A band called Ashtaroth who did a split 7" with Landlord was reviewed in the June Maximum Rock'n Roll. They're from Arizona and bill themselves as "Native American Indian Black Metal" (it's more black/death than anything...). The review was extrememly positive. Unfortunately, there were no traditional influences, which disappointed me greatly. But maybe I'm just spoiled by Al-Namrood...
The best songs on their myspace are "Darkness and Beyond" (which is freaking EPIC), "Distant Land" (which starts with a Conan movie sample), and "Breath of the Gone" (the kickdrums are up pretty high, though). "Angel of Light Angel of Lust" is another good one, but aside from that, i'm not entirely impressed. They're not bad by any means, though. It's just that you're essentially listening to some Indians from Arizona play above-average Scandinavian black metal with lyrics about their culture and religion. Oh well. Anyhow, they also have a full length CD out and an ep that came from this year.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday in a report they said demonstrates that healthcare reform is on the wrong track.
More than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts, the team at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University reported in the American Journal of Medicine.
"Unless you're Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy," Harvard's Dr. David Himmelstein, an advocate for a single-payer health insurance program for the United States, said in a statement.
"For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection," he added.
The United States is embarking on an overhaul of its healthcare system, now a patchwork of public programs such as Medicare for the elderly and disabled and employer-sponsored health insurance that leaves 15 percent of the population with no coverage.
The researchers and some consumer advocates said the study showed the proposals under the most serious consideration are unlikely to help many Americans. They are pressing for a so-called single payer plan, in which one agency, usually the government, coordinates health coverage.
"Expanding private insurance and calling it health reform will fail to prevent financial catastrophe for hundreds of thousands of Americans every year," Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the Health Research Group at Public Citizen said in a statement.
About 170 million people get health insurance through an employer but President Barack Obama says soaring healthcare costs hurt the economy and force businesses to drop medical insurance for their workers.
CANCELED COVERAGE
"Nationally, a quarter of firms cancel coverage immediately when an employee suffers a disabling illness; another quarter do so within a year," the report reads.
Obama told Congress on Wednesday he was open to making mandatory health insurance part of the overhaul.
Neither Congress nor Obama are considering the kind of single-payer plan advocated by Public Citizen, Himmelstein and his colleague Dr. Steffie Woolhandler.
"We need to rethink health reform," Woolhandler said. "Covering the uninsured isn't enough.
"Only single-payer national health insurance can make universal, comprehensive coverage affordable by saving the hundreds of billions we now waste on insurance overhead and bureaucracy."
The researchers studied 2,134 random families who filed for bankruptcy between January and April in 2007, before the current recession began.
They used public bankruptcy court records and surveyed 1,032 people by telephone.
"Using a conservative definition, 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical; 92 percent of these medical debtors had medical debts over $5,000, or 10 percent of pretax family income," the researchers wrote.
"Most medical debtors were well-educated, owned homes and had middle-class occupations."
The researchers, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the share of bankruptcies that could be blamed on medical problems rose by 50 percent from 2001 to 2007.
Patients with multiple sclerosis paid a mean of $34,167 out of pocket in 2007, diabetics paid $26,971, and those with injuries paid $25,096, the researchers found.
Date: Jun 4, 2009 10:03 PM Subject: SUNN O))) US TOUR 2009 pt 1 Body: SUNN O))) will be heading to the Midwest for the first time in quite some time and playing shows in many cities/states they have not been to before. The lineup for these sonic rituals will be:
Attila Csihar- Invocations Steve Moore- Trombone, and keys Stephen O’Malley- Guitar Greg Anderson- Bass
SUNN O))) w/ special guests: Eagle Twin
Thu 07/02/09 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle Sun 07/05/09 Minneapolis, MN Varsity Theater Mon 07/06/09 Omaha, NE Sokol Auditorium / Underground Tue 07/07/09 Kansas City, MO The Riot Room Wed 07/08/09 St. Louis, MO The Firebird Fri 07/10/09 Dekalb, IL House Cafe Sat 07/11/09 Pontiac, MI Eagle Theater Sun 07/12/09 Newport, KY Southgate House
US west coast dates for aug 09 and east coast for sep 09 to be announced soon.
