Extra Life - Made Flesh (2010)

Um... yeah, hmm. I dunno about this one. I think these guys are from Brooklyn and hang out with Zs and the Dirty Projectors, which would lead one to believe that they are musically competent all out prog nerds of the highest order. Listening to their record does nothing to dispel this notion. The group's compositions suggest the shameless classical music fetishizing of Gentle Giant filtered through the bleakly heavy intellectualism of R.I.O. Yeah, yeah. So the music is passable avant prog bullshit. These vocals, though, hoo. They are the kind of vocals that will cause most people to say, "Hey, this band sucks." Go check out an mp3 of theirs available perhaps on a music related blog of some sort and you'll hear what I mean. They are not far removed from the kind of shittiness embodying singing of other terrible modern "progressive rock" bands such as Coheed & Cambria and the Mars Volta. There might even be some mild autotune at one point because these guys are self aware subversive types. And as for what is being sung, I can't say that that aspect makes the unbearable vocals bearable. Complex minor key melodies jerking all over the place in that delightfully academic way and never slipping into anything resembling catchiness, not to mention lyrics that are gratingly obtuse. "WET PETAL LIKE A VA-GIIIII-NAAAAAAA, WET PETAL LIKE A VA-GIIII-IIHHHH-NAAAAAAAA." Not far off from the Dave Longstreth school of lyric writing, the kind that is sort of clever but more often just meaningless and kind of hard to process coming from the mouths of such serious artists, who are also white as fucc and probably kind of douchey. I'm just making assumptions here. One of the songs here has lyrics about someone being classified as a "FANCY LAD," so maybe they should get points for being Cabin Boy fans.

Rating: You won't like it.

Download Link:

Z.Z. Hill - Down Home (1982)

The blues sucks, right? Not really, but my personal idea of the blues has been forever tainted by Saturday Night Live, Eric Clapton, and outdoor festivals held in Chicago during the summer that families from Wheaton or wherever the fuck take the good ol' Metra train in for so they can spend a nice hot Saturday cracking brews and dancing poorly. Also, the fact that in the wrong hands, blues chord progressions are often equivalent to "laziness" and "a disappointing listening experience." The Beatles and The Who recorded some great covers of blues/R&B classixx, but you get the feeling that they were devoted to that music to the point where they would have been happy to just crank out full sets of songs that basically all sound the fucking same. But that's early rock 'n roll fetishism for you. That's John Lennon polluting the Help! tracklisting with yet another boringass Larry Williams song instead of strengthening it with "Yes It Is," apparently only good enough for the b-side of a single. Fuck that guy.

Enough of my off topic bitching, though. Since you are all informed music fans who swear by the All Music Guide, you surely have the opening few sentences of Stephen Thomas Erlewine's review of Stevie Ray Vaughan's Texas Flood (1983) recording committed to memory:

"It's hard to overestimate the impact Stevie Ray Vaughan's debut, Texas Flood, had upon its release in 1983. At that point, blues was no longer hip, the way it was in the '60s. Texas Flood changed all that, climbing into the Top 40 and spending over half a year on the charts, which was practically unheard of for a blues recording."

How, then, do you explain Z.Z. Hill's Down Home (1982) and its stay on the soul chart for two years, clearly a sign that a significant contingent of the American record buying public had some taste for the blues? How do you explain Z.Z. Hill's Wikipedia entry and its claim that "Down Home Blues" is arguably "the best-known blues song of the 1980s"? Isn't that just kind of most likely not true? Especially with that delightful caucasian Stevie Ray dominating the proceedings?

Nobody knows, really. Or cares, for that matter. Think about the number of people out there who have their memories of the '80s defined by the output of a 46 year old soul blues singer who was experiencing a somewhat late career renaissance before unfortunately dying a couple years later. I'm guessing that the answer is something in the general ballpark of "not very many." Perhaps it was one of the most successful blues oriented albums of the '80s. The production is nevertheless so wretched that it must have sounded unlistenably dated within minutes after being recorded. The drums don't even sound real. This is especially a shame on the few album defining tracks that go deep into full on 6/8 down 'n dirty blues territory. Hill is in fine voice, sure, but the music is awfully lifeless. Luckily, there's at least some diversity to work from, including excellent melodic R&B tunes like "Cheating In The Next Room" and a couple choice Swamp Dogg jams. Listen to that high hat that sounds like a hot razor, though. It's painful and results in some potentially thrilling music sounding just plain cheesy. Absolutely tragic. This had to have been "one of the first all digital recordings," right? How could it have not been? This poor little album, gee.

Rating: Don't give up on Z.Z. just yet! Just know that the kind of soul that he was capable of unleashing didn't always sound this stifled.

Download Link: You should take some time out of your day to revisit Creed's hits from 1997 through around 2002 or so. That stuff holds up.

Dangers - Messy, Isn't It? (2010)

Well, this is some terrible music. I saw this band described as "hardcore punk" and the record had a neat cover so I assumed I was gonna be in for some futuristic powerviolence type shit. Not the case at all. Is this what the term "hardcore" is used for these days? Sub-Converge asymmetrical haircut garbage? They try to fool you by throwing in a couple out of nowhere samples and other sounds that deviate from the onslaught of generic metalcore with unbearable vocals but I'm not gonna fall for it. Even though the songs have hilarious titles like "Teenage Porno Hunter," they're still fucking humorless. It's off putting. I'm not upset that I listened to it but I am upset that it wasn't at least ten minutes shorter. Although, I still was able to hear the whole thing and delete it before finishing this review. So that's cool.

Rating:

Download Link:

The Shadow Ring - Hold Onto I.D. (1998)

When we last left the gentlemen in the Shadow Ring, they were hot on the heels of their debut recording City Lights. Six years later, Hold Onto I.D. was finally released. Lucky for their fans, however, there were two studio records and a live joint released during that time. I'm skipping ahead, though. Hold Onto I.D. finds the Shadow Ring with a hard-on for vocal distortion and all sorts of keyboard fondling. Everything is still drearily slow and your precious detuned rubber band guitars are still being plucked away at, but they are more often complemented or simply replaced by a dusty old piano being fucked about on in its lowest range and insect buzz electronics. These synth tones that drone on and on throughout really are kind of freakin' me out. And you can't go wrong with the British guy's funny voice. 40 minutes of this shit? Why not?

