Anything On Your Mind?
We’ve reached 2024 at this point. I’m running out of room here, what with the passage of time being what it mostly is. And since I wrote a 2025 year in review post, I guess this is the final year retrospective. At least in this direction. Will I start going backwards in time? Who can say? (Probably.)
Anyway, 2024, I changed jobs finally, and within about a week of not having my previous job, I had designed a new game. I have subsequently gotten a second one rolling, and I got a deluxe version of Fox in the Forest in print. Pretty good! It’s nice to do creative stuff again. As for the year in music, the RateYourMusic list for 2024 features seven of my albums on it. Yes, I’m framing it that way, it makes me feel like they missed the boat, not me. And so, to answer the question I was originally considering, which is whether I was more out of touch with music around 2011 or so than now, the answer based on this data seems to be: no. I was probably more aligned to popular tastes band then than I am today, which might be that the only albums I was finding back then were ones that had a lot of buzz around them. I guess this whole thing has been a waste of time.
Five Songs, baby!
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.
Let’s have a spin through the relatively recent 2024 and see how much stuff I’ve already forgotten. I’ll spare you the Concrete Winds album from that year, even though it rips.
Slave to the Scythe, Demiser
This album starts off at 11. From that snare roll into a drum solo into a guitar solo, Demiser wants you headbanging right away. The first time I played this album, as I was cleaning the kitchen, I busted out laughing. It’s absurd but it’s fun. They’re not afraid to be a little ridiculous. Taxonomically, this is blackened thrash, but it’s, like 95% thrash with only the vocals being blackened. I put this album on right now and started headbanging a little in my recliner. It seems dumb, but this album sounds cheerful to me. Like, yes, I know that the vocals are all “evil” or whatever, but this whole thing gives the air of a golden retriever who really wants to show you his cool stick. I dunno, I want to scratch this album behind its ears and then throw a tennis ball for it.
For the record, I like this album tons more than their previous album, in case anybody was wondering.
Soul Piece, A Plane to Catch*
Maybe my most-listened to album of 2024. You know the formula around here, it’s a funk/soul record, lots of horns, all the markers. So it comes down to the details. It sounds great, the melodies are really memorable, they can hold down the slower tempos and the uptempo stuff, it’s just immaculate. Every single element dialed in perfectly, and I just keep putting it on. If you only listen to one song, put on “Corny Big” and try and hold the stankface at bay.
To All Trains, Shellac
I will say up front: I am not a good enough writer to capture my feelings about Steve Albini properly. But as we get here, with his last record, which came out ten days after his untimely passing, I feel like I have to do my best. And it’s at least in no small part because Albini was always a fierce advocate of people authentically expressing themselves. I’ll do my best, and I think he’d appreciate the effort.
I first encountered Albini’s music in high school. A friend received a copy of Big Black’s Atomizer on wax for his birthday, which was an incredible call for him. And, by extension, for me. At the time, we were listening to a lot of punk, mostly of the Californian variety. Dead Kennedys, Descendents, things of that nature. Alongside that, we were also listening to a lot of industrial, including folks like Ministry and the various bands on the legendary Chicago label Wax Trax. And so, getting an all-timer of a record, featuring abrasive guitars and a drum machine, from a Chicago artist - it seemed like a perfect match. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it, though. After a little while, my buddy told me that he’d been listening to it a bunch and had really grown to like it, and so I tried paying closer attention. The song that first cracked me was “Bazooka Joe”. It’s unclear why that song in particular made it into my consciousness first. It could simply be that the first section of the song is legible as something adjacent to the industrial I was familiar with. Whatever the reason, my friend next bought Songs About Fucking on cassette (mostly as a gambit to annoy his mom, but also out of a desire to hear more). I was more receptive to it and the album sunk in pretty fast. I was a Big Black fan.
Albini was a presence in my life now, although I didn’t really know it yet. Information about music was sketchy in those days, especially in a more backwards kind of place like Spokane. We learned about music through word of mouth, the occasional magazine, a little bit of college radio, and just digging through record bins. I had no real idea who the people behind Big Black were or that Albini would turn out to be such a load-bearing part of my music experience. They were just a band that I liked. It wasn’t until I had access to Usenet, the old newsgroups that I still miss, that I figured it out. I had bought The Jesus Lizard’s first couple records, loved them, and happened to learn from an off-hand comment that he was the engineer behind them. That set me off on a path to finding more of the things he worked on, which led me to a startling amount of great music.
There’s a tweet I think about sometimes, that was along the lines that at some point, ever Gen-Xer realizes that every album they love was recorded by Steve Albini. And it’s not exactly true, but it’s not that far from the truth either. What’s striking to me isn’t even how many stunning records he had a hand in capturing, that’s something I’ve absorbed. What gets me is how often he recorded artists’ best records. And legendary artists, too. The Pixies? Yes. The Wedding Present. The Jesus Lizard. Superchunk (arguably). Jawbreaker. Mclusky. Cloud Nothings. Songs: Ohia. Some days, I’d argue Nirvana. I would not argue PJ Harvey, but she did record an absolute banger with him. And what those records share is that he was able to make those artists sounds the most like themselves. Many of those albums stand out to me as the standard for the band. That’s what those artists should sound like.
