Recent Purchases

[C Dubya 04 0]

The new Regina Spektor, LCD Soundsystem, and Son Volt.

 

 

How's the new Son Volt?

[Hank Kingsley 0]

I'll probably need to give it another spin or two to really say, but on first listen it wasn't bad, but didn't blow me away, either.

[godthedog 0]

bjork - 'volta'

 

i've listened to it a few times on & off since yesterday, and it's far too weird for me to be able to tell if it's any good yet. first impressions are that it seems like a less successful version of 'medulla', where the material takes a backseat to experiments with sounds & structures. 'medulla' didn't have fantasically compelling songs, but i think it succeeded wildly as a formal experiment. with this, it seems unclear what the experiment is supposed to be, and the effect is just "oh...okay..."

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

music:

 

book:

[godthedog 0]

let me know how that manilow album is.

[Annabelle 0]

i have no idea whats "hip" anymore.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

let me know how that manilow album is.

It's a mother's day gift, so I'll be passing on whatever my mom thinks of it.

[Henry Spencer 0]

I think everybody's mother really like Barry Manilow.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

The new remaster that includes a bonus DVD. It comes out Tuesday, but I got a hold of it early. It's a common misonception that Genesis began to suck after Peter Gabriel left. Not true. They began to suck after guitarist Steve Hackett left, two albums into the Phil Collins-fronted era.

[mysterious_w 0]

I haven't bought anything in months, last thing was Pixies - Doolittle as it was going for £5 in HMV. I was going to buy Bloc Party's 2nd album, but after "sampling" it I decided against it (emo drivel).

[Garth 0]

!!! - Myth Takes

Prince - Purple Rain

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Phobia - Grind Your Fucking Head In

I've been getting more and more into music that's a little more extreme, a little heavier, a little more brutal than what passes off as "heavy metal" and "hardcore" these days. The more shitty, pseudo-pop acts like Hatebreed, As I Lay Dying, Bury Your Dead, Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, and Dragonforce get forced upon me by what constitutes as the "metal media," and the more tame I find what passes off as death and black and thrash metal to be, I yearn for something heavier. I've only recently delved into the wonderful world of grind and brutal death and their wonderful little crossover styles of porngrind and deathgrind, and I have to say: I'm loving it. Noise for the sake of noise, chaotic rumblings generated by everyday instruments so brooding and powerful that any "fan" of music (the very idea of a "music fan" disgusts me, seeing as how that implies that they like every style of music imaginable, which I find impossible to be true) would be turned off in a heartbeat due to its intentional lack of melodies and harmonies. First I listened to Skinless, then found them - albeit interesting and heavy - to be a little bit on the tame side at times. Then I found Amputated, and the hilarity of the terrible vocals is only counteracted by the well-placed samples at the beginning of each song and the simplistic beauty of the music itself. And now...I've found Phobia. Truth be told, I've heard of them before, but never really gave them a chance. I bought this on a whim this weekend while at Newbury Comics with my girlfriend, and listened to it on the ride home (well, technically, for about half of the 20-minute ride home). She didn't mind it too much, odd seeing as how she detests music the SLIGHTEST BIT more technically sound (Send More Paramedics, Municipal Waste...she just hates thrash/crossover that isn't SOD), and we both had a chuckle at how we knew there was a new song playing by the sudden changes in riffs and occasional moments of silence. That's what I like about bands whose songs might go to a minute or two at the most: the unpredictability upon early listens. When you hear a song by a band that takes even a minute amount of pride in their songwriting, you can tell where much of it is going: slow build, crazy melody over a decent-at-best riff, solid verse, sing-along chorus, piss-poor "breakdown", repeat. But when it's a band that is in it just to have bonecrushing moshpit anthems designed to scare fans of more easily digestable fare? You don't know where it's going. I appreciate that in music, even if I fail to be able to write like that without it sounding tacky and forced. Grind Your Fucking Head In is a solid purchase for fans of grind, but nobody else.

[Gary Floyd 0]

James Brown-In The Jungle Groove

KMFDM-Symbols

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Teenage Fanclub - Grand Prix: Got this new, for cheap. Good thing, as it replaces the copy I stupidly sold years ago. Easily the best TF album.

 

Smog - Wild Love: I like Smog. I did not have this.

 

Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden: Replaces long-time pirated copy. Real, real good, though no Laughing Stock.

 

Betty Davis - s/t: Those recent Sly & the Family Stone reissues put me in the mood for some more funk. This suits me fine.

