What I’ve Been Listening To Lately: 5/6 - 5/12
Spacemen 3 - Playing With Fire
First time listening to Spacemen 3. I’ve gotten pretty into Spiritualized over the last 6 months ago, so it was only a matter of time before I listened to this. It’s obvious that Playing With Fire is a much simpler record than anything Spiritualized have done, but it’s still a great psychedelic space-rock album. Some parts reminded me of the last couple Deerhunter albums; it wouldn’t surprise me if Deerhunter draws influence from these guys. Never knew that “All Of My Tears,” from Spiritualized’s Pure Phase is actually a cover of the Spacemen song “So Hot.” That’s one of my favorite Spiritualized songs.
Pink Floyd - The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
My background knowledge on the Floyd is embarassing, so I’m in the process of trying to change that. I’ve listened to Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here before, but I actually found that I liked Piper the best after finally listening to it this week. It doesn’t come off as “proggy” to me (or at least what I think prog sounds like); it’s just a great, expansive 60’s psychedelic album.
My Bloody Valentine - Isn’t Anything [Remastered Version]
I think I’d listened to this album twice before it was remastered. Both times, I pretty much dismissed it as infinitely inferior to Loveless and moved on without further thought. I liked it way more this time, for some reason. It really is a great record, even with Loveless towering over it.
Prince - 1999
As you may be able to tell, this was a huge week for me listening to “classic” albums that I either hadn’t heard in a while or hadn’t heard at all. 1999 is in the latter category, although the first few tracks were instantly recognizable for me, just because they’re so damn popular. I guess you can chalk up my not getting into Prince earlier to his deliberate complete lack of internet presence, which is regrettable. My first thoughts upon hearing the opening to “Little Red Corvette” were that these were the lyrics Greg Dulli sang during the bridge of this video of Afghan Whigs on Letterman.
OFF! - OFF!
Read my full review over at Suburban Apologist.
Swans - Children Of God
I listened to this album while studying various wars for an exam I had coming up. Being by Swans, it should go without saying that it was a good choice.
Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun
This blew my mind. Listened to it on a recommendation. Sounds pretty structureless in a lot of the songs, but the sounds on it are so crazy and exciting that it doesn’t matter. Only comparison I can make is that it reminds me of Liars, but much more expansive.
Fennesz - Endless Summer
Listened to this because I heard Mark Richardson likes it a lot. I enjoy reading his Resonant Frequency column for Pitchfork so that was ample reason to get me to check this out. It’s a mishmash of ambient electronic music and processed guitars, possibly among other things that I don’t know how to recognize. Makes for good background/study music.
Stereolab - Transient Random Noise-Bursts With Announcements
I only dig Emperor Tomato Ketchup moderately when it comes to Stereolab, so I didn’t come into Transient Random Noise-Bursts with very high expectations. So I was surprised when I enjoyed this album a lot. “Jenny Ondioline” is an 18-minute monster of a song that consists of a few normal-sized songs knitted together.
It seems redundant and boring for me to list many of these classic albums as what I listened to this week, but most of them I heard for the first time and they were what I was most impressed by. I believe it’s just as important to stay educated on music’s past as it is to focus on the present, and that’s why I’m always listening to old stuff like this. There may not always be a whole lot to say that’s new about them, but that’s okay in these cases, because what’s already been said is great.
New Gig: Suburban Apologist
I am happy to announce that I’ve taken up another writing gig, with Tampa-based music site Suburban Apologist. I’m pretty excited to be doing this one, as SubAp is one of the most acclaimed sites in the Bay Area.
That’s all. Look for my reviews on there, plus “like” the Facebook page, follow the Twitter, etc.
Every Everything: The Music, Life, & Times of Grant Hart
Gorman Bechard, the architect of Color Me Obsessed, the canonical rock doc on seminal punk band The Replacements, has a new project he’s working on. This time, it’s a biographical film about Grant Hart, drummer and co-leader of one of the greatest and most underappreciated punk bands of all time, Hüsker Dü.
It makes sense that we’re getting this from Bechard following his Replacements documentary, since The ‘Mats and Hüsker are two of the closest-linked bands of their era. Both hailed from Minneapolis, both got their start as blistering hardcore acts, and both were at the vanguard of punk’s shift to alternative rock.
Although these two bands are invariably linked by those similarities and by the friendly rivalry they had with each other, the commonalities end at their music. While The ‘Mats won fans over with personality and songwriting, and by the end of their career had completely abandoned their hardcore beginnings, Hüsker Dü played with a much more brutal, breakneck ferocity that never completely left them.
At the center of Hüsker’s attack was the two singer/songwriters of the band: guitarist Bob Mould and drummer Grant Hart. Mould was always the more visible frontman, and since Hüsker Dü’s breakup he has found success with multiple bands. On the other end of the spectrum, Hart has been a bit less outspoken and has remained relatively low-key in the years since Hüsker Dü ceased to exist, which is why this documentary is so interesting. His story is still waiting to be told, and who better to do the job than Hart himself, as interviewed by Bechard? I’m looking forward to it very much.
