New(er) Bits For October 19th
I haven’t rounded up a post of what I’m currently listening to in a while, so here goes.
Fatal Flying Guilloteens
Quantum Fucking (A Fictitious Real Life Account Of Young Love In The Streets)
Don’t let the unfortunate name of the Fatal Flying Guilloteens record “Quantum Fucking (A Fictitious Real Life Account Of Young Love In The Streets)” throw you, this is one of the best records put out this year. Sounding like a cross between NoMeansNo, The Jesus Lizard and Mclusky, this Texas 5 piece is unbelievably good. Seriously, just check this out and then give these guys some cash.
Listen to Illegal Weapons Party. Visit the band on Myspace. Buy this from Amazon.
Masonic
Things I Am Guilty Of
If you’re looking for sugar you could definitely do worse than another band from Texas, Masonic. I ignore 90% of emails that get sent my way regarding new bands, but since these guys (and gal) sent me their whole record I checked it out. I’m not sure what I expected, but this well produced alt pop record was a nice surprise. If you don’t find a song on this record to like, you might not have a soul.
Listen to Regret Is All and visit their website. You can buy this (and their other releases) from iTunes.
Einstürzende Neubauten
Weil Weil Weil
The latest from everybody’s favorite Germans sounds, well, like the latest from Neubauten post-1990. If you’re waiting for them to bang on pipes and make a complete racket, you’ve been waiting a long time. More industrial than noise, this is a quality 7 song EP that fits in well with the rest of their output. Try it out and see if it fits you.
Listen to Meanwhile (Remix by Alexander Hacke). Visit the band at Neubauten.org. You can download the entire EP from Amazon here
The Flaws
Achieving Vagueness
The debut from this Irish band reminds me a lot of the latest from The Editors. Of course that record reminded me of Interpol who remind me of a poppier Joy Division (among other things), so who’s copying who? The music here varies a bit, sometimes sounding more like early New Order than the early 90’s Cure, but I swear that’s what I’m hearing. Not a bad thing.
Give No Room a shot. Visit The Flaws on their website or Myspace page.
Xasthur
Defective Epitaph
Enough pop for today. Xasthur (aka Scott Conner) has a newish record out, Defective Epitaph. It’s more atmospheric than Black Metal, but it has the BM tag (and screaming), so I guess it falls there. With song titles like “Cemetery of Shattered Masks” and “Funerals Drenched in Apathy”, I can pretty much guarantee you won’t walk away from this CD feeling like a million bucks. Throwing live drums and a cello into the mix has altered his sound a little, making this an easier release to listen to for me, and one that some fans seem to dislike.
Listen to Legacy of Human Irrelevance and see if this moves you. You can hit up the official website for a little more info, although it appears that no updates have been happening in a while.
BUY:
Xasthur - Defective Epitaph
Fatal Flying Guilloteens
I’m a Lazy, Lazy Man
Ok, so it did take me a brief bit o’ time to get my FIOS net connection up and running, but to be honest I’ve just been amazingly lazy about getting back into Press Random. To throw something up and prove that the site still lives, I’m going to link a few things that I’m loving that were posted elsewhere.
First up, a Mike Watt show from his 1995 tour. Notable for the members contributing, including Dave Grohl, Pat Smear and Eddie Vedder. I saw this lineup and it was unbelievably good, not to mention seeing the Foo Fighters playing their first album before it came out. So good live. Eddie Vedder’s wife’s project? Not so good.
Download the whole show from Berkeley Place.
WFMU has the complete Beatles in one hour. That’s some serious compression going on. When they get back to their normal state they make my house sound like it’s being haunted by musical ghosts. Happy birthday Mr. Lennon.
Phoenix Hairpins has some great downloads, including the previously-unheard-by-me Rebel Christening. I’m going to offend someone with this, but they remind me of early Killing Joke. Before you send me hate mail, I love early Killing Joke.
Did you know Jason and Scar Stuff were back online? He is and since this is his season I suggest you pay a visit. Welcome back!
Oh, and Radiohead has some sort of news going on with their new album which comes out tomorrow. In case you didn’t already hear from 8,000,000 other websites in the past week or two.
That’s it for now, go download some good stuff and check back soon for a proper post.
-Scott
Moved… Update
Well I made my move. Unfortunately, there’s been a slight delay before Verizon can get my FIOS up and running. In the meantime I have no net access at home, so no posts until this gets resolved. All should be good by mid next week at the latest. Hang in there!
This Week
I’m in the process of moving this week into the weekend so a lack of new posts will be in full effect. Since I ignored my Monday post, here are a few new(er) tracks I’m digging from albums worth seeking out.
Public Enemy is back with a new album and I have to say, this is my favorite PE release since “Fear Of a Black Planet”. Good stuff all around. “How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul???” has some hard beats, lots of jazzy ones and has them at high form.
Public Enemy - Black Is Back
Icon Gallery sent me a copy of their demo for review over at Strange Reaction, and while I’ll get to that after my move, I figured they’d fit in to this post since I’ve been playing this a lot.
Icon Gallery - Corrosive
Dr. Strange has put out some new releases that are all excellent as usual. Besides the new Voids and tribute to Agression, the latest from Riot/Clone is here. An early anarcho/punk band, they’ve apparently reformed. All I can say is that they sound great and the whole record’s a keeper.
Riot/Clone - Suburban Boredom
That’s it, I have to get back to packing. It’s amazing how much crap you accumulate when you live in an apartment for too long. I should be back in regular rotation next week.
