CD Review: Infectious Grooves/Cyco Miko – Funk it up & Punk it up: Live in France ‘95

August 3rd, 2010 Filed under: Reviews - Music by admin

CD Review: Infectious Grooves/Cyco Miko
Funk it up & Punk it up: Live in France ‘95
Suicidal Records

Funk it up & Punk it up: Live in France ’95 is a double disc package featuring back to back performances of Cyco Miko and Infectious Grooves from their show in Lyon, France back in ’95. This recording which hasn’t seen the light of day since the show 16 years ago has now been released to satiate fans prior to the release of Infectious Grooves’ as-of-yet-unnamed album set to hit shelves later this year. This album captures with near perfect sound the high energy, balls to the wall style of both bands and considering Infectious Grooves has been relatively low-profile since their resurgence back in ’08, stands as an exciting teaser of some of the elements we can hope to find in the upcoming album.

The decision to leave the recording as is (besides mastering of course) was a smart one. The resulting sound is raw but high quality. It decimates over-produced “live” records with an honest approach that captures the performance itself rather than bastardizing it in an attempt to provide a revamped, cleaned-up version. Somehow, each element of the respective bands manages to come through. What’s especially cool about this is the fact that both acts feature Mike Muir (vocals-Suicidal Tendencies), Robert Trujillo (bass-Metallica, ex-Suicidal Tendencies), Dean Pleasants (guitar- Suicidal Tendencies), Brooks Wackerman (drums- Bad Religion) and Dave Nassie (Bleeding Through). Their tight and relentless performances are especially impressive considering these guys were pulling double-duty while being recorded in a situation with little margin for error.

For its quality, it’s surprising that Funk it up & Punk it up: Live in France ’95 hadn’t been released a lot earlier. While the Infectious Grooves performance is definitely the gem of this set, both albums succeed in capturing the unique vision of Mike Muir and offer a glimpse of the diverse skill of the other players.
suicidaltendencies.com

By Alxs Ness

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Copyright © 2004-2010 ABORT Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this publication, in whole or in part, in any form or medium without express written permission from Abort Media Publishing Corporation (AMP Corp.) is prohibited. All use is subject to our Terms of Use.

ABORT Magazine – ISSUE 15: Now Online (Free Download!)

March 5th, 2010 Filed under: Exclusive!, Issues by admin

ABORT MAGAZINE – ISSUE 15, FEATURING EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH:

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, BLACK SHEEP, HATEBREED, SOULS OF MISCHIEF, Legendary photographer NEIL ZLOZOWER, BWSS’s ANGELA MARIE MACDOUGALL, our exclusive Shooting Gallery of Olympic protest mayhem, our special spotlight on the infamous NINJA X GIRLS, plus all our regular features.

BEHIND THE BOARDS: MIKE FRASER (AC/DC, Aerosmith)

PLUS: Tales From the Eastside, DENIED!, Shooting Gallery, ABORTIST: Rank & File, our Headphonica chart and of course lots of (honest) reviews!

Free To Download and Share As Always

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READ OUR BACK ISSUES HERE

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Copyright © 2004-2010 ABORT Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this publication, in whole or in part, in any form or medium without express written permission from Abort Media Publishing Corporation (AMP Corp.) is prohibited. All use is subject to our Terms of Use.

DVD Review: Suicidal Tendencies – Live at The Olympic Auditorium

February 6th, 2010 Filed under: Reviews -DVD by admin

DVD Review -  Suicidal Tendencies
Live at The Olympic Auditorium
Suicidal Records

Suicidal Tendencies’ Live at Olympic Auditorium is the first-ever DVD released by the band. Recorded in 2005, this DVD’s been a long time coming. Without any bonus features to act as filler, all the pressure is put on the live performance to carry the release. This one stands on its own offering a fitting, no-bullshit glimpse at why many fans have stuck around and stayed true despite various changes in style since the band’s inception. Luckily, original member Mike Muir (vocals) put on a killer, high-energy show despite persistent back issues which manifested in partial paralysis the day of the show. The fact that Muir was still able to do what he does –running around the stage, pushing the pace for over an hour- without letting on that he was having severe medical problems, is a testament to his drive and determination; essentially what’s been keeping the band going on and off for almost 30 years now.