Rating: They're turning into professionals! Look out! Doesn't really have that "endlessly fascinating grainy as all fuck snapshot of a particular special moment in the history of esoteric underground rock-ish musics" vibe that City Lights did but you know these guys are working towards something truly remarkable. Stay tuned.

Download Link: "Hold Onto I.D."... the seven minute title track/closer. Absolutely vicious.

Plush - Three-Quarters Blind Eyes (1994)

Did you have a good Record Store Day? Mine was okay. Showed up late enough to the Reckless Records on Broadway to be worried about the massive line of people being a sign that the "exclusive releases" that I went over there for would be all gone but early enough to be reminded that the shit I wanted is hardly even in demand compared to a lot of the stuff that was being sought out (a limited edition Against Me! single, for instance.) Two minutes after the place opened, more specifically. Scored a reasonably priced double vinyl copy of one of the greatest collections of music known to man, Arthur Russell's Calling Out of Context, in addition to an unreasonably priced white vinyl copy of another one of the greatest collections of music known to man, Sonic Youth's Confusion Is Sex (the first and only SY album I have ever owned! Roughly halfway through to owning everything they've done that's actually worth listening to, as well.) And last but not least, a splendid LP/cassette package of Kurt Vile's previously out of print God Is Saying This To You..., one of the best things I heard last year. Also ended up with a dollar bin CD copy of Eggs Teenbeat 96 Exploder by Eggs thanks to the generous fellow who I was lucky enough to stand around with. Later at Permanent Records, I finally bought the Puerto Rico Flowers 12" and the awfully fucking essential Harry Pussy compilation CD You'll Never Play This Town Again. That's five must have recordings that I needed to obtain sooner or later. And I did. Today. They're covered and I can move on to the rest of my infinite wishlist. And that's not even mentioning the free "Light My Fire" 7" with the exact same song on both sides! Considered splitting this in two and throwing it on the ground but decided that an embarrassingly clean gent like me could use some dust to wipe off every now and then.

Besides spending money and walking an unnecessary amount, I also managed to catch a few in-stores. Outside the Broadway Reckless, I noticed a four o'clock P.M. performance from "Liam Hayes & Plush" at the Milwaukee location listed on a flier. I think it took me a few seconds to even make the connection. "Liam Hayes & Plush as in... the 'band' Plush fronted by that guy Liam Hayes?" Seeing the name written in that way was jarring... what can I say. It's usually just "Plush." Maybe it was listed on the store's website all along and my mind glanced over it for this very reason? That had to be the case, as my second thought, then, was "Shit! Plush is playing for free! What do you know, a band that I'm somewhat interested in seeing is gonna be doing one of these in-stores. Well." And so I ended up in yet another Reckless location by four o'clock.

Plush's recordings are elaborate affairs. Do you remember when everyone in the Chicago music scene was making a big deal about how Hayes's second LP was taking years and far too much money and studio time to complete? And then it was only available in Japan? Of course you don't. Unless you spent the first few years of the 21st century as an internet savvy music fan rubbing his or her dick all over ILX and downloading the This Heat discography on dialup, you most certainly do not give a shit about this guy or his music. Which is great because it means that I have an easier time getting a spot where I can stand up front. Thanks.

Plush's recordings are elaborate affairs. And so I was surprised to enter the store and realize that the only non-Liam Hayes musicians that the tiny "stage" (there's a first for an in-store!) had room for were the bassist and drummer who were already chilling up there. Two black guys who were probably in their 50s. Maybe even 60s. What are they doing hanging out with such a goofily dressed skinny frizzy haired white dude who has forged a career penning '60s/'70s orchestral pop throwback tunes and receiving props from MOJO Magazine? I don't know. The bassist was reading off of charts and the drummer fucked up a couple endings so I'm going to assume that they learned the songs about an hour before. And so it was a charmingly awkward but still enjoyable six song set. Liam played a telecaster through an ultra vintage looking Brownface Fender Vibrolux. No distortion, no effects. I dug the tone and rhythm guitarwork. Decent voice on this guy, too. Perfect for the kind of music he goes for, I would say.

And what does the music sound like, then? I pretty much summed it up back there. '60s, '70s, Brian Wilson, Harry Nilsson, George Harrison. Liam Hayes introduced himself to the world with this single released on Drag City back in the mid '90s. Both the songs are fairly slow, about the speed at which you're used to hearing Nick Mason play drum fills. That kind of slow. The floaty drifting in the clouds while listening to "The Porpoise Song" kind of slow. Good production, with tambourine, guitar, some strings and a horn or two. You get the idea. I probably would have been pretty excited about this if I were an indie rock fan in 1994 waiting around for all that fruity Elephant 6 shit to become the talk of the town. Both songs are pretty decent. I might like the second one better. Who knows. There's an instrumental version of that one, too, and it's pleasant. Whatever.

Rating: Pretty okay stuff! This guy was in High Fidelity, apparently. Probably should have referenced that while I was talking about record stores, eh???

Download Links:

1. "Three-Quarters Blind Eyes"
2. "Found A Little Baby"
3. "Found A Little Baby (Instrumental)"

Whip & The Body - Here On Exile 7" (2008)
Altars/Whip & The Body - Split 7" (2009)

Did you guys catch the latest TMZ? The drummer from Drunkdriver is a rapist! Yeah, old news to you underground insider types, I know. Or maybe all those girls are lying and his (now former) bandmates need to stop acting like uptight cunts and not break up just because they're experiencing the natural human impulse to grow overwhelmed by a sense of mistrust and deceit whenever a person finds out that someone close to them has been feeding them bullshit for an extended period of time. Maybe you've never been there. It's not fun, believe me. Or maybe that's not why they broke up. Maybe they just don't want to get raped. Frankly, though, it's none of our business. The facts aren't straight so let's not pretend that we know. Here's hoping that Jeremy moves to another city, starts a new band, and continues to rape people until the band breaks up. Third time's a charm, as they say.

