HEAVY TUNES: Records I Listened to the Last Couple Weeks, As Of June 19, 2020

Rough Couple Weeks ... At Least We Have Music

June 8

1. Hawkwind, Quark, Strangeness and Charm
   (This version had a LOT of mostly pointless and eventually exhausting extras—"Damnation Alley" rules p. hard, tho)
2. Carole King, Tapestry
   For a record I had never knowingly listened to, I sure knew a lot of these songs!
3. Neko Case and Her Boyfriends, Furnace Room Lullaby
   There was a time when I loved few things more than this record. This day, it didn't really hold up for me.
4. Sir Lord Baltimore, Sir Lord Baltimore
   Wow, "Man from Manhattan" rules.
5. Miles Davis On the Corner
6. Black Sabbath, Past Lives
   Another past favorite that I didn't love this time around... :(
7. Slave, The Hardness of the World
   The great Curtis Harris said the following, and that was all I needed to hear
   

   Dear white friends who enjoy late 70s, early 80s (post-)punk and new wave, you should listen to Slave.
   
   A lot of the fat bass utilized by Gang of Four et al derives from that funky Dayton outfit.https://t.co/HqoL1H0jnZ

   — Curtis Harris (@curtismharris) June 8, 2020

8. Eddie Hazel, From the Bottom of My Heart
   "Lompoc Boogie" is incredible: wonderful musicianship, incredible melodies, and just fun energy.

June 13: Apparently, we're getting funky (while cooking a bunch of food)

1. Parliament, Motor Booty Affair
2. Miles Davis, Bitches Brew
3. Eddie Hazel, Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs
4. Band of Gypsys, Band of Gypsys

June 15

1. Slave, Slave (1977, Cotillion)
2. Parliament, Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (1977, Casablanca)
3. Funkadelic, Funkadelic
4. Miles Davis, In a Silent Way

June 16: Dancin' in the Ruins (?)

1. The Drop playlist: my dumb streaming service, which will NEVER understand me properly, thought I'd be interested in ... Phoebe Bridgers, Roman Circles, Tangerine Dream and a lot of other stuff I really really liked ... Great job, algorithms. Lousy job being interesting, Fat.
2. Operators, EP 1
   Still SO good.
3. Jaye Jayle & Emma Ruth Rundle, The Time Between Us
   Essential.
4. Wooden Wand, Harem of the Sundrum and the Witness Figg
5. LCD Soundsystem, LCD Soundsystem
   I saw a podcast called this band "If Zoolander was a band" which suggests strongly somebody either hasn't heard the band or hasn't seen Zoolander (both of which are fine: it's a long life, there's plenty of art we can skip), and it made me want to listen to this. Mostly now I only like the bonus disc, but it's a pretty fun listen whenever.

This was a hellacious work day. The only time I had for music is after I got back to my place, exhausted and scraped clean, needing to cook some food and pass out. I spent quite a while making vegan "hot wings" out of cauliflower and more than half a cup of Sriracha, and it was messy, lengthy, and pretty great. Comfort music helped a lot.

June 17: Retrenching, Searching for Silence

1. Hawkwind, Hall of the Mountain Grill
2. Miles Davis, On the Corner
3. Funkadelic, Cosmic Slop
4. Starcastle, Starcastle
   Pretty much all I listened to last year was this bizarre Yes knockoff with heavy REO Speedwagon dad-radio vibes. I've been trying hard to listen to Not The Same Thing Over and Over Again, but today ... I was tired, you know?
5. Vektor, Black Future
   Been trying to keep things mellow, but sometimes one does need to get more intense and aggressive.
6. Deltron 3030, Event II
   Wow, the beats on this really did it for me! I like this a lot better than the first record, which I like(d) a lot.

Experimenting with funk and things with as few words as possible has been really helpful and heartening, even if I should probably just be listening to Tangerine Dream and munching edibles all day.

June 18: A Certain Craving for Novelty

1. Mekons, Fear & Whiskey
   People like this band? Seems cool for them.
2. MF Doom, ...Mm Food
   What if MF Doom but beats?
3. Vektor, Outer Isolation
4. Killer Mike, R.A.P. Music
5. Deltron 3030, Deltron 3030
   Not sure why, but Deltron is what I really wanted to hear all week.
6. David Bowie, Diamond Dogs
7. Aesop Rock, Bazooka Tooth
8. Alice Cooper, Billion Dollar Babies
   My buddy calls Alice Cooper "ugly David Bowie", and that fits, and this record is, while not without spots I desperately wish to skip every time, incredible. Nobody comes up with bigger melodies than in "Hello Hooray" or "Elected".
9. Obsequiae, The Palms of Sorrowed Kings
   Another record I basically listened to all of last year to the exclusion of anything else. I really love this record.