The Faint - Danse Macabre (2001)

Saddle Creek Records ■ LBJ 180

(Originally LBJ-37 on same label)

Released August 21, 2001

(This compilation released November 1, 2012)

Engineered and Produced by Mike Mogis and The Faint

Side One:	Side Two:
Agenda Suicide Glass Danse Total Job Let the Poison Spill from Your Throat Violent	Your Retro Career Melted Posed to Death The Conductor Ballad of a Paralyzed Citizen

Though it ended up one of the most brief hiatuses I've taken, early June's was instigated by a work-related trip to Council Bluffs, Iowa, which happens to be right next door to Omaha, Nebraska. I currently live in an area where there are barely handfuls of record stores for a good 60+ miles, so hitting a larger college town (like I myself used to live in) was a blessing and a curse: I flew back with a shoulder bag filled with vinyl, and a suitcase veritably lined with CDs. While there, I took occasion to visit the store that the Saddle Creek label operates there in their hometown, inspired more than anything by the associations it has with Cursive, a fellow fan of whom I discovered I was working with (who also shared a love for The Format and a handful of others--and ended up passing me a copy of Cursive's The Ugly Organ on green vinyl!). While I was in there, I did walk out with a copy of Cursive's I Am Gemini, having failed to pick it up already, and (rather amusingly) did finally get a copy of Whiskeytown's Strangers Almanac, an album by a band from the area I last lived in, but thought I should really pick up a record the label itself put out (I Am Gemini being on CD). The Ugly Organ wasn't there (and, as mentioned, I serendipitously acquired it later in the same trip anyway!), so I wandered about until I ran into this.

I remember around the time this album came out, the band was pretty darn hot around the internet, though I was still in my formative musical explorations. I did glance at them, but moved on before anything took hold, eventually picking a copy of the album up on CD many years later. When this edition was released, I first stumbled into the CD/DVD version last year, and suddenly realized I'd really missed something. That was what pushed me to add to it this vinyl version--it's actually the "deluxe edition" which contains not only a second 12" of bonus tracks (remixes and b-sides) but also that self-same 2xCD+DVD set I already have, albeit in far more inconvenient format for a portable medium.

When it originally came out, the record used a different cover, but the rights to use it were thoroughly rejected--even more than a decade later, which is why it continues to use the cover above. Though this new cover was used for the later pressings, for this deluxe reissue it was re-tinted in neon pink instead of its original blood red. It's a weird colour, very eye-catching, and actually feels more appropriate in a strange sort of way--though the red, black, and white colour scheme of the original issue fit nicely with the cynical overtones of the record and its goth-y vibe, the pink hits on the fact that those are not the whole, and it's a ridiculously danceable record (or so I would guess, being as I lack the skill at such activities, personally).

Alejandro Escovedo - Real Animal (2008)

Back Porch/Manhattan Records ■ 50999 5 824111 1 9

Released June 10, 2008

Produced and Mixed by Tony Visconti

Engineered by Mario McNulty

Assistant Engineering by Tim Price

Mastered by George Marino

Side One: Side Two: Always a Friend Chelsea Hotel '78 Sister Lost Soul Smoke Sensitive Boys People (We're Only Gonna Live So Long) Golden Bear Nuns Song Side Three: Side Four: Real as an Animal Hollywood Hills Swallows of San Juan Chip n' Tony Slow Down Falling in Love Again I Got a Right

I could completely obscure how I know the name Alejandro Escovedo, but that would really just be disingenuous, wouldn't it? Truth be told, he does a duet with one Ryan Adams on Whiskeytown's Strangers Almanac--one of my favourite records in the world--on a track called "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight". A snide reviewer once noted that Adams's music was inferior and a listener might be better off with Escovedo's, seemingly unaware of this connection or, I later found out, a bit of a friendship between the two. That interview was what really pushed me to check Escovedo out for himself: in it, Adams said Escovedo shared an "outsider's" perspective on love, being less defined by it than most and thus able to record it that much more acutely, in a strange way. He mentioned a song ("She Doesn't Live Here Anymore"), referencing it as astonishingly sad and evocative emotionally--which was something that appealed to me a lot in Adams's stuff, particularly that which he did with Whiskeytown.¹

I was out on a business trip in Iowa and Nebraska, which meant a lot of trips to the record stores in Omaha, where I found quite a few things of interest (to the point that I started to stress the space I'd quite deliberately left in my luggage for music to come back with me). One of those "things" was Real Animal: Escovedo's third-to-last album at the time (back in June this year), on sale and predating the CD I'd picked up just previously but not much listened to (2010's Street Songs of Love).