Just playin', LOL. Drunkdriver was a damn good band and one of the best of its kind. They will be missed. I'm also going to assume that Whip & The Body has ended up as another tragic casualty of this whole fiasco. Whip & The Body was a collaboration between Jeremy Villalobos and Michael Berdan, drummer and vocalist for the aforementioned Drunkdriver, respectively. While Kristy was off shedding guitar exercises, the other two thirds of the group turned to the exciting world of brutal power electronics. Noise that is harsh. Harsh noise. All kinds of feedback, screaming, low end rumblings, whatever the fuck. Everything distorting into ungodly realms. You get the idea. From what I gather, their first 7" is occasionally referred to as "Here On Exile" and occasionally as just "Whip & The Body." Sometimes it has that bitchin' cover art and sometimes it's just black with the band name in white text. I don't know what is going on there. Two three minute pieces on side one that take no prisoners, flip it over (or keep your media player of choice running, more likely) and you have an extended industrial face shitter that is as bleak as it is nausea inducing. Gets real loud at the end, whew! Watch out for this one!

The following year saw the release of a split 7" with Altars. Once again, there is a major cover art issue. I count three separate covers showing up on the world wide web. One is inspired minimalist bullshit, one is half-assed minimalist bullshit, and the other is a lovely aesthetically pleasing photograph. I like that one so I posted it. On side one, you have Altars performing their hit "Wood & Rope." The music is recognizable as black metal but also happens to be drowning in a great deal of noise that threatens to knock any sort of "rock" foundation out from under its feet. That never happens, though, and this devastatingly ugly music never becomes any less "metal." Kind of like with Portal. Kind of. A little bit.

Side two, though. Jesus christ! This was my first taste of Whip & The Body and it remains a stunning piece of music. "Black Dahlia Pig" is a continuation of the aesthetic reflected in the most successful Drunkdriver tracks. It also manages to one-up them. I always thought the best thing about a song like "Knife Day" was how it managed to just rip out of the fucking speakers. For a band that had no bass player and preferred to keep dynamic range to a minimum, they sure made up for it with a powerful sound driven by sheer brutality. All that carries over on Jeremy and Michael's contribution to this split. It is a fucking intense six minutes of music. If you're going to take on an amateurish lo-fi junkshop approach to noise, this is how it's done. The pulverizing walls of static might as well be tangible. Sometimes it's like the first time I listened to Land of Lurches. And every now and then, the track grinds to a halt and treats the listener to some jarring silence. By the end, you'll have endured quite the journey. Worth your time, money, hard drive space, risk of having your mind split open, all that. Further proof that these guys know a thing or two about making music that's not utter shit. Hopefully they'll continue doing so. If not together, then apart.

Rating: That first 7" is okay, I guess. Play the Altars split right after and you'll forget that it even exists, though.

Download Link: "Black Dahlia Pig"

Various Artists - Rat Music For Rat People (1982)

This is a punk rock compilation that SST put out during its golden age. It was named in loving tribute to Greg Ginn's mentor Fat Mike and his popular Fat Music For Fat People series. Some of the songs are live. Buncha different bands that are good, even Flipper is on here! The version of "Life" is awesome and boasts a vocal performance that can only be described as "rhythmically inept." More than usual, even. And this is Flipper we're talking about here. I read on the internet that Aaron Dilloway likes the version of "Scream" and he's right to feel that way because it kind of kicks your ass, unlike the My War version which just takes a poop on your ass and gazes longingly as it slips down onto the floor below. You know it is a classic '80s punk rock album because there are songs about how Ronald Reagan sucked. D.O.A. contributes at least one of these and say amusing shit between songs in a funny voice, it's cool. The Dead Kennedys were really good, "Forward To Death" is on here and it's good. "Sounds of Laughter" by TSOL is good. Some of the songs aren't that great. The last song is by the Dils and it is fucking adorable bouncy power pop bubblegum bullshit. I love it, it's the best song here. I like the catchy shit like that song and the Avengers song, not the Circle Jerks and Crucifix songs because I can't remember how they go. Bad Brains play a couple fast ones, yeah.

Rating: Not everything is amazing but it's solid enough. That's my final verdict.

Download Link: The Dils - "Blow Up"... great.

Various Artists - Guitarrorists (1991)

Don't let the Narada Music-style cover art fool you, it might look like an Esteban/Govi record to relax to with your parents, but let's just say you'll be in for a nasty surprise if you bring this to your next yoga class. With a title like that and a quick look at the tracklist, you're probably expecting an all-star electric guitar summit of epic proportions. But surprise! The joke's on you. You've probably heard some pretty terrorizing riffs from some of the artists on this compilation, but here they're shat out in messy bursts that make this who's who of late-80s indie rock royalty meeting of the minds sound like a total pisstake! J. Mascis, Neil Hagerty, three-fourths of Sonic Youth, Steve Albini and lots more surprise guests lay down 26 short tracks of the lowest-fi jamming you'll hear anywhere. No label would want to put out something like this in 2010 unless it was for charity or something, but I guess that everyone today, including kids on foodstamps and plasma-selling undergrads, would rather make fashionable chillwave instead.


Rating:

Download Link: The whole album!

Thee Oh Sees - The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In

haha my nervous system is whacked right now. this is the best band in the world! download all their shit they won't care.

master's bedroom
sucks blood
singles/unreleased tracks (get this)
zork's tape bruise
help
dog poison

Fenn O'Berg - In Stereo (2010)

This is music made on laptops! I'm typing this review on a laptop and listening to the sounds and pretending that I'm creating them! TRY IT, IT'S FUN!!!!! OH!!!! Berg?

