucking great!

Andy: Yeah, I think it's got a production but I don't think it's like super or overproduced.

GASP: Yeah, to me it's just the right amount of production, I hate when albums sound too glossy or processed, you know what I mean?

Clay: Yeah, loud without being too "loud".

GASP: Yeah, exactly. The other thing I really love is the cover art, was that your concept because to me I look at it and I think of a Tarot Card type of illustration feeling. It's got a cool almost abstract Tarot Card look to it. So what was the concept behind it?

Andy: Well, that's interesting, well, Mike Warble, he had talked to us and he is this guy who is a fan and he had done artwork and he had done some stuff that was inspired by different bands and he was like "oh, check this out, this was inspired by listening to the Melvins" so when it was time to do the artwork, me and Clay were talking and saying Mike could do a really good job. And it was funny because at first we met with him and we discussed it and everything and we just said "yeah, go ahead and do whatever you want and he gave us like a first draft and we were kinda like "ehhhh, that's not what we really wanted" and we felt kinda bad...

Clay: Yeah, but that was the first time he had ever ventured to do anything like that on that kind of scale. He's not conventional in the slightest, not even in modern art because he's more rooted in late 19th Century theory...

Andy: Like Art Deco, and he's got like a big Klimt influence, you can tell with his stuff, like he's probably into some of the symbolese(?) stuff like I am. But the big thing was we just gave him a little bit of direction after that and we're like "just do something a little darker and put those skulls in it" and he was putting a lot of stuff with skulls around it and we were kind of disappointed that he didn't put any skulls in it. But we said we kind of dig your fairy art too and he was like "oh, okay you want it a little more like the fairy art?" and we were like "no just a little darker, everything you do combine it and make it dark, like a dark concept" and he delivered.

Clay: It's still full of color

GASP: So basically it was you telling him to listen to the album and come up with the idea for the cover art.

Clay: For the most part, I mean he comes from different backgrounds at the same time they're obviously influenced by the same thing and he's into this style of music which helps too. He was genuinely interested in the band which obviously helped us and ultimately he put it to paper. And it was also a piece where we needed something for the back cover and we just used parts of the cover for the inlay art and the lyrics was just a sepia version. We can use it as a pattern, and the record company is printing up t-shirts in full-color and we're gonna get a cut of those and it's gonna look great.

Gein: Myra (Gein's wife) designed the the CD layout and was able to take the main artwork and use elements to do the inside and the back but it's all Warble's.

GASP: Yeah, I really like the layout.

Andy: So hopefully he'll get repeat business from bands and shit.

GASP: Yeah. What's the inspiration for some of the lyrics? I mean I get this idea from your lyrics that you're very inspired by books that you read.

Andy: Oh definitely, I start with a line and then I have a vocal melody in my head and it's the first thing that goes over it that really sticks and if it sticks in my head then it will stick in other people's heads too. So I start with that and then I try to make it into a story from one line and then everything else just goes around it. But a lot of them come from, the ones that have that first line, then I develop it around a book idea. But the thing is it's not exactly like a book, and I take a story from the book and kind of twist it in my own way. So I'm not telling the story exactly like the book it's kind of my interpretation of it. When I was a kid I would read myths like Arthurian legends and every one tells it in a different way. I mean you can read like five versions of Beowulf and they're all a little different. So that's what it is, me kind of reinterpreting some of my favorite stories and changing them around a little and making them a little different or make them fit into a context of a song. Try to tell a story with three verses or three verses and a chorus. But a lot of it comes from books, like "Worm Ouroborous" comes from a book by Edison and it influenced Tolkien and all those guys. "Cauldron Born" that comes from Welsh mythology. There was a book, what was the name of that guy?

Gein: L. Ron Hubbard (laughs)

Andy: It wasn't L. Ron Hubbard, but that's where the lyrics come from. But other ones are completely made up like "Visions of Gehenna" and "Mirror Messiah", those are just...

GASP: Stream of conscious, literary fantasy...

Andy: Yeah, like stories.

