Archive for June, 2008

Valient Thorr - Immortalizer CD
Volcom Entertainment

When I saw Valient Thorr last winter, they totally won me over with their amazingly energetic rock tunes and their fun attitudes. These intergalactic rockers from Venus by way of North Carolina transplanted me in time to the 1970s when rock and roll was rock and roll and the songs had some substance. I immediately bought all their albums and vowed to go and see them play again.

For their first album in well over a year, Valient Thorr took all the ingredients that made their previous albums so good, added a bit more metal seasoning and turning the whole thing up to 11. The basic structure of their music is grounded in 70’s rock, and sprinkled in there is tiny bits of metal and the attitude of early punk with a little southern twang.

Songs like the lead track, “I Hope the Ghosts of the Dead Haunt Yr Soul Forever” immediately grab the listener with its catchy guitar leads that make you stand up and take notice. “Tomorrow Police” harkins back to the early punk days with its lyrics dealing with the wrongs of “the system” and corrupt cops. “No Holds Barred” is an ode to wrestling including a section where Valient Himself starts reciting a whole slew of wrestling holds which I as a wrestling fan got a big kick out of not to mention the song itself is super catchy and energetic.

The whole album is a pretty entertaining listen from start to finish and a great follow up to their last album, which was a great rock album. This time out they recorded with Jack Endino who is no stranger to being at the helm of bands with a classic rock influence, as he recorded so many of the Sub Pop records back during the “grunge years”. I can only imagine that these songs are even better live, but until I get to witness them being played in person again, this album will be enjoying regular plays on the old iPod.

Related links:

Valient Thorr official website
Valient Thorr on myspace
Buy the CD from amazon.com

T.S.O.L. - The Early Years Live DVD
MVD Visual

Despite their storied past that included going metal, lawsuits and other unpleasant things, there is no disputing the greatness that was early T.S.O.L. . Their first couple of records are now regarded as punk rock classics and they’ve cemented a place in punk rock legend.

This DVD compiles footage from two different shows and sources, both recorded in 1983. This was right around the time that the band started experimenting with things like keyboards and going in a bit more of a goth direction before the band fell apart and turned metal simultaneously. There is a great mix of really early material plus the songs that were new at the time from the Beneath the Shadows album. The main feature was shot by Flipside and likely ended up on one of the VHS tapes they used to sell back in the old days. It was shot on one camera from a somewhat close distance. The show was outdoors so the lighting is great. The image quality is pretty good for a 25 year old camcorder recording. There’s a few glitches here and there and the thing was pretty amateurish, but considering the technology and the era it is pretty good. The audio is very good as well especially considering the equipment.

The second feature on here is much shorter and was recorded around the same time, this time by Target Video. The footage is fairly similar in quality to the Flipside footage. There is also a healthy amount of bonus material consisting of an old interview from that Flipside show that lasted about 40 minutes, a live clip from 2007 and a reading from Jack Grisham from his forthcoming book. The old interview footage was particularly interesting just because it was so long ago that is was like going back in a time machine.

As a pretty big T.S.O.L. fan, I was excited to see this was coming out. It’s always nice to see these old documents being brought out for people to see what they missed or relive their punk rock past. If you are a fan of the band it’s worth the few bucks to add this to your collection.

Related links:

Order the DVD from amazon.com

MVD Visual

T.S.O.L. official website