Monthly Archives: April 2012

A PEZ Collector’s Wet Dream

Posted by on April 24, 2012 No comments
PEZ

Mmmmmmmm, PEZ...

I never gave much thought to PEZ, but since Danielle and I were going on a road trip to the PEZ Visitor Center in Orange, Connecticut, I decided to learn all there is to know about these sweet, little candies.  As a kid, I remember PEZ being the unwanted candy at the bottom of my trick-or-treat bag.  The truth is, PEZ has been around for over 80 years and has become a pop culture phenomenon!

PEZ was invented in 1927 in Vienna, Austria as a breath mint.  The name PEZ was derived from a combination of letters in the German word for peppermint, Pfefferminz.  In 1948 PEZ candies were marketed as an alternative to smoking so they modeled the first dispenser to resemble a lighter.  I can totally appreciate PEZ now because there ain’t nothing I hate more than smoking.  In the 1950s they designed a Santa, a Robot and a Space Gun dispenser to appeal to children.  Shortly after, they produced Popeye, Mickey Mouse, psychotic bunnies and scary clown dispensers.   Read more »

doyoulistentogrindcore? A Review

Posted by on April 20, 2012 1 comment

As someone who doesn’t know a goddamn thing about grindcore, I was outside of my element reviewing David Carradine’s latest release.  My comrades and I watched Bones on mute while listening to the untitled album, a split CD with Indonesian band Ah-!!!.  The sixteen frenzied tracks were a fitting accompaniment to scenes of decaying bodies on the screen – but not so much for the cutesy Bones-and-Booth-sexual-tension scenes.

DxCx

David Carradine and Ah-!!! Split CD

For the rest of you that don’t know a goddamn thing about grindcore either, it’s like punk’s drunken pyromaniac cousin.  High-tempo blast beats and guttural vocals are characteristic, as are very short songs.  The shortest on this CD was David Carradine’s (DxCx) “Why Are Your Songs So Short?” clocking in at eight seconds.  Most of the lyrics are indecipherable, so song titles play a big role in creating the music’s humor – like DxCx’s “You Totally Just Broke My Snare Stand (And Marsie’s Bong)” and Ah-!!!’s “Let Us Attack the Bastards With a Watergun.”

But just because the songs are short and fast doesn’t mean there’s no variety.  Sludgy riffs in DxCx’s “We Don’t Beat Around the Bush, We Smoke the Motherfucker” seemed like a musical nod to their friends in Howl, a doom band from Rhode Island.  And when Ah-!!!’s half of the CD started, there was a huge change in the sound – coming after the comparatively subdued “We Don’t Beat Around the Bush…,” Ah-!!!’s “Death Kick of Fong Sai Yuk” really sounded like someone was getting killed.  My favorite songs were “We Don’t Beat Around the Bush…” and “Murphy’s Crusade” (also by DxCx), which alternated groove riffs with fast punk. Read more »

The Bridge

Posted by on April 19, 2012 No comments

By David Alan White

Originally published on Jesus Ate My Baby.

As they pulled up to the bridge, Ian’s heart was steady. His hands did not sweat or shake. His mind, however, seemed to be racing towards a heart attack.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he thought to himself over and over again as he pulled the key from the ignition. Without making eye contact he nodded towards Chris who sat shaking in the passenger seat.

“Fuck man,” Chris whimpered as his hand fell on the door handle.

“It’s okay. We do this, then we leave and drive away and it’s okay. We just have to do this part.”

“I know man, I know.” Chris took a long breath and all at once stopped shaking. He seemed to nod to himself this time, then opened the door and got out. Ian looked after him a moment before hitting the trunk release and then quickly did the same. Read more »

Albums that Changed My Life

Posted by on April 9, 2012 2 comments

AnthraxAmongTheLivingWhen asked about the albums that changed my life my head immediately goes to Among the Living by Anthrax. Back in 1987 you couldn’t hear metal on the airwaves or even on MTV unless you were able to stay up past 11:00. My friend Cathy, who had the ability to stay up that late, told me about the song N.F.L. and I knew I had to have it. My memory is hazy, but I’m pretty sure that was the first Anthrax album I owned (okay, it was a tape) and I ended up going back and buying the previous album Spreading the Disease and the EP Armed and Dangerous. I was a big Anthrax fan in high school – to this day they’re one of the only bands that I know all of their names (except, of course, those bands I’ve had to dinner.) Read more »

Danbury Business Fights for Hookah Use

Posted by on April 9, 2012 1 comment

By Amanda Bloom

Originally published in The Mercurial.

cloud 9 hookah bar

Photo courtesy of Cloud 9.

According to Danbury Zoning Enforcement Officer Sean Hearty, Cloud 9 owner [...] Dev Patel had originally wanted to open his business as a hookah bar, but instead opened as an entertainment center since hookah lounges are not permitted in Danbury’s Central Business District (CBD), the main downtown area also known as CityCenter.

Patel said in a phone interview that Cloud 9 was operating as a hookah bar but also offered customers live djs and dancing.  Patel also said that Cloud 9 was extremely successful in its first month, so much so that he was looking to start a new business venture in another empty Ives Street storefront. Posts made on Twitter promoting Cloud 9′s hookahs prompted an inspection of the business on March 24, and subsequently, its closure. Read more »

O Manners, Where Art Thou?

Posted by on April 9, 2012 No comments

By Michael Field

“All I really need to know… I learned in kindergarten.” – Robert Fulghum

What happened to us? What happened to the men standing at a dinner table when a lady stood up or sat down? What happened to giving up your seat on the subway for someone much more in need of a seat? Where’d the handshake run off to?

These questions, and many more, plague me while I live and work amongst the masses. Manners are being killed and the murderer is laziness. We have lost our way. We no longer look upon being courteous and welcoming with pride. We have succumbed to indifference. Can we be saved?

Perhaps. Here’s a sampling of my gripes.

Introducing Yourself

You meet someone new and what should you do? Say hello, of course! But more importantly, tell the person your name. Nodding, “What’s up” is not an introduction. It’s an insult. If we were two teenagers in high school, passing each other in the hallway on our way to our respective homerooms, then the nod would be appropriate. Read more »

InComa: England’s Inner Beast

Posted by on April 6, 2012 No comments

As Peter Terzian wrote in his essay “Nine Lives,” finding new music was much harder before “the internet chang(ed) everything.”   Now thanks to these amazing communication capabilities, Alternative Control had the opportunity to interview some metal brothers and sisters from across the pond: UK death metal band InComa.

incomaInComa hails from Reading, England, a city about an hour west of London.  The band was founded in 2010 by guitarists Paolo Barco and Craig Haden; they were soon joined by bassist Paulo Nunes and vocalist Hels Greenleaf.   It took the foursome until late 2011 to find drummer Paul Jeeawock – apparently good drummers aren’t just hard to come by in Connecticut!

Finally complete, the band recorded four strong tracks and has been playing several shows a month in the Reading and London areas.  They describe their sound as a blend of “US southern metal” and Scandinavian death metal, citing In Flames, At the Gates, Hypocrisy, and Megadeth as influences.

Here’s what InComa had to say about their band’s progress and the UK metal scene: Read more »