Eric Clapton - Pilgrim

I glanced at the back of this CD and was shocked to see that it was released in 1998. All this time I was sure that the only reason I ever bought it was because it was part of the confused "adult rock" phase I went through between 1993 and 1995 or so, where I listened to WXRT every day, got into artists like Lyle Lovett and Los Lobos, and grew to appreciate the more nuanced qualities of the Dave Matthews Band. By 1998 I was pretty much obsessed with Sonic Youth, Stereolab, My Bloody Valentine and The Orb. Why would I have purchased this album?

Eric Clapton's Unplugged was the first CD I ever bought with my own money. I have no idea why I did so or if I even knew who the fuck Eric Clapton was at that point. Maybe my friend Neal had some of his CDs, ones probably purloined from his stepbrother, the young man he clung to with abject devotion following the divorce of his parents and his bitter astrangement from his dad. Neal had chronic acne with festering pimples that constantly secreted bacteria-infested oil, violently took the Chevy side of the eternal "Chevy vs. Ford" war in regular unprovoked outbursts, and took out his anger on his younger brother on a daily basis in beatings which, in hindsight, bordered on sexual abuse. He also listened to country and whatever Christian rock our youth pastor had at the time, desperately seeking a new father figure and striving to impress and emulate potential candidates every chance he could get. He's now married and "works for the county" or something and tragically has spawned at least two children of his own.

Eventually I broke off my friendship with him and spent the rest of my adolescence as a close friend of his younger brother. We listened to The Cream of Clapton while playing pool in his unfinished basement. We rollerskated on the concrete floors to Siamese Dream and the first Weezer album and all was well. Absolutely none of this explains why I would have heard "My Father's Eyes" and thought to myself "Whoa, this is a good song! I gotta have this album."

I sold this CD long ago and picked it up again at the library yesterday. I listened to about half of it before returning it a few hours ago. The last song has a late-90s trip-hop intro but veers into smooth jazz. Is this really the same hungry young man that brought us "Sunshine of Your Love" and "Change the World"?

Notably, the album cover was designed by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, character designer for Evangelion, FLCL, and many more animated series and films. I just picked up the new Eva movie last week and it's pretty great, but I would think so wouldn't I?

Rating:



Download: none

Homostupids - The Load

It doesn't get much more hilariously brutal than Homostupids. Two years after The Intern took the underground by storm, these sultans of swing return with another overpowering blast of neanderthal tantrum hardcore. And it's all over in less than 20 minutes! Once again, it sounds like a bunch of janitors spitting all over Dischord's entire '80s roster. I feel like the production sparkles a little bit more this time around, though. And it suits the occasional snatches of synth like at the end of "The Glow/The Edge" and in "Therapist," which sounds like the Blank Dogs guy taking a sizzling poop. A few of the rhythms on The Load certainly do suggest an affinity for the stop-start "cyberpunk" leanings of Chrome, as well as fellow carriers of that band's torch such as the Daily Void or maybe Jay Reatard back when he screamed everything. They throw in some tape manipulation, bird sound effects, and even a few slow parts like the one that follows the surprisingly emotional main chord progression in "Baking The Wolf," but everything still pretty much rips all the way through. As much as I loved The Intern, I can see this new one permanently replacing it in my mind. Can't wait to hear them figure out new and exciting ways to completely tear shit up. Lovely stuff from a lovely band.

Rating: Instant classic!!! Between this record, Vile Gash, and Mentally Challenged, face slashingly abrasive hardcore punk and I are tighter than ever before in 2009.

Download Link: I dunno where it is.