The set begins with “I Shot Reagan” (AKA “I Shot the Devil”) and includes many other early tracks such as “Institutionalized,” “Subliminal”, “I Saw Your Mommy” and “War Inside my Head.” The line-up featuring Mike Clark (rhythm guitar), Dean Pleasants (lead guitar), Steve Brunner (Bass) and Ron Brunner (drums) (who was since replaced by Eric Moore) does a great job of churning out these old tunes, adding their own touch in certain spots and helping Muir keep the energy going. What’s interesting about the way the performance is shot is the “amateur” quality. While the camera work is good, there’s an overall “real” perspective created which gives the impression that it was shot by hand-held cameras. Again this adds to the no-frills aspect of the DVD and gives the feeling that we are seeing it as it was, not an over-produced, cleaned up version.

European fans will get a chance to see Suicidal in all their glory during their European tour with Mike Muir’s other project Infectious Grooves this March.

suicidaltendencies.com

By Alxs Ness

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Copyright © 2004-2010 ABORT Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this publication, in whole or in part, in any form or medium without express written permission from Abort Media Publishing Corporation (AMP Corp.) is prohibited. All use is subject to our Terms of Use.

EXCLUSIVE: SUICIDAL TENDENCIES – The ABORT Interview (Issue 15 Preview)

January 16th, 2010 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

ABOVE: Suicidal Tendencies in 2010

Suffering from member and label changes, physical damage and constant touring, the current line-up of Venice, California’s legendary Skate/Thrash/Hardcore Kings Suicidal Tendencies are back and heavier than ever. With 2 new albums on the horizon and a slew of tour dates, vocalist Mike Muir spoke with ABORT Magazine’s E.S. Day to give him the lowdown on their new Live DVD and all things Suicidal (and Infectious Grooves) for 2010.

E.S. Day: We are here with legendary vocalist, and singer-songwriter Mike Muir, how are you sir?

MIKE MUIR: Doing really good. Long story short, I’m just sitting at home in Venice, California

ABORT: The first ever DVD “Live at The Olympic Auditorium” is in stores January 26th on Suicidal Records I had a peek at it this morning…fucking brilliant!, truly captures the essence of Suicidal in their purest form, not grainy, choppy, great camera work and well worth the wait. So my first question Mike, what the fuck took so long?

MM: Well, as I said everything is a little bit of a long story, but basically, the Olympic Auditorium, going back in history, was originally built for the Olympics and was the biggest venue in LA at the time, then over the years it has gone into disrepair, to the point that in the early 1980’s, they actually let bands do big punk rock shows, which wasn’t very common. It was a great big building, basically a fortress that could put up with anything. They did a lot of boxing, roller derby, that sort of stuff. Then we got a call, saying ‘They’re selling the Olympic Auditorium, there hasn’t been any shows there for a while, we want you do headline one last show’ which is all good and would have been a no-brainer, but I just had back surgery…

ABORT: Oh fuck!

MM: … We got another call about headlining a festival in Columbia, so we did the festival, headlined to 95,000 people, the week after that, the Olympic show. Two days before, I wake up, and I cant walk. Because of all the stuff going on, we decided to go ahead and do the show, and afterward, I had to have another back surgery.

ABORT: Well you could have fooled me! After watching a raucous version of “Institutionalized”, you’re jumping around like a motherfucker! That must have hurt, because you were going hard!

MM: We had decided to film it, because I noticed that there was a lot of people doing documentaries, writing books, and since I had people asking me about certain things, I would ask them “Where the fuck did you hear that? That is not true” Turns out they read it in some book. It goes back to what I learned a long time ago. Just because something is in a book, doesn’t mean its true. I went through that with the Dog Town, my brother was one of the original Z-Boys, and that whole thing (Lords of Dogtown) caused a lot of controversy because it was one person’s version of what was happening.

(cont.) That’s part of the reason we wanted to film it. Not to go back to 1984, but to basically show a little bit about where suicidal came from, to capture it, and show why we’re still a band

ABORT: You guys are as fresh, and as vibrant as you were back then, and it’s fucking wicked.

