excellentrelocation

[soberfructosecornsyrup]

Baseball and Grindcore go together like......................I don't know, this is still lit

[purulens-kopet]

Puig Destroyer - Dad Hat

[shibbypictures]

This week I will be releasing a compilation album featuring songs that are used in the Baseball Punx documentary, and served as inspiration for the project. I'm releasing this to create context, to show the kind of bands that this movie will be covering.

[thepluralofvinylisvinyls]

Puig Destroyer - Puig Destroyer

It’s great when a band that, let’s be honest, is kind of a gimmick, it’s rare that it turns out to be great. Puig Destroyer manages to succeed. This is the record store release of Puig Destroyer’s debut full length. A friend of mine picked it up for me at Grimey’s in Nashville because none of my local stores carried it.

For Fans Of: Baseball, Pig Destroyer, Code Orange

[largemouthbassnation]

Puig Destroyer – ONE MAN FIVE TOOLS All rights to the artists - fan art. I make no claim to this video source

[throatruinerrecords]

Now in stock : @lessart "Strangled Light" LP/CD https://deathwishinc.eu/gilead-media "Less Art is the alliance of brothers Riley and Ed Breckenridge of Thrice, Ian Miller and Jon Howell of Kowloon Walled City, and Mike Minnick of Curl Up and Die. On Strangled Light, these five veterans bash out their own new version of post-hardcore – "post-hardcore by post-youths" is how they cheekily describe themselves, but this music is dead serious. The musicianship is world-class; the perspective is world-weary; the sound is fresh and urgent and crackling with feeling.  Strangled Light's nine songs add up to a modern, muscular incarnation of the vibe set forth years ago by bands like Fugazi, Unwound, and Drive Like Jehu. Like those bands, Less Art rages – emotionally-charged and electrifying – yet also knows how to wield dynamics as a weapon. The lulls make the peaks even sharper.  Initially it was baseball that brought these musicians together: four-fifths of Less Art are the men behind baseball-themed hardcore band Puig Destroyer. Blasting through songs about bunting and stealing bases eventually led these four to want to start a "real" band – they enlisted Riley's brother Ed and Less Art was born.  The band name might be lifted from a line in Hamlet, but ultimately it is raw emotion that drives this band. Using blunt phrases and the realest of tones, frontman Minnick sings of self-destruction on the micro and macro levels – candid lyrics address his personal demons as well as the collective deathwish leading all humanity to the brink. "Pessimism as Denial," debuted today, plainly describes our species' suicidal path: "We're surrounded by prophets / Who think spilling their guts / Is the same thing as giving blood / We've eaten all the animals / We've burned down every tree / We've done so many wrongs... / This system doesn't work / The world is better without us."  Strangled Light was recorded and mixed by Kowloon Walled City frontman Scott Evans at Sharkbite Studios and Antisleep Audio, and mastered by Brad Boatright (Full of Hell, Mutoid Man) at Audiosiege.  Guest vocals on "Diana the Huntress" were delivered by Meghan O'Neill-Pennie (Super Unison, ex-Punch).  (à Laval La Ville)

[hermitologist]

(via Less Art) 

Hi, all. We just wanted to give you a little post-holiday/pre-apocalypse update on what’s going on with us. If you didn’t catch the news that leaked out amidst the holiday noise, our debut LP will be called Strangled Light, and it is scheduled to come out on Gilead Media in late spring or early summer. Scott Evans (Kowloon Walled City, Ghoul, Puig Destroyer) is mixing the record now and Jacob van Loon (Explosions in the Sky, Some Stranger) is working on the design. We're really excited about how everything is coming together, and can’t wait to start sharing music with you. We should have a firm release date, pre-order details, and a first taste of the record fairly soon.

Thanks for your support and your patience!

— LESS ART

photo by Scott Evans

[bthenoise]

Play Ball: Riley Breckenridge Talks MLB Opening Day Plus 15 Years of Thrice’s ‘Vheissu’

Photo by Julius Aguilar

As you are probably well aware, most musicians have passions outside of music. Some like to draw. Some like to skate. Others, like Thrice’s Riley Breckenridge, enjoy America’s national pastime -- baseball. 

