Saturday, May 25, 2013
Time for Drinking... and Posting
Tonight's set is going to arrive in spurts as I'm having company over to get loaded and watch this:
Rudy Velle and the Soul Phonics
My good friend Anthony turned me on to this band recently. Very, very nice.
David Lynch - Strange and Unproductive Thinking
Lynch's second album is filled from start to finish with wonderfully dark and noirish songs. This is one of two songs that wrap that tone in a bit of an Underworld-like urban throb.
Police Training Video on... SATANISTS!!!
My good friend Michael sent me this recently and I laughed my ass off when I watched it. Apparently this is the real thing, used to teach cops about the dangerous practices of Satanists by a former Satanist.
Uh-huh. I'm assuming that no self-respecting follower of the dark lord would wear his hair like that.
Thanks to the good folks at Dangerous Minds for posting this. They have a more in-depth write up here.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
The Neighbourhood - Female Robbery
I followed my hunch and listened to the entire album by The Neighbourhood. It's fantastic. If you're familiar with DJ Muggs' amazing record DUST then you know the Noir Hop version of Greg Duli's Twilight Singer's Fat City (Slight Return). The Neighbourhood's I Love You is a record with a very similar tone.
Patton Oswalt's Star Wars Filibuster - Now Animated!!!
No matter how many times I listen to this it doesn't lose its effect. And now it's animated. Admit it - we all wanted to see Chewbacca's severed head. What's that say about us?
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
New Track by The Neighbourhood - West Coast
Wow. Old School G-Funk? Really? I only have time to listen to it once (449am - gotta go gotta go). It might work though...
I've really fallen in love with The Neighbourhood's first single "Sweater Weather" - just waiting to see if KROQ (which is usually on often in the shared space at work when I don't have my iPod on) beats it to death for me. If you missed that one, give it two or three listens - me thinks it will grow on you.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Tears for Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Wouldn't say they're the best band ever, but they might have written the best songs ever.
Definitely his favorite:
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| image courtesy of wikipedia |
You Lust - The Flaming Lips Live @ GoogaMooga
Courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan, who have an AWESOME spread on this, with several more videos and a wealth of fantastic photos here!!!
RIP Ray Manzarek w/ Two Keyboard-Heavy #'s by The Doors
RIP Ray Manzarek. These are not only my two favorite songs by The Doors, but both have some bad ass keys courtesy of the late/great Mr. Manzarek. Not to Touch the Earth's dissonant keyboard breakdown really cements my feeling that this song is LSD turned transmogrified into musical form. And Strange Days - I always think of the scene in Oliver Stone's The Doors that this song plays over, with Nico in the Elevator. I really always felt that - and this is no dis to Krieger or Densmore - but if anyone in the band could understand or channel what Morrison was about, judging by his keyboards, it was Ray Manzarek.
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| image courtesy of LastFM |
You'll be missed Mr. Manzarek.
David Lynch
Sunday, May 19, 2013
200 Gram Vinyl, 5.1 Special Edition Sailing the Seas of Cheese...
...comes out this Tuesday, May 21. Buy it. Here's the link to Primus' website through which you can link to pre-order it.
Here's some descriptive text from amazon:
"The deluxe edition will be available in two six-panel Digipak configurations, each featuring the album's new stereo mix on CD and the new 5.1 surround mix on Blu-ray or DVD, plus three exclusive, previously unreleased bonus tracks, including two live recordings from Primus' 2012 '3D Tour' and a Bassnectar Remix of 'Here Come The Bastards.' The Blu-ray's audio options also include Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround. The audio bonanza is accompanied by four visualizer video streams, previously unpublished photos from the band's archive, and new liner notes by music journalist and author Greg Prato.
A 200-gram vinyl LP to be released on the same date also features Claypool's new stereo mix of the album. In a 'Mystery Vinyl' challenge for fans, 1000 unmarked, randomly selected copies will contain the new stereo mix on a yellow vinyl LP instead of black."
Zoltron's Poster Series
More Ian Rubbish, SNL Season Finale, 5/18/13
This is the first thing from SNL in decades that I really dig. I have no idea who the cast member is that plays him - I've obviously seen his name now a couple times but I just don't retain it because I'm wholly unfamiliar with the cast in general. And in Rubbish's case I'd like to keep it that way. I'm more interested at this point in seeing what this particular fiction suit does in the world at large, now that Ian Rubbish has come into a real world context by releasing a free ep (get it here) and being booked to open for the likes of Vampire Weekend in the Steve Buscemi-directed concert.
Parquet Courts - Full Performance
Found this while skulking around on the youtubes. Reminds me of old Tar and Robbers on High Street, maybe some old Sonic Youth and Fugazi thrown in for good measure. However, comparisons aside, Parquet Courts definitely have their own personality; the nice little, sometimes-smooth, sometimes jagged-and-dissonant guitar fills peppered in over perpetually bouncy rhythms. Occasional squalls of feedback and the poignantly accented backing vocals. I like.
