Stone Temple Pilots - Stone Temple Pilots. First full-length album without Scott Weiland and first release to feature newest singer Jeff Gutt. I was skeptical when I first heard this was coming out, but it's actually pretty good - Gutt can sound uncannily like Weiland at times, and they've really recaptured that classic era STP feel even if there's nothing as immediately memorable as, say, "Plush" or "Interstate Love Song".
Listening to stuff from 1997 (this isn't everything I've done, just stuff I have particular thoughts on):
Spawn: The Album: "alternative rock and heavy metal bands collaborate with electronic musicians for a soundtrack to a PG-13 movie about a comic book anti-hero" is maybe the most mid-90s concept for an album there is note . Not all of this dates well, but my favorite tracks are the ones that make me want to kick ass (e.g. The Prodigy and Tom Morello's "One Man Army, Atari Teenage Riot and Slayer's "No Remorse (I Wanna Die)") or the ones that are engagingly weird (e.g. Butthole Surfers and Moby's "Tiny Rubber Band", Soul Coughing and Roni Size's "A Plane Scraped Its Belly on a Sooty Yellow Moon").
Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death. This is definitely good, but I don't like it as much as Ready To Die - it's pretty consistent for a hip-hop double album, but I dunno, too many guest appearances note and maybe too many r and b/pop influenced beats. And it's more of a minor gripe, but the skits on Ready To Die felt like they were part of an ongoing story that tied in with the lyrics, while the skits on this album are just kinda there.
Flake Music - When You Land Here, It's Time To Return. The Shins before they started calling themselves that (Interestingly enough, they actually had a song called "The Shins"). James Mercer's voice and songwriting definitely come out recognizable, but the arrangements are more in step with mid-90s indie rock, so they sort of come across as some sort of hybrid of The Shins and Built to Spill.
Metallica - Reload. I almost wonder if Metallica wouldn't have gotten the "sellout" label quite as much if Reload had come out before Load. That is, this is definitely a grunge and Alternative Metal influenced album, but it's generally only slightly less heavy than the Black Album.
Edited by MikeK on Dec 7th 2018 at 10:08:06 AM
Moar 1997:
The Fall (Band) - Levitate. One of their least-accessible albums, though "I'm A Mummy" is an awfully catchy garage rock-style cover of an obscure sixties novelty song and "Jap Kid" is a pretty, minimal piano/drum machine instrumental. I can see a diehard Fall fan liking it just because at times it somehow feels like you've actually stepped into Mark E. Smith's mind somehow - a "song" will occasionally consist of one catchy dance-rock riff played over and over and multiple tracks of MES mumbling/yelling at each other (which is normally only an exaggeration of what this band sounds like).
Smashmouth - Fush Yu Mang. "Walking On The Sun" was the catalyst for them changing to a sunny, retro-60's pop act, but you can kinda tell they were never going to stick with ska-punk forever - for the most part, none of these songs are quite straight ska-punk to begin with, there's always a surf rock guitar lick here or a spacy synthesizer there.
Wu-Tang Clan - Forever. In contrast to Life After Death, this is what an inconsistent hip hop double album looks like. Still, I feel like there's enough strong tracks that they could have made a good single-album followup to 36 Chambers... The rougher production style and some of the more cartoonish lyrical violence is missed, but I guess it's inevitable that when everyone in a group does some solo work and then gets back together, things are going to end up a bit different.
John Lydon - Psycho's Path. Synth-Pop/techno-influenced solo album by that Public Image Ltd. and The Sex Pistols guy. This got pretty savagely panned back when it came out, but it's not bad - basically if you enjoy P.I.L. at their synthiest there's no reason you won't like it. Outside of P.I.L., this also sort of reminds me of The Cure at their synthiest too.