That’s what made him such an incredible engineer. He was always able to make sure that you were hearing the band, and nothing more. The ability to remove any barriers between their songs and your ears was an incredible gift to the world. And it ties back to his lifelong stance that what the world needs is authentic artistic statements. Authenticity can, of course, be a trap. The search for the most authentic experience can be absurd, it can sidetrack people, it can prevent you from recognizing something great that’s right in front of you. But that’s not what Albini was an advocate for. Instead, he was always interested in art, in music that was a true expression. Not something distorted by the market or corporate pressure or the A&R guy who dressed like you and just had some ideas he wanted to share about a couple of your songs. He wasn’t above a paycheck of course, but the artists he loved and talked about were the ones who didn’t compromise and made the music they wanted to make.
He wasn’t perfect, of course. Rather famously, he was a floridly edgy guy for a long time, from some of the stories he told in Big Black to the name of his band after Big Black to some very dumb magazine interviews. But to his credit, he never ran from any of that stuff later in life. He didn’t double-down on it. Instead, he actually examined his behavior, talked about it, apologized for it, and explained why that sort of thing can be harmful. There was an ownership of his past behavior that is unfortunately rare, and especially rare for famous older white guys.
“Uncompromising” was an adjective frequently applied to Albini. People would apply it to his music, which was often abrasive and could be off-putting. They would apply it to his anti-corporate stance, his contempt for the various sellouts in music. But I think there’s another lesson in his uncompromising nature. He was uninterested in things that diluted artistic vision. He had no patience for compromise, because it made for worse art. And worse art makes for a worse world.
In the end, Steve Albini left behind a legacy of not just a bunch of great records, both his own and ones he worked on, but a framework through which to view the world. That you should make the best are you can, with no compromises, and to treat the people around you with integrity and care on the way. And while this brief writeup is paltry compared to what he’s given me, it is honest, it’s from the heart, and I think he’d appreciate the sentiment. Thanks, Steve, I’m doing my best over here.
We’re Staying in 2024
Records come out every week, and also records came out in 2024!
I’m going to stick in 2024 because one, it’s recent enough and two, there are still some records I want to talk about.
Feral Hands, Tongues
SEATTLE GARAGE PUNK. You know I had to do it to ’em. This is the debut EP for this band, they’re delightful and full of energy, they followed up with a very fun LP, check it out.
Mindfuck Ultra, Yambag
First of all, naming game super-duper on point. Yambag? Great hardcore band name. Mindfuck Ultra is also an incredible album name. This would have been enough to get me to buy the record, even if I just ran across it in a record store while knowing nothing about it. But it turns out to be an absolutely ripping slab of hardcore, with the band blazing fast but keeping it tight. A delightful release. Why would you listen to a normal-ass 40 minute record when you could instead listen to this four times in a row? Answer me that!
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis, The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis
The Messthetics are Joe Lally and Brendan Canty, the rhythm section from post-hardcore legends (and Five Songs favorite) Fugazi, along with guitarist Anthony Pirog. For this album, they invited saxophonist James Brandon Lewis to play, and the band crossed over from “jazzy rock band” to “jazz”. You know me, I don’t know shit about jazz, but I know I like this. And it’s not just because I’m a huge Fugazi fan. I think.
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.
“Works and Days”, Tortoise
Nine years passed between Tortoise records, but it’s like no time had passed. Tortoise has always sounded a little like a band out of time, and not just because the sometimes languid songs felt like they were taking their time heading places. It’s more that their sound isn’t really strongly rooted to any particular time, because their jazzy side is something that’s been a part of music for decades and post-rock has never been popular so it doesn’t really have a time period associated with it. Anyway, they’re very good at what they do, and it sounds like I’m damning them with faint praise when I say this, but: this is for sure a Tortoise record. It’s nice, I like it, I’m happy to have it!
“Ohio”, Modest Mouse
After a couple smaller releases, Modest Mouse put out their first album in 1996, This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing to Think About. And I can’t believe I’m going to fall back on this trick in a second blurb, but…it sounds like Modest Mouse. Like, Isaac Brock is a distinctive enough singer and the way they write songs sounds was already there, so they were already basically themselves. I like the album a lot (although I think they would beat it on The Lonesome Crowded West), but I do wish they’d edited it just a little bit. It’s discursive in spots that I’m not sure really entirely work for me. This song, for example. I think the payoff for the last third of the song doesn’t really justify stringing things out quite that much.
“Who’ll Help Me Forget”, Buzzcocks
The Buzzcocks more or less invented pop-punk, releasing a few records in the late 70s before breaking up. At the end of the 80s they got back together and eventually recorded this album, Trade Test Transmissions, in 1993. This was actually the first album I ever heard from them, which wasn’t the way to see their influence or importance. It’s a decent record but certainly nothing earth-shaking, and it wasn’t until I picked up Singles Going Steady that I really got them.
“For Once in My Life”, Barbara McNair
Here we are with Motown in 1967, with a syrupy tune that sounds like it might be from the 50s instead of from Motown’s heyday.
“Middle Of”, Melkbelly
This is a fun piece of noise pop from Melkbelly, with the drummer being a particular standout. The whole record is like this, urgent and very active, driven especially by propulsive drumming and plenty of noisy parts that keep you interested. Excellent stuff.
Some Better Places To Learn About Music
Check these folks out, you’ll learn more for sure. In no particular order: To The Teeth, Wolf’s Week/Plague Rages, The Devil’s Mouth, Burning Ambulance, Lamniformes Cuneiform, Hex Records, See/Saw, Starkweather.