Anything On Your Mind?
Let’s set aside our slow stroll through my Music Idiot years for a show report. But not just any show report, it’s a show report ala Five Random Songs. Terrible, in other words.
Yesterday, we headed out to see Mercury Rev open for the Afghan Whigs. We’ve seen the Whigs plenty around here, including in the first post of the most recent reboot, but to sum up: I’m a big fan. The original run of records, especially Congregation through Black Love, is as good as a rock band gets. The post-reunion records have also been good, although it’s hard to match that peak. Still, Greg Dulli never stopped making music, so the Whigs were able to come back together and not miss a step.
Mercury Rev, meanwhile, have apparently kept going although I haven’t kept touch with them. I’ve got three records in the collection, and they’re only occasional listens. I certainly respect their approach, and I’m a big fan of the Flaming Lips which means, in practice, that I am also sort of a Mercury Rev Enjoyer, given the many ties between the bands. I thought it might be fun to see what they’re up to these days.
Well, Mercury Rev went on time right on the dot (wise given how many old farts were in the audience, your faithful correspondent very much included), and they played for about 50 minutes solid with no real breaks between songs. Between the discursive tunes that Mercury Rev has always had, the fog machine that occasionally blurted out enough mist to completely conceal the band, a lighting approach that was almost purely backlighting, the lack of breaks or banter, and my inability to recognize their tunes other than one, the whole thing kind of washed over me. I was nowhere near high enough for their whole thing. They knew what they were doing, they were indisputably playing Mercury Rev material, they sounded good overall, and yet, it was just kind of frying me. I tuned out.
A brief break while they dragged a bunch of amps up on stage, and the Whigs went on about a half hour later. They sounded great! They were playing stuff at a faster tempo than on the original albums, but it worked fine given the live energy. They were playing a nice mix of stuff across their records, with a couple cuts each from Congregation and Gentlemen, a song from Black Love, even a couple tunes from the underrated 1965.
A digression: ah, “underrated”. The refuge of the rascal music critic, where you can, with one word, provide a convenient fictional foil for yourself, setting your serene wisdom against the dumbass hoi polloi. This works even if there is no actual dumbass consensus attached to the record. Nobody will check! “Underrated” is all just vibes. It usually just means that said critic didn’t really like the record very much initially and then came around to liking it. For example, after writing this screed, I went to look at the ratings for the Whigs’ records on Rate Your Music. And 1965 is higher than Gentlemen! What are people thinking? Um, I mean: 1965 is rated higher than the underrated Gentlemen.
Anyway, they also mixed in some songs from the recent records and those songs sounded solid. Dulli can’t quite howl the way he used to, but the faster pace especially of the old material helped cover up for that. I was having a great time.
And then we had to leave early to go get my daughter from the airport. Dunno how it all wrapped up. Five Songs says: check ’em out!
What Are You Listening To, Josh?
A sampling of albums that I’m playing regularly, whether older ones or newer ones. Just the things that I think are worth highlighting, and maybe you’d enjoy.
Better Late Than Never, The Slackers
One of the most common bands around here, the Slackers are often in my rotation in one way or another. And mostly, any of their records can find their way to regular spins. There are three records that I don’t listen to much, though. One is Close My Eyes, which is a very good record, but the second song (“Old Dog”) makes me cry every time and I don’t need that. (Seriously, don’t seek it out, it’s very sad.) The second is The Question, which mostly doesn’t resonate with me. The last is their first record, this one, which didn’t really have a reason why it doesn’t come out much. They sounded like themselves from the beginning, and I very much enjoyed this record when it came out in 1996. So I’ve decided to just go ahead and sit with this record more and get more familiar with it. And you know what? From the first play, I actually remembered the lyrics just fine, so I think I really did play this a lot back in the day. Anyway, it’s a good record and I’m going to keep it going for a little while.
At some point, I’ll do a ranking of their records. The Slackers are not the greatest ska band of all time (that’s the Skatalites, without really any question) or the most influential (that’s probably the Specials), but they are my favorite.
You Are Not The Boss Of Me!, Sicko
For a band that had only four studio records, Sicko sure places high in the number of times they show up here. I have told the silly story about how I first found out about them before, but they’re just one of those bands that has and always will click with me. A combination of a genre I love, being from my own home town (not that many bands from Spokane to take pride in!), having a guy named Josh on the drums, being self-proclaimed computer nerds, and hitting me at the right time, they are just one of those perfect bands. I can’t really see them objectively. They played a one-off reunion show last year and I was so happy to see them again that I teared up. Their records are basically always in rotation for me.
So do me a favor: if you like pop-punk, have a listen. Maybe they’ll hit you just right also.
Double or Nothing, Unsteady
As I noted last time, spring is for ska. The Slackers up there are, to my mind (and maybe only mine), the giants of the third wave. I’ve told the story of the third wave on here multiple times, but whatever, let’s have a condensed version of it. The first wave, the start of things, were the artists of Jamaica combining mento with jazz and creating something new. People like Prince Buster, the Skatalites, the Wailers and others. The second wave were the 2 Tone bands in the late 70s mostly in England, taking ska and fusing it with punk to create a new variation and a revival of ska. The Specials, the Beat, and the Selector are some of the bigger bands from this wave. The third wave was mostly inspired by 2 Tone, with the rumbles of it starting in the mid-80s but really gaining steam in the late 80s and early 90s and reaching a commercial peak in the mid-90s with people like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Rancid, and No Doubt being big acts for a little while. The wave did crash in the late 90s, with a backlash against the music turning the genre into a punchline.
