#shane matthewson

[screamingforyears]

IN A MINUTE: // A POST_PUNK_ISH EXPRESS… // “SPACE JAM” is the latest single from @angeldustmoney’s forthcoming LP titled ‘Brand New Soul’ (9/8 @popwig) & it finds the Baldimore-based quintet of vocalist Justice Tripp, guitarists Daniel Star/Steve Marino, bassist Zechariah Ghostribe & drummer Thomas Cantwell space_jamming across a zippily crisp 1:40 clip of cosmically adjacent HardCoreRawk. // @harmsway13 are here w/ “SILENT WOLF,” the lead single/track from their forthcoming LP titled ‘Common Suffering’ (9/29 @metalbladerecords) & it finds the Chicago-based quintet of frontman James Pligge, guitarists Bo Leuders/Niack Gauthier, drummer Chris Mills & bassist Casey Soyk waxing upon the “persistent distrust in governing bodies & systems of power in our current cultural climate” across a sub 3 min blast of metallically riffed hXc. // “YOUR BLOOD IN ME” is the lead single from @kenfury’s forthcoming LP titled ‘Plains of Inferno’ (8/16) & it finds multi-instrumentalist/producer Kenneth Marez Jr.’s NYC-based project bringing the blown-out & blackened goods across 4+ mins of Bowie-esque DarkWave. // @kenmodenoise are here w/ “HE WAS A GOOD MAN, HE WAS A TAXPAYER,” the latest single from their forthcoming LP titled ‘Void’ (9/22 @artoffact_records) & it finds the Winnipeg-based quartet of guitarist/vocalist Jesse Matthewson, drummer Shane Matthewson, bassist Scott Hamilton & multi-instrumentalist Kathryn Kerr bringing 5 mins of snakingly lurched NoiseGoth. // “DEBT COLLECTOR” (@year0001online) is a new standalone single from @provoker.zone & it finds the Bay Area-born/LA-based quartet of vocalist Christian Petty, multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Lopez, bassist Wil Palacios & drummer Kristian Moreno bringing their Gothically hued brand of beautifully bummed_out & broodingly_bravado’d ArtPop.

[sinceileftyoublog]

KEN Mode Album Review: Loved

BY JORDAN MAINZER

For Winnipeg hardcore band KEN Mode, 2015′s Success was a sonic left-turn towards indie rock and punk. It didn’t fit them well. With their new album Loved, they return to the juxtaposition of darkness and humor that made 2013′s Entrench such a success. Along with Pissed Jeans’ Honeys, that album represented the apex of corporate working man’s rock--both PJ singer Matt Korvette and KEN Mode’s Jesse Matthewson worked full-time office jobs and often sang about the monotony of daily life with a tongue-in-cheek bend. Fast-forward to Loved, which seems like the proper follow-up to Entrench, and Matthewson--having started a business management services company with his brother and bandmate Shane and having moved to Thailand to study Muay Thai full-time--has the same sense of biting humor with the benefit of more life satisfaction. Loved is dark, but it’s more fun than Entrench, Matthewson’s sense of perspective allowing him to dig even deeper at the minutiae of life.

Not to say that KEN Mode have become autobiographical or even remote storytellers--Matthewson’s lyrics are still generically angry and wry, second-fiddle to the band’s pummeling instrumentation. What you can decipher makes its mark along with the music. On anthem “Not Soulmates”, he laughs, “You’re going to continue enjoying this mistake with me,” referring to a relationship with a shit-eating grin. “Feathers & Lips” is an upbeat track about aggressive politicians compensating for their lack of ability to physically fight. Eight-and-a-half minute closer “No Gentle Art” is one of many to feature saxophone from Kathryn Kerr; Matthewson’s screaming with her spinning woodwinds adds to the chaos of the song. And while her playing at the end of a grungy track like “The Illusion of Dignity” might seem out of place or forced, she jazzes up the complex, loud-quiet-loud “This Is A Love Test”. Matthewson, too, seems like he knows when to push and pull; he used to be completely pissed, but now he gives and takes, like the boxer that he is.

7.3/10

[saturdaynightmatinee]

CALIFICACIÓN PERSONAL: 6 / 10

Título Original: Hunter Killer

Año: 2018

Duración: 93 min.

