Foetus - Hide

J.G. Thirlwell does everything in his power to defy self-imposed genre constrictions with his latest release, Hide, following somewhat in the footsteps of the preceding albums Love and Flow. Only two or three tracks ring true of his industrial origins, the rest sprouting from orchestral landscapes and electronic ballads, thriving on feelings of mourning and abandonment speckled with almost outrageous extravagance. Perhaps Foetus' most cohesive record in years, Hide's fifty-minute runtime is a sonic breeze.

Ride the wild winds of destruction.


STANDOUT TRACKS:

Cosmetics
Oilfields
The Ballad of Sisyphus T. Jones
You're Trying to Break Me

Dangerdoom - The Mouse and the Mask

Yeah, it's not Christmas but fuck that. This album is sick. Dangermouse is a great producer, as evidenced by some of his earlier work as a producer of remixes and with certain artists. Doom is a great rapper and in fact, he's my favorite. This album is just incredibly awesome. It's produced by Adult Swim, and a handful of the songs relate to the Adult Swim show line. Want to hear Doom rap about Space Ghost and ATHF? This is your album. I don't even watch those shows and it's still awesome.

PEEP THIS STEEZ

The Murder City Devils- Christmas songs

Oh? Still nobody posting anything? Christmas still on the way? I'll just leave these here.





The Murder City Devils is one of my favorite bands ever. The first song is about Santa Claus and how he gets drunk all year waiting for Christmas. The second song is a cover of a Hanoi Rocks song. I like these songs and i like them extra more when i play them around Christmas time.
Lead singer Spencer Moody looks like young Santa.
Isn't he the cutest?

N'SYNC- Home for Christmas/Holiday lull

This album has a lot of things going for it.
Foremost, THE GAYEST ALBUM ART OF ALL TIME. As a secondary, it's chock full of disposable, catchy Christmas-pop originals and covers that are sure to put you in a good mood.
Merry Christmas Happy Holidays is THE BEST christmas-pop song ever written (right next to Mariah Carey's obnoxiously fun "all I want for xmas is you".

The whole cd is meaningless christmas shit. what more do you want for the holidays?
It's fun.


ALSO
December is chock full of shit. Finals, Christmas, New Years, Hannukah, Registration for new classes etc. etc. so we've had a small holiday lull. Come 2011 we're back in full swing.

I'm dedicated.

Low - Christmas

I was supposed to see this band last tuesday, but some shitty shit happened and i ended up missing it. It was a major bummer, they're one of my favorite bands and they were going to be playing Christmas songs along with their original stuff. I wanted to wait until after the show to post this so i could have more to talk about, but hey there's always next year. This is a really beautiful and really haunting Christmas album. Their cover of 'Blue Christmas' somehow makes the song even more lonely sounding. If you're having a lonely Christmas, i think this one is for you. It's not depressing lonely though, it's like simple lonely, Charlie Brown lonely. And again, really beautiful. 'Just Like Christmas' isn't really lonely though, it's actually a pretty fun song. The original stuff on here is really great too, 'Long Way Around the Sea' might be my favorite. I think only a band of true believers can be so inspired by the holiday to make songs of their own.

Christmas is a weird holiday for me. I've never even touched a bible but i still really enjoy this time of year. It might just be nostalgia but i still really enjoy waking up in the morning and opening presents and handing them out and drinking hot chocolate. On top of this i just plain love winter. It just makes me feel good in ways i don't really understand. Christmas songs are a part of this good feeling.

The members of Low are Mormon so the covered songs on here actually mean something to them i assume, and they've probably heard them their whole lives. I've heard them my whole life as well, but i most likely associate them with different things than they do. Maybe some of the things overlap.


"If you were born today
We'd kill you by age eight"

I wish it snowed here.

Pokemon Christmas Bash!

Ahh the Holidays.
Stockings hung by the chimney with care, Mother's bending to their child's ever want and whim, rampant consumerism... the most WONDERFUL time of the year.
However, be you a cynic of saint, there is one thing that you absolutely cannot deny about the holidays; amazing opportunities to make money through absolutely soulless covers of generic Christmas music.

