Minimalist article

Top Childhood Underdog albums:

eels - daisies of the galaxy
secret machines - ten silver drops
firebird - hot wings
nebula - apollo
acdc - powerage
buffalo - volcanic rock
chet atkins - guitar man
langhorns - s/t
karma to burn - almost heathen
lynyrd skynyrd - nuthin fancy
offspring - best of
scott h biram - dirty ol one man band
sun dial - acid yantra
system of a down - mezmerize

consistencyfail

Animal Collective is a strange beast, with a variable geometry in its lineup and sound. Depending on who's in it, the proportions of poppy ambient, schizophrenic structures, psychedelia and intense yet minimal drumming vary, probably reaching perfection on this record, Strawberry Jam (sorry, Merriweather fans - have you heard Discreet Music by Brian Eno? He's really good at ambient too).

    This is pretty objectively a partitioned record - tracks stand out more than others, mostly based on the presence/absence of beats. The latter dominate, making the primer stand out even more in their nonsensical genius. Maybe the atmospheric tracks are intended to rest you from the insanity of the others, as you sure will want to take a deep breath or two to recover form the yelling.

    Yelling, which is probably the most randomly efficient heard in pop music (rivaling Helter Skelter, except the riffs are replaced by… more yelling/singing?), brings Animal Collective's voices to be their undeniable strong point. Over the shoddy, poor, yet strangely functioning instrumentation of their songs, it just took a lot of courage and voicepower to make the whole recipe work, creating one of the most enjoyable-cathartic musical experiences in a while.

    Yet, it would appear that this band is sadly inseparable from its status as art-student favorites. There's a varied and numerous catalog of sounds in their repertoire - try to ignore what your friends think and figure out if you actually like anything. If you do, great, you win a plaid flannel star. If you don't forget, this band until they come out with another record (or movie), and repeat.

Winter Mix I

Better late then never. Here's part I of II winter mixes. These seasonal things seem to be a tradition.

tracklist:

蘑菇 - Carsick Cars
Hybrid Moments - The Misfits
If I Had A Chance - Lost Boy
Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault - Jawbreaker
Bad Mouth - Fugazi
Permanent Vacation - Pet Milk
Rage In The Plague Age - Les Savy Fav
Don't Look Back Into The Sun (Mick Jones Version) - The Libertines
Drop Dead Baby - Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin
I Hate Myself - Moonhearts
UFO - Torche

11 songs, 28:43, 53.6 Mo

enjoy

JNCT

...

Winter Mix II

Part II of the Winter Mix. Subtitle: love using the search bar.

Hope you like it.

Battlegrounds - Altar Eagle
The Canadian Brought Us Snow - Piano Magic
Wild Wind - Black Mountain
Snow & Lights - Explosions In The Sky
Sunflower - Low
Snow Days - Real Estate
Peace Of Mind - Blue Cheer
Snowstorm - Galaxie 500
Winter - The Dodos
Young Men Dead - Black Angels
In The Cold, Cold, Night - The White Stripes
Lost Snow - Mono

12 songs, 1:12:05, 185 Mo

Permanent Vacation, by Pet Milk, is on both mix 18 and 15. redundancy success.

Enjoy

JNCT

...

Professor P.P. P-pants and the mean cafeteria ladies from outer space

ACDC - If You Want Blood (You've Got It) - Live

    A perfect synthesis of their first albums, with songs from High Voltage to Let There Be Rock. From the bloody coverart to their bloody genius, AC/DC is here presented in all the primal stupidity that makes their strength.

    Being able to write good songs with old tricks - namely the pentatonic scale - is indeed a strength. If you've never liked AC/DC, chances are it isn't a quality you're interested in, but if you even have a minor appreciation for a good riff, don't let Bon Scott's disturbing stare/roar combination unsettle you.

    Indeed, this album has something any other official live album from the Australians probably won't have: Bon Scott, the original singer, tearing Satan's ears apart. The Young brothers, in their guitaristic and riff-producing prime. The classic Rudd/Cliff rhythm section at the upmost of its neanderthalian efficiency.

    Before someone starts thinking "how is that different from Let There Be Rock…?", If You Want Blood has one last quality: its sound. Studio production, even when as minimal as the one usually employed by early AC/DC, polishes the inherent gnarlyness of the music to a radio friendly "let's attract hair metal fans" level. None of this here. Guitars slam in your face like the tusks of a thousand mammoths, and the rhythm section drives you to heavyblues heaven like a 1920s locomotive: it's dirty, reasonably quick, fascinating, and people make miniatures of them in their living room.

    By sticking to their methed-up Berry-esque blues about liquor and women, AC/DC always avoided a sabbathian doominess they could have very well veered into (like fellow Australians Buffalo) - same with Zeppelin-like mysticism. None of that here, just pure, amped up, SG straight in Marshall upping 4/4 beats with a drunkard merryman imposting as the street version of a comedia del'arte cantor. No fuss. Just give the kids what they want - here, it's blood, and it's served on a silver platter.

"In the interrim, this sounds like the music that MacBooks would make if SkyNet was a Snow Leopard app and The Matrix was autotuned"

 I KNOW THIS IS ONLY JAN. 11 BUT I'M VOTING THIS BEST LINE OF THE YEAR. 

original post at thundercurrent express. Please publish his damn novel, he obviously deserves it

Review Grab Bag #2

As promised. exploring the "would rather rant on a bunch of things for a line than rant on a thing for a bunch of lines" world. Don't worry though, reviews are lined up:

AC/DC: if you want blood...

Animal Collective: strawberry jam

for the 15th and Feb. first respectively

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Best Coast: Crazy For You
Fucking Depressing. Used to sound fun, now just one long whine.

Stereolab: Not Music
Naming your last album "Not Music" is probably the only way Stereolab could become any more badass

Tame Impala: Innerspeaker
Australia, Rock'n'Roll's eternal underdog

Thee Oh Sees: Warm Slime
Best record of the year for its type, but remember that garage is only one letter away from garbage

Titus Andronicus: The Monitor
I'm not a big fan of New Jersey, except when I see records like this come out of it. Ignore the lyrics, these kids reconvened Arcade Fire-esque melodies with punk.

Tobacco: Mystic Thickness (CD-R)
More of the same. YES PLEASE

Torche: Songs For Singles
Doompopsterstothemax

Vampire Weekend: Contra
Nowhere near as good as the first, still pretty damn enjoyable

Ventura: We Recruit
Where do I sign up?

Watain: Lawless Darkness
to do #293: listen to more black metal or death metal. Whichever it is.

Wavves: King Of The Beach
cf. Best Coast, except this time you don't wonder "who's the long haired asian on the side of the picture?"

White Hills: S/T
I knew I wasn't the only one who wanted to sound like Hawkwind

Yamon Yamon: This Wilderness
Foresty Neu!. Get your beverage of choice, something to stare at and anything to lie on for a bit.

Beach House: Teen Dream
I still am only barely able to remember more than the first song off that album.

Brian Jonestown Massacre: anything by them ever
In the category of 60's revivalism for its own sake, these guys win the palm. Plus, Anton Newcombe is a blast to hear about - Dig! is probably the best music documentary since Spinal Tap, except this time, it's real.

Broken Social Scene: Forgiveness Rock Record
Forget the record, go get a ticket. WORTH IT