País: Estados Unidos

Director: Donovan Marsh

Guion: Peter Craig, Jamie Moss (Novela: Don Keith, George Wallace)

Música: Dominic Lewis

Fotografía: Tom Marais

Reparto: Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Common, Michael Nyqvist, Michael Trucco,Caroline Goodall, Ryan McPartlin, Zane Holtz, Taylor John Smith, Cosmo Jarvis,Shane Taylor, Michael Jibson, Gabriel Chavarria, Will Attenborough,Jason Matthewson, Theo Barklem-Biggs, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Toby Stephens

Productora: Summit Entertainment / Millennium Films / Original Film. Distribuida por Lionsgate

Género: Action, Thriller

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1846589/

TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAhcDHRZOak

[theseventhhex]

KEN mode Interview

KEN mode

Photo by Brenna Faris

KEN mode have returned with their seventh full-length ‘Loved’. The album represents yet another pivot point in the group’s sound, a departure from the indie/noise punk focused songs on their previous album, ‘Success’. On ‘Loved’ the group delve deeper, and darker than ever before. This vicious full-length may be the group’s quintessential statement of violence and despair made sonic. Drawing from not only the desperate noise and industrial sonics of the 80’s and 90’s, KEN mode has mixed in the decidedly more extreme tone and presence of death and black metal, expertly captured by Andrew Schneider’s sick vision of noise and girth. With a newfound focus and desire ‘Loved’ is the most collaborative effort KEN mode has ever put together and it continues the band’s impressive progression to date… We talk to Jesse Matthewson about having more fun, doughnuts and Ronda Rousey…

TSH: What was at the heart of your lyrical content this time around for ‘Loved’?

Jesse: The current state of the world was definitely impacting a lot of the lyrical content on ‘Loved’. Also, this album is the most collaborative that the band’s lyrics have ever been too. For the last six years I’ve just been taking notes on my phone of things people say around me. In addition to this my bandmates will send me messages with different quotes and word combinations that we all find entertaining and I’ve been injecting a lot of those into the lyrical content as well. I’ve almost treated a lot of the songs as an editorial type of job in ways. It makes for a new challenge for us because we are changing up the way that we are doing things, it’s more fresh and involves a more family like kind of atmosphere.

TSH: Do you still prefer to not have parameters in place with your songwriting?

Jesse: Definitely. We never have parameters around what we are writing about, we just write whatever we want to, but the sentiment and structures have to feel professional and like they are of a certain standard. The actual subject matter doesn’t matter that much to us; it’s whatever is inspiring us to write something that we feel means something.

TSH: Also, this time around you guys wanted to get back to playing as a band and being in a position where you were doing it for fun...

Jesse: Totally. We wrote this album in a completely different way to any other album that we’ve written. Most of the riff ideas were written by Scott and I just hanging out and throwing around ideas and reacting to each other. We also worked with a friend of ours in Winnipeg, Drew Johnston. We played with him for over a year and a half and he helped us put together a lot of this record, especially since Scott lives further out. Drew supported us a lot and we played as a three-piece whilst Shane constructed the beats to the riffs that Scott and I wrote. Overall, it was just great to just inject some fun into the equation, despite this album sounding like we are having the least amount of fun, haha!

TSH: ‘Loved’ is heavier overall and a lot more experimental than previous works, but there’s also the factor of including jazz and industrial influences...

Jesse: Yeah, that’s just what we’ve enjoyed listening to recently. In 2016 I listened to a lot of jazz, for some reason the genre just really spoke to me. Also, I thought it would be a cool idea to try out some new things with different instruments on this record. The saxophone was also something that specifically worked well with the tones of our guitar and bass.

TSH: Longtime KEN mode collaborator Randy Ortiz did the excellent artwork for this record. As soon as he posted it you knew it was going to represent a lot of the narratives on this record...

Jesse: Yeah, I mean there is so much that is going on with this album cover - it’s both terrifying and unendingly amusing. I feel like that picture wraps up all these feelings at the same time and is the perfect representation of this almost joker like response. It brings to mind absolute terror, yet you can’t help but laugh. The artwork itself was done in 2016 and as we were creating the music we wanted it to live up to that image - even before we talked to Randy. I pitched the cover to my bandmates and they were all on board. We kind of used this picture to create an artistic arms race, where we needed our music to live up to it and we tried to bring up the feelings that this picture brings up in people.

