J Church

HELLO FROM THE FUTURE

It’s time to get ahead on writing this blog. Gonna try and keep a strong update pace. There’s a virtue in steadiness and predictability, which will help me build an audience. Which I will absolutely fail to do because the blog is ofputting and strange, the music is unappealing, and I am blazingly inept at self-promotion.

HIT IT PLEXASAURUS REX!

Man or Astro-Man?, “U-235/PU-239”

A relative rarity here, with mostly instrumental surf/sci-fi rockers Man or Astro-Man? turning in some vocals. But it’s all reverbed out and the drums are echo-y, so it’s all good with me. I also just learned that they put out a record in 2013, time to go check that one out.

Jake One, “Great Sound”

You know, if you’re going to do a skit, this is the way to do it.

J Church, “Cosmonaut”

A cut from the final J Church album, The Horror of Life. By this point, Lance Hahn was already battling the kidney problems that would claim his life the same year the record was released, but the record doesn’t really show any signs of decline. A genius to the end.

Do I still remember how to do this? I guess I’ll find out!

I took a break from the grind of daily music blogging last October, because it was starting to wear me out. Needing to figure out something to say about these songs each day felt like I was really straining, and it wasn’t serving the purpose of a creative outlet nor a reminder of songs I’d forgotten about it. It was a slog, unfun, and I had proven to myself that I was capable of blogging every single day but I no longer wanted to do so. This project is, in the end, for myself. There are no ads, no monetization, and frankly, no audience. If I’m not having fun, there’s no point.

Young Hunter, “Nothing Shakes the Void”

Doom. Dooooooooooooom. very slow headbang Dooooooooooooooooooooom.

June of 44, “Of Information & Belief”

You know, I wasn’t paying attention, and this song started seamlessly enough that I didn’t even notice we switched. That probably says more about me than it does about the bands, but I’m going to willfully choose to believe that it says we’ve got a good playlist cooking today. Yeah, that’s it! I’m not just quarter-assing my way through this thing! I’m a professional!

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Purple Haze”

‘Scuse me while I fuck this blog!

Steady Ernest, “Roll On”

Didn’t we just have Steady Ernest? I wonder what the most frequent ska band we’ve had show up here is? Seems like it should be the Slackers, just going off the number of albums I have from them. 22 tracks from the Slackers. Geez. I don’t remember them showing up that much. I guess I’ve been doing this for a while.

The Sound Stylistics, “Get Ya Some”

From the Mocambo Funk Forty Fives, a comp collecting, uh, funk forty fives from Mocambo Records. The label is a reliable source for this kind of stuff, so this collection is a very fun time. Listen to this, the flute lead is delightful.

J Church, “Violent Motions Created”

This is a darker palette than J Church usually work with, both in the music and the vocal delivery. But, as always with them, their instincts for not letting a song drag on serve them well. Get it out there, get the point across, get on to the next thing. You want more? Listen to it again!

Bim Skala Bim, “Wandering Soul”

Yeah, let’s hear it for 90s ska! Hey, what are you doing with that tomato?

Bim Skala Bim’s Bones is the one where they really cemented their sunny sound, sort of a pop/ska approach that they would more or less carry through the rest of their records. I think I’ve listened to their version of “Brain Damage” more than Pink Floyd’s original.

Elf Power, “Upside Down”

That’s a pretty tough sound for Elf Power! I’d like them better with more of this kind of thing.

The Magnetic Fields, “Meaningless”

Pretty sure this is a repeat!

The National, “Afraid of Everyone”

This is also a repeat!

(That’s a lie, I just don’t want to figure out anything to say about the National. Don’t want to make people mad!)

La Gritona, “Jack Passion”

La Gritona were a noise rock band out of Boston, active in the second half of the 90s, who put out one album and some EPs before ending things. And they smoke, all heavy skronk and yelling, exactly the kind of stuff that’s up my alley. But I had no idea they existed, because by the time their album came out in 1997, I was out of college and slowly losing touch with music. Luckily, their entire catalog was compiled together into a re-release in 2010, where a postiive review brought it to my attention. And maybe this will bring them to someone else’s attention, because this stuff rules.

Iron Chic, “My Best Friend (Is a Nihilist)”

Had I encountered this when I was 17, I’m sure I would have adored it. As it is, I like it just fine, but I’m also far more likely to listen to the punk that I encountered when I actually was 17. It’s nothing personal, we just make emotional connections with this kind of thing when we’re young.

Alarmist, “Expert Hygiene”

squints Jazz fusion? Elaborate post-rock? Post-math-rock? Math jazz?

Mac DeMarco, “The Way You’d Love Her”

Like a lot of people, I first encountered DeMarco with Salad Days, which is a charming, reverb-soaked album full of ringing guitar tone and low-key songs. It’s really enjoyable in the right mood, but I have to say that for me, the rewards declined pretty quickly. It’s not that Another One is bad or anything, all the charms of the other album are present. It’s just that I don’t really listen to it much, it’s sort of redundant for me.