The Terminals - Disconnect (1988)

This is an EP recording by a band. The music is some bouncy Flying Nun type shit that will stimulate your unpolished idiosyncratic pop boner. Or maybe that's not it at all, I have no idea. Been tired as fuck all day and all I did was cut the sleeves off one of my dope rock tees, watch my DVD copy of Wild Things: Unrated Edition, and not eat.

Rating: I don't know.

Download Link: "Batwing"

Plush - More You Becomes You (1998)

When we last left our pal Liam Hayes, he was busy offering up the recordings that would introduce his surprisingly fully formed aesthetic to the world: two finely crafted Beatlesque pop gems with restrained production that never interfered with the songs' hazy drifting through the clouds quality. Four years later, Hayes released this full length LP that is clearly born of the same mind that came up with "Three-Quarters Blind Eyes" and "Found A Little Baby." He's still that same songsmith whose influences stick conservatively to Bacharach, Nilsson, Wilson, Harrison, and pretty much zero post early '70s musical developments. His edginess level never rises above "baroque" and the tempos of his songs never accelerate to the point where you can't accurately describe them as "dreamy."

However, Hayes approaches his first album not as a collection of more singles but as a cohesive work that gives the listener a reason to experience it as a whole, which makes my response to More You Becomes You a somewhat conflicted one. Aside from a minimal horn arrangement on the penultimate "Instrumental," the record is all solo piano and vocals. If you love this man's melodic sensibility, voice, and number one favorite tempo (ballady), then you are in for a pleasing listening experience that fortunately reflects an awareness of 28 minutes being quite enough for this sort of thing. Because while "this sort of thing" might bring to mind Brian Wilson and like Pet Sounds this record's foundation is built upon slow songs with complex chord progressions that nonetheless always manage to sound awfully fucking lovely and pleasant in a good way, it's much closer to being a "suite" or "song cycle" or some bullshit like that. No one is going to be able to look at the tracklisting after even ten listens and based on the titles, be reminded of even one or two snatches of melody that may have floated into their brains while listening. This shit runs together. And Hayes clearly intends for it all to do just that, considering that many of those titles exist merely to provide track indexes for "songs" that spill into one another like they're Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh or something, whew!!!

As evidenced by his debut single and then this full length album, his aesthetic was firmly established and in place as the foundation for his work at this point in time, yet there is also something about how the four year gap between releases and the fact that Hayes was attempting this type of music during the mid to late '90s with such perfectionism suggest a brand of distant self-awareness that his most obvious influences had practically zero familiarity with. The "single" is just something that he tries on for size, releases only one of, and then moves on from to the next stop, which happens to be 28 minutes of solo piano/vocals compositions. It doesn't move too far beyond just being a good sound to lose yourself in for this particular length of time, so while the record might bring to mind that original demo of "Surf's Up" (scaled down, gorgeous, elaborate in structure, still too fast for Liam Hayes), a song like that is still on a whole other level of melodic enjoyment. What you ultimately get with More You Becomes You is calculated pastiche with a nice vibe, but that's good, too.

Rating: Inoffensive. Or slightly more than that, probably.

Download Link: "More You Becomes You"... the title track from this recording. You'll like it just fine.

Mount Carmel - Mount Carmel (2010)

Wednesday night in the downstairs DePaul University Student Center computer lab was a quiet one. A few nondescript white sluts checking their Facebooks, two or three preteen kids hanging out for some reason, and a frumpy, gender ambiguous, troll-like being watching YouTube videos of Ten Years After. So, sir or madam who loves the real classic sounds, if you are reading this, I heartily recommend that you get on this Mount Carmel LP. This thing is 40 minutes of vintage no frills blues rock for all you totally edgy record collectors out there who fetishize shit like the Groundhogs and Speed, Glue & Shinki. Just three solid bros jamming out. And they're almost as funny looking as Henry's Funeral Shoe. Just imagine "'70s hard rock played in a guitar/vox + bass + drums format" and you probably won't even have to listen to this record but it's still perfectly enjoyable with great playing from all three guys.

Rating: Above average, in my opinion. Leaves lots of room for growth and that's a good thing. A fine addition to the '07-present Siltbreeze catalog, regardless.

Download Link: "Still Listening"

The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter (2010)

I'm playing a few songs from this album this morning. They're awesome. This band makes rock music with balls and powerful production and you probably listen to stuff that's worse than them. Get fucked!

Rating:

Download Link:

Oneohtrix Point Never - Returnal (2010)

Holy fuck, this is great. Yesterday this dude was just some "space music" fag with a bunch of Klaus Schulze records. Now he's a professional with a full length on Mego of balls deep ambient genius that basically crushes. This shit was made to crank is what I'm saying. Almost as glorious as stumbling upon Solar Bridge back in late 2008 but he's on some whole other thing, with these occasional clicks and whirs and other sounds that just slay you on top of the mind enveloping synthscapes. Not sure why the vocals on "Returnal" sound like a Silent Shout homage but even that's cool. A good friend of SLRJ also hears "Bach, Xenakis, plums, elephant songs of the Ituri forests." I've been playing the fuck out of this album and I don't think there are many reviews of it yet so that's why I'm publishing this.

Rating: ABSOLUTELY WORTH GETTING EXCITED ABOUT.