Edited by MikeK on May 3rd 2024 at 9:45:47 AM
Dishwalla-Pet Your Friends (1995)
I bought this album yesterday and I listened to it while I was driving to college this morning. It's pretty decent to good 90's Alternative Rock. While Counting Blue Cars is definitely a good song, the other songs aren't bad either. If I had to name my favorites, it would be Pretty Babies, Haze, Give, Charlie Brown's Parents, and Moisture. J.R Richards has a good voice and the others musicians aren't slouches either. The arrangements of the song are interesting as are the lyrics which deals with substance abuse, religion and personal issues. It's no lost classic, but you should check it out if you get a chance.
edited 10th Apr '18 4:25:00 PM by pointless233
Matchbox 20-Yourself or Someone Like You (1996)
I bought this album yesterday and listened to it while driving to college this morning. Just like with the Dishwalla album. Honestly, I would say that I like this album a little less than Pet Your Friends. Rob Thomas is a decent singer but I feel as if his vocals get kind of grating after a while. Also, the songs start to feel kind of samey and kind of start to blend together. However, I don't hate this album. There were plenty of songs I did like. Besides the singles like 3 A.M., Long Day, and Push, I liked Girl Like That, Kody and Hang. While I don't think it's a classic, it's a okay album.
edited 18th Apr '18 6:25:33 AM by pointless233
Joan Osborne-Relish (1995)
This is pretty good, overall. Joan Osborne has a really good voice and I really like most of the songs. They have a very heavy blues influence(there's also some Country, Folk and Gospel influence as well) and the lyrics are pretty interesting. While some of the tracks tend to run a bit long and there are a few tracks I could do without, this was a nice listen. Check it out you get the chance.
Some more 1997
Silverchair - Freak Show. What is it with popular but critically derided mid-90's Post-Grunge bands making their second albums sound like In Utero (see also Bush's Razorblade Suitcase)? Okay, that's kind of harsh because there's some interesting, non-Nirvana influences that also show up here: "Lie To Me" is a bit of Miniscule Rocking Hardcore Punk (that still sorta sounds like "Tourette's"), "Cemetery" is an acoustic ballad with strings that sorta points the way towards their later art-rock-ish stuff, and "Petrol and Chlorine" brings in some Eastern influences (complete with Sitar) and ends up sorta feeling like a more post-grunge-y version of a George Harrison-penned Beatles track.
TheMisfits - American Psycho. This was actually my first Misfits album, and at the time I was aware of Danzig but didn't know the two had anything to do with each other. I just found this album in a used music shop right around the time I noticed the cool "punk" kids in my school all had that skull logo on their t-shirts or patches. Now that I do know the Danzig-era stuff, this album sorta feels like a goofy, The Theme Park Version of what the original incarnation of the band were about.... For one thing, 11 of the 17 songs on this album are named after and/or about specific horror/sci-fi media note , something the original incarnation of the band occasionally did, but never quite to that degree. On the other hand, this stuff can be pretty catchy and is much better produced than the old albums were.
Edited by MikeK on Dec 7th 2018 at 10:11:08 AM
Deee-Lite - World Clique (1990)
Now that I've had the chance to listen to this album twice, I have to say that it's a pretty fun listen. The beats are, for the most part, pretty catchy and nice to listen to. I can say that I was dancing in my car listening to this without a care. I can also say that Lady Miss Kier is definitely the star of this album. I really like her singing and I think she injects a lot of personality into this record. While "Groove is in The Heart" is a good song, some of the other songs are good as well. "The Power of Love", "Try Me...I'm Very You", "Smile On", "Good Beat", "Who Was That?", and the title track are all good songs. While it may be dated in some parts, I would say that this is a good House record.
edited 4th May '18 11:30:53 AM by pointless233
Death - Living Monstrosity
I'm not into Death Metal (as I've mentioned a few times) but damn, this track is great. The guitar playing is on point and the drumming is really nice. The lyrics are pretty cool too. I wish I could hear the bass, though.