Rating: Cool noises on this "elite country negro jam session recording." Album of the Year, probably. What's yours???

Download Link:

A REVIEW OF A SOLID LITTLE ROCK FILM



Solo Trans (1984)

For all his greatness as a musician, Neil Young's attempts at dabbling within the medium of film tend to lean pretty heavily towards the half-assed and barely watchable. I wasn't sure what to expect from Solo Trans, although the screenshots on the back, focus on the loltastic Shocking Pinks era despite having a reference to Trans in the title, and the fact that it was only ever released on laserdisc had me pretty psyched for some of the cheesiest, most bizarre shit imaginable. Not to mention that Hal Ashby is credited as director, which is awesome for you since he also made Harold & Maude, one of your favorite motion pictures of all time back when you were a 16 year old girl.

Turns out it's much closer to being a traditional concert film than something more story driven like Human Highway. Only 60 minutes long, too. However, we are introduced to a number of WACKY characters along the way. There's a suit sportin' host/newscaster for the proceedings, whose commentary on such pressing issues as whether or not the Shocking Pinks will show up is shown on a large screen positioned on the stage. Then there's the Pinks' manager, who is interviewed by the host and acts like a pretty stereotypical italian mafia guy. The wives of Neil and Tim Drummond play two excited Shocking Pinks fans. Lots of poor acting to be found in these non music-oriented segments. Awesome!

However, the real draw here is the songs. Even with the barely amusing video segments that Neil was subjecting his audiences to, the musical content of a typical Neil Young show circa 1983 remains the most astounding aspect of such an event. Things start off pretty normal. A little too normal. Neil Young appears onstage to play some of his most obvious mainstream hits that the Dayton, Ohio audience gets a real kick out of. "Heart of Gold," "Old Man," "Helpless," "Ohio"... the glory days of CSN&Y and Harvest, before all that negativity set in. Acoustic guitar, harmonica, and three backing vocalists who I thought were some super butch ladies but are actually a group known as "The Redwood Boys" (WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THOSE GAYASS BACKING VOX ON THE EVERYBODY'S ROCKIN' LP!!!) doing the harmonies. All very familiar and inoffensive.

But not for long! "Don't Be Denied" is up next. It's not the deepest of deep cuts, but the crowd isn't quite as enthusiastic as they were for those first four hott traxx. The song chugs along in its excellent way for a couple minutes, but then suddenly during one of the post verse riff breaks, a forebodingly dark Synclavier chord and a sexy synth drum fill appear out of nowhere to give the song some extra pizzazz. It's glorious! They go away again during the verse, but come back again to do their thing a few more times. Afterwards, Neil's guitar tech Larry Craig is interviewed by the TV host fellow and explains just how the Synclavier works and states that Neil will be playing one during the second set of the night. But here are a few crazy things to keep in mind: 1) This wasn't actually the Solo Trans tour. 2) This was the Shocking Pinks tour. What the heck is he doing with a Synclavier? 3) The Solo Trans tour didn't even include very many songs from Trans, anyway.

And the fourth point I would like to raise is that during the next two songs, Neil plays a total of approximately three notes on the Synclavier right when he walks out, in addition to a dopey fill or two on the electronic drum set. After that, it's time for an actual performance, damnit, which means walking around the stage wearing sunglasses and singing along to a backing track. But it's not just any backing track. It's fucking "I Got A Problem"!!!!! From Landing On Water!!!!!! That album wouldn't even come out for another two years and these lucky Neil Young fans in 1983 get to hear one of its songs performed in a mind melting synth rendition!!!! KILLER!!!!!!!!!!!

The man stays around for a new wavey vocoder rendition of "Mr. Soul," which isn't too different from the one found on Trans. Not only is he rockin' his electric guitar this time, but this version's signature high pitched backing vocals are shown to be coming from a video of an expressionless Neil staring out into the audience. The crowd is really feelin' this song. They were probably just excited for the set of rockabilly tunes that Neil was about to crank out with the Shocking Pinks, though. This part of the film is a lot of fun, but of course the songs that they play aren't quite up to par with the selections featured during the rest of the film, which isn't much of a surprise considering the mediocrity associated with this '50s retro diner fetishism era. But still, "Payola Blues" (quite the barnstormer, this one!), two songs that wouldn't be released until the Lucky Thirteen compilation, and a cover of "Do You Wanna Dance?"... hard to say no to. Those Shocking Pinks really tear it up.

All in all, I'm just happy that video documents of Neil's wacked out '80s years exist for my viewing pleasure. I can't say if I prefer this to the more Trans-centric Neil Young in Berlin DVD, as I haven't seen that one in nearly a decade. The eclecticism here is a real plus, though, not to mention the fact that while the video footage shown between the sets is pretty damn corny, you still get a few words out of the man himself. And they're spoken in a funny Canadian voice. But I do have one issue with the thing and that's that it's just too short. This fact becomes all the more heartbreaking when you look at the unabridged setlist for this Dayton, Ohio music performance, especially during that first acoustic set. "Too Far Gone"? "Comes A Time"? "Only Love Can Break Your Heart"? "Sail Away"? Motherfuckin' "Powderfinger"??!! Fatherfuckin' "Old Ways" (just kidding, I don't want to hear this song)????!!!!!!!! Not to mention playing both "Love Is A Rose" and "Dance, Dance, Dance" when they're pretty much the exact same song. It's all just a little bit disappointing when you consider what this "movie" could have been. NOT TO MENTION the fact that he could have pulled performances from multiple shows on the tour, which would have meant that maybe "Transformer Man" could have made an appearance, from before it got replaced permanently in the setlist by "I Got A Problem" midway through the tour? I don't know, maybe the date in Ohio was just a particularly magical one. Still. He did "My My, Hey Hey (Out of The Blue)" during the sunglasses part, too, and that's not here.