Various Artists - The World's Lousy With Ideas Vol. 8

You don't have to sit through tediously shitty albums by Sic Alps, Tyvek, Thee Oh Sees, Times New Viking, Blank Dogs, and other heavy-hitters in the nü lo-fi crap revival. Just throw on this 30 minute release for a snapshot of the scene in action. The shitgaze Nuggets? No New York? Fat Music For Fat People? DFA Compilation #2? Pick your favorite! The variety of bands here is essential, in my humble opinion. Having said that, everything still sounds the same except the Pink Reason song, an apocalyptic juggernaut that bulldozes everything in its path, including the eight songs that came before it. Like a fucking hurricane. Watch the danger birds fly over head. Look, there's Cortez dancing across the water. Are you catching my drift here? I guess it doesn't sound that much like Crazy Horse but it's the first thing I thought of. The Intelligence and Vivian Girls songs are good, too.

Rating: One of the great musical artifacts of our time. The other volumes are even better because there aren't as many songs.

Download Link: Here it is.

Space- Magic Fly

Space- Magic Fly

This is a hardcore album about space. Not the genre hardcore, but what would actually probably be the Apollo soundtrack by Brian Eno if Brian Eno had the fucking cajones to do enough coke to kill Gary Busey.

References to actors become dated after a decade of non-use! (Repeat three times, go into chorus)

I'm not kidding, this is a fucking awesome album and the theme of outer space dictates how all the instruments should sound and play. Apparently the song Magic Fly was a huge disco hit, and that people actually "got down to it" in a place of "recreational song and dance marked by the use of mirrored balls, non-lighting and serious facial hair."

Isn't it stupid that when talking about anything hardcore, I have to differentiate a genre from a descriptive superlative? We're all a bunch of pussies writing about music that we listen to alone because nobody likes us. We write things about the intangible qualities of music and how they affect our tangible cochlea connected to our beating, bloody brains. Think about how bloody and gross your brain is, and then think about that same brain on hardcore music! Time to throw out your Rites of Spring albums before your brain resembles Granfalloon from Symphony of the Night, a rocking Castlevania adventure. Actually, that would be pretty awesome and if I could have zombies falling off my brain I might have more marketable skills than I currently do (ZERO).

What I like best about this album is that it seems like it should appear in some sort of Garth Mahrengi's Dark Place episode, which takes place in the future and Garth Mahrengi is a space occultist and scientist.

I hope Leif doesn't get mad that I updated after taking a two year break!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: An essential must own album filled with b-sides and remixes of songs you already love to love. Order today for three easy payments of $420, $6.66 and $8008135!

Download: The whole fucking album of course!

Evangelista - Prince of Truth

I think I read in some review (Dusted Magazine?) of this album that Carla Bozulich got pneumonia right before the sessions and so she had to do all her vocals separately and edit all the noise making and soundscapery that she wasn't able to oversee into something that met her satisfaction. So there's some explanation as to why this isn't as explosive as last year's Hello, Voyager. Even if the compositions here don't quite meet the standard set by that album (nor is that really Bozulich's aim), there is still a lot on Prince of Truth to chew on.

The music here is slow, droney, and beautifully recorded. The accordion or harmonium or whatever is probably what is earning this all the Tom Waits comparisons, but the experience of listening to these tracks is more akin to one of those SUNN O))) side projects or Scott Walker's avant-garde classical curio And Who Shall Go To The Ball And What Shall Go To The Ball. Lots of semi-improvised mood pieces to lose yourself in and maybe end up falling asleep to, but with plenty of variations in the dark noise brutality level. "Tremble Dragonfly" is pretty representative of what most of the album sounds like, a restrained dirge full of carefully plucked upright bass and mournful string arrangements with murmured Bozulich vocals. Throw this bad boy into some headphones and launch yourself into a richly unsettling world of sound! And if that's not enough for you, just stop on by the balls deep drone of nine and half minute long closer "On The Captain's Side," which isn't quite the knockout epic death/life slab that Hello, Voyager's title track was, but its windy rumblings and double tracked vocal sighs are welcome, nonetheless.

"The Slayer" and "You Are Jaguar"... these are the rockers. "I Lay There In Front of Me Covered In Ice"... this is the closest thing to a real song with a real vocal melody. "Iris Didn't Spell" and "Crack Teeth" kind of sound like Talk Talk or Bark Psychosis because of the drums and that harmonium thing (maybe I'm thinking of a melodica, who knows!) And I just named every song on the album, which I must say is actually pretty damn enjoyable. Carla Bozulich is good at making music and working with other people who are also good at making music, yep. Hopefully next time she won't get sick.