BUT NOT FUCKING POKEMON.
Let me tell you, what we have here is a solid hour of Pokemon themed Holiday tunes, with such classics as Professor Oaks grateful ballad (and possibly phallic) "I'm Giving Santa Pikachu This Christmas" and the Holiday classic "Must be Santa Claus" (in which the only lyric they change is from "reindeer" to "Stantler")
Goddamn I actually really like this CD. It gets me in a holiday spirit unlike any other kind of Christmas music.

My friend Joey once told me that "Sincerity is the New Irony" and this is becoming truer and truer as I get older. I've gone beyond enjoying this in an ironic sense (and it is completely fucking ridiculous), and I've come full circle to a state of mind where i actually GENUINELY enjoy it.
Maybe it's the mix of nostalgia and childhood innocence I still retain.
Idunno

as always
checkitout

Kvelertak - Self-titled (2010)

Let's get one thing out of the way here: this band fucked your girlfriend. Don't have a girlfriend? Well, don't get too comfortable, because they're probably in line for your mother.

Yes, this sextuplet of sweaty, shirtless, Norwegian dudes has prepared for you eleven tracks of sweaty, shirtless, Norwegian badassery. Arguably (except not really) the best metal album of 2010, Kvelertak is equal parts Andrew WK, Emperor, and Black Flag. From the gang-vocal shout and insta-headbang riff that opens the album to the uplifting acoustic passage that closes it, this is not an album to be passed up. Call it blackened party metal, call it fucking awesome, whatever you call it, just fucking listen to it.


HIGHLIGHT TRACKS:
Ulvetid
Offernatt
Utrydd dei svake

Hit it and pass it

Decoration Day - Drive-By Truckers

Between Patterson Hood's Skynyrd songs and Mike Cooley's Stones songs, Drive-By Truckers has always been the ideal for Southern and country rock ever since 2001's Southern Rock Opera turned heads toward the band. But it wasn't until Decoration Day they took on their famed triple guitar attack and their less spoken-off triple songwriter attack. Jason Isbell only hangs around for this album and the next, but his contributions number among the album's best: A song based on the words of advice his father gave him before he left home ("Have fun but stay clear of the needle/Come home on your sister's birthday/Don't tell 'em you're bigger than Jesus/Don't give it away") and a titanic tale about a song questioning the intergenerational feud of which the protagonist questions the purpose. Isbell's songs would threaten to take over most any other album, but Cooley's "Marry Me" ("Your momma says I beat anything she's ever seen") and others stand up to it, and Hood runs the show as usual. He begins the album with two stunners ("The Deeper In" chronicles the story of one of the only jailed consensual incestuous couples in America, and "Sink Hole," a a fantasy about murdering the banker that took the land that's been in the family for generations that highlights the triple guitar attack that the band is capable of) and gives us three songs about the mental process of divorce. To show us the dirty South, Drive-By Truckers plays hard, dirty, and big. I can think of a few better modern songwriters in music. Craig Finn, Win Butler, Tunde Adebimpe, sure. You can't find me any trio better at storytelling, though.

Decoration Day in V0 MP3

The College Dropout - Kanye West

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is my favorite album of the year, and it cemented Kanye West as my favorite hip hop artist, but before it leaked, I went on a huge Kanye kick and listened to each of his albums a whole fucking bunch. I love Late Registration and know it like the back of my hand, but over the past few months I've come to realize that The College Dropout is nearly its equal. It doesn't quite have Late Registration's scale, but it jumps from place to place seamlessly, having a bunch of fun along the way. Throughout it, we get a hands-in-the-air anthem, a religious outcry that would later be set to scenes of the Persian Gulf War, an ideal workout song, a slow dancefloor jam (if you think Nicki Minaj outshone West on "Monster," Twista's verse on "Slow Jamz" definitely has that same effect), a solemn lament on a family gone wrong, and a long, rambling origin story. That's a lot of ground to cover, but West does it all with what seems like effortless perfection and, unlike on the new one and not as apparent on Late Registration, a smile on his face.

