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).

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 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-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 Two: Aborym - Kali Yuga Bizarre

Scarlet Records ■ SC005-1

Release April 1, 1999

Produced by Christian Ice and Malfeitor Fabban

Engineered by Christian Ice

Side One:	Side Two:
Wehrmacht Kali Ma Horrenda Peccata Christi Hellraiser Roma Divina Urbs	Darka Mysteria Tantra Bizarre Come Thou Long Expected Jesus Metal Striken Terror Action The First Four Trumpets Tantra Bizarre [C30 Version] - Exclusive to vinyl

I originally debated inclusion of this record in my collection for a few reasons. Some may be surprised to see a photo of a non-standard record in my collection that they have not seen before, but this is for the same essential reasons. Some years ago, I purchased a used copy of Diabolical Masquerade's Death's Design (more on that in a few months, I suppose!) and brought it back to my then-dorm room only to find that, crammed inside, was this picture disc, for no apparent reason. I'd never heard of Aborym, and had no earthly idea what this was, but figured it couldn't hurt to have. The first time I played it, I realized it was absolutely trashed with surface noise--crackles, pops, and constant noise coated an already noisy band. It didn't make for easy listening--not in the sense that I was put off, but that it was literally difficult to hear the music itself. I stuck it in a simple plastic sleeve and left it at that, often forgetting I even owned it. Sadly enough, it's one of 1,000 in existence and remains in pretty terrible condition, as I can't exactly repair a bunch of scratches and dings that were in it long before I ever had it. I am left wondering (not for the first time) why someone would buy a limited record that had no idea how to care for a record, yet would take it out and fiddle with it enough to do this to it. Especially in an age where records are nowhere near the dominant format. Still, onward and upward!