Blöödhag. It’s an interview with a band I used to practice down the hall from. I saw the link at Boing Boing, and posted the following at the comments thereof. Then I thought, oh, you people would be interested in this.

Blöödhag is an “edu-core” band. They play ultra heavy speed-metally thrash. They also like reading.

To learn more, hit the interview. The website, Bloodhag.com looks to be down.

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I practiced down the hall from them here in Seattle for years – about the time they were first getting local press, I was getting ready for a gig and they were having a band meeting.

I was puttering around, packing gear, and I kept hearing shouts, the sounds of young men expressing opinions.

(They all wear post-punk black and converse all-stars and glasses – kind of an ultra heavy nerd-core look. It made me fond of them.)

So I paused to hear more clearly. The shouts went like this:

“No, NO NO! We MUST put JRR Tolkien before Ray Bradbury! We gotta!”

“Are you CRAZY? Why the heck would ANYONE put Issac Asimov there? I think you’re more after, like, Philip K Dick, or maybe Murray Leinster. Actually.”

And so on.

It sounded like the craziest science fiction convention argument of all time. Like people ranking SF and fantasy authors by some secret system that they all understood but which was opaque to even a knowledgeable SF reader, such as yours truly.

Suddenly it hit me. All their songs – every last one – are named after authors. They were arguing about a set list or release order. Read the quotes above, but insert “Louie, Louie”, and other song titles. You’ll get it.

I did, and laughed out loud, and went down the hall to share my amusement with them.