Emperor - Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise (2001)

Candlelight Records ■ Candle064LP

 

Released October 23, 2001

Produced by Ihsahn

Mixed by Thorbjorn Akkerhaugen and The Emperors
Mastered by Tom Kvalsvoll and The Emperors

Side One:	Side Two:
Eruption Depraved Empty The Prophet	The Tongue of Fire In the Wordless Chamber Grey He Who Sought Fire Thorns on My Grave

I've only touched on black metal here once before, and that was a rather curious and unique example of the genre. Diabolical Masquerade are not at the forefront of most minds when naming bands that fit the bill for the genre--more likely, you will hear Immortal, Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone--and Emperor.

I picked this album up from the sadly defunct store Musik Hut in Fayetteville, source of not only much of my metal from years past (on vinyl or otherwise) but also of my "black X" collection, and even a few other oddities indicative of how odd that store actually was. It was intended as a metal/punk/industrial store, but did carry plenty of other and "normal" stuff.

As with much of metal (other than Morbid Angel and Decapitated, and a handful of others)--such as At the Gates--even the classics (like Emperor here) were introduced to me by a single soul, to whom I tend to give credit for most of my metal awareness. He and I still talk metal now and then, of course, but also the odd other chunk of music, since neither of us is married to it in exclusivity.

Eels - Shootenanny! (2003)

 SpinArt Records ■ spart 128

 

Released June 2, 2003

Produced by E

Reorded and Mixed by Greg Collins; A4, A6 by Ryan Boesch
Additional Engineering by Greg Burns, Alicia Guadagno

Mastered by Bernie Grundman; A6 by Dan Hersch

Side One:	Side Two:
All in a Day's Work Saturday Morning Good Old Days Love of the Loveless Dirty Girl Agony	Rock Hard Times Restraining Order Blues Lone Wolf Wrong About Bobby Numbered Days Fashion Award Somebody Loves You

The list of artists I've so far covered that I've listened to longer than Eels is relatively short and largely composed of the least surprising artists for me to have known for a long period of time.¹ I actually made my way into Eels fandom on the cusp of my freshman year of college, at the suggestion of my then-girlfriend, who owned Daisies of the Galaxy (in its infamously, hilariously self-censored version) and Beautiful Freak, both of which I owned before too terribly long after that, alongside their two closest temporal relatives: 1998's Electro-Shock Blues and 2001's Souljacker, which was still the most recent album at the time. A year later, this album was released, and you can bet, by then, I was picking it up right around the release date.

My Eels records are--somewhat shockingly--apparently the most valuable records I own. I don't own a ton (the others are the 2x10" Electro-Shock Blues and the last album, Wonderful, Glorious on the same format, but in a different colour, as well as End Times with its "A Line in the Dirt" 7" companion), but people will apparently pay a lot for them. It's less that it's shocking for quality or popularity, and more for the fact that it has felt more like the Eels crowd is shrinking than growing, so why they would remain so expensive when the audience is (I think?) dwindling, I don't know. Still, right now the only vinyl copy of this record listed at any sites I'd ever check to see if I want to pick up a record I can't readily find² is at one of three sites, and they start from $125 US. Yowza! That's almost ten times what I paid for it a decade ago!

Diabolical Masquerade - Death's Design (2001)

Avantgarde Music ■ AV 55 LP

Released August 21, 2001

Produced by Blakkheim and Dan Swanö

Edited, Assembled and Mixed by Dan Swanö, Ryan Taylor, Sean C. Bates

Mastered by Peter In De Betou

Side One:	Side Two:
Movements 1-9	Movements 10-20¹

It's difficult to pinpoint the causes behind my original exposure to this release--it stemmed, no doubt, from a combination of my college friend who introduced me to the wider worlds of metal and the metal-based message board I spent a good deal of college hanging around. Dan Swanö's endless appearances and projects (he has 293 credits on Discogs--more than Nicky Hopkins, for the moment!) surrounded his name with an aura of awe, and the release is just peculiar enough to catch my attention readily--in both sound and construction. 