Random Old Records Podcast #7 is hot off the encoder and ready for download. The theme this time around is PURE '90s, with a boatload of classic '90s indie, emo, and punk from the likes of Sebadoh, Superchunk, Jawbreaker, Massive Attack, Stereolab, Beat Happening, and more! In between the tracks is a selection of the worst "dramatic" scenes from early '90s el-cheapo action movies, featuring the wit and wisdom of classically-trained thespians as Joe Estevez and Lonnie Schuyler. If you can take lines like "Every good card player keeps an ace" with a straight face then you've come to the right place. Woah, that rhymed. Go here and download:
As for the venue that this occured at, the Bunk Spot is basically the new Void; very diverse crowd there and 100-200 people showed up. There was even an amazing vegetarian/vegan feast (which i'm still recovering from... oof). As for Realicide's set, they blew everyone away. So intense. Booming beats, crackling, fuzzed out, vicious noise, and vocals that were yelled, screamed, and shouted, with a cross between "happy hardcore", harsh noise, some hip-hop (I think...), gabber, and possibly some industrial. It was the best set I've seen them do and I've seen them live more than any other band I've ever watched before. Robert was handling the electronics and backup vocals, with Jim Swill doing lead vox. They sounded like they did back in 2003-2005/6-ish, which made me happy, as that's when I saw them multiple times a month and never got sick of it. Swill went on a rant about myspace and what it's been doing to the prevailing culture (ironically, they have a myspace page, but they're thinking about taking it down). They also played my favorite song of theirs, their cover of The Mob's "Wish". It was a great time and Rob and Swill were in good spirits and really happy about how well the turnout and venue were. And I'm glad that I was able to make it and support a close friend who I hadn't seen in years.
A friend who wishes to remain anonymous wrote this and asked me to publish it. for the longest time i blamed the police. more recently i can only blame them for ignorance, the true enemy is the justice system in general. a hate brewed in me so deeply that seeing an officer down on the news was (and to an extent still is) a victory won. i would dream of a world without this enemy, this army of the upper class. living in a suburban area of the city and spending all of my time in urban areas made me stop and think about whats really going on with this system. why is it there is a liquor store on every corner? cigarette advertisements everywhere? the truth is (and i'm a big part of this) that this is planned to keep the lower class under control. i would even go so far as the importation of narcotics is given a blind eye in order to keep this so called peace.
substance is all i want in life some nights, you get so frustrated with how life is it becomes an escape, but its a two sided blade... substance is given to control the population, but also as a means to profit through bust, duis, and taxation. for example, required minimum sentencing in a dui case in the state of ohio is a fine for the violation, and three nights in a rehabilitation facility (cost: $385) versus three nights in jail (cost: $0). it seems to me if the idea were to really protect and serve it should be the other way around? the truth is, they know substance abusers cant afford luxury, but need the help the most. its all about property, status and class. ever notice how the justice buildings are magnificent marvels of architecture no matter of the surroundings? thats your money at work. lose the marble pillars and put the money into the community. in 2007 the governors salary in ohio (being one of the lowest of the US) was $144,830, with an average income of $28,699 in ohio citizens. the governor made 5.14 times the average income of his citizens, thats not even starting with the salaries of police, judges, clerks and everyone else who makes the dream possible. even it out already, less to the rich more to the people. the vice president makes a yearly salary of $221,100. this money could be used on bettering educations in schooling, funding for better solutions to homelessness, and healthcare. it is no longer a war on drone cops, the evil lies deeper in this country. where does the solution lie?
From New York City. Mostly female vocals and I think it's Lush/Jesus and Mary Chain-ish... well actually, it might have more of a Beach Boys/Brian Wilson influence than JMAC...
Here's a video they did for their song, "Sleeper". They're droney, have male/female vocals, and are Slowdiveesque. I'd post it on here, but i don't wanna have it take over the screen like the last one I posted did.
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