Who's paying who here?

The Athens Delight, from Stella's Pizzeria in Jersey City, has become the "Castle staple" foodstuff, for bands, DJ and engineer alike. A hearty vegetarian pie, the food of the Olympian Gods, as it were, though the home-cooking of Magda and Dave is vastly preferred when available.

I think two nights, two bands, and two ADs in a row was asking a bit too much of my, er, tract, and I was up most of the night, with one of my son's freezable teething rings on my lower back, in the kidney area; holy Hell, it almost felt like another stone—"The Feta'll Get Ya"—a new saying I'm working on. The Feta'll get you, kind of like the "Rhythm," but without a newly spined Gloria Estefan signing and dancing for your pleasure.

It's a little early for year-end reflection, but I can't help feeling like a lucky duck every week, as with WFMU's help, I've crafted a forum (see continued Greek references) wherein great bands like the ones we heard this week just volunteer to show up and play. A hearty dose of blackened love, then, from those who just want to sit at home or at work or on the train and listen; love from the typical black metaler or noisehead is not love given lightly then, not like that from a pop fan, who might "love" nearly everything. Black metal started out as an "elite" thing, and by and large it remains so, though any righteous individual is welcome to apply.

The grand tetons of last night's Castle show were unquestionably our live performers, Yellow Eyes, a highly accomplished and committed black metal band (with whom I was instantly simpatico, btw) who don't need to be in your face every five minutes, or even every five days, and have worked hard to to polish their craft, and that's it, and that's art; listen if you will, listen if you dare. ...and Sun Splitter, whose III LP has been mystifying and and entrancing me for months, some of Chicago's finest; hearty blokes who carry with them the most gear I have ever seen for a single Castle session, and whose music is a deep-dish (forgive me, pizza on the brain) of dark enchantment and most definitely solid-bodied, Gibson-guitar rock (emphasized somehow by guitarist Frank's back-length hair and three-piece suit.)

It simply doesn't get much better for me than presenting powerful live music, from artists that create passionately on the very fringes of what's even considered "music." Both sessions will appear in downloadable mp3 format on WFMU's Free Music Archive, via my curator portal there, in my usual "due course" of one month+. In the meantime, there's WFMU's streaming archives (benign-but-ominous "Satanized" voices chant "all hail the archives!")

Also making a strong impression last night were NRIII, with the introductory track from their latest EP, Spat Upon., the third in a trilogy, and a meal that really needs to be taken whole, from these now-long-time Castle favorites. Available on Neon Doom Records.

And yes, dw, The Gate! I don't revisit their Destruction of Darkness CD nearly often enough, and their live Castle set was one of the highlights of an already great year in live music.

Click on the crazed, cannibalistic killer (have we had enough of those yet?), from the otherwise resoundingly mediocre Dark Ride (yes, we believe Meadow Soprano, at 31, is a college student) to reach the playlist and audio archives for last night's horrocast™. ...And please remember that you can still pledge to MCoQ and WFMU through the end of the month and the Hallowe'en holiday; your donations are much-needed and deeply appreciated. ... It's all done very easily by clicking on "PLEDGE" within the white, rectangular widget above this post.

Next week, back to business, sort of ... no back announcing; simply too much great music busting the dam and not enough time to play it, and the online accu-playlist does the annotation work anyway (for the truly curious.) I'll be jumping in with legal IDs and "witticisms," but otherwise a broad field of sound awaits thee....