Last Album you listened through

Beastie Boys - Ill Communication. For me, this has always suffered a little bit in comparison to Check Your Head - this was basically the only time they ever put out two albums in a row that were so similar sounding, and there's basically nothing on this album that wasn't done at least slightly better by it's predecessor. But it's still a pretty good album and has a handful of their best songs. I sort of want to put together a mix cd or playlist that would basically be a "best of" for just this two year era of the band - both albums sort of have their share of what could be called Album Filler *

, and it's not like there would be much stylistic whiplash between the two.

Moby Grape - Moby Grape *

. This is definitely a Psychedelic Rock album, but it's very much on the more accessible end of it. Lots of harmony and verse-chorus-verse song structures, nothing that reaches Epic Rocking length, and it's a little eccentric but never approaches Mind Screw musically.

Earth is the only planet inhabitable by Nicolas Cage.

• Om, Conference of the Birds—Repetitive, but in a way that I can get behind. Reminds me a lot of very early Pink Floyd, minus the guitars.
• Syzygys, The Complete Recordings—I have a lot to say about this one, but in short: Clever concept, interesting execution; more vocal tracks would have been nice, though.

edited 2nd Mar '13 8:57:29 PM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Night Visions by Imagine Dragons

I already had and liked Radioactive and It's Time.

Tiptoe is cool. Demons started out weird but got better. Don't like On Top of the World. I think I've heard Amsterdam somewhere before and I like it. Have no strong opinion on Hear Me. Every Night is mellow in a bad way. Bleeding Out is nice. No strong opinion on Underdog. Nothing Left to Say is cool. The bonus track ... eh.

7/12. Not bad.

Slipknot — Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat. Originally considered their debut album, now the guys call it a demo. I can see why; it's a very hit-and-miss album. The random jazz/funk bits are detrimental to the songs they show up in (except "Confessions"), and while Anders Colsefni's clean vocals are really good, his rapping and harsh vocals are inferior to Corey Taylor's in my opinion, and the occasional Werewolf The Apocalypse-themed lyrics don't really seem to fit. For the most part, the best songs on the album are the ones that were re-recorded for Slipknot and Iowa - the acoustic intro on this version of "Gently" is really nice and I wish they had put it in the newer version. Overall, probably only of interest to die-hard maggots and the extremely curious.

edited 3rd Mar '13 8:58:48 PM by MasterInferno

Somehow you know that the time is right.

Radiohead: Amnesiac. Listened to it on a recommendation, with a warning of how experimental it is in nature (though I have honestly heard far more experimental stuff—call me back when you've pored through Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, y'hear? and that's not even the tip of the iceberg).

Honestly, I wasn't entirely sure what to think of it. I gave it a few listens to really gather my opinion on it, and while I love some songs on it (specifically, most of the last half of the album, especially "I Might Be Wrong"—yeah, I like the lead single from it, go figure), others don't really give me much of a feeling, especially much of the album's first half. It's really ambient in parts, definitely, and I can certainly appreciate an effort to do something different, and in the moments when the album works, it really is amazing. Honestly, a lot of the songs on it made me think of thenewno2 (link to their song "So Vain"), a band I really like a lot who makes similar electronic-based rock music that can get experimental in nature, though not quite as far as this album goes in its most experimental parts.

All-in-all, not a bad album, though there are some songs that I really don't feel strongly about either way. The first half seems a bit weak, or at least not too memorable to me, but once "I Might Be Wrong" gets the ball rolling, it's all mostly uphill from there. Rating, I guess 7/10?

edited 3rd Mar '13 11:13:58 PM by 0dd1

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.

Well, you have to take into account that Radiohead were a massively popular band making this kind of oddball music at the height of their popularity, introducing music influenced by the likes of Stockhausen, Autechre and Brian Eno at his zaniest to a pop audience weaned on the refuse that followed in the wake of the grunge explosion. "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" must have sounded like something from beyond the stars to certain listeners.

Speaking of subversion...

• Death Grips, The Money Store—I submit, Death Grips. I didn't want to love you, and for a long time I didn't. But things have changed between us these past few months, and now I can't deny it any longer. I give in. Death Grips, you are now my favourite Internet meme. You are also now one of the tiny number of currently recording artists that aren't at least a decade old with any kind of public profile that I give half a damn about right now. That's right: You're St. Vincent/Have A Nice Life-tier now*
  (technically Gonjasufi, too, but he's been kicking around with other acts since the '90s at this point, so no sell)
  . Use this advantage wisely.

P.S. I think that The Money Store makes for an interesting argument about the paradigm shift from the 2000s raiding the 1980s to the '10s raiding the '90s, particularly with tracks like "Hacker" bridging the divide between electro-disco at its most excessive and Public Enemy at their most aggressive (with elements of sound collage and cyberpunk aesthetics thrown in for good measure), but that's a subject for another thread.

edited 5th Mar '13 3:06:32 AM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Point taken.

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.

Adam Gontier's solo record, streamed on YouTube.

I suppose covering old rock and alternative artists on his guitar suits him pretty well (he's covered The Verve and Chris Isaak before). Still, I can't imagine many TDG teenyboppers taking to this new direction of his (not to say TDG doesn't have mature fans). While some of the tracks were just TDG songs without distortion, compared to his usual output, this is downright experimental (it's overall a pleasant listen).