GASP: Cool. One song in particular I am interested in knowing about the inspiration behind is "Wintermute". It seems like there's something more personal going on within that song.

Andy: There is and there isn't. It's another one I'm reinterpreting, it's from William Gibson's "Neuromancer", it's science fiction. The A.I. doesn't feel complete and he's trying to join with another computer to be a complete being so I was trying to write that from his perspective of not a computer but as real person trying to connect with someone else and trying to be a real person instead of half a person. I think it works as well with a person as it does with a computer.

GASP: I think so. I like that idea of reinterpreting books or stories. A lot of metal bands deal with death topics, you know like the afterlife. I was wondering what your beliefs are on the afterlife?

Gein: I guess I would be a Nihilist, I don't believe in anything, no kind of life after death, you're dead, that's it. It's all about entropy.

GASP: So you think it's like sleeping without dreaming?

Gein: Just not existing any more.

Andy: I'm Agnostic, I don't think you can know one way or another. I don't have enough data, I still consider myself a spiritual person but just not religious and I don't necessarily believe in a supreme being. Maybe with all that quantum stuff there's an order of the Universe we don't understand but it's hard to believe in that when there's no concrete proof and it's all theoretical. The theories are intriguing but I'm skeptical because I'm naturally skeptical of things.

GASP: I hear you. How about you Clay?

Clay: I've always joked around and said Pascal's Wager, which is basically you have more to gain from believing in God than not because it's like if you're right then awesome, but if you don't believe in God there's no loss. But at the same time it's just dismissed as juvenile because of all the different deities and various possibilities of organized religion and people just don't give it any credit. I really don't think about it honestly.

GASP: Do you guys have any Philosophy or Religion you follow?

Andy: I like Blake's theory that if you don't create your own vision of the Universe and the way things work then you're damned or doomed to follow some one else's. But you know I haven't completely figured out my theory of how the Universe works but I'm kind of working on it and I think that's what music helps you work on.

Gein: I don't think there's any meaning or purpose to anything. (everybody laughs) You get 80-85 years you know what I mean? There's no grand design or predestined thing I feel I have to do. Just do what I want to do.

GASP: As Jim Morrison said "I'm gonna have my fun before the whole shithouse goes up in flames". How about you Clay?

Clay: Basically it's your own personal philosophies dictate the way you behave and act in the world and it's your own personal responsibility not to be a douchebag, there you go, that's about as deep as I get. When I was a kid I went to a to a Baptist Church and the Sunday School teacher got there late and when she got there she said her car wouldn't start because it was the devil working through the cold elements to keep her from getting to church to teach us. And I was like "really?" (laughs)

GASP: From my perspective I was raised believing that if you didn't believe in Jesus and the bible you would go to hell and if you listened to Heavy Metal it was Satan leading you away from God and I just couldn't deal with that any more and ever since then I've been formulating my own ideas and abandoned Christianity, anyway, I'm just sharing my thoughts. (laughs) What was your inspiration to play your instruments?

Andy: Oh, I know that. When I was young, before I was five, I was really into Classical music, and I started playing piano when I was like five and I made my parents take me to symphony stuff, I was really into music. But when I was five the only thing I heard that wasn't Classical was my Dad's Folk records, and The Beatles, I liked, you know, I could sing along to Yellow Submarine. But I didn't understand electric guitar and the first time I got into that was when I heard Queen, because my Dad had given me a Queen record and was like "you might like this, it's got some Classical stuff on it" and I was like okay. And then I'm listening to it and I hear that electric guitar and it's orchestrated and I was like "whoa, what is that?" and the first time it really stood out for me. And after that I was bugging them to get me an electric guitar but i didn't get one until I was like 16 or 17. It was kind of messed up because I was forced to go to private school with the condition that when I was 13 they would buy me an electric guitar. So when I was 13 or 14 and they didn't buy me the guitar I was like, this is bullshit and I didn't go any more and then they finally bought it for me when I was like 17 I think. They were like "we got you that electric guitar now", but it was definitely Queen, Brian May. I mean I heard Metal later and I had a cousin who was really into Dio and I was into Def Leppard when I was young and when I heard Guns n Roses that was big, but Queen was the first one.

