Bad Brains 9/15/79

Shake! Shake! Scream! (60s Garage Rock Playlist)

SHAKE! SHAKE! SCREAM! 

1. The Nautiloids- Nautiloid Reef
2. The Excells- Let’s Dance
3. The Rooks- A Girl Like You
4. The Sonics- Dirty Old Man
5. The Missing Links- Wild About You
6. The Stoics- Hate
7. Link Wray & His Ray Men- Hidden Charms
8. The Cave Men- It’s Trash
9. The Avengers- Be A Caveman
10. Larry & The Blue Notes- In & Out
11. The Aardvarks- I’m Higher Than I’m Down
12. The Prophets- You Wonder Why
13. The Monks- There She Walks
14. The Seeds- Girl I Want You
15. The Bad Roads- Don’t Look Back
16. The Starfires- I Never Loved Her
17. The Keggs- Girl
18. Los Saicos- Ana
19. The Iguanas- Again & Again
20. The Undertakers- Unchain My Heart
21. The Standells- Baracuda
22. The Psychopaths- Till the Stroke of Dawn
23. The Others- Revenge
24. The Syndicats- Crawdaddy Simone
25. Nick & The Jaguars- Ich-I-Bon #1
26. The 13th Floor Elevators- Tried To Hide
27. Michel Polnareff- Time Will Tell
28. Del Shannon- Move It On Over
29. The Creation- How Does It Feel To Feel
30. The Index- Eight Miles High
31. The Third Bardo- I’m Five Years Ahead Of My Time
32. MC5- I Just Don’t Know
33. Scotty McKay Quintet- Train Kept Rollin’

GET IT HERE

MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2013

it’s the end of the year, so time for another round of useless Best Of lists. like every other asshole who thinks their taste is something that needs to be shared, i have compiled my personal favorite musical releases of 2013. most of these albums fall into the category of rock & roll in one of it’s various forms: noisey, shoegazey, garagey, psychedelicy, what-the-fuck-ever-y. all you need to know is that this was the shit i liked this year. hopefully a few of them are things you haven’t heard and you decide to check out. that’s really the only good purpose a list like this serves anyways.  

My Favorite Albums Of 2013 

Dead Ghosts- Can’t Get No

from the moment i first heard this album i knew it was gonna top my favorites of 2013 list. Dead Ghosts are some Canadian garage rockers that sound like they were raised on Back From The Grave comps, The Byrds, The Seeds, Dead Moon, The Mummies, and Link Wray. their 2010 debut is one of my favorite records of the current new wave of garage/psych rock and their new album Can’t Get No is even fucking better. it’s an excellent mix of 60s psych rock, sloppy lofi country, and snotty garage punk that my ears ain’t never gonna get sick of listening to. this is the good shit, right here. sublime rock & roll.

My Bloody Valentine- mbv 

what the fuck am i going to say about this album other than MY FUCKING BLOODY FUCKING VALENTINE PUT OUT A NEW FUCKING RECORD THIS FUCKING YEAR?!?! maybe next time don’t make us wait 22 fucking years for a follow up.

Iceage- You’re Nothing 

punk’s not dead, it’s just got a Danish accent. with a serious hard-on for Death In June and Joy Division (including the fascist fetishizing), Iceage followed up their promising debut with one of the more exciting hardcore records since Refused’s The Shape of Punk to Come.  

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds- Push The Sky Away 

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are back with their 15th! record, Push The Sky Away, another album about love and sex and death and religion and Hannah Montana…ya know, all that shit Nick Cave has been singing about his whole life. 

Ty Segall- Sleeper

Segall has always carried a love of Marc Bolan on his sleeve, and with Sleeper, Ty is full-on indulging in his T. Rex fetish. the fuzzed out garage rock he’s usually known for is replaced by spaced out acoustic psych-folk ballads. it’s pretty obvious that this is a record about the pain of loss which makes a lot of sense because it was apparently written after the death of his father. the good thing for us, is that pain makes for some damn good song writing, as these are some of the best of his career

The Men- New Moon 

every new record by The Men sounds like an entirely different kind of band. on New Moon we find them abandoning noise rock and shoegaze in favor of a sound closer to Uncle Tupelo and Neil Young. 

