caustic christ

It's raining and dark greyish and pretty much in a couple of hours Caustic Christ should be arriving in Ghent. Playing at the Frontline tonight, together with Shredder and Reproach. I'm quite looking forward to Caustic Christ since they have Aus Rotten members totally punk. People should go and check their records out on Havoc Records.

some of their lyrics:
Strangled By Progressrich fuck suburb housing plansroot out sending them on the runless and less roomstrangled by progressoverpopulation same populationvinyl siding and car port wallsare closing inhundreds of excuses whyshoot out the barrel of a gunbecome one with naturelessen the oddsmurder as sportingredient - case of beercompare yourselves to "Indians"who make sixty grand a year.

playlist for today:
- Fucked Up : Hidden World
- Congress : The Legacy
- Send More Paramedics / Zombie Apocalypse : split
- Inepsy

Not much to say actually.

- listening to John Joseph's evolution of a cro-magnon audio book.

i dream of a world where flags are nothing but cloth and the only thing that matters is love, life and freedom. where the bottom line doesn't determine life and we aren't defined by income bracket, a pretty house, faith, a lack thereof or a fucking degree. where we think before we act and act before we critique. where we think about who is next and make it cleaner than how we found it. where we mean what we say and only say what we mean and where ideals are meant to better ourselves and where we aren't afraid to say I can't. Where sorry is a liberating word and thank you comes from the heart and where we don't just watch but we decide to act. where we refuse to live only until its time to die. where we refuse to live only until its time to die. where feelings and desires mean more than quotas, expectations and disappointed stares. where we have a right to hurt, scream, cry, live, die and sit in silence just because we fucking can. I dream of a world where I can love you in spite of what keeps us apart and where second best is as good as first or a millionth. where we don't over analyze every breathe or under appreciate what our words mean to another. where we find comfort in silence and a place of peace in all of the noise and where everything that is thrown at us makes us better, stronger and more appreciative. where we celebrate life, death and all that comes in between. where songs sing to us and a loved ones words make us dance. where what we see in a mirror is a happy, satisfied and fulfilled individual and where we feel bad about how we look at others and not just because of how others look at us. i dream of a world where i can love you, where i can feel you and where i can know you without having to own you, without having to hate you or without having to fuck you. a world where i can love you, where i can feel you, where i can know you. know you without having to own you, without having to hate you, without having to fuck you. without having to fuck you in more ways than one. without having to own you, without having to hate you, without having to fuck you in more ways than one. where a smile isn't a rare gift and where sadness isn't a curse and where the two together make life worth living. where media doesn't define friend or foe and doesn't tell me how to look, how to feel, how to act and how to live. where a flower, a smile, a thought, a touch, a smell makes it all worth it and the hardest words are nothing but poetry that spills from our mouth.

video galore

check out some videos if you need to.



a movie : weirdness and bobby beausoleil



kylesa : where the horizon unfolds



documentary : let's talk about straight edge



108: nyhc documentary

judgement towards free flying clinics

We just self released with HIV our first small cdr packed and sealed in an oversized A5 papersleeve with some artwork. This cdr is limited to 30 copies and has two recordings on it done on August 17th and 18th. Which provides a half an hour of harsh swirling noise with additional experimentalism. Obtained through pushing pedals, and abusing mics and contact mics and spending too much time on the floor. We should be recording more stuff very soon. For anybody who's interested, get in touch. We still have some copies for sale cheaply.

Bobby Beausoleil

In the 60s Bobby was good friends with Charlie Manson and was incarcerated for committing a drug related murder, which was inferred (but never proven) by authorities and the media alike to have been connected to the Manson family and the Tate-La Bianca blood orgies.

Before his incarceration in 1969, Bobby BeauSoleil was a musician who spent much of his late teens traveling the California coast between San Francisco and Los Angeles. During this period, he was on the cutting edge of emerging musical styles and played with several innovative musical ensembles. For all of the 37 years that he has been in prison, he has continued to explore new ways of expressing himself through music, as well as in the visual arts.

In the mid 70s, Bobby composed and recorded a soundtrack for a Kenneth Anger film. About this time, he began incorporating electronic instruments into his music, including instruments of his own design. Subsequently, he became a sound designer for the new breed of electronic instruments and began marketing the sounds that he developed to musical instrument manufacturers, including Kawai, Casio, Ensoniq and Kurzweil. Bobby's interest and expertise in the field of electronic music has grown and flourished, most of the time against tremendous odds and many seemingly overwhelming obstacles. But he is a man of passion, and in the restricted, confined atmosphere of a prison, his passion for music and artistic expression in general has continued to unfold.