Clay: Kinda the same goes for me, you just get started on music and you tend to like it more than other people and you start to hold music in a higher regard growing up more than some people do and you're getting your first turntable when you're three and stuff and you're asking for music because that's what you like hearing and you just go from there. But as far as first time wanting to play anything I can't even really think about it and the reason you want to play something is so you can actually be a part of what you are hearing because you knew that what they were doing was as good as anything you felt and if the closest you can get to it is playing the guitar then that's what you do. I'm a jack of all trades and a master of none, I can do a little bit of everything, I'm not a virtuoso, you know?

GASP: From my perspective you're damn close to that on the drums.

Clay: (snorts) Thanks (everybody laughs)

Clay: Well, it's just fun and that's the reason I got into it and that's why I got into recording. Like Nietzsche said "in music the passions enjoy themselves" and you just sit around being creative and there's far worse things you can be doing. So my parents just said "go for it".

GASP: So when did you get your first drum set?

Clay: Not until I was like 14 and I bought it from this recovering coke addict (laughs) it was like this huge fuckin' Yamaha eight piece set with tons of awesome hardware and Paiste crashes and shit and I got it like for $200, I worked all summer. It had big concert toms, it looked ridiculous! Plus, lines were cut on it so that gave it an instant coolness and street cred. (laughs) It was the last instrument I really got, I had guitars and basses and pianos and keyboards but the drums were like I could not wait to finally get them.

GASP: And that became your instrument of choice after that?

Clay: For the most part. In general it's like with most bands there's a ton of drummers out there who play guitar to a pretty good degree but there's always a need for a drummer and luckily you get in where you fit in. Because everyone's a guitar player and I really enjoy what I do.

GASP: Cool. How about you Gein?

Gein: I guess having an older brother got me into stuff earlier, so in elementary school the first record I remember getting was Highway to Hell and around that time it was like Twisted Sister, what ever was around during the early 80's. As far as playing music, it was probably seeing the (Iron Maiden) "Live After Death" video, my friend and I used to rent it from this video store every chance we could get. Probably twelve or fifteen years later I ended up living in the town with the video store I used to rent the video from and I went into the video store and I found that video and I said to the guy at the store, "will you sell this to me?" and they checked to see if any one had rented it recently and they checked the computer and I was the last one to rent it in like 1988 or whatever. (everybody laughs) So the guy sold it to me for like $5.

GASP: Nice!

Gein: That's what inspired to me start playing.

GASP: What was the first instrument you played?

Gein: I started right off on bass when I was like 12, then guitar when I was like 14 and drums was way later, probably when I was like 20. That's because the band I was in needed a drummer and the music was really easy.

GASP: Cool. Do you guys have any ideas or goals for Black Pyramid for the next few years?

Andy: I'd like to get another album recorded, play a lot of shows, it's tough, I mean we kind of play it by ear. We're in a position where we're kind of like, constantly in limbo and the best thing we can do is write and put out as much material and hope people take notice. I mean, we're at the point where there are some people taking notice but we're not financially self-sufficient.

Clay: A band like Hackman broke up simply because they couldn't afford to stay together, they were a killer band and they had to call it a day because they can't afford to be a band.

Andy: Well, that was part of it, yeah...

Clay: It should never have to be at that point but I mean it's not that you're more cautious or anything and you're not going to do any more shows, but what's important for us is we like writing songs and we can play shows, whatever it's fine with us but we get the most enjoyment from writing new stuff.

GASP: And you have the freedom within your personal lives where you can check with the other band members to see if they can play a show, where if you have too many responsibilities it puts a damper on the band.

Clay: I'm being optimistic when I'm saying within the next year and a half we should be doing a little bit better and we can be more bravado about it. It's just making sure we can release two albums that people can dig. That is pretty much where we're at and from that we'll take it from that point.