Pissed Jeans- Honeys

i’m gonna go ahead and say the new Pissed Jeans record is the best Pissed Jeans record even though it sounds exactly like all the other Pissed Jeans records. And all those Pissed Jeans records sounded like The Jesus Lizard covering Black Flag’s My War. noise rock, sludge, 80s hardcore homages, songs about being a failure as a human man, shit to smash your face against the wall to…that’s what Pissed Jeans do and on Honeys they still are doing it fucking well.

Oblivians- Desperation 

90s legends returned from the grave with a record that’s still full of the same trashy garage punk soul as their beloved early shit. 

Destruction Unit- Deep Trip

an excellent combination of noise, space, and krautrock into one beautiful record of rock n roll annihilation.

Turf War- The Great Escape EP

Atlanta garage rock boys showing off their love of Bruce Springsteen and The Replacements on 4 sweet slices of anthemic Southern Punk. this is party music of the rowdiest kind.

Mikal Cronin- MCII

Ty Segall’s buddy and constant collaborator unleashes a perfect little record of catchy sunshiney 60’s inspired pop. 

Psychic Ills- One Track Mind

moody droned out Spacemen 3 & Velvet Underground inspired psych-rock.

Deafheaven- Sunbather

like if Converge and My Bloody Valentine had a black metal baby.

Purling Hiss- Water On Mars 

crunching fuzzed out garage punk mixed with 70s hardrock that sounds like this is always going to be something i love. like mudhoney & dinosaur jr mixed with a little bit of blue cheer psych blues thrown in for good measure. this is the good shit. this is the rock n roll shit. this is the turn it the fuck up loud and blow your speakers out shit. get this shit. i recommend this shit.

Bambara- DREAMVIOLENCE

a 30 minute brutal caterwaul of No Wave, Noise Rock, and Shoegaze influences that reminds me that it’s always better to just be fucking loud.

Crystal Stilts- Nature Noir

another offering from these out of time noise popsters who are still borrowing from the best (Velvet Underground, C86, The Clean, every single thing that has ever been cool and /or jangly). not to undersell Crystal Stilts as some copycats with good record collections, these guys know how to write a catchy fucking tune. 

Pop. 1280- Imps of Perversion

it’s difficult to classify Pop. 1280 as these are modern times and they shove everything from No Wave, Noise Rock, Goth, Synth & Post-Punk into a meat grinder and come out with a sound that would be best described as: Fucking Dark. a little bit of Swans, a little bit of Killing Joke, a heavy dose of late 90s post-hardcore legends The VSS…this is music for black leather jackets and blood soaked floors. this is music that wants to pummel you with it’s fist. if they still have a music scene left in Escape From New York, this is probably the shit they were making. love songs for the post-apocalypse. 

other records i liked that i don’t really have much to say about were:

Primal Scream- More Light
White Fence- Cyclops Reap
Crocodiles- Crimes Of Passion
Deerhunter- Monomania
No Age- An Object
Kurt Vile- Walkin’ On A Pretty Day
Chelsea Light Moving- self titled

Fuzz- self titled

Halloween Playlist 2013

Rock N' Roll Halloween Massacre Part 2: The Revenge 

1. The Mummies- The Fly
2. The Meteors- Corpse Grinder
3. The Cramps- What's Behind The Mask?
4. The Scientists- There's A Monster In Me
5. Dead Moon- Graveyard
6. Rocket From The Crypt- I Drink Blood
7. Party Fowl- We're Gonna Eat Your Brains
8. The Black Lips- Buried Alive
9. Wooden Shjips- Vampire Blues
10. The Chesterfield Kings- Running Through My Nightmares
11. The Gruesomes- The Witch
12. Thee Gravemen- My Girlfriend Is A Werewolf
13. Slaughter & The Dogs- Victims of the Vampire
14. Erazerhead- Werewolf
15. The Revillos- Jack The Ripper
16. Lydia Lunch- Spooky
17. Dave Edmunds- The Creature From The Black Lagoon
18. X- Devil Doll
19. Dead Boys- Son Of Sam
20. The Fleshtones- Screaming Skull
21. Radio Werewolf- 1960 Cadillac Hearse
22. Lee Kristofferson- Night Of The Werewolf
23. Destroy All Monsters- Vampire
24. Redd Kross- Linda Blair
25. 45 Grave- Fucked By The Devil
26. Christian Death- Skeleton Kiss
27. T.S.O.L.- Black Magic
28. The Flesh Eaters- See You In The Boneyard
29. Scratch Acid- Cannibal
30. Sonic Youth- Halloween
31. Alan Vega, Alex Chilton, & Ben Vaughn- The Werewolf
32. Roky Erickson & The Aliens- Night Of The Vampire
33. The Misfits- American Nightmare

a sequel to last year's Halloween playlist. get it here.

