Featured Live Show: The Chariot / Horse the Band / Arsonists Get All the Girls

Tonight, there shall be distortion... And it was good.

The night in question was last night at Gramercy Theater (Blender Theater, if ya nasty)... Beards aplenty filed into the Manhattan club to boogie down with chaos engineers The Chariot, along with Arsonists Get All the Girls, Horse the Band... (and *sigh* Norma Jean)... After waiting in line outside the venue in the fucking freezing cold, stupidly wearing just fingerless gloves as my only winter accessory, I took a seat in the Old Man Section in the back of the club to rest my frail, aging bones and to get a bird's eye view of the audience in attendance. One thing I instantly noticed was the noticeably noticeable harsh divide of the crowd: either late-twenties-ish bearded and flannel-clad gentlemen or 14 year old scenester co-eds in neon-splashed graphic tees, graphic hoodies, and skinny jeans, with noses buried in their cellphones, no doubt twattering nonstop about how the show is going to be the most epically massive "evar"... I wept silently within... but not in a goth way... in a man way.

Anywho, it didn't take long into the show to see who these children were here for... judging by their attention to the Arsonists set that opened the night, they were definitely Horse/Norma fans. Don't get me wrong, I'm not here to shat on the headliner of the night or their direct support (I just honestly think someone shoulda stuck with their original vicious blueprint while someone else needs to start expanding on their schtick... respectively). In other words, these two will not be discussed here. Only the two I traversed midtown to go see...


(Arsonists)

As mentioned before, AGATG kicked off the night... and they did so with fuckin fire. This is only the second opportunity I have been able to catch these cats, and it has been a long time coming. The first time being at the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival two or three years ago when they were only a mere "I've heard a few decent things bout these guys, maybe I'll give them a passing listen for a song or two" blip on my radar. And ever since have grown into an act that always seems to find its way into my listening rotation, thoroughly pummeling my ear canal in some of the most wonderful ways possible... See the track "Shat Shart Tart" if you need an example... Anywho, their set paraphrased: ridiculously awesomely abrasive. My only slightly negative comment would be that they seemed cramped as hell up there with six members and what looked to be all the bands' gear for the rest of the night. But regardless, they still delivered the wallop, though I noticed they seem to be drifting in a more accessibly brutal direction, I hope which continues to be a positive thing rather than detracting.


(The Chariot)

And then it was time for the main event... Well, the main event in my personal opinion... And boy howdy, did they ever fucking bring the ruckus. Fucking A right, The Chariot NEVER cease to amaze me live. It just seriously never gets old. They fucking wail, and they're a cavalcade of cacophony, hellbent on obliterating every notion of a nice, calm rock show... Instruments thrown, abrasive lighting, alienating feedback, dizzying ragdoll antics by the members, and general disregard for any kind of structure or even fuckin safety, are all par for the course with the ones they call the Chariot... If you can't tell, I'm kind of a fanboy for these guys. They're like my little underdogs. Momma's special little guys... It was somewhere between the jarring mash of feedback and samples and the whipping around of a workshop hook lamp that I realized I wasn't going to do this set or any set of theirs any justice through verbally trying to describe it. You just have to do yourself a favor, tuck in your balls, and go see these delightfully damaging little scamps when they blow through your town... And do like I did, make sure you venture out of the Old Man Seats for these guys, cuz it's just a tiny bit better when a guitar neck narrowly misses clipping your ear. It always is.

And to send you packing with a smile, a splendidly beautiful representation of why The Chariot is one of the most INFUCKINCREDIBLE live bands ever... Go see for your damn self, ass:

The Chariot - Unofficial video for "Teach" (sick live montage):

How 'bout an Interview, Dummy: Josh and Wolf of The Chariot

How 'bout an Interview, Dummy: Josh Scogin of The Chariot

So the nice gentlemen at Metal Injection allowed your friendly neighborhood Spleen Latifa to help out on another juicy little bit of awesometown. And this time it was in the form of an interview with Josh Scogin -- the man, the myth, and the legend behind the always-entertaining bruisers, The Chariot. Check out the video below for the interview the Spleen conducted for MI's site, and also click here for a handful of live clips of The Chariot and Poison the Well from the concert, as well as a shitty sound-quality interview with Chris from PTW. Oh, and don't be frightened... that is the mighty Spleen in the video, MI just made him come up with the fake commoner's name "Sean" to avoid confusion with the Bellicus Fulleron of Hellicus!

Spleen Latifa interviews Josh Scogin on Metal Injection

GnarVideo of the Week: The Chariot - "They Faced Each Other"

All hail the concept video that actually fuckin works!

I just imagine when a band sits down with a director for a chatterboxing about how they are going to accomplish cookin' the rad with their new video, a lot of bullfuck ideas get thrown into the mix. That's why videos with horrendous CGI green-screen work, asinine car chases, and goofy theatrics that sully the original song exist in the music world today. But every once in a while a concept comes around that is executed in such an airtight manner that you can't help but wonder why the damn nobody has tried to land it before... This video is one of these said cases... Fuckin' tenfold.

As you can gather from the preview-still on the video player below, the gist of what lays ahead is sprawled out on the kitchen counter for ya. By all accounts, a simple premise, but as youtube has shown us time and time again, the sequential ordering of still images is an unforgiving bitch. However! In this video, The Chariot scamps bring the snazz and blur the brutal like we all knew they would. Having a photographer snap away 10 grand o' shots of the guys sledging away at their chosen track while sprinkling in the always necessary melee as well, and then assembling half of these pics into a flipbook of destruction(!) ... Not sure if that warranted an exclamation or not, so you get a subliminal one that you can utilize if you see fit... Oh, and also, this vid is honor of The Chariot show next week with Poison the Well... Be there cuz we're squares, jerkcity.

The Chariot - "They Faced Each Other"

Dude, Let's Make a Video, This Song Rips: The Chariot - "The Deaf Policemen"

New weekly column alert, Bellyheads!!

We really could not pass up bringing you this one... It can be seen that we here in the Belly love satisfying your powerviolence video hunger almost more than we love satisfying our own hunger for Chicago-style hot dogs and Guinness. But never mind that, we just love weekly installments of gnarfun to the tenth degree! So, in searching for all the videos we spew forth for you here, we have come across quite the trend running rampant online nowadays. And the only thing we can blame is the bullshit-smoothie made with the blending of the birth of the YouTube generation, the constant need of digital self over-saturation, and the virtually child's play ability of anyone to fancy themselves a sudo-shitty filmmaker... And this trend in question is the homemade music video using someone else's song. Hot album just dropped? Can't wait to break in your new digital camera with video capabilities? Pissed your favorite band hasn't booted out the dough to make a snazzy music video? Think your mediocre talents could do a better job than people who get paid to make 'em? Then you know it's bound to be whispered amongst your idiot friends... "Dude, let's make a video... this song rips!"

So for the spearhead example of our weekly testiment to these bonehead Chris Cunninghams, I selected a delicious little ditty by the boys in The Chariot... played by two black-hooded-sweatshirt-clad numbskulls in someone's parent's backyard... with a cameo by one resilient inflatable punching bag (note: pay close attention to the flying-kick biff at the 00:33 sec mark that almost sidelines our would-be frontman). I dunno if it was his integrity to continue on with this debacle that won me over, or if it was the other hooligan strutting around with his unplugged bass guitar, stiking massive rock poses every chance he could. Either way, give these tykes a hand, they put their heart and soul into this steamer, and apparently they really want the world to see it... or why else would it be open to the public domain? ... Thanks guys.

The Chariot - "The Deaf Policemen" (amatuer redux)