| CA Metal Band Wins Bodog Contest, Gets Ripped Off
Laura McCutcheon of California's Ukiah Daily Journal reports that Ukiah, CA-based metal band DEFINITION UNKNOWN (MySpace) won round one in a national contest, but band members lost something near and dear to them in the process: their equipment. About the same time the announcer of "Boot Camp" — also known as round one of the Bodog Battle of the Bands, held earlier this month at the 12 Galaxies in San Francisco — informed the group they'd won first place, their van, parked around the corner with $10,000 worth of musical equipment inside, was stolen, drummer Tommy Shannon said. "We lost every single guitar, including the bass. We lost all of our guitar amplifiers, one speaker cabinet, my kick pedals, my snare drum, two snare stands, a Roland TD-6 drum machine, one drum pad trigger, two China cymbals, and two cymbal stands ...
The Velvet Teen - Cum Laude!
Eschewing the alt-rock intricacies of Out of the Fierce Parade and mostly down-tempo, piano-centric orchestrations of Elysium, the Velvet Teen once again redefine themselves and their sound on their latest triumph, Cum Laude!. Cum Laude! not only treads new ground for the group, but does so with formidable aplomb, wrecking any notion that this band can be pinned down.
In contrast to Elysium’s six extended tracks, Cum Laude! favors shorter, quicker, and more dynamic compositions. One of the first things you’ll notice on it is the heavy vocal filters, which, ironically, only embolden Judah Nagler’s croon. Nagler has never been stronger and here his voice simply rises above the glitch-heavy rock like a heralding of something prophetic and radical. Opening track "333" attests to this when Nagler belts out, "I took the pain out of my pen / I took my self out of my selfish ways / and wrote all...I took the greed out of my grin / and sunk my teeth into my work instead / and they followed."
Although produced with the same sparkling precision as Elysium, Cum Laude! is a hybridized beast of a supremely varied parentage.
The Water Cooler: They should go to 11 - and start with 1
Nigel Tufnel, to put it kindly, seldom has come across as the sharpest guitar pick in the box, but he clearly has his admirers at the University Interscholastic League. A brief review, for those of you unfamiliar with the legendary Spinal Tap lead-guitar player: Tufnel, being interviewed for "This Is Spinal Tap" — a 1984 chronicle of the band's American tour — explained to filmmaker Marty DiBergi why the volume switch on his guitar's amplifier went to 11, rather than the customary 10. DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder? Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not 10. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at 10. You're on 10 here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on 10 on your guitar.
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