The Flying Eyes, Night Beats, Psychic Ills at Golden West Cafe

Flying Eyes, Night Beats, Psychic Ills, a set on Flickr.

Last night, Golden West Cafe in Baltimore, Maryland, featured a trio of bands playing psychedelic, garage rock and soul.

Opening up was Baltimore's The Flying Eyes. Sounding a little like a cross between The Doors, Grand Funk Railroad and Blue Cheer, this band is surfing that "new wave of psychedelia" yet with their own original twists. I picked up a vinyl copy of their newest recording Do So Wrong and will review it in the near future.

Reminiscent of The Animals and early Beatles, Night Beats got a little group of folks dancing. Definitely check out this Seattle trio. They were a ton of fun.

Lastly, Psychic Ills set the strobe lights to stun and lit some incense for their set. They were the slowest tempo group of the bunch and set almost a doomy vibe. I have never seen so many effects pedals in use by a keyboardist.

Kinkade Parodies; RIP Thomas Kinkade

Kinkade Parodies, a set by martiner1 on Flickr.

Thomas Kinkade, reportedly America's most popular artists and the famed "painter of "light" died today in Los Gatos, California at the young age of 54. Let's have a moment of silence in his memory and enjoy these parodies that I am SURE he would have appreciated.

Consider replacing one of grandma's beloved pieces of home decor with one of these beauties. Which one is your favorite?

Countdown to MDF X: (46) Ghoul

Like a horror comic book coming to life, Ghoul is dead seriously the funniest band set to perform on Friday night at the Maryland Deathfest. Their performance is just as much about the songs as it is about the show. Appropriately this group is just coming off of a tour of smaller venues with felllow goremongers Gwar. Ghoul will be just as fun, but probably not quite as messy.

Hailing from the land of Creepsylvania (or Oakland, California), Ghoul doesn't have members so much as it has characters.  The musicians performing as those characters have also played, without costuming of course, in other notable metal  bands. Currently those characters include vocalist and bassist Cremator (Ross Sewage, who has appeared in bands like Exhumed and Wolves in the Throne Room), vocalist and guitarist Digestor (Sean McGrath from Engorged, Impaled and others), guitarist Dissector (Dan Randall, from Born Dead, Desolation), and drummer Fermentor (Dino Sommese, who has been in Dystopia, Lachyrmose and others).

In addition to the musicians, this group travels with a host of other characters who may show up to torment to audience. Ghoul's arch-enemy is Kill-bot, a 10-foot tall bloody metal monstrosity with infrared eyes. The homicidal werepig Mutant Mutilator may be roaming the crowd on the hunt for nu-metal and post- metal posers who may be lurking among their fans, which they call numbskulls. The Curio Shoppe Owner will be on hand to provide the coffins, or maybe he's just the merch guy.

Aside from the special effects and the showmanship, Ghoul offers head-bang-inducing, honest-to-goodness traditional thrash metal with a good bit of fantasy, comic book storyline and tongue-in-cheek humor thrown in. You will have a smile on your face, right before they kill you.

Enjoy this video, made in part by Agalloch drummer Asesop Dekker.

And the story of Kill-bot....