All right, that popular story mostly focused on the commercial peaks, but there were plenty of bands in each wave that were inspired to do some fun stuff that never really got much attention. The third wave in particular was loaded with these sorts of bands, which I know because I was very much on top of this stuff as it came out. Unsteady is one of those bands that went by the wayside. Their first record, Tightrope, showed enough promise for them to land on Asian Man Records, one of the bigger labels of the third wave. Double or Nothing is just a fun batch of songs, where they aren’t afraid to bring in some jazz in places, like the languid “Ibarra”, or letting things really swing with stuff like “One For The Road”. It’s just a fun record across the board, and I really wanted them to follow it up.
Amazingly, they did, a mere 24 years later. I’ll talk about that record some other time, but in the meantime, enjoy one of the lost gems of the third wave.
Let’s Talk New Releases
Records come out every week, and there’s no way to stay on top of them. This isn’t a comprehensive look at everything, just a few things that have caught my ears out of recent releases. Any impressions here are very early!
奇しく燃える, Raw Distractions
I’m going to level with you: I don’t know if this record is good or not. It’s garage-y hardcore, with lots of barked vocals in Japanese. It’s certainly fun to listen to, but is it good? Is it going to stick around? I don’t have any idea. But I do keep putting it on. So I dunno, maybe it just kind of has that something that makes stuff like this works. Oh, and one of the songs quotes the riff from “In My Eyes”, which is fun. At least, I hope it’s a quote.
Extra Cheese, NAHreally
Loops, loops, loops. The production here (done by NAHreally himself) is spare, with most tracks being just a tasty, embellished loop. But damn, what great choices in those loops. Jazzy and interesting, they’re all more than enough to carry the songs, and NAHreally sounds great on the mic. Just a really well-constructed, fun listen.
Blood Pact, Urban Sprawl
I don’t want to be super rigid about my categories or format here. If I want to write about a thing, I’m going to go for it. This isn’t a buying guide, it’s not a year-end roundup, it’s just some records that maybe other people might want to check out. For the new releases section, I am going to try and stick to releases within the past year. I understand that a record from a year ago isn’t going to feel super new, but at the same time, just focusing on stuff within the past couple weeks would feel like I’m on a treadmill. One last note: EPs and albums are totally fine here. I’ll avoid singles, generally speaking.
Anyway: here’s an EP that released in September of last year. This is just pure hardcore: fast riffs, barking vocals, pounding drums. But they keep some variation to things, it’s not all just uniform racing, which I think is good in a hardcore record. And an EP is a great length for hardcore, enough to wake you up and get you going without overstaying its welcome. Add in some fun cover art and you’ve got a winner. This one resurfaced for me recently and I’ve been enjoying it again.
Five Random Songs
Yes, it’s the “classic” five random songs format. It’s been told before on this blog many times, but basically, on an old forum, people would post the last five songs their shuffle pulled up. I liked it, so I made it into a blog. And now, here we are.
“Installation”, Akufen
Akufen is an electronic artist who worked in the same kind of microhouse/glitch sort of area as one of my favorites, Jan Jelinek. On this album, My Way, he used a technique he called “microsampling” to use tiny bits of noise as building blocks for his tracks. It’s an approach that appeals more to the head than the body, but it’s a peaceful, interesting thing to listen to. Highly recommend it if you like this kind of thing, and if you’re encountering microhouse for the first time, this is a great intro to it.
“No More Peace And Quiet For The Warlike”, Don Caballero
This is a track from Singles Breaking Up, Volume 1, a collection of miscellaneous non-album tracks from their earlier years. This is all totally recognizable as Don Caballero, heavy instrumental noise rock with drums as the lead instrument. As always with this kind of thing, it’s not going to be super coherent, because none of this was designed for an album release. But Don Cab was always consistent, so if you want more from the band, this is definitely more.
“Going Nowhere”, Dumptruck
I don’t know Dumptruck super well. They’re a band from Boston that were pretty big in what would have been called “college rock” in the 80s, but that was largely before I ever paid attention to them. I did hear their name periodically but didn’t really learn much. Rykodisc put out a compilation in 2006 that was getting good reviews, and I picked it up. And it’s fine, good even, but in the absence of fond memories, it never really connected with me that much. Too pretty. This is definitely a me problem.
“Chuck Schuldiner”, Edenic Past
See, it says an awful lot about me that I’d rather listen to this absolutely ridiculous thing than that previous song. That’s clearly a bad choice! Anyway, one of the things about the various subgenres of metal is that sometimes you form them by applying an adjective to another genre. So, this is what you get adding “brutal” to death metal, as opposed to just regular death metal. Somehow, even less listenable! Those subterranean burbling vocals are the biggest characteristic, along with an instrumental approach that is best described as “churning”. This is, objectively, ridiculous, and mostly I try and hide my shame at listening to this stuff. But whatever, here you are. You can skip ahead, don’t worry, that’s normal. For the record, this is one of Colin Marston’s many projects, I don’t know how the guy does as much stuff as he does.
“Octopus Has No Friends”, Mastodon
After taking their progressive approach to sludge metal about as far as they could with Crack the Skye, Mastodon retreated from that direction on their next LP, The Hunter. It’s a more straightforward set of songs, without the epic feel and scope of that record. Personally, I kind of wish they’d just kept going, I wanted to see how ridiculous they could have become if they kept heading in the original direction. The nod towards accessibility isn’t totally successful for me. As should be obvious from the previous song, “accessible” isn’t always my bag. The band is still masterful in spots, but it’s just not quite as awesome on this album. They never made a bad album, but this is my least listened to record from them.