Big Dumb Face - Duke Lion Fights The Terror and Where's Duke Lion? He's Dead.... Big Dumb Face are essentially the duo of Wes Borland and his brother, Scott. The debut is very obviously indebted to the early works of Ween and Mr. Bungle, what with all the silly vocal effects, genre hopping, and crude shock humor - it's nowhere near as good as the best works of either, but it can be goofily entertaining. The second album is a marked improvement: It's heavier, but just as silly - the difference is that the silliness is mostly based around Affectionate Parody of heavy metal rather than aping a specific artist. Just to show they haven't entirely abandoned genre-hopping, there's also one mock-country/gospel song and two lyrically dissonant calypso numbers.
Zao - Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest (1998)
I've been listening to Zao for quite a while now, but I never fully listened to an album of theirs until now. Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest is the first album to feature Dan Weyandt on vocals and Russ Cogdell on guitar. It also features Brett Detar on guitar/bass. This was my first Zao album and I have to say that I thought that it was a good Metalcore album. The guitars are loud and aggressive, the drumming is quite well done and Weyandt has some really awesome vocals. The lyrics are pretty great too. While I generally dislike Christian rock, I feel that Zao did a good job on this album. If I have some complaints about this album, it's that the album is a little short(it's only ten tracks). I also feel that some of the songs tend to blend into one another. Besides those flaws, I liked this album. Check it out if you get a chance.
Favorite Songs: Lies of Serpents/A River of Tears, To Think of You is To Treasure an Absent Memory, A Fall Farewell, March, Fifteen Rhema, Ember, Violet
Edited by pointless233 on Sep 25th 2018 at 9:05:41 AM
Currently doing 1971:
MC 5 - High Time. The only other album I've heard is Back In The USA, their previous effort, and I find the contrast sorta interesting. On Back In The USA they were mixing "proto punk" with 50s rock and ended up predicting The Ramones. On High Time they were mixing "proto punk" with contemporary 70s hard rock and ended up predicting early grunge.
Sly And The Family Stone - There's A Riot Going Down. I can see this influencing the funkier side of Post-Punk (e.g. Gang of Four, Public Image Limited): The funk/soul of their earlier stuff is there, just in a more minimal, sometimes deliberately ugly and confrontational form. Maybe I was just thinking of Post Punk so much because of Magazine's version of "Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again" - I thought Magazine totally came up with the idea of slowing the tempo down so much on their own, when in fact Sly Stone already did it on this album (in a rearrangement of the song called "Thank You For Talking To Me Africa").
Incinerate! ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!!
Mike Shinoda — Post-Traumatic (2018): Shinoda still has it as a musician, with electronic beats and rhymes. But the entire album is just a tad less dark than Linkin Park's One More Light, and also a direct consequence of this, as this is basically Shinoda dealing with Chester's death. The album feels like it outpours Mike's feelings a bit too much. Can't blame him for this, but can't stop feeling this is impairing his abilities. Also, the songs don't feel like they have the same energy seen on, for example, Living Things.
Growing up, it's like a civil war, don't turn away, it's something you can't ignore...
Powerman 5000 - Copies, Clones and Replicants. This is a Cover Album, mainly of New Wave Music, by a Hard Rock / Alternative Metal band. Heavy covers of synth pop and new wave have been done a lot (see "Sweet Dreams" by Marilyn Manson, the whole Not Another Teen Movie soundtrack, etc), and if you're familiar with the band's usual style you can predict what their take on something like "Electric Avenue" is going to be like. But where it gets interesting is that they're not just doing heavy guitar versions of new wave songs, they're also doing new wave versions of heavy guitar songs - so you get an eerie Gary Numan-ish version of Should I Stay Or Should I Go, or a version of We're Not Gonna Take It where the chorus is the same as the original but the verses are all synthetizers and herky jerky drums. Overall not essential listening but fun.
Edited by MikeK on Dec 7th 2018 at 10:12:26 AM
Gorillaz - The Now Now. This feels like a bit of a Spiritual Sequel to The Fall to me - a relatively stripped down and largely guest-vocalist free album released quickly after something that was the exact opposite (Plastic Beach / Humanz).
