If you missed it, Freeway and his homies put out a song a day last month. Download it for free: Freeway - Month of Madness. If that’s not enough, check Anna for Pitchfork’s Hyped 100 Songs of 2008.

As a mathematician and a metald00d, it’s required that I like Meshuggah. But with videos this genious how could I not love them? I’m stoked for their upcoming winter tour. Any metal babes need a date to the NYC show?

We are fucking psyched! The authors of Radio Silence / A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music travel to our fair city in January for a showing of original black and white prints from their book at Wes Eisold’s new book store Juanita and Juans. Ex Nation Of Ulysses frontman / Sassiest Boy In America Ian Svenonius will be doing a special in-store performance for the opening on Friday, January 2nd.

Radio Silence / Selected Photography
January 2 - February 1, 2009
Juanita and Juans
125 North 11th St (corner of North 11th St and Cherry St)
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Opening reception on Friday January 2, 2009 / 7pm-10pm

via Metal Lungies and Von Pea

Raise the roof with Von Pea’s blazing new mixtape - The Further Adventures of Von Pea! It’s free and it’s pretty good so download it and thank the Pea!

BONUS: New Clipse Mixtape !!!

Lead singer of The Claw and Philadelphia punk stalwart Little Mikey Brosnan was struck and killed by a car at 48th and Springfield late Saturday night / early Sunday morning. Mikey was heavily involved in the Philadelphia punk scene for more than a decade, putting on shows and singing in bands including Eighth Fire, Dead Alive, Manual Seven, Grim Aria, and his latest, The Claw. Mikey was one of the most important people involved in establishing Stalag 13 as a place for all-ages shows.

I can’t stop thinking about Mikey passing away. When i first got to college, Mikey was one of the first punx that i made friends with. I don’t even remember how we met. For a while, Philly was uptighty emo-central and it was very clique-y. It was people like Mikey that kept me coming back to shows. Him just saying “Hi!” when he saw me standing around meant a lot to me.

And don’t even get me started on Stalag 13 - the West Philly warehouse that Mikey and friends turned into an all ages DIY mecca that bands all over the world still talk about. That place was magical. I consider myself lucky to have gone to shows there. The all ages scene in Philadelphia would be very different today had it not been for Mikey and his friends and Stalag 13.

Anyway, even though Mikey was more of a “punk” than I’ll ever be, I’ll always remember that when I first met him he was psyched about Blacktrain Jack and Bouncing Souls shows. I probably hadn’t said more than 5 words to him since like 1994 or something (aka Stalag days) but I’ll miss him. His metal band, The Claw, played downstairs during at least two different of my England Belongs To Twee DJ nights. I wish I’d have stopped down to watch their full set. I wish I stopped down to say hello. R.I.P., buddy. You deserved better. We’ll miss you.

After the jump, Mr. Mike McKee was kind enough to send me an interview that he did with Mikey this past spring for a magazine article about the legendary Stalag 13… Read on →

I’m stoked that the Somali Pirates have been kicking so much ass lately. First they gank a boatload of Russian tanks probably headed for Sudanian Genocidelandia. Now they’ve hijacked a Saudi oil tanker. Elsewhere, they’re freeing Japanese hostages and collecting yen booty!!!

From the venerable fun vampires message board, we have had 22 xbox 360’s suffer this terrible fate. I for one have one made of magic candy beans and therefore have never seen this monstrosity.

How about you? Any RRODs? Any gourds carved to look like other hardware failures?

Last Night I was treated to a screening of the work in progress cut of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

Having devoured the book in one sitting when I first got it, I have been pumped about this movie since I heard about it. It does not disappoint. Fans of the book will find a very strict adaptation, all of your favorite depraved apocalyptic scenes are there. Unfortunately they do add a few more scenes of The Wife, which are all and all not bad but in this cut there were probably about two minutes too many.

More review after the jump Read on →

Blossom Goodchild a citizen of spaceship Earth (When can we say that? Lunch, dinner, literally anytime). Believes we will be visited by a spaceship tomorrow in the Southern Hemisphere for 3 days.

The full text of the announcement which has been channeled through Ms. Goodchild is available below. It is full of good old fashioned nutter butter.

