Wire- Pink Flag (1977)

Wire is a post-punk band from London. That's right, is. As in they are still together. You may be thinking, how can an album that came out in 1977 be considered post-punk? Wasn't punk, like, invented in 1977? And you would be more or less correct. Wire was certainly influenced by first-wave punk groups like The Clash and played a similar style of stripped-down rock 'n roll. There's some of the urgency of punk rock in the pace of these songs, though Wire generally has more hooks than their contemporaries. However, at times they play what almost seem to be dirges in their plodding heaviness (something Black Flag would pick up in the mid-80's).

No matter what Wire is doing, Pink Flag is an exercise in minimalism, even down to the cover art. Its 23 tracks come in at just around 40 minutes. Rather than the traditional verse/chorus/verse/repeat song formula, Wire is content with just a single verse and chorus (or sometimes no chorus). The lack of repetition is remarkable. The music itself is rather simple, which isn't to say it's not good, but technical it ain't. That being said, the riffs are good, Colin Newman's efforts are enjoyable both lyrically and vocally (he occasionally puts on the sarcasm/sneer that was popular in punk rock), the bass lines bounce and the drumming is competent. I particularly enjoy some of the guitar tones on this album. For me a lot of early/proto-punk bands tones' were too trebly and hollow sounding, Wire's guitar sound has balls.

Pink Flag's influence is widespread. Minor Threat covered the song "12 X U," post-punk and post-hardcore bands like Fugazi took a page or two from Wire's playbook and modern day indie rock rock bands owe them a debt as well. You may have heard the riff from "Three Girl Rhumba" before, it was ripped off by Elastica (a shitty alternative rock band from the 90's, video below). Give this a listen if you're a fan of late 70's/early 80's punk rock, post-punk bands such as Television, post-hardcore bands like Fugazi or indie rock.





Get it here.

Gems: Reuters, Ex Lion Tamer, Lowdown, It's So Obvious, The Commercial, Mr. Suit, Strange, Mannequin, 12 X U, Options R.

Auroboros- Demo (2010)

So yeah, most of you saw Auroboros at the Black (christ) Mass party. Their demo is available for download HERE. You can download it for free or name your own price. It fucking rocks, check it out.

Also, they'll likely be playing Stash Bash.

Eugene McDaniels- Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse (1971)

Sorry about the metal deluge, now for something completely different. Eugene (Gene) McDaniels was an American songwriter/producer and is now a hermit. He earned a living writing songs for musicians such as Roberta Flack and Gladys Knight, making the Top 40 several times. He put out a number of solo albums in the 60's and 70's, this was his last and best. After it's release in 1971 (so the story goes) Vice President Spiro Agnew contacted Atlantic Records and asked that promotion of the album be stopped and the record taken from the shelves due to it's "radical" black consciousness/black power stance and depictions of marijuana use. Whether that's true or not, Atlantic stopped promoting it and let the album go out of print. Despite this, you've heard bits of this album before, I guarantee it. Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse has been sampled by The Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock, The People Under The Stairs and just about every other worthwhile hip hop artist. Headless Heroes takes soul, jazz, rock, gospel and funk and wraps it up into one tidy little package. The one exception being "Susan Jane," a folkish track which screams Bob Dylan. A classic, check it out.

Eugene McDaniels on last.fm



Get it here.

Gems: The Lord Is Back, Jagger The Dagger, Lovin' Man, Headless Heroes, Freedom Death Dance.

Yob- The Unreal Never Lived (2005)

You know, I had a hard time deciding whether to post that Middian album or this Yob album. So fuck it.

Yob on last.fm




Get it here.

Middian- Age Eternal (2007) METAL AERT

Steve overhead me listening to some Yob, he said it reminded him of a heaver old Soundgarden (read: good Soundgarden). I don't see the comparison, but I told him I'd post some. Instead, I'm posting this, the singer/guitarists other band. Middian sounds exactly like Yob, but this might be a bit more accessible than any Yob album as there's a greater ratio of clean vocals to screaming on this one (more on that later). Over the past 10 years or so I don't think any musician has been as consistently good as Yob's Mike Scheidt. 5 Yob albums and this Middian album while Yob was on hiatus, all of which have been at least an 8/10 in my book, a few being 10/10s (including this one). Yob has been labeled as just about every sub-genre of doom imaginable, stoner doom, psychedelic doom, progressive doom, sludge and I've definitely referred to them as space doom a few times. All of these labels certainly fit Middian as well, but none of them even come close to fully describing either of them. What you'll find on Age Eternal is monumental, head-nodding, trance-inducing riffs, surprisingly pretty psychedelic/space rock sounding leads and passages, odd stops and starts for a doom band and lumbering sludge parts. Also, I really like Mike's clean vocals, usually doom band's clean vocals are way too cock-rocky for me and I can't stand them. Mike and guitar player Will Lindsay's screams add a litte balance.