How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul???
Voids - Sounds of Failure, Sounds of Hope
The Residents - Santa Dog ‘88
The Residents have to be one of the oddest bands to come out of anywhere, well, ever. The first thing I ever heard by them was the song “Santa Dog ‘78″, which my older brother played continually because it freaked the 9 year old me out quite a bit. I didn’t know why the song creeped me out, it just did. Their first single, the original “Santa Dog” record came out in 1972 and was a double single. It was later comped on the CD version of “Meet the Residents”, but has been removed from later pressings. Different versions of the song were put out over the years and were compiled as a fan club bootleg called “Santa Dog ‘88″. Each version is equally strange, but I still get weirded out by the ‘78 rendition.A newer, almost 13 minute version was released in 1992. It’s mainly noise and is the weakest of the 5 in my opinion. Below are the first 4 from that boot.
Santa Dog (a.k.a. Fire)
Santa Dog ‘78
Santa Dog ‘84 (unfinished)
Santa Dog ‘88
The Residents Meet the Residents
Afghan Whigs - Big Top Halloween
(This was a meh week for new releases so I’m skipping my Monday review. If you really want to know what I listened to, it’s not much different from last week).
They’ve been one of my favorite bands for years, and I still don’t know why their first album has never been repressed. The Afghan Whigs released “Big Top Halloween” on their own label back in 1988. Where “Up In It” occasionally veered into Replacements-territory, this record sounds like Greg Dulli knocked out Paul Westerberg and took over for a record. While not up to the same highs they’d hit on later ones, this is still a great album. Some songs would be at home on their next record, “Up In It”, while most aren’t quite as polished. I never understood why Sub-Pop didn’t put this out when they worked with the band for that record. Maybe the band dislikes it, who knows.
You can snag the WHOLE thing here. Please read that sentence again before emailing me where the rest of the album is. Thanks.
Check out some highlights:
Here Comes Jesus
Scream
Doughball
Greek Is Extra
Image borrowed from Dying Days.
NOTE: Some people have yet to figure out that the whole record has been uploaded. This isn’t a four track sample entry, the whole record is available in this post somewhere. It’s not that hard to find, honest.
Metallica - No Life ‘Til Leather
A fairly common boot, this is an early Metallica demo, recorded when Dave Mustaine still in the band. These songs would be remade into what appears on “Kill ‘Em All”, although most Metallica fans knew that already. For folks like me who prefer their Metallica to sound like a band still young and full of energy, this is a keeper. Cover image taken from Wikipedia.
Hit the Lights
The Mechanix
Motorbreath
Seek and Destroy
Metal Militia
Jump In the Fire
Phantom Lord
If you don’t already own it, now is the time to buy Kill ‘Em All!
Monday’s Week In Review 7/30/07
The latest from The Neutrinos has been getting lots of airplay on my iPod this week. I’d even go so far as saying that I’ve listened to “One Way Kiss” more than any other record since I got it on Tuesday.
Neutrinos - Kiss Like Killers (from One Way Kiss)
The new Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP “Is Is” probably won’t win any new fans, but folks who already liked the band get five more songs to overplay. Personally, I think Karen O keeps sounding better and better. Wow, two songs with the word “kiss” in the titles this week. Hm.
Kiss, Kiss (from Is Is)
I like the band “Future Of the Left”, but had no idea that 2 of their members were also in the band Mclusky. After tracking down a few of their records, I’ve been really loving the 2 CD set “Mcluskyism” lately.
Mclusky - Whoyouknow (from Mcluskyism)
The Voids have a new record out and it’s killer. Fans of female-fronted punk rock should take note, this albums kicks all kinds of ass.
Voids - Suburban Boredom (from Sounds Of Failure, Sounds Of Hope)
Buy the Neutrinos album One Way Kiss
Voids - Sounds of Failure, Sounds of Hope
Indiana Jones
Judging by the modest popularity of my Star Wars post last week, I’m assuming that some people would like the other book/record set I ripped. This entry is Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom. Same cheese, different story.
Monday’s Week In Review 7/23/07 (a day late)
I’m a day late, but I’ll keep this under my Monday In Review file. I didn’t get into much new music this past week, so I’ll promote older records I’ve been getting back into.
Before they reached “Move Any Mountain”, the Shamen had a psychedelic pop sound that I really loved. While albums after this, like “En-Tact” opened the doors of accessible techno, I really preferred their older records. Sadly, their less danceariffic albums remain out of print through most of the world. I just rediscovered this album, and it’s as good as I remember. There’s at least one copy on Ebay at the moment should you wish to track it down.
Shamen - Strange Days Dream (from Drop)
I played a lot of Jesus and Mary Chain this past week, and their 1994 Black Session was heard a lot around the house. While the quality is as good as most Black Session boots floating around, this version of their hit “Head On” is particularly great.
Jesus and Mary Chain - Head On (from their 1994 Black Session)
I picked up The Undertones compilation “True Confessions”, a double disc collection of their singles. While they recorded a slew of great songs, Teenage Kicks is still their best, if not one of the catchiest songs ever. John Peel knew it when he declared it his favorite song of all time.
Undertones - Teenage Kicks (from True Confessions)
I’m not a big Ryan Adams fan, but in 2003 he and Jesse Malin united under the name The Finger and put out one kick-ass punk record that might scare away listeners of his slightly less rockin’ albums.
Finger - Inside My Brain (from We Are Fuck You)
Jesus and Mary Chain - 21 Singles