What I’ve Been Listening To Lately: 4/29 - 5/5
LHF - Keepers Of The Light
2.5 hours of stellar British dubstep from a collective of guys I’ve never heard of before. Okay! It’s impressive how consistently good this is, despite its ridiculous length.
Heems - Nehru Jackets
A long listen, but a quality one. Heems shows some versatility by incorporating a variety of influences — including Indian music, from his ethnic homeland — in a fairly unique mishmash of a hip hop album mixtape. Some strong guest showings on here too. I like it better than Das Racist’s debut record, Relax.
Death Grips - The Money Store
I’ve mentioned before on here that I dug this album, and since then it’s continued to sound as good as when I first heard it. Hard-hitting synths back MC Ride’s aggressive, confrontational delivery and dark subject matter. It’s a winning formula.
Mount Eerie - Clear Moon
This is my introduction to Phil Elverum’s work outside of The Microphones, and I’m pretty impressed by it. It’s pretty similar to The Microphones. Makes me want to check out the other Mount Eerie albums.
Jack White - Blunderbuss
The first time I heard Blunderbuss, I wasn’t really blown away, but I suspected it might be a grower, and it has been. Jack White’s sense of songcraft is spot-on, the melodies are strong, and there are some pretty clever, thought-inducing lyrics on here.
Boris - Pink
I listened to this for the first time after randomly recalling liking a song called “Spoon” that I heard from Boris last year. I’d heard Boris was a Japanese doom metal band, but “Spoon” was really shoegaze-y, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Pink has some of those same tendencies, although maybe to a lesser degree.
Hüsker Dü - Candy Apple Grey
The only Hüsker record I hadn’t heard before, and I’d have to say that it’s not their best or worst. In quality, it’s somewhere in between the albums that came before and after it: the incredible Flip Your Wig, which was the last of the golden trio of utterly classic Hüsker albums (the others being Zen Arcade and New Day Rising), and their final statement, the spotty double album Warehouse: Songs And Stories. “Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely” is one of those great Hüsker pop songs, like “Makes No Sense At All,” “Green Eyes,” and “Could You Be The One.”
What I’ve Been Listening To Lately: 4/22-4/28
J Dilla - Donuts
This week’s big news story about the record store that claims to have recovered the late, great Jay-Stay-Paid’s personal collection got me to listen to Donuts for the first time in a while. It’s an album I’ve heard many times at Vinyl Fever, as it’s a favorite of two of the people who used to work there, but for some strange reason I never got ahold of my own copy, so I don’t think I’ve listened to it since the store closed down. That was a mistake. It sounds even better than ever after I spent so much time away from it. As far as instrumental hip hop goes, Donuts is really the top of the mountain.
Ty Segall & White Fence - Hair
This was my favorite new album that I heard this week. Ty Segall’s balls-to-the-fucking-wall garage rock and Tim Presley’s Nuggets-worthy psychedelic talents mash together in all the right ways. Hair sounds exactly like we expected, and hoped, for it to sound. Can’t wait to see Segall this summer.
Ital - Hive Mind
I’m not really what you’d call an “electronic guy,” but I’ve been doing my best to give most notable releases this year a shot. Many of them I haven’t “gotten,” but Hive Mind is one of the few releases that has made this venturing worth it. I don’t know nearly enough about electronic subgenres to give an accurate description but it’s a consistently engaging listen, which is especially impressive given that the last three songs are each over ten minutes long.
The Avalanches - Sleepy Bedtime Mix For Young Ones
A very curious release from the long-silent Avalanches, but a good one nonetheless. They dubbed it a “lullaby mix” upon releasing it, and they weren’t joking; the first time I listened to it, it was only about 10:00 pm (early for me) but I felt like I was going to fall out of my chair from drowsiness. In a good way. This makes me excited at the possibility of there someday being another Avalanches record, and it being really good.
THEESatisfaction - awE naturalE
Funk mixed with a little bit of hip hop by people who collaborated with Shabazz Palaces. Only listened once but it was satisfying.
Mesita - The Coyote
I don’t think Mesita has been getting enough love for this album. I’m not sure what it is about it that makes it sound so good, but The Coyote is a very fresh-sounding album that really hits home for me.
Pulp - We Love Life
As I’ve mentioned before on here, I’ve been getting pretty into Pulp lately. Besides Pulp’s magnum opus, Different Class, the album I’ve been listening to most is their last statement, We Love Life. I can’t think of a better “last song on a last album” than We Love Life’s “Sunrise,” and “Wickerman” is an underrated centerpiece to the album.
Japandroids - Celebration Rock
This was one of my more anticipated releases this year. Japandroids are a bit of a one-trick pony (unpretentiously anthemic, fuzzy, punk-y guitar rock), but that trick is so damn fun to listen to that it hardly matters. Having “Younger Us” and “The House That Heaven Built” back-to-back is just a deadly combination, even if the rest of the album isn’t quite as good.