Ego Likeness - Water To The Dead. So I'm just starting to get into Dark Wave type stuff I guess - For whatever reason I just really find the mix of dark/ ominous lyrics and melodies and fast, danceable beats appealing.
Deftones - White Pony (2000)
It's been some years since I've listened to this album. I decided to relisten to it on a whim this afternoon. Deftones are one of my favorite bands of all time and this is one of their best albums. While I prefer Around the Fur slightly more, this is definitely not a bad album. I've always liked how Deftones have been able to mix diiferent genres(Trip-Hop, Shoegaze, Dream Pop, and New Wave ) with Metal and make it come out really good. The guitar playing is great, the drumming is well done and complex and Chino Moreno is one of the best vocalists in Rock/Metal. Also, Frank Delgado adds a lot of atmosphere to this album with his samples. The only flaws I find with this album are that some songs are better than others and that the sequencing of the songs is a bit weird. Other than that, it's a great album and I recommend it.
Favorite Songs: Feiticeira, Elite, Rx Queen, Street Carp, Knife Prty, Korea, Passenger, Change(In the House of Flies), Pink Maggit
Edited by pointless233 on Aug 4th 2018 at 2:02:42 AM
1982:
Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five - The Message. I'm getting the idea that all early hip hop albums have at least a little Early-Installment Weirdness and in-cohesive qualities to them. See, the first three songs here are all feel-good party hip-hop/electrofunk, then the fourth has a bit of a mellower groove but still fits in... and then there's two keyboard-based soul ballads in a row featuring singing instead of rapping, followed by the title track, which is funky and danceable rap, but with a darker feel and pessimistic lyrics about such topics as crime, drug abuse and poverty. One kind of gets the idea that, because party rap was considered a "novelty", they wanted to show they had more range - "The Message" was a great success in that regard, and has been considered the start of "conscious rap" note - the ballads, however, are amateurish and forgettable, and come close to ruining the album. "Dreamin'" at least has some Narm Charm to it though - see, it sounds like a sappy, chaste love song for the first verse, then the chorus suddenly reveals that the subject of the lyrics isn't a woman, it's Stevie Wonder; They're just so earnest about how much they admire Stevie and would like to meet him one day that it sort of works.
Fang - Landshark. At the time this was considered Hardcore Punk I guess; the overall attitude and Three Chords and the Truth aspect are definitely there, but overall this feels like proto-grunge; it's a bit slower than most hardcore I've heard, and you can definitely tell how the vocals and guitar playing must have influenced Kurt Cobain - if you compare the original "The Money Will Roll Right In" to Nirvana's, it's uncanny; so similar that you could convince someone that the Fang version was actually a very early Nirvana demo.
Wall of Voodoo - Call Of The West. I bought this long ago out of a record store bin for "Mexican Radio", not really expecting the rest of it to be any good; it turned out to be one of my favorite New Wave Music albums, for the unique new-wave-meets-post-punk-meets-spaghetti-western-theme-music sound and the way the songs tended to be detailed character sketches.
A Flock Of Seagulls - A Flock Of Seagulls. Yes, another eighties One-Hit Wonder covered by Todd in the Shadows. I really like the layered guitar sounds they use throughout this album, and sort of wish someone would take that idea even further and create some sort of cross between new wave and shoegaze (Shoe Wave? Newgaze?). The rest of the songs maybe aren't as catchy as "I Ran" and "Space Age Love Song", but it all sounds good while it's playing.
The Clash - Combat Rock. I guess this is kind of divisive among fans, but I like it. Other than "Know Your Rights", nothing here is remotely "punk" sounding, and it has two of their highest charting hits ("Should I Stay Or Should I Go" and "Rock The Casbah")... But it's also too idiosyncratic overall to remotely be considered an attempt to "sell out".