What am I complaining for, though? This was the Shocking Pinks' time to shine and that is just what they do. Two thumbs up!!!

Rating: lol

Download Link: "I Got A Problem"... just some really spectacular shit. Plus, you get a fun little interview at the beginning. What a deal.

Landlords - Wheelchair Night (2009)

This is another comically abrasive blood mixed with shit mixed with blood mixed with cinderblocks mixed with that heroin broooowwwwn noise rock band for you to lump in with Rusted Shut, Drunkdriver, and Twin Stumps. And that's all you need to know, more or less. "Indian Giver" starts out okay and I'm kind of enjoying the last song as it plays right now, but for the most part this is just a bunch of tinny garbage. There's guitar noise and delay on the vocals. Big whoop! If I gave the whole cassette buying thing a serious chance and dropped actual cash on this, I would feel kind of bummed out.

Rating: Luckily I have a number of other 17 minute long recordings in my iTunes for when I feel like breezing through something short 'n sweet. And better than this.

Download Link: "Indian Giver"

AFCGT - AFCGT (2010)

Yo, doggies, did you hit up this new Sub Pop release yet??? This is a band that has members from some other bands. They got together and spat up this poopy slab of noisy art damaged (ha!) rock music! It's pretty cool, I guess. They like to really get down and jam and then sometimes they like to add some pitch shifted vocals or throw in some field recordings or something or just make creepy apocalyptic soundscapes for you. This recording is 38 minutes long and a lot of fun. Sometimes it reminds of Oneida and also a lot of other bands that I listen to all the time but can't think of right now. I read a review that mentioned early Butthole Surfers so I didn't want to say that but it's not too far off. Just some no wavey goofball shit like that or Couch.

Rating: Oh, yeah, Shit & Shine. Maybe that was one of the other bands. This is kind of like that, I think? I don't really listen to them that much. AFCGT is a good band and good album with the same name. It's good!

Download Link: "New Punk 27"... this song is three minutes long and has multiple parts, you should check it out. They explore multiple types of dicking around before unleashing a totally fucked groove during the second half.

Neil Young - Hawks & Doves (1980)

The beginning of the end or the beginning's very last gasps before spiraling off into the sad waters of unstable mediocrity once and for all? Neither description is wholly accurate, although I'm more likely to side with the former. That is, assuming that "the end" refers to the idea that everything Neil produced during his run from the beginning of his solo career through the end of the '70s possesses a certain intangible quality that just makes even the most seemingly average albums and songs endlessly listenable, all part of the same winning streak even when varying in quality. And said "quality" tends to shift all over the place, with certain obvious classics losing their impact over time while those of less heralded ones are dramatically enhanced with repeated listens and an increasingly deeper understanding of not just Neil's music but also life itself.

Hawks & Doves is not commonly thought of as being part of that nearly unparalleled run of consistency. I pity the reputation of any recording that has to follow Rust Never Sleeps, a Long Player whose sheer perfection has managed to baffle me for over two thirds of my life, but this one did. This slapped together collection of nine songs, four of which are leftovers, the other five of which probably took slightly more than the length of the LP to write, learn, and perform. All flying by in 29 minutes, with no recognizable Neil classics or anything resembling a hit. Not being deemed worthy of a CD release until 2003. A Neil Young album from the '80s (more on that later.)

I hadn't pulled it out in a few years, back when I decided that one or two listens of this decidedly less than great album were just enough. As has been the case with so many of my favorite Neil Young records, dismissal eventually morphed into a surprising and welcome freshness in my overall perception of the music, like discovering a whole new album. This is mostly significant for the acoustic songs contained on side one... the "Doves" side. Sure, there's only four. Nobody ever talks about them. Two of the songs are under two minutes long with only one of the remaining numbers being a true epic. Not one of these songs is "Ambulance Blues." Or "Will To Love," for that matter. But if you have any taste whatsoever, seeing the words "Neil Young," "acoustic," and "recorded 1974-1977" in one sentence should quite literally excite the shit out of you.

What I'm trying to say is that over here in my little corner of the universe, there's shit everywhere. And every time I play this record, there's more shit. Because not only does the era that these songs were recorded in suggest that they might just be excellent, but the songs themselves... well, they are pretty damn good. They possess that undefinable magic of classic Neil and fall under the same "space folk" umbrella beneath which you might find the aforementioned "Will To Love," side two of On The Beach, even some of the more soaring moments on Zuma like "Cortez The Killer" and "Danger Bird" that aren't really "folk" at all but just plain awesome. "Pardon My Heart," too. At nearly eight minutes and featuring boss as all hell Levon Helm drumwork, "The Old Homestead" is almost an unfuckwitable classic like those songs but... well, you get the sense that Neil is baked out of his gourd and just kind of spewing gibberish. Which is awesome, though. There's even a theremin in the background! "Why do you ride that crazy horse?" David Crosby and the other CSN squares probably asked that question a few times. It's not a lyrical "every line fucking rules even if you don't know what he's talking about" masterpiece like "Thrasher" or "Ambulance Blues." The thing just kind of plods along while Neil tells a weirdass story that might go somewhere but might not. There's a "naked rider" like in El Topo so you can pretend that Neil is as groovy as those stoners you know that like to masturbate each other while watching said film. All in all, an excellent woozy abyss of a song that you can stare into for many minutes.

It's all about the opener, though. "Little Wing" is just over two minutes long and not the Jimi Hendrix song of the same name. Two beautiful chords, harmonica, gorgeous singing and lyrics. It doesn't seem all that developed, but does it really need to be? The fact that he could just crap out a song like this and throw it onto an album along with a few other unreleased oldies but goodies because nobody is gonna be happy to find out that the new Neil Young album is 12 minutes long... pretty incredible. Here's hoping that the next volume of Archives has a few more songs like that waiting to be discovered. "Lost In Space" and "Captain Kennedy" are good, too. The minor key melody of the latter has the same sort of strangely haunting traditionalism that you might find in a select few of Mark Kozelek's April jams, namely "Unlit Hallway," "Heron Blue," and the verses of "Tonight The Sky." What's the deal with THAT? And "Lost In Space" is pleasant, slightly transcendent, and just plain weird at the same time, what with the break where Neil fucks with the pitch of the backing vocals so that it sounds like he's leading a singalong with a group of demonic schoolchildren. Again, the guy was probably baked as hell. Somebody should have asked him to guest on Paul McCartney & Wings' Wild Life LP.