As I've already noted,¹ the work is split into not just 20 movements but 61 individual parts that are pressed as separate tracks. You may also notice that this is listed as an "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack", which it most definitely isn't. There is no movie (Swedish or otherwise--there's a making-of documentary for one of the Final Destination movies, but that's it) with the title Death's Design, and this isn't really a soundtrack, though it does sound a bit like it could be. Then again, Easy Rider taught us that most any songs could be a soundtrack. But the construction and faux-soundtrack status aren't everything: this is also a wildly eccentric, eclectic, and vaguely erratic disc. An Estonian string quartet (though five string players are credited, so something's not right) is involved, as are both Blakkheim's endless instruments and Swanö's (particularly the keyboards).

Deftones - Deftones (2003)

Maverick ■ 48350-1

Released May 20, 2003

Produced by Terry Date and Deftones

Engineered and Mixed by Terry Date

Additional Engineering by Pete Roberts

Mastered by Tom Baker

Side One:	Side Two:
Hexagram Needles and Pins Minerva Good Morning Beautiful Deathblow When Girls Telephone Boys	Battle-Axe Lucky You Bloody Cape Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event Moana

If you had known me in high school (and at least a person or two who reads here on occasion did), you would find this band's appearance none too surprising. I normally try not to date myself, as it influences opinions about my opinions, but it's difficult to avoid here (as it has been on a few odd other occasions)--in 2000, Deftones' White Pony was released, their prior hit, "My Own Summer" from 1997's Around the Fur having taken them up on the crest of the "nü-metal" wave most typified by Limp Bizkit and Korn,¹ but, as with grunge and various other genres named for reasons of simplification (in the end, often rounding up disparate genres and slapping them under a single umbrella for marketing reasons, though there tends to be something shared), many bands didn't share the overt stylistic leanings of the flag-bearers.

Day Fifty-Four: Decapitated - Winds of Creation

Earache/Wicked World ■ WICK011LP

Released April 11, 2000

Produced by Piotr Wiwczarek (aka "Peter (VADER)")

Side One:	Side Two:
Winds of Creation Blessed The First Damned Way to Salvation	The Eye of Horus Human's Dust Nine Steps Danse Macabre Mandatory Suicide

In discussing metal, I typically refer clearly--at some point, anyway--to my first ever "real" metal band, which was Morbid Angel.¹ Indeed, it was their second album, Blessed Are the Sick that really "clicked" with me finally, once I was able to get used to David Vincent's vocals (and thus, forever after, the "cookie monster" growling that typifies death metal at large). I actually ordered the album direct from their label, Earache, at the time, back when I was still in high school. Coupled with it were a handful of stickers for other bands, like December Wolves and, well, Decapitated. Because I still knew so little about metal, I took those two names as inspiration for further exploration--and, hey, I was an eMusic Unlimited member at the time (when there still was such a thing), which meant their partnership with Earache opened the door for me to try just about anything I felt like that they recommended.

Day Fifty-Three: Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Barsuk/Atlantic Records ■ BARK 75

Released May 12, 2008

Produced by Chris Walla

Recorded by Chris Walla and Will Markwell

Mixed by Chris Walla ("Long Division" by Alex Newport

Mastered by Roger Seibel

Side One:	Side Two:
Bixby Canyon Bridge I Will Possess Your Heart No Sunlight Cath... Talking Bird	You Can Do Better Than Me Grapevine Fires Your New Twin Sized Bed Long Division Pity and Fear The Ice Is Getting Thinner

It has been a long time since I could just drop the titles of tracks in order like this, but that's always an indicator of how much I like an album--that is, when I was typing up the above information, I only glanced at the inner sleeve to be sure of the actual phrasings (eg, the tense of "The Ice Is Getting Thinner", which I thought was past tense, as it is at the end of the song), but otherwise just typed them out. Now, on occasion, this really just reflects a lack of memory as to where a side ends, and sometimes just means I can't put them back in order in my head. But when I can, it means I've listened to an album straight through--a lot.

Day Fifty-Two: Dead Man's Bones - Dead Man's Bones

ANTI-/Werewolf Heart Records ■ ANTI 87047-1

Released October 6, 2009

Produced by Tim Anderson¹

Side One:	Side Two:
Intro Dead Hearts In the Room Where You Sleep	Buried in Water My Body's a Zombie for You Pa Pa Power

Side Three:	Side Four:
Young & Tragic Paper Ships Lose Your Soul	Werewolf Heart Dead Man's Bones Flowers Grow Out of My Grave

It's always a puzzle, how to present this band.