Growing up watching the game at an early age and later playing it in high school and college, the Thrice drummer has always been drawn to the bright lights of the big league.    

“My earliest memories are watching baseball games with my dad,” recalls Breckenridge. “He had it on at the house all the time. I'd go play in the yard as a little kid and as soon as there was an opportunity to play organized ball I played.” 

Now, with Thrice currently out on the road celebrating 15 years of their beloved  LP Vheissu and MLB’s Opening Day right around the corner, we figured what better time than now to catch up with the soft-spoken Puig Destroyer member and talk all things baseball.   

To check out our Q&A with Breckenridge discussing World Series predictions, the Houston Astros cheating scandal and how well his Los Angeles Angels are going to do this year (plus a little insight into the Vheissu tour), be sure to see below. Afterward, make sure to grab tickets to see Thrice out on tour here.

MLB’s Opening Day is almost here. Any thoughts? 

Riley Breckenridge: I'm excited. The Angels made a great addition in Anthony Rendon. I wish they would have got some more pitching but they haven’t done that yet. So I'm cautiously optimistic about the Angels’ chances. As far as the game as a whole, I think it's gonna be a weird season with all the Astros drama. I don't think that's going away anytime soon. I don't think Major League Baseball handled it properly. Because of that, I feel like players feel like they're gonna have to kind of fend for themselves and punish them in their own way. I don't know if that's gonna come in the form of beanballs or dirty slides or protests or anything like that, but it should be interesting to see how it all plays out.

How do you think it should all go down in your opinion? Like if you were pitching, what would you do?

I don't know. I'm not a big fan of the beanball war. Even though they're entertaining, I don't think I would enter into that if I were a pitcher. The risk of hurting somebody and then shortening a career is just too frightening to me.  

What were your thoughts when you initially found out about the Astros sign-stealing?

Super disappointed. I mean, I genuinely liked the Astros. I have a friend who works in the front office there. So even though I'm an Angels fan and they’re a rival, I really liked watching that team. I mean Altuve, Bregman, Correa, George Springer... they got a lot of really cool, good young talent and it was awesome to see them be so successful so quickly. So to find out that it came by some shady practices is super disappointing.

Aside from stealing signs from second base, do you think other teams are cheating similar to how the Astros did?

Well if you listen to Major League Baseball, they would say outside of the Red Sox, no, the other teams are not. But I have to think that with the tools baseball gave teams to do the instant replay stuff, challenging calls and stuff, they gave them the tools to do this cheating and they didn't police it well enough. So I would be surprised if other teams weren't doing it because it would almost be foolish in a way even though it's unethical. But I think there's a lot of stuff that goes on in baseball that we don't really know about and we aren't privy to. There's a lot of insider secrets.

Do you think sign-stealing is worse than steroids?

That's a tough question.

Some players say if you know what pitch is coming, that's a lot easier than just being a super muscular dude.

Yeah, that's definitely true. I mean, if you're taking steroids, sure you're going to be stronger and you're going to recover from injury quicker and there'll be less wear and tear on you during a long season, but you still have to hit the ball or throw the ball. So yeah, knowing what's coming eliminates a huge challenge.

Okay, so we're gonna get some predictions from you now. Who’s your pick for the World Series this season? And if you say the Angels, we don't blame you whatsoever.

No, I'm gonna go Yankees and Dodgers. Barring any catastrophic injuries, they clearly seem like they're a level above everybody. I think the Astros are gonna have a tough season just because of all the drama. There's gonna be a tremendous amount of scrutiny and it's hard to play through that. Even if you're immune to that kind of stuff, it's still difficult. But yeah, Yankees and Dodgers. They're both stacked. The Dodgers look like an all-star team.

The Dodgers getting Mookie Betts from the Red Sox is just insane.

Insanity, yeah.

So what do you think will win between the two of them?

