Do you find the above GIF as hilarious as I do? Probably not but I'm to lazy to think of anything to write to accompany this podcast so you're stuck with it.
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Showing posts with label Thee Oh Sees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thee Oh Sees. Show all posts
Thursday, September 15, 2016
The Unblinking Ear Podcast 9/15/16
Do you find the above GIF as hilarious as I do? Probably not but I'm to lazy to think of anything to write to accompany this podcast so you're stuck with it.
Thursday, June 04, 2015
The Unblinking Ear Podcast 6/4/15
It's been a month since the last Unblinking Ear Podcast. Apologies for not keeping to my personally mandated biweekly schedule (thought I did a fill in for Evan "Funk" Davies on WFMU last week which you could have listened to if you missed me that much). However, things have been quite busy for us at Unblinking Ear HQ. SWIVS will be making their live debut a secret time and location very soon. Kerbivore's EP release show is set for June 18th at Cake Shop. And, perhaps most thrillingly, we're gearing up to release our first vinyl: the Big Quiet "Maura & Dana" 7"! You can preorder now with records shipping on June 16th. Or you can download both tunes for only $1. But then you'd miss out on owning one of only 300 copies of this monumental release. Don't be left out!
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Thursday, May 08, 2014
The Unblinking Ear Podcast 5/8/14
The above image (courtesy of @lauralogic) has nothing to do with the contents of this podcast. Expect that both are awesome.
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Friday, January 03, 2014
The Unblinking Ear Podcast 1/3/14
Welcome to 2014! While this edition of the Unblinking Ear Podcast contains no music from the new year (or The New Year), it does feature some of 2013's best. However, it is not a "best of." It's a mix of some late in the year releases, a few things I've been meaning to play and a few things I overlooked but gleaned from the best of lists of others. If you happen to be the OCD-list-making-and-reading type (and if you've read this far I bet you are), you can check out the best of the year broadcast I did on WFMU last week.
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Friday, April 19, 2013
The Unblinking Ear Podcast 4/19/13
If anyone would like to purchase the above product for me (a mere $68 retail!), I would gladly accept. I have a beard and it needs to be tamed. Yet even with this mammalian hindrance, I somehow manage to fill a biweekly podcast with new music. It's not an impossible task, though admittedly, it is slightly more demanding than complaining.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
The Unblinking Ear Podcast 10/18/12
With this edition of the Unblinking Ear Podcast, we begin a bold new era. In the four and half years I've been doing this podcast, this is first one where I dropped $3.50 for a foam cover for my microphone. So I've the main reason you've been listening is to hear me pop my P's, I'm afraid this is the end of the line for you. For everyone else, we've got the same great music and me rambling on incoherently.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
The Unblinking Ear Podcast: Plausibly the Best of 2011
The year is nearly over. But before we put 2011 in our rearview, let's take a moment (or roughly 47 and a half minutes) to reflect on the year that was.Below are selections from what I consider the best records of 2011. For those of you with obsessive compulsive disorder, don't fret. I'll be putting them in list form in the near future, along with many "honorable mentions."
I welcome all agreements/disagreements, Either post them in comments section or tweet them at me. But before you work yourself into a frothy rage over my selections, do try and remember that these things are subjective.
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Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The Unblinking Ear Podcast: Zeitgeist, Baby
Here at Unblinking Ear HQ, we've noticed over the last couple of months a large amount of music press/internet babble devoted to deluxe reissues of albums that came out 20 years ago*. There's nothing wrong with that as we here at Unblinking Ear celebrate rock history as well and have also been known to have something of a 90s fetish.
However, what use is nostalgia when it overshadows the vital work happening in the here and now? There has been such a deluge of terrific new releases over the past few weeks and months that we've been struggling to keep up. In fact, the amount of fine new records has been so great that we've decided to eschew the past temporarily and devote this edition of the podcast entirely to brand new music. With so much, so good coming out recently, it was actually rather easy to acompliish.
The next podcast will surely feature some fine music recorded many years prior mixed with equally fine music of the present. But for now... dig the now.
*Incidentally, the actual best album of 1991 was Eleventh Dream Day's Lived To Tell.
However, what use is nostalgia when it overshadows the vital work happening in the here and now? There has been such a deluge of terrific new releases over the past few weeks and months that we've been struggling to keep up. In fact, the amount of fine new records has been so great that we've decided to eschew the past temporarily and devote this edition of the podcast entirely to brand new music. With so much, so good coming out recently, it was actually rather easy to acompliish.
The next podcast will surely feature some fine music recorded many years prior mixed with equally fine music of the present. But for now... dig the now.
*Incidentally, the actual best album of 1991 was Eleventh Dream Day's Lived To Tell.
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Monday, May 16, 2011
The Unblinking Ear Podcast: Three Years and Counting
(The traditional gift for a third anniversary is leather. If you must, just buy me a drink instead.)
In that time I've done 73 podcast and played hundreds of bands.
541 to be precise.
