More often than not, listening to instrumental doom is like jerking off and not… Well, you know. There’s this epic build-up and all you want to hear is some vocals. Something human and intense. Instrumental doom by definition lacks this. Few bands can pull it off. In fact, the only ones that I regularly listen to is Earth and Chicago-based Bongripper. With their previous-releases, Heroin, Hippie Killer and Hate Ashbury, they just kinda killed the genre for anyone else.

Satan Worshipping Doom is as much of a satirical jab at the instrumental doom genre as anything. How could something be Satanic without vocals? Duh. Get some evil-ass album art! Opening the abyss is the first track “Hail” which picks up where Hate Ashbury left off. The distinct sound, the picking of the riffs, the colliding percussion and the shear fucking weight of it all. Bongripper is like a ton of bricks.

Check out the rest of this review at the Mishka Bloglin!

Let me just preface this by saying shooting photos of bike lights is a pain in the ass! Ever since Portland Design Works sent me their lights back in February, I've been using the hell out of them. Lighting is one of the last things I wanna buy when it comes to accessories. No matter what you pick up, they usually die out after a while or they just suck. When I first put on the Spaceship and Radbot 500 I was blown away at how bright they were.

Check out more of my review below.

This is long past-due and once again, deviating from my own definition of the Well Used category. Way back in February, after the Mid-West Mayhem, SUNringlé sent me their MTX33 rims. 36 holed, 33mm wide and burly as hell! Since then I've thrashed the hell out of these rims and only until recently have I had to rebuild the wheels with new rims. The rear wheel lasted me from February until July. Sure, it had a few dents and a flat spot but it was resilient!

Check out more of my review below.

Cranking down the list of recent products I've reviewed comes my 8-month old Newbaum's cotton cloth bar tape. The last time I posted about it in April, the tape had just started to fade a little. Now, in August, with hours upon hours of summer sunlight having hit the tape, you can see how it wears. I've yet to have any significant tears in the tape and have even taken one or two spills on it.

There are two more shots below, so checkem out.

"A Curse" off All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood

It is my opinion that it takes unique individuals to create engaging music, regardless of the genre. While genres will influence the individuals, there is something within them that drives and motivates them to create something new and fresh. Countless examples exist and yet only few truly succeed at producing quality and original sounds. Lee Buford and Chip King make up the Body and no, that’s not an homage to the Judea-Christian belief of the body of Christ, more of an allusion. In fact, Buford and King are about as far from religious as you could get, citing influences ranging from Manson to Body Count.

In their first full-length, All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood, they evoke some of that religious imagery in an epic and yet hard to classify doom metal album. It’s not as straight forward as Candlemass and not nearly as quintessential as Jucifer, although the two’s lifestyle does resemble some sort of hermithood. Bearing beards, toting rifles and being tough guys in general. If I had to put a nail on the head of All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood, I’d push it more towards something Edgy would have listened to while recording Burning Witch’s catalog. Depressing and emotional is an understatement.

Continue reading this review at the Mishka Bloglin!

Believe it or not, this is the same Charge Bucket saddle I reviewed back in April. Not bad right?

Check out another shot of the damage done below.

What I'm going to start to try to do from here on out is a series called "Well Used". This series will follow up on products that I've reviewed in the past after they'd been umm, well used. Because what's the point in doing a product review on something that's brand-new? First up are my DVS Milan CTC Cadence sneakers. I first received these at the beginning of June and after spending some time in them, I'm pretty impressed.

Check out what all I've gotta say about them below.

While I was in town for the Summer Fix LA event, I got a car and drove down to San Diego to see one of my all-time-favorite shops in person. Velo Cult has always been a bit of a mystery to me living on the east coast. It's one of those shops that actually takes the time to cultivate an online catalog of all (well, most) their inventory. Their blog posts are truly amazing and their graphic designer and photographer just kills it consistently. So with high hopes and my SLR, I headed through the front door of Velo Cult.

Step inside with me...

This happens to me a lot. I post about a product and some time passes only to get a few emails all at once asking "well, what do you think of them?". To be honest, a lot of the things I post about I never get the chance to try out. Sometimes I do get products to review for free and that was the case with my first set of Nike Air Zoom Tiempos. Months later and I still wear those almost daily. It wasn't until yesterday that I bought another pair. Mostly due to my snobbery about all-black shoes these days. It wasn't until Nike put out the Mr. Cartoon Air Zoom Tiempos that I wanted to get another pair.

Check out some more photos below!

Surely you remember this little clever product, first posted about on April 20th. Pentabike recently sent me one to test out and I gotta admit, this might be one of the coolest products out there for the cycling fans of organics.

Check out the full review below!

I've been saying it for years now, "SRAM makes baller shit". In fact, the only modern track crank I'll ride are the Omniums. I'm not alone in this either. Chari & Co put together a nice little edit showcasing this awesome crankset. Check it out!