The originals weren't quite as memorable as the covers, but they were earnest and lyrically compelling (the one he co-wrote with his wife was probably the best).

edited 5th Mar '13 7:26:52 PM by Alucard

I just finished Blondie's Eat to the Beat. 9.5/10.

It's a completely satisfying and wonderful new-wave album.

edited 5th Mar '13 11:40:25 PM by Completion

You know that's not his actual album, right? I mean, right in the description it says:

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.

Anal retentive much?

Not really. It's pretty much just someone's mixtape. Big difference.

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.

Buddy, I came here to write a harmless review, and nothing else.

Wipers- Youth of America 9/10

Can-Ege Bamyasi (think it was JHM from this forum who recommended me this album, thanks btw)

edited 8th Mar '13 12:23:30 AM by MGHBC

Always glad to help other people find good music.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

The Format - Dog Problems. Because I woke up in the morning with "Timebomb" in my head. Just a perfectly put together indie-pop album.

They Might Be Giants - Nanobots. Pretty similar in feel to Join Us, and like that album I find this just okay. But a handful of tracks stand out, and I appreciate that they're still peppering their albums with short oddities like "Stuff Is Way" (which features lyrics like ""Did you just what? / Is what you yes? / Did you whatever, whatever you I guess?" - a friend compared to a stroke being set to music).

edited 8th Mar '13 3:31:59 PM by MikeK

Earth is the only planet inhabitable by Nicolas Cage.

The Jackofficers - Digital Dump. This is what happens when two members of Butthole Surfers get a hold of some music software in the early 90's and decide to try their hand at an acid house album. It's a bit amateur-sounding and can start feeling kind of samey (they tend to stick to the same drum machine sounds and synth tones throughout, and they seemingly love slowing down and speeding up Spoken Word in Music samples and playing parts of songs backwards), but sometimes they get a catchy groove going and it can be a lot of fun, and I appreciate that it sounds like the creative goof-off session that it probably was. My favorite tracks are probably "Time Machines Part 1" and "Time Machines Part 2". Part two *

sort of reminds me of something you'd hear in one of the first few Sonic The Hedgehog games.

edited 12th Mar '13 11:21:10 PM by MikeK

Earth is the only planet inhabitable by Nicolas Cage.

Seven Reizh: Strinkadenn Ys. I think this album’s growing on me. My original feeling was that this album was “Breton folk meets uninspired neo-prog.” That’s still kind of my feeling, minus the “uninspired” part. Or maybe I just appreciate how inspired they are during the folk bits a bit better.

Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883!

Foo Fighters - There Is Nothing Left To Lose. This is actually the newest album of theirs I've listened to in full (though I know the singles from One By One and beyond). It's always sort of disappointing to me when a rock album starts out with it's heaviest song (in this case "Stacked Actors") and then never quite rocks out that much again. It is a pretty consistent, catchy album, but I sorta miss some of the idiosyncrasies of the self-titled album and Colour And The Shape.

Earth is the only planet inhabitable by Nicolas Cage.

Method of Destruction's U.S.A. for M.O.D. Sort of a quasi-sequel album to Stormtroopers of Death's Speak English or Die (same producer, lead singer and I believe lead guitarist on a few parts). Great piece of crossover thrash; it's just unfortunate that M.O.D. couldn't keep this level of quality up with subsequent works.

I purchased a handful of albums during the past month or so, and I've listened to all of them front to back.

• Primus - Pork Soda
• A Perfect Circle - Mer De Noms
• Serj Tankian - Harakiri
• Faith No More - Angel Dust
• Cibo Matto - Stereotype A

Also, from my collection, I listened to:

• A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step
• Black Sabbath - Greatest Hits (1970 - 1978)

edited 15th Mar '13 9:22:26 PM by spudsabre

• Änglagård: Hybris [dreamy sigh] It’s been 20 years since I was first introduced to this album, and it still never fails to give me chills up and down my spine. Seriously, it opened a door leading to a wonderland of possibilities about how progressive rock could continue to be a force for innovation and excitement for years to come. A pity, then, that prog rock since then has become weak as water. [sigh of regret]

Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883!

A few this week worth mentioning:

• Car Seat Headrest, Monomania—I found this band through a very strange web comic that a certain friend linked me to, and they managed to click with me on some strange preconscious level almost immediately. I think that it's the gestalt of the thing: The extremely fuzzy, cassette-like production aesthetic; the odd little pop hooks and wry experimental touches that rise out of the murk; the complex, often deceptive song structures, beginning one way and ending somewhere totally different; the extremely personal, often uncomfortably raw lyrics—all of these things are great on their own and better together, but in context add up to something brilliant. And to think that this guy is barely my age right now. Wow.
• The Cure, Seventeen Seconds—While the two records that followed may be stronger overall, there is a power in the extreme minimalism that this album presents. The spectral, bloodless, occasional wispy quality of the album—a quality which reminds me of nothing so much as Young Marble Giants—allows the more sinister, nightmarish qualities of the songs to slip in more delicately, resulting in a more subversive effect where Pornography or even Faith is more bluntly grotesque. "In Your House", in particular, is a masterpiece of evil implications.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

for Prurient

1.Body Language 5/5

2. Mummification and Prayer 3.5/5

3. Black Vase 4/5

4.Oxidation 4.5/5

march 25th/2013 portal

• outre
• seepia

edited 25th Mar '13 4:56:18 PM by dronepeanut2

merzbow's-lop lop.

dronepeanut-dead dronepeanut2-zombie leval