It's difficult to throw out a description of the band itself and get people to stop long enough to listen--two amateur non-musicians write strange, semi-macabre songs that they sing and play with a children's choir. A novelty, maybe, or a curiosity--but more likely, it sounds like something you wouldn't want to listen to.

And there's that other thing.

It's kind of like trying to present Brother Ali and skip over the fact that he's a white albino Muslim rapper. It's a lame pigeonhole, but it gets people's attention, and his skills generally hold him up past those facts. That's the sort of thing that should happen here, as well, but because we aren't talking about simple, concrete facts that we may even deal with ourselves, it becomes different. But, of course, I can't properly discuss an album the way I do and constantly write [redacted] for one of the two "founding" members.

Day Fifty-One: Darkest Hour - The Eternal Return

Victory Records ■ VR495-1

Released June 23, 2009

Produced and Mixed by Brian McTernan

Side One:	Side Two:
Devolution of the Flesh Death Worship The Tides No God Bitter	Blessed Infection Transcendence A Distorted Utopia Black Sun Into the Grey

NOTE:

After a forced hiatus (stemming from borrowed cars and loaner couches), I am in a position again to write here and take up where I left off. It was fortuitous in many ways that this came when it did, as it gives me a chance to try to put into effect some ideas I had for how to go about this process.

Darkest Hour is one of those bands I found myself listening to more by chance than almost anything else. In the midst of my earliest experiences with metal--wherein I was leaping from the then-popular "nu-metal" acts straight into extreme metal of the "death" variety--I was left somewhat rudderless, but still quite fully powered. I turned this way and that, able to listen purely for enjoyment's sake and nothing else, as I gathered up the sounds that I liked without regard for community reputations, obeisance to or violations of trends or traditions, and without even internal expectations. It was a nice time in this respect--one soured quickly by my first community of musically-oriented folk in the heavier direction. The scattered voices I heard prior were also similarly isolated, and shared that lack of socially inflicted focus.

Day Fifty: Cursive - Burst and Bloom

Saddle Creek ■ LBJ-35

Released July 24, 2001

Produced by Mike Mogis and Cursive

Recorded by Mike Mogis

Mastered by Doug Van Sloun

Side One:	Side Two:
Sink to the Beat The Great Decay Tall Tales, Telltales	Mothership, Mothership, Do You Hear Me? Fairy Tales Tell Tales

If one checks back, one finds that I actually stated my next item on the block would be Cursive's Happy Hollow. However, as I sat for a moment and considered that I had a Record Store Day exclusive on coloured vinyl (marbled yellow) and that release was one that was singled out by a friend (the words "so good" in a few incarnations came up, occasionally with profane emphases) as quality in the career of the band...I considered that perhaps I could once again write about an EP released by a band from whom I also own a full-length LP. Most pertinently, I guess, my good friend Brian--one of my most reliable folks for discussing music, which can be difficult for many in light of my erratic listening habits--is the person I most strongly associated the band with.

Day Forty-Four: Converge - Axe to Fall

 Deathwish Inc. ■ DWI98

Released October 20, 2009

Produced, Engineered, and Mixed by Kurt Ballou

Mastered by Alan Douches

Side One:	Side Two:
Dark Horse Reap What You Sow Axe to Fall Effigy Worms Will Feed/Rats Will Feast Wishing Well Damages	Losing Battle Dead Beat Cutter Slave Driver Cruel Bloom Wretched World

I've always been wary of the "hardcore" scene, such as it has been described and defined for the last, oh, decade and a half. What once was Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, and D.O.A. was now something else entirely--something that was often difficult to relate to the music that first bore the name. Hardcore at this time was also plagued with clichés readily pointed out--the inevitable breakdowns, where the pace slowed and the riffs chugged and boomed to encourage the sense that the bottom had dropped out and all hell had broken loose, which is a difficult thing to do constantly to any real effect. At the same time, I didn't listen to many of those bands in any detail, either. But it meant that when the name Converge was mentioned, I tended to leave them to their fans, stuck a bit in my own metal pseudo-elitism. I would periodically hear of them in a tone of reverence even from those who were more active in their criticism of this new "hardcore", which I filed away in the back of my mind and left be for some time.