And here are all of them:
- AC Newman
- The Action
- The Addicts
- The Adverts
- AK-47
- Alan Milman Sect
- Alternative TV
- Alice Cooper
- American Music Club
- Angry Samoans
- Animals and Men
- Anti-Band
- Apache Dropout
- Arc In Round
- Art Attacks
- Article 58
- Babylon Dance Band
- Bad Posture
- Babies
- Barbara Manning
- Bardo Pond
- Bare Wires
- Bartlebees
- Bass Drum of Death
- Bassholes
- The Bats
- Beach Boys
- Beach Fossils
- The Beat
- Beauty Supply
- The Beets
- Belreve
- Best Coast
- Better Beatles
- Bettie Serveert
- Bevis Frond
- Beyond the Implode
- Big Star
- Bird Nest Roys
- The Birthday Party
- The Bizarros
- Black Market Baby
- Black Tambourine
- Blue Orchids
- Bobby Soxx
- Boomgates
- Bottomless Pit
- Box Elders
- The Boys
- Brain Eno
- Brommers
- Busted Statues
- Buzzcocks
- Cabaret Voltaire
- Can
- Captain Beefheart
- Cardinal
- Carolee
- The Cat's Miaow
- Cause Co-Motion
- Chain Gang
- Chain and the Gang
- Chameleons
- Charles Bradley
- Cheap Time
- Cheap Trick
- Cheveu
- Chills
- Chris Carpenter
- Christmas
- Chrome
- The Chosen Few
- Cinema Red and Blue
- Circle X
- Classic Ruins
- The Clean
- Clinic
- Cloud Nothings
- Colin Newman
- Come
- Comsat Angels
- Consonant
- Coral
- Coloured Balls
- The Cramps
- The Creation
- The Creepers
- The Crescendos
- Crime
- Cruddy
- Crystal Stilts
- Cyclops
- Daniel Francis Doyle
- Dantalian's Chariot
- David Bazan
- David Kilgour
- Davila 666
- The dBs
- DC Snipers
- Dead Boys
- Dead C
- Dead Fingers Talk
- Death
- Deerhunter
- Defnics
- Desperate Bicycles
- Destroyer
- The Dicks
- The Dictators
- Died Pretty
- Dieter Meier
- Dikes of Holland
- The Dils
- Dim Stars
- Dinosaur Jr
- Dirt Shit
- Dirty Looks
- Dirtbombs
- Disappears
- Distractions
- Dog Eat Dog
- The Dogs (US & France)
- Dolly Mixture
- Double Negative
- Dr. Zeke
- Drive Like Jehu
- The Dream Syndicate
- Drunks With Guns
- Duchess of Saigon
- Dum Dum Girls
- Easybeats
- Eat Skull
- Eater
- Eddy Current Suppression Ring
- Electric Eels
- Eleventh Dream Day
- The Embarrassment
- Embrace
- Endtables
- Eppu Normaali
- Eternal Summers
- The Ex
- Ex Humans
- Fairport Convention
- The Fall
- Fang
- The Feelies
- The Fems
- Fey Gods
- Filth
- Flamin Groovies
- Fleetwood Mac
- Flesh Eaters
- Flipper
- The Flys
- Freestone
- The Fresh and Onlys
- Fucked Up
- Fugazi
- Futureheads
- Gaunt
- Gem
- Gene Clark
- The Germs
- Girls
- The Girls
- Girls At Our Best
- Go-Betweens
- Golden Error
- Goodnight Loving
- Gordons
- Grass Widow
- The Great Excape
- Great Plains
- The Great Unwashed
- Grifters
- Guided By Voices
- The Gun Club
- Gun Outfit
- Guv'ner
- Halo of Flies
- Hank IV
- The Haskels
- Thee Headcoats
- Helium
- Helmettes
- Henry's Dress
- Herman's Hermits
- High Tension Wires
- Home Blitz
- Homosexuals
- Honey Bane
- Honor Role
- Hot Snakes
- Huggy Bear
- The Hunches
- Hüsker Dü
- Idle Times
- Ike and Tina Turner
- The In Out
- Inferno
- Japanther
- Jawbox
- Jay Reatard
- Jean-Paul Sartre Experience
- Jet Bronx and the Forbidden
- Joel RL Phelps and the Downer Trio
- John Cale
- John Felice
- John Wesley Coleman
- Johnny Moped
- Johnny Thunders
- The Kent 3
- Kevin Ayers
- K-Holes
- Kidnappers
- The Kids
- The Kinks
- Kilps 1988
- Kriminella Gitarrer
- Kurt Vile
- Kistomized
- La Peste
- La Sera
- Lame Drivers
- The Laureates
- Lazy Cowgirls
- Lee Harvey Oswald Band
- The Leftovers
- Lemming
- Les Olivensteins
- The Lewd
- The Like
- Liket Lever
- Liliput
- Lilys
- Lime Spiders
- Liminanas
- The Lines
- Lipstick Killers
- Little Claw
- Lois
- Lollipop Shoppe
- Long Blondes
- Look Blue Go Purple
- Lost Sounds
- Lou Reed
- Loudon Wainwright III
- Love
- Love of Diagrams
- Lyres
- Ma'am
- Magick Heads
- Magik Markers
- Mannequin Men
- Mantles
- Marked Men
- Mars Classroom
- Master's Apprentices
- The Mayfair Set
- Mayyors
- Mecca Normal
- Mekons
- The Men
- Meth Teeth
- Method Actors
- Mick Farren
- Micronotz
- Mind Spiders
- Minutemen
- Mirrors
- Mission of Burma
- The Misunderstood
- Modey Lemon
- The Monorchid
- Moon Duo
- Moonhearts
- Mort Subite
- Motards
- Motorhead
- The Move
- Moving Sidewalks
- Moving Targets
- Muffs
- MX-80 Sound
- My Dad Is Dead
- My Teenage Stride
- Myelin Sheaths
- The Mystic Tide
- Naked On The Vague
- Nasal Boys
- Nation of Ulysses
- The Nazz
- Negative Approach
- Negative Trend
- The Neighborhoods
- Neil Young
- The Nerves
- Neu
- New Bomb Turks
- New Pornographers
- New Year
- Nitwitz
- NNB
- No Joy
- Nocturnal Projections
- Nodzzz
- Noh Mercy
- Nothing Painted Blue
- Nothing People
- Nubs
- The Obits
- OBN IIIs
- OFF!
