albums of note that I'm hearing for the first time

Duff... wrote:

undo wrote:

I'm not actually done listening to this yet but I might as well get started on a post about it... because I feel like I'm going to forget about this one completely by the time it's finished!

I'm interrupting the post that was as in progress here because it was getting very negative and there's a strong chance that at least one person here really likes this. I'll just say that my first impression of this is not particularly great. The vocals aren't doing it for me. The lyrics are just kind of there but don't really suggest anything nearly as profound as the reputation of this album seems to suggest (although there's a lot of additional attention that I could be focusing on them with that I'm just not giving right now). About halfway through this album and I'm not really hearing any traces of the psychedelic masterpiece this is supposed to be. I'd rather be listening to Deserter's Songs or, yeah, anything by The Flaming Lips.

This sounds like a band that was indeed dialed into the direction that indie rock and/or modern music was soon heading but this isn't really grabbing me as an album that feels urgently relevant now or at any point in the last 20 years.

This is more or less how I felt about it when it came out, down to the "rather be listening to... The Flaming Lips" part. I remember kinda liking "El Caminos in the West" but not much else is really going on.

This all sorta bums me out. There are so many beautiful little songs on this album, imo, and I think the theme of technological alienation as a metaphor for latent alcoholism is pretty moving. I also like that the whole thing was recorded by Jason Lytle on his own - it really feels grand and "band-like" for such a thing. In my mind, it's the American Kid A - I'm not unique in thinking that, obv - and that still appeals to me. Of course, I sorta grew up with this album so it's impossible to untangle my more juvenile feelings from the ones I got now. Also, I have a beautiful memory of holding my oldest daughter in my arms when she was 5 or so and bouncing around the living room with her to the beat of "The Crystal Lake" and her giggling uncontrollably asking for it again and again and that's something I'll take to the grave.

I really don't like being a downer in here.

I like the idea of just randomly picking some album to listen to that I've never heard before and just dumping my immediate reaction to it... and sometimes that can be illuminating or interesting or worth reading. And sometimes it will be the opposite of that. Either way, this won't be a thoughtful analysis.*

And yet, my ego demands that voice be heard and tells me that my distracted, half-baked reactions are worth sharing, probably just as much as any of the longest reviews that I've ever written in the past and tried to take seriously, because I'm sure as hell not writing that kind of thing anymore and this is the ceiling of the effort that I'm actually going to put in to engage with musical recordings going forward.

* But I'm also in the business of trying to convince you and everyone else here that it is. Or maybe I'm trying to convince myself, forever on a mission to live out certain ideas I had about myself and about the world a whole 20 years ago, a mindset I eventually did take notice of but never fully discarded: that I definitely have interesting and cool opinions, and that those opinions are worthless if they're not shared.

Michael K. wrote:and I think the theme of technological alienation as a metaphor for latent alcoholism is pretty moving.

This all went over my head, but of course it would because I wasn't really engaging with the album at all, because I don't really do that sort of thing anymore. I have memories of doing that quite a lot in the past, so I probably just assume that's still happening somewhere deep in my subconscious mind, when in reality it's simply not and I just have run of the mill middle aged Internet/COVID/weed mind rot.

Since the late 00s I've slowly drifted away from traditional rock 'n roll towards music that's much more concerned with atmosphere and texture and vibes... for the individual, this can feel like a narrow and hard to find path, and it's easy to pat yourself on the back for "choosing" it. And yet... isn't this the direction that most of "indie music" has drifted over the last 15 years? I'm just being carried by the currents of culture, while falsely believing that I'm paddling my own canoe in it. I think I've just lost the ability to connect to traditional rock music that I don't have a preexisting deep emotional connection with. I guess that's sort of normal and not the end of the world... except when you pride yourself on being a very open-minded listener with impeccably diverse and timeless tastes, then you're just playing yourself!

Spoiler:

Michael K. wrote: Also, I have a beautiful memory of holding my oldest daughter in my arms when she was 5 or so and bouncing around the living room with her to the beat of "The Crystal Lake" and her giggling uncontrollably asking for it again and again and that's something I'll take to the grave.