Yob just announced they're headed into the studio to record a new album and a tour to support said album. SWEET.

Middian on last.fm



Get it here.

Gems: All of them.

Deafheaven- Roads To Judah (2011) METAL ALERT

I ignored this for a few weeks, even after it had made its way on to a number of reputable blogs. The reason being it was released by Deathwish (Jake Bannon from Converge's label) and other than the Converge and Trap Them releases, I haven't cared much for Deathwish's output over the past few years. How to describe this...post-black metal? No, plenty of blast beats, tremolo picking and harsh black metal vocals. Blackgaze might be more accurate. I'm not usually a big fan of genre-mashing, most of the time it doesn't work. However, black metal and shoegaze seems like a pretty natural combination as both often feature wall-of-sound like guitar work. Anyway, this is pretty awesome. An interesting combination of straight black metal drumming, tremolo picked black metal riffs with dreamy shoegaze undertones and quiet post-rock buildups that break into blast beats and straight forward black metal riffs. Interesting.

Deafheaven on last.fm



Get it here.

Gems: Violet, Unrequited, Tunnel of Trees.

Black Mountain- Wilderness Heart (2010)

Black Mountain is from Vancouver, BC and plays throwback psychedelic rock. Most people mention the obvious Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple influence, so I'll hop on that bandwagon. This album is all over the place, combining mellow acoustic tracks with fist-pumping rockers, soaring psychedelic riffs with slow doomy stoner rock and yet somehow it all works. The tandem/trade off male/female vocals are pretty excellent. One of my favorites of last year. Have a listen. Oh, and how much ass does that cover art kick?

Black Mountain on last.fm





Get it here.

Gems: The Hair Song, Old Fangs, Roller Coaster, Let Spirits Ride, The Way To Gone, Wilderness Heart.

Medications- Completely Removed (2010)

Just about all of you should enjoy this, so check it out. After Faraquet ended, Devin Ocampo (vocals/guitar) and Chad Molter (bass) went on to form Medications. If Faraquet was a math rock band with indie rock tendencies, Medications is an indie rock band with math rock tendencies. Their first EP, which came out in 2005, was more or less an extension of Faraquet with more emphasis on vocals and verse/chorus/verse song structure. The first full length ventured even further into indie rock territory. Completely Removed, their most recent effort, is one of the best indie rock records I've heard. There's still the intricate guitar work that Devin is known for, but now it's part of some extraordinarily well-crafted pop songs. For the first time Devin and Chad trade off vocals, which works quite well and Devin's voice and lyrical capabilities have vastly improved since the Faraquet days. This is some excellent, mellow, intricate indie rock that's perfect for sitting on the porch on a sunny afternoon and sipping a beer (the one partial exception to the mellowness being Kilometers and Smiles which is an oddly awesome combination of rockin' prog riffs and Beach Boys-esque vocal melody). Also, they're playing DC on May 28th, come out.

 Medications on last.fm

Get it here.

Gems: For WMF, Long Day, Seasons, Country Air, Home Is Where We Are, Tame on the Prowl.

Indian- Guiltless (2011) METAL ALERT

I was pretty happy when I saw that Indian signed to Relapse last year. Having followed them pretty closely for a number of years, I didn't think they quite got the recognition they deserved. Hopefully being on Relapse will change that. Chicago's Indian have made a name for themselves playing a mix of slow, bludgeoning doom, sprinkled with sludgier mid-paced riffs and scathing vocals that would be equally at home on a black metal record. Guiltless features more of the same, though the band seems to have allowed the black metal influence to show up in more than the vocals. This is particularly true of "The Fate Before Fate." On the first listen, the acoustic track "Supplicants" seemed a bit out of place, but after repeated listenings it's a nice, albeit sinister respite from the pummeling that is the rest of the album. Produced by Buried at Sea mastermind Sanford Parker, this thing sounds absolutely huge. Also, the Scott Fricke artwork is awesome as usual, I'm surprised more bands haven't gone to him for their album art. Another early contender for the best of 2011.

Indian on last.fm

Get it here.

Gems: No Grace, The Fate Before Fate, Guilty, The End of Truth.

Battles- Gloss Drop (2011)

Damn this leaked early (it's not out until June). I had been pretty interested in hearing what the new Battles output would sound like after Tyondai Braxton (guitars/keyboard/vocals) left the group and I must say it's pretty rad. Only been able to give this a handful of listens over the past few days, so I can't really say where it stands in Battles' oeuvre quite yet. It reminds me more of the EPs than Mirrored, which is to say it's dense, mechanical sounding, somewhat repetitive and features less of the poppy element that Mirrored had (with the one glaring exception being "Ice Cream," which is one of the best songs I've heard this year). The four tracks with guest vocals are all quite good, which was a pleasant surprise. Likely a year end top 10. Enjoy.