TSH: What do you recall about fleshing out ‘The Illusion of Dignity’?

Jesse: It’s interesting because we significantly changed the structure of this song after we did the pre-production demos. Me and Scott came up with the riff and one day Shane came into the room and started playing along to it. It had a sick, drunk and swampy groove to it and the original working title was ‘Drunk Sex’. But yeah, it was all based around the initial riff. We wanted to hear it repeated, but it was a matter of how to execute that without it becoming boring. I’m happy with the changes we made because we were able to make it something we could beat to the ground whilst still making it engaging, and I think this was mainly because of the interjection of the saxophone in the latter portion of the song. It’s also worth noting that this song was the first time that I vocally caught this specific feeling that I’ve always wanted to in songs - very much like an old Swans, Black Flag and Henry Rollins type of feel.

TSH: What does ‘Fractures in Adults’ convey to you?

Jesse: It takes me back to early 2017 when I was dealing with a bit of depression. A lot of the words on this song are very personal, as opposed to the rest of the record. This song also has a lot more inside jokes and fun wordplay going on, specifically with the riffs themselves. This song entails such an interesting combination of influences being that it was written by a different line-up to the rest of the record, yet it still manages to fit in very well.

TSH: Do you feel that the benefits of Facebook for bands has become somewhat less valuable over time?

Jesse: When social media first came to prominence it was a very good tool for a lot of independent bands, but I’ve recently found that with every record cycle it becomes worse and worse, especially since Facebook completely monetises everything. We’re not a huge band but we have like 28,000 followers on Facebook and our average post only gets seen by 1,000 people - and they expect you to pay for everything if you want to be seen. What is even the point of having a Facebook if we can’t communicate with our fans?

TSH: Would you rather have things back to how they were prior to the rise of the internet?

Jesse: It makes me sound like an old timer, but I prefer the way things were prior to the internet becoming so huge. It was better when you were not constantly being barraged by technology. These days it seems like everyone has complete attention deficit disorder - always wanting that bump of something new and exciting, and it’s made record cycles shorter than ever too. The attention dies down a lot quicker than previous generations for album releases. It’s a lot more intense putting out an album with all of the stress in doing everything right. It becomes the world’s chance to react to your work and you have no control from that point onwards.

TSH: Do you still make sure to get your fix of doughnuts often?

Jesse: Ah, yes. I’m very much a fan of my Saturday morning doughnut fix, but I keep it limited and only treat my body to a pile of garbage on the weekend.

TSH: Being a fan of MMA, what did you make of Ronda Rousey’s transition to the WWE universe?

Jesse: I actually have been following WWE a bit more just because of Ronda Rousey. I think it’s awesome that she’s having a lot of fun, and surprisingly, she’s picked up a lot of it very quickly. I think she’s going to take women’s wrestling to a new level. However, I hope she doesn’t hurt anyone too much though. Some of the judo tosses I’ve seen her pulling off are mildly scary! But yeah, I’m really happy for her.

TSH: Are your intentions with future KEN mode material to always constantly be learning, creating and finding new goals?

Jesse: Yeah, absolutely. We need to keep it interesting, otherwise what the hell are we doing with ourselves? We’re not selling a lot of records, so there’s clearly no reason for us to be doing this for some kind of financial gain. For us, it’s all about at least satisfying our own artistic desires and keeping things interesting on that front. If people like it, that’s awesome and it’s the icing on the cake.

KEN mode - “Doesn't Feel Pain Like He Should”

KEN mode - “Feathers & Lips”

Loved

[earpeeler]

Squared Circle Pit – #17 - KEN MODE's Jesse Matthewson Talks Canadian Wrestling

Squared Circle Pit – #17 – KEN MODE’s Jesse Matthewson Talks Canadian Wrestling

He’s from Winnipeg, you idiot! We have KEN Mode frontman Jesse Matthewson on the Squared Circle Pit this week. We spend a lot of time talking about the Monday Night Wars, what Raw and Nitro did well, and what they failed at. We talk about keeping up with the frenetic pace of wrestling nowadays, and some of Shane’s favorite matches. http://traffic.libsyn.com/metalinjection2/17_Squared_Circle_Pit_1…

[pinsandneedleszine-blog]

5 Favorite Stand-Up Albums- by Shane Matthewson of KEN mode

This piece was originally compiled last year for the ill-fated fourth issue of Pins and Needles Zine which never saw the light of day. Rather than let it go to waste, I figured that now was as good a time as ever to post it being that KEN mode released their incredible fifth full length, Entrench, yesterday which features guest vocals from Tim Singer of Deadguy/Kiss it Goodbye and Dave Verellen of Botch and Narrows. 

