X-Files S:4:Ep:13 - Scully Types Absurd 90s URLs

We've come a long way...

For the record, this episode also featured Jodie Foster as the voice of a talking tattoo that convinces a man (Rodney Rowland from the short-lived sci-fi series Space: Above and Beyond) to kill his neighbor and assault Scully. The X-Files was awesome.

Baby Ghosts Isn't a Metal Band But That's OK

I fully admit to clicking on this album very late at night—possibly under the influence—pretty much just because I wanted to hear what  metal album with an adorable cat and black metal typography on the cover would sound like. Well, it turned out to be not very metal at all*. Baby Ghosts (that should have been a clue) are actually a pop punk band from Salt Lake City and while they are not brutal, they are nonetheless emotionally devastating in their own way.

Please don't mistake my use of the term "pop punk" to mean the MTV variety that dominated American teenery in the early 2000s. This is real punk, just overlaid with extremely melodic yet tasteful vocal harmonies that come across not as whiny or adolescent, but emotionally sincere.

Maybe Ghosts is what hooked me, especially the opening track especially "Ghost Boyfriend," with it's fabulous vocal interplay, but pretty much any of their releases are worth a listen, especially Let's Always Hang Out Together, Okay? Recommended for fans of good jams.




*If we're being real and acknowledging that punk and black metal and My Bloody Valentine are all one shimmery and indescribable entity these days and maybe always have been, then yeah, Baby Ghosts might be a little bit metal.

Bastards in Back: Tolar's Live Wire Exercise

Neither grind nor hardcore, probably the two most prominent sounds in Tolar's deathly cauldron of filth, is known for its guitar theatrics. Deadly and to-the-point is the name of the game. Arlington's Tolar are more than capable of delivering in that respect.

Their new demo Rise to the Top, Stand in Front of the Bastards, is as fast and vicious as its (killer) cover implies, but on top of the relentless d-beats and death-inflected bellowing the guitars shred and wail and noodle like they had too much sugar at a Laser Park birthday party. If you like to grind but often find it monotonous and difficult to parse, give this a try. The guitar work is a step above and then some.



Download the album for free right here!

I watched 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' last night....

Good stuff. Wonderful practical effects and a fascinating exploration of the different ways alien life may reach earth. Not in metal ships but drifting on solar winds like pollen.

Imagining alien life without some human trait is difficult. These aliens, essentially plant life forms, are earthly but still far from human.

Speaking of aliens, we're coming up on the 18th anniversary of the Phoenix Lights, probably the most widely experienced yet least covered UFO events in American history.