(My) 2017's new and noteworthy: 1) Psychostick

They've been around for a while but I just discovered them and I'm in a stage of full addiction right now. They're one of those bands that it beats that they aren't like 50x or 100x more famous by now (is it perhaps that they don't want to?)

People underestimate the therapeutic importance of laughter, even with mummy science confirming its virtues every day of the week. I don't, and when I find a band that makes me laugh + rocks hard, well, that's a good day for me.

If you're only going to listen to one clip today, make it this 30 seconds version of "Silent night" (or the next video, a longer Xmas "medley" -or should I say meltdown- that also includes it).

And their videoclips. Man. Who sold these loonies a green screen. Here's "So. Heavy.", one of my favorites, and the song that introduced me to their universe (with the customary "the fuck is this...")

Here's another pearl, "Caffeine", a song in which, in my opinion, form and message intertwine particularly well:

And yet another favorite of mine:

I could add more and more titles (like "Rhino the president", or "Micing shit up", the video to end all recording advice videos, or "The root of all evils")... but just check their stuff and you'll soon have your own favorites... These guys cure solitude and they are the instant remedy for any shitty day.

I have to add a word of caution however; maybe no big deal to many, but the rose has one thorn that I would like to mention, just to spare it to viewers who might be in a similar wavelength to mine: in the video for the song "Awesome" they take things a bit too far for my taste with a torture scene. Please reach me that soapbox for a moment so I can explain my stance regarding violence and entertainment. Here it goes, ahem:

For me, scenes like someone squashing a zombie's brain, triturating a vampire's intestines with a lawnmower, etc... all compute as good fun and entertainment; human violence channeled against humanoid creatures is a cathartic exercise that puts aggressiveness in the open in a healthy way, and expressions of this kind have deep anthropological roots (e.g. there are many popular festivities in the world where people beat the crap out of a dummy, etc...)

I also accept (and welcome) scenes of humans hurting other humans as long as the tone set is clearly fantastic, sarcastic or extravagant in some way (e.g. "Reanimator", "Scanners", "Society"... that kind of stuff). But the crude, realistic depiction of a human being inflicting pain on other, in the way it is shown in that video, can never qualify for me as "fun". Empathy blocks the way; I find nothing funny or entertaining about it and to be honest it puzzles me that other people do, in my case it just turns my stomach and nothing makes me reach out for the skip button quicker. Sadly, I've seen this resource, that might perhaps be called "cruelty humor" by those who do find it humorous, in other entertainment products, and not only belonging to the "extreme music/movies" community, culture or however you want to call it. To each their own, I know the line can be blurry and that's where I draw mine, I just wanted to give a fair warning and with that I step out of the soapbox.

Just one isolated eew moment that gets more than lost in the avalanche of pure fun and irreverent joy that these guys provide; I really think if they got more attention from the masses we would all be living in a happier (and heavier) world... How many kittens should we add?

It also helps that, out of what I've seen, we share some common loves: Pantera, Leslie Nielsen, the Doom videogame... and make no mistake, because comedy is serious business: they are solid musicians too; the singer's expressiveness is great, I'd also like to be able to yell like him, and no one who listens to the drum breaks in "So. Heavy." or the crazy riff randomness in the middle of "Caffeine" can deny that these guys have tremendous chops. Just remember not to watch their videos while you're at work, because either your loud laughter or your energetic headbanging are going to betray you quickly... :)