Showing posts with label Alternative Rock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alternative Rock. Show all posts

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Sonic Youth - Goo (1990)

Dear Kim & Thurston,

Seriously guys, this is an October Fools' joke, right? I mean, c'mon, you guys- you're like indie rock royalty and stuff, you can't do this to us. At least stay together for the fans. 

And Mark Jacobs, too. I mean, next time he debuts a fashion line and you two aren't there front and center wearing shredded thrift store gear and looking super uninterested in everything, it's gonna be weird. 

But you're not breaking up the band, right? I hear it's still cool and all, like musically and stuff. I should've known something was up when you got the bro from Pavement to play bass so Kim could look cooler singing and playing her guitar (which was probably turned way down, thanks Lee). I can't believe this.

It was Thurston, right? Did you bang someone else, dude? It was one of these new indie rock goddess-types, like Zola Jesus or Alice Glass or that dude from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs*.

This kinda sucks guys.

Whatever, here's Goo.

Maybe I'll post a Sonic Youth record every day until you either get back together or the band breaks up.

* - Karen O is actually an alien.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Pretty Girls Make Graves - The New Romance (2003)

Intense atmospheric emotional indie rock from Seattle just at the turn of the century. 

It's raw but clean sounding, ragged yet polished. 

Highlighting bass player Derek Fudesco from seminal garage punk act The Murder City Devils as well as Jason Clark on guitar from post-hardcore cult band Kill Sadie and featuring the amazing vocal stylings of one Andrea Zollo, this band burned too bright and ended way before their time. 
Pretty Girls Make Graves - The New Romance (2003; Matador Records)

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Coheed & Cambria - The Second Stage Turbine Blade (2002)


Coheed & Cambria have been able to blend prog rock and post-hardcore music seamlessly together to create some intricately layered and dense sounds; along with Tool and The Mars Volta (the only other bands I can think of that do that, post-millennium), they have created a music that's both rhythmically complex yet totally listenable- I've always thought that Coheed is what Rush would sound like if they were born way later and were raised on Fugazi and NoMeansNo.

Anyway, here's their debut record from '02; where it lacks in technical prowess it makes up for in raw emotionality.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Sebadoh - Harmacy (1996)


It seems that the consensus pick among Sebadoh fans for their best album is 1994's Bakesale; but for some reason I always had a stronger bond with Harmacy. Probably because Lou Barlow and Jason Loewenstein's songwriting duties were split; Jason contributed nine songs here (making Sebadoh an actual "band" as opposed to a Barlow project) and the pair focused more on straight-ahead songs with better production values.

It also has a more cohesive blend of styles here; instead of the genre-hopping madness and the lo-fi experimentation they explored on previous records this is a really great pop album. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing Sebadoh's earlier work; those records all have a special place in my heart (and on my record shelf) but as I've said before I'm trying to get you, my regular readers, friends, fans, well-wishers, countrymen (as well as my enemies) into all this great music.

I feel this record is the best place to start with Sebadoh. Then work your way backwards...


Friday, May 21, 2010

PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me (1993)


If this isn't Polly Jean Harvey's best album, it's her most vitriolic; almost every song has a different version of her idea of love and hate- there's songs about vengeance, anger, sex, insanity, betrayal, angst and possibly some BDSM. Her nastiness is only intensified by Steve Albini's production (or lack there-of) which leaves the entire album sounding raw and cut open, which was probably the point. It's noisy, punky, blues-influenced, jagged, muscular; all the things Albini loves to make sound more than they are- here he mostly leaves it alone, trusting Harvey and her bandmates Rob Ellis and Steve Vaughan.

I don't know if PJ's the ultimate man-hater, I'm just glad it ain't me she's singing about...

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Camper Van Beethoven - Telephone Free Landslide Victory (1985)


My first week of middle school I met this kid named Matt; I think we sought each other out because he was wearing a Misfits' Fiend Club shirt and I was wearing a Sex Pistols' Never Mind The Bullocks shirt (the assistant principal made me turn it inside out, which ironically got it more attention than before- go figure...). Anyway, Matt had an older brother that was a DJ at his college radio station, so when I'd sleep over his house on the weekends (his mom was a nurse and she worked the night shift), we'd drink a ton of Jolt cola and eat candy and stay up all night listening to his brother's cool records.

This one from Camper Van Beethoven especially sticks out in my mind- I think we may have wore this one out. Anyway; Matt Ryan, wherever you are- thanks, man. And thank your brother for hipping up our ears at such a young age.

This is the 2004 re-mastered re-issue with bonus tracks (of course)...