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.

HEAVY TUNES: Records I Listened to Over the Past Week or So, As Of June 7, 2020

last week had ... a lot.

June 2: you can probably guess this theme

1. Vince Staples, Hell Can Wait (2014, Def Jam)
2. Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell (1980, Warner Bros.)
3. Iced Earth, Days of Purgatory (1997, Century Media)
   Christ it's embarrassing to like this record.
4. Helium, The Dirt of Luck, (1995, Matador)

June 3: flailing

1. Charles Mingus, Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956, Atlantic)
2. Molly Nilsson (Top Tracks)
3. Makthaverskan, Makthaverskan (2009)
4. James Gang, Live In Concert, (1971, ABC)
   My uncle had this, but it was scratched to shit, so I haven't heard it since the late 80s. "Tend My Garden" and "Ashes the Rain and I" both rule. Everything else...
5. Operators, Radiant Dawn (2019, Last Gang)
6. Russian Circles, Memorial (2013, Sargent House)
7. Jeff Beck, Wired (1976, Epic)
   This was one of the first tapes I bought when I started buying music. Some days it holds up. This day ... it really did not. But I can still whistle fairly long parts of "Led Boots".
8. Future of the Left, Curses (2007, Too Pure)

June 5: long days, long weeks

1. Oozing Wound, Earth Suck, (2015, Thrill Jockey)
2. Can, Ege Bamyasi (1972, United Artists)
   Question of the day: Hey, so, do I still like Can? Answer? Not today, no.
3. Run the Jewels, Run the Jewels 4
   Well, they can't all be winners.
4. Neil Young with Crazy Horse, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969, Reprise)
5. Roxy Music, Manifesto (1979, Polydor)
6. The Magnetic Fields, Quickies (2020, Nonesuch)
7. Screaming Females, Live at the Hideout (2014, Don Giovanni)
   It had been a really long time since I had played this. That was a big mistake.
8. Joy Division, Substance (1988, Factory)
   A cassette that changed my life.
9. Soul Asylum, And the Horse they Rode in On (1990, A&M)
   I remember liking this a lot in high school. Apparently I was wrong about at least one thing in high school.

HEAVY TUNES: Records I Listened to Today, June 1, 2020

history lesson -- part II
...what. It's a really good song.

1. Breeders, Title TK, (2002, 4AD)
   (It took nine years to come up with this?)
2. Iron Maiden, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988, Capitol)
   There are, I gather, certain amongst us who view this as the finest effort from Maiden. If you encounter such a person, smile and nod, smile and nod. Try to avoid eye contact or showing your back or belly.
3. fIREHOSE, if'n (1987, SST)
4. Kate Bush (Top Tracks, Pandora)
   (No frigging "Wuthering Heights", wtf.)
5. Deltron 3030, Deltron 3030 (2000, 75 Ark)
6. MF Doom, Operation: Doomsday (1999, Fondle 'Em)
7. Slade, Rogue's Gallery (1985, RCA)
   One day a bit before high school, I bought this and the Ramones record Leave Home and I don't think anything was really ever the same again. Probably mostly due to the Ramones record, but. But...the giant vocal melodies on the better ones here ("Hey Ho Wish You Well" or "All Join Hands") will stick forever.

Today's theme was escape. But there isn't any escape right now.

Friday's theme was "Get Loud".

1. Future of the Left, Last Night I Saved Her from Vampires (2009, 4AD)
   My second-favorite live Future of the Left album!
2. Body Count, Body Count, (1992, Sire)
   Pusillanimous non-"Cop Killer"-having version, unlike the tape I bought at the time.
3. Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988, Def Jam)
4. N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton (1988, Ruthless)
5. El-P, Fantastic Damage (2002, Definitive Jux)
6. Mike Watt, The Secondman's Middle Stand (2004, Columbia)

HEAVY TUNES: Records I Listened to Today, May 28, 2020

'sup, shorty?

1. The Amps, Pacer (1995, Elektra)
2. Brainoil, Brainoil (2003, Life Is Abuse)
3. Minutemen, Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat, (1983, SST)
4. Yes, The Yes Album (1971, Atlantic)
5. Dinosaur Jr., Whatever's Cool with Me (1991, Sire)
6. Operators, EP1 (2014, Last Gang)

Not an 'undo P. why I chose to listen to short records to-day, but it seemed to work out well. I've whined lengthily elsewhere / elsewhen about the bloatation allowed—seemingly mandated by the physical change from the dominant format being LPs, which stop sounding good at about the 23-minute-per-side mark, to the dominant format being CDs, which contain roughly 74 minutes, so I won't do so here, but what if bands just stopped saying things when they ran out of things to say, even if there was some tape left?