Edited by MikeK on Aug 17th 2018 at 3:44:44 AM
More 1982:
Yazoo - Upstairs At Eric's. The first Yazoo song I knowingly heard was "Situation" note , and it made a great impression on me: The groove is pretty funky for synth pop, but I still wasn't expecting this bluesy, deep female voice belting all over it. The combination of the music and Alison Moyet's voice is a lot of what draws me to this album: It's kind of unexpected, but it makes sense because synth pop has roots in disco, which in turn has roots in soul, which has roots in blues.
The Go-Go's - Vacation. A bit slighter than Beauty And The Beat maybe, but entertaining. Other than the title track I like "Girl Of 100 Lists" and their goofy but fun cover of "Cool Jerk".
The Residents - The Tunes Of Two Cities. I already put some of my thoughts on this in their nightmare fuel page, but I'll expand on it a bit. This is sort of a prequel album to Mark Of The Mole - Mark Of The Mole is an album about a culture clash between two fictional races, while this album is supposed to represent what the two races were like before they came in contact with each other. So, every other track is "Chub music" (Residents-style deconstructions of big band music) or "Mole music" (industrial rhythms + spooky chanting). The thing is that the "Mole music" is more overtly scary, but eventually the "Chub music" starts also starts seeming a little eerie due to being a deliberately "off" version of a familiar genre usually associated with carefree frivolity. Maybe the whole idea is that the Moles are at least upfront about darker impulses, whereas the Chubs are Stepford Smilers who try to hide things under the surface?
Edited by MikeK on Aug 21st 2018 at 2:53:51 AM
Ministry - Trax! Box (Disc 1). So, this box set compiles everything they did for the Wax Trax! label - the first two discs are basically an expanded version of the 12 Inch Singles compilation, compiling early singles along with unreleased outtakes from the same era. Al Jourgensen would go on to regret this era of the band, but the thing is that this and the Twitch album prove that they could be a good EBM band if they wanted to note .
King's X - Gretchen Goes To Nebraska (1989)
So, this is the first album I've listened to from this band. I have to say, I really liked this album. While the production might be a little dated in some parts and some songs are weaker than others, this was a great album from a really underrated band. This album contains elements of funk, gospel, soul and progressive rock. I really like the way that the band mixes these genres together and makes it sound so good. The vocals are the best part of the album. Doug Pinnick is a great vocalist and I really love how much emotion he puts into his singing. I also like the harmonies that all three band members do in the songs. The guitar playing is also really nice. Ty Tabor is an amazing guitarist and his solos are pretty awesome. The drumming is also pretty nice and tight. It's very well done. Overall, this album was great to me and I'm glad I got to listen to it. You should give it a chance if you're interested.
Favorite Songs: Out of The Silent Planet, Over My Head, Everybody Knows a Little Bit of Something, The Difference, I'll Never Be the Same, Mission, Fall on Me, Pleiades, Don't Believe it, Send a Message.
Edited by pointless233 on Sep 8th 2018 at 1:44:41 AM
So I was gonna post about the rest of this Ministry box set one disc at a time, but ended up getting through it all faster than I thought, so I'm gonna do one pretty short summary of the rest of it:
Disc 2: more synth-pop era Ministry - doesn't make as strong a case for this era of the band due to being mainly 1) remixes of songs that already appeared on the first disc, and 2) demos for With Sympathy that mostly sound like the album versions with worse sound quality.
Disc 3-5: basically deluxe editions of the first three Revolting Cocks albums (Big Sexy Land, You Goddamned Son Of A Bitch - Live and Beers, Steers And Queers). Despite being, you know, an album called Big Sexy Land by a band called Revolting Cocks, the debut is probably their most serious, least-sexual-innuendo-filled album ever - it's good, but a bit underdeveloped, with most of the songs consisting of loud industrial percussion, funky synth bass, and vocals. You Goddamned Son Of A Bitch presents most of the songs in a more energetic manner with some real guitar and bass, and thus points the way to Beers..., which I consider their best.