But then you have side two. The "Hawks." The first sign that the untouchable Neil of the 1970s was getting ready to have a go at music styles that he should have just been staying away from. See, Neil Young writes brilliant melodies. When he starts fucking around with bluesy R&B, rockabilly, or straight country, genres that are defined by their reliance on the same old boring chord sequences (which can be properly navigated by masters of those forms, natch), his talent for melody is stifled considerably. Trans is a fantastic record because even through all the robot fetishizing, you still had "Transformer Man." You still had "Computer Age" and "Like An Inca," excellent songs with killer guitar lines and lovely vocal melodies. Life is a fantastic and still underappreciated album because aside from a couple generic rockers, most of the songs do have excellent melodies that you should love. Landing On Water is somewhat tolerable because even though he's trying to write a Phil Collins era Genesis album instead of a Neil Young album, he can't leave melody behind.

That's why the '80s sucked for Neil and yet it's also why the suckiness of that period continues to be grossly overstated. Side two of Hawks & Doves contains five really, really, really dumb sounding patriotic anthems. Straightforward country, folks. Some of the ugliest hoedown racket Neil has ever put his name on. And that's saying quite a bit. The guy's voice on these songs makes "Yonder Stands The Sinner" sound like Brian FUCKING Wilson. Ben Keith should have slapped him. The sequencing is particularly hilarious. Surely he could have looked at these songs and said, "Hmm, 'Coastline' and 'Stayin' Power' have the same feel and basic tempo. Maybe I should stick 'Union Man' or 'Comin' Apart At Every Nail' in between them, two songs that are pretty much rewrites of one another and sound like one song when you stick them together. And then there's the title track, which also sounds like a continuation of 'Union Man' and 'Comin' Apart At Every Nail,' so why the hell would I put it right after those two songs?" But no. Neil Young did not say any of that. See, Neil Young is a trailblazing DJ genius who wants for his traxx to have only the sickest flow imaginable so you can dance to one nonstop groove for seven whole minutes at a time.

But the thing is... it's really not that bad. The shittiest shit he'd managed to release up until that point? Maybe. But it goes by pretty fast, you get some cute backing vocals, a few boneheadedly catchy moments, and a surprisingly okay song in "Hawks & Doves," with its perfectly enjoyable melody, awful yet catchy vocal hook ("U-S-AAAAAAAAAA"), and some signature throat slittin' lead guitar (finally!) And when all is said and done, do you really need much more than that? Well, yes. Great fucking album, though, somehow.

Rating: 9.0/10... I think Xgau liked it, too. For some reason whenever I read that guy's name I picture Richard Meltzer instead.

Download Link: "Little Wing"

The KLF - The White Room (1991)

I guess it makes sense that kids these days don't give half a fuck about music like this. I remember a time when 17 year old males in the 21st century were still recovering from the '90s, jamming the Chemical Brothers and Screamadelica like crazy. All that dancey shit, you know. Borderline frat boys like my ex roommate love going to jam band festivals and getting down to pseudo hipster/hippy trance bullshit as they have a totally rad time taking ecstasy and pretending that they're "reviving rave culture" but when was the last time these phonies appreciated Everything Is Wrong or The Orb or The Prodigy or whatever???? Know your history, kids!!!!!! It's not all just one big party. Girl Talk didn't "save" anything! I never really had that phase of romanticizing this era of phat drum loopz/indulging in anglophile bullshit so I don't know what I'm talking about. The KLF were a band of MEDIA TERRORISTS who really fucked shit up and came out of it all with two AMG 5 star rated albums. Their music was great, too. The White Room is nonstop bangers, oh, fuck, until the second half, that is, when it chills out a bit. Whole thing is catchy as hell, utilizing a number of more than competent vocalists to realize the visions of these highly talented individuals! I keep playing this album over and over, it's dope!!!!!!

Rating: REALLY DAMN GREAT RECORDING!!!!

Download Link: "3 A.M. Eternal"... this music song is a massive listening experience.

New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too (1998)

lol. you guys hear that song

rating: no one listened to the album

song: go look up youtube/turn on kiss.fm

Alex Chilton - Live In London (1980)

This is an incredibly sloppy rock 'n roll music recording. And I'm not necessarily talking about the band itself (bassist and drummer from the Soft Boys and some other guy) and their attempts to barely keep up with the stumbling manner in which Alex Chilton rattles his way through this quite impressive mix of Big Star classics, covers, and still unheralded solo jams.

Maybe it's the crackly vinyl rip that I'm listening to, but the mix here is a bit ridiculous. Occasionally the guitars will be way the fuck down there while the drums and vocals are louder than everything else. The best parts are on the disgusting renditions of "In The Street" and "The Letter" where Chilton decides to play a guitar solo and it just jarringly craps right out of the speakers. And you gotta love those vocals on "Nighttime," with Chilton's voice cracking (purposely part of the delivery, though, it would seem) and moving in and out of everything. And that squealing feedback on "Kangaroo," oh, yes, no complaints there. The guy is lazy as shit, but he's got that true RnR spirit!

Most of all, though, it's just cool to hear those great Like Flies On Sherbert tunes like "Hey! Little Child," "Rock Hard," and "My Rival" documented in officially released live renditions. Somehow I doubt that he's played them much since them. They certainly cook here. While he doesn't dig too deep into the post Big Star repertoire that I'm familiar with through that album and Bach's Bottom, there's enough here to draw in and even satisfy the die hards and not just for completist reasons. Chilton and his band bash these fuckers out like your drunken heroes the 'Mats or the Faces or whoever. They also open with a song called "Bangkok" that suggests that the city in question is located in Indonesia and includes a line about "slanty eyed men lying in bed" so if you like racism then you'll enjoy this recording even more.