- The Only Ones
- Opus
- The Oranges Band
- Oxford Collapse
- The Pagans
- Pain
- Parting Gifts
- Pastels
- The Patti Smith Group
- Paul Reekie
- The People's Temple
- Pere Ubu
- Phil Ochs
- Photobooth
- Pierced Arrows
- The Pin Group
- Pink Fairies
- Pissed Jeans
- Pleazers
- Polvo
- Ponys
- Pop. 1280
- The Pop Group
- The Prefects
- Pretty Things
- Prisonshake
- Proud Scum
- Protex
- Psychedelic Horseshit
- Psychic Ills
- Psycho Surgeons
- Public Image Ltd
- Puffy Areolas
- Purling Hiss
- Pylon
- Quintron
- Radio Birdman
- Randoms
- Rayon Beach
- Reading Rainbow
- Real Kids
- Really Red
- Reactions
- Red Asphalt
- Red Krayola
- Red Transistor
- Reigning Sound
- The Reruns
- Restricted Code
- Richard Hell
- Richard Thompson
- The Rich Kids
- The Rings
- Rip Offs
- Rivals
- Robert Wyatt
- Rock-A-Teens
- Roger Miller
- Roky Erickson
- Ron House
- Ronnie Mayor
- Rose Tattoo
- Rot Shit
- Roy Wood
- Rozz
- Rude Kids
- Running
- The Ruts
- Saccharine Trust
- Sado-Nation
- The Saints
- Salem 66
- Sally Crewe and the Sudden Moves
- San Francisco Seals
- Satan's Rats
- The Satellities
- Screaming Urge
- Scritti Politti
- Scrotum Poles
- Sebadoh
- Severe
- Shannon and the Clams
- Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
- Shop Assistants
- Sic Alps
- Silkworm
- Silver Apples
- Simply Saucer
- Singles
- Siouxsie and the Banshees
- The Skinnies
- Skrewdriver
- Slant 6
- Sleater Kinney
- The Sleepers
- Slices
- The Slits
- Slug Guts
- Smith Westerns
- Snuky Tate
- Soft Boys
- Soft Tags
- Some Chicken
- Sonic Youth
- Sonics
- Sonic's Rendezvous Band
- Sorry
- Sort Sol
- Soul Ayslum
- Spider Bags
- Spinanes
- Spoon
- Spring
- The Squad
- Squirrel Bait
- Steve Harley
- Stiffs Inc
- The Stooges
- The Stranglers
- Strapping Fieldhands
- Stuart Murdoch
- Styrenes
- Sugar
- Suicide Commandos
- Suicide Squad
- Superchunk
- Super Wild Horses
- Swamp Rats
- Swell Maps
- Tallboys
- Tall Dwarfs
- Tampax
- Tapeworm
- Team Dresch
- The Teardrop Explodes
- Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
- Teenage Fanclub
- Telefones
- Television
- Television Personalities
- Terrorways
- Thee Oh Sees
- Thermals
- This Kind of Punishment
- This Poison!
- Third Bardo
- Thomas Function
- Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments
- Thought Criminals
- Throwing Muses
- Tights
- Tim Cohen
- Times New Viking
- Tommy Keene
- Too Much
- Toys
- Trash
- Tre Orsi
- Triple Hex
- The Trend
- Troggs
- True West
- TV Ghost
- Twink
- Twinkeys
- Two Tears
- Ty Segall
- Tyler Jon Tyler
- Tyvek
- Undertones
- The Unholy Two
- Unnatural Helpers
- Unrest
- Urinals
- Urge Overkill
- Uzi
- V-3
- Vagrants
- Vaselines
- Vast Majority
- Vee Dee
- The Verge
- Verlaines
- Versus
- Vicious Visions
- The Victims
- Victor Dimisich Band
- Vivian Girls
- Vomit Launch
- Vomit Pigs
- Volcano Suns
- Vulgar Boatmen
- Wanda Jackson
- Warmers
- Waves
- Wavves
- The Wedding Present
- Weekend
- Weirdos
- Wetdog
- The What's New
- Whines
- White Fence
- White Mystery
- Wild Flag
- The Wipers
- Wire
- Witchfynde
- Women
- Wooden Shjips
- Wounded Lion
- Woven Bones
- Wreckless Eric
- Wrong Words
- X
- Xray Eyeballs
- X-Ray Spex
- XYX
- Yo
- Yo La Tengo
- The Young
- Young Marble Giants
- Yung Wu
- Zero Boys
- 21-645
- The 3Ds
- 45 Grave
Last year, I posted a similar list and asked for suggestions of artists I haven't played. If you made a suggestion and I didn't play it, feel free to suggest it again.
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Friday, May 21, 2010
The Unblinking Ear Podcast: The Terrible Twos
(Above: A fearsome twosome)
I don't expect recognition of this anniversary that Google granted Pac-Man today.