I would say the Dodgers but the Dodgers seem to be cursed. They make it pretty deep into the postseason every year and they just can't finish.

Clayton Kershaw can't seem to get it figured out.

Well now with the cheating stuff, how much of his postseason struggles can you chalk up to the other team knowing what's coming?

Wow, that's very true. Okay, how about MVP and Cy Young predictions?

AL MVP, I'm gonna go with [Mike] Trout again. He's just absurdly good at baseball. Unless he gets hurt, there's no reason to think he's not going to be even better this year than he was last year.

Especially with Anthony Rendon batting before or after him.

A better, healthy Shohei Ohtani too will be helpful. AL Cy Young, I would probably say Garret Cole. A full season with the Yankees is gonna be nuts.

We assume you're pretty bummed he didn't go to the Angels.

Very bummed, yeah. I mean if they needed one thing this offseason, it was like a front end starter and he's legit the best pitcher in the game and he was available. The Angels definitely had the money to throw at him but they just couldn't do it.

NL MVP and Cy Young: I think maybe [Cody] Bellenger again or [Christian] Yelich and Cy Young, even though he's on a terrible team, it would be a repeat again but Jacob deGrom. He's just too good. I feel awful for him that he's on a terrible team.

Some people think the Mets might turn it around this season.

That would be nice if they weren't the Mets. Like, I feel like they just have a thing where even if they're supposed to be good, they can't be good. That's kind of like the Angels too. I mean, every year I'm like, “I think they'll be decent this year.” And then they're like 81 and 81 every season.

So before we jump into your current tour with Thrice, how did you get into baseball as a kid? Did you play Little League?

My earliest memories are watching baseball games with my dad. He had it on at the house all the time. I'd go play in the yard as a little kid and as soon as there was an opportunity to play organized ball I played. Then I played through high school and through my first three years of college but quit to do the band thing. Then -- I stopped doing this a few years ago -- but I played in an adult men's league with a bunch of dudes that played in college and some guys that were in the minors for a little bit. So it was super competitive and it scratched that itch even though I'm way too old to do that [laughs].

Did your brother and bandmate Ed ever have a passion for baseball? 

He played. He played until like sixth grade. He had one season where he got hit a bunch and he was kind of getting into skateboarding at the same time. So he was like, “I'd rather injure myself on a skateboard than get injured by somebody throwing a ball.”

So just talking a little bit about these shows. You guys are celebrating 15 years of Vheissu. What has the tour been like so far?

It's been awesome. It's been really cool revisiting this record. It's a record that we're super proud of. And you know, 15 years after putting it out I still enjoy playing every song in the setlist. I can't say the same for other records. Like, we play some old songs and I'm like, “Ehhh I wish we would have done this different or that different or I'm not a huge fan of this chorus or something.” So it's been cool to play those songs. The crowds have been awesome. Our touring family is awesome. The bands that we're out here with are great. Holy Fawn is incredible. Drug Church, I loved before this tour started but getting to see them live every night is... they're so fun, and they're so good and they're so tight. Patrick, their singer, is such a good frontman. And then, the mewithoutyou guys we've known for 12 or 15 years and they're an incredible band. I'm bummed that they're putting an end to it but I'm stoked we get to do this with them one last time before they go away.

When you guys were rehearsing these songs again, were there any that were really challenging to learn again?

A lot of them actually. I mean, there were two. There's one album track and one b-side that we'd never played before. And then I think there were only like four songs from Vheissu that are in regular rotation in our sets. So a lot of it was like, “Oh man, we haven't played this in like 12 years or 15 years even.” Like, we played it on the first Vheissu tour and then we just put it to bed. So it's cool. It's challenging too because there's a lot of stuff going on. So there's like samples and guys are playing keys too. So we had to figure out the logistics of it all and track down some old samples. So it was challenging but it's been awesome.

Looking forward to the future of Thrice, what excites you most about the band?

Seeing where our brains go for this next record. It's always an exciting and scary time because I feel like we always have an idea of what we want to do and then people start sharing ideas and we get a little bit clearer idea of where the record is going to end up. And then by the time we're done writing and recording everything, it ends up being something completely different -- in a good way, though. So I'm excited to see where we end up with this one.

