What's happening with LotFP!

[DBB]

Well, just in case there is anybody out there on the edge of their seats in anticipation, I decided I would provide a status report. I'm 13,000 words in with probably another 3,000 - 5,000 to go and it is coming together much better than expected. I am happy with it--now it just depends on the approval of the head-chief-in-charge.

I'm thinking about using the two quotes below to construct a conclusion that are of interest even if I don't:

Monte Conner

I’ve always prided myself as being on the cutting edge of metal. Sure, at one point, Roadrunner signed too many death metal bands and I partly deserve to be blamed for this. But what is happening now is the whole Killswitch thing and we’ve got to be one of the first labels to bet on it. We’re not bandwagon jumpers, our aim here is [to] be first on to what’s happening next. So I wouldn’t sign death metal bands today, no, but it doesn’t mean I’ll turn my back on the bands we had in the past.

Obituary article in Terrorizer, no. 133 (July: 2005).

John Tardy

We’re kind of working on some new stuff, poking around here, so we definitely plan on next year doing another record, but it will not be with Roadrunner….

It's kind of a baffling thing, really. I don't expect a lot out of our band, we just like to do what we like to do and we just go about our business and that's how it is. Just over the years, it seems like there is something about Obituary that is different, there's something different about it when we play live or something. It just seems like we could do a lot more in terms of the overall size of the band. It seems like over the years, Roadrunner just doesn't acknowledge… they don't seem to think about or care about it and they just have done as little as they possibly can to help us out through the years. They literally have done nothing at all for us, which is why we were like, if we have done what we have done with them doing nothing, if we did it ourselves and at least put some effort into it, maybe we could achieve something a little bit bigger, but it's just one of those things.

Interview at http://www.doomsdaymusic.com December 5, 2005

 

[Occam's Razor]

You don't want to mess up with one of the biggest fishes in the label-pond do you?

 

[DBB]

Not as much as I had planned, unfortunately. Some swipes in passing--but not the methodical attack old Three Card Monte truly deserves. I do have enough evidence and material for a short article on him sometime on down the line though--had to cut some things out or I will never have a finished article. The reverential, softball coverage of Conner that was part of the Roadrunner United media blitz lapdogs generated was nothing short of sickening. Ah well....what can you expect? Anybody can say anything and nobody knows the goddamn difference.

 

[Occam's Razor]

Would they post that as breaking news on Blabbermouth? - something like:

at first:

Monte Conner: potential two-facedness revealed

then:

It's official: Monte Conner is a liar

and finally:

Monte Conner is speechless facing his accuser: Audio unavailable

 

[Jim LotFP]

Well, just in case there is anybody out there on the edge of their seats in anticipation, I decided I would provide a status report. I'm 13,000 words in with probably another 3,000 - 5,000 to go and it is coming together much better than expected. I am happy with it--now it just depends on the approval of the head-chief-in-charge.

I just read the draft of the first 7800 words, and all I have to say is holy crap! Well worth waiting for... I just hope my home internet connection is up and running when this is done so I can get it formatted and posted straight away.

And if the article for the print issue is even half this good... LotFP will tower over everything ever written, ever.

 

[BenMech]

I still don't know who DBB is. Please use your REAL name on this forum.

None of us have time for stupid games anymore.

 

[Jim LotFP]

I still don't know who DBB is. Please use your REAL name on this forum.

None of us have time for stupid games anymore.

DBB represents his real name much better than JimLotFP or BenMech represents ours.

He's not some well known musician or writer from some big glossy mag or anything, so don't be expecting a SURPRISE when you find out his whole name. I'm just not mentioning it because he hasn't yet.

But if the article doesn't make you go RAAAHHHH I'll eat Timo Tolkki's shorts.

 

[Occam's Razor]

But if the article doesn't make you go RAAAHHHH I'll eat Timo Tolkki's shorts.

Could be health-endangering...

 

[Jim LotFP]

Could be health-endangering...

... even more so if they're STILL ON HIM AT THE TIME.

Oh dear.

This has turned more disturbing than that SS in the Valley variant to Dogs in the Vineyard. http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=16895.0

 

[Occam's Razor]

RPG-people are a strange brew.

 

[Jim LotFP]

RPG-people are a strange brew.

bah. I'm normal!

 

[Occam's Razor]

but you like wrestling...

 

[Jim LotFP]

but you like wrestling...

Watch Samoa Joe vs Necro Butcher and tell me that makes me unusual. ;p

Or head to Essen on February 18 and see Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, they're on their EUROPEAN VACATION!

Wait... http://prowrestlingguerrilla.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13 They sold 300 tickets at 25€ in two days. So sad.

 

[Occam's Razor]

Thanks man, really, I'm simply not a one for sports. The thing that's going to be interesting though is the soccer world cup here this year. As a German, it's hard to withdraw from that...and not that it would be more honest or sophisticated than men playing weird characters and beating each other up in a ring..Sports as media event is just not my cup

You have mail, seen?

 

[DBB]

I still don't know who DBB is. Please use your REAL name on this forum.

