Arrested Development - 3 Years, 5 Months, & 2 Days In The Life Of...
Macy Gray - On How Life Is
The Flintstones - Music From Bedrock (this is the OST to the 90s Live Action movie. Has some really good songs on it oddly, also, "Walk The Dinosaur")
The OMC - How Bizarre (this has a "for promotional use only" sticker on it for some reason, but I'm pretty sure it's identical to the retail album? Maybe this was a radio station's copy at some point)
Black Box - Dreamland (I picked this up bc it looks neat and I think it's a dance album. Someone wrote "Herman" in black sharpie on the cover)
Semisonic - Feeling Strangely Fine (the one with "Closing Time" on it)
Charlie Byrd - Latin Byrd (I don't know much about Byrd but I know he's well regarded)
Express Design Studio - Lab Mix NYC 2005 (this appears to be a CD made to promote a brand of jeans. I got it bc there is a Postal Service song on it)
Nature's Magic - Dazzling Thunderstorm (on tape, the rest of these are CDs)
? - ? (everything on this CD is in Chinese, which is why I bought it)
This morning I was listening to Consumer Electronics' Teenage Nuremberg, which is basically a "best of Best 1982-83," and it was really surreal to hear "Genesis of a Child Star" because it's literally tape of his friends from when he was recording his first cassette telling him they they think his noise is shit... and they're all, like, somewhere between twelve and sixteen, because Philip Best was *fourteen* at the time. And he's co-inventing power electronics and harsh noise, and his friends are razzing him, and he's literally a middle schooler.
And power electronics is honestly a way more effective form of shocking teenage rebellion than dyeing your hair and listening to The Clash, let's be honest.
I actually prefer the more atmospheric approach here to the one on To Be Kind. I still don't like this one as much as The Seer, though, which might well be my favourite Swans album at this point.
I actually prefer the more atmospheric approach here to the one on To Be Kind. I still don't like this one as much as The Seer, though, which might well be my favourite Swans album at this point.
And suddenly, my priorities for the day/week/month have been re-calibrated.
Bifrost Arts is a music project, recording modern versions of old hymns and folk spirituals, usually in a vein that straddles the line between indie pop and folk. I got their first album,Come O Spirit, several years back, and it quickly earned a spot on my very short list of Christian worship music actually worth the silver it's recorded on. The rotating cast of guest singers means the quality varies from song to song, but at it's worst it's still listenable, and at it's best it's just sublime.
Now, for a limited time I guess, they've made all their albums and some B-sides available for free download. I'm listening to He Will Not Cry Out right now, and it seems to be more of the same. The two songs with DM Stith, and the one with Aimee Wilson, are particular standouts.
I don't give a fuck if the year is only halfway over. The second half of the title track alone is better than anything that has come out thus far, and probably better than anything that will. Disagree? Fight me.
I have not heard it yet but it will probably be on the list as well when I do. I've always respected Aesop but he's grown on me immensely in the last year or two, and I've heard that this one in particular is exceptional.
That said, I don't think that The Glowing Man is going anywhere. The production is immaculate, the way that the songs build is entrancing, the big showstopper moments are literally jaw-dropping—everything about the music is fantastic, particularly Bill Rieflin's piano flourishes and Okkyung Lee's insane cello work. And the lyrics are wonderfully strange, with the title track in particular being this surreal metaphor about how "being in the zone" creatively can be like channelling a wrathful god, and it sounds like it.
ive never been to the one in Blaine, which apparently is one of the best record stores for metal in the state
the one closest to me is just kinda... average as dedicated record stores go?
the one in Minneapolis was/is literally the best record store ive ever been to though, but they moved and i can't figure out where they moved to (*the new location is mentioned on the website, and they give a phone number, but in they forgot the whole "address" thing*)
i was actually just about to go to the one closest to me to go ask where the fuck the new one is
I just bought a ton of CDs from Waterloo Records, and haven't had time to listen to most of them.
Stuff I bought before that, that I have had time to process:
Starflyer 59: Slow. This avoids the "every song sounds the same" problem that befell many prior Sf59 albums, because in this case, Jason Martin didn't set out to make an album. He just recorded a track here and a track there over the course of 3 years, then decided to throw the best of the bunch on a disc. The result is a collection that's both nostalgic and critical of nostalgia itself (the last song asks, "Was it really better back then? Were there really less problems?")—a look back at prior styles Sf59 has played, and tributes to their musical influences, but refracted through the prism of Sf59's current style. I've been a fan of Sf59 for about a decade now. I don't have a single favorite album by them, but three or four albums that rotate in and out of that spot depending on my mood. I think Slow will be joining that rank.
David Bowie: Blackstar. The title track is almost a ripoff of Scott Walker; but if more people copied Scott Walker, the world would be a better place. The rest has this Krautrock / jazz thing going. I am honestly not a fan of Bowie overall, but I love this album.
Modest Mouse: Strangers to Ourselves. Sort of genre roulette, veering from MM's overly verbose punkish sound, to acoustic ballads, disco, New Orleans brass bands, and whatever the hell "Pistol" is. Good overall, though I don't care as much for some of the slower tracks.
