Anything On Your Mind?
All right, let’s check out 2014 now. I think of this year as the year that I kind of woke back up to music, but as I look over the last few years, I’m not really sure that that’s true. My lows maybe weren’t quite as clueless as I thought, and I don’t think this year was a big revelation. I was probably a bit better plugged in to music writing by this time, but I was still toiling in the kid mines, so it’s really pretty incremental. I suspect that one of the things that stands out is an album I highlight below that maybe a genre of music a bigger part of my music diet.
As usual, we’ll have a quick look at the RateYourMusic chart for 2014. I’ve only got 7 of these records in my library, which suggests that I really was pretty out of step with people. At least the people who rate things on RYM. I am going to end up looking at all of these things, and then I’m going to graph it, and you’re all going to hate me. It’s going to be “number of top RYM records” and “total albums” for each year.
What Are You Listening To, Josh?
As we’ve been doing with these little year retrospectives, I’m going to highlight three favorites from 2014 here.
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.
Piñata, Freddie Gibbs & Madlib
RateYourMusic gets a lot of stuff wrong (which begs the question of why I’m using it for this, but that’s because it’s there and I’m lazy), but this one being on top of the 2014 list is a perfectly solid pick. Madlib, of course, is one of the best to ever do it, but his records can sometimes wander a bit when they’re unanchored. Freddie Gibbs, with his excellent gangsta cadence and street tales, proves to be the perfect foil for Madlib’s hazy beats. It comes out as a classic partnership, with both artists raising their games. Madlib’s beats are still fascinating constructions, with strange sounds floating in and out, murky baselines rumbling in unexpected ways, and the whole thing kind of sounding like it’s going to fall apart. Gibbs just sounds on point the whole time. Even the guest spots on the record, often a weak point in albums, are well-chosen and work well. This is top flight work by both of them.
The Both, The Both
I was a little surprised not to see this on the 2014 list for RYM, as it seems like it was pretty buzzy at the time and one of those records that everybody loves. But I might be misreading the room here - upon examination, this record has a grand total of 165 ratings, compared to 35K for Piñata. Don’t ever change, RYM!
Anyway, the Both. Let’s follow one great partnership with another. Aimee Mann and Ted Leo toured together and decided they wanted to do a project. After spending some time writing, they recruited a drummer and recorded this album. When you’ve got two artists of this stature working together, it’s an open question as to whether the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts. And it just now occurred to me that both of these records are asking that question, and both emphatically answer in the positive. Upon going back to edit this, I’m questioning whether to leave any of this in. Whatever!
Mostly, Mann and Leo sound fantastic singing together, and it’s just a really pleasant record. See! I can like nice stuff!
The Mother of All Virtues, Pyrrhon
I also like this.
Look, I know, extreme metal is for sure not to everybody’s taste. “Extreme” kind of gives it away. It’s especially true for something as discordant as this. It’s unclear even to me what it is that I like about this record. Part of the reason is that it’s another step down a path I’ve walked for decades, starting as a teenager. I discovered that I enjoyed stuff that is noisier, faster, more aggressive that the stuff on the radio. That realization started with the likes of the Descendents, Dead Kennedys, and Ministry and eventually wound up here.
Some of the appeal, I suppose, is the search for novelty. The excitement of transgression needs constant renewal, as yesterday’s transgression becomes today’s routine. I’m certainly not going to deny the role surprise plays in listening to this stuff. But those factors don’t capture everything I appreciate.
I’ve listened to this album a lot. It was the record that really cemented my tastes as having evolved from metal being an occasional side dish in my musical diet to a main course. If this album had just moved the goal posts of noise for me and that was it, I would have worn out on it years ago. But a funny thing happens with an album like this, all racket and squalling and roaring, as it becomes familiar. There’s a beauty that emerges from all that noise. You appreciate the technical skill required to make this happen. You admire the composition of everything, of creating something this complex. The specific trappings of it, the ugliness, matter less as the care comes to the forefront. It’s never going to be pretty, of course, in the way that Mann and Leo harmonizing is. But that’s not the point. It’s still an incredible piece of art, and admiration fuels a great deal of my enjoyment of it.
Plus, of course, it bangs. Never underestimate the power of a great riff.
