Whiskey Smash
2 slices Lemon
3 Mint Leaves
1 Dash of Sugar
4.5 oz Rebellion Bourbon
Honestly you don't get much easier than a Whiskey Smash. Muddle 2 lemon slices and 3 mint leaves with a quick dash of sugar, add bourbon and ice, stir, enjoy. Most great cocktails are pretty simple but require both good booze and a bartender with a good eye for detail. I always keep good booze in the house and although my eyesite is quite poor, (thanks Dad), my eye for cocktails is usually pretty spot on. So let's start with the bourbon. My sister bought me a bottle of Rebellion Bourbon for my birthday. I believe she brought it back from a bourbon run she did in Kentucky. I know it sounds crazy but people actually do long distance relay races between distilleries while drinking bourbon. My sister is a crazy chick let me tell you, (I think she gets a great deal of her crazy from me). Now I don't run but I do drink so she usually brings me presents back from these excursions she goes on, (lucky for me). Rebellion is 47% ABV (97 Proof) and a beautiful caramel color. Their tag line is "When cheap spirits become common, rebellion is duty". I believe that motto should go for everything, not only spirits. While that is a great and catchy credo, following through can be difficult. There is a nice herbal smell to the whiskey, a little bit of burn in the nose but it doesn't follow through on the taste. It's a nice heavy on the vanilla and with some warm smokey notes. Maybe a little too harsh to drink completely straight but it's perfect for a cocktail that involves no liquid additives.
The lemon is going to give you most of your nose, it's a great smell, everyone loves citrus so you're off to a good start. With the bitterness of the mint and the sour of the lemon you have to add just a touch of sugar to help out the sweetness of the bourbon. The sweet, vanilla oakiness isn't something you want to bury. The bourbon is still your main ingredient and that's what we're showcasing. With a few cubes of ice you really spread the flavors out and that's important. You want to get a little bit of everything on each sip and let the tastes compliment each other on the way down. What you're left with at the swallow is the coolness of the mint in your throat that is slowly burned away by the alcohol sting of the boubon. This is a sure fire pleaser of a cocktail. It's easy to make, great tasting and complex enough where your friends will think you're a genious when you put one together.
Conan: Blood Eagle
Napalm Records
I love doom, and smash is a perfect term to describe the style... sounds funny but it's true. There is just something about slow heavy music that sets my blood on fire. England's Conan are one of the slowest. Also if you're looking into the doom as genre England is really where you go. None of this is either here nor there though. We're talking about Conan and specifically they're new release Blood Eagle, (brought to you on gorgeous limited edition copper vinyl by Napalm Records). The record itself is gorgeous. It looks like a giant brand new penny. It's by far one of the most interesting colors of vinyl I've ever seen.
This is by far my favorite Conan release to date. There are so many more ups and downs in volume and tempo and there is a depth of destructive force that their other albums touched upon but never executed quite this well. Tonally there isn't a heck of a lot of changes so I believe a a lot of the dynamics rely on their drummer. There is more than a straight slow pummel, he's pushing this band into battle and pulling back on the reins when they may start to get ahead of themselves. The fills are also prescise and tight in a way most doom drummers are not. Never overplaying but he can still whirl around his toms in a second and flourish without missing a step or sounding rushed. It is more of a hard hitting rock style than the lighter/looser more tonal doom drumming.
The guitar and bass are largely bashing out the same thing as one another. While it's pretty melodic in it's riffage you're not going to get a lot of diversity from the stringed instruments. If Conan was a weapon it would be a hammer not a sword, strange cause Conan the character is a sword guy as I remember. This is a grind-you-into-the-dirt-smash-your-bones-into-powder sort of assault. Nothing fancy just good old fashioned crush. I can't tell you how thick and dense the guitars sound on this record. Words fail me. It's down tuned but with enough tension on the strings to still have punch in the riffs.