From early on, Bobby was fascinated by the possibilities inherent in the blending of music and light. It was pursuing that fascination which brought to him the opportunity to record a film soundtrack in prison. An additional opportunity to further his aspirations in the cinematic arts came by way of a video production program offered at the prison at about the time that he completed work on the film soundtrack. Whenever possible, within the restrictive prison environment, Bobby continued to increase his knowledge, gather experience and develop his skills in sound design and the visual arts. Over the years, he developed working relationships and friendships with individuals in the music and video industries. These relationships enabled him to establish a network of sponsors and supporters for the creation of an audio recording studio and a video production facility at the prison. For more information see Electronic Musician magazine article.

In 1982, Bobby met and married his wife Barbara, an artist, dancer and graphic designer. Over the sixteen years of their marriage, Bobby has developed close and loving relationships with Barbara and her three children, Eben, John and Rachel.

In 1993, after encountering years of frustration in the California State Prison System, Bobby requested and was granted a transfer to a prison in the northwest. The past five years have been the most productive of his life.

In 1994 Bobby became a facilitator for the Los Hermanos Youth Intervention Program. Within a couple of years he had become the director for the Los Hermanos video project and has since completed a 9 session series of videos that is being shown to "at risk" youth in public schools. He is currently the director for a16- segment video series, each from 20 to 30 minutes long, called A Framework for Breaking Barriers. This series, presented by Gordon Graham and Company, and produced entirely by prisoners, is a cognitive skills development program designated to provide prisoners with tools that can help them break free of the cycle of recidivism.

From the chaos and tumult of the '60s, through almost thirty years in prison, Bobby's story is one of inspiration to people around the world.


A couple of months ago I got pretty much obsessed by some obscure recordings from The Manson Family jam sessions, that roughly I stumled upon the name of Bobby Beausoleil, it started with obtaining his psychedelic record "dreamways of the mystic" from which the story behind Bobby only got more interesting through his music, obscure bands, artwork and movies, Manson connection. Thought this was quite interesting and worth writing about. It just keeps getting more and more interesting.

good resources and useful links:

Family Jams

Carliemanson.com

Bobby Beausoleil at Myspace

Bobby Beausoleil

amen ra : mass destruction

For those who are interested and missed out on the Amen Ra pre-order edition. Just today I got from Hypertension Records some stuff in. It includes a limited edition designed Amen Ra shirt (small and medium only), the mass III cd, and a very limited dvd which includes rare live footage, live music, pics and artwork. I have pre-order packages available for those who are interested. These were pretty much sold out in no time, last and only copies to get your hands on. Contact me. Thanks.

ps: rumours say there were only 100 copies made.

gorilla angreb poster

Summer has almost been passed by. Just decided to post up some pic from the Gorilla Angreb poster from the show we did for them last week, I just love that band and some of that wicked Danish punk. Everything resulted in stress, punk and a wicked hang out. In the end, it was all worth it. This blog hasn't been updated for almost like two months and that's wicked too. Summer was awesome.

co-starring and chilling out on some colourful posters is Shiva.

current playlist:
- roxy music : the collection
- marudergrind : shitstorm
- kinfe fight : eveything 2002 - 2004
- neurosis : enemy of the sun
- aural torture mechanism

gin mill : patron

Gin Mill : patron
Wreck-Age Records 1994

- flight
- strewhth
- 3lt
- worth
- ex-patriot
- no release

total length : 26:21

I have currently been stuffing myself up with alot mid nineties hardcore records. Still regretting the years where I had this crazy idea to sell my entire cd collection years back. Nowadays I'm putting everything in the works to recover my cd collection again, without neglecting the vinyl side too. Thankfully I stumbled this weekend on a cheap copy of Gin Mill's "patron". Released in 1994 on the now defunct Wreck-Age Records / Exit Records hardcore label. Definitely one of my favorite record labels back then firing some of the best Long Island Hardcore scene records such as Milhouse, Motive, Sons Of Abraham, Indecision, Die 116, Bad Trip and so many more. Too bad they broke up.

Gin Mill's "patron" is a nearly forgotten mid nineties hardcore record. Six songs of progressive raw hardcore. More like raw mid nineties noisecore with influences from Black Flag to jazz and nervous breakdowns and frilling post hardcore touch. "3lt" is definitely my favorite Gin Mill song here, but I decided to post the song "worth" here, because it's the song that ultimately grabs you by the throat by some laid back post hardcore riffings exploding into a swirl of guitar noise and feedback, saxophones, fucked up agression and confusion. Chaos takes over and it's definitely a song worth checking out inbetween all the others. Actually this is an excellent record for people down with Die 116, Deadguy, early Amrep noiserock pretty experimental and wicked by times. There's not alot of information to find on Gin Mill. Definitely an overlooked noisecore band.

worth by gin mill

new kingdom website

Summer is blasting through my stereo surround system, and I just finished a small little website for Kingdom, previously known as a worthy equivalent for anybody into whatever Amen Ra is doing out there. Go have a look and listen to some of their music. Totally down.