Kraftwerk: Autobahn. I already like Trans Europe Express and The Man-Machine, and this is more of the same. The biggest difference is the title track is 20 minutes long, and Florian plays flute on a few songs.
Pet Shop Boys: Super. Actually has that same "the past filtered through the present" theme as the Starflyer album, with nods to the various dance music styles the Pets have run through in the past, but with Stuart Price still producing. I guess this is a concession for anyone who thought their last album didn't have enough of Neil's lyrics, because most of these tracks definitely fit the three-to-four minute pop song formula. I personally loved the last album, and I wish they'd given some of these grooves more room to breathe. Even so, most of these melodies are killers.
New Order: Complete Music. This was kind of a happy accident. I wanted to get their album Music Complete, but instead wound up buying the remix album. Which works out, because it also included a download card for the full original album. Anyway, Music Complete was a return to a dancy electronic sound (after the guitar focus on their last two albums), but taking it in a new direction rather than just rehashing their stuff from the 80s. They even made Iggy Pop monologuing about unconditional love over a new wave beat work, and made Brandon Flowers sound tolerable. The remix album Complete Music is entirely self-indulgent on paper—extended mixes of every single track on the original album—but oddly enough, I think I like it even more than the original.
Man or Astro-man?: Is It... Man or Astro-man?. Retro sci-fi surf rock. Good stuff, on par with my other favorite by them, Destroy All Astro-men !!. Not much to say, except that the movie sample at the beginning of "March of the Dragonmen" is too damn long.
Stavesacre: Speakeasy. Post-hardcore; I mainly know them because Mark Salomon sang for them before he started collaborating with Jason Martin. Some tracks I'm pretty "meh" on, but "Keep Waiting" and "Gold and Silver" deserve to be better known. Also there's a pretty cool cover of "Fascination Street".
Dizzy Gillespie & His Big Band: 1948 Concert at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Bebop has a reputation for being hard to listen to, but Dizzy's big-band material is really fun. Percussionist Chano Pozo plays on this one, and the band goes into full Afro-Cuban mode on the closer, "Manteca".
Dizzy Gillespie & Stan Getz: Diz and Getz. This is a good album, and I'm getting tired of writing.
Bostich+Fussible: Bulevar 2000. A spinoff of Nortec Collective, so they're an electronic interpretation of Norteño and banda music. A step up from Tijuana Sound Machine, I think.
Can: Delay 1968. "I hear a ballad like the spine-tingling 'Thief' and realise that life is too short to listen to Radiohead or Coldplay ever again..." —John Gill, from the liner notes of this reissue.
Holy crap, "Animals" by Bonobo sounds exactly like something Jaga Jazzist would have recorded in the 90s or early 00s. I had to check the liner notes to see if that was one of the Horntveths playing sax/clarinet on it (it wasn't).
Splendor & Misery is an Afrofuturist, dystopian concept album that follows the sole survivor of a slave uprising on an interstellar cargo ship, and the onboard computer that falls in love with him. Thinking he is alone and lost in space, the character discovers music in the ship’s shuddering hull and chirping instrument panels. William and Jonathan’s tracks draw an imaginary sonic map of the ship’s decks, hallways, and quarters, while Daveed’s lyrics ride the rhythms produced by its engines and machinery. In a reversal of H.P. Lovecraft’s concept of cosmic insignificance, the character finds relief in learning that humanity is of no consequence to the vast, uncaring universe. It turns out, pulling the rug out from under anthropocentrism is only horrifying to those who thought they were the center of everything to begin with. Ultimately, the character decides to pilot his ship into the unknown—and possibly into oblivion—instead of continuing on to worlds whose systems of governance and economy have violently oppressed him.
new clipping album is a concept album, concept sounds cute
Comments
This morning I was listening to Consumer Electronics' Teenage Nuremberg, which is basically a "best of Best 1982-83," and it was really surreal to hear "Genesis of a Child Star" because it's literally tape of his friends from when he was recording his first cassette telling him they they think his noise is shit... and they're all, like, somewhere between twelve and sixteen, because Philip Best was *fourteen* at the time. And he's co-inventing power electronics and harsh noise, and his friends are razzing him, and he's literally a middle schooler.
http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/07/unreleased-sufjan-stevens-album-found-in-brooklyn-dumpster/
We'll have to see where this goes, I guess.
AOTY.
That said, I don't think that The Glowing Man is going anywhere. The production is immaculate, the way that the songs build is entrancing, the big showstopper moments are literally jaw-dropping—everything about the music is fantastic, particularly Bill Rieflin's piano flourishes and Okkyung Lee's insane cello work. And the lyrics are wonderfully strange, with the title track in particular being this surreal metaphor about how "being in the zone" creatively can be like channelling a wrathful god, and it sounds like it.
I also forgot lowkey personal AOTY nominee WMCC Weather Channel by The Morris County Meteorological Team.
Hey, I know that band! Glad you're dipping your toe in the Japanese psych pool. It's deep and strange.