Bonus: I looked up the Amps record Pacer, because back in 1996, I considered it maybe the most perfect pop record I'd heard, and I wanted to see what other folks thought of it. And that's when I ran into this heavy slice of Robert Christgau Being a Fucking Creep:

Kim Deal sounds so sane, so unpretentious, so goddamn nice that you want to take her home and give her a shampoo.
ANI DIFRANCO: Not a Pretty Girl (Righteous Babe) Although her mostly female young cult loves this self-starting folk-punk madly, the guys I know smell trouble every time she opens her mouth. This has nothing to do with her face, body, or sense of style. It's her words, the sheer volume of them, jetting out in expressionistic torrents as if she feels free to say any goddamn thing that comes to mind.
Tribe 8, Fist City (Alternative Tentacles): lay back and trust the band, gal--also your own lyrics ("Freedom," "Barnyard Poontang")

There's more, but I don't have the stamina to go through all of his horseshit from January of 1996. Christ(gau), what an asshole.

HEAVY TUNES: Records I Listened to Today, May 27, 2020

Goin' back to
High school (rah rah rah)
Goin' back to
High school (sis boom bah)
Man ... I don't think so

1. Public Image Limited, Album (1986, Elektra)
   I had Cassette.
2. Suicidal Tendencies, Controlled by Hatred / Feel Like Shit ... Déjà Vu (1989, Epic)
   Possibly heavy music's most-punctuated album title?
3. Autograph, Sign In Please (1984, RCA)
   I never actually had this one, but the single "Turn Up the Radio" was inescapable. The drummer's story turns out to be the stuff of a pretty good hack novel.
4. Michael Schenker Group, MSG (1981, Chrysalis)
   Reading the tab for the solo in "On and On" turned me on to this masterpiece. No, I couldn't play it.
5. Jesus Jones, Liquidizer (1989, SBK)
   Glitched out a lot when I was listening, because my internet seems to like the heat as little as I do. It was hard to tell.
6. New Model Army, Thunder and Consolation (1989, EMI)
   Probably my second-favorite record with a song about green and grey.

No longer musing on account of obligations.

HEAVY TUNES: Records I Listened to Today, May 26, 2020

Old Man, Take a Listen to My Records
They're A Lot Like Yours Were

1. Spanish Love Songs, Brave Faces Everyone (2020, Pure Noise)
   I didn't know "We're not a Christian band, but we sound like a Christian band" was a sound for slow punk bands. But RIYL Mountain Goats / cool-pastor voice, drinking as a personality, shouting along. Recommended by the Strikewave newsletter.
2. NOBRO, Sick Hustle (2020, Dine Alone / Scary Monsters)
   I also didn't know "We like L7's guitar sounds" was a going concern, but based on the first song, it seems to be. Good stuff, and gets better as the record goes on! This one's from the Turntable Report by Tracy Wilson.
3. Hole, Celebrity Skin (1998, Geffen)
   Basically a perfect rock record. Ever since it's been out, I've heard a "criticism" that says "Well, Billy Corgan wrote all the songs," which (a) sounds like a depressingly common way to dismiss / diss / disappear Courtney Love, which is something dudes who like to talk about rock records are distressingly prone to do, and (b) is bizarre even if it were true, because what kind of backwards-ass nincompoop do you have to be to think "This combination of performer and songwriter works beautifully together and made a great record" is somehow a bad thing? One thing I love about the record is how confident in your work you have to be to title a poppy rock song "Heaven Tonight" after Cheap Trick wrote a basically perfect poppy rock song and called it "Heaven Tonight". Here, it works. Not sure I'd recommend the move for lesser artists.
4. Big Business, Mind the Drift (2009, Joyful Noise)
   When I first moved to Oakland, basically all I listened to was this record, in a weird track order that my busted-ass Coby .mp3 player imposed. Hearing it the "right" way is still a little disorienting.
5. Thin White Rope, Exploring the Axis (1985, Frontier)
   If Sonic Youth grew up listening to country and reading noir, they might have sounded a little like Thin White Rope.

It was a million degrees today, and I worked 11 or so hours. Not a lot of time for music, but I tried to listen to a couple new things, mostly without satisfaction, and then retreated to comforts. Those Hole, Big Business and Thin White Rope records all dominated whole years at one time or another, and it was nice to revisit them and step away from the same records I've been listening to all year long (Obsequiae's The Palms of Sorrowed Kings and El-P's Cancer for Cure, more or less). What are you trying to listen to to shake things up?

HEAVY TUNES: Records I Listened to Today, May 25, 2020

Hush, Keep It Down Down

1. Bonnie "Prince" Billy, I See a Darkness (1999, Palace Records)
   Got an email from my girlfriend about a Philip Levine poem that included the line "I see the darkness", so my morning was set.
2. Marriages, Salome (2015, Sargent House)
3. boygenius, boygenius (2018, Matador)
   I still have trouble with this record, but I really like Phoebe Bridgers' voice.
4. Angel Olsen, My Woman (2016, Jagjaguwar)
   Esp. "Not Gonna Kill You". Oft-recommended.
5. Flat Worms, Flat Worms (2017, Castle Face)
   Real solid punk/post-punk!
6. Red Sparowes, Aphorisms (2008, Sargent House)
7. Caterwaul, Portent Hue (1990, IRS)
8. Trans Am, Trans Am (1996, Thrill Jockey)
9. Oozing Wound, Whatever Forever (2016, Thrill Jockey)
   Probably the best workout band of our time. So many riffs.

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