About

For the past thirteen years, I wrote a metal blog.  Now I write about noise and other non-metal forms of music in an effort challenge myself.

I also have a YouTube channel where I talk about brutal death metal, goregrind and slam (and occasionally other types of metal).

The title of this blog comes from my wife, who referred to a ride at the Oregon State Fair as "the puke hammer."

Popular posts from this blog

MY NOISE ORIGIN STORY

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A few months ago, I was put on the spot to explain my love of noise to some friends who were unfamiliar with the wonders of Merzbow. Unfortunately, I was quite stoned at the time and as a result failed miserably. But in the days and weeks that followed, it got me thinking about my path to discovering noise and why I enjoy it. I wasn’t able to properly articulate my fascination with ear destroying sounds while under the influence, but I’ll do my best here and now. I’ve always loved music and I think my interest in noise began as a byproduct of that when I was a teenager in the early/mid nineties. Like many young metalheads I was an aspiring guitarist, but there were many days where I spent as much time hooking up a bunch of effects pedals and seeing what kinds of fucked up racket I could coax out of my Squire Stratocaster as I did learning Metallica riffs (likely much to my mother’s dismay). The less it sounded like a guitar and the more hideous the sounds coming out of my amplifier got
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TWO MEN AND A NOISE ALBUM

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Ever since forming in 1981, Osaka's Incapacitants have been establishing themselves as legends of Japanese harsh noise.  Indeed, the duo of Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai are responsible for many genre touchstones, and one of their most sought after releases is 1995's As Loud as Possible .  Released by cult label Zabriskie Point during what was arguably one of the Japanoise scene's most intensely creative periods, the album has long been out of print.  Thankfully, Germany's Total Black was somehow able to secure the rights to reissue As Loud as Possible on CD, vinyl and digital, making it available once again to depraved noiseheads all over the world. I was lucky enough to grab a CD copy of As Loud as Possible  via American label/distro Cloister Recordings and was immediately struck by the quality of the physical product.  Housed in a sturdy eight panel digipack, I unfortunately cannot say how it compares to the original release, but I can say that this new version lo
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THE CREATURE STOLE MY SURFBOARD

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Remember back in the nineties when just about every well known artist had a vanity label? There was Nothing Records (Trent Reznor), Maverick Records (Madonna), Grand Royal (Beastie Boys), UZI Suicide (Guns 'n' Roses), Elementree Records (Korn), the list goes on and on.  What a lot of folks don't seem to know though is that Rob Zombie had a short-lived vanity label called Zombie-A-Go-Go Records and he actually put out some pretty cool shit on it back in the day. One one of those cool shit releases was Halloween Hootenanny , a compilation of spooky surf, psychobilly and garage rock bands that's been a staple of my All-hallows listening for the past two-and-a-half decades.  The album's silly title and eye-catching cover art, featuring the rocking trio of the Mummy, the Wolfman and Frankenstein's Monster, screams ultimate Halloween party record and that's indeed the vibe that carries throughout Halloween Hootenanny 's nineteen terrifying tracks. Released in
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