Do you think playing some of these more experimental songs every night might influence the future record in a way?  

I think so. I think it's been a cool exercise to go back to a record that was so important to us as far as branching out and trying different stuff. It's inspiring to get familiar with that stuff again and that way of thinking and then head into a brand new creative process. It's like, it's a better headspace than just kind of rolling from the last record to whatever comes next.

Since you guys have come back from your hiatus, you’ve been pedal to the metal releasing new music and touring nonstop. Is that how you guys want to keep going?

Yeah I mean, I think after this tour is over we're going to go away for a little bit. We're not really busy for the rest of the year. I mean, we have deadlines that we're trying to hit and stuff but it's a little more relaxed then maybe the last record cycle where we finished touring, we started writing immediately [and] we were like under the gun finishing songs at the very last minute so we could get into the studio and record. This time around, I think we're going to take our time a little bit more and enjoy being home for a little bit.

A break is very well deserved.

The only bad thing about not working and being at home is that when you're not working, you're not making money [laughs]. And stuff still costs money when you're at home. So we can't afford to go away for too long but we're gonna go take our time and hopefully come out with something good.

[productiveouts]

PODCAST BUSINESS

The music at the beginning and end of every episode is "Baseball: The Best" by Puig Destroyer

Support the PRODcast by pledging to the Patreon

Vote in the #BadBroadcasterBracket every weekday at noon on twitter

MUSICAL GUEST

Heads. Their new album, “Collider,” came out on April 6 on This Charming Man.

Stream it on Spotify

Buy it on Bandcamp

THE EMAILS

We love to hear from you! Write us at productiveouts@gmail.com.

BASEBALL THINGS

The Reds shitcanned Bryan Price … he just needed more time

Brandon Belt’s crazy AB lasted 13 minutes!! Meanwhile Johnny Cueto has a .35 ERA

Sean Manaea no-hit the best lineup in baseball

Giancarlo Stanton slash line update: .185/.283/.395

What the hell is wrong with the Angels (excluding Mike Trout)?

There’s a new addition to The Effort Police – Justin Verlander

Minor League Names Team of the Week - Dayton Dragons

Wendolyn Bautista

Packy Naughton

Sarkis Otanian

Ryan Nutof

Mac Sceroler

Hendrik Clementina

Mark Kolozsvary

Morgan Lofstrom

Jeter Downs

Narciso Crook

THE OLD SCHOOL PLAYER OF THE WEEK IS:

Alan Knicely!

Separated at birth?

[mazstw]

Not a Krampus (2015) Commentary

Recorded at the beginning of December hints the slightly dated references to Roy Moore.

This episode was originally going to be scrapped because of audio issues with the recording on Mac's end along with the fact that the movie didn't get talked about much of the time. Which was all the fault of Zach not seeing it but once back when it was first released. It was decided to not scrap it and release it instead only because Mac and Zach realized that the show is absolutely free of charge anyway and whether or not it should be listened to should be decided by the listener.

There are also still plans to record Silent Night Deadly Night 2 with Juggalo Aaron (AKA Red ROCKET, AKA DA GOOSE, AKA big floppy donkey dick) this Christmas as well. So stay tuned and happy holidays!

DOWNLOAD

Music:

(0:09)

Song - "Top Prospect" Artist - Puig Destroyer Album - "S/T LP" (2014)

(1:42:00)

Song - "What Fresh Hell" Artist - Leviathan Album - "Tentacles of Whorror" (2004)

Links:

Official WebSite /blog http://www.mazstw.com

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC__cDT6kJgZtkYXVq9PI8HQ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mazstw

SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/mazstw

Twitter: https://twitter.com/macandzach

Email: askmazstw@gmail.com

Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/MacAndZachSaveTheWorld

[lisaraessleepingbeauty]

Week 7- THE CURSE

https://youtu.be/N6UYITSXjfc

Princess Aurora/Briar rose falls under Maleficent curse in Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. 

