We had a track from this album just a couple days ago, and I guess my opinion hasn’t changed in those two days. Still a good record, still not totally put together. This riff is a classic RFTC riff, though.
Nice of shuffle to give us a saxophone after hitting us with a sax-less RFTC track. This is a good example of their “wedding band gone wrong” aesthetic right here.
[Read More]This is a punk band named X, but not THAT one. This one is from Australia, which is why Amphetamine Reptile credited them this way after re-issuing the record. This album came out in 1979, actually pre-dating the first album by the Los Angeles X, although the latter had already formed. Parallel evolution! Anyway, as you can hear, this is pretty aggressive stuff for the time, and is a solid early punk record. This is one of those records that was more inspirational than it was popular but is worth hunting down to listen to.
[Read More]Bark Psychosis’s first run consisted of this album, Hex, after which they broke up. They did reunite ten years later for another record, but I haven’t listened to it. This album is hard to characterize. It’s kind of dream pop and kind of post-rock, and it’s unabashedly ambitious which is always nice. The compositions are big and the arrangements even bigger. This blurring of genre boundaries and fearlessness about incorporating technology is something that was unusual in pop or rock at the time.
[Read More]This is a pretty straightforward song from Future of the Left, perhaps to kind of match the subject of the song.
There’s another band that this is really reminding me of, and I’m totally unable to put my finger on it. That sensation, of a band or song remaining just outside of your grasp, is one of the most frustrating things for my brain. Super painful, and I don’t know how I can clear this one out.
[Read More]Bitches Brew didn’t create the category of jazz fusion, but basically everything in the genre after it builds on it.
Uh, or so I’m told.
Brooklyn quartet The Men returned to their earlier sound and approach with Devil Music, producing a ripping set of ten songs that clocks in at a little over a half hour. We’re softies around here for this kind of garage punk, so of course this is a delight.
[Read More]As a result of Five Songs, I’ve actually been on a Rocket From The Crypt kick lately. It’s been great! I don’t ever see them get mentioned any more, but they kicked ass across seven albums (not even counting the excellent compilations!) and people should listen to them. This is how their final studio album kicked off, and it smokes.
Autoclave was not around long, putting out a couple EPs on Discord before disappearing. But the members wouldn’t disappear - Slant 6 arose from their ashes, but more significantly, this was Mary Timony’s (Helium, Wild Flag, Ex Hex) first band. Imagine doing this in high school! Incredible.
[Read More]Little known band out of the UK, Zeppelin presaged…uh, sorry, I can’t do this.
I really only have a couple things to say about most bands, and I’m legitimately terrified of just repeating them. Individual bands mostly don’t come up often enough for me to really remember what I’ve said before, and goodness knows I don’t go back and read previous entries before writing something. I’m not going anywhere here with this. I’m mostly just positing that I’m just a bag of random associations doing a stimulus/response over here, and I’m constantly concerned that I’m going to be revealed to be the worthless hack that I am at any moment.
[Read More]Dave Hillyard has been in a bunch of ska bands during his time, most notably as part of The Slackers from the beginning. He has his own solo project where he plays his own compositions and sings. He put out a new record this year, The Giver, and this song gives you an idea of what you’re in for.
[Read More]Folks, they can’t all be winners.
Can we just admire the naming going on here? Scissorfight? “Victory Over Horseshit”? That’s good stuff. I mean, the album isn’t that great or anything, but whatever.
Yeah, there’s no way this is going to be on YouTube, is it?
(looks)
Hooray! I’m very lazy, so that’s great news.
OK, Plexasaurus Rex, let’s get some meat on the bone here, not much to talk about so far.
[Read More]New verison of Ghost! So far, I don’t like it. Whatever. Still basically works. I have music for you!
I have a very distinct memory of listening to this album while wandering around Wean Hall at my college, and paying a lot of attention to it, and deciding that I just didn’t really like it very much. I’m not sure what set me off about it, but I very much decided that Lungfish weren’t for me. This is from their debut album, and apparently they lasted for a long time, and I stuck to my guns. I haven’t heard anything else from them. Maybe they were good! I don’t know!
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