We'd be full of shit if we were to suggest we were not taken aback by seeing a picture of Xasthur in the New York Times a few weeks ago...and then it only got weirder when we realized the pic of main member Malefic was due to the singer/songwriter Ryan Adams plugging Xasthur as one of his current playlist favorites. AND THEN it got even weirder when we saw that Mariah Carey AND Metallica AND Jay Z were plugged in the same breath. Guess you could say Mr Adams has a rather broad spectrum of tastes on his music listening pallette...had he plugged Jamiroquai, Mark would probably be writing the guy love letters right about now.

We had heard a rumor that Adams had given Xasthur a shout out at an LA based performance a year or so ago, but we figured it had to be a myth. But then it dawned on us after reading this NYTimes piece that, perhaps, Mr. Adams was truly on board...the way he describes Xasthur still give us a tad bit of a chuckle, but you can't deny he really does seem to love it...

"Whoever the guy is, he’s amazing. My listening tastes are absolutely not in tune with the kind of music I make. The music that interests me is a bit weirder. “Defective Epitaph” (Hydra Head) has really far-out guitars; it’s not really lyrical. When I close my eyes and listen, I think of a heartbroken demon sitting beside these ashes in hell and really missing his girlfriend. It’s like romantic death metal. The aggressiveness of his guitar riffs can be quite brutal. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s really clever. His flow is so authentically black metal; he knows how to make it orchestral and gothic. I don’t know all the rules to metal, but he seems to kind of be above them. I think now he has a drummer — who’s not technically bad, because it’s speed metal, but the timing isn’t exactly perfect. It comes off as charming, because you can tell what the ideas are, like indie rock. They’re on top of their game."

So, Ryan, since Jigga, Carey and Hetfield are probably all too big to give shout outs, we figured we'd give you one here. If yr up for trading something for a copy of the upcoming Xasthur 2xLP, email us. Or if yr shy, just stay tuned here....news on the new album will drop in the coming days...