3.4.13

On February 4th I listened to Blur The Great Escape, Soundgarden Badmotorfinger, and Atoms For Peace Amok. I originally slotted Blur’s album Modern Life Is Rubbish in for today, but then I remembered this month is a celebration of the 90’s and not about their bullshit sophomore album.

I love me some Blur, but sometimes they can be a little too much. The Great Escape is the perfect example. It's got five hits and then the rest is too much.

Here’s what I like, “Stereotypes,” “Country House,” “Charmless Man,” "Best Days," and “The Universal.” These are campy, rompy, Brit poppy, fun songs that I could listen to over and over again. I’d even say “The Universal” is eloquent. Then you got 10 songs for the super fans, I guess. 

Weird thing. I met Graham Coxon at a music festival in 2005. I met Damon Albarn during a radio interview in 2010. I got my picture taken with both of them, five years apart, and they’re making the same jerkoff face, looking at me like I’m a big fucking dick. Is that what the guys from Blur did in fan pictures? Can anyone confirm this? Do you think they’re being funny or dickheads? I go back and forth.

Look at Brad!

Badmotorfinger is Soundgarden’s coming out party! Their first album Louder Than Love showed the potential, Badmotorfinger realized it. Maybe not as solid as their Seattle counterparts’ sophomore albums, but it solidified the band’s place in the Grunge hierarchy, for sure.

You got the hits, “Rusty Cage,” “Outshined,” and even “Jesus Christ Pose.” And you got “Slaves & Bulldozers” and some songs that just fall a pube short of awesome. Not too shabby.

What do you think music will sound like in 50 years? I can guarantee you it won’t sound like this. Antiseptic computer programmed generic drivel will surely be a part of the 2063 hipster scene, but the same minority of douches will be the only ones into it, or at least they’ll pretend to be into it. Do you realize that 2063 hipsters won’t start being born until the late 2030’s? I hate them already. They're all gonna have Hunger Games beards. Ugh!

Here is how you pretend to like this “style” of “music.” Some asswipe trying extra hard to not give this album a bad review wrote, “as a technical exercise, Amok is hugely impressive ... its sound is rich and deep, full of intriguing shifts and contrasts. But there are times when it feels the painstaking process used to create it may have assumed a greater importance than the business of actually writing songs.”

Yeah, that’s what I look for in a song “intriguing shifts and contrasts,” and a “process used to create” over actual songwriting. "I'm pretending I like this," the writer is saying. "Because it's a super group and how could it be bad?" Morons!

If you’re going to do interpretations of jams from the future, at least take a look at the jam bands of today, and give us a build up to some kind of payoff. An aural treat somewhere along the fucking journey! Atoms For Peace songs go nowhere with nothing to give, unless we're counting shifts and contrasts as something. I’d rather sit in silence all day than listen to this bullshit. Enjoy the silence.

Here’s the thing that really pisses me off. In order to keep their “fans” pacified during live shows, Atoms For Peace have to cover real songs. If you’re going to play a Joy Division song live, then write a fucking song that would make Ian Curtis proud! Seriously? Why cover a much loved classic when all you create is forgetful bumblings no one will care about in a year?

I literally sound like a grumpy old man now! Thanks a lot Atoms For Peace! 

Tomorrow I will listen to The Pixies Bossanova, Buffalo Tom Big Red Letter Day, and Atlas Genius When It Was Now. 

Here's the entire March Playlist!