My name is Riley, and I play drums and write music for a band called Thrice.
This is where I ramble about music, sports, food, books, the interwebs and whatever else I deem worthy of sharing.
In addition to my ramblings here, I write a weekly column for Getting Blanked called "The Battle Of Los Angeles" and a bi-weekly column for PureVolume called "Everything In Its Right Place".
I'm also the co-founder of a baseball-specific twitter feed and blog with my good friend Ian, called Productive Outs.
In the past, you may have read my column at OC Weekly called "3hree Things", which ran every Tuesday for a couple of years, my writing on the Los Angeles Angels and Lakers for SB Nation Los Angeles, my newsdesk contributions for several of SB Nation's regional sites, or my sporadic contributions to Flip Collective .
And last, but not least, I have a bandcamp page and a soundcloud page that I'll be posting my own music and remixes on every once in a while.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions presented on this blog are mine and mine only, and do not reflect the position or views of Thrice as a whole.
Gaza, “Mostly Hair And Bones Now”
My friend Scott Evans of Kowloon Walled City emailed me the other day asking if I’d heard the new Gaza record. He said it was “tearing his face off”.
As someone who appreciates a good face tearing, I gave it a go — sight unseen, note unheard, zero research done — and oh my holy mother of all things that tear faces and assault you sonically, this record an absolute fucking monster.
It’s the musical equivalent of this…

It’s ~43 minutes some of the most pissed, frenetic, brutal hardcore peppered with bits of drone and sludge that I’ve ever heard. I listened to it for the first time as I was driving yesterday, and a minute into this track (the album’s opener), I looked down at my speedometer and realized I was driving 100 mph and screaming assorted curse words every five seconds.
There are very few super-aggressive bands that can yank that type of visceral response from me: Converge, Meshuggah, Nails, Calculating Infinity-era Dillinger Escape Plan. Gaza is right on that level.
After just a day, No Absolutes In Human Suffering is a lock for my Top 10 of 2012, and one of the best brutal records I’ve heard in years.
You can and should buy it here.
SLC NATIVE BABY
Utah represent!!!!!!!!!!!
record/Gaza so much. Easily in my Top 3...2012 so far. If you’re having a bad day
ever since. My new favorite band.
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