*Per Abow's recommendation, from now on I'll provide a link to each group's last.fm page for bio/discography purposes. If you don't have a last.fm account you should get one and if we aren't friends on there yet, my user name is aninflux*

Battles on last.fm

Get it here.

Gems: Africastle, Ice Cream, Futura, Wall Street, My Machines Sweetie & Shag.

Death- For The Whole World To See (1976)

My mind was completely and utterly blown the first time I heard this. Not the death metal band! This Death was around in the early-mid 1970's, hailing from Detroit. Obviously huge fans of fellow Detroiters MC5 as well as The Stooges, Death played a similar brand of fast, brutal rock and roll that would be influential in the development of punk rock (but did so with better chops than the Stooges for sure). This is without question one of the best proto-punk albums I've ever heard. A lot of people compare them to early Bad Brains, which I can see a bit in the intensity and vocal delivery (particularly on "Freakin' Out"), but I think the comparison is made primarily because both bands are black. Originally recorded in 1976, this didn't see an official release until 2009. If you dig The Stooges, MC5, Bad Brains or pretty much any music at all, you need to hear this.

Get it here.

Gems: Seriously, every song on this rips.

Explosions In The Sky- Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (2011)

Jackson's mention of the Explosions In The Sky show in Richmond I didn't attend made me realize I should post this (it isn't out yet, so shhhh!). Take Care, Take Care, Take Care doesn't quite match the epic beauty of The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place or pack the punch of All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone, but a solid effort nonetheless. More of the same gorgeous post-rock that Explosions is famous for. This time with clapping and "Oh's" (seriously!).




Get it here. Since this isn't out yet, the mediafire link will probably be taken town, if so let me know and I'll find another one.

Gems: "Last Known Surroundings," "Be Comfortable, Creature," "Postcard from 1952."

The Mercury Program- Chez Viking (2009)

Simply put, The Mercury Program is my favorite band ever. I was pretty anxious before this came out, I didn't believe they would be able to come anywhere near A Data Learn The Language. I was wrong. Chez Viking is just about as close to a perfect album as possible and in my opinion is superior to A Data... absolutely zero filler, every track is extremely strong. You should have this already, if you don't get it now. I mean right now. This second.

Get it here.

Gems: Every. Single. Track.

Faraquet- Anthology 1997-1998 (2008)

For some reason I ignored this band while they were around. That was stupid. Hailing from DC Faraquet played math rock, but did so with enough hooks and song structure that you might be able place them in the same camp as some of the mathier indie rock bands (Minus The Bear, etc.). Not to mention that having a vocalist is somewhat of an anomaly in the math rock world. The guitar work on this album is fantastic, "The Whole Thing Over" features one of my favorite riffs of all time. If you dig Piglet check this out, a great album for sunny days and completing menial tasks.

Get it here.

Gems: Parakeet, The Whole Thing Over, Call It Sane, Rex.

Neat

So originally I used this blog for a required part of an IT class, an IT class for a bunch of Library and Information Science grad students who were all liberal arts majors (read: a monkey could have passed that class). I deleted that blog before I decided to repurpose it as a music blog, but apparently when you subscribe to the RSS feed via Google Reader you can still see the deleted posts (and apparently this can't be fixed). So ignore it or see what it was like to be in an IT class aimed at the Amish.

Maritme- Human Hearts (2011)

Been listening to this album a ton since I got it about a month ago. I still think Maritime won't ever be able to top We, The Vehicles, but this album has crept its way up into a tie for second, along with Heresy and the Hotel Choir. Anyway, more of the same from Martime, which means super catchy indie pop. Davey von Bohlen (ex- Captain Jazz, The Promise Ring) seems to have made a rather serious effort to step up his silly-ass wordplay on this album, which is always nice. This will make my top 10 of the year for sure. 

Here

Gems: It's Casual, Paraphernalia, Peopling of London, Air Arizona, Annihilation Eyes, C'mon Sense, Apple of My Irony

Crocodiles Double Dose

Two dudes from The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower playing fuzzy, synthed-out, incredibly catchy, sometimes noisy, pop songs about death. Reminiscent of The Jesus and Mary Chain. Summer of Hate was a decent debut, but Sleep Forever was one of my favorite albums of last year. Both are worth having.

Also, they're playing at the Red Palace in DC on the 25th of April. Zeke and I will be there, let me know if you're interested.

Crocodiles- Sleep Forever (2010)

Here
Gems: All of them. "When the peasants with their pitchforks come, I'm gonna spit blood down on everyone" from Mirrors is one of the greatest sing-along choruses I've ever heard.

Crocodiles- Summer of Hate (2009)

Here.

Gems: I Wanna Kill, Soft Skull (In My Room)