Read on →

Sometimes we here at Funvampires need to take a moment, to remember the heroes. Like this guy, Blake Peebles. There are few among us truly dedicated gamers out there with parents that care enough to let us follow our dreams. Shoot for the stars Blake!

An American teenager has dropped out of high school in order to become an expert at the video game Guitar Hero.

Blake Peebles (pictured above), 16, quit his sophomore year at North Raleigh Christian Academy to concentrate on perfecting his game, which so far has seen him win prizes from gift certificates to gaming equipment and chicken sandwiches.

The Raleigh, North Carolina native’s parents hired a tutor and allowed their son to drop out of school after he wore them down with his complaints.

“We couldn’t take the complaining anymore. He always told me that he thought school was a waste of time,” his mother Hunter told The News & Observer.

Peebles hopes to get to professional-level gaming, which can see competitors earn from $25,000 to $80,000 per year, although the figure is usually at the lower end and sponsorship opportunities are rare for competitors who coming in any lower than first place.

From [NME News]

Well hello there, Fun Vampire! My name is Murray, I’m 42 years young and I’m a happily married man to a demon who is ruining my life. I’ve been a fan of your blog for a long time! (though I must admit, the first time I tried to go here I accidentally typed “unfunvampires.com” and ended up at HBO’s True Blood site! That show s*cks!)

If you haven’t already checked out my hot podcast, now is DEFINITELY the time. We’re pretty much about to go global with this thing and it might be your last chance to say “you knew me when”. The “when” being the time I was a terminally depressed and constantly hectored by my demon tormentor and our 9 year old hellspawn. Soon I’ll be sipping a daiquiri with Cindy Crawford in Cabo.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: link!? All you need to do is go to the itunes store and search “our uav is online” and hit subscribe! It’s the show for gamers, by gamers. We tackle all things video games, but the most important thing to me is to keep the yucks coming. I remember that Groucho Marx’s son said living with his father was unbearable, because he was always “on”. I aspire to be the same way. Unfortunately my son is retarded, and cannot understand human speech. - Murray

Cake Wrecks. What happens when communication breaks down between consumer and producer. Where baking sins find their home. Where you hope your next celebratory confection doesn’t end up. Cake Wrecks.

Our fearless leader Hans had this to say “best website ever. i snortle lol’d like 6 times. is snortle a pokeman?”

You jerks probably thought that I forgot about you or that I died. No such luck, I’m back with a bang (yeah, yeah) and here to tell our Philadelphian readers about some pretty fantastic art openings that are going on tonight. Read on →

“there will be free drinks and music and the normal first friday crap.”

Philadelphia Legend and FunVampires Tyrant, Hans Pecans, rocks this upcoming first Friday at Reward.  Don’t sleep on this one, chumps!

Now this might be going backwards in ironic nerdy trends, but I have always had a soft spot for pirates. Creators of workman’s comp, forefathers of democracy, kicker of balls of the rich.

A party yacht that alledegly costs $250,000 per guest per week to relax was boarded, yet not scuttled off the coast of Corsica. The pirates used guns, no reports of sabers or blunderbusses were found. $183,180 in cash was stolen from the guests as well as artwork and jewelry.

Its about time international waters lost their shine for the rich, and began giving back to the young entrepreneurial souls of the deep.

Full Article via the NY Post

I am sitting waiting for a showing of Death Race. Located conveniently next to us is this ad of the upcoming horror film Quarantine. The ad looks innocent enough, but every 30 seconds or so, a very lo-fi speaker has Jennifer Carpenter screaming about her imminent death. Constantly. Every 30 seconds. About 120 more times of this to go before the film! Also not as annoying this poster is black until the screaming starts, then that image appears.

My review of Death Race after the jump.
Read on →

I just saw this on Kotaku and just had to repost it. Man i wish they made this in adult size. So much better than the Parappa hat.  Baaaaa ba ba ba ba baaa baaaaaa baaaaaaaaaaa

At long last the day we’ve all been waiting for has arrived. Thanks to Etsy seller “riomccarthy” you can have this handmade polar fleece cap inspired by everyone’s favorite rapping game for a mere $20. Are you willing to sacrifice a night of Cheetos and Mountain Dew to have this? I think i am. maybe. (thanks to st. peter for the tip) Buy It Here.