I felt in order to do justice to the horror and psychological torment of a life without love affection and understand I would need to make something scary really really scary. A lot of the sounds I got out the Wizard were pretty terrifying broad band noise which remind me of an atomic bomb wiping out a village so it seemed appropriate to use those files to represent the curse and Maleficent inner torment . I distorted them even further using The Devil Loc  Audio Level Destroyer and  Sans Amp harmonic destroyer on one of the files and the Puig tech EQ ( Really great for making thick creamy bass sounds) on the other and had the Pan Man Modulating Auto Panner Pan the two sound files through the speakers at different tempos to give the impression of the sound sweeping over the landscape 

https://soundcloud.com/user-904042400/curse-wizard-stereo-pan

During my nights in the studio Ive been watching the new series of Twin Peaks during my break time ( I find watching or listening to music periodically helps me maintain my attention in the long stretches  I spend in the studio and betters my mixes ) .  It inadvertently has had a huge influence over my making process . The first episode had a very terrifying scene ironically involving a violent female shaped alien creature massacring two young lovers and had this really intense layered distortion that amps up as the the two lovers are sliced apart by the creature. the first time I watched this I was listening in headphones and my jaw dropped its was probably one of the most intense visceral sound designs I’d ever heard and it made me think about the possibilities of using broad band noise as a representation of fear, there is something really dangerous about loud distortion it not pleasant it breaks up you can't Make out what the sound comes from

https://youtu.be/KPUpGOLpbKE

One of Maleficent guises is that of a fire breathing dragon which prince Phillip must battle to reach the castle ( also reminiscent of the biblical story of David and Goliath or even the Python that Apollo killed to take control of the Pythian oracle , perhaps these are more remnants of the destruction of the matriarchal goddess religion. It’s also of interest that traditionally dragons can embolic of good luck and fortune and is another evidence of the duality of this archetype) I felt it was important to use fire as one of the sonic signifiers in the enactment of the curse. Fire also is a traditional metaphor for passion and uncontrollable desire and of anger all relevant to the emotional turbulence at play here. Early in the piece a match is struck in the princesses desire for love.

I decided some abstraction was needed to represent the supernatural fire off the Dragon so I used the GM space grain and the PSA Sans amp distortion to give the fire a fragmented and slightly surreal edge.

https://soundcloud.com/user-904042400/fire-space-grain-distortion

 It was impossible to not include spinning wheel as part of my electroacoustic composition of sleeping beauty since it is the touch of the spindle of the distaff that causes Aurora to fall into her deep sleep I used The Waves Mondo mode set at a really fast rate to create the sense of the wheels of fate circling around the princesses destiny. Maleficent as witch plays the role of moving the story forward and in that sense is an agent of fate. 

https://soundcloud.com/user-904042400/spinningwheels

The witch sits on the fringe of existence calling the self towards wholeness and teaches the hard lessons that can’t be learnt except through suffering and experience. One of my inspirations in making this work is The Stephen Sondheim  musical ‘Into The Woods’ which explores fairy tales from a Jungian perspective. Here is the phenomenal Bernadette Peters singing ‘ The last midnight” which perfectly expresses the role of the witch as the person that does what others can’t and the burden of playing that role in the story and the ambiguity of the heroes of the fairy tale ( Bernadette Peters is the only witch in my opinion NO MERYL !!!)

https://youtu.be/bxZUT1-9Wik

The moral of sleeping beauty in the original Perrault fairy tale is the importance of letting things play out in their own times and that true love is worth waiting for Bruno Bettelheim in his book The uses of enchantment discusses sleeping Beauty from a Freudian perspective as about the flowering of adolescent sexuality and that the moral of sleeping beauty is that waiting for the sexual act does not diminish It’s value. The tale itself is full of sexual metaphors . Think about Prince Phillip cutting through the Bramble with his sword .It’s pretty obvious. Thus when the composition shifts into Aurora’s dream It’s like a fake bliss she is asleep dreaming off what could be but it’s not real It’s just a delusion of the mind. She wants to believe that true love conquers all but thats not a reality she has yet experienced. here is the full 7 minutes of my sleeping beauty composition beginning with the distorted waltz then the curse then Auroras beautiful yet empty deathlike sleep

https://soundcloud.com/user-904042400/13th-fairy-curse-to-dream-1

[shibbypictures]

