Thursday, October 30, 2008

Greek Arsonists Attack Police Offices

Authorities in Greece say the central Athens offices of a rural police division have been damaged in an arson attack.
Police say about 20 assailants hurled petrol bombs, rocks and paint, damaging the entrance of the building. They said no one was hurt and no arrests were made.
Anarchist groups in Athens frequently carry out arson attacks, typically targeting police stations, international companies and foreign embassy vehicles to voice protest on a variety of issues including the imprisonment of other anarchist arson suspects.
But Monday's strike occurred during working hours, whereas most other attacks have taken place overnight.

Vegan With a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz


For the first time I pick up this book from the shelf of one of bookstore in Kuala Lumpur is because it’s nothing to do with its title, price or the recipe. But the cover of the book show the pretty brunette girl wearing Crass t-shirt and smiling while holding cupcakes really attract me. Looking up the title and t-shirt, I knew this book really associate veganism and punk rock culture.
The author is Isa Chandra Moskowitz, a Jewish girl who actually is a co-host of the hugely successfully TV vegan cookery show in the US called “The Post Punk Kitchen” combined the Do It Yourself ethic with vegan meals. This book contains about 150 recipes using inexpensive ingredients but since she lives in New York City, most of the recipes are based on American style of cooking. Muffins, cakes, cookies or snacks recipes are providing here. But still it’s a good vegan recipe book than any other in the market because Isa put an effort to explain how the punk rock culture which associate with veganism and animal rights shape the way she lives and gave much credit to the culture.
I also liked the thread running through the book that all these recipes are not set in stone. Isa has developed them over the years and probably is still making changes and she encourages her reader to do the same.
Well most of vegan cooking book looks bored and too colorful or too dorky to you, I recommend you this book and try these recipes.

Choosing Death; The Improbable History of Death Metal & Grindcore by Albert Mudrian


This book revisits the critical moments in the history of death metal and grindcore which really fascinated me because not many book wrote about the history and about death metal or grindcore.
With the introduction about how punk rock bands like Discharge, Crass and Exploited shaped the grindcoe’s sound at the beginning the author also explain how Napalm Death start at the early form playing hardcore punk rock. Another thing fascinating me is how the terms “grindcore” and “blast beat” came from. Many important bands were interview in this book such as Carcass, Death, Cannibal Corpse, Nile, Deicide and many more. This book feature in-depth play-by-play of the origins, record label battles (the story of Earache, Metal Blade and Nuclear Blast), rise, fall and the return of a genre that would make you want to read it all over again. That’s what happens to me. But the long history of Napalm Death is too boring to me. It’s like half of this book written about their stuff and too little about other bands. I love Napalm Death but for me it is wrong to put too many of their story in there. It’s like discrimination on the other band. But somehow, this book is great. It’s awesome book. With rare pictures and flyers, Albert Mudrian really knew how to bring the atmosphere of the early days of death metal and grindcore. This book is highly recommended for death metal or grindcore worshipper.

Noxa – Grind Viruses


Noxa is a grindcore band from Jakarta, Indonesia and they sound like Rotten Sound which hail from Finland. Actually, these two bands have connection. Lyrics for track “Starvation” were done by Keijo from Rotten Sound and Emil Englund from Gadget appeared as guest vocal. This is non-stop grindcore release contain 31 tracks that talked about war, society, anti-government, murder and even polygamy (track 31 is “Poligami”). They sang in English and also in Bahasa Indonesia. For Rotten Sound fans, act fast. Get this CD.