Download Link: "Describing Bodies"

Vile Gash - Vile Gash (2010)

Remember last summer when I reviewed Vile Gash's second demo tape? Of course you do. It was a groundbreaking piece. Well, anyway, that recording was pretty awesome. Way better than their first one! You had some really fast fucking hardcore tracks that flew by in like three minutes and then a six minute long two chord Flipper/side two of My War thing. I dunno, I liked it. Then they put out a cassette called Leech and it was okay. And now they have a full length album with ten whole songs, all under a minute long except for the epic closer that's about two minutes long. It's just killer punk rock that kicks your ass for seven minutes and sounds pretty good doing it. The three songs from the second demo are here and the song "Leech" is here and then the five others are brand spankin' new. I guess this is actually classified as a 7" but that's really just the format that they released it on so consider it an album released on the 7" vinyl format 'cause it sure as hell ain't a single, man, 'cause singles have an a-side and a b-side and an album shorter than Blood Guts & Pussy is still an album. Once again, they do the thing where they play all the fast ones and then end with a slow one. They're good at doing that, especially here when "Incapable" starts up and suddenly there aren't any guitars and you just hear this slow drumbeat that's dominated by open hi-hat and it's kind of like listening to the beginning of "Damaged I." Whatever.

Rating: Fun record. Play it back to back with the Aerosols s/t some time. Or don't.

Download Link: "Who Are You Today?"... ten seconds of total fury!!!

Pat Metheny - Zero Tolerance For Silence (1994)

Last Monday night, my parents and I ended up witnessing a Pat Metheny performance in Chicago's Orchestra Hall because my aunt and uncle convinced us to drop 150 dollars on it, I guess. Apparently Metheny was there to show off some new gadgets, an incredibly complex system of automated sound-generating doohickies that coalesced to form what he called his "Orchestrion." Basically, Metheny chose from an arsenal of guitars throughout the night on which he would play in front of a wall of drums, vibra/xyla/marimbaphones, piano, some weird bottle things, and a number of other instruments that were all triggered to respond to tones that Metheny played or foot pedals that he controlled. I'm pretty sure he worked on it all with a team of brilliant engineers to get everything just right. This massive setup served him in both his composed and improvised pieces. It was so remarkable and complex that he and the audience's more enthusiastic contingent seemed to think that it was worth listening to for two and a half hours. It wasn't, though, and ultimately didn't amount to much more than Pat Metheny's New Age MIDI Orchestra. That's right, boringass music that consists of a guy happily shredding over what were more or less backing tracks that, despite Metheny and his little helpers' attempts to choke some slightly more human dynamic range out of this inherently stiff robot technology, still sounded like unengaging Casiotone demo tracks blown to widescreen proportions.

This guy, though. He's always been known to test people's patience in between the good shit. Wait, does he even have good shit? Who the fuck listens to "Pat Metheny"???? "Jazz" fans??? LOL. I bet he has a lot of "fusion" albums to his name. Hoo, that's rich.

Back to the patience testing, though. The guy is fond of exploring uncharted territory and taking YOU, the listener, along with him! Sometimes this means subjecting people to the Orchestrion and sometimes it means dicking around with weirdass custom-made eastern double neck 200 string guitars. It does not always mean "decent music" or "an ensemble unit conjuring some killer energy that might make things at least the tiniest bit engaging" or anything like that.

And sometimes it means "BLOWING YOUR MIND WITH WICKEDLY ABRASIVE NOISE BULLSHIT," which brings us to the classic recording Zero Tolerance For Silence. It's from 1994 and nobody liked it except Thurston Moore, so you know that it's maybe okay or maybe horrible but almost certainly indulgent as all fuck. The thing consists of our boy Pat Metheny overdubbing distorted guitars like crazy, turning them into five distinct "pieces," all atonal and all based around the same angular post-Magic Band guitar tone. The result occasionally brings to mind such respected elite music powerhouses as Metal Machine Music, Matt Bower/Skullflower at his/their/its most brutal (I'm thinking Tribulation here), "black metal," The Flying Luttenbachers, the aforementioned Magic Band, Mick Barr, and even Deerhoof's more obtuse work (particularly the achingly freeform masterwork known as "Look Away.")

But keep in mind... this is still Pat Metheny we're talking about here. For the most part, he's still a much bigger square than Sonny Sharrock and this stuff is about as academically wooden of a take on harsh guitar stranglings as you might expect from the dude. The moments where he slips into some bluesy leadwork are particularly hilarious and also prove that while Metheny was clearly interested in sculpting a dense pile of ridiculous noise, he could never do so with the drainingly persistent minimalism of Bower or Barr. And yet at the same time, that's what makes this album not really all that terrible and most likely preferable to, say, an Ocrilim record or some crap. For all the relentless clanging/dicking around, there's still some organization and effort to keep things somewhat diverse. Breaking out the acoustic for the fifth track, exploring slightly more calming melodic territory on the second, devoting a decent chunk of the 18 minute album opener to a surprisingly black metal-ish wall of white noise... you know what, I kind of dig it. At 39 minutes, anyway. Something tells me that while I'm not sure if hearing the Orchestrion tackle Zero Tolerance For Silence would be worth 50 bucks, seeing all the upperclass Symphony Center membership holders struggling to pretend that they enjoy it most certainly would.

Rating:

Download Link: "Part 5"

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.