If you want to buy me a piece of cake, I will gladly eat it.
Or you can follow me on Twitter, which I'm doing now because it's 2010 and you have to.
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The Unblinking Ear Podcast: Sour Grapes
(Above: a titan of industry)A few weeks back I wrote about the imminent backlash for the lo-fi revival movement. I opined that some of these bands might be wise to at least explore the possibility of making records in an actual studio so that the sound (and trendiness thereof) didn't overshadow their tunes. Little did I know that Psychedelic Horseshit actually wants to sound like Rihanna. Or that Mike Sniper is apparently the most powerful man in the music industry.
I can only hope Mr. Sniper hears this podcast and my support of bands of varying degrees fidelity and offers me a place in his empire. Put the auction for that Mad Virgins record in your watched items list? Yes, sir!
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Friday, December 26, 2008
What Was Great in 2008
Besides, you know, the obvious.
Instead of a very extensive year-end list like I did last year, I decided to simply give a list of 10 records which came out this year that I am very, very happy I purchased. I'm not going to pretend this is a "best of" list as I'm sure there are more than a few worthy records I missed in the past 12 months. As more year-end lists trickle in, I'll hopefully get myself caught up.
Still, none of the below albums are crying out to be usurped. It took some trimming to get it down to ten. In no particular order other than the order they occurred to me:
1 Thomas Function Celebration (Alive)
Here's what I wrote on this blog after seeing Thomas Function back in April:
2 Prisonshake Dirty Moons (Scat)
The world waited 15 years for Prisonshake's followup to The Roaring Third and, unlike Chinese Democracy, it wasn't a huge disappointment. Dirty Moons is not the tight, leave-no-fat-untrimmed affair that The Roaring Third was. It's loose, expansive and filled with ideas, befitting a band whose released a box set(!) as their debut album. There's pummeling straight-up rock tunes, tender ballads, mini-rock operas, a 5-song suite, tossed-off minute-long jokes, tunes that stretch past the five, six and ten minute marks, and what feels like everything in between. And yet, it all holds together quite well. For all their ambition, Prisonshake still comes off like the band who could take the stage at your local bar and rock the shit out of the place as effortlessly as if they were tying their shoes. Robert Griffin remains one of the best guitarists to ever come out of the American independent underground, gorgeously lyrical at one moment and bringing the noise the next. I don't know if Dirty Moons is going to win Prisonshake any new fans, but the world is much richer for its presence. It's good to have you back, boys.
3 Thee Oh Sees The Master's Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In (Castle-Face Records / Tomlab Records)
John Dwyer's most famous project, the Coachwhips, never really did it for me either way. His new (side?) project, Thee Oh Sees, is another matter entirely. Primitive? Sure. Retrogressive? Hardly. The issue I have with a lot of neo-garage (or neo-whatever) acts is that they're all too often content to simply recreate the sounds of a bygone era, offering little in the way of innovation or even individuality. Drenched in reverb, Thee Oh Sees recall primal rock without ever sounding revivalist or particularly derivative. You can hear bits of everyone from Billy Childish to the Scientists to the Red Crayola in their sound but, like a master chef, they use these ingredients to create something entirely their own. Plus, there's as much emphasis on songwriting as there is on sonics. Making a cool noise is fun and all but unless one is using it to shape good songs the appeal is limited. Dwyer and company never loose sight of that and the result is one of the best records of the year.
4 Meth Teeth Bus Rides EP (Sweet Rot)
My favorite 7 inch of the year. Here's what I wrote about it back in April:
5 Vivian Girls s/t (Mauled By Tigers/In the Red)
Yes, there's been a wave of hype about this Brooklyn-three piece and, of course, the inevitable backlash. (In fairness, being interviewed by John Norris will harm anyone's cred.) Who knows what the future holds for Vivian Girls? Are music biz-type assholes tripping over themselves to snatch the band up and turn them into the Pussycat Dolls for the Pitchfork set? Will the band ditch their inspired amateurism for professional sheen? Will they collapse under the pressure of the position in which they suddenly find themselves? Do they even have another good record in them under any circumstances? Did it stop being fun a long time ago? All valid questions but when the needle hits the wax on this baby, none of it matters. For the 21 minutes that Vivian Girls is playing, their magnificent DIY-pop renders all flavor of the month concerns irrelevant.
6 Oxford Collapse BITS (Sub Pop)
Nearly every review I read for Oxford Collapse's 2009 album, BITS, seemed totally off the mark, whether trying to lump them in with some kind of lo-fi reaction against orchestral indie rock (a valid point but not the best place to make it) or displaying general cluelessness. Perhaps the reason the crits find the OxC difficult to review is that they can't be easily pigeonholed. They're a band that follows their muse, not trends. When they first began performing earlier in the decade, it seemed that every band in New York was co-opting the angular sounds of British post-punk. Gang of Four and Joy Division soundalikes were more common in the city than service interruptions on the N/R line. The Oxford Collapse, however, were mining the less celebrated but no less fertile territory of US post-punk, taking cues from innovative but virtually unremembered acts like the Embarrassment, Pylon, and the Urinals. While this meant that the band was overlooked in the post-Strokes major-label signing frenzy, fast forward a few years and most of the post-punk revival pack is gone and/or forgotten while the Oxford Collapse have released their fourth and most consistent album yet. They may well be doomed to languish in the same semi-obscurity as their heroes but anyone with a taste for adventurous indie rock would do themselves a service by picking up BITS. The OxC's other 2008 releases The Hann-Byrd EP on Comedy Minus One and "Spike of Bensonhurst" 7" on Flameshovel are also highly recommended.