Download the baseball/punk rock compilation album now! A companion piece with the new Shibby Pictures documentary “Baseball Punx” intended to exhibit some of the music that is discussed in the documentary.

https://shibbypictures.bandcamp.com/

[scenepointblank]

Less Art, a new band comprised of members and ex members of Thrice, Kowloon Walled City, and ex-Curl Up and Die have annnounced Strangled Light, their first album, is set to release on July 28 on Gilead Media. The band features brothers Riley and Ed Breckenridge of Thrice, Ian Miller and Jon Howell of Kowloon Walled City, and Mike Minnick of Curl Up and Die. While their album isn't out for two more months, they're streaming "Pessimism as Denial" now. Four-fifths of the band also play in Puig Destroyer. via Scene Point Blank music news feed

[throatruinerrecords]

Pre-order "Strangled Light", the debut LP/CD from LESS ART, out July 28th via @gileadmedia https://deathwishinc.eu/gilead-media Less Art is the alliance of brothers Riley and Ed Breckenridge of Thrice, Ian Miller and Jon Howell of Kowloon Walled City, and Mike Minnick of Curl Up and Die. On Strangled Light, these five veterans bash out their own new version of post-hardcore – "post-hardcore by post-youths" is how they cheekily describe themselves, but this music is dead serious. The musicianship is world-class; the perspective is world-weary; the sound is fresh and urgent and crackling with feeling. Strangled Light's nine songs add up to a modern, muscular incarnation of the vibe set forth years ago by bands like Fugazi, Unwound, and Drive Like Jehu. Like those bands, Less Art rages – emotionally-charged and electrifying – yet also knows how to wield dynamics as a weapon. The lulls make the peaks even sharper. Initially it was baseball that brought these musicians together: four-fifths of Less Art are the men behind baseball-themed hardcore band Puig Destroyer. Blasting through songs about bunting and stealing bases eventually led these four to want to start a "real" band – they enlisted Riley's brother Ed and Less Art was born. The band name might be lifted from a line in Hamlet, but ultimately it is raw emotion that drives this band. Using blunt phrases and the realest of tones, frontman Minnick sings of self-destruction on the micro and macro levels – candid lyrics address his personal demons as well as the collective deathwish leading all humanity to the brink. "Pessimism as Denial," debuted today, plainly describes our species' suicidal path: "We're surrounded by prophets / Who think spilling their guts / Is the same thing as giving blood / We've eaten all the animals / We've burned down every tree / We've done so many wrongs... / This system doesn't work / The world is better without us." Strangled Light was recorded and mixed by Kowloon Walled City frontman Scott Evans at Sharkbite Studios and Antisleep Audio, and mastered by Brad Boatright (Full of Hell, Mutoid Man) at Audiosiege. Guest vocals on "Diana the Huntress" were delivered by Meghan O (à Laval La Ville)

[hamsterstyle]

Day 07: Favorite 7" of the year

Puig Destroyer ‎– Puig Destroyer

I don’t own enough 7″’s to have a favorite of the year, but I do really like this release from 2013. First pressing of 400 copies on half blue/half white (DODGERS PRESS) colored vinyl. Just a nice grind record about hitting a ball with a wooden stick.

[metalinsider]

Thrice to debut new song tomorrow

Thrice to debut new song tomorrow

It’s going to be a really good Friday for fans of Thrice. The metalcore-turned-post-hardcore band broke up in 2012, and took a few years off to do other stuff, like drummer Riley Breckendridge’s Puig Destroyer. Thankfully, however,  the band reunited last year and announced that there would be a new album, and tomorrow, we’ll be getting “Blood on the Sand,” the first taste of To Be Everywhere Is…