Disc 6: All the non-Revco side projects. This disc can be roughly divided into an Industrial Metal half (Pailhead, 1,0000 Homo DJs and an industrial dance half (PTP, Acid Horse). Though every project has at least one worthwhile track, Pailhead is easily my favorite - it's a collaboration with Ian MacAye (Minor Threat, Fugazi) that comes off as a cross between Industrial Metal and Post-Hardcore.
Disc 7: All the unreleased stuff they couldn't fit on the other discs. Of note are four unreleased live Ministry tracks that present them at their Post-Punk-iest, complete with actual live drums, an uncharacteristically poppy, almost INX-ish Revco outtake ("Fish In In Cold Water"), "Self Annoyed" (which is is basically "Destruction" from The Land Of Rape And Honey with actual lyrics), and a version of 1,000 Homo DJs' "Supernaut" cover featuring Trent Reznor as originally intended note
Edited by MikeK on Sep 10th 2018 at 7:45:49 AM
Realize
- Codeine
This song makes me remember middle school. I fucking hate middle school.
It's 2002 in the Mike K household (musically anyway). I've been on this tack for a while actually, but here's some recent stuff I have some thoughts on:
Box Car Racer - Box Car Racer. A blink-182 side project featuring 2/3 of its members note . Tom Delonge basically started it as a project to explore Post-Hardcore and emo influences/ generally do things that were outside of Blink's normal sound at the time. The thing is Tom is just so innately "pop punky" when it comes to singing and writing melodies that this tends to come off as some sort of pop-punk post-hardcore hybrid, mixing the sing-song-y melodic approach of the former with the heavy riffs and complex rhythms of the latter. Not a bad thing at all, because the mix of the two styles can be appealing to my ears, and I can see this being a "gateway series" to Post-Hardcore for some.
Silverchair - Diorama. The New Sound Album - Daniel Johns started writing songs on piano instead of guitar and they got Van Dyke Parks to orchestrate some songs, and the result is mainly a mix of art rock, Baroque Pop and alternative rock, with just a little of their old Post-Grunge style here and there. It doesn't always come together for me, but the highlights are some of their best, most creatively-written songs; I especially like the sweeping baroque pop melody of "Across The Night" and the just plain odd, playful "Tuna In The Brine".
Audioslave - Audioslave. Rage Against the Machine minus Zach De La Rocha plus Chris Cornell. Later on they'd figure out how to make the mix of Post-Grunge and Alternative Metal/ Rap Rock more cohesive - here too many of the songs feel like Cornell singing over leftover Rage riffs. There's still some really good songs though, and I recently re-discovered how catchy the chorus to "Like A Stone" is when I ended up joining someone's open mic performance of it.
Missy Elliott - Under Construction. I just really like her overall style, mixing rap and r and b, augmented here with just a bit of electro funk and old school rap throwback. The only real weak spot is that the catch phrase "this is a one time Missy Elliott exclusive" gets old - it practically turns up once per song. Also, even though I tend to treat interludes on hip hop albums to be Album Filler, I like what she does with hers - unless you count the intro and outro to "Gossip Folks", there aren't any skits, just an album intro, an album outro and an explanatory outro to one song, all presented as though she's talking to the listener about the album and its content.
Foo Fighters - One By One. It's a perfectly good heavy Post-Grunge album, but I can tell why the band came to dislike it a bit because it lacks some of the idiosyncrasy of their past albums.
Edited by MikeK on Sep 25th 2018 at 6:59:10 AM
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine (1989)
I picked this album up from a store some days ago. After listening to it a few times, I think it's a pretty cool album. Trent Reznor's vocal performance is good and most of the songs are experimental but really catchy at the same time. I feel like the album has some flaws. There were a few songs I didn't care for(Something I Can Never Have, That's what I Get) , the production is very 80's, which means it's pretty dated and some of the songs run for a little too long for my taste. However, there are plenty of good songs on here so I mostly enjoyed it.
Favorite Songs: Head Like a Hole, Terrible Lie, Down In It, Sanctified, Kinda I Want To, Sin, Ringfinger
Lamb of God-Redneck
Good song. It's got a great groove and the chorus is quite catchy.