Baby, It's Just You (Love Songs For Fall 2013)

Baby, It’s Just You 

1. West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band- I Won’t Hurt You
2. David Bowie- Soul Love
3. Nolan Strong & The Diablos- If I Oh I (Could Be With You)
4. The King Khan & BBQ Show- I’ll Be Loving You
5. Hasil Adkins- I Want Some Lovin’
6. Dead Ghosts- I Want You To Know
7. The Milkshakes- I Want You
8. Holly Golightly- Your Love Is Mine
9. The Rolling Stones- Mercy, Mercy
10. The McCoys- Sorrow
11. The Gun Club- I Hear Your Heart Singing
12. The Growlers- Someday
13. Billy Bragg- Love Gets Dangerous
14. The Modern Lovers- Someone I Care About
15. The Velvet Underground- Temptation Inside Your Heart
16. Dead Moon- Can’t Help Falling In Love
17. The Kinks- And I Will Love You
18. The Cryin’ Shames- Please Stay (Don’t Go)
19. The Brian Jonestown Massacre- If Love Is The Drug Then I Want To O.D.
20. Ty Segall- Lovely One
21. T. Rex- Precious Star
22. The Beach Boys- All I Wanna Do
23. Mazzy Star- She’s My Baby
24. Crocodiles- She Splits Me Up
25. Richard Hawley- Darlin’ Wait For Me
26. Betty Hope- Just A Little Bit More
27. Love- Always See Your Face
28. Chris Bell- Speed of Sound
29. The Walkmen- Save The Last Dance For Me
30. Daniel Johnston- True Love Will Find You In The End

Get It Here

The Mummies on San Francisco Cable Access

Happy Anniversary, In Utero....My Favorite Album Of All Time.

the 20th anniversary edition of In Utero is out today. there are better albums that have been written, but there will never be another album by any band that will ever mean more to me than Nirvana's last studio effort. 

i was 13 years old in 8th grade listening to Guns N' Roses and Bell Biv Devoe when Nevermind came out and it may be cliched as fucking hell but it definitely changed everything after that. it's weird to actually notice a cultural shift but being from a boring nowhere place like Augusta, GA listening to Nirvana (and later Sonic Youth) was a FUCKING HUGE way to separate myself from most of the redneck, jock, asshole kids i went to school with. they weren't just a band. not to me. not to lots of kids like me. 

flash forward 2 years and now i was a 15 year old zitfaced Nirvana worshipping 10th grader, just like the millions of other zitfaced Nirvana worshipping teenagers all over suburban America whose musical maturation was linked to a white trash kid from Aberdeen, Washington who knew how the fuck to combine punk rock noise with power pop hooks. gone were my Guns N' Roses and Motley Crue  tapes, having been replaced with The Melvins, Mudhoney, The Wipers, Black Flag, and Jesus Lizard. and all that 15 year old kid wanted to hear was the next Nirvana record.

it's very difficult all these many years later to explain how inspiring it was to to listen to In Utero those first few times when i brought the CD home from Sam Goody. here was the biggest fucking band in the world following up the most influential album of the decade with a fucking noisey punk record. it was both a fuck you album and an invitation. nothing would ever sound better to my ears. nothing would ever excite me as much musically. nothing ever got cranked louder in my bedroom. nothing could have better soundtracked my own cliched teenage alienation. 

as far as the 20th anniversary edition goes....well Teenage Angst really has paid off well, cuz here i am, a man in my 30s buying an album I ALREADY OWN out of some misplaced since of teenage nostalgia...but then again, i at least already know i like the damn thing. the remastered tracks and b-sides are great and all, but i will admit that the 2013 Steve Alibini remix is pretty fucking killer. he makes the record sound completely new again. everything is louder and noisier and more alive. 

20 years later and In Utero is still my favorite fucking album of all time and it fucking always will be. thanks, Kurt. you may have been a selfish dick, but you sure knew how the hell to write some killer music.