Out of all of the successes on The College Dropout, though, "All Falls Down" is the most impressive. Featuring Syleena Johnson singing Lauryn Hill's "Mystery of Iniquity" hook (man, this song would be so much lamer if he actually got that sample cleared) and a killer bassline, "All Falls Down," more than any other song here, tackles the album's titular premise of dropping out of college. As a sophomore, this is the kind of shit I have to worry about all the time: "She has no idea what she's doing in college/That major that she majored in don't make no money/But she won't drop out, her parents will look at her funny." Right after, he playfully fucks a rhyme: "Now tell me that ain't insec-urr/The concept of school seems so sec-urr/Sophomore three yurrs/Ain't picked a car-urr/She like, 'fuck it,' I'll just stay down hurr and do hair." He's so perfectly comfortable with the fact that he bullshitted that stanza that you don't even think about it that way. Finally, he drops the bomb that every "douchebag" accuser needs to hear: "We all self-conscious, I'm just the first to admit it."

The College Dropout in 320 kbps MP3

Girl Talk - Night Ripper

If there were ever an ultimate album to get down and funky to, Girl Talk's 2006 electronic glitch-dance mindfuck Night Ripper would most definitely be a contender. Not only is the music divine and convoluted, but I dare you to listen to this masterpiece without bobbing your head or tapping your feet. Couldn't do it? Didn't fucking think so. This album is where the proverbial shit hits the fan.

This album's notoriety among alternative dance fans stems from the fact that nearly the entire album was fabricated using only samples and clips of other songs, while still retaining originality. Listening to this gem sends you into a nostalgic mental wasteland, sampling tracks by Pavement, Oasis, Nirvana, Public Enemy, Busta Rhymes, LCD Soundsystem, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, and each sample used blends with the other samples in a way not thought possible until this album was created.

The entire album is one straight mix, a hair short of 42 minutes long, and split into individual tracks based on transition of tone and sound. Girl Talk made this album available for release on a "pay-what-you-want" basis, but I'll take out the middle man. Check it out. You can thank me later.

Marquee Moon - Television

Every now and then, one of the albums that I love will elude explanation. As one of my favorites ever, this is particularly frustrating with Television's 1977 debut Marquee Moon. Not that I don't love Tom Verlaine's Byrnesque yelp and smart ass ("I get your point/You're so sharp!"), Richard Lloyd's virtuoso technique, the dual guitar plus bass interplay between Verlaine, Lloyd, and Fred Smith, or the technically proficient but perfectly fitting thuds coming from Billy Ficca's drum set. It's just that while an album with the sum of those parts would be phenomenal, this tops that. The riffs are dizzying, the melodies are magnificent, and for once I actually adore extended soloing, because wow, it just sort of feels right. The dazzling riff and the matter-of-fact "I fell right into the arms of Venus de Milo" make "Venus" my favorite song, but I can imagine any one of these eight songs hitting as hard with anyone else. It's musicianship at its finest with a nice punk kick. But I still feel like that doesn't do it justice. Whelp, I tried.

Marquee Moon in V2

Patton Oswalt - 222

Holy Christ. If only every comedy album was this honest.
This is as close to a live show as you are going to get, this album has it all. The riffing, the fuck ups, the hecklers, the audience interaction; THIS is stand-up comedy.

222 is actually the unedited version of his first comedy album "Feeling kinda Patton" and trust me, a LOT was edited.
As the night continues, Patton becomes more and more drunk and the laughs keep on coming. In this epic 2 and a quarter HOUR SET Patton exhausts literally ALL his material, to the point that fans simply begin shouting out requests for old bits that Patton had actually forgotten about.

It's ironic that now the "alternative" comics are the mainstream and the Jay Leno "traditional" comics are, not a dying breed but not as prominent. I'm sure this is largely in part with their connections with the Williams Street guys, "new comedy" film makers such as Judd Apatow, and in no small part, the recorded comedy album route.

Patton never sold out, he just hit it big. This album will tell you why.

checkthisshit

Gorillaz - Crystalised (cover)

Breaking the rules a bit here(are there rules?), no album to post at the moment but i've still got something music related. It's been a while since i've listened to anything by the Gorillaz but i've been listening to this on a loop for a few days now.