You guys need an external mic so we can hear Ktel better!

Last night was the first event in a bi-weekly series called the Midnight Keirin Club. The intent of this series is to race in the various channels throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan. Short and sweet drags races with one thing to win: cash. After getting booted from the first spot by the MTA and NYPD, we headed to a nearby strip of closed road. With only 6 people racing, it was short and sweet. Let's try to ramp this up this Summer NYC! I wanna see some fierce competition. I'll totally race next week if you guys will come out!

Check out a few more photos here, at my Flickr and expect more bulletins as events warrant.

I'm a man of particularities. I have my favorites and my loyalties. Once and a while though, something new comes across my threshold and my interest gets piqued. When I first saw the DVS Milan CTC Cadence sneakers, I thought they looked ok. I'm a bigger fan of black sneakers but the details the shoes sported made sense and I liked the silhouette. When Dustin from Cadence contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in trying a pair out, I said sure. When the box came yesterday and inside was a pair of the black models, I was hella stoked.

Less than 24 hours later and I think I found my new Summer sneaker. Check out some more photos and my initial reaction to the shoes below.

Every city has their staple shop. The bicycle shop that caters to the community and not just by offering repairs and builds. Community support comes in many forms. Whether it's selling the local brands, displaying art, hanging out with the locals and being a safe haven for messengers during the day, a staple shop is the backbone to the community. In Philadelphia, on South 4th street lies Bicycle Revolutions; a shop that does all the above. The last time I was in Philly, I spent some time in the shop with Fuzzy and the crew and got a sense of the kind of operation they're running.

Check out some more photos below!

The Melvins are one of those bands that mark significant moments in your life with album releases. Like your own taste in music, they always seem to experiment with varying sounds while sticking to the roots. Since the 90’s they’ve been on the tips of everyone’s tongue in the alternative music scene (remember when it was called that?). From their earliest work, to the most abstract experiments, the Melvins have been on top of the game, releasing albums just about once every three years. Something that’s matched by none of their counterparts from the era. Expectations are the achilles heel for the Melvins; some of their fan base wants one thing and others, another. What makes the Melvins such a dynamic band is that they surprise all of their fans and defy expectations.

Finish reading this review over at the Mishka Bloglin!

Hailing from the same stomping grounds of the once great DAMAD and the later Kylesa, Black Tusk has been cultivating their sound for years through intense touring, several EPs, splits and one other full-length. One thing’s for sure, they’ve put in their time and since their last full-length, Passage Through Purgatory, in 2008, have sure been busy. I’ve caught their live act a few times and the energy of the two frontman, Athon and Andrew on stage is matched by few. Fast forward to 2010; the year after Baroness’ Blue Record and Kylsesa’s Static Tensions and Black Tusk is looking to make a bigger name for themselves with Taste the Sin. It’s hard to not draw strong similarities between Kylesa and Black Tusk but I think there’s more to this band than worshiping their home-town friends.

Check out the rest of this review over at the Mishka Bloglin!

Last night was NYC Velo's ( @NYCVelo ) PreSpoke event. Uptown, a few miles away at the Museum of Art and Design, the opening reception to Bespoke had just finished. The crowds of people who were 'in the know' made it down to NYC Velo to look at some of the featured framebuilder's previous works.

Check out more photos and a full review below.

Ever since I saw the samples of these shoes last summer, I've been anxiously-awaiting a pair. Having a bit of a Merckx fetish, I recognized the colorway almost immediately and knowing that I have this Merckx fetish, Joe from Brooklyn Machine Works promised me a promo pair. He assured me that they'd be in shortly and hopefully, in time for a Merckx Mondays post. Well, they were delivered late yesterday afternoon and there wasn't enough time to put them up.

Today I swung by BMW to see the crew and pick up my pair. I gotta admit, I was a bit nervous seeing them. There's a lot of cycling history behind all three names involved and the shoes have a lot to live up to. Eddy Merckx's Adidas shoes are a thing of beauty and in all honesty, I'm pretty stoked on how these came out.

Check out more photos and a continuation of my first impression below:

I'm still bummed I completely blanked on this one. Luckily for me and those of you who couldn't attend, Create 2 Destroy has a nice recap up on their blog covering the day's events at the Horse Cycles Open House. I don't wanna steal their thunder, so you'll have to go over and see how it went for yourself!

Great write-up guys!

Previously:
Horse Cycles
Horse Cycles Open House

Fixed Mag 5 Review by Tony from John Prolly on Vimeo.

Last night Tony walked us through the new Fixed Mag. Jokes about people in the fixed scene were cracked (none of which are meant to be serious) so if you can't get a copy of Fixed Mag, hopefully this gives you an inside look. We loved this issue. It came out great! Keep working hard guys! If anyone wants a page scanned, let me know!

Previously:
Fixed Mag 5 Cover