Mogwai - Young Team (1997)

Mogwai's Young Team is a landmark album in the post-rock genre; weaving intricate melodies into a giant wall of sound then going up against gentle atmospheres while building tension then giving way to a cathartic, almost violent release.

Mogwai - Young Team (1997; Chemikal Underground Records)

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.

Sonic Youth - Goo (1990; DGC Records)

Five Dischord Bands...

Dischord Records, god bless 'em; gotta love the business model that label heads Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson created way back in 1980 to get their Minor Threat records out to the public. It's been a wonderful American success story, maybe not in the monetary sense but in the stick-to-your-guns-no-sell-out success story: integrity at all costs. Or at very little cost to us, the general consumers.

I would feel bad about sharing these albums but a) these bands no longer exist and b) I own (or have owned at one time) these actual records or c) have spent money on these bands (via digital download, concerts, etc.) But it still feels like stealing from Robin Hood in a way.

Oh well, morality bullshit aside, let's start it off with one of my favorite bands to break up this past decade, Q and Not U. Post-hardcore-slash-dance punk group extraordinaire; I've chosen their 2000 debut record No Kill No Beep Beep for you- it's a tad rawer, fresher and more exciting than their other two records. Sadly, the boys broke up in September of 2005 leaving a three album legacy to the world, also leaving loyal Washington, DC fans wanting more.

Q and Not U - No Kill No Beep Beep

Next up is another DC band, math rock stalwarts Faraquet. They only put out one record, 2000's The View From This Tower, but it definitely left an impression. I'd chunk it right between earlier post-hardcore giants Quicksand and Dischord flagship band Fugazi- tight grooves, heavy drums but not afraid to get funky. Then the King Crimson-esque prog rock stop-on-a-dime staccato blasts. They recently reformed to play a string of shows and release an anthology of earlier singles, but no plans to record in the future. I think they should do it...

Faraquet - The View From This Tower

Black Eyes will straight up fuck your face into an oblivion. Two albums, markedly different- their self-titled debut is far more focused, dare I say listenable? Not that follow-up Cough isn't rad as shit in it's own right, I figured you weren't ready for it. Yet. That's another blog all by itself. For now, you'll have to get by on 2003's eponymous record; an arty, slightly pretentious and noisy version of hardcore punk.

Black Eyes - Black Eyes

El Guapo's Fake French might be the one album that you couldn't pick out from a police line-up, especially from a band that might not have the typical Dischord sound. A bit more heavy on the synths, call-and-response lyrics and electro beats placed here and there would have your scratching you head a little. That's okay; El Guapo wouldn't mind. They're technically the only band here that didn't break up per se, as they merely changed their name to Supersystem (and shedded their original drummer). Here's their 2003 offering for you...

El Guapo - Fake French

Antelope started as a side project for El Guapo/Supersystem/Edie Sedgewick member Justin Moyer along with ex-Vertebrates Bee Elvy and Mike Andre, and their sole offering to the world was 2007's Reflector. Heavy on the bass, the sparse drums interlock perfectly providing a pocket for Moyer's angular and pointed guitar lines. It's minimal, it's sleek, and they're gone...

Antelope - Reflector

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...

PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me (1993; Island Records)

Glenn Branca - The Ascension (1981)

There's a Phillip Glass quote I found somewhere about Glenn Branca; something to the effect that "(he) has one foot in punk and the other in experimentation". That's a pretty apt descriptor of the whole No Wave scene in general, and here on Branca's debut solo record he explores sound via a four guitar army (one of which was Lee Ranaldo, who would go on to form Sonic Youth with another Branca disciple, Thurston Moore), played with a punk rock attitude.

Branca (along with Fred Frith) was an early pioneer of the use of prepared guitars, as well as exploring textures and "sheets of sound" through droning and repetition, alternate tunings and excessive volume. These "songs" on The Ascension aren't as much songs as the ideas (or "sketches") they represent, performed with all the above devices and effects. Under all that feedback and distortion there's an array of sounds and things going on that appear and re-appear upon subsequent listens. It's more or less an adventure.

Best when listened to loud; really, really loud...

Glenn Branca - The Ascension (1981; 99 Records)

-link opens to YouTube-

Butthole Surfers - Rembrandt Pussyhorse (1986)

This record feels like an accident. I mean that in the nicest way possible- it's a fractured, dissonant, psychotic blend of experimentation and noisy post-punk; going from odd piano-driven tracks about creeps to insane babbling mayhem to quiet, almost funereal organ dirges to funky-ass, down-home psychedelic dirt blues soul rock.

This is the missing link between all that late-'60s acid-damaged stuff like Beefheart, Syd Barrett-era Floyd and '70s satirists/experimenters The Residents and today's bands like Liars and Black Dice. You can file the Surfers somewhere midway in that lineage; at least their first three records. If you have any of that radio-friendly alternacrap stuff from the nineties (especially Electriclarryland) please smack yourself in the face.

I'd recommend listening to this album at full volume in a dark room.

Butthole Surfers - Rembrandt Pussyhorse (1986; Touch and Go Records)