MM: Funny story, we were in France, and they had me go to this doctor, who was the national rugby physician, and I walked in, and the guy is not the typical person you would think who knows Suicidal Tendencies, but he looks at me and says, You’re Mike from Suicidal Tendencies! You may not know it from looking at me, but I am a Suicidal fan.

ABORT: No fucking way!

MM: He looked at me right away, and knew I needed surgery, but I had another week of shows. As a doctor, he told me I should jump on a plane, and just head home

ABORT: Drummer Eric Moore is absent from the drum throne, what happened there?

MM: The footage was actually from 2005, so pre-Eric. Back when Suicidal was touring in California, Eric came to the show, he was friends with Steve, asked me what we were doing with Infectious, and if we ever did anything, he wanted to try out. We gave him the call, got him in the band. It was one of those things that was just too obvious. When we went to Europe, I had people coming up to me saying ‘You’re bringing Eric to Suicidal, aren’t you?’ We just did a show at Long Beach arena, we had the drummers from the other bands filming him, going ‘Dude, that guy is insane!’ and I think that is what Suicidal should be.

ABORT: New Suicidal album when and who’s producing?

MM: We haven’t done a record in 10 years, but we have done a lot in that time. We have people coming up to us saying ‘You know, you guys are doing shows, why don’t you put a record out and tour off that?’ That’s not what Suicidal is about. Its not doing it just because you don’t think you will get another chance, I want to get out there and prove we are better than we ever were. So going out there the last two years, we have kind of re-baptized the converted, reminding people why they love Suicidal, get them on the phone after the show calling up their friends. If you don’t have that excitement, there is something wrong. We’re getting that excitement out there, where people are really excited about a new record. We’re kind of putting out the old stuff, clearing the deck, like with the DVD, we’ve got a live CD straight from the board from 1995 when Infectious grew, Robert Trujillo on bass and stuff, something straight off the board that you can say, wow, that was 15 years ago.

With Suicidal, we have two CDs coming out, the one, I call it the Mike Clark record, and I call it that because we got Mike (ST rhythm guitarist) into Suicidal after working with him and the band No Mercy he came in on “How Will I Laugh Tomorrow” after 1987’s “Join the Army”. Half of ‘How will I laugh’ was actually songs for No Mercy. That was another no brainer, like with Eric, why weren’t we using this for Suicidal?

We re-recorded some of the No Mercy and Join the Army songs with Mike Clark, who isn’t on the originally recordings. With him, we take it to a further level, that’s why I call it the Mike Clark record.

And of course, there is the new Suicidal Record coming out at the end of the year, which everyone is always asking, does it sound old, does it sound new, and for me, I think the whole thing with doing a record, is ultimately having people know it’s Suicidal. Suicidal in a sense that its different than what other people are doing. Some people wont like it because of that, but ultimately, I think 15 years from now people will still be listening to it, and saying wow, that was a really fucking crazy record.

“Live At The Olympic Auditorium ” is in stores January 26th, 2010

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 15 OF ABORT – OUT WHEN IT’S READY

By E.S. Day

Transcript – Scott Alexander

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RoadTrip: SUICIDAL TENDENCIES – June 18/09, Incrível Almadense, Portugal

May 24th, 2009 Filed under: Road Trip by admin

BUY TICKETS

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Copyright © 2004-2009 ABORT Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this publication, in whole or in part, in any form or medium without express written permission from Abort Media Publishing Corporation (AMP Corp.) is prohibited. All use is subject to our Terms of Use.

YEAR OF THE CYCOS: Suicidal Tendencies, Infectious Grooves and Cyco Miko Release New Album and E-Card

January 26th, 2009 Filed under: News/Calendar/Industry by admin

CLICK HERE FOR E-CARD

JOIN THEM ON FACEBOOK!

MORE INFO VISIT:

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Copyright © 2004-2009 ABORT Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this publication, in whole or in part, in any form or medium without express written permission from Abort Media Publishing Corporation (AMP Corp.) is prohibited. All use is subject to our Terms of Use.

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