that Hair (2016)

bandcamp / -o-

Wreck Small Speakers on Expensive Stereos - River Falling Love (1987)

It's all very young and hopeful- Morley'd go on to destroy rock with The Dead C and examine the leftovers with Gate- but man is it ever depressing 'cause the thing just sounds like a damn haunting. He's singing to nobody at all and the 'experimental' elements just tease and distract, all broken and falling apart.

here

II (2013)

Ya know, it was always The White Album. It wasn't just the percussion, though the percussion mattered then and still does now, it was the pop, the smog, the subversive experimentation (or was it subversive pop?), the sounds sounding different every time and then disappearing into the haze. I didn't realize then, though it's clear now, that the self-titled record's songs retained a sense of physicality in spite of this, and for all its proficiency in the field of awesome/kooky/indie lo-fi psych revivalism, it was an experiment. A good one, but an experiment nonetheless.

II's all there 'cause Nielson doesn't sound like he's all there. That was the magic of The White Album- the mix of sleepy nostalgia and discomfort in its haze. I don't know if I missed it back then, but every time I listen to II, I begin to worry about dude. Like good lo-fi and downer pop bros, his songs are all half a minute too long where it counts, and his album's about 10 too vague where it matters. It's all fleeting enough to drift by, but it's repetitious enough to control attention. Disembodied, his sounds float around like a dream while his words contrarily evoke sleepless nights worrying about death and loneliness (it's not the Stones, it's Yer Blues). [warning] Well done, but surely that's not the reason people got excited about a followup in the first place [warning]. Contrary, dizzy, non-physical (that is, not real), and relatably so. Whether he knows it or not, the music keeps telling us, and the music's right, I think: it's all in your head.

A

flac / buy / stream

Matt Johnson - Burning Blue Soul (1981)

Johnson's gift was making art and torment and inaccessibility accessible with The The. Before that gift was properly realized, however, he produced Burning Blue Soul in which nervous self-awareness, disorienting loops, and arty percussion were met with a punkish disregard for pop structures, and a half-assed psychedelic haze tied together disparate ideas and genres. It's a paranoid mess which for all its eccentricities manages to feel monochromatic, it's expressionistic but too planned and analytic to convey anything other than said self-awareness and paranoia, and it somehow manages to turn experimentation into tedium. Maybe if I hadn't started my day with twee pop I'd be more appreciative of his gloomy post-punk defiance, but I think it all just works better restricted to a pop framework- he writes a killer song when he wants to, and his pains and frustrations are more potent when they border on catchy

C-

stream / -

Thin White Rope - Moonhead (1987)

1. Not Your Fault 3:49

2. Wire Animals 2:57

3. Take It Home 3:58

4. Thing 4:37

5. Moonhead 2:22

6. Wet Heart 2:47

7. Mother 2:57

8. Come Around 2:44

9. If Those Tears 3:22

10. Crawl Piss Freeze 5:37

This record is so fucking cool. I can't even tell if I like it or not, it's just awesome

Taking Smiths-y jangle stuff and Americana-izing it when the idea is trip through the desert at night would seem suitable- the Americana to the road and the adventure and whatnot, but Moonhead is uniquely nightmarish and surreal in its vibe, like there's ghosts and they're watching you and that's actually pretty creepy and Moonhead is a pretty creepy and unique album despite somehow fitting into and making a lot of sense in the alt/indie canon

B+

try
stream

Black Bananas - Rad Time Xpress IV (2012)

Album cover of the year. No doubt. Jennifer Herrema's (Royal Trux) new "non-exclusive opposition rock" project (need to remember that, couldn't describe Royal Trux's appeal better myself!). Taking their/her ideologies and pushing them further by encompassing more styles than ever before to achieve total highbrow kitsch, or smartass kitsch, or subversive rock that rocks, or, fuck it, "non-exclusive opposition rock." As big, dumb, colourful, and funny as the cover- tacky vocal manipulations, Eddie Hazel guitars, early 2000s distorted synths, fuzzy riffs, funk basslines: "all the shit you don't like, woven into all the shit you can't live without." Essentially glam: block it out for a minute and come back and there's no denying things sound like Electric Warrior by way of Funkadelic performed by some dance-punk. There are good moments where they reach the same levels of camp as their sources, and brilliant ones where they go "camp" instead a la Ween. Me, I like the shit they bring in and admire the project of an all-inclusive rock band, but could go without ever listening to this again. Sounds mean, but it's not meant to be. I get what they're going for and think it's rad. I admire it. I wish I liked it. But I don't. There's no denying how good it is- if I were a critic I'd have to give it an A or an A minus. But I'm not a critic, and so I'm standing by the could go without ever listening to this again conclusion.

C+

grooveshark
buy

Animal Collective - Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished (2000)

Actually by Avey Tare and Panda Bear but I like keeping things tidy. Having a love-hate relationship with the band, I feel like I can't say THIS IS THEIR BEST, but I'll happily write I THINK THIS ONE IS THEIR BEST instead!

I promise the noise will eventually make sense, and if you stick it out 'til that happens, you might end up agreeing with me. Any feeling I might have that I'm being contrarian (it's a polarizing one), or relying on vibes rather than sense (I do that often, and Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished has REAL good vibes), is put to rest by the songs Alvin Row and Penny Dreadfuls. The former is a perfect indie rock song which could go on for hours and I'd keep listening. They try me for 12 minutes and I stand by that until they give up. The latter is the skeleton of the kind of song they'd later jam on and build up, but seems perfect to me as a rough draft. The thin textures, spare arrangement, and uncomfortable low-singing (don't be so shy!) with affecting outbursts (LEAVE MY BOY ALONE!) make it seem rather personal to ol' Panda, or just an enticing mix of strangeness and enigmatic purpose. I don't care. I'm moved every time!

A+

try
buy
spotify

Boredoms - Super Roots 7 (1998)

1. 7〜(EWE Remix) 4:04

2. 7→ (Boriginal) 20:54

3. 7+(EYE Remix) 8:12

7→ (Boriginal) is the best Boredoms song. 'Cause The Butthole Surfers and them sounded so similar in their early days, it's interesting that the Surfers' noise became organic and catchy (and shit), and Boredoms got influenced by Neu! and made post-Neu trance-shit (that's really good)

Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Reptition Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Thrash Nice Sounds Nice Sounds Nice Sounds Nice Sounds Nice Sounds Nice Sounds Nice Sounds Nice Sounds Nice Sounds Nice Sounds Nice Sounds Nice Sounds Nice Sounds End

B+