Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
At the beginning of the 20th century, the American Pit Bull Terrier was the most popular family dog in the United States. Pit bulls became the symbol of the American War Hero during World War I & II and were used in great capacity as guide and therapy dogs. Pit bulls exemplified the most desirable qualities of Americans and our "never quit" attitude. Pit bulls have been accredited with saving scores of human lives, as well as, dogs and other animals in various rescue missions. One Pit Bull in particular, Weela, has become a household name after saving 30 ...
Friday, October 8th, 2010
Valient Thorr Interview Exclusive with Valient Himself
By Andy McNeil, Staff Writer
For not being from Earth, Valient Himself has become one of the planet’s most politically and philosophically outspoken inhabitants.
Over the past decade, his band Valient Thorr has preached messages of unity, peace and partying from the pulpit of rock ‘n’ roll. The group claims to have traveled to Earth from the city of Burlatia located inside of the planet Venus. Although the motives of their extraterrestrial mission aren’t fully clear – it’s quite evident that their blistering sound is here to stay.
Their new album Stranger (Volcom Entertainment) is a full-throttle follow-up to ...
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
Interview with El Ten Eleven
Adam Rauf, Staff Writer
El Ten Eleven are one of those up-and-coming bands that just sit up and make you take notice. Incorporating elements of post-rock, instrumental rock, dance pop, synth sounds, and looping goodness, their melodies and rhythmic work are just something that has you bob your head in congruence with their tuneage. Their new record, It’s Still Like a Secret is officially being released in November, but the band is selling it on their current tour with Martin Dosh (Dosh, Andrew Bird) and Baths.
The interesting thing is that this duo makes music that sounds like an ensemble of ...
Monday, October 4th, 2010
AKA MAG is an urban/graffiti artist originally from New York City. MAG started his love for painting/sculpting/sketching in the cultural chaos of the 1970's Five Boroughs of (Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island). MAG's playground was the subways, parks, rooftops, alleys, museums and zoos, the Hudson River, New Jersey's Palisades and more.
PunkYourChucks.com is AKA MAG's baby. Using specific paints, he hand crafts custom gear for people ranging from the Average Joe to Tommy Lee. Turning iconic soles into one-of-a-kind works of ...
Friday, September 24th, 2010
The Kylesa Interview Exclusive with Phillip Cope
By Andy McNeil, Staff Writer
Phillip Cope, guitarist and singer of Kylesa, sounds exhausted, yet the southerner’s ongoing flurry of activity shows that he is anything but lethargic.
The double drummer darlings of Savannah’s sludge metal scene recently returned from an extensive European tour with Converge and are already set to hit the road this week to support their upcoming album Spiral Shadow (available October 26 on Season of Mist records). The title of the first track released (“Tired Climb”) from the new album even hints at his battle against the daily grind....
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
Tankcrimes is one of the premier underground record labels of the West Coast, firmly rooted in the do-it-yourself ideology and located in Bay Area CA, Tankcrimes showcases a wide array of leading thrash, punk, metal, and even hardcore bands. Having seen legendary releases from the likes of Annihilation Time, Vitamin X, Voetsek, Toxic Holocaust, and even Cannabis Corpse, label head Scotty Heath sits down with Blow The Scene Editor, Joshua Cohen just a few weeks before the first Official Tankcrimes Brainsqueeze fest (Oct 8-9) featuring almost all of the current Tankcrimes roster and special guest headliner, Municipal Waste.
Joshua BTS: Good-day Scotty! We at Blow ...
Monday, September 20th, 2010
Interview with Billy Howerdel of A Perfect Circle & Ashes Divide
Adam Rauf, Staff Writer
Billy Howerdel has been around the music scene probably longer than most of you have been alive. However, what makes him unique is the fact that he was the man working behind the scenes for bands like Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, and even David Bowie! But what he was best known for was starting the amazing all-star band A Perfect Circle, originally with Maynard James Keenan [Tool], Paz Lenchantin [Zwan, Papa M, Entrance Band], Josh Freese [NiN, Devo], and Troy Van Leeuwen [Failure, Queens of the Stone Age].
The ...
Monday, September 13th, 2010
Blow The Scene Editor, Joshua Cohen caught up with Trap Them vocalist Ryan McKenney on Friday, Sept 10, 2010 at God City Studios on the third day of recording as the band tracks their highly anticipated full-length debut for Prosthetic Records. This unnamed, forthcoming release, comes on the heels of 4-song E.P. Filth Rations, released on Southern Lord Recordings this past Spring. Filth Rations serves as a tasty appetizer for what is yet to come as Trap Them compels ongoing praise from both aggressive music fans and critics alike. This acclaim surrounds their last full-length L.P., Seizures in ...