Day Thirty-Eight: The Church - Untitled #23

Unorthodox/Second Motion Records ■ LP-SMR-012

Released March 6, 2009

Recorded by Jorden Brebach, timEbandit Powles, David Trump, and David Skeet

Mixed by David Trump with timEbandit Powles(S1-1,2,3; S2-4), Jorden Brebach (S1-4; S2-1,2,3; S3-1,2,3,4), timEbandit Powles (S4), and Marty Willson-Piper (S3-3)

Side One:	Side Two:
Cobalt Blue Deadman's Hand Pangaea Anchorage	Happenstance Sunken Sun LLC* Operetta

Side Three:	Side Four:
On Angel St Lunar Insanity* Space Saviour	So Love May Find Us*

Back when I wrote about Burning Airlines' Identikit, I decided to be a smartypants and ask J. Robbins and Peter Moffett for opinions on where to go with that entry, and got different responses from each. It did, however, help to decide which release to go with that time. When I started planning ahead for my next polls (after the onslaught around artists starting with "B") I saw that I had the Church in the running. I actually typed up that poll (Untitled #23 vs. Starfish) and then decided that, since he had actually passed along my previous writing about the Church (now and forever the most popular post on that blog, as a result!), I would ask Steve Kilbey for input here. After doing so, I started pondering asking Marty Willson-Piper, and maybe even Peter Koppes, just to get a well-rounded set of responses, if I could, but I was surprised to get a response from Mr. Kilbey almost immediately. Without any demands, he simply told me he'd prefer I write about Untitled #23, without question (as I had asked specifically if he had a preference). When that response came in, I thought about it. I realized that, most likely, he said this because, well, if there's a Church album people know about--it's Starfish. It seemed, then, like it would be the right thing in all senses to follow his wishes. I took down the poll (few if any even saw it), and marked Untitled #23 for writing today.

Day Thirty-Seven: The Chemical Brothers - Brotherhood

Virgin Records ■ 5099923481817

Freestyle Dust ■ XDUST9LP

Released September 2, 2008

Produced by The Chemical Brothers

Side One:	Side Two:
Galvanize Hey Boy Hey Girl Block Rockin' Beats Do It Again	Believe Star Guitar Let Forever Be Leave Home

Side Three:	Side Four:
Keep My Composure Saturate Out of Control	Midnight Madness The Golden Path Setting Sun Chemical Beats

I believe I have managed, at this point, to cover my reluctance regarding compilations, so I'll let that pass. Part of that is because, more importantly, I'd never listened to the Chemical Brothers (Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons) before this. In fact, I slit the shrinkwrap just today to listen to this. I respected groups and artists like the Chemical Brothers or the Crystal Method or Daft Punk from afar, but was generally reluctant to touch on the intentionally repetitive segment of electronic music (also touched on briefly, this time with the Caustic Window compilation). I didn't understand it, really, and associated it strongly with actually going and seeing electronic artists perform, which I'd never done. Having actually done it now (to see French synthpop artist David Grellier, aka College), I don't know if the whole process makes sense to me personally. I enjoyed it, but man was that a confused audience. No one was sure how to clap or respond in general.

Day Thirty-One: Burning Airlines - Identikit

Arctic Rodeo Recordings ■ ARR044

Released May 8, 2001¹

Recorded by John Agnello with Jake Mossman; J. Robbins and Burning airlines

Mixed by John Agnello with J. Robbins, Mike Harbin, and Peter Moffett

Mastered by Alan douches

¹This expanded vinyl released 11/16/2012

Side One:	Side Two:
Outside the Aviary Morricone Dancehall A Lexicon The Deluxe War Baby A Song with No Words All Sincerity The Surgeon's House Everything Here Is New	Paper Crowns Blind Trial Identikit Tastykake Earthbound Election-Night Special Dear Hilary Action

Track listing note: many of the tracks are shuffled from their listed order, but the above is the order in which they actually play. "The Deluxe War Baby" is shifted to its place above from being listed between "The Surgeon's House" and "Everything Here Is New". "Election-Night Special" is listed between "Identikit" and "Tastykake". The lyrics are also printed in this written order, not the order in which they play.

