my dark heart

Ozzy Osbourne - Under Cover (listen)
Various Artists - Mississippi Tapes Vol 35: Satan is Real (via ROOT BLOG)
'Oxford American' Digs Deep Into the South (from NPR)
Ablehearts - The Flood (via OngakuBaka)

I forgot to take a picture of the pork chop special I just had over a business lunch at the Chimes, so here instead is the box of Roundy crackers from the Vietnamese grocery. Still chuckling. "Roundy" is the punchline to some unspoken joke I dare not unearth from within my dark heart.

Just from saying the infernal punchline, the Devil now compels my afternoon listening. The mysterious Mississippi Tapes has emerged with vol. 35 - "Satan is Real," placing the Louvin Brothers' warning tale as the engine pulling boxcar after boxcar of Euro black metal damnation. I'm not sure which is worse for my soul, that or Ozzy's cover album from 2005. I still think Ozzy has one of the great voices in rock, or maybe he has 1/3 of the best voice and its glory is revealed in triple-tracking.

John Lennon's "Woman" is not really helped much by the Prince of Darkness' interpretation, but Ozzy's cover of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown's "Fire" is everything I hoped it would be.

Fire - Ozzy Osbourne

The demagogues behind Mississippi Records were smart to transfer black metal to cassette and then back to digital, it lets the blackness shine through. They should have let old Charlie and Ira play out on their tape; they would bind the devil controlling my playlist in chains of i-run.

Satan Is Real - The Louvin Bro...

Perhaps they also could've found room for the death metal rooster (Thanks, The Rumpus)



Your and my soul both can be redeemed by checking out this interview about the Oxford American music issue, and then buying the issue. And the Ablehearts will do the final cleanup.