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!

2.20.13

On February 20th I listened to The Fat Boys The Fat Boys, Soundgarden Louder Than Love, and The Killers Battle Born.

When I was 13-years-old I thought this album was great and that The Fat Boys were hysterical. Disorderlies, their movie, pretty much squashed the thought that they were funny and listening to this album again definitely killed any thought of it being any kind of good.

Produced by Mr. Eight Million Stories himself, Kurtis Blow needed to reign this album in, but he decided to treat it like a pair of The Fat Boys’ pants and let it out.

The average length of a song is like six minutes and they barely rap for half of each track. It’s all garbage filler! I finally get why my dad hated when I was listening to this album. It’s absolutely grating.

Yet, there’s still a little magic here! Prince Markie Dee, Cool Rock-Ski, and The Human Beatbox (Donuts to Heaven. R.I.P.) were definitely an original and the whole beatbox thing was just so different from everything!

I forgot all about the intro to “Stick ‘Em.” I used to say this all the time, “Y’all hook my mic up please. Make. Kurt, make the bass come out so clear. Please.” I also used to drive most people crazy by randomly breaking out into “BRRRRR! stick ‘em! HA HA HA stick ‘em!” whenever. I don’t think I ever noticed they don’t actually say “BRRRRR! Stick ‘em” in “Stick ‘Em,” but they do in “Human Beatbox?” I dunno, maybe.

"All You Can Eat," is the jam!

I was hoping to walk away from this listen of Louder Than Love with an appreciation for more than “Big Dumb Sex.” I kinda liked “Get On The Snake,” and I definitely remember liking “Full On Kevin’s Mom” for like a hot second back in the day, but this album is a little too muddy for me. 

I would definitely agree that “Runaways” was one of the best songs of 2012, but Battle Born is not one of the best albums. It is one giant single and a bunch of beautifully recorded songs that don't do much.

Look at the royalty that helped The Killers make this album! Steve Lillywhite (Every great U2 album), Brendan O’Brien (Every album made in the 90’s), Daniel Lanois (The Joshua Tree), Alan Moulder (mixed Siamese Dream and The Downward Spiral) and Stuart Price (Madonna and Seal) all came together to craft what should be a classic record!

I think I can find everything wrong with this album in the song “Here With Me.” Brandon Flowers attempts to add weight and beauty to the line “I don’t want your picture on my cell phone, I want you here with me” and it comes off like he’s been attending the Taylor Swift School Of Song Writing. Enroll now! Spring classes start soon!

“Deadlines And Commitments” sounds like a cross between 80’s easy listening and Laura Branigan and maybe that’s what they were shooting for. I dunno, maybe?

I do love The Killers though. Hot Fuss is a masterpiece! Since their debut, they've been good for a hit or two an album and that's more than enough. 

Tomorrow I listen to Sam And Dave Soul Men, Oasis Definitely Maybe, and Tribes Baby.

1.2.13

On January 2^nd I listened to The Who My Generation, The Replacements Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash and Soundgarden King Animal.

I have to admit, I don’t think I ever listened to all of My Generation and if I did, it must have been in the 70s! I know the two hits quite well “My Generation” and “The Kids Are Alright,” but the rest of the album was virtually brand new to me.

Basically, it sounds like a young band trying to take their influences, the Blues and some Soul, and find their own voice. It’s funny to hear The Who finding themselves on their first record when yesterday Led Zeppelin just bust out of the gate with their sound all ready to go and an album packed with classics.

When I was a little kid I remember loving the stuttering in “My Generation.” Remember that scene in Forest Gump when he’s dancing around for Elvis? That’s how I would sing and dance around when I heard “People try to put us down. Just because we g-g-g-get around! Things they do look awful c-c-c-cold. Hope I die before I get old.” Based on the strength of that one song, I can see how this album is always listed as one of the best ever recorded.

I will walk away from this record with a better understanding of The Who’s sound and two songs I really liked, the soulful “I Don’t Mind” and the roadhouse jam “A Legal Matter.”

I always compared The Replacements debut Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash to the first time I ever encountered somebody on cocaine. He was a hell of a lot of fun, yet his abundance of nervous energy made me not want to turn my back on him. Sorry Ma, is a badass punk spaz attack from what you think are the coolest guys you know.

I’m embarrassed to admit, I never listened to 1981’s Sorry Ma, until probably around 1990 and then it was a borrowed copy. I didn’t own the thing til the 2000s, so every time I hear it, it’s a little familiar and a little new.

“I’m In Trouble” has always been my favorite. “You’re in love and I’m in trouble.” “Customer” and “Shut Up,” are other little faves too, but every track has its moments. I always thought in “Hangin’ Downtown,” when Westerberg yells “anyway I got no place else to go,” was a shout out to the movie An Officer And A Gentlemen. But, I just looked it up and the movie came out after the record? Well that sucks, I must have passed that along as fact like a hundred times.

Some day when we can time travel, I’ll be in the studio drinking beers when they record this album.

I didn’t want to instantly dismiss Soundgarden’s return with King Animal. But, anytime a band goes away for a long time and comes back you have to question the motivation for the new album. When The Pixies got back together they refused to do an album. At some point this year My Bloody Valentine is putting out a new disc and people are actually excited about it! 

When I got this Soundgarden disc, I barely listened to it and I fucking love Soundgarden. Ever since I heard “Big Dumb Sex,” I was sold. Badmotorfinger is something that I’ll be writing about this year and “The Day I Tried To Live” and “Fell On Black Days” are two songs I can listen to over and over and over!

Having said that, I can’t make a decision as to whether or not this album is good, bad, or four rich dudes making a record for shits and giggles. I thought maybe something would have jumped out with a giant hook and sucked me in, but there’s nothing like that. “By Crooked Steps” rocks and is kinda cool. “Bones Of Birds” sounds like “How To Disappear Completely,” and when a band like Soundgarden tries to rip off Radiohead, my head starts to hurt.

I’ll just say I’m disappointed.