 

Wire - 154: Only in rare instances will I purchase the remaster of an album I already have. Wire, circa their first three albums, is one of my favorite bands, so this—the most sonically dense of their early material and the most in need of a digital sprucing—warrants it.

[Gary Floyd 0]

 

Black Sabbath-Vol. 4

Black Sabbath-Black Sabbath

Meat Beat Manifesto-R.U.O.K?

Renegade Soundwave-Soundclash

[Bruiser Chong 0]

 

All on vinyl, $6 total.

[godthedog 0]

since the last whenever:

 

r.e.m. - 'up'...lacks a strong batch of songs, but i do like the overall sound of the album as a rainy day mood piece thingy. not the failed piece of shit i thought it was going to be. only major criticism is it goes on way too long. it does seem like something i'll probably get bored with in 2 or 3 months though.

 

afghan whigs - '1965'...i think the "lacks a strong batch of songs..." sentence i just typed applies pretty well to the whigs' entire catalog. works nicely and forgettably.

 

matthew sweet - 'girlfriend'...not a huge fan of his, but i like the fuzzy jangle sound he has and this gave me more or less exactly what i was expecting, with some nice steel guitar thrown in.

 

dinosaur jr - 'green mind'...i'd really like to get behind these guys as fast and powerful and rocking, but i can't get over how lazy and disinterested mascis's voice sounds. he sounds like somebody lying hungover on his bathroom floor calling in sick to work.

 

blur - 'modern life is rubbish'...very very solid. liked it right away, and it sounds like something i'll grow to like a lot more.

[MrRant 0]

 

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust

 

 

Eric Dolphy - Out To Lunch

 

 

Samael - Eternal

 

An odd mix for sure. I'd like to seek out other artists like Eric Dolphy but I profess to not knowing a whole lot about jazz.

[Si82 0]

 

Favourite Worst Nightmare - Arctic Monkeys

Our Earthly Pleasures - Maxïmo Park

Myths of the Near Future - Klaxons

Send Away the Tigers - Manic Street Preachers

[Garth 0]

Art Brut - 'It's A Bit Complicated'

White Stripes - 'Icky Thump'

[godthedog 0]

kelly clarkson - 'my december'

 

what.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I once got a boner watching a Kelly Clarkson video.

[godthedog 0]

if justin timberlake's album can be cool to the indie crowd, kelly should be treated like a goddess, since her voice is much better and i can listen to 'breakaway' all the way through without dying of boredom.

 

the new one seems to have a much stronger last half than first half, which i don't think i've ever heard in a pop album. the first half is more or less 'breakaway redux', only with a lot more guitars--pulling out all the dramatic song segment stops and vocal tricks, trying to kick out some singles, which can get pretty monotonous.

 

the last half is pretty loose and adventurous, with "irvine" containing a somber guitar part almost ripped off from "exit music for a film" with clarkson trying to sound like chan marshall. the amazing thing is that it works. and it's even got a secret track on the end, deliberately scratchy to sound like a demo! and there's a lyric in it that sounds like "woke up this morning, made a mess in my mouth," which, to me, conjures up glorious images of kelly clarkson somehow accidentally shitting in her own mouth.

 

the lyrics are uniformly abysmal, but hey, it's a pop record.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Maybe it meant she took a morning load.

 

*boner*

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I, too, love her without shame, in both music- and boner-related issues.

[godthedog 0]

enough to go get 'my december'?

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

To download it, at least. Evaluation forthcoming.

[Gary Floyd 0]

!!!-Myth Takes

The Rapture-Pieces of the People We Love

[Garth 0]

I've really been enjoying Myth Takes. There's a Hot Chip remix of 'Must Be The Moon' floating around thats superb. I think I like it even more than the original.

 

Pieces of People We Love has been on my list of albums to buy for quite a while now. I was going to get it before I saw them back in March just before I went to see them live but never got around to it and it's consistently slipped my mind since. Care to pass judgement on it anyone? Worth buying or is it only worth downloading? I've got all the singles off it anyway, so wasn't too sure. Whoo! Alright, Yeah ... Uh-Huh is officially the best good time song I've heard since 'Daft Punk is Playing at My House.'

[Gary Floyd 0]

Pieces is awesome, probably one of the best albums of the whole dance-punk revival. Not the best (that would be LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver) but awesome nonetheless. A lot more focused than Echoes.