Dave Burns or, considering where I'm introducing myself, maybe it should be David Boswell Burns III.

Some Reviews.

Twilight Odyssey S/T

Ritual Carnage I, Infidel

October 31 Live

Deceased Interview with two more of my reviews linked at the bottom.

It is only a matter of days (probably end up being a week knowing me though) until I am finished. Here is the title and the section titles:

"Impure Metal: How Underground Heavy Metal Became Mainstream Heavy Music"

1. Start the Fire

2. Words are not Just Words

3. A Lesson in History

4. Metal is Business...and Business is Good

5. New Indie Order

6. Traditional Metal (The Commercial Chains are On)

7. Visions of the End

Of course, all are subject to change without notice at the author's discretion.

 

[BenMech]

fine. I can respect that

I can't respect Jim's image of Timo in shorts, or out of them. :vomit:

 

[Occam's Razor]

Ah, Mr. Burns - good to see that the thought-police did not get you...

 

[DBB]

Ah, Mr. Burns - good to see that the thought-police did not get you...

As a lapsed neo-luddite, it took me awhile to figure out what was going on. It appears that I can no longer compose an elobrate or lengthy post in a word document and then cut and paste it into the "reply to thread" field without ultimate metal telling me it is "forbidden." It is frustrating, because I typed up a long response with important information to one of Jim's points in "Scum," and when I hit the preview button--my session had timed out and I lost it forever to the Internet ether.

It is almost as frustrating as the promotional crap that is going to be spewed high and wide about the new Dragonforce CD. I heard the band for the first time today and was underwhelmed by their Rhapsody on meth without all the bells and whistles style. I'm sure they will be presented as true metal's saviors or some asinine pap like that.

edit: Hmmmm....Tried the cut and paste from word and had no problem previewing...maybe it was because my wife dragged me away from the computer while I was in the middle of a long-ass post and I saved it and then tried to post it. Or it could just be that technology is aligned against me

 

[Occam's Razor]

I don't know what the British are putting into teir tea at the moment, but this new wave of metal from the island (12"-at-wrong-speed-metal with helium-Halford or anabolic-Anselmo on vocals) is so weird - see also Biomechanical.
Dragonforce is a big pile of shit anyway, did you read Jim's review of one of their last CDs? - that tells everything.

Oh, and Biomechanical wanted people to post links to reviews of their album on their UM board. I did post a link to my review and it was gently removed, because they deemed it "aggressive and insulting"...well, in that case, it would just correspond to the band's music, ha!

Oh, I got a promo from the Rhapsody li(v)e-album...it says there is a watermark on the CD so you can be traced back in case you file-share it...I wonder if the band's live performance has an equal certificate of authenticity?

 

[Jim LotFP]

David Boswell Burns III.

Don't laugh, that's your byline.

Twilight Odyssey S/T

I can't say enough good things about this album. If "album of the year" was based on number of plays, my album of 2005 is either this, Slough Feg, or the Reverend Bizarre album. Fairly sad because all are "traditionally" based and not forward-thinking (well the Slough Feg is for sure, but that's more concept than sound). Then again, I still have a pile of 2005s sitting around either unlistened to or underlistened to, but that's where I am at this point.

"Impure Metal: How Underground Heavy Metal Became Mainstream Heavy Music"

Note to Dave and everyone: My internet access isn't on yet. The new date given is January 27. I will have access to the net every couple of days, but no uploading access. Maybe I can sneak up to my wife's (well we get married tomorrow so I better get used to saying that) sister's in the meantime to hook my machine up to her network, that's where I am now and how I'm getting that Green Carnation thing up.

Just saying it might be a short bit of a wait before this actually goes up.

As far as the full draft of this thing goes... wowsers. If I still had a job and stability and everything, I'd say screw the net and publish it as the next LotFP. Alas...

And it's scary. The thing points out a lot of hypocrisy and reversals in the world of heavy metal... and it makes me wince. One of the first bits of communication I have with Dave involved him asking me how I got from the $ editorial to Scum, as the two were both heartfelt, and contradictory. I've also been going through old LotFP interviews as I'm compiling things to print as a book... It's scary how naive I was about some things and how hard I was wishing for all the wrong things back in the early days. It's also scary how much of that I allowed into print. I was a fuckin DORK, haha. Still am, just a bit more refined in my dorkness. *sigh* I started in 98 because the media I was exposed to was covering and praising the *wrong* bands, and I thought if the *right* bands got the exposure and the sales, then all would be right with the world. Well, watching the promotional gears turn from the new perspective for a few years, and seeing what happens when a favorite band does go from 'obscure underdog' to 'standardbearer for metal', killed my enthusiasm for hoping 'my guys' got the spotlight.

... and there are times when I re-read Isten and METAL and I fear that I'm just a faint echo, repeating what others have already said (and said better)... but then I open LotFP mag #4 and see the editorial that opens the thing up and I know that I was expressing those thoughts before being exposed to those people.

Authenticity is a tricky, tricky thing and I hope the article gets a lot of eyeballs looking at it and I hope it gets a lot of people thinking.