This is a cover song. I tried listening to the original version of this song, and i didn't like it as much as the cover. I like the lyrics a lot, but somehow they just sound better in this cover. It's weird how sometimes this happens, when covers are more listenable that the original. It's rare, but it totally happens for me. Like that acoustic cover of Number of the Beast, and when Frank Black covered Hang On To Your Ego, and the Ray Charles version of I Can't Stop Loving You. Also somebody needs to make a decent recording of Built to Spill doing Paper Planes. Maybe it's not so rare actually.
I think these types of posts will be easier to make once i run out of albums to hip people to, which is totally eventually going to happen. But next time i'll have something i promise.

Mux Mool - Skulltaste

This is one of those albums that came to me from left field. I'm a big fan of Flying Lotus and Last.FM said this guy fit the same motif. So, I figured I'd check the album out. Boy was I surprised. This album is just fantastic. It's not like Flying Lotus at all, really. It's more of a clash between Daft Punk, Crystal Castles and Flying Lotus. It's got electonica and chiptune influences, but the beats feel as if they deserve to be hip hop tracks. I can completely imagine a hip hop remix album with this. Honestly, I'm not sure who this album is made to appeal to, and that's part of the appeal. If you're an instrumental hip hop fan: check it out. If you're an electronica fan: check it out. If you're a chiptune fan: check it out. You'll be beyond pleased.

(peep this shit)

London Elektricity

such a great album for a rainy/muggy day. Very chilled out Liquid Funk or; Electronic music with soul. Very easy Drum n Bass hits with some drone-y trance-y overlays.
I have no idea where I got this album, I just remember it being on my ipod one day and me liking it.


It's cool! For fans of chill not-boring music.

checkitout

Toonami- Deep Space Bass

Did somebody say Toonami?
I just remembered this album existed. It's just some cool beats that they would use to introduce the shows and on the little promo spots.

I always thought these little videos were cool. They're not really advertising any show in particular, it's just a bunch of clips with a narrator talking about some vague robot apocalypse type deal, and some sick music.

This one is just a video about being angry, and how it's ok as long as you don't lose your shit. There's no reason to have this stuff in between commercial breaks, but it was nice anyway.
Toonami was a pretty cool thing in it's heyday, it knew exactly who it's audience was and spoke directly to them. I'm probably going to be watching these videos all day now to feed my nostalgia.

So I'm pretty sure the only people who will dig on this album are people who were into Toonami, but who knows maybe other people will like it too. I think it's nice background music to have on while you're doing homework or something.

Kids love it.

They were going to put out another album called Black Hole Megamix, but it never came out.
But you can download it here anyway so who cares.
How about that, two for the price of one.

Daft Punk - Discovery

This was the first album I ever bought.
I think the first time I saw them it was on Toonami's "Midnight Run" block they used to do around 1999-2002
Young me said "ANIME" and I needed the cd.
I guess it's better to do the right thing for the wrong reasons than the wrong for the right.
Still super listenable, relatively groundbreaking for house music..
Love this cd.

checkitout

Damien Jurado- Caught in the Trees

This is the first Damien Jurado album i ever heard, therefore i think it is a good place for other people to start listening to him, that's usually how that goes. The first song i heard was either 'Caskets' or 'Sheets'. Caskets is a really great song and it'll make you feel cool when you're walking around listening to it. Sheets is a very sad song and will make you want to sit down. These are the two types of songs that are on this album, cool ones and sad ones.

It's really important to me for songs to make sense lyrically, i don't know why. They should make sense or at least have some kind of beauty to the way they're organized or presented. There are lyrics on this album that still manage to stick little barbs in my heart.

"I'll be right outside, floating by like a paper kite."

"Is he still coming around like an injured bird, needing a nest?"

I'm pretty sure I've had tears come out of my face from listening to some of these songs. I think Damien is a really excellent songwriter, and i think this album is one of his best ones. This part might sound kind of silly, but i feel like Damien's lyrics come from real places and emotions. As opposed to fake emotions? I don't know, man. I think sometimes songs can be made up of bullshit or whatever, and this guy just seems to me like he's "really been there." Heartbreaking songs seem kind of hard to write without having them sound corny, but Damien has nailed it.

Because i draw people, i like to look at pictures of people's faces, i have a collection of photos of faces that i like. It's hard for me to find any photographs of Damien smiling, the most that you'll get is a sort of tightening of his lips, i don't think his face is made for it.


Just listen.