From March 2011 - March 2012, KEN mode crammed in about 7.5 months worth of touring in support of our most recent album Venerable. To keep things interesting in the van, we listened to a TON of stand-up comedy. Here are 5 of my/our favorite stand-up albums that we spun during our time on the road:

  Bill Burr - Why Do I Do This? 

Bill Burr is the classic angry white guy gone haywire.  He opens this album with a bit on pedophiles and doesn't slow down a bit for the duration of the hour.  His bits on "in the way people" and fantasizing about mowing people down in his car, brought me to the realization that I am in fact a "functioning psycho" just like Bill.  Bill's podcast -"The Monday Morning Podcast" has now become part of my weekly routine.

Louis CK - Chewed Up Louis CK is absolutely essential for anyone that is a fan of standup comedy (and has a bit of a sick sense of humor).  This really could say Louis CK - ALL, but I went with Chewed Up because I think it's got the heaviest play in the van this year.  His bits on hating deer and offensive words are lessons in effective story telling in standup.  

  Greg Giraldo - Midlife Vices Unfortunately I only really got into Greg Giraldo (know best for his appearances on Comedy Central's "Celebrity Roasts") AFTER his death (Sept 2010).  Midlife Vices is quite possibly his best work.  Before becoming a standup comedian, Giraldo graduated from Harvard Law School, and briefly worked as a lawyer. Listening to his standup, it's not hard to see why he didn't exactly fit into that world.   

  Hannibal Buress - My Name is Hannibal One of my favorite new comedians.  I was first introduced to Hannibal's stuff through Aziz Ansari's (fellow standup comedian) twitter page, when he posted a link to Hannibal's set on David Letterman.  His unique cadence combined with bizarre subject matter (flavoring sandwiches with pickle juice, and "the youporn community") make him a definite promising "up and comer".  Considering he has been a writer for both "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock", calling him an up and comer might not be accurate... George Carlin - You Are All Diseased

The master and probably my favorite comedian of all time.  Carlin's bit "There Is No God" at the very end of this album actually shaped KEN mode lyrics.  The track "Never Was" off of Venerable, has the chorus  "No god, never was", which is from this Carlin track.  During the summer of 2008 I proudly claimed to a group of friends that George was my hero.  He died THE NEXT DAY. Sorry George, I didn't mean to do it!

[screamingforyears]

IN A MINUTE:

A POST_PUNK EXPRESS… // “AGORAPHOBIC” is the latest single from @bara.hari’s forthcoming debut LP titled ‘Lesser Gods’ (5/26 @remissionentertainment) & it finds the “LA-based dark pop songwriter & producer” facing her internal anxieties across a 3+ min stretch of trip_hopped ElectroPop. @bunny_xmusic are here w/ “DAYDREAMING,” the final single in the run-up to their forthcoming LP titled ‘Love Minus 80’ (TBA @aztec_records) & it finds the NYC (with love)-based duo of Abigail Gordon + Mary Hanley bringing the “Italo Disco & Retrowave 🎹🌴” goods across a 3:51 clip of tranquil SynthPop. “I CANNOT” (@artoffact_records) is a new standalone single from @kenmodenoise & it finds the Winnipeg-based quartet of Jesse Matthewson (guitar/vocals), Shane Matthewson (drums), Scott Hamilton (bass) & Kathryn Kerr (saxophone) not fucking around w/ this lurchingly brutal bout of “equal parts My War, 90's metal core & some noise post rock” “CYNTHIA” is the final single/title-track from @qyburnmusic’s forthcoming LP (TBA @matriarchrecordsuk) & it finds the Los Angeles-based “master necromance” holding court & spreading the dark word by dropping another banger ass track for his fellow conjurors that’s chockful of synthetic dread, ominous beauty & deeply plaintive tones… on repeat!

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