Check out Parquet Courts' website here.
A Short Film for Savage's Album-Opening Track "Shut Up"
So thanks to my good friend Jacob I've finally acquired a copy of Savages' debut album Silence Yourself. From the first sound on the record, a sample that sounds like it is from an old movie playing on a tv in the room where one of the instruments is mic'd I knew that this would be a very important record to me. My rapidly escalating anticipation and joy were fed by immediate invocations of The Cure's Pornography, the title track off the 1982 album of the same name. I'm on my second spin in a row of Silence Yourself and it's everything I thought it would be. It's funny how a sound like what many of us refer to, for lack of a better term, as "Post Punk", often feels confined to a specific time and place, but can occasionally be re-created and what's more added to in a way that endears the new artist to fans of the old 'scene', while simultaneously adding to that scene. I guess that's a rambling way of saying this will go very nicely on the record shelf in my mind next to the aforementioned early Cure albums, Bauhaus, Joy Division and Gang of Four.
Skinny Puppy - Last Rights - Track 10 is Missing?
Speaking of Last Rights, I bought the record when I was in high school. I remember my Aunt Dottie gave me several Coconuts Record Store gift tokens that equalled quite a bit of $$ - might have been 3 $20 tokens. I bought 4 CD's - this was like '93. I came away with Slayer - Decade of Aggression, Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger (the SOMMS version), and Skinny Puppy - Last Rights. The other three albums were based on me already liking or at least having heard the groups before - the Skinny Puppy was based on A) the weird industrial Kid Matt Debore in high school who was a year older than me telling me that if I liked Pretty Hate Machine, the keyboards in Skinny Puppy would, "Make you feel like you're god" and B) the cover by I, Braineater:
The Skinny Puppy record scared me. To this day it still scares me, and that my friends, if rare. Usually something catches you offguard or unaware but you acclimate to it. That's only partially true of this record. I may have gotten to know it, gotten to love it, but I still sleep with one eye open around it. And for that I LOVE it.
One thing that always fascinated me about Last Rights was the tracks are numbered 1-9 and then 11. In the Liner notes there's a seemingly casual caption that states/asks, "Track 10 is Missing?". For years I assumed the track was somehow hidden on the album. This was the age of hidden tracks and backwards tracks; tracks hidden after hidden tracks and 12 minutes of crickets to get to the final track, so I just assumed... Remember there was both the They Might Be Giants album and the Course of Empire album that had hidden tracks before the first track on the album. You had to - if I'm remembering this correctly - pause the first track and then search backwards to get to the hidden track. Freakin' crazy!!!
Anyway, the internet is of course great for solving all these little mysteries, but it also robs us of the enigmas of those long gone pre-instant information eras. So here then, at last, is track 10. And here is the explanation, if you choose to read it. It's not that cool.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Skinny Puppy - Lust Chance
My favorite Skinny Puppy album (although I only know like three of them well).
This particular youtubes video: what the heck is up with 0:06-:010? It looks like it's going to be the album cover (brilliant! by I, Braineater) but then there's... that.
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - A Daisy Chain for Satan (Acid & Flowers Mix)
There's a bunch of homemade "drug" videos for this on the youtubes, but really, nothing you can put visually to this does the hellish sonic landscape that they create with the music on this one justice.
This came out of nowhere, not even sure what the impetus for this is, but apparently the flavor of this Saturday night is the taste of metal filings - Industrial mix.
Oceansize - One Day All This Could Be Yours
My friend Jacob just got me into Oceansize. This particular track struck me - as I was listening to it the very first time - as amazing.
The Game of Love - Michelle Branch and Carlos Santana
Most would laugh to know I really dig this song, however I have two words in my defense: New Radicals. What the hell does the short-lived project of producer/songwriter extraordinaire Gregg Alexander have to do with this? Well, I too have biases against both the self-indulgent noodler Carlos Santana and Disney chick Michelle Branch, but suspend those biases for a moment and listen, really listen to the song (if you're a New Radical fan - if you're not go ahead and laugh at me and skip the rest of this entry 'cuz none nothing here is going to help). Sound familiar? That's because Alexander wrote this song and it sounds exactly like something that could have been on the New Radicals one and only masterpiece album Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too. Sure Ms. Branch's voice is great but a bit sugary, and Carlos does the whole na-na-na, na-na-na thing, but the New Radical's imprint is there. I believe there's a version of Alexander doing this floating around on the youtubes, but it's stripped back demo production does it no credit. This is the kind of thing that, if not full-out produced by that man, needed to be put through the pop machine.
Queens of the Stone Age - My God is the Sun Music Video
I'll admit, at this point I'm barely listening to these Queens tracks, as I sorely want ...Like Clockwork to be an album experience and all of these early released tracks are working against that. Smart in the age of itunes and youtube, but I'm old school and very album-centric, thus I'll post these for others' listening pleasure, but I'm trying (very hard might I add) to abstain from consuming any of this until I hold the record in my hand, can sit down with a good head of smoke and critically listen to this thing from start to finish. A friend messaged me recently saying he'd heard a leak and, to quote, "nothing can prepare you for it." I'm also not one for leaks or torrent sites, so I'm biting my nails and grinding my teeth until June 4th - which really isn't so very far away in normal time.