Young Widows - Old Wounds

This album is like dribbling a basketball on a planet with alternating high and low gravity whilst being covered in a thick, black, molasses-esque sludge. Also you're getting a blowjob. And there are crows. Tons of black crows.

this album is fucking heavy as fuck. I love it.
It's also got a nice little tech aspect to it.

the transfer between "Took a Turn" and "Old Skin" makes me nod my head REALLLL deep.

Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain

Oh boy do I have hard-wood for obscure 80s new-wave bands this month.
If you dug Prefab Sprout, you'll probably be into this one as well. If you didn't, you'll probably still be into this one.
This is Aztec Camera's FANTASTIC debut release in 1983 released on Sire records (You may know such current Sire Artists as NeverShoutNever, Meg and Dia, The Maine. Yeah. they've changed their roster up a bit since the early 80s) and it's... well fantastic.
To be honest, it doesn't sound too radically different than anything else coming out of Glasgow at the time(reverb up, voices down) but what it does have going for it is that it is actually really good! Young, catchy, poetic pop songs that you can take at face value yet have a charm and intelligence that takes multiple listens to truly appreciate? Sign me up!


FAVTRAX:
Oblivious
Walk Out to Winter(one of my favorite songs ever)
Pillar to Post

CHECKIT!

ASIDE!
Let me take this little space to talk about Sire Records.
All those bands I mentioned in the article are pretty commonly accepted to be "bad bands"
I used to agree, but really when it comes right down to it, I have to reject that. I like to call them "teenage douche bands" because they really are. Teenage Douche's usually listen to them. There are a few redeeming factors to their music, and in reality that's the only thing that matters WHEN talking about music. And really, you can definitely pick worse teenage douche bands than the current Sire roster. I mean, they have Foxy Shazam signed right now and they are a REALLY fun band.
I will defend their music to the death.

However, I do not like them at all.
One could argue that EVERY band panders to a certain audience, but none do it as blatantly as some acts on sire right now. I could write pages on it, but I'll stop for now with simply

sire records; meh.

Two Pin Din- In Case of Fire Break Glass

This is an album with two old guys playing guitars and they sing on it. One of the guys was in NoMeansNo, which is kind of how i heard about this band. The first tracks i heard were Loved by Millions, Improve Yourself and Welcome Home. They were on their myspace a couple years ago and i listened to them a lot. The albums versions of those songs sounded different when i got the album and this kind of bothered me, but it's still a really nice album. I was reminded of them just the other day when i was talking with this dude about starting a band and how i couldn't actually play any instruments and he could only play guitar. I made him listen to one of the songs and he got a big smile on his face. It's kind of amazing to me how much the songs don't feel like they need anything, they work just fine without drums or bass thank you very much. Just shows to go you, even if you can't find all the people you "need", you can still totally start band.

This is where you will download it.

If you are scared to download the whole thing, here is a video of them performing to a slightly vibrating camera.

They live in the Netherlands.
I think they are fairly handsome for old men.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds

"Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets. And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us."

So begins Jeff Wayne's bombastic retelling of H.G. Wells' classic tale of science fiction and horror, narrated by the great Richard Burton (among others). A concept album of remarkable scope, appreciably ahead of its time, Wayne's prog-rock tale successfully merges the hook-laden melody of synth-pop music, the epic, breathtaking grandiosity of a symphony, the soulful, heartfelt spirit of a stage play, and the spectacular literary edge of Wells' original novel, all intricately structured and intertwined with (yes, I'll say it) love, and keen finesse. In my fascination with Wayne's masterpiece, I've found little widespread love for it beyond the short stint of popularity it enjoyed in the late 1970's, when it was first released. Even so, it is hardly regarded as the timeless classic that I wholeheartedly believe it is and deserves to be. Put away all preconceived notions, all unfair judgments, and allow yourself to be swayed by the music, by the story, and by the passion.

"The chances of anything coming from Mars," sing the doomed inhabitants of our planet, "are a million to one."

"But still, they come."


STANDOUT TRACKS:

The Eve of the War
Forever Autumn
The Spirit of Man
Brave New World

Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

HOLY CRAP DON'T WRITE THIS ALBUM OFF I WILL SHOOT YOU IN THE FUCKING FACE.
This is my favorite album of the 90s, hands down. It's a damn shame that when people see "Nine Inch Nails" a red flag goes up. LOL NIN? GOTH SAD FAG. shut up I will fuck you up with my bare hands. This album is fucking GROUNDBREAKING.