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!
Loveletter to Hardcore, Shaved Ape
It sure is.
“Shaved Ape” is an incredible name for a hardcore band, by the way.
波地獄 (Post Purgatory), 破地獄 (Scattered Purgatory)
I’m going to assume that most of the people that read this thing (hello, friends!) skip over the extreme metal stuff. That’s sensible. You don’t want to end up as the person that hears a garbage truck doing its thing and just thinks “hell yeah, sick”. Many such cases. I’m going to suggest to those intelligent folks to not skip over this thing. This is another one from friend of the blog, the inimitable Wolf Rambatz, and he goes on a journey describing it. I am similarly tempted to do the same, but I’m going to restrain myself. A little.
There’s very, very clear Krautrock influence here. Alongside that, I hear some 2000s era Einstürzende Neubauten in the way the rhythms and the sounds making those rhythms are put together. There’s drone, there’s some metallic parts here and there, there’s segments that sound like, I dunno, a lost Tricky record. And so it goes - no matter what you’re looking for, you’ll find elements of it here and there. This album is a kaleidoscope, and whatever facet catches your ear this time, you’ll hear something different next time. It’s an album that really rewards your attention, over and over.
Elephant, Adam O’Farrill
You (sophisticated, knowledgeable, worldly): [cool jazz words] Me (oafish, ignorant, crude): I LIKE TRUMPET
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.
“Celtic Frost”, Persher
How much is a genre tied to the instrumentation? It varies, of course. It’s hard to imagine, I dunno, a polka without an accordion, although admittedly that is probably more a consequence of my sustained exposure to “Weird Al” Yankovic during my formative years than it is from any genre essentialism. If I were to read the Wikipedia page on polka, I’m sure I’d learn about a dozen variations of it, and that my blinkered understanding is desperately wrong. [Checks.] Yeah, sure enough.
Anyway: can you make ugly metal mostly using synths? Persher emphatically answers that with an enthusiastic yes.
“John Henry Split My Heart (Demo)”, Songs: Ohia
The Magnolia Electric Co., depending on who you listen to, was either the final Songs: Ohia record or the self-titled debut of Jason Molina’s new band name. Either way, it’s still Molina’s show, with maybe a different stylistic direction. This record is pretty widely considered a masterpiece, a career highlight for Molina, who was very prolific during his prematurely shortened life. It’s also something of an unusual record for Steve Albini to have worked on, as the sort of country-ish rock of this album isn’t the sort of thing he’s known for. That said, the album sounds incredible, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. This demo is one of the bonus cuts included on a deluxe version, and shows where the song came from. It’s beautiful even in this form.
“Be Thankful”, Foetus
It’s hard to really capture Foetus’s career in a little thumbnail. From 1981 through 2025, J.G. Thirlwell released music under the Foetus moniker, tied together with a through line of griminess, cinematic drama, and layers of noise. I’d say there’s nothing like it, but that’s not true, as he spawned plenty of imitators, some of which were even pretty good at it (such as Raymond Watts aka PIG). But nobody really fully captured the alchemy, the sense that every one of these songs is somehow part of some giant, confusing movie. This tune comes to us from the Null EP, released as a dual-CD set in the US alongside Void (as, of course, Null/Void). Add “retrospective of Foetus records” to the list of things I should write up one day.
“What’s Usual Seems Natur’l”, Eric Mercury
We’re late in the Stax/Volt story with this tune, in 1972, after Stax signed a distribution deal with CBS and was really starting the decline phase. The music of this period is all pleasant enough, but it really doesn’t have the same kick as the Atlantic years or their independent years. As with all of the Stax/Volt singles, you can find much worse ways to spend your time, but really, the other periods are better ways to spend that time.
“Go Be Delighted”, Girls Against Boys
Girls Against Boys arrived on Touch & Go records with this record, taking their dual-bass attack to a bigger label and getting plenty of traction in the rock underground as a result. Due to that overstuffed rhythm section, said rhythms were always front and center on their records, giving a feeling to me of combining post-hardcore with a bit of dance music. I dunno, probably only me. At any rate, it was never totally successful to my ear. I know I should like this stuff a lot, and I kept buying records from them (I have four in the library), but despite that effort, I was never totally convinced.