Out of all the polls I've run, I had a feeling (much like I suspected March on Electric Children would be the least acknowledged entry so far) Burning Airlines would be the most "difficult" vote to squeeze out. I pushed pretty hard on the Boomtown Rats, but I sort of gave up with Burning Airlines. Most people I know are in the wrong music generation (regardless of their actual age) and/or scene to know Burning Airlines, and I know that is the one thing that really makes people reluctant to throw out a vote. I decided to get around this in a sneaky and vaguely ridiculous way: I actually asked J. Robbins (check those credits up top) and Peter Moffett if there was an album they'd prefer me to write on. Mr. Robbins's been nothing but kind with my intermittent fawning and questions, and said very nice things about my writing on his previous band, Jawbox. On this he suggested I flip a coin to pick the album, and that he'd be happy I was writing about either, which I can understand and respect--there's going to be plenty tied up in these for someone involved. I asked Mr. Moffett a bit more privately, and didn't even catch the first notification that he'd actually answered. The response was just a single word: Identikit. It was a relief, in a way; a singular vote from another fan that wandered into my question to J. and voted for Mission: Control! which would have stuck me with another tie and, well, another coin toss, actually. I wanted to have something fresh and different to break this one up, though, and so Mr. Moffett gets a gracious thanks for taking the time to answer me and break the tie--even if it was before there was a tie!

Day Thirty: Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws

Reprise Records ■ 512970-1

Released September 16, 2008

Produced and Mixed by Lindsey Buckingham

("Gift of Screws" and "Wait for You" co-produced by Rob Cavallo; "Wait for You" mixed by Mark Needham

Engineered by Lindsey Buckingham, Ken Allardyce, and Mark Needham

Mastered by Bernie Grundman/Bernie Grundman Mastering

Side One:	Side Two:
Great Day Time Precious Time Did You Miss Me Wait for You Love Runs Deeper	Bel Air Rain The Right Place to Fade Gift of Screws Underground Treason

I'm a bit conflicted here. In a few weeks or months, we'll run into Fleetwood Mac proper. We won't see any Green or any Welch (I have none of the former, as I haven't gotten around to it, and only a CD of the latter), and so the focus will, obviously, be Buckingham/Nicks-era Fleetwood. The focal point will be for me (as ever), Buckingham. So, then: do I address my thoughts on Lindsey's musical place in my world now, or save it for then? How could I split it, were I to do both? Should I just give in and repeat information, but write it differently when I get there? I'm honestly not sure. I think the best approach is to go ahead and provide the background that establishes why I even have this album, which ties into all of that. So, pardon me for a moment while I briefly delve into my interactions with the last era of Fleetwood Mac.

Day Twenty-Five: The Blood Brothers - March on Electric Children

Erika Records¹ ■ ER2005

Released February 25, 2002

Produced by Matt B[ayles] and the Blood Brothers

Engineered by Matt B[ayles] (with assistance from Troy T.)

Mastered by Ed B.

¹Licensed from Three-One-G Records

Side One:	Side Two:
Birth Skin/Death Leather Meet Me at the Water Front after the Social March on Electric Children! New York Slave	Kiss of the Octopus Siamese Gun Mr. Electric Ocean Junkyard J. Vs. the Skin Army Girlz/High Fives/LA Hives American Vultures

While I know people who frustratingly cannot seem to get a handle on entire genres like rap or metal, and, like me listening when I was younger, often take that almost as an out-of-hand, automatic cancellation of any interest in listening, there's another barrier that's more extreme and more difficult to deal with. There are some artists out there who get the words "difficult" and "uncompromising" thrown at them in an effort to appeal to those who see those as alluring, and sometimes as a means of quiet warning. Anyone who doesn't already know this band, but knows me is probably filled with dread already. But the object here isn't to scare people off--certainly, the idea of warning is one I am working with, but I own all the records I own out of interest, and most out of appreciation (and interest is generally just the predecessor of appreciation). I can't go out blaring records at anyone and everyone, and records in particular are kind of inherently a home-listening format these days. I obviously have friends with turntables, but not many, and not many I visit and hang around the homes of. So, with all that in mind: this wasn't an album I picked up because it means people will think or hear X, Y, or Z. I picked it up (three times now: the remastered CD from Epitaph, the original CD release from Three One G, and this picture disc) because I like the band and I like their sound--even if, yes, it's going to be (extremely) grating to some people.