Standing Hard; A Youth of Today Tribute


Full credit to Embrace Records for their effort to gather 22 hardcore/punk bands all over the world to pay tribute to hardcore legend, Youth of Today. This compilation CD features these 22 band cover Youth of Today song with their version. Start with hardcore band from Germany, The Tangled Lines with their own version of Modern Love Story that in my opinion, are better then the original version from Youth of Today. Malaysia has two representatives, Second Combat (covered “Flame Still Burns”) and Nostalgia (covered “Honesty”) showed to the world the stronghold of Malaysia Hardcore scene. But what lack in this compilation is no bands cover my favorite Youth of Today song, “No More”. Anyway this compilation dedicated to hardcore kids all over the world.
(rip)

The Garrison – Self Title


The Garrison completely combines 2 genre of music. Don’t call them punk band, don’t call them reggae band. Call them reggae punk band. This debut D.I.Y release is a live recording release but still sound good. This band took The Clash as their major influence, talked about society, peace and politics in their lyrics. It contains five tracks and one hidden track after the “Acheh, Now” track that I can assume it is my favorite track in this CD. The hidden song sounds like it were recorded while live performing maybe at bar or pub. But at the background of this track, you can hear someone is talking and laughing and that interrupt the mood of this song. I think that I will ask those people to shut the fuck up if I were there. Luckily, I wasn’t. It is enjoyable debut release by the Garrison.
(rip)

Goresluts – Shinju Outercourse


Fun, dirty, ridiculous, gore and grind. This CD fills with lots of samples, jokes and stuff from porn movie. Song titles like “Morgue’s Cold Sluts (Sweet Rotten Pussy)”, “Cunt Tract Intruder” and “Die With Sperms In Your Cunt” should gave you an idea what this band all about. It’s a mighty good.

Tools Of The Trade – Inmate Consumption


No time to breath. That’s I think a great word to describe this full length by grindcore powerhouse, Tools Of The Trade when I listen to this. There are 10 tracks of this record. The first track, “Seeking of Affiliation” start of with great sneak peak from a movie I believe and it start very well. This full length is remastered at Republic Czech and that is the reason why it sounds pretty awesome. Get this CD if you are a fan of Vormit and Negation.
(rip)

Negation – 10.0 Richter Scale


When I get this CD, I thought it was a new release by Negation. Maybe it was an EP but after bought it, I felt a little bit disappointed because this CD is seems like a promo CD with CD-R inside. Most of the songs (7 actually) were already release on 4 Way Split Eastern Grind Unleashed and 1 song already release in Metal To Metal Compilation. After saw them performing live many times before, I think that a great band like this should come out with new record. They are awesome and great to watch when they playing live. Hopefully this ‘punch in the face’ grindcore band should come out with ‘punch in the face’ release sooner or later.
(rip)

Dead Eyes Glow – in Search of the Glory We Had Lost


This debut album by Terengganu kids is a hard hitting record. I don’t know what to call this kind of music. It’s a mixture of variety sounds. I would like to call it as death metal mix with modern hardcore sound, mix with math and also had melodic sounds in it. This is a technical stuff which fulfill with incredible riff, technical drum, screamo vocal and gang choruses. Least to say, I’m not really into this kind of music but for those who were, it is an awesome record. The recordings were professionally done, great inlay and it won’t disappoint you.
(rip)

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Anarchist Voices by Paul Avrich


Written by Paul Avrich who is an anarchist himself, this book feature some of oral interview which conducted by Paul Avrich himself. This book contains 180 interviews with some of relatives and friends to the anarchists (and the anarchists themselves) who involved in Haymarket tragedy in United States and also about the people who involved with anarchism. From the story of the early movement of American anarchist until the story of their heyday, this book also contains some of the untold story of anarchist figure, which I found it really interesting. It’s contains the stories of personal detail about such anarchist luminaries as Emma Goldman, Rudolf Rocker, Sacco and Vanzetti.
This book is grouped in six sections organized around individuals or major aspects of the movement. Lastly, this is a well done book. It is great and will be invaluable resources for students who learns about this kind of stuff and also for people who really had interest in the idea of anarchism.
By the way, I'm still reading this book and it's had around 580 pages. It will take time to finish it and it seems that this is the most heavier and thick book I ever read.

ENDNOTES: Check out the Maximum RockNRoll Radio at Maximum RockNRoll website. It's a great radio show playing some stuff from DIY bands around the globe. Now I just subscribe to it and I can listen to it every week. Thanks to iTunes. haha