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▓▒▓ ███▀ friends forever - killball ▀███
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GENRE...........: Indie
▓▄ ▄▓▄ RiPPER .........: hXc ripping crew ▄▓▄ ▄▓
▀██████ RELEASE DATE ...: Jul-26-2003 ██████▀
▀█▓██▓ STORE DATE .....: JUL-00-2003 ▓████▀
▀███ ARTiST .........: friends forever ███▀
▓█▌ LABEL ..........: Load ▐█▓
▐██▌ SOURCE .........: CDDA ▐██▌
▓██ BiTRATE ........: 192kbps / 44,1kHz / Full Stereo ██▓
▐██▌ SIZE ...........: 38,3 MB ▐██▌
███ NO.OF.TRACKS....: 12 ███
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▒ TiTLE TiME ▒ ▓▒▓
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[01] Carnisaur Vs. Unicorn [01:10]
[02] Win [03:04]
[03] Linebacker Blitz [02:39]
[04] Charge!!! [01:06]
[05] 3 Peat (March to the Locker Room) [04:18]
[06] Halftime Band [01:41]
[07] 2 [01:25]
[08] Arise [02:33]
[09] Elway [02:42]
[10] 2 Minute Warning [02:01]
[11] PCP Rock [03:39]
[12] Winners [01:34]
.....
[27:52]
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██████▓▀▀▀▀ ▄▓▀ COMMENTS ▀▓▄ ▀▀▀▀▓██████
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Reveling in their attempt to reanimate the lost
soul of rock-n-roll, the colorfully named and
elaborately dressed scamps in Denver's Friends
Forever collaborate fitfully on the splattered
Fluxus games of chance they've disguised as
deconstructed western sludge. Already the
subject of feature-length documentary bearing
the band's name, the trio's substantial
conceptual baggage could be a plus or a minus,
depending on how many guffaws you enjoy with
your guitar solos.
To be fair, some of their exercises are
interesting. For one, Rudy Bloody, Wizard 333,
and Cunt avoid playing shows in clubs; instead,
they break down the touring system and kick-it
sweaty and suffocated through multi-hued stoner
rock in parking lots, crammed into a smokey
Volkswagen van. And in 2001-- cribbing from the
Oulipo Compendium-- they attempted to record
300 non-repetitive LPs of at least 30-minutes
over one year; they shot themselves in the foot
when deciding to disallow jamming and only
managed to spit out 137 full-lengths, one of
which includes the twelve-tone-friendly
"Schoenberg Study in Metal".
Following this trajectory, Killball-- the
band's first full-length for Load-- is another
concept piece and quite lovingly dedicated to
the Denver Broncos: "Killball details an
ultra-violent future where games are played to
the death. Killball is similar to American
football circa 1920-2016, except the players
wear no pads and are given PCP to ensure a
grizzly game. Each player is equipped with a
switchblade and a machete. To be tackled is to
be destroyed." More Beavis than Baldessari,
more Butthead than Beuys, the twelve screeching
tidbits on Killball act out just such a game,
and the resultant 27 minutes and 55 seconds
sound akin to American Gladiators cast members
caressing the asses of the very confused
Melvins, who find themselves acting as
beguiling heavy-metal cheerleaders.
Dealing in husky noise similar to that of Harry
Pussy or Crank Sturgeon, but with the ha-ha gag
reflex of Happy Flowers and GodWeenSatan-era
Ween, the tone's set from the opener,
"Carnisaur Vs. Unicorn". In its 1 minute and 11
seconds the Carnisaur is hyped-up as being like
steel, while the Unicorn receive props through
brassy shouts of "unicorn power." The track
itself is basically a low fidelity take on the
obnoxious "Are You Ready For Some Football?"
warm-up you half-watch prior to televised NFL
games. And then the games begin:
The second track, "Win" has repetitious bass,
synth, drums, and lots of cymbals: The Fucking
Champs playing along to Dire Straits' "Walk of
Life" video with swirls of Devo chucked
throughout. "Linebacker Blitz" opens with
shouts of "go go go go" and is less like a
blitz, more like a drum circle of zombies
referees whistle and loud spectators popping
and locking with an "ooh" and an "ah." Perhaps
they're doing squat thrusts? Regardless, it
reminded me of the flying monkeys in the Wizard
of Oz. There's a shift at the end, too, which
brings about more shouting and something that
sounds like a group of people tackling a
microphone. A stronger track, "3 Peat (March to
the Locker Room)" has lots of fast drums that
stop quickly like, *wince*, Anal Cunt, until
guitars feedback and take themselves apart.
Here, bass and drums creep along like robots
while guitars act as descending fireworks or
adrenaline leakage. The big tonal switch on
Killball comes with "Halftime Band"; here the
crowd goes crazy for the wacky band's
out-of-tune horns and whistle. It's
glue-sniffing goodness, a sodden march
reminiscent of off-kilter appropriation of
popular songs by King Frog and Weird Al.
That's just a portion of the first half. The
second brings us what sounds like King Diamond
leading a wave, a song for John Elway, crippled
Monster Magnet, people shouting about yardage,
a Clinic-like two minute warning complete with
vocal feedback and missile launchers, and the
approximation of sonic PCP. The last track,
"Winners" features fans pealing-out "yeah,
yeah, woo, woo, yeah" between speakers, making
the stereo peak-out. So, yeah, the narrative's
not much; though it for real made me want to go
check out a young and suave Burt Reynolds in
The Longest Yard.
Adept at twisting interesting layers of sound
and choking out some fervid polyrhythms,
Friends Forever could perhaps one day exist
nicely outside of the silliness, but for now
the band seems pretty unrepentant about
affixing a punch line to just about every
saturated moment. Unfortunately this particular
theme got a bit grating before the work turned
into anything substantial.
(pitchfork review)
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▀▀████████▀ ███▄ ▄▄▓▀ GROUP iNFO ▀▓▄▄ ▄███ ▀████████▀▀
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███▀ PURPOSE: ▀███
▄▓▀ ▀▓▄
hXc was founded with one sole purpose: to help unknown
and underground bands get the recognition they deserve.
If, upon listening to one of our releases, you decide
that you like a certain band, support them! Buy their
merchandise, go to their shows, help them out in any
way you can. We release for the benefit of the scene,
as we believe the mp3 format is an effective medium
for the discovery of new artists.
CONTACT:
If you can think you can help us in any way
(by providing us with rips, dumps, bncs, affils)
and would like to join a group of individuals from
around the world dedicated to the hardcore/punk/metal
genres, drop us a line at hxc@hushmail.com or contact
us through the usual channels.
▄███▄ ▄███▄
▀███▄ ▄ - the hXc team ▄ ▄███▀
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▀▓█ ███ ▄▄ ▀▀▀ GREETiNGS ▀▀▀ ▄▄ ███ █▓▀
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█▓ ▄▓▀ SHOUTS OUT TO: ▀▓▄ ██▌
▐█▄ ▄▓██
▓███▄▄ FNT -/- FKK -/- gF -/- rH -/- COR -/- HCU -/- DFS ▄▄████▓
███▓▀▀▀ AMRC -/- pH -/- PMS -/- RNS ▀▀▀▀▓███▌
▐██ and all quality groups in the scene ███
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▓██▄ ▄▓▄ "Hardcore will never die!" ▀ ▄▓▄ ▄██▓
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██████████▓███▓▀▀▀▀ ▀█▓ KRM__DFS ▓█▀ ▀▀▀▀▓███▓██████████
██████▓▀▀▀▀ ▄▓▀ 2003 ▀▓▄ ▀▀▀▀▓██████
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