3.5.13

On March 5th I listened to The Pixies Bossanova, Buffalo Tom Big Red Letter Day, and Atlas Genius When It Was Now. Boston In The House... and Australia!

Another big album from The Pixies, Bossanova could stand to shave a track or two, but the weight of the brilliant songs carries the whole thing.

The disc’s opener “Cecilia Ann” always reminded me of the Kids In The Hall’s house band, Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet. It’s a tight little surf rock instrumental. “Velouria” is a triumph. Why the hell is “Allison” so short? Probably one of the best songs ever recorded that clocks in just under a minute and twenty seconds. I don’t remember how or why “Dig For Fire” became one of my favorite Pixies songs, but shit God damn do I love that song. “Havalina” wraps up the disc in an unusual way. An atypical Pixies song, if that’s possible, that floats along with a wispy pop vocal style from the 60’s. It’s something your grandmother would like, and yet it’s cool as shit.

“She spoke of a French boy, at least two times through the night. Could have been the liquor, or the music that is all riiiiiiiiiiiight!” I don’t care much for chicks whining about French boys, but man do I love “I’m Allowed” from the mighty Buffalo Tom. I love this band. I love this album. It is one of my all-time favorites and I don’t care what any Buffalo Tom purists have to say about Big Red Letter Day because it is the band’s masterstroke!

Don't bother listening to this album. I mentioned while writing up Siamese Dream, how I relished a pocket of time when it was mine and was bummed when I had to share it with the world after it became a hit. I still have that feeling for Big Red Letter Day! It's still my secret! So, piss off!

I mentioned this before with the albums I listened to on my birthday and it applies to this one, so it bears repeating. If you happen to be my last relative, loved one, or some dunce working at the home someday and I can’t talk or you’re waiting out my living will, because under NO circumstance am I to be unplugged, please make sure this album is in my MP3 player or whatever we are using to listen to music in the future. Make sure I hear it a few times before I go, ok? Thanks.

I’m pretty sure it was towards the end of 2011, while searching for new music, Silent Barrie, a friend and former co-worker, suggested I download “Trojans” for free from Atlas Genius’ website. I did and listened to it a hell of a lot over the next year. I’m glad when the cream rises to the top sometimes and it was nice to see this Australian band get some well deserved attention. 

I listened to this album with a deep hope that there would be a couple more songs like “Trojans” on it. “If So” certainly has a lot of potential. It gets a little repetitious in places, but there’re some hooks here for sure. “On A Day,” “Don’t Make A Scene,” and the title track all deserve some more time to absorb.  

Tomorrow I will listen to Primus Sailing The Seas Of Cheese, Cake Fashion Nugget, and Puscifier Donkey Punch The Night.

Take a look at the full March Playlist!

1.12.13

On January 12^th I listened to Genesis Selling England By The Pound, The Pixies Doolittle, and Muse The 2^nd Law.

I was listening to Genesis for about a minute, maybe, and thought to myself “what kind of egghead bullshit is this?” It was cool to hear Peter Gabriel singing for a second and then the novelty wore off.

I do not get Prog Rock. I barely spent 15 minutes skipping around Selling England By The Pound and couldn’t take it anymore. I seriously doubt there're more than fifty people in the world that have listened to this stinkbomb in the last 10 years from front to back. To put it in dork ease… I’d avoid this album much like the Starship Enterprise 1701-D avoids the planet Vagra II.

I’m not sure why I didn’t start off with Surfer Rosa and went straight to The Pixies second effort, Doolittle. I think because this is the first album from the band I really noticed and it took awile for me to get into. The Pixies, to me, was like a cold pool. I eased in for a while but then once I was in, I was in.

Doolittle is a solid album. But, just to play devil’s advocate, I think this record would have been nearly flawless at ten songs. At fifteen it’s just a wee bit bloated.

Let’s play armchair producer and come up with the perfect tracklisting;

1.       “Debaser”
2.       “Tame”
3.       “Wave Of Mutilation”
4.       “I Bleed”
5.       “Here Comes Your Man”
6.       “Monkey Gone To Heaven”
7.       “Crackity Jones”
8.       “No. 13 Baby”
9.       “Hey”
10.   “Gouge Away”

Now that looks like a perfect album!

“Monkey Gone To Heaven,” and “Gouge Away” are two of their best! I still like “Here Comes Your Man,” but I gotta be in the right mood to get into it. “Debaser,” “Wave Of Mutilation,” and “Hey,” are songs I’ll never get sick of ever.

This Muse record is almost a little too majestic for me. I’ve always liked Muse, but I’m not a super fan. If I boiled down their six albums, there's probably three albums worth of music that I would consider awesome!

Was Muse in the running to be on the last James Bond sountrack? Because that’s what this album’s opener sounds like. “Supremacy” starts off strong, loses me in the verse, kind of wins me back on the “chorus,” and then just makes me think of Queen.

“Madness” is a hit. But I don’t find myself loving it, or wanting to hear it more.

Does “Panic Station” remind anyone else of like Robert Plant in the 80’s?

“Survival” really brings home the “too majestic” criticism I have for this album. Where is anybody going to listen to this song? It sounds enormous and I’ll give them all the credit in the world for shooting for the moon, but it’s just a bunch of really great sounding elements piled on top of each other without a great song at the base.

“Follow Me,” should be the Twitter national anthem. But, also the first song on this disc that I enjoy. It’s got a hook, it’s got a bouncy 80’s beat and I can bug out to it. (Beastie Boys reference for no reason.)

I got to “Explorers” and was like “what does this sound like?” Obviously, it wears the Queen influence on its cock ring, but it sounds like something. What? What? What? Oh, I know! It’s Radiohead’s “No Surprises!” I like it!

Second half of The 2^nd Law is definitely better than the first and I have no idea why “Liquid State” reminds me of The Beach Boys. It doesn’t even sound like Muse at points, and I love that.

I’m curious to see how much of what I just bitched about, I’ll 180 on and love in a few more listens!