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Artist Matt Gondek: It’s A Wonderful Life
By Andy McNeil
amcneil@pointpark.edu
Artist Matt Gondek is a happy person living in a world of monsters. The Pittsburgh-based designer’s portfolio is home to hundreds of savage beasts with blood, pus and unidentifiable gunk dripping from their claws and jaws.
Over the past four years, Gondek created a legion of monsters to grace t-shirts for bands such as The Devil Wears Prada, Set Your Goals, From First to Last, Blood On the Dance Floor, Asking Alexandria, Haste The Day, Chiodos and Oh Sleeper – just to name a few. His designs are loud, colorful and ...
Saturday, August 28th, 2010
ECTOPLASMIC MELTDOWN:
Spilling this month’s slime!
By Staff Writer Matt Ferri
First off, I would like to thank Josh and BTS for allowing me to add some grime to their site! Greetings to all you ghouls and ghoulettes! For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Matt. I am a freelance illustrator, and touring musician. I go by the alias Matt Slime Bucket (you can see my work atMattSlimeBucket) and have done artwork for many bands involved within the underground music scene, including Living Decay, Spewtilator, Ex Dementia, Zombie Mortropolis, Johnny B Morbid…the list goes on. ...
Friday, August 27th, 2010
Cephalic Carnage have been building and streamlining their unique blend of grind, death-metal, and progressive jazz since the early 90’s. They are nothing short of an authority in the extreme metal world. Cephalic Carnage continue to create music for musicians that challenges as much as it excites. The band members have been some persistent grinders this past year, working in a new guitarist, while at the same time, writing and composing a monstrous new album, Misled by Certainty, which hits streets August 31 via Relapse Records. Blow The Scene Editor, Joshua Cohen caught up with band just days before their new record drops ...
Friday, August 20th, 2010
I have been considering the artist featured in this installment of Old Soul for a couple months now, and upon hearing the news that she had passed last Saturday (August 14, 2010), I decided not to wait any longer. She was a jazz singer, songwriter, composer, poet, actress, social activist and much more. She had a singular voice and was able to convey her thoughts and emotions through her voice and words so honestly that she often made people uncomfortable, and was not afraid to do so. She used music as a vessel of truth and activism. She was none other than the unforgettable ...
Friday, July 30th, 2010
The Hooks and Deep Cuts of an Irish Pirate
By Andy McNeilamcneil@pointpark.edu
Photos by Nicole DeSantis
The pirates aboard the notorious Ross Revenge worshiped their ship’s mast like a Pagan god. They constantly had to sacrifice a combination of massive wattage and high voltage rock and roll to appease the towering deity. The ship’s engineers transformed into priests and its crew members reverted into subservient heathens bowing to the waves – the radio waves.
This is how Steve Conway describes his time spent at sea as a DJ on the last British pirate radio ship. Conway, a Dubliner, joined the Ross Revenge in ...
Friday, July 16th, 2010
All Shall Perish are one of our all-time favorites at Blow The Scene. This energetic quintet broke onto the scene in 2003 with their debut album Hate.Malice.Revenge., which was picked up by Japanese label Amputated Vein Records and quickly set them at the forefront of the Bay Area metal scene. It wasn’t long before the band was picked up by Nuclear Blast Records and the subsequent release of The Price of Existence in 2005.
All Shall Perish's release of The Price of Existence raised the bar for has commonly been refereed to as “Deathcore.” Although music critics have wiped their ass with this term over the past ...
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
"Derek Hess is an American artist based in Cleveland, Ohio. His creative career grew largely out of his ability to express the emotion in the indie, hardcore and hard rock scenes of the mid-1990s. His posters are known for humor and irony, with the subject matter frequently using the name of the band as inspiration.
His work is well known to devotees of album cover art and concert flyer art. He has produced artwork for musicians such as Pantera, Taking Back Sunday, Thursday, Season to Risk, Poison the Well, The Cows, The Reverend Horton Heat, NOFX, In Flames, From Autumn to Ashes, Methods ...