Rating: Great stuff here!

Download Link: "I Lay There In Front of Me Covered In Ice"... it's a song. If this isn't dark enough for you, then you'll love the rest even more!

Black Eyes - Cough

Most hardcore punk rockers would disagree, but Cough is way better than that first album they did. What are the differences exactly? "More abstract"... perhaps that will do. "Saxophone"... there certainly is some. A wider variety of moods are (is?) encompassed. Drums are occasionally done away with to splendid effect. Free jazz chaos reigns. What many listeners would describe as a "lack of structure" actually makes things more interesting this time around. It is a shame when bands who are clearly getting better cease making music but who knows, maybe the next album would have sucked. Regardless, Cough captures a fearless band at its most adventurous, and when one considers the sea of mediocre acts soiling the good names of "experimentation" and "abrasiveness," their presence has been missed.

Rating: Really good album.

Download Link:

Black Eyes - Black Eyes

Yelpy no wave that grooves along Fugazi basslines like a more post-hardcore inclined Rapture/Ex Models/Liars. If you need something to mosh to in your basement for half an hour, this LP will suffice. That'll probably make you forget that even though it's well recorded and rocks nonstop, nothing interesting really happens and the whole thing is kinda boring.

Rating: w/e

Download Link: Nothing today.

Skip Tooth - Mindnumbing Alienation

18 minute harsh noise blast by some guy from Denmark, I think? This shit shreds your speakers and lets loose some Gunboat Diplomacy style mulch for the listener to trudge through. I was just listening to it and had no idea that my pirated copy of Zombieland had been playing under it the whole time, that's how DENSE and LOUD this is!!!!!!!! If Kevin Drumm at his Sheer Hellish Miasma/Land of Lurches power electronics peak is the Beatles discography, this shit is Wavves: same basic idea, just rawer.

Rating: It does its job.

Download Link: Skip Tooth - Mindnumbing Alienation [Broken Tapes, 2009]

Kaito - Trust

This is a 2009 minimal (...) techno release on the KOMPAKT label.

It's pretty good.

Rating: Pretty good.

Download Link:

Karate - Clean Hands Go Foul

i was gonna think of something to say about this album while i took a shit. unfortunately it was one of those interminable white knuckle shits that you dont even realize is gonna happen until you sit down and your ass is suddenly in searing pain. so basically this just sounds like a little kid fucking screaming and whining. it probably sounds more like that than any other album. sometimes the bass player plays a note. enjoy

album

Nurse With Wound - Homotopy To Marie

Thanks largely to the miracle of Daylight Savings, last night's Halloween was another one that met its end in bed before 1:30 A.M. But not before enjoying a solid lineup of particularly unsettling LP length musical statements. Beginning the evening was Nico's The Marble Index, closing it out was The Faust Tapes, and smack dab in the middle was the towering Homotopy To Marie. Notable largely for being the first CD purchased by me from renowned Greenwich Village record store Other Music, these five tracks of musique concrète insanity take the nightmarish terror merely hinted at in similar works such as "Revolution 9," We're Only In It For The Money, the aforementioned Faust Tapes, and probably some 20th century "classical music" to its mind fuckingly brutal extreme. Don't fuck with this stuff on acid, guys, you might puncture your soul! During this magical journey, you will encounter somebody dumping a bag of change into your empty skull and rattling it around for a bit, a little girl talking about her period, some klezmer (?) jams, a language that is probably Spanish, a woman angrily shouting, "DON'T BE NAIVE, DARLING," jarring blasts of noise, and other things that might scare your pets. Perhaps "Lynch-ian" would be an apt description, perhaps not. It's bleak, fucked up, and repulsive, in a way that so many of the greatest artworks of the 1980s were.

Rating: Neat album!

Download Link: Neil Young - "Will To Love"... just a great fucking song.