7 Hank IV Refuge in Genre (Siltbreeze)
I liked the Hank IV's 2006 debut, Third Person Shooter, well enough that it made my list of best albums for that year. On their second platter, they've really upped the ante, stripping away any traces of hobby band silliness for a potent dose of stomping, howling punk rock. Singer Bob McDonald has got to be one of the best frontmen in rock music today. His voice sounds like equal parts Brian Johnson and John Brannon and on stage his antics shame men half his age. This is definitely a band you should experience live. Just pick up Refuge in Genre first as you'll most certainly want to be able to sing along. You just try and resist yelling "She's got!/Dirty poncho!/Drop dead gorgeous!" whilst pumping your fist in the air.
8 Eddy Current Suppression Ring Primary Colours (Goner)
Sometimes it's hard to explain exactly why a band stands above the pack. Eddy Current Suppression Ring plays garage punk, plain and simple and lean and mean. There's no angle. No bells and whistles. Nothing to make blogger/critic/hype machine-types to perk up their ears and say "Oh, isn't that interesting!" So what makes ECSR better than the rest? It's that's indefinable quality called... I don't know... talent? For example, how did ECSR know that dropping out all instruments besides guitar in the middle of "Which Way to Go" before bringing them all crashing back in would up the intensity tenfold? Or how did they know to have singer Brendan Suppression croon over the jangly "Wrapped Up" instead of his usual Mark E. Smith-style declarative recitation? Or that the slow burn of "Memory Lane" followed by the crash-and-bash "Sunday's Coming" would be the perfect way to kick off the album? Beats me, but I suppose that's why they're a fantastic rock band and I'm sitting in front a keyboard struggling to tell you that you'd be a fool to pass on this album. The best Aussie rock band since the Saints? Okay, that's a bit of an overstatement but it got your attention, didn't it?
9 Nothing People Anonymous (S-S)
The name Nothing People conjures images of a Manson family-esque cult of hippies. Instead of preaching the good vibrations of peace and love, they've adopted a philosophy of nihilism, as if they spent a bad acid trip staring into the void and never fully came back. I know nothing of the Nothing People's living habits but their music is nearly an aural equivalent of the above: a twisting and snarling psychedelic maelstrom intent on producing tension. And as befitting a cult, this record comes in innocuous yet oblique packaging and in a very small pressing of 600 copies, LP only. If you can't find one at your local record shoppe, write the fine folks at S-S Records and see if they can sign you up for reprogramming.
10 The Lines Memory Span (Acute reissue)
I pride myself in knowing a thing or two about the British DIY scene of late 70s/early 80s. I was bugging dealers at WFMU Record Fair looking for Homosexuals records when you were still trying figure out how Thom Yorke gets his hair like that. So how did I totally miss the Lines? The short answer is that they were obscure in even for a genre that was in and of itself obscure. That's why I'm thank the creator everyday for people like Dan Selzer and his fantastic Acute label. Memory Span compiles all the Lines' singles and EPs along with a pair of unreleased demos to paint a portrait of a remarkable band. Their first single, the stunning "White Night" sounds at least 10 years ahead of it's time, like something a Creation-label shoegaze-y outfit would be proud to call their own. The remainder of the collection is equally impressive. Even at their most jagged, the Lines are melodically rich and inventive. Try to imagine Robyn Hitchock backed by Grotesque (After the Gramme)-era Fall for an approximation. About a month ago, Acute also released Flood Bank, which collects both of the Lines full-lengths. I have yet to pick it up. Now you know what to get me for Xmas. (Ed. Note: I was planning on posting this list before December 25th.)
A podcast containing songs from the above (as well as more than a few honorable mentions) is coming soon.
In the meantime do check out the '08 lists of the below from folks whose opinion on musical matters I respect probably a lot more than yours:
Nate Knaebel
Doug Mosurock plus Still Single Best of Podcast
WFMU's Terre T
WFMU's Evan "Funk" Davies
WPRB's Jon Solomon
Matador Records Staff and Artists
More to come.
Instead of a very extensive year-end list like I did last year, I decided to simply give a list of 10 records which came out this year that I am very, very happy I purchased. I'm not going to pretend this is a "best of" list as I'm sure there are more than a few worthy records I missed in the past 12 months. As more year-end lists trickle in, I'll hopefully get myself caught up.
