Obits - I Want Results

I Want Results by Obits Listen on Posterous

The first album from Obits, a band that includes members of Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes, two longtime rock favorites of pretty much everybody who's watching the great indie rock underground, met high expectations because of the teaser 7-inch, "I Blame You"/"Get It In Writing." No shock, but it delivered. Hard.

So with the mix of surf and garage rock set for a sequel, Obits decided to deliver again, this time harder, with Moody, Standard And Poor. 

This is the album you'll want to be dancing to. There's just no way around it. I mean, sure, the lyrics are a little bitter, what with the regrets and the giving up on dreams and begging for a break but hot damn are these some bad ass rock and roll songs from some bad ass rock and roll men.

"No Fly List," "Killer", and "You Gotta Lose" stand out for their shimmying in your face on an album full of such tracks. Even when Obits goes instrumental "I Blame Myself" or nearly instrumental on "Spot The Pikey" (which, for my money, is a surf-y "Bankshot"), Moody, Standard and Poor is the right album for the end of a long week.

Yes, it's still Thursday. Which means you've got time to make this the Friday soundtrack. See that, I've got your back. Or at least your ears.

Buy Moody, Standard and Poor on mp3, CD or the all glorious vinyl from Sub Pop Records.

Posted via email from One Stupid Mop

All I want is to do my time card but I got the RED SCREEN OF DEATH? Seriously, I've got six days left. I hope.

Posted via email from Stephen Feller

Death From Above 1979 - Blood On Our Hands

Blood On Our Hands by Death From Above 1979 Listen on Posterous

For the last 24 hours, my Windows laptop has been uploading about 760 mp3s (about 4.2 gigabytes) to my Amazon Cloud Locker. Since I've been playing around with it, and did a very fast review of what was actually hitting the cloud, I ended up listening to very little new music today. 

(OK, the truth is I've been listening to the new TV On The Radio album all day, but I'm not ready to write anything about it yet, so just go with me on this. The album is stunningly mind blowing and on level with much of their greatest efforts. But really, I need to listen to it more before I pontificate.)

The one full length Death From Above 1979 put out, You're A Woman, I'm A Machine, is a mind bender, and an automatic add to any iPod, cell phone or cloud service that I'm filling with music.

So what has me posting about DFA1979 is that while I thoroughly enjoyed that album while working on community news about traffic calming devices and city bus routes was the riot that happened outside their set at South-By-Southwest, wherein the band played and people freaked the hell out. After the earth-shattering news that they were getting back together for a few big shows though, who could be surprised?

Enjoy the rock and roll. Buy this album is you don't already have it. For real, you need it. Now. Then you'll understand why, like me, you'd riot for these Sebastien and Jesse too.

Buy You're a Woman, I'm a Machine from Shockhound.

Posted via email from One Stupid Mop

Wagon Christ - Manalyze This!

Manalyze This! by Wagon Christ Listen on Posterous

Luke Vibert has two speeds: super fast jungle, which was mostly done under the name Plug, and which he really hasn’t done since the mid-90s; and everything else, which is just slower, and usually comes close to hip hop and techno, though often abstract and sometimes very danceable.

Wagon Christ, a great moniker if ever one has been created, has been home to abstract hip hop and sometimes ambient efforts for the full length of Vibert’s career. On Toomorrow, the first WC full length in seven years, it sounds like Vibert could bust out with Plug-style drum ‘n’ bass at any second. This album veers back and forth between dancey and laid back, but is never confusing and flows unshockingly well.

Vibert is an evil genius, somewhere between Richard D. James and Tom Jenkinson for actually portraying evil, but all three are equally responsible with a few others, for creating the mind-bending and stupidly-named but none the less obsessive attraction of Intelligent Dance Music.

While recording Wagon Christ, Plug and a few other names, Vibert explored rhythms and sampling in ways that require the listener to want to be there, much like his contemporaries. Put on any of his albums and watch the room clear, leaving only those aurally adventurous enough to nod their heads and wonder how long that beat can continue for.

