Neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it - Lightning Review, Pt. II

You read that right. It's a line from Green Day's Basket Case, off of 1994's Dookie (Reprise Records):

And that's the album being reviewed here.

To those of you in the back already making disgusted faces, don't worry, it'll be quick.

Imagine a time where the 80's were still the recent past, where Gulf Wars were being dealt with by Bush Sr. and where Green Day actually made stuff that made you smile (in happiness). That stuff is Dookie.

I'll admit I was 3 when this record came out, but that's barely the point. Listening to the almost-40 minutes of California Sun encapsulated on this slab of polycarbonate and aluminum makes you imagine another time, when you thought you didn't give a shit and all you wanted was hang out with your buddies. Listening to Dookie.

Because Dookie is a record where melody works with energy, where bass breaks fit perfectly with power chord riffs, all in a joyful tongue-in-cheek atmosphere. It's nothing hard, nothing complicated, the lyrics probably aren't even that clever. But it's hard to beat the 4/4 head noodling joy these people used to make in this bright summer. Green Day never looked like they really hanged out in the sun (more likely some basement, padded with egg boxes, beer crates piled in the corner and instruments instead of couches), but their records sure were better when they sounded like it.

Welcome To Paradise.

JNCT

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Upside Down Clouds - Lightning Review, Part 1

 please stand in awe in front of this glorious, beautiful cover

Fang Island by Fang Island

Sargent House, 2010

Fang Island's debut is like a sandwich.

Start with a delicate slice of airy bread. Bite through some lettuce and juicy tomato, both tasty and refreshing. Then comes the meat and cheese. This analogy doesn't work with vegan subs, no, here the cheesiness / meatiness are of the utmost importance. Every song is a bite of this progressive pop metal sandwich, where animal guitars roar, childish synths oscillate, voices yell senseless hymns and the drums cheerily guide the whole procession. Dense, thick and rich passages veer down into glorious breaks/outros, in a mix of AC/DC bravado, Muse keyboard work and Amon Düül II nonsense.

The problem with eating a really good sandwich (and boy is this a delicious record) is that even if it's massive, you'll eat it fast (in 31:27, actually), and you'll end up wanting a second one.

This is where the sandwich comparison ends: if you'd have to buy another sandwich, the repeat button is free. Don't you wish we could eat music?

myspace 

Sargent House 

Fang Island Store 

JNCT

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Summer Bash mix // #2 or exp(iπ)+1... = 0... but only if i = √(-1)?

this actually is the view from my window. It only looks like that about a minute a week. And there's a lot you're not seeing.

I was going to make this article a mashup made up of lyrics from songs in this mix. But that was really cheesy. And way too hard. And a number of other negative things, so I trashed that idea.


And leave a comment! 

Summer Bash, Volume 2: Clouds, Palms, Sands & Mountains

1. The Dodos: Undeclared (The Visiter LP)
2. Belle & Sebastian: If You're Feeling Sinister (If You're Feeling Sinister LP)
3. Blonde Redhead: Spring And By Summer Fall (23 LP)
4. The Dandy Warhols: Godless (Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia LP)
5. Boards Of Canada: Hey Saturday Sun (The Campfire Headphase LP)
6. Do Make Say Think: A Tender History In The Rust (You, You're A History In Rust LP) 
7. Eels: I Like Birds (Daisies Of The Galaxy LP)
8. The Clash: Train In Vain (London Calling LP)
9. Dum Dum Girls: Yours Alone (I Will Be LP)
10. Sweet Tea: If I Were A Carpenter (If I Were A Carpenter 7")
11. Eric Clapton: Walkin' Blues (Live Unplugged LP)
12. The Beta Band: Dry The Rain (The Three EPs LP)
13. Foo Fighters: Down In The Park (The Colour & The Shape LP)
14. Fast Burn: Lost Boy (Altered Zones)
15. Hawkwind: It's So Easy (Sonic Boom Killers Best Of)
16. This Is Real: Best Coast (Saucony Originals Perfect Pairs Download)
17. Beige: In Kind (Altered Zones)
18. Beck: Girl (Guero LP)
19. The Drums: Saddest Summer (Summertime! EP)
20. Monthy Python: Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life (Monty Python Sings LP)

Have a Happy 14 Juillet.

 JNCT

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"How To Make A" Don't Be Evil

 

What's Better: Google, or the people who use it?

 tues. 13th, 8:52 pm: let me rephrase this. What's funnier, Google or the people who use it?

Oh Epic Fuzziness, Oh Summer - Take it to Eleven!

Since I'm the person who started this blog (and probably one of 5 people who read it), I can pretty much do whatever the hell I want on it as long as its not too illegal. For the moment, that still includes making playlist for things I'll probably never do. Here, I'll go for the much fantasized but probably never happening Drive in the Desert. might as well be prepared, right?

Plus, it's somehow related to summer. Because it's really hot here, but you probably guessed that.

this is the view from my window. No seriously.

Eleven songs about love and girlfriends and flowers. Just kidding. Turn it up! (all the way to erm... 11)

Drive in the Desert - Summer Bash: For The Love of Fuzz

1. Mammoth Mammoth - Slacker (Mammoth Mammoth EP)

this song is pure Australian asskicking. I have no idea what the guy's singing, but it sounds awesome. Plus the cover art is glorious. Find it!

