Thursday the 4th: Rage Against the Machine - Ashes in the Fall

     It's Throwback Thursday time once again, and this week ("last week", for all you "time is linear" types) I'm going with another perennial throwback favourite of mine. This year will see At the Drive-In back together, if only for some live shows, so why can't 2016 also see the return of the Rage?

     Your Rage Against the Machine song this time around is "Ashes in the Fall" from 1999's The Battle of Los Angeles, an album that I'm digging more and more the older I get. I think Evil Empire is still my favourite Rage album, but no longer do I rank Los Angeles number three out of hand. From its dentist drill guitar intro through its bass-driven, space guitar verses, "Ashes in the Fall" is a kind of a microcosm for the variety and willingness to experiment that marks The Battle of Los Angeles as a forward-thinking record that's held up very well indeed. Have a listen and get your rage on.

At The Drive-In - Enfilade

     It's been a long decade and a half since since post-hardcore legends At The Drive-In called it quits. It's also been about three years since the band last played live, in 2012. But it seems the guys will be getting back together for at least one more live outing, next May's Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio.

     Now, there is of course no current indication that this is anything other than a one-shot kind of thing, getting the band back together for a big festival. There isn't really even any reason to dream wild dreams of reunion and new material, especially since Omar had always been more or less of the opinion that At The Drive-In had run its natural course, creatively speaking, by the time of the 2001 dissolution.

     We can, however, still hope against hope, right? I feel like this might be one of those situations where fans' expectations are so high that anything would be a disappointment, but that's not going to stop this writer's wishful thinking. While I await the corresponding first flight of pigs to pass by overhead, have a listen to "Enfilade" from the absolutely classic Relationship of Command, if for no other reason than Iggy Pop's menacing ransom call at the start.

Thursday: Antemasque - 4AM

     The reuniting of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala -- the dynamic duo behind At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta -- would, one might well hope and expect, result in the resurrection of one or the other of the two aforementioned storied acts. Sadly, as Mick so wisely opined, we can't always get what we want. But sometimes we can get what we need...

     In this case, that turns out to be a new supergroup of sorts starring Rodriguez-Lopez, Bixler-Zavala, drummer David Elitch (formerly of Volta and currently of Killer Be Killed, another supergroup you might have heard of), and some guy named Flea. Sounds like it's going to suck, doesn't it? The first song we're hearing from the band, a rocking number called "4AM", has a vibe closer to At the Drive-In than The Mars Volta, but that doesn't mean Antemasque sounds like a knock-off or anything.

     One song isn't really enough to judge a band or an album by, but I'll do just that and say that Antemasque has the potential to be a good time. Will it eclipse any of the bands from which its members hail? Probably not. But if "4AM" is any indication, there might be some cool, catchy little songs to be had. Check it out and see what you think.

The Mars Volta - Inertiatic ESP

     For tonight's quickie song we're going way back in The Mars Volta's catalogue. Why? Because we can!

     Your song this evening is "Inertiatic ESP" from The Mars Volta's 2003 debut De-loused in the Comatorium, but I will award bonus points if you also check out intro track "Son et Lumiere" first for the full effect. Now imagine yourself as me in high school, a fan of At The Drive-In, hearing this album for the first time, probably at high volume. Suffice it to say, my brain was well and truly wrinkled.

     For all the wankery and wasted potential that might have ensued in their career, The Mars Volta started off incendiary. I likely wouldn't have the taste for prog I do today without them being one of the steps in my musical journey.

PUP - Resevoir

     We're going a little local with tonight's song, so strap in for three and a half minutes with Toronto's PUP.

     PUP, which apparently stands for , is a punky rock band (or a rocking punk band) that plays a loud, brash brand of modern post-punk. It's simple and catchy, but not so much so that I would use the dreaded term "pop-punk", and at the same time it has some rough edges and abrasiveness that remind me just a little bit of someone like At The Drive-In (minus ATDI's schizophrenic technicality).

     All in all, "Resevoir", from the band's self-titled 2013 LP, is the kind of short and sweet blast of energy that makes at least this listener sit up and say "now that's the kind of thing that should get on the radio these days." And, bonus, the music video is fun too.

Exotic Animal Petting Zoo - Through the Thicket... Across Endless Mountains

    I won't force you to conjure up the same unfortunate mental picture of bands fucking and impregnating one another as I did a few days ago with my lineage of Son of Aurelius, but I want to play a similar game this evening. So this I'm going with a cooking analogy.

     Start with the melodic sensibilities and mild experimental streak of Death Before Disco as your base, then add a healthy dose of the angularity and spastic chaos of The Dillinger Escape Plan. Now to temper that Dillinger mathcore insanity, thin the mixture out with a dash of the slightly more straight ahead hardcore/post-hardcore of Every Time I Die, and voila! You've got a little something called Exotic Animal Petting Zoo.

     I've posted about these guys a couple of times before, but my opinion of them has risen since I picked up a copy of sophomore disc Tree of Tongues, so I figured it's time to give them the spotlight again. I can't quite pin down exactly why, but this band feels like a spiritual successor to At the Drive-In. Maybe the "recipe" above doesn't accurately convey this, but the combination of chops and manic energy possessed by Exotic Animal Petting Zoo just keep reminding me of the now-defunct ATDI.

     Any way you slice it, however, they're a band you should know about. Check out "Through the Thicket... Across Endless Mountains" from the aforementioned Tree of Tongues and start getting familiar with Exotic Animal Petting Zoo post haste.

Song of the Day: Drive Like Jehu - Here Come the Rome Plows

     We're going to shift gears slightly this evening, going from the hardcore of yesterday's Burning Empires song to the wacky post-hardcore of Drive Like Jehu, a band I'm much less familiar with than I should be... for now...

Song of the Day: At the Drive-In - One Armed Scissor

     I'm out of town tonight, leaving me out of the loop for any shenanigans that might be going down even as I type this. But that won't stop me from sending a song out to a couple of my buddies that I can't be with tonight. Sure, they likely won't ever see this, but that doesn't stop me from asking that they have a drink for me...

Song of the Day: At the Drive-In - Arcarsenal

     Morning kids. I'm building on the last couple of day's songs today. Yesterday we had Death Before Disco because the day before I'd said Exotic Animal Petting Zoo reminded me of them. Well I also mentioned At the Drive-In, and even though I did remind you that At the Drive-In came up way back in the first Loud Noises post about The Mars Volta (meaning that if you wanted some ATDI, you should know where to look for a few recommendations from yours truly), I've decided to give them a day so that I can be sure you know what I'm talking about with this vibe I'm getting from these three bands.

Song of the Day: Death Before Disco - Modern Times

     Yesterday when I recommended Exotic Animal Petting Zoo's "Thorough. Modern." to you, I mentioned that EAPZ reminds me a little bit of Death Before Disco and At the Drive-In. Chances are you're familiar with ATDI (if for no other reason than I talked about them way back when I started this sucker), but it's also likely you don't know Death Before Disco, especially if you're a metalhead, as they're not the most metal band.  They've got their own heaviness, tinged with poppier, punkier flavours -- I hesitate to use the words "emo" and "screamo" for fear of sending you fleeing, but were I to use such words, I would mean them in the best possible way.

The Blogman Cometh

     Salve, fellow metalheads, and welcome to Loud Noises, my new blog primarily focused on heavy music. As often as I can get around to it (once every week or two seems super optimistic at this point, but we'll see), this space will struggle to contain my thoughts, opinions, musings, and general ramblings about all the music that's near and dear to my big, bearded heart.