Rating: This shit brings it. If those two early solo LP's speak to you, then you will likely appreciate Live In London. Maybe listen to those first, though.

Download Link: "Kangaroo"... or is it "Kanga Roo"? Huh.

U.S. Girls - Go Grey (2010)

I talked to Megan Remy for just under a minute once. Or maybe I didn't even say anything other than the standard "Yeah, heh..." She was telling me about the piece of paper that she was writing the prices for her merch table on, how the other side contained information that she had printed from the library about how to stay healthy. I was looking forward to her opening up the cardboard boxes that she had with her so that she would know that I was the first in line to buy her records, pretty much the main reason that I had ventured all the way down to some shitty Bridgeport art gallery on a Saturday night that I should have probably spent studying. But no, she just sort of wandered off to chat it up with her former (?) roommate (?) and my plans were shattered. While one of the other bands was playing that night (AIDs Wolf? Gah...), I felt like she was glancing over at me (probably not the case) and began to worry that I had creeped her out by making such a point to sit right up front during her set... pretty much directly in front as she kneeled on the cold basement floor like some angel sent from above, conjuring this cruddily hellish racket with a few effects pedals, a tape recorder, and an amplifier.

I had just turned 19 years old and attended the show by myself. Throughout the rowdier sets of the night, I stood up front hanging onto a paper bag containing my winter coat, a 7", and the treasured vinyl copy of Introducing... that I had to make sure didn't get bent in the sea of spazzed out mosher types. The orange line had stopped running by the time it all ended, so I was forced to trudge all the way up Halsted St. from 32nd St. to Roosevelt and over to the red line. It seemed far at the time. Maybe it is. By 2:30 A.M., I was back in my DePaul University temporary dorm with no sign of my roommate, as per usual. Contemplating my failure to whisk away a nice lady and prove my ability to make her blissfully forget it all, as per usual. I threw on Tonight's The Night and once again surrendered to the draining black hole that that hazardously overheated living space seemed to form around me.

A month later when I moved back into the now safe from toxic chemicals dorm room that Patrick and I had been forced to evacuate that winter, I took that black hole with me and it ensured that my soul would continue rusting away until summer. To think about what the hell I was doing exactly one year ago is to be brought back to an age where time was a stifling fog being hazily drifted through. It's a feeling not unlike the one brought to mind by Megan Remy's music as I first encountered it. As expected, Go Grey sounds quite good at night. What is there to really say about it? "Girl group," yeah, sure. There aren't as many instrumental tracks this time around. In fact, a couple of these songs, while fucked up and terrifying as expected, rock somewhat conventionally. "I Don't Have A Mind of My Own," for instance. Maybe that stuff was already happening on that Gravel Days thing, but I only heard it a few times. "Sleeping On Glass" is like a six minute long multipart epic! Never heard her tackle something like that before, gee whiz! I still enjoy the sounds and what she's trying to do with them, but can't help but think of an interview that Remy did with Tiny MIx Tapes in December 2008, perhaps while she was working on the songs for Go Grey: "The newest record's not as dreary. I'm feeling better, I think." And that's great, but something has still been stripped away. Something that drew me in. I wish I could adequately describe the refinements in sound and overall aesthetic showcased by this new recording but I should really be getting to bed. Sorry.

Rating:

Download Link: "Red Ford Radio"

Puerto Rico Flowers - 4 (2010)

During the past couple years or so, I've been noticing more and more abuse of the phrase "Best dude." This phenomenon largely occurs in the context of internet message boarding when a wacky story or picture of a celebrity surfaces. "Rip Torn gets drunk and walks into a bank with a gun thinking that it's his own house and falls asleep." "Best dude." Like that. I'm not saying that Mr. Torn's actions don't earn him the "best dude" label, but like with any internet meme, there is a point where that shit just starts to feel a little overused, no matter how frequently appropriate and useful it might be.

Still. When the subject of John Sharkey comes up, "BEST DUDE" is about as apt of a description as you can get. It's been over four years since I began happily letting Clockcleaner's Nevermind pummel me on a fairly regular basis. Back then, myself and co-founder of this blog Undercooked Sausage friended the group on MySpace and Sharkey himself messaged me asking about finding them a venue to play in Chicago "without too many speds." I think he meant "specs" as in "specifications," but man, was I a dumb 15 year old with zero showgoing experience. The Park West? That's where you go to see intimate performances by Feist and XRT sponsored three night Todd Rundgren stands. Fuck me. I might as well have suggested UIC Pavilion. But by March 2007, I would be enjoying their music in a live setting at last. At the time, I had never met anyone who knew what Permanent Records was. Or Times New Viking, for that matter, who were also on the bill in support of Present The Paisley Reich (the album they did with more than two good songs.) Daily Void played, too! Sharkey was just the best dude that night. Sausage and I were rocking out to "Damaged Goods" when it came on the soundsystem and Sharkey paused setup for a moment to get down to the funky sounds with us. I approached him at the merch table and asked what I could get for a dollar. He handed me a Times New Viking 7". I asked him to draw a zero next to the one on my one dollar bill and he said, "Sure!" and drew a swastika. And I still have it. Throughout the evening, he swore loudly and talked about penises and lesbians and made fun of the audience members, taking a copy of Almost Famous off the shelf and saying, "See this? This is what you are tonight!!!" and responding to one person's supposedly racist comment with, "You can't say that! You're asian!"

