Iron Lung / Walls / Pig Heart Transplant

Back when I was at the ages of 12-15 I used to go to this huge canal by my house. There was nothing really to do there, and nothing to do when you are that young, except bum around town. I had no dad and my mom was nonexistent because she was always at work, so I would just be retarded around town with other retards. At that age we were in a crew called PEACE THROUGH PILLAGE...and boy did we think that was really cool! We broke windows, bottles, ourselves, etc. One of the funnest things to do was to go to this bar called "jimbos" and take bottles out of the dumpster. We would launch them into the empty canal. It was so much fun, it's sad that something so petty could be that cathartic. Our soundtrack to this harmless and silly rebellion was usually stuff like Born Against. Looking back even though it felt like hell, these were actually the best years of my life. Sometimes I wonder if there is some goofy 15 year old mobbing around town, bored as shit, breaking and stealing, and still excited about punk and it's spin-offs. If so I bet he would love this album. I personally think it's great. I love a lot of new punk/hardcore/etc, but it all feels different. Now that is not a bad thing. I am glad it's evolving into a different sound, even if the change is subtle. For some reason though, this album brings me right back. I feel like it could have been released back then. The song "In the End" which I will show you, embodies Arizona life to me. The song is slow and creeping. Reminds me of being dehydrated, and I feel hot just listening to it. I probably would have listened to it walking home from school thinking "fuck my life".

listen:




download

Bingo Trappers - Juanita Ave.

I bought this CD 9 years ago. No one has really heard of this band and I don't know why. It's crazy when gems seep through the cracks. I can't help feeling like if this album was released today it would be a lot bigger. It has a lo-fi-ish recording, which is oh so popular right now. The main difference is the music is actually good, well written pop, rather than two chord played out rock shit. This is dear to me. This album is hard to find online...you probably won't find a download for it. My ex-girlfriend took my copy, so I bought a cheap ass copy from Amazon. Anyway, I wanna share it with you...it's some chill lazy pop with a VU vibe or almost 60's vibe mixed with a subtle country sound(slide guitar here and there). Dig on that shit.


DL Bingo Trappers - Juanita Ave

Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse

Holy donkey boner, this is blistering. This is seriously some violent shit. I will no doubt run to this while super pissed off and having that weird moment of clarity that I probably look like a retard. Sometimes you just need a way to let out some negative energy. That sounds pretty New Age-ish, but that's not how I mean it. You know some people drive stupid cars really fast, others bottle it up and lose hair, I run on a treadmill pissed off and stupid looking. I probably don't have to describe Agoraphobic Nosebleed to you, so I won't. Instead you can listen to the song...download it...etc. This is my favorite release by them so far and I am loving the production. I believe this is the first full lenght Kat is on. Her vocals are pretty cool...she sounds like a he, reminding me of the dude from Buzzov*en or something. Drumkit from Hell steps in and saves the day, which by the way was probably harder for Scott Hull to program than writing the guitar and bass parts. It's no surprise to me that Pitchfork chopped them off a measely 5.0, put it in their mailbox when they were at work and ran as fast as possible. I mean lets face it, Mr. Pitchfork probably had a near heart attack while reviewing it, threw the cd out the window while crying, and quickly turned on whatever hyped post-punk band it is imperative to like at the moment. Actually one thing Mr. Pitchfork got right is that this album is pretty listenable for them. I guess we are in the age of music where it shouldn't be listenable. What the fuck? Turds...everywhere.

Download

listen:

After Hours (movie)

I probably won't do this super often, but sometimes I feel like reviewing other things, not just music. So 95 percent of the time this will be a music blog, but the other 5 percent will be for whatever the fuck I want it to be. So basically if I buy some new paper clips and I want to review them I will.