kingdom

beyond the wall zine

Anyways...summer is finally kicking in. Just a while ago I found out about this free diy zine Beyond The Wall from the US. The zine focuses on punk and several other interesting topics such as health, bicycling, vegan issues, politics and yes...even yoga! I got in touch with the dude through his myspace account and asked if he ever considered publsihing and spreading his printed zine through a pdf downloadable file on the worldwide web. Now today, after getting from work and enjoying some sunshine , gladly found out he managed to get his zine out for everyone. If you want to read more go download his zine and have a diy punk read. There's even an interview included with a vegan bodybuilder and the band Total Chaos (damn i almost forgot about them). Check it out! More information on his website.

diy zine

beyond the wall zine pdf

post punk kitchen : veggies do it better

Lately I've been quite spending some time into reading cooking books and spending time on making my veggie diet more effective and varied , i pretty much give up that my kitchen still sucks but I'm thinking about spending less money on records and invest more money in the kitchen to be able too cook more and easily delicious veggie meals. During my search for good websites i stumbled upon a whole lot of websites. But Post Punk Kitchen is definitely the one that needs to be highlighted. Post Punk Kitchen is a Manhattan based vegan/vegetarian public airing punk cooking show. They've been putting four episodes online in which you can check out vegan Sushi and Chocolate Oange Cupcakes and a whole lot more. Their shows are cool to watch and have alot of good music and funny rants in it. Definitely a site I'll be hooked on for a long time, check out their upcoming cook book and their interesting forum. Veggies do it better!

post punk kitchen

the myth of lilith design finished

Feels always good to get a finished product into your hands after some hard labour. Yesterday I got some copies of the finished Amen Ra poster in, for the special "myth of lilith" themed show here in Gent on June 16th (that's Belgium). The lay out is somewhere inbetween the dark concept of Amen Ra and some fantasy additions around the myth of Lilith, pretty balanced. Looks awesome and only around 250 copies made on A2 size. Looks sweet for the walls.

look to the sun to raise me up to bloom

I still remember how Shelter literally changed my life and point of views in life with "mantra" in 1995. Things were pretty much hectic when I joined art school at the age of 14/15 and through the steps in the the local hardcore straight edge scene I came through straight edge into Shelter who literally turned me into a vegetarian and changed my points of view on life, ethics and spirituality. Shelter's have always been a major influence and inspiration throughout my whole life until this day. Even though "quest for certainty" is pretty much Shelter's best and classic record, personally "mantra" means the most to me and will always be considered my fave Shelter record. Just recently Shelter's latest album "eternal" came out on Goodlife Recordings, I had mixed feelings in the beginning but since a week the record has been growing on me and I definitely can appreciate Ray Cappo's message in these times of delusion and overconsumption through yoga, spirituality and the positive vibe you'll get from the album. Definitely not the best Shelter record ever, but a record that will appeal and grow to any true Shelter fan. Each time a new Shelter record came out in the past, i was eagerly to have it as fast as possible, same with this one.

fave songs : back to vrindavan, lotus-like, my chance to live, return to eden

Shelter rundown and thoughts:

"mantra" 1995
- confused straight edge turning into a vegetarian
- bought it at the local metalstore in my old hometown
- the record that means the most to me

"beyond planet earth" 1997
- too much people wrongly consider this Shelter's worst record. too bad.
- killer songs "rejuvenate", "refusal" and "eleventh day of the moon"
- bought it on vinyl and cd
- Ray Cappo turns heads with Better Than A 1000 "just one". killer youth crew.

"quest for certainty" 1997
- bought it later. classic.

"when 20 summers pass" 2000
- forced my mum to stop at the store to buy it and got her into shelter
- killer songs "song of brahma", "if there's only today" and "killer of my dreams"
- last Shelter album featuring Porcell
- entered art high school bad period. sold out. shelter got me on the righteous path.
- saw Shelter on tour, fucked up a Cappo interview

"the purpose the passion" 2001
- bought it on a sunny day biking to the record store. pink vinyl.
- personally i'd say this is still good, but not the best Shelter album ever.

"eternal" 2006
- i love the message / i love shelter being back.
- Porcell is still missing.
- hare krishna!

Closing thoughts : Better Than a 1000 "value driven" euro tour, the Belgian Ray Cappo spoken word session at my hometown, krishnacore and spirituality, saw Shelter a few times, the spoken word cd that kept me up several nights, Equal Vision used to have a European office with an interesting krishna related hardcore distro, Baby Gopal, cheesy YOT reunions ..... too much.

what are you doing to make things better?

So it's pretty over midnight and spent most of the day working on some new artwork stuff and setting up this blog. The purpose and intention of this blog is more of a way to have my own outlet on all kinds of things I'm involved with and find interest in. A way to write things down that interest and concern me, in other ways it might be a way to expose some of the stuff I'm doing. Everything from graphic design to hardcore/punk, politics, diy, records, movies, food, pictures will be added in here whenever I feel like. I don't care what you might think of it, see it more as a rather personal outlet of my interests and activities. That's all folks.