None of this shit seems funny at all when I'm typing it out, but trust me. The real point is that put side by side with all the oh so edgy "weird punk" fans in attendance at that show (OH, WOW, YOU'VE HEARD OF CHROME, CONGRATULATIONS!), Sharkey provided a sense of humor and perhaps more importantly a sense of humility that most of the stone faced punkers had no clue how to react to. For a guy whose overall personality provided such a refreshing contrast to the awkward distance keeping that most performers tend not to stray far from (although, who can blame them, really), my fellow concert attendees could not have been less receptive. Me, I was right up there with the band, losing my shit to "NSA" and "Missing Dick" while Karen grinded her ass on Dan and I for some reason (thanks, though!) This was the controversial band that got banned from every venue in Philly and released an album with a 1-2-3 punch of songs with the titles "In The Shit," "Blood Driver," and "Gentle Swastika"? Well, I was digging it pretty hard. When a band is that funny, confident, and able to not give a fuck so naturally, it makes people uncomfortable. Clockcleaner is no longer a band, but the legacy that they left behind is some real authentic only true punk band of the past ten years shit, not in the sense that they stuck by a certain sound or refused to sign with Interscope but because they truly managed to shake things up and piss all over the faces (and merch tables... zing!) of anyone who expected them to do otherwise.

That's already two extremely lengthy paragraphs about a band that did not record this 12" vinyl release. Whoops. The point that I'm trying to hammer home here is that John Sharkey... well, "best dude." He's the real deal. "A true original," if you will. A singular voice to be treasured by those searching for something worth getting excited about in today's cluttered and overwhelming independent music climate. In a recent Still Single column, Doug Mosurock commented that Clockcleaner had been moving in a gothier direction with their final unreleased material. And judging by Babylon Rules, slower tempos, crystal clear production with beautifully heavy bottom end, and clearer, more enunciated vocal stylings were seriously appealing to Sharkey & Co. For my tastes, however, hearing these refinements applied to Clockcleaner's sound struck me as being more compelling for what it could have been potentially leading towards rather than the results themselves. I liked it, but it just didn't provide the violent slap in the face that I had come to expect from the group's recordings and live performances.

But this is what great artists do. Some, anyway. They move forward and refine their visions, gliding freely along a dual current of the expected and the unexpected. For all I know, the Puerto Rico Flowers project might be a distant artifact of Sharkey's past at this point. What I do know is that these four songs reveal him to be capable of writing melody driven pop music that makes me want to play said songs over and over and over, which I was just doing earlier today.

As for where these sounds are coming from, I have read of Sharkey's affinity for the debut recordings of Modern English and Dead Can Dance (thanks again, Dusted!) Even on Babylon Rules, it wasn't so far-fetched to suggest that Bauhaus, Joy Division, and deathrock were looming large on somebody's mind. Post-punk or goth or darkwave or whatever the hell you want to label it with is pretty much the stuff that fuels the songs on 4, however. Not a whole lot else leaks in. Sharkey keeps things simple, utilizing no sounds other than distorted bass, live drums, cold synth lines, and his downright commanding croon of a no bullshit singing voice. The recording is so brief and the musical palette so consistently basic throughout that the laziness of resorting to a game of "guess the influence!" makes me feel even dumber than usual, but this is certainly a product of really, really loving that period of the 1980s where the heavyhitters reflecting the sonic and melodic tastes of the day included The Cure, Depeche Mode, Cocteau Twins, Kate Bush, Echo & The Bunnymen, New Order... maybe throw some Swans in there. Siouxsie Sioux. All that it's missing is a guitar track or two. Souped up with analog chorus, of course.

But I mostly enjoy how all of that shit manages to be filtered through a sonic/compositional lens that is very much in the homemade "bedroom pop" tradition and yet not at all bogged down in tuneless monotony of any sort (the boring kind, I mean.) Compared to the older sounds that Puerto Rico Flowers recalls, 4 could be described as primitive, but calling songs as beautifully assembled as these "lo-fi" would be giving the wrong idea. In a music world full of shitgazers and bands that consistently prove to be too prolific for their own good, it's nice to see an artist really focusing and consequently delivering from all angles. The existence of a John Sharkey solo project was a fine enough surprise. What it turned out to be... even better.

And there's a finished 7" lined up for release this April that has a cover of "When Your Lonely Heart Breaks"! Showing love for forgotten '80s Neil Young jams, aw, man... best dude.

Rating: The man takes only a few basic elements and crafts something that I feel perfectly fine calling an all around success. Favorite tracks are definitely "Let's Make Friends" and "This Is Murder," but the other two are damn good. "Torture" is probably at the bottom of the pile. Still better than that Cold Cave record that I deleted once, though.

Download Link: "Let's Make Friends"... just a damn good song.

Black Tambourine - Complete Recordings (1999, but the songs are from the early '90s)

Remember when Vivian Girls released that album that a bunch of people liked? Not the last one, only a couple people liked that one. And I know those people. Anyways, Black Tambourine named themselves after the Beck song that's in Inland Empire and those bands like Vivian Girls and Brilliant Colors and The Pains of Releasing Poo As A Shart and Best Coast all sound just like them. Reverb, reverb, reverb, girl vocals, '60s pop fetishism groping the vocal melodies, guitars that jangle just as much as they crap out trebley noise like the Jesus & Mary Chain used to do... it's all here! The reason I mentioned the first Vivian Girls album is because a lot of times I will have one of Black Tambourine's songs in my head and I won't know whether it's by them or from the VG record. "Black Car" is the biggest offender, I'd say. It's the second song on here and has a beautiful melody that is constantly swimming around my brain, but I always find myself thinking, "Is this track two on the Black Tambourine comp or track two on that first LP from those Vivian Girls?" It really would have fit perfectly on there.

This is great music. "By Tomorrow" and "Throw Aggi Off The Bridge" and "Black Car" and friggin' "For Ex-Lovers Only." Those songs rule. It's like 24 minutes long. I don't know anything about "twee pop" or what Sarah Records and Another Sunny Day are. I do own this CD, however. And you should, too.

Rating: I like it. Play this and Unrest while you cock is getting sweaterburn from some Beat Happening chick.

Download Link: "Black Car"... such a good song! Yeah.