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Blow the Scene Editor Joshua T. Cohen caught up with VOETSEK on the opening night of their Full US Tour, running June 29 through July 25. You're getting it straight from the tour van in this exclusive interview with Ben, Ami, Scotty, and Athena!
Imagine a group a ruckus, uber-talented, eclectic punk rockers playing speed-metal songs at breakneck pace. Mix in a healthy blend of socially poignant lyrics with a barrage of riot anthems and one can begin to get a sense of Northern Cali's VOETSEK. They're punk, they're thrash.. they're fucking awesome. A frenetic four-piece outfit with equal representation in the XY and XX chromosome department ("Four balls, Four ...
Monday, June 21st, 2010
Interview with Buzz Osbourne & Dale Crover of The Melvins
Adam Rauf, Staff Writer
All images by Seth Ballentine, Blow The Scene Staff Photographer
The Melvins are an amazing band that really defies words sometimes. They’ve had an extensive history of playing music, being an influence on countless bands, and yet are some of the most honest and straightforward folks in the music business. Buzz Osbourne and Dale Crover have seen it all, and always make great interviewees. They’re funny, they’re quirky, and they write some of the best ...
Friday, June 18th, 2010
Blow The Scene Interview with Aaron Turner of IsisAdam Rauf, Staff Writer
All images by Seth Ballentine, Staff Photographer
On June 16, 2010, Blow The Scene staff writer Adam Rauf caught up with Aaron Turner of Isis a few hours before their Washington DC performance with Melvins as part of their final tour.
Isis is arguably one of the most influential metal bands of this decade, putting an emphasis on heavy riffs, spacey leads, ...
At the beginning of the 20th century, the American Pit Bull Terrier was the most popular family dog in the United States. Pit bulls became the symbol of the American War Hero during World War I & II and were used in great capacity as guide and therapy dogs. Pit bulls exemplified the most desirable qualities of Americans and our "never quit" attitude. Pit bulls have been accredited with saving scores of human lives, as well as, dogs and other animals in various rescue missions. One Pit Bull in particular, Weela, has become a household name after saving 30 ...
Valient Thorr Interview Exclusive with Valient Himself
By Andy McNeil, Staff Writer
For not being from Earth, Valient Himself has become one of the planet’s most politically and philosophically outspoken inhabitants.
Over the past decade, his band Valient Thorr has preached messages of unity, peace and partying from the pulpit of rock ‘n’ roll. The group claims to have traveled to Earth from the city of Burlatia located inside of the planet Venus. Although the motives of their extraterrestrial mission aren’t fully clear – it’s quite evident that their blistering sound is here to stay.
Their new album Stranger (Volcom Entertainment) is a full-throttle follow-up to ... 
Interview with El Ten Eleven
Adam Rauf, Staff Writer
El Ten Eleven are one of those up-and-coming bands that just sit up and make you take notice. Incorporating elements of post-rock, instrumental rock, dance pop, synth sounds, and looping goodness, their melodies and rhythmic work are just something that has you bob your head in congruence with their tuneage. Their new record, It’s Still Like a Secret is officially being released in November, but the band is selling it on their current tour with Martin Dosh (Dosh, Andrew Bird) and Baths.
The interesting thing is that this duo makes music that sounds like an ensemble of ... 
The Kylesa Interview Exclusive with Phillip Cope
By Andy McNeil, Staff Writer
Phillip Cope, guitarist and singer of Kylesa, sounds exhausted, yet the southerner’s ongoing flurry of activity shows that he is anything but lethargic.
The double drummer darlings of Savannah’s sludge metal scene recently returned from an extensive European tour with 
Tankcrimes is one of the premier underground record labels of the West Coast, firmly rooted in the do-it-yourself ideology and located in Bay Area CA, Tankcrimes showcases a wide array of leading thrash, punk, metal, and even hardcore bands. Having seen legendary releases from the likes of Annihilation Time, Vitamin X, Voetsek, Toxic Holocaust, and even Cannabis Corpse, label head Scotty Heath sits down with Blow The Scene Editor, Joshua Cohen just a few weeks before the first Official Tankcrimes Brainsqueeze fest (Oct 8-9) featuring almost all of the current Tankcrimes roster and special guest headliner, Municipal Waste.
Joshua BTS: Good-day Scotty! We at Blow ... 