Still, none of the below albums are crying out to be usurped. It took some trimming to get it down to ten. In no particular order other than the order they occurred to me:
1 Thomas Function Celebration (Alive)
Here's what I wrote on this blog after seeing Thomas Function back in April:
On Tuesday night I had the pleasure of seeing Thomas Function perform at the Annex here in New York in front of a crowd of maybe three dozen or so. Lately I've been verbalizing to anyone who will listen that I think bands should only do 20 minute sets. This probably started shortly after seeing Jay Reatard, who blasted through a set of about a dozen song in about that time. I get bored easily I suppose and usually about halfway though many bands' sets I become restless and wonder if I couldn't be spending my time better elsewhere. But damn me if Thomas Function didn't keep my attention for the duration. So much so, that without hesitation I plunked down $20 for their LP and both 45s they had for sale (All on colored vinyl! Take that, digital age!) despite the fact that I have about $25 in my bank account until my next payday. Hell, if that's not a recommendation, I don't know what is. I've seen the band compared to Television and the Modern Lovers but that's really only telling half the story. They're nowhere near as punctilious as the the former or as coy as the latter. Thomas Function play their off-kilter pop songs with an unabashed enthusiasm that's won that them a following with the usually suspicious of anything cleaner than scuzz garage crowd. I know it's only April but the band's debut album Celebration is going to be hard to beat for record of the year.I can't say for certain whether or not Thomas Function retained the title for '08 but when it came time to list the best of the year, Celebration was the first record that came to mind
2 Prisonshake Dirty Moons (Scat)
The world waited 15 years for Prisonshake's followup to The Roaring Third and, unlike Chinese Democracy, it wasn't a huge disappointment. Dirty Moons is not the tight, leave-no-fat-untrimmed affair that The Roaring Third was. It's loose, expansive and filled with ideas, befitting a band whose released a box set(!) as their debut album. There's pummeling straight-up rock tunes, tender ballads, mini-rock operas, a 5-song suite, tossed-off minute-long jokes, tunes that stretch past the five, six and ten minute marks, and what feels like everything in between. And yet, it all holds together quite well. For all their ambition, Prisonshake still comes off like the band who could take the stage at your local bar and rock the shit out of the place as effortlessly as if they were tying their shoes. Robert Griffin remains one of the best guitarists to ever come out of the American independent underground, gorgeously lyrical at one moment and bringing the noise the next. I don't know if Dirty Moons is going to win Prisonshake any new fans, but the world is much richer for its presence. It's good to have you back, boys.
3 Thee Oh Sees The Master's Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In (Castle-Face Records / Tomlab Records)
John Dwyer's most famous project, the Coachwhips, never really did it for me either way. His new (side?) project, Thee Oh Sees, is another matter entirely. Primitive? Sure. Retrogressive? Hardly. The issue I have with a lot of neo-garage (or neo-whatever) acts is that they're all too often content to simply recreate the sounds of a bygone era, offering little in the way of innovation or even individuality. Drenched in reverb, Thee Oh Sees recall primal rock without ever sounding revivalist or particularly derivative. You can hear bits of everyone from Billy Childish to the Scientists to the Red Crayola in their sound but, like a master chef, they use these ingredients to create something entirely their own. Plus, there's as much emphasis on songwriting as there is on sonics. Making a cool noise is fun and all but unless one is using it to shape good songs the appeal is limited. Dwyer and company never loose sight of that and the result is one of the best records of the year.
4 Meth Teeth Bus Rides EP (Sweet Rot)
My favorite 7 inch of the year. Here's what I wrote about it back in April:
If you told me these guys began life as a Beyond the Implode tribute band I might be forced to believe you. Meth Teeth revel in the static like many of today post-Messthetics bands but there's a creepy, almost Barrettesque psych vibe going on here. Brings to mind early SPK covering Skip Spence or perhaps the Strapping Fieldhands doing likewise with the Mudhutters. Very impressive. Apparently only 500 copies pressed so don't sleep on it.Full-length is supposedly in the works for '09. I'm looking forward to it tremendously.
5 Vivian Girls s/t (Mauled By Tigers/In the Red)
Yes, there's been a wave of hype about this Brooklyn-three piece and, of course, the inevitable backlash. (In fairness, being interviewed by John Norris will harm anyone's cred.) Who knows what the future holds for Vivian Girls? Are music biz-type assholes tripping over themselves to snatch the band up and turn them into the Pussycat Dolls for the Pitchfork set? Will the band ditch their inspired amateurism for professional sheen? Will they collapse under the pressure of the position in which they suddenly find themselves? Do they even have another good record in them under any circumstances? Did it stop being fun a long time ago? All valid questions but when the needle hits the wax on this baby, none of it matters. For the 21 minutes that Vivian Girls is playing, their magnificent DIY-pop renders all flavor of the month concerns irrelevant.
6 Oxford Collapse BITS (Sub Pop)
Nearly every review I read for Oxford Collapse's 2009 album, BITS, seemed totally off the mark, whether trying to lump them in with some kind of lo-fi reaction against orchestral indie rock (a valid point but not the best place to make it) or displaying general cluelessness. Perhaps the reason the crits find the OxC difficult to review is that they can't be easily pigeonholed. They're a band that follows their muse, not trends. When they first began performing earlier in the decade, it seemed that every band in New York was co-opting the angular sounds of British post-punk. Gang of Four and Joy Division soundalikes were more common in the city than service interruptions on the N/R line. The Oxford Collapse, however, were mining the less celebrated but no less fertile territory of US post-punk, taking cues from innovative but virtually unremembered acts like the Embarrassment, Pylon, and the Urinals. While this meant that the band was overlooked in the post-Strokes major-label signing frenzy, fast forward a few years and most of the post-punk revival pack is gone and/or forgotten while the Oxford Collapse have released their fourth and most consistent album yet. They may well be doomed to languish in the same semi-obscurity as their heroes but anyone with a taste for adventurous indie rock would do themselves a service by picking up BITS. The OxC's other 2008 releases The Hann-Byrd EP on Comedy Minus One and "Spike of Bensonhurst" 7" on Flameshovel are also highly recommended.
