The Music Attack returns to your ears with a nice chunk of instrumental Nine Inch Nails-y, Creative Commons-licensed, free-to-download goodness - Ghosts I, the first chunk of Ghosts I-IV, the new instrumental Nine Inch Nails album, featuring, amongst others, the mighty Adrian Belew.

Not much more to say than that, if you like Ghosts I, get over to ghosts.nin.com and fork out $5 for the download version of the album at least.

Yet another Artist Focus episode, or to be more accurate, Band Focus, this time playing the rawkin' tunes of Tempercalm.  We're playing a track from each of their releases including their soon-to-be-released full-length album, True Novella.

In order, the songs are...

1. Blocking My Own Shadow - from the band's debut EP, Organised Silence with Interruptions, now out of print.

2. Sadness Only Comes In Small Doses - from the band's second EP, Are You Looking for Order and Perfection?, also out of print.

3. Marc Temple - from the band's So Ventura EP, which you can maybe get off the band, not sure if there's still copies out there.  No, you can't have mine.  :-P

4. Make The Nice - from True Novella, the band's new full-length, now available for pre-order on a bunch of sites, all linked from the band's homepage (http://www.tempercalm.com/).

I'll hopefully have an interview with Tempercalm in an upcoming episode.

The first Music Attack of 2008, and it's absolutely guaranteed to blow those post-Christmas cobwebs out of your ears, because it's an EXTREME METAL THEME SHOW~!

All three tracks were supplied by Aaron Cloutier - two from his band Broken Hell, and one from his solo project Davola.  All heavy, growly, aggressive, harsh and, well, METAL.  If your favourite act is Barry Manilow, give this show a swerve.  You have been warned.

Anyway, on with the track details!

1. Broken Hell - Never Break Me

2. Davola - Premonition

3. Broken Hell - Believe In Me

A special artist-themed episode for the ninth episode, focusing on the excellent pop-rock singer-songwriter-keyboardist Kevin Reeves and his excellent FREE album 'It's About Time'.  We're spinning three tracks off the album on this show - The Game, Shine and Wasted.

If you like what ya hear, head over to the Kevin Reeves site and sign up for the mailing list.  The first email you get will have a link to the album.  After that, feel free to give it to friends, stick it on Bittorrent, whatever.

Additionally, I mentioned a couple of other podcasts on the show, so I'll link 'em here.

The Project Studio Network - a great show about home recording, project studio recording and what have you.

The Musician's Cooler -  A podcast focusing on promotion, marketing and the likes for performing musicians.  Hosted by the lovely Jammin' Dave Jackson.

Yet another 'themed' episode of the Music Attack, featuring music sourced from IODA Promonet.

This episode's music -

Buckethead & Friends (feat. Serj Tankian) - We Are One
It's that wacky dude with the KFC bucket on his head that was in Guns 'n' Roses for a while.  And the lead singer from System of a Down. 

Jordan Rudess - Piece of the Pii
The scarily-talented Dream Theater keyboard player and a cut from his new solo album.

Gabriel's Fallen - Destroy Myself
Podsafe punk/metal hybrid from South California.  Horns up!  \m/

Toto - Falling In Between
Yeah, THAT Toto. 

The Music Attack really lives up to its name in this episode - nothing but big fat riffs, growling vocals, blistering lead guitars and DOUBLE BASS-AHH! 

The two bands on this show have members that post on the Mike Portnoy Forum, where I heard about 'em.

The Womb - Push and Beyond War
Extreme metal from Canada.  Big fat riffs and growly vocals.  Raaarrrr.  Kind of a Mastodon/Superjoint Ritual/Sabbathy kinda vibe.  Check the total 'DJ mix' bridging the two songs.  The way I got them blended together they sound like one big song.  Yaaaas.

Random Mullet - Penetrated Skin and Neverending Nightmare
Tech/progressive/fusion metal from Finland.  At their most extreme these guys are like a cross between Mr Bungle and Dream Theater.  The two songs I picked for this show are a bit more melodic and less of a head-f*ck though.  You can download their entire new EP off their site. 

(Yeah, I called the second track 'Neverending Night' on the banter.  Garageband's media browser chopped off the end of the song name and I never noticed.)

To quote Brandon from the Metal Shop Podcast, keep it metal.

Been quiet on the Music Attack front.  Looks like we got a few new subscribers/listeners after I stuck a promo clip up on podcastpromos.com - hello to the newbies.  ;-)

However, this show has not been a victim of podfade in any way, shape or form.  In fact, I plan on recording a new episode this very evening, a special 'theme' show.

Stay tuned.

The Music Attack rides again for a bumper-sized episode to tide you over while I dive headfirst into some mixing work over the next couple of weeks.

This week's selections...

Haywire - Shipwrecked
The band that eventually became The Mocha Nights (and spawned Tempercalm) started out as this four-piece guitar pop-rock-punk type combo. 

Brainchild - Lifeline
A great wee indie-guitar-pop band featuring Stuart Kidd of the BMX Bandits and Michael Hayes.  No, not the Michael Hayes that was in the Fabulous Freebirds, this one was a mate of mine at college.

Blue Movie - Nightmare Swimming
A band that was, like Haywire, on the record label formed out of my college course.  This band features Daniel Drever of Gamble, Gamble and Drever on lead guitar.

Clive Murray - The Reaper's Image
Yet another friend of mine (maybe I should rename this show to NeiloMac's Nepotism Attack...) and an excellent track off his equally cool instrumental solo album, Earthman.

Anabranch - Small Town Inspiration
A track by a band I saw play with Blue Movie and Brainchild back in 2003.  Dunno what ever became of these guys, but I liked the song, so I thought I'd play it.  :-)

Panzerballett - Meschugge
A very talented German fusion rock band who were nice enough to mail me a promo copy of their CD.  Danke Jan und Panzerballett, you rock, and apologies for my crappy attempt at German.

NeiloMac Strikes Back with another episode of the Music Attack podcast!  In this show we bring you a couple of rockin' bands from Renfrewshire (one which may seem familiar to regular listeners), some Canuck blues, and some Pixie dust...

Tempercalm - I Broke Her Heart, So She Broke My Jaw
   Some angry modern rock from Houston in  deepest, darkest Renfrewshire.

The Mocha Nights - Sebastian's Dreamboat
   Those coffee-named fellas are back on the Attack, with another jaunty number about an egotistical model (!).

Blues Tom - Blues In X
    Some excellent slide guitar-based blues from a nice Canadian chap called Tom.

Frank Black - Robert Onion
   Yes, THAT Frank Black.  And no, using this track isn't dodgy - it's been released as podsafe.  Yay!

NEED MOAR LISSENARZ!!1!one!1!!  So tell your friends, or I'll send the boys round.

The Music Attack returns once again with a special show for Show 4...all four bands on this episode were found by me reviewing bands on www.garageband.com (and no, the site isn't cashing in on Apple's built in recording software for OS X - the site was around before Apple Garageband came out).

Here's the info...

Ven - Let's Play
  Some Faith No More meets Devin Townsend goodness from a home recordist somewhere in England

Chest Rockwell - Mortal Universe
  Across the pond we go, with some enviromentally-tinged prog-metal from Kentucky.

The City - I Never Want To Sin Again
  We travel north to Canada to check out these young British Columbians and their melodic piano-driven post rock stuff.

The Burden of Existence - Praying For Deliverance
  And we cap it all off with some blazing female fronted European-style technical metal from Atlanta, GA.

Spread the word about the show, folks!  The more the merrier!