Day Twenty-Four: Blakroc - Blakroc

Blakroc Records ■ BR001-1

Released November 27, 2009

Produced by The Black Keys and Josh Hamilton

Recorded by Josh Hamilton

Executive Produced by Damon Dash

Side One:	Side Two:
Coochie On the Vista Hard Times Dollaz & Sense Why Can't I Forget Him Stay off the Fuckin' Flowers	Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) Hope You're Happy Tellin' Me Things What You Do to Me Done Did It

I'm always inwardly leaping for joy at moments of silly synchronicity. All kinds of connections just have their sort of appeal to me--it's that love of crossover, patterns, references, and in-jokes that I can't resist, if achieved via skill or pure coincidence. That Blakroc's lone album happens to follow Rádio do Canibal in my collection, alphabetically, is pure coincidence, but it's kind of an amusing one. It would be clever if it were planned in some way. Largely, though, I've left the album alone for reasons similar to the reasons I left Rádio do Canibal alone--it felt like it would end up a mishmash of disjointed sounds due to the "varied guests per track" approach. There's a seeming human tendency to identify most with the voice in any given musical act, one that means that the vocalist is seen as the star by the majority, regardless of their actual role in creating the music. I don't know that anyone has actually studied this, but I'm inclined to think it relates to the fact that we all are capable of making noise with throat and mouth, so there's a base to start the understanding from. In any case, I often swing either way when it comes to voices, sometimes nearly ignoring them, but often clinging to them as much as anyone. It means that albums like these make me kind of wary, even as the idea of them attracts me.

Day Twenty-Three: BK-One with Benzilla - Rádio do Canibal

Rhymesayers Entertainment ■ RSE0114-1

Released: October 6, 2009

Produced by BK-One and Benzilla ["Mega" co-produced by Brother Ali]

Side One:	Side Two:
Ivan Tiririca (Intro) Gittit Mega Caetano Veloso (Interlude) The True & The Living	Here I Am Tema do Canibal Ivan Tiririca (Interlude) Philly Boy Blood Drive

Side Three:	Side Four:
A Day's Work Face It Love Like That Hyldon (Interlude) Blue Balls	Eighteen to Twenty-One Call to Arms American Nightmare Tom Zé (Outro)

This is the kind of album that's the reason for doing this blog in its entirety, in more than one way. To the left: I've left this album alone a lot. Being "required" to sit and devote some time to it lets me really give it the attention it deserves for me to form any opinion on it. It also stops me from skipping to a favourite track automatically (which I've tended to do both with this copy and my CD copy). And, to the right: it is something new to expose most people to, as it is far from a famed work of any kind, but deserves more attention than it gets (at the very least).

Day Nineteen Bonus Track(s): Bad Veins - "Falling Tide" b/w "The Lie"

Dovecote Records ■ DCR 0012/DCR 0011

Released: ??, 2007

Produced by Bad Veins, Justin Baily, Daron Hollowell and Jonathan Fuller

Engineered by Justin Bailey and Johnathan Fuller

Mastered by Steve Girton

A-Side: Falling Tide	B-Side: The Lie

On my previous blog, I had a single poll, really, and it was to narrow the direction of my planned listening, in a more general and randomized sense than the ones I kept here. I matched Wire, the Skids, Dinosaur Jr, Slade and Bad Veins--a pretty weird blend overall, even if all of them are or were rock in some form or other. Dinosaur Jr ended up winning, probably indicative of the people I know. Bad Veins did reasonably well, and I knew at least one person who put in a bote there. I knew the same for Slade, for that matter. I never got around to writing about any of them but Dinosaur Jr (who won)--I just felt too overwhelmed by the volume of material, especially as compared to what I felt like I knew.

As time has gone on, Bad Veins has remained the most "limited"--they've released 2 albums and not much more. They were floating around the "legitimately" indie scene (in the sense of limited distribution, low-fame, independent in actual senses of divorce from industry clout) even when I saw them live. They opened for We Were Promised Jetpacks, who I saw completely on a lark, having forgotten the show was even occurring at the time. I ended up having hard cider for the first time (on the recommendation of a friend--via text, no less), but wandered in for the latter half of Bad Veins' set. I normally show up at concerts at door time, or even sooner. This time, because it was so delayed (not to mention a venue I had never been to or even seen), I was a lot later though.