While it's not exactly Sabbath-esque stoner stuff, Conan is far from drone and feedback doom either. There's a fine line they're walking and they're walking it straight and with purpose. They're pushing the boundaries of a traditional doom format without being a genre hopping band. The vocals are similar to that of Sleep, in that they aren't so much sang as they are chanted, not like Om chanted but think of the vocals on Dopesmoker and how they were almost recited in a semi-melodic manner.
The vocals on Blood Eagle have very much the same feel but they are far more effected. More reverb and a more push in the delivery make them sound like they are giving orders to an attacking army from across a fog shrouded battlefield. The fact that the bassist and guitarists are both shouting out these orders in unison through most of the record also adds to their impact. This record will give you all the push you need to get out there and destroy your foes in glorious battle.
The guitar and bass are largely bashing out the same thing as one another. While it's pretty melodic in it's riffage you're not going to get a lot of diversity from the stringed instruments. If Conan was a weapon it would be a hammer not a sword, strange cause Conan the character is a sword guy as I remember. This is a grind-you-into-the-dirt-smash-your-bones-into-powder sort of assault. Nothing fancy just good old fashioned crush. I can't tell you how thick and dense the guitars sound on this record. Words fail me. It's down tuned but with enough tension on the strings to still have punch in the riffs.
While it's not exactly Sabbath-esque stoner stuff, Conan is far from drone and feedback doom either. There's a fine line they're walking and they're walking it straight and with purpose. They're pushing the boundaries of a traditional doom format without being a genre hopping band. The vocals are similar to that of Sleep, in that they aren't so much sang as they are chanted, not like Om chanted but think of the vocals on Dopesmoker and how they were almost recited in a semi-melodic manner.
The vocals on Blood Eagle have very much the same feel but they are far more effected. More reverb and a more push in the delivery make them sound like they are giving orders to an attacking army from across a fog shrouded battlefield. The fact that the bassist and guitarists are both shouting out these orders in unison through most of the record also adds to their impact. This record will give you all the push you need to get out there and destroy your foes in glorious battle.
The Incredible Hulk Vol. 3 Transfer of Power
Auther: Bruce Jones
Artist: Stuart Immonen
Marvel Comics
The final bit of "smash" for today is The Incredible Hulk, (duh, who else). The Hulk was never really a character that I connected with. The Jekyl and Hyde thing was never all that interesting an archetype in my eyes. Also, a semi-mindless monster that is constantly causing destruction is his wake was never a person I could look to as a hero. Bruce Jones takes him out of those stale confines and makes Bruce Banner and the moster inside of him far more 3 dimensional. This run has been called by quite a few people the best Hulk story ever told. While I don't have enough information to say that myself, I can tell you that it's one of the only ones that have made me look it up and notice that something cool was going on.
There are a lot of things that they pulled from this ark to put together the Hulk movie that starred Ed Norton. The Mr. Green / Mr. Blue thing for one, the government trying to get their hands on the Hulk blood for two. Jones writes this more like a superhero fugitive story rather than the straight ahead Hulk hunt that the movie portrays. The Hulk hunters are more varied and their motives are also far reaching, but Banner trying to avoid them is far more important. The hunters also cause a little confusion by Vol. 3. Some seem immortal, others seem like they're being played and should know it more than they appear to, but still they are all after the same thing. Also the fact that the artist draws many of the female characters very similarly is another slight problem. This is really my only issue with the art though. It's dark, a little smokey and not overly detailed. It's got a noir feel without even hinting at Sin City. The colors don't pop but they do break up the shadows and make the whole thing a lot easier on the eyes. Transfer of Power is very much a transitional arc. Vol. 2 gets resolved and Vol. 4 is set up flawlessly. Everything in the middle is intrigue not action. This is not to say that there is no "Hulk Smash!" there is, just check the panel I posted, but it's more of a means to an end rather than a focus of the story. I can't believe I'm actually going to say this but this is a thinking man's Hulk.
