Italy's next big thing

It wasn't too long ago that people were anointing Visconti to be Bettini's successor. Well, say what you will about Paolo, but I never saw him shopping for make up looking like this..... WTF???? Looks like growing up Gotti hits the motherland. And not Ivan Gotti either!. Give me Ballan any day.

As seen in the photo above, it doesn't get more Italian than pulling a pink jersey over the national champs jersey, but he has a long way to go before I can get over the whole manscaping thing.
But what's worse? Plucked eyebrows or Cera-enhanced bravado? Visonti beats Ricco. (until proven otherwise.........)

Planks/Tombs split 12"

Tombs side opens up with a pummeling track that drives like Black Metal and has a real bleak relentless pounding. "Cypress" is up next. Slower, moody jammer that kicks into a Motorheady Swedish rocker after a couple minutes. "cheval noir" closes it out with another switch up. Female Vocals are in effect. This is that morose, melodic shit that I fucking love. Kind of a codieney/seamy dirge ballad.
Planks are some German rockers. 3 tracks from them. Heavy for sure. Knut,Black Cobra, you name your favorite post-core, post-metal bangers and these guys hold up pretty well against them. Regardless, Tombs are the main event for me.

If you hit up Black Box fast enough you might be able to get it on red wax! Comes with a card to get a digital copy for free so your ipod can get pummeled too. Get it now before their Relapse debut gets everyone wise to whats up and you miss out.

records on the curb...again

Driving to grab lunch last Sunday, I saw three boxes of records on a curb in Belmont. Drove past, cursed myself, and turned around.
First box had a bad Metal looking record by Axe, so maybe not a total waste. It was hard not to pull over immediately to check them out, but I was in a rush to get lunch. Whoever this was had a pretty odd collection. The entire collected works of UFO and Michel Schenker coupled with a healthy serving of mid 80s dance 12"s.
As I sat there I realized I couldn't seriously drag home another 300 records of marginal worth(there are only so many fights with the wife worth having), so while I ate a quesidlla, I paired the three boxes down to one and left the remainder in my parking space. Let it be some other OCD record nerd's problem. Pass it forward.....
Outside of the obvious spinal tap brilliance of UFO/MSG, there were a few good finds
Piper was one of them
Billy Squier was inescapable when I was in 7th and 8th grade. He and Foreigner were like the sorta fake hard rock/arena rock shit that cooler kids listened to while I was totally in the thrall of AC/DC and Joan Jett. So I was pretty surprised by this Piper album. Only a dick, would be overly critical of an album that came out of the trash, but this was much less produced than the solo Squier and straddled a power-pop/hard rock faultline. Super catchy(and of course cheesey, but no worse than Guns and Roses for example)
This was a nice surpise to find in the trash. As far as the UFO/MSG... Lights out London and The Attack of the Mad Axe Man really don't hold up so well..............

Say What You Will

Saw these guys open for Maiden when I was in 7th or 8th grade. Cape Cod Coliseum. My first big Metal Show. I bought a totally ridiculous sleeveless checkerboard shirt. Looked like Vans so I figured it was cool.
So who would have guessed that almost 30 years later, this dude would be in flogging molly? Go figure.

Cycling Odds and Ends

These are some serious leg warmers. Pro only.
Nys manages to headbutt the barriers one day and win the next.


More Race Footage here. The huge grassy rhythmn sections look like they would be super fun to ride.

Good list of who will be riding for who next year here.

Winter is right around the corner. Cold ride on Saturday. Colder on Sunday and frost on the windshield this morning. Watch out.

Gloucester II

again, you can see here why I am not a race photographer....





















Best bikes? Saw a Wilier cross frame. And a couple Spiuks that looked cool.

Gloucester Field Trip

Went up to Gloucester for the cross race today. Warm and sunny, Perfect fall day. 100 plus starters for the 4 race is an indication that cross is popular in NE. Full day of racing.

October, Parlee, and Maietta all had bikes on display. The Parlees had deep dish Edge wheels with giant Parlee logos that looked sick. Their cross bike is totally over the top and rad. Maietta was new to me and had this cool frame on display.


Treborn's bike looks big sitting there and still looks big with him on it.


and still looks big with him on it....


Watched all of the elite men and women. Both Dombroksi and Treborn were dominate. The Treborn Johnson battle was pretty epic, but Treborn had the final blow when he opened up a ridiculous gap with 2 to go. He held enough to basically free wheel across the finish line. A good sign for his upcoming European vacation.
Here are some other random bad race photos shot from the north side run up and beer garden.




A beer garden and real bathrooms(no porta potty nightmares)! Big day out.
My computer is acting up so I will dump some more photos tomorrow.
Watching cross and not racing it is kind of like watching a porno. It is cool to look at, but more fun to do. I can't believe I have to wait until next year to try this out!