The Time Out 2-19-2005

1. Ignoramia

2.Flight Of The Nazgul / Gypsy Whiskey Mountain

3. Eye Of jupiter

The Time Out

KZSU Review

We must have sent our CD to KZSU at one point. I have no idea if they ever played anything from it, but much later I found this weird, track by track review, probably for DJs who might want to play some tracks. Some of the descriptions make sense, others sound like they're talking about a different band! Just goes to show how differently I think about some things I did than those who review them. Wait till we dig out the Maximum Rock N Roll review! Ha ha!! -Clint

Ragnar of Ravensfjord
Reviewed 2006-04-11

Loud/sludgey heavy rock/sometimes metal from Oakland. Kinda similar to Jesus Lizard, Glazed Baby, and Dinosaur Jr. , (without much of the ‘hippy’ parts) though not as loud and not doing anything that’s really making them stand out amongst any other bands that have gone this route.

1. (Hey Gringo) Heavy, noisy & disjointed rawk sung en español
2. (Brickyard Pond) Slow-ish, riffy , crawlin’
3. (Luther Htoo) Demented, fucked-up sludge, drum heavy, oozing.
4. (Sinking Into A Giant Crater Of Moondust) Excessive cowbell intro. WTF? What is this
Grand Funk? Big slab of melted boogie cheese.
5. (Insect God) Cigarette worn vocals, damaged darkside of the Dino Jr. 7” ?
6. (Evil Vacuum Wars) Roughshod, fuzz-heavy-rawk with some solid drumming.
7. (Wrath Of Shamash) Sloppy but fun, spur of the moment punk.
8. (White Widow Skull Bud) Bland stoner rock from satan’s armpit with incomphrensible as
Cannibal Corpse vocals.

The Black Tape

Here's a shout out and thanks to Robert Collins for reviewing and ripping our Black Tape to his excellent tapes only blog Terminal Escape. He did it so we don't have to. Contrary to popular belief, this was not our demo tape (we had three different CDr only demos), but was a stop gap release that was to precede our second album. We went into the studio to record for the album, and only got four songs done. The tapes I ordered were not the right length, so we ended up using the live version of Plan In Crayon instead of Ignoramia. This ended up being the final HD release.

A Black Tape Redux is on the short list of future Stop Go Destroy Tapes releases, which will include remastered sound and all four intended original tracks! Coming soon. For now, enjoy the download! -Clint

Black Tape

Hotblack Desiato @ The Slaughterhouse, Oakland, CA 7-31-2004

I don't really remember much about this show except that I was excited to play at the Slaughterhouse, which was a pretty cool punk warehouse down near Jack London Square in Oakland. I remember our friend Kevin Kenyan heckling us and you can actually hear him on the recording. I also remember screwing up and you can hear that too. This guy Christian was working the soundboard and he did the recording off of that. I always liked working with that guy. It makes the drums sound nice. Clint or Bryce can probably remember more than I can. -Bruce

The Slaughterhouse was an amazing punk spot that actually WAS a slaughterhouse at one point. It has since been torn down and replaced by (of course!) condo lofts. The scene was a filthy paradise of labyrinthine corridors full of graffiti, drug use, and unsupervised teenage makeout parties. People stood in an inch of piss waiting for the insufficient bathrooms, which were also full of people making out and doing drugs. Ahh... the memories. I think I have the flyer for this show still. I'll post it if I find it. -Clint

Added the flyer. I don't remember this show at all actually, so that tells you a little about my lack of soberness that night. After listening to it, all in all I think it's a good example of our live sound. Kevin's heckling in between songs is quite priceless too. The things I do remember about the slaughterhouse was that yes, as Clint mentioned, was quite labyrinthine and I often would just stumble around in that places wondering where the fuck I was. They also had a huge collage of cut up nasty D-grade porn behind plexiglass in the main hall that always fascinated me. Go figure... -Bryce

Slaughtered

Hotblack Desiato S/T Album Outtakes

We had recorded these four songs (Dante Damasco, Vowel Matt O'Douls, Wicked Retada, and Robbins Nest) when we recorded our S/T album at Expressions (see the previous post for recording info). We never ended up adding any vocals, because I don't think they had any. For some reason, we didn't think that they'd be a good fit on our album. Maybe we thought they didn't rock hard enough or something stupid like that. We never released these in any form, so this is their sloppy birth into the world. Looking back, two of these are some of my favorite songs we did (Wicked Retada and Robbins Nest). -Bruce

These four songs reflect the other styles of music we were interested in at the time. We shaved them off of the s/t album so we'd have a cohesive forty minutes of metal for an LP, and these misfits fell by the wayside. You might be able to tell that in addition to our stoner rock interests, we were listening to lots of Sonic Youth, Mahavishnu Orchestra and My Bloody Valentine. We played all of these songs live at one time or another right along side the heavy shit. -Clint

Outtakes

Hotblack Desiato S/T

This was our first album. It was recorded by Matt Koshak and Tim Zebal at Expressions Center For New Media in Emeryville, CA in May 2004. We recorded all the instrument tracks live and added the vocals the next day. I think we still have some of the handmade CD versions of this lying around, so if anyone is interested in one let us know. The inside the CD cover photo of the amplifier stack was taken in our backyard by Clint. Our whole band lived together there on Shattuck Ave. in Oakland with this drugged out hippie wizard guy named Bliss who never left the house. There are things I would change with the recording if I could go back in time, but now it just reminds me of a really good time. I love it, warts and all.
-Bruce

First album? Only album! Only released album! For those who don't know, Ex'pressions (don't forget that pretentious-ass apostrophe!) is a media school, and they record bands for free. That's how we got this done. The tape machine was from a studio in Florida that had been used to record Derek and The Dominoes and Foreigner in the 70's. There are some inconsistencies in the mix that really bother me and some other problems that I wish could have been fixed, but whatever. I get really nostalgic when I hear this recording. 500 CDs were pressed and released on our own imprint, Lummox Records. The front cover photo was taken by Kevin Repp. -Clint

Self Titled

Hotblack Desiato Third Demo

Recorded January 25th, 2004 at Shine On Studios, Oakland, CA Engineered and mixed by Davis Hughes

Cover By Bryce Shelton

Our first recording done in a studio. I don't know how we found out about the place, but someone liked it because it was named after a Pink Floyd song. We spent one night in the joint recording these three songs. After the drums and bass were done someone went to get us Giant Burgers from MacArthur and Fruitvale. The dude who was recording us was having an ongoing feud with the upstairs neighbors and he told us about how they had come down a few nights before, interrupting a session, to punch him in the face. -Clint

Third Demo