Trent Reznor is one of most underrated (or highly overrated depending on who you talk to) producers of the last 2 decades. This album is pushing 20 years old, and it's just barely sounding dated. It's a concept album that is so ahead of it's time aesthetically and thematically, that it's hard to believe I was only 2 when it came out.

Granted, sometimes the lyrics are a little angsty,(GAWD IS DAYD) however I justify it as such; The lyrics are not what Reznor is saying, but what the main character is saying.. When you look at it as a concept album and see the lyrics as character monologue, dialogue, or catharsis they are actually quite striking.
This album is super open to interpretation as well, everything from a follower of Charles Manson to the life and death of Kurt Cobain (reaching, but some good points are made)

don't knock it before you try it

STANDOUTS:
Reptile
Heresy
pm all of them.

Randy Travis - The Storms of Life

I hear it time after time; "I like all kinds of music, except country."
Country is such a criminally misunderstood genre of music, it's criminal. Here's a news flash folks, country music isn't all "FUCK YEAR AMERIKUUUH" and Taylor Swift. Most early country music was music for the blue-collar man with a sensitive side. It was powerful, simple yet well written music. Cash, Willie Nelson, Faron Young (now you see my process), This was all country. Compare it to country now and you will see virtually no similarities except for
that little "TWANG" effect that every country song has for some reason.

Here's where Randy Travis comes in. "The Storms of Life" was his debut back in 1986 and it's still one of my favorite country albums of all time. It perfectly encapsulates everything that country should be; Simple, yet affecting, Down-to-earth, yet introspective and philosophical.
All these songs are nice, catchy tunes, with some very striking and personal lyrics.
This album makes me feel like a trucker is telling me his true feelings.
This is an album for the working man who thinks and feels.

checkit

Randy also voice Mr. Hyunh's country voice in the "My Hyunh does Country" episode of HEY ARNOLD!

STANDOUT TRACKS:
On The Other Hand
Diggin' Up Bones

AIR - The Virgin Suicides soundtrack

This is the score from the 1999 Sofia Coppola movie "The Virgin Suicides" composed by french "chill" band AIR. Some real haunting sounds on this album. It's overall got a very (dare I say it) AIRY feel too it, with a sense of dread teeming just under the surface. It also features a song written by Thomas Mars, lead singer of PHOENIX. It's a great little song, and fits perfectly with the album; very chill, very trip-hoppy, but always introspective.

checkit

EDIT: props to sail, here is a higher quality version

Prefab Sprout - A Life of Surprises [The Best of]

This is a little band I've been absolutely in love with for the past couple months.
Their discography is so solid that I really had trouble putting just one album up, so I just decided to go with their first "Best of..." collection. It's very 80s jazz-pop, with genius phrasing, lyricism, and composition. Some of the word choices and chord changes in these songs will blow your mind. One of the most progressive and interesting pop bands to ever exist in my opinion. It's a shame they never got really big outside of the UK.

The only track I didn't really like on this collection is Faron Young.
I feel as though Paddy McAloon (the principal songwriter) is really reaching to do his whole "quirky and yet deep" thing. If were the editor of this collection, I would have replaced "Faron Young" with another (imo superior) track called "Bonny". In my opinion, better lyrics, better composition and an overall better message.
I may just post the whole album at a later date.

HIGHLIGHT TRACKS:
"When Love Breaks Down"
"If You Don't Love Me"
"Wild Horses"
"Cars & Girls"

checkit

Enter a world of new music!

Hi I'm Tim Kish. I'm a stand-up comic/writer and I like music. Like, a lot of music.
and with a little help from my friends (DO YOU SEE HOW MUCH I LIKE MUSIC) I'm here to expand your musical horizons!

This is a blog for the searcher.
Looking for something that kicks? Something soothing? Something dissonant?
or are you not sure what you are looking for?

Give all these albums a shot. You never know which porridge is just right until you do.

Always remember;
if you like the artist SUPPORT THEM.
(buy t-shirts and stuff)