I never pegged myself as a sucker for reminiscing about some bygone era of youthful indiscretions set to a soundtrack so loud that it did permanent hearing damage. Then again, I never figured that the moment I had a child, my life before that moment would become an abstraction only referential as fragmented memories and out-of-body mental snapshots. I hope that doesn’t sound too wistful because there’s nothing better than being a parent, but on our first “official” family road trip this past week there were a couple of moments when I’d just about gotten my fill of baby-friendly playlists and was ready for a quick mental cleanse of the kind that The Radishes are fond of administering. Y’know, the kind with simple riffs repeated fast and loud, driving bass and drums (provided by the former rhythm section for Ministry!), and acidic vocals that scream alienation, anger, and irony. Alas, when the baby is sleeping in the back seat and your wife has taken the reins of the iPod, you don’t always get that instant aural gratification. But when you’re home early on a Friday morning and the rest of the family is asleep behind closed doors, you can put on the headphones, turn it up all the way and get a good dose of noise, sweet noise.
Madeline
Yesterday, Sean alluded to what’s going on with Orange Twin down in Athens, GA, so I figured I’d elaborate on that a bit. Folks from the band Elf Power have, in addition to setting up their own record label, begun organizing, as they call it, “a pedestrian-based eco-village” with 100 acres of preserved woodlands five miles from downtown Athens. On the website, you can see pictures of the community house they’re fixing up, and the approval they’ve received from local government. Neat stuff. Also neat — and totally receiving less attention in this post than she deserves — is Madeline Adams. She’s been singing her songs in Athens since she was a teenager, and already has two full-length albums under her belt. Check out the tracks from her most recent release, The Slow Bang, for a sampling of her sparse, warm, intimiate acoustic offerings; more downloads and a very pretty crayon drawing can be found at Madeline’s website.
Twink-O-Ween
Ham1
Seriously, my sincerest apologies to Jim and his posse for shellin’ out their new songs while rehashing an old review of the band. They deserve better. They deserve so much more. But, alas, this is all I could muster in the middle of night when I should only be doing ONE thing: sleeping. Besides, you can read up on the band and their label and all the good things they got going on down there in Athens, GA right here.
Hare Lipped Bust [MP3, 3.4MB, 192kbps]
I Had a Good Idea [MP3, 3.9MB, 192kbps]
White Rat [MP3, 5.6MB, 192kbps]
[ingenting]
File under: Better Late Than Never. [ingenting] may mean “nothing” in their native tongue of Swedish, but this wonderful single, a favorite of mine since Labrador offered it for free, oh, about 11 months ago (see first sentence), is anything but. The post-punk guitar, the keyboard-driven simple melody, the disco bass, and the crisp drumming are awfully catchy and do not deserve to be horded by me any longer.
Tiger! Tiger!
This is the band I want haunting my garage this Halloween. Their simple ch-ch-chunking staccato chords, the wailing organ, the sultry, slightly off-kilter vocals teasing from down low in the mix send shivers down my spine. And oh, that fuzz! Makes me wanna shimmy and shake all night long. Bear with my L.A. bias when I say Tiger! Tiger! would make cute kissing cousins with X, Mary’s Danish, and The Gun Club. They pare down that punk-twang to its garage origins circa 1970-something. Tune into their myspace page for more fine examples.
Z-Trip
For the longest time you’d have to dig up classic Z-Trip mixes by way of some friendly shared drive somewhere. Now that Z-Trip has sobered up from his major label affair (only one album…who saw that coming?), he’s his own boss. And that means, among other things, a website with downloads to die for. I’ve included a couple of his original compositions (featuring the inimitable Chali2Na and Lateef the Truthspeaker). But if you haven’t already heard such classic mashup mixdowns as Uneasy Listening, Live at the Future Primitive, and The Anti-War Mix stop what you’re doing right now and pay a visit to Chez Z-Trip.
Trick or Treat from Def Jux and Spinner
John K. Samson
I really wanted to post something about Reunion Tour, the new album by The Weakerthans, and it looks like there are two tracks from it on the Anti Records website, but I’m still a techno illiterate and am unable to link these babies up. Instead, here’s a blast from the 1990s, from John K. Samson’s solo album Little Pictures, rereleased by G7 in 2006. Samson is like our own (Canadian) Woody Guthrie, a social activist lyric genius. John K.’s guitar kills fascists too, I bet.
Demander
The Santa Ana’s are roaring in these parts. The winds and smoke burn my sinuses, eyes and throat. And after spending two hours helping my 6th grader with his math homework my brain’s burnt as well. Fight fire with fire! Demander has brought a sweet equilibrium to my dry and fried skull. Imagine Siouxsie Sioux rising out of the DC punk scene as part of the Dischord family. Yeah, it’s cool, and cools, like that.