However while waiting for a new Queens of the Stone Age record, it might as well be A MILLION FUCKING YEARS!!!
Z-Rock Hawaii
Earlier in the week Mr. Brown sent me a text alerting me to the fact that Dick Trickle passed. He spurred me to dig into the Ween catalogue and pump Stroker Ace - the song that really is the only reason why I know who Mr. Trickle was. This put Ween back in my thoughts, and led to my breaking out some White Pepper as I lay around reading on this lazy afternoon. While browsing through my nearly twenty Ween CD's (proper releases, odds-n-sods assemblies I made back during the Napster days and all of their Chocodog releases. I think the only two things I'm missing is, inexcusably, the proper 12 Golden Country Greats - which I always forget I'm missing until I go to listen to it because I have a demo version - and the Kostars record they contributed to with members of Luscious Jackson) and I come across Z-Rock Hawaii, the record the Ween Brothers made back in the day with Japanese insanity enclave The Boredoms. The entire thing is a masterpiece from a different world, but these are my two favorite songs from it.
People of the North (Oneida)
There are a ton of great band's I got into through my wife when I first met her. Helen Stellar, The Coral, 16 Horsepower, Add N to X, White light Motorcade to name a few. Oh, and Oneida, the shifting, guttural attack on order and sanity that gave us modern classics such as Enemy Hogs and A Place Called El Shaddai's. I've lost track of Oneida in recent years, so it was with great interest that I stumbled upon People of the North, an Oneida off-shoot band who are prepped to release new record Sub Contra on June 11th via Thrill Jockey.
People of the North are Kid Millions and Bobby Matador, and while I couldn't find any tracks from Sub Contra the above track is from 2010's Deep Tissue by the band. Nice. Also, here's an oldie but a goodie from Oneida:
Friday, May 17, 2013
Turn Pale
And as long as I'm thinking about them now, here's some Turn Pale. Follow the widget to their bandcamp and name your price for some really awesome music!
Young Boys - New York Sun
I'm really digging New York Sun by Young Boys. It immediately evoked old Rough Trade, as well as, in particular, a band I really like called Turn Pale.
Check out Young Boys' label, holloweyedrecords.
Check out Young Boys' label, holloweyedrecords.
Interview: Ryan Black's Tension
Dillinger Escape Plan - Gold Teeth on a Bum
Still Dillinger week here on my blog. I was able to pry One of Us is the Killer out of the car stereo twice since I got it - once yesterday for a rousing jag with Calculating Infinity and again today while stuck in terrible traffic on the 405. This time it was Option Paralysis.
Youth Code Live - Nothing Changes, NY
Really digging on this group right now. Go to Brooklyn Vegan here and scroll down - some fantastic pictures from Wednesday's show in NY.
NEW LIARS!!! FOR FREE
Go here - you enter your email and the country you live in and they'll give you two, count 'em two new Liars tracks!!! This is the video to one of them. New Liars is always good.
Joe Jackson - Steppin' Out
A facebook post from my friend John made me dart over and listen to this song. Always loved it but it's been about a year since I've heard it. The bass line has always struck me as a proto-techno bass line. Plus this particular youtube user's video is pretty cool.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
IO Echo - Addicted
Wow. This is awesome. I have something to go between Bat for Lashes and Zola Jesus, maybe wash it back with some Au Paris. I know NOTHING about IO Echo - just heard this on Garth Trinidad's show on KCRW. I'm guessing you'll see more of her/their stuff in the next few days, as my research commences.
New Franz Ferdinand!!! Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Actions
Releases 8/26/13. Very Nice. I'm quite a big fan of the first record. The guitar sound is to die for.
Dillinger Escape Plan - Crossburner
Okay, it's either this, the title track or When I Lost My Bet that stands as my favorite track on the new album so far. But every track is just so damn good and the flow of the album -ALWAYS a super important thing to me - is the best flow maybe since Calculating Infinity.
The bass guitar on this record CRUSHES.
RIP Dick Trickle w/ WEEN's Stroker Ace
Taking a suggestion from Mr. Brown and going public with it - this one's for the late Mr. Trickle.
"Light up the wheels and go for brokeStomp that pedal with a sniftin strokeSmack that roadblock caught in a pickleI'm gonna hit that line like old Dick Trickle"
New Queens of the Stone Age Video: "If I Had a Tail"
Good lord. There must be video content for almost every track on the album by now.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Dillinger Escape Plan - Live 2010
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Last one for tonight. Tomorrow I'll have had a day to let the record percolate in my ears and I'll post what my favorite track is.
Last one for tonight. Tomorrow I'll have had a day to let the record percolate in my ears and I'll post what my favorite track is.
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