Goatsnake - Man Of Light

Label: Warpburner

Year: 1998

Two things to talk about real quick:

1. Stoner rock is a real witchy woman, and it takes a lot of real talent (and some intangible mojo) to make it work well enough to revisit. Yeah, big burly fuzzy riffs are fun, and a swinging groove gets your noggin noodling around, but that's not "enough". For every Kyuss there's a hundred Solarized's. Bands that are merely "okay", but don't have the missing link to transform a gnarly Sabbath riff into a hum-able Sabbath song. Right? It's not memorable.  Well, Goatsnake were that rare bird (pterodactyl?) that could grind your brain into dust with a suffocating low end boogie-hell, whilst simultaneously lull you into a toe tapping (half speed toe tap, mind you) sing along. Rare bird indeed.

Chalk it up to professional grade talent manning the helm of that longboat. Pete Stahl of Scream, Wool, Earthlings?, and Desert Sessions on vocals. Guy Pinhas from Beaver, Porn, Obsessed, Fireball Ministry, and Acid King on bass. Greg Rogers of The Obsessed on drums. And the lynchpin of hte whole operation, the deft master of heavy guitar, Greg Anderson of Engine Kid, Brotherhood, False Liberty, Burning Witch, Sunn, Thorr's Hammer, Galleons Lap, Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine, Ascend, and a million more. It's pretty unstoppable.

2. I got a Corticosteroid injection today in my elbow to treat a nagging and recently very uncomfortable case of Tennis Elbow. A shocking diagnosis as, it was in my left elbow, and I am right handed, and prior to last week, I had not played tennis in at least three years (fuck you, tennis is a wonderful sport...just tennis players are usually ding dongs. And don't even get me started on Andre Agassi...fucking asshole). So this injection is applied right to the elbow in a spot that is already in pain, and it's a pretty normal feeling shot (read: not fun, but as a Macho Man, not that terrible either), but when the medicine entered by elbow it started to make a visible dome on my arm (which is "normal", according to my orthopedist) which freaked me out a bit, but then, this intense burning pain became near unbearable for about 5 seconds as this ball of steroid hormone begins spreading across my lateral epicondyle. And as previously mentioned, you're dealing with 100% Grade A Bro Beef here...I ain't no sissy...but good lord it was uncomfortable. And then five minutes later my arm feels like a million bucks. No pain whatsoever, and I'm all, "damn medicine, you're the best". A quick panacea I would find, as within an hour my arm began to ache and throb worse then ever before, and has so for the last 10 hours,and now I'm all, "damn medicine, you're a butthole, you're making me feel like I got a broke arm or some shit". It's making me nuts! 

So please...be sweet. I'm not operating a peak capacity right now, and I could use a little sympathy. And a hug. Just don't jostle my left arm. Please.

3. (BONUS talking point) World Cup starts tomorrow! I'm personally rooting for Germany, and Mexico, and Egypt, and Iceland. But as long as you're not rooting for Spain, we can toast the Beautiful Game (and the most corrupt FIFA).

DL