Instead of reviewing paper clips though I want to tell you about a movie. This movie, despite being a Scorsese film, is kind of obscure and is definitely one of my favorites of all time. After Hours was filmed in the 80's but still applies to our times. In short, it's a dark comedy about an average Joe Blow who lives a pretty boring life. In effort to stray from his humdrum daily routine he pursues a girl he met in a cafe earlier in the day. When he meets her something is weird about her and this event just leads to other weird events in a domino fashion. Though to only describe the events that happen to this guy as weird is an understatement. It starts out odd and spirals into a nightmare that he cannot seem to escape. His pain is funny, but you route for him. Even the character himself, though in physical danger, is aware of the absurdity as well which adds to the humor of it. The actor by the way is super subtle which is why I feel this movie was a bit ahead of it's time. Anyway, a movie synopsis is boring, especially since I am too lazy to get super descriptive about it, so here are some youtube clips.







Here is the torrent:
http://www.monova.org/details/425958/After%20Hours%201985.html

or you could just borrow it from me. Btw, I have a music review coming up in like a day or two.

The Stickmen - Insatiable

Shit man. I forgot how good this is. I bought this cd back in like 2003 or something and it was an instant fav. It's No-wave funk punk from the 80's, which admittedly sounds like it could be shit, but it's way awesome. I really don't have much to say about it; just think the Contortionists with more energy, more melody, and more danciness(not a word, I know). That's all I really I have to say, this is sassy shit.

The Stickmen - Insatiable: DOWNLOAD

listen to "Master Brew":

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

Well, if I said this was complete shit I would be lying. In fact, if I was an Animal Collective fan, I would dub this their best album. Though still quaint and trippy (two things that repel me from bands) it really feels like they turned down the wacked out hippy knob on this one. I haven't listened to Animal Collective since I saw them like 2 or 3 years ago and was swarmed by patchoulli cloaked folk revivalists. It over all was a bad experience. In my opinion their albums are more subtle than their live performance. I always thought the production on Sung Tongs saved them, perhaps making the more repulsive elements more subtle. Or perhaps live, the hippy and white boy tribal elements were just more exaggerated. Either way, I thought it sounded like pure turd music and that dude jumping around with the light on his head making goofy faces didn't help much. I think maybe their show was the closest thing to a rave I have ever been to. It's not that I dislike that their live performance sounded different to me. Live is a hard thing to pull off sometimes, the show sucked ass don't get me wrong, but after it whenever I heard the music I could only hear the elements I hated about it.

And now here we are at Merriweather Post Pavilion, an album that once again could just be well produced, but to me sounds more like actual music than an acid laden jam fest. There is not much I support about this album, but I do support their move to a more electronic sound of new agery, it makes more sense to me. Usually, they have one song that I like somewhat. On Sung Tongs it was "Winter's Love" and on this one it's "My Girls" (which actually reminds me of Russian Futurists a little so I dig it). Overall, for this being one of the most hyped albums of 2009, it falls really fucking short, strangely enough most of the songs are just boring. For Animal Collective it's a big improvement though, but I guess at the end of the day you can't polish a turd. Actually, I guess on Myth Busters they learned you can actually polish a turd, but I wouldn't really take that as good news necessarily if I was Animal Collective.

On one final note the cover of this album cracks me up so much. It's like you are supposed to make some shroom tea, pop it on, and trip out on the "movement".

listen to "My Girls":

It's not my link, but here is the download for Merriweather Post Pavillion.

great song

Propagandhi's "This is Your Life"


"You're not really mad at Iran or Afghanistan. You're mad at the fact that your wife can't stand you anymore. You don't know where she is. You're going crazy in your basement hole. Clicking your remote control. Spitting insults at the screen because tomorrow you're back at work, where you can't stand being the little man. Despite your groveling you can't get ahead. No one really laughs at your stories anymore. You're cynical and mean so they've fucked off bored. Your kids are at the mall. They just sit and stare at the walls. You think you tell it like it is. You say you can't stand bleeding hearts but every single day you just sit there bleeding for yourself. You whine and cry in your manly voice. This is your life. You do it to yourself. Take the load off your mind. Go out into the world. You'll see you'll probably survive. This is your life."