“Manalyze This,” the third track on Toomorrow, is almost a pure techno track, and wouldn’t sound out of place in the 90s. This new album deserves to sit comfortably on the shelf with Musipal and Tally Ho!. It’s refreshing. Now if only Vibert would really drive us nuts with a new album from Plug, it would really feel like 1996.

Buy Toomorrow from Shockhound.
Buy other Wagon Christ albums from Shockhound.
Blow your mind with the classic Plug track “DBC.”

Posted via email from One Stupid Mop

Folk Implosion - Nothing Gonna Stop

Nothing Gonna Stop by The Folk Implosion Listen on Posterous

My children like to go through my CD racks and pull out the albums that interest them. By interest, I mean whatever album art catches their eye. The four faces on the soundtrack to the 1995 movie "Kids" gets them every time. This time, I didn't put it away though and instead threw the disc in the stereo.

Since Netflix doesn't even have "Kids" to rent on DVD, let alone stream, which is really piss poor, I couldn't immediately meet the urge to watch what is easily a favorite movie. And no, it's not a favorite simply because it offended and scared the hell out of so many parents and downright old people. "Kids" is entertaining. Though it was nothing like my real life at any point, I find it at least a little believable that it's a little like somebody's life.

The soundtrack, like so many others of the mid and late 90s, is exquisite. Two tracks from Daniel Johnston, two slow-burning and understated but no less significant ones from Sebadoh and Slint, and the handful of tracks from a then-unknown Folk Implosion, Lou Barlow's not really post-Sebadoh until it was post-Sebadoh groove-heavy hip hop influenced not-a-rock band.

The big hit was, and is, "Natural One," which is simple and sneaky and undeniable in bassline and beat. Barlow is calm, or stoned, in his delivery. Like a teenager about smack to the shit out of somebody with the wrong side of a skateboard. Or at least like a different teenager carelessly spreading his AIDS throughout his filth-mongering drunken hoard.

"Nothing Gonna Stop," the third track on the album, is no less steady or hauntingly perfect than "Natural One." The Folk Implosion, as good as they were on the albums after the "Kids" soundtrack, were never as good as on these two tracks. Forgive me for basking in the 90s, but you're not gonna try to tell me this song doesn't feel like perfect teenaged bliss, are you?

The soundtrack to "Kids" is out of print, but you can buy it from Amazon, as well as lots of other Folk Implosion stuff. Do that here.

Posted via email from One Stupid Mop

Is that Donkey Kong on my banana? Wii!

Now that's a clever bit of marketing. Gotta give the Nintendo folks credit for a good idea.

Posted via email from Stephen Feller

Screeching Weasel - What We Hate

What We Hate by Screeching Weasel Listen on Posterous

Ben Weasel's whole gig has been hating on everything. Last weekend at South by Southwest, he took it to a new level by punching two girls in the face after getting heckled, and the second one he hit more than once. As a result, his band has quit and pretty much nobody is accepting the apology. Look, that bitch who threw ice at him and then spit beer deserved to be escorted out, but Weasel should be able to be a professional.

I've loved Screeching Weasel (and the Riverdales, and the solo stuff) since the first time I heard Boogada Boogada Boogada sometime in 8th grade. It's still one of my favorite records, and that and both My Brain Hurts and How To Make Enemies And Irritate People have never been off any iPod I owned because I crave them. I listen to their records all the time. I even follow Weasel on Twitter, despite the fact that he comes off like a douche bag most of the time - which has always been his deal. I don't agree with a lot of what he thinks, especially when it comes to politics and usually when it comes to music, but his music has always been pretty good. New Times summed up just what he's known for pretty well. Check it.

There's a good chance I'll keep listening to those old records. There's also a good chance I'll talk a bunch of shit about Weasel while listening to them. What an asshole.

Don't buy anything from Screeching Weasel. Steal it if you can find, but don't give that dickhead a penny.

Posted via email from One Stupid Mop