Andy: I mean if we get the opportunity where we can tour and we're not gonna go broke and be eating dirt and bugs then that's great but we're gonna have to take that by ear and were not planning it, if it shows, we're planning to do a little bit of touring and hope it works. People are like "come out to the West Coast" and we're like "yeeeah, we wish we could" and "come to Europe" and it's like find someone to bring us over and we'll do it. So right now we're gonna focus on writing.

Clay: We can do short jags up and down the East Coast and the mid-West but I think our best bet is to stay on top of what we're doing with regard to writing.

GASP: Yeah. Are there ay bands you would love to tour with?

Andy: High On Fire, YOB

GASP: Yeah, YOB I finally heard that album, it kicks ass!

Andy: It's great huh? Mike sent me a copy. Palace (Palace in Wonderland, Andy's previous band) opened for them, Mike and the guys were really nice and we reconnected recently and we've been talking a lot online. I sent him our album and he sent me his.

GASP: Cool! I just saw the Anvil movie recently and I was wondering if you guys ever see yourselves doing something like that?

Andy: Not if there's a camera around (everybody laughs)

Clay: I prefer obscurity over that. (laughs)

Andy: Good for them though man, I'm sure it's gonna boost their record sales, they deserve it.

GASP: Yeah, and they're opening for AC/DC now. I have to be honest with you, I saw that movie and by the end I was depressed. (laughs)

Clay: Yeah, the empathy is totally there but at the same time you're like wow, that's rough. Good for them, man.

GASP: Gein, do you see yourself doing the same shit 20 years from now?

Clay: Well he's not gonna look any different. (everyone laughs) Gein is the eye candy in the band. (more laughter)

Gein: I can't picture myself NOT playing music.

Andy: Yeah, totally, I'm sure I'll still b

post was too long read more at your own risk

 ____________________________________
[Aug 1,2009 6:39pm - badsneakers ""]
oh no i can not read that right now
 ___________________________________
[Aug 1,2009 6:41pm - RichHorror ""]
Fuck, that was spaced properly when I posted it. Weird.
 _____________________________________
[Aug 1,2009 6:45pm - the_reverend ""]
im probably going to miss easter bloodhounds. depends on how the bands here line up, but factoring in parking and driving probably means that for me.
 ______________________________________
[Aug 2,2009 12:01am - the_reverend ""]
the modern voice was ok. pretty rocking. no vocals.

presley killed it. I thought there was more of a hum sound now to their music and a lot less mogwai. heavy stuff. it totally woke me up from the "missing w4w and hammer bros" funk that I was in.
 _____________________________________
[Aug 2,2009 3:15am - the_reverend ""]
pictures almost done.
 _____________________________________
[Aug 2,2009 3:19am - the_reverend ""]
black pyramid was so good. Cave in needs to listen to someone who doesn't it right if they are going to try and do this sort of thing. Listen to black pyramid and stop making music.
 ___________________________________
[Aug 2,2009 3:29am - RichHorror ""]
[img]

[img]

[img]
 ___________________________________
[Aug 2,2009 3:58am - xgodzillax ""]

RichHorror said:[img]



bein dragged on to the rape bus...
 ______________________________________
[Aug 2,2009 10:22am - the_reverend ""]
fuck, I missed the rape bus.
 _____________________________________
[Aug 2,2009 10:25am - badsneakers ""]
Ha!
Great night! Thanks to everyone who came out! I had a blast..the live recording came out pretty good too..yuh
 ____________________________________
[Aug 2,2009 10:31am - RichHorror ""]
I need to hear that, best set was the best.
 _____________________________________
[Aug 2,2009 11:14am - badsneakers ""]
thanks!
yeah i need to track it out and i'll upload it as a mp3 file so it doesn't take an hour to download
 ________________________________
[Aug 3,2009 4:36pm - W3 nli  ""]
would enjoy this as well, goodtimes were goodtimes.
 ____________________________________
[Aug 3,2009 5:44pm - badsneakers ""]
yes!
I'll send out some links for a download when I'm less lazy and track it
 ____________________________________
[Aug 5,2009 11:49am - RichHorror ""]

bennyhillifier
 ____________________________________
[Aug 5,2009 5:48pm - badsneakers ""]
I'm happy with the way this video came out!

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