When I looked up at the stage, I saw two guys in pseudo-military dress with a podium and a reel-to-reel tape player, a rotary phone receiver attached to the microphone stand (leading to its base attached to the podium) and a covering of seeming wallpaper on that podium. One was manning drums, the other at the mic and playing guitar. It was an odd sight, to be sure. That this was the band opening for the post rock-inflected Scots who I knew as openers for The Twilight Sad (who I knew as openers for Mogwai) would have left me confused if the band who preceded We Were Promised Jetpacks when they opened for the Twilight Sad wasn't Brakes, the English pop/rock band. Still, these were Americans, so I was left a bit confused all the same.

It wasn't long before the strains of Bad Veins infected me at the show, though. It was catchy stuff, and the "gimmicks" didn't feel gimmicky so much as creative and vaguely quirky--the telephone was used to distort Benjamin Davis's vocals much like megaphones are used (and, indeed, he used one of those, too). Sebastien Schultz' drumming was solid, forceful rock drumming, too, and there was a nice weight to their songs--and the reel-to-reel (nicknamed Irene, I'd later find) gave a more full sound than the pair could have otherwise produced.

I snapped up the only thing they had with them at the show--a 7" of two songs, paired with a CD designated for the year's tour (2012) and a download code for their first album (home-typed and printed, clearly!). I had the pair sign it (as you can see) and went on my merry way. The CD was actually composed of songs from their then-forthcoming album, The Mess We've Made, while the single was actually a pair of songs from their self-titled first album, released in 2009.

"Dancing on TV" was probably the catchiest song from the show, as well as the lead song on that CD, but that means, of course, it wasn't on the single itself. The single is still in the same style the band sticks to, though: Schultz on drums and Davis on keys and guitar, singing, in a style that's unique and somewhat difficult to describe. It's very strongly enunciated, and quite exaggerated, and seems to carry a sort of hangdog happiness--strange though that may sound. It's as if he's drained of energy in a part of the sound, yet the range and modulation he puts into his voice betrays the lie of that notion. It gives them a bit of their own character, and it's a good and enjoyable character to have.

"Falling Tide" is the louder song, a simple drum machine (tape loop, I'm guessing!) intro that very quickly turns to a real drum and a rumbling bass as Davis sings in that style of his, defining the melody. The chorus throws a spray of keys back at us and kicks in the guitar, but, most important, lets us hear the best part of Davis: his choruses. "I never would have held it back if/I thought that we'd get through"--and it's that through, dragged through a sliding range of notes and three extra syllables. Absolute singalong in the best sense.

"The Lie" is the lighter companion. A ticking timer starts the track, and then in comes Davis' voice, extra clear and completely up front, right in front of you in the mix, and only a calm, quiet keyboard line follows him for the entire first verse. The second verse shifts the keys up an octave or so¹, and halfway through adds a looped pizzicato violin. And then we get the chorus: "'Cause sometimes, sometimes to get by/I believe in the lie". Davis again is happy to give a single word multiple notes, and Schultz enters, too, as does a bass. A flute section, and the rhythm section get to follow him into the second repetition of the verses, and we get to hear that great chorus again--and Davis finally lets loose the third time through, and you hear his voice at full energy, the entire song coming upward with a faux chorus. The final, long-held instance of the chorus is perhaps the most exciting, and fades to the somewhat hesitant sound of his voice seeming to realize what he's singing: he has just sung loudly of his habit of getting by by pretending. That little note of reality creeps in and the song falls to a stop.

You know, I'm not going to pretend that I'm in a space where there needs to be some kind of absolute ground-breaking, totally unique element--I've never demanded nor always appreciated that, it has to be done right. And so does a catchy song--and Bad Veins do it right, and have done. Given the right exposure they could--and should--get a lot more fans. If the engineer I know who has done sound for them (completely without my prior knowledge, mind you!) can appreciate them in his tendency toward the weirder, darker (and often more country or folk, but edged) kind of things, then that should say something, I think.

Most of the 7"s I have fit into the space one would expect a 7" to fit in: they are catchy singles that are readily digested and immediate, great to listen to and enjoy as much as you want--not necessarily shallow, but accessible. Bad Veins is no exception, and none of that should be taken as anything but endorsement.

While we're here, there's actually the video of "Dancing on TV" from the very show I attended, embedded here for your enjoyment:

¹Let's remember I'm not great at music theory, but that feels right?