Closing In

Closing In is the debut album by Early Man, released on October 11, 2005. There are clear influences from heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath and thrash metal bands like Metallica. Mike Conte's vocal styles are very similar to Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Halford, while not exactly imitating them.

The album also features another heavy/speed metal attribute: aggressive, "don't fuck with me" lyrics, as heard on "War Eagle," "Thrill of the Kill," and "Evil Is."

Track listing

Credits

Michael Smith (performance artist)

Michael Smith is an American artist born in Chicago, in 1951. He is an influential figure in performance art, video art, and installation art. In the 1980s, he was perceived as "the quirky Ed Sullivan" of the time.

Mike

He is best known for his performance persona named Mike, the central figure in an ongoing series of narrative projects. Mike, an innocent character who continually falls victim to trends and fashions and his own naive ambitions, allows Smith to comment on discrepancies and absurdities in American culture while creating an unsettling and poignant mixture of humor and pathos. In a 1982 interview, Smith had once commented on his work "I’m more interested in getting a feeling across to somebody than an idea. I was interested in getting ideas across when I first started performing but I’m not too interested in that now."

Education

Michael Smith received his Bachelor of Arts from Colorado College and attended the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program. He currently teaches in the Transmedia Area in the Department of Art + Art History at the University of Texas at Austin. He has taught in the Master of Fine Arts programs at Yale, the Cranbrook Academy of Art, UCLA, Art Center College of Design, Columbia University, and CalArts. He has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1985), and four National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Fellowships (1978, '82, '88, '91).

Sam Houston (wrestler)

Michael Maurice Smith (born October 11, 1963) is a retired second-generation professional wrestler, best known under the ring name Sam Houston in the 1980s. His father was wrestler Grizzly Smith, his half-brother is Jake Roberts, and his younger sister is former WWF Women's Champion Rockin' Robin. From 1987 to 1989, the three siblings were in the World Wrestling Federation together.

Career

Smith started wrestling in 1983, initially competing in Championship Wrestling from Florida.

In 1985, he began working in the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions. He was billed as a protégé of Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A., which made him a target for the Four Horsemen. They finally got to him in the summer of 1985 when Tully Blanchard, Ole Anderson, and Arn Anderson (kayfabe) broke his arm during a six-man tag team match.

In late 1985, he feuded with Krusher Khruschev over the NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship, which he won in January 1986. He then feuded with Black Bart, who won the title from him a few months later.

Mike Smith (decathlete)

Michael "Mike" Cameron Smith (born September 16, 1967) is a Canadian decathlete from Kenora, Ontario.

Biography

He attended Pinecrest Elementary School, Lakewood Intermediate School, Beaver Brae Secondary School in Kenora, Ontario, and then Central Technical School in Toronto for his final year of high school.

Smith attended the University of Toronto Commerce program during his athletic career. He was coached by Andy Higgins while living in Toronto, Ontario and then by Les Gramantik when he moved to live and train in Calgary, Alberta in 1994.

Smith won a silver medal at the World Junior Track and Field Championships in 1986. At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, he placed 14th. At the 1990 Commonwealth Games Smith won a gold medal. In 1991, he was the silver medal winner at the World Track and Field Championships, and was the first North American to win the Götzis International Decathlon, which he won again in 1996.

In 1992 at Barcelona, Spain, Smith was the opening ceremonies flag bearer for Canada at the Olympics. Unfortunately during the decathlon Smith pulled a hamstring and was forced to withdraw on the first day of the two-day competition. In 1994, he won gold at the Commonwealth Games for the second time.