7 Hank IV Refuge in Genre (Siltbreeze)
I liked the Hank IV's 2006 debut, Third Person Shooter, well enough that it made my list of best albums for that year. On their second platter, they've really upped the ante, stripping away any traces of hobby band silliness for a potent dose of stomping, howling punk rock. Singer Bob McDonald has got to be one of the best frontmen in rock music today. His voice sounds like equal parts Brian Johnson and John Brannon and on stage his antics shame men half his age. This is definitely a band you should experience live. Just pick up Refuge in Genre first as you'll most certainly want to be able to sing along. You just try and resist yelling "She's got!/Dirty poncho!/Drop dead gorgeous!" whilst pumping your fist in the air.
8 Eddy Current Suppression Ring Primary Colours (Goner)
Sometimes it's hard to explain exactly why a band stands above the pack. Eddy Current Suppression Ring plays garage punk, plain and simple and lean and mean. There's no angle. No bells and whistles. Nothing to make blogger/critic/hype machine-types to perk up their ears and say "Oh, isn't that interesting!" So what makes ECSR better than the rest? It's that's indefinable quality called... I don't know... talent? For example, how did ECSR know that dropping out all instruments besides guitar in the middle of "Which Way to Go" before bringing them all crashing back in would up the intensity tenfold? Or how did they know to have singer Brendan Suppression croon over the jangly "Wrapped Up" instead of his usual Mark E. Smith-style declarative recitation? Or that the slow burn of "Memory Lane" followed by the crash-and-bash "Sunday's Coming" would be the perfect way to kick off the album? Beats me, but I suppose that's why they're a fantastic rock band and I'm sitting in front a keyboard struggling to tell you that you'd be a fool to pass on this album. The best Aussie rock band since the Saints? Okay, that's a bit of an overstatement but it got your attention, didn't it?
9 Nothing People Anonymous (S-S)
The name Nothing People conjures images of a Manson family-esque cult of hippies. Instead of preaching the good vibrations of peace and love, they've adopted a philosophy of nihilism, as if they spent a bad acid trip staring into the void and never fully came back. I know nothing of the Nothing People's living habits but their music is nearly an aural equivalent of the above: a twisting and snarling psychedelic maelstrom intent on producing tension. And as befitting a cult, this record comes in innocuous yet oblique packaging and in a very small pressing of 600 copies, LP only. If you can't find one at your local record shoppe, write the fine folks at S-S Records and see if they can sign you up for reprogramming.
10 The Lines Memory Span (Acute reissue)
I pride myself in knowing a thing or two about the British DIY scene of late 70s/early 80s. I was bugging dealers at WFMU Record Fair looking for Homosexuals records when you were still trying figure out how Thom Yorke gets his hair like that. So how did I totally miss the Lines? The short answer is that they were obscure in even for a genre that was in and of itself obscure. That's why I'm thank the creator everyday for people like Dan Selzer and his fantastic Acute label. Memory Span compiles all the Lines' singles and EPs along with a pair of unreleased demos to paint a portrait of a remarkable band. Their first single, the stunning "White Night" sounds at least 10 years ahead of it's time, like something a Creation-label shoegaze-y outfit would be proud to call their own. The remainder of the collection is equally impressive. Even at their most jagged, the Lines are melodically rich and inventive. Try to imagine Robyn Hitchock backed by Grotesque (After the Gramme)-era Fall for an approximation. About a month ago, Acute also released Flood Bank, which collects both of the Lines full-lengths. I have yet to pick it up. Now you know what to get me for Xmas. (Ed. Note: I was planning on posting this list before December 25th.)
A podcast containing songs from the above (as well as more than a few honorable mentions) is coming soon.
In the meantime do check out the '08 lists of the below from folks whose opinion on musical matters I respect probably a lot more than yours:
Nate Knaebel
Doug Mosurock plus Still Single Best of Podcast
WFMU's Terre T
WFMU's Evan "Funk" Davies
WPRB's Jon Solomon
Matador Records Staff and Artists
More to come.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The Unblinking Ear Podcast: Math in the Real World
This is my 13th podcast. (Ooh scary!)
Made 2 days after my 31st birthday. (Palindromes!)
I played 3 bands whose name starts with a V. (The 22nd letter.)
It features one record of which only 100 copies were pressed. Another which has only 2 known existing copies. (I don't have either of the originals.)
And the most important use of math in this podcast is that I finally figured out how to use Audacity's "envelope" tool which means I could lower the volume on my mic levels. (Which were, frankly, way too high.)
Now give it a listen and I'll be 1 happy camper. (Thank you.)
Download The Unblinking Ear Podcast
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
If I have my nose turned in the air...
...it's only because I'd rather not look you in the eye.
As the Staten Island Advance has seen fit to remind me, I'm have sometimes described myself as a snob when it comes to the rock stuff. Of course, I've been called a snob many times before I started calling myself one. The first instance was probably during my teen years when a classmate vehemently called me a snob for saying that Unrest was better than Pennywise. (I'm not sure if history has proven me right on that one.) It's happened recently as well. The editor of A New Nuance chided me as a snob for not particularly looking forward to the second Arcade Fire record and saying that I found Clap Your Hands Say Yeah as "dull as dishwater." (In case you don't remember, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was a band briefly popular in 2005.)
Using the historically tested method in identity politics of turning a negative into a positive, I decided to adopt the word for myself thus negating its derogatory power. (i.e. "Snob" is my N-word.)
What's fascinating to me is how well it's worked. Almost too well. When people call me a snob, it's a pejorative. When I call my self one, I'm self-aggrandizing even if I mean it in a tongue in cheek, self-effacing way.