2. Kyuss - Green Machine (Blues For The Red Sun LP)
Classic desert rock. Green Machine is probably a metaphor, or not.
3. Fu Manchu - Cyclone Launch (In Search Of Space LP)
More Fuzz, more cheesy covers - I'm in.
4. Nebula - Clearlight (To The Center EP)
What I listen to when I need to clear my brain - or, how to be a stoner yet make dense, richly hallucinated work.
5. Karma To Burn - Forty-six (Appalachian Incantation LP)
Wear earplugs when you go see them. They're from West Virginia, apparently that's a good reason to get fucked out of your mind and be pissed
6. Karp - Bacon Industry (Self Titled LP)
Something about Bacon and turning you on. Don't ask, enjoy.
7. Queens Of The Stone Age - You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar But I Feel Like A Millionaire (Songs For The Death LP)
No comment.
8. Rage Against The Machine - Down Rodeo (Evil Empire LP)
"Can't waste the day when the night brings a hearse!" what?
9. Black Sabbath - Into The Void (Masters Of Reality LP)
Off "Masters Of Reality", Sabbath writing the gloom version of Hawkwind's space epics.
10. Electric Wizard - Witchcult Today (Witchcult Today LP)
English Doomsters pick up where Sabbath left to see what you could do with synths, a.k.a. the end
11. High On Fire - 10,000 Years (The Art Of Self-Defense LP)
"Heavy... it's about being a warlord on the battlefield... Like if some dude chopped some guy's head with an axe, and you have a riff that plays the same way that way... that's Heavy." (Matt Pike, Such Hawks Such Hounds - more or less direct quote).

Hope you'll enjoy!

And Remember to drink lots of fluids. Seriously.

JNCT


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Do! Make! Say! Think! Yes Brain, but don't you think we should check the gas tank first? + List #2

After a "Fuck Postrock I'm listening to Torche" phase, it seems to be that I cannot get away from long instrumental tracks by bands with overthought names. Some of them are just so good...

 why do I like record sleeves so much??? I'd put it even bigger if I could

 Do Make Say Think 

"Other Truths"

CST062 - Constellation Records, 2009

On their 2009 (and I guess latest) installment for Montreal's Constellation Records, Do Make Say Think have assembled four tracks, intelligently titled, let me surprise you... : 

1. Do
2. Make
3. Say
4. Think

Were they lacking inspiration? Or is this a statement that after more than a decade after 1998's self titled LP, DMST has redefined itself, reaffirming their position as one of Canada's prime export (after Salmon, wonderful accents, really really good smoked meat, and Broken Social Scene).

Do opens the album with soft, fast paced arpeggios and a mood that's not quite belligerent, but definitely victorious. Comforting you in this feeling after a few seconds of intro are the second guitar, bass and drums. These two are then given a break of restrained epicness, kicking in the stomach any of those Muse fuzz bass+drums breaks I used to drool over in high school and sending them in the stratosphere, ass first. Dynamics is the main focus in this song (or just of "postrock" in general), in a progression that's ultimately resolved by silence. Start smooth, add layers (is that a choir I hear on the way?) give it it's distinctive Canadian touch by adding strings and brass instruments, then return to silence like you're going down the other side of the musical mountain you've just conquered. 

That should give you and idea of what Make, Say & Think are: 10 minutes and longer tracks, conveying emotions through sound (psychoacoustics is a mess of a field), going from warm to epic in more than 5 minutes (and not 0 to 60 lightyears/millisecond in less than 6 mississippis like most things today). Compared to the majority of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Grails, Explosions In The Sky and their own other albums, DMST's Other Truths incorporates people singing. That doesn't seem like such novelty, but let me tell you, in this context, it is. Albeit scarce & ambient, vocal contributions from other Canadian artists are notable and surprising, giving additional depth to this "pastoral" record (dixit Pitchfork).

In conclusion, why should you listen to this record? Two possibilities: 

a) you like a similar band. In that case, you don't really need a reason. DMST are at least as good as EitS, GY!BE, SMZ and a bunch of other bands with long or short names.

b) you've never heard anything quite like it before. In that case, I suggest you take a seat, maybe lie down, maybe get a book, and let yourself listen to it. If you like it, there's a lot more where it came from, if not, you'll have a fancy band to mention to a hipster next time you want a pbr. It's a win/win situation.

...

Back to Macro. Instrumental rock music seems to have taken a number of different paths, one of which is epitomized (what a word) by this record. Rather than writing long pompous explanations as to what I mean, here are a few top 5 for these different interpretations of making rock music without vocals.

Will you be able to figure out what logic there was in the order of said records?

Instrumental Rock, Version 1 - Top 5

Explosions In The Sky "How Strange Innocence"
Tortoise "Millions Now Living Will Never Die"
Pelican "What We All Come To Need"
Do Make Say Think "Other Truths" 
Mogwai "Mr Beast"

Instrumental Rock, Version 2 - Top 5

Agitation Free "Live At The Cliffs Of The River Rhine"
Earthless "Live At The Roadburn Festival"
Yawning Man "Rock Formations"
Colour Haze "All"
Neu! S/T

Ok, "All" isn't completely instrumental, but like DMST's record, vocals are more ambient than anything else

Instrumental Rock, Version 3 - Top 5 

Popol Vuh "In Den Garten Pharaos"
Tangerine Dream "Ricochet"
Klaus Schulze "Moondawn"
Ash Ra Tempel S/T
Cosmic Jokers S/T 

Instrumental... well it's not really rock anymore but that doesn't matter, Version 4 - Top 5

Boards Of Canada "The Campfire Headphase"

Manuel Gottsching "E2-E4"
Fuck Buttons "Tarot Sport"
Subway "Subway II"
Beak> S/T

wasn't getting rid of vocals a good idea?

JNCT

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Coming Up Next on ESS!

 Reviews!

Photos!

 Fuck Yeah

Mixes!
Ramblings!
Kartaufel!

Booyahkashah,

JNCT