Interview with Billy Howerdel of A Perfect Circle & Ashes Divide
Adam Rauf, Staff Writer
Billy Howerdel has been around the music scene probably longer than most of you have been alive. However, what makes him unique is the fact that he was the man working behind the scenes for bands like Tool, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, and even David Bowie! But what he was best known for was starting the amazing all-star band A Perfect Circle, originally with Maynard James Keenan [Tool], Paz Lenchantin [Zwan, Papa M, Entrance Band], Josh Freese [NiN, Devo], and Troy Van Leeuwen [Failure, Queens of the Stone Age].
The ... 
Blow The Scene Editor, Joshua Cohen caught up with Trap Them vocalist Ryan McKenney on Friday, Sept 10, 2010 at God City Studios on the third day of recording as the band tracks their highly anticipated full-length debut for Prosthetic Records. This unnamed, forthcoming release, comes on the heels of 4-song E.P. Filth Rations, released on Southern Lord Recordings this past Spring. Filth Rations serves as a tasty appetizer for what is yet to come as Trap Them compels ongoing praise from both aggressive music fans and critics alike. This acclaim surrounds their last full-length L.P., Seizures in ... 
Artist Matt Gondek: It’s A Wonderful Life
By Andy McNeil
amcneil@pointpark.edu
Artist Matt Gondek is a happy person living in a world of monsters. The Pittsburgh-based designer’s portfolio is home to hundreds of savage beasts with blood, pus and unidentifiable gunk dripping from their claws and jaws.
Over the past four years, Gondek created a legion of monsters to grace t-shirts for bands such as The Devil Wears Prada, Set Your Goals, From First to Last, Blood On the Dance Floor, Asking Alexandria, Haste The Day, Chiodos and Oh Sleeper – just to name a few. His designs are loud, colorful and ... 
ECTOPLASMIC MELTDOWN:
Spilling this month’s slime!
By Staff Writer Matt Ferri
First off, I would like to thank Josh and BTS for allowing me to add some grime to their site! Greetings to all you ghouls and ghoulettes! For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Matt. I am a freelance illustrator, and touring musician. I go by the alias Matt Slime Bucket (you can see my work at
Cephalic Carnage have been building and streamlining their unique blend of grind, death-metal, and progressive jazz since the early 90’s. They are nothing short of an authority in the extreme metal world. Cephalic Carnage continue to create music for musicians that challenges as much as it excites. The band members have been some persistent grinders this past year, working in a new guitarist, while at the same time, writing and composing a monstrous new album, Misled by Certainty, which hits streets August 31 via Relapse Records. Blow The Scene Editor, Joshua Cohen caught up with band just days before their new record drops ... 
I have been considering the artist featured in this installment of Old Soul for a couple months now, and upon hearing the news that she had passed last Saturday (August 14, 2010), I decided not to wait any longer. She was a jazz singer, songwriter, composer, poet, actress, social activist and much more. She had a singular voice and was able to convey her thoughts and emotions through her voice and words so honestly that she often made people uncomfortable, and was not afraid to do so. She used music as a vessel of truth and activism. She was none other than the unforgettable ... 
The Hooks and Deep Cuts of an Irish Pirate
By Andy McNeil
All Shall Perish are one of our all-time favorites at Blow The Scene. This energetic quintet broke onto the scene in 2003 with their debut album Hate.Malice.Revenge., which was picked up by Japanese label Amputated Vein Records and quickly set them at the forefront of the Bay Area metal scene. It wasn’t long before the band was picked up by Nuclear Blast Records and the subsequent release of The Price of Existence in 2005.
All Shall Perish's release of The Price of Existence raised the bar for has commonly been refereed to as “Deathcore.” Although music critics have wiped their ass with this term over the past ... 
Blow the Scene Editor Joshua T. Cohen caught up with VOETSEK on the opening night of their Full US Tour, running June 29 through July 25. You're getting it straight from the tour van in this exclusive interview with Ben, Ami, Scotty, and Athena!
Imagine a group a ruckus, uber-talented, eclectic punk rockers playing speed-metal songs at breakneck pace. Mix in a healthy blend of socially poignant lyrics with a barrage of riot anthems and one can begin to get a sense of Northern Cali's VOETSEK. They're punk, they're thrash.. they're fucking awesome. A frenetic four-piece outfit with equal representation in the XY and XX chromosome department ("Four balls, Four ... 
Interview with Buzz Osbourne & Dale Crover of The Melvins
Adam Rauf, Staff Writer
All images by 
Blow The Scene Interview with Aaron Turner of Isis
Adam Rauf, Staff Writer
All images by 