When I tell a friend I don't enjoy a particular artist he or she likes, I'll follow it up with "But I'm snob, so, you know..." I don't mean this to imply that I have better taste than anyone else and can't be bothered with your inferior myopic nonsense. I mean that I have a huge personality defect that makes me very particular and judgmental about music generally made with guitars so heed not and listen to what you like.
A similar point was made in this week's Popless column over at the Onion AV Club. Noel Murray writes:
I've often wondered the same thing. Why do people get so apologetic for liking Justin Timberlake or Amy Winehouse or even the Killers? They sell millions and millions of records! Tons of people like them! I'm the one who likes the wacky fringe shit! I should be apologizing for contemplating if if the Disco Zombies song "Drums Over London" is racist or simply sung in character. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's exactly my point.)
For all these reasons I've decided that I need stop referring to myself as a "rock snob." (Also because the other "self-described music snob" in the AWE piece likes these guys thus proving the term totally ineffectual at conveying my personal taste.)
I may have to go on a little hiatus from this blog until I come up with a better term to describe what kind of music I cover here. (And not because I'm going to be really busy with work and other things for the next week or so). The best I can come up with so far is "dumb smart guy rock." Can you do any better? Please share.
Speaking of "dumb smart guy rock" I was lucky enough to catch Thee Oh Sees and Sic Alps at Brooklyn's favorite illegal performance space/sauna on Sunday night. So good were they, I briefly forgot about the awful, stomach-turning events of that afternoon. Their respective 2008 releases, The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In and US EZ, are highly recommended.
Also highly recommended for those in the New York City area is the Tyvek/Thomas Function show at Cakeshop this Friday, October 3rd. This marks the first time that two of the bands from this blog's "Make This Band Your Myspace Friend" feature have played together in New York. (Especially noteworthy since I've only done the feature 4 times.) Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it as I'll be attending a wedding but don't let that stop you from going. In fact, you might have a better time without my presence. I can be a bit of a snob from what I hear.
As the Staten Island Advance has seen fit to remind me, I'm have sometimes described myself as a snob when it comes to the rock stuff. Of course, I've been called a snob many times before I started calling myself one. The first instance was probably during my teen years when a classmate vehemently called me a snob for saying that Unrest was better than Pennywise. (I'm not sure if history has proven me right on that one.) It's happened recently as well. The editor of A New Nuance chided me as a snob for not particularly looking forward to the second Arcade Fire record and saying that I found Clap Your Hands Say Yeah as "dull as dishwater." (In case you don't remember, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was a band briefly popular in 2005.)
Using the historically tested method in identity politics of turning a negative into a positive, I decided to adopt the word for myself thus negating its derogatory power. (i.e. "Snob" is my N-word.)
What's fascinating to me is how well it's worked. Almost too well. When people call me a snob, it's a pejorative. When I call my self one, I'm self-aggrandizing even if I mean it in a tongue in cheek, self-effacing way.
When I tell a friend I don't enjoy a particular artist he or she likes, I'll follow it up with "But I'm snob, so, you know..." I don't mean this to imply that I have better taste than anyone else and can't be bothered with your inferior myopic nonsense. I mean that I have a huge personality defect that makes me very particular and judgmental about music generally made with guitars so heed not and listen to what you like.
A similar point was made in this week's Popless column over at the Onion AV Club. Noel Murray writes:
It's odd how defensive people get when they mention certain bands or movies, like, "I know people will jump on me for this, but I really like Groundhog Day," or "I hate to admit it, but The Bee Gees have some good songs." There's an assumption being made, that the world at large has agreed that some things are meant to be taken seriously, while others are "guilty pleasures" (or just plain "suck").(For the record, Groundhog Day is a great film and the Bee Gees have some outstanding songs, particularly on their first few albums. However, the band Murray mainly uses to illustrate his point in the introductory essay is Steely Dan, who are awful. But that's neither here nor there.)
I've often wondered the same thing. Why do people get so apologetic for liking Justin Timberlake or Amy Winehouse or even the Killers? They sell millions and millions of records! Tons of people like them! I'm the one who likes the wacky fringe shit! I should be apologizing for contemplating if if the Disco Zombies song "Drums Over London" is racist or simply sung in character. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's exactly my point.)
For all these reasons I've decided that I need stop referring to myself as a "rock snob." (Also because the other "self-described music snob" in the AWE piece likes these guys thus proving the term totally ineffectual at conveying my personal taste.)
I may have to go on a little hiatus from this blog until I come up with a better term to describe what kind of music I cover here. (And not because I'm going to be really busy with work and other things for the next week or so). The best I can come up with so far is "dumb smart guy rock." Can you do any better? Please share.
Speaking of "dumb smart guy rock" I was lucky enough to catch Thee Oh Sees and Sic Alps at Brooklyn's favorite illegal performance space/sauna on Sunday night. So good were they, I briefly forgot about the awful, stomach-turning events of that afternoon. Their respective 2008 releases, The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In and US EZ, are highly recommended.
Also highly recommended for those in the New York City area is the Tyvek/Thomas Function show at Cakeshop this Friday, October 3rd. This marks the first time that two of the bands from this blog's "Make This Band Your Myspace Friend" feature have played together in New York. (Especially noteworthy since I've only done the feature 4 times.) Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it as I'll be attending a wedding but don't let that stop you from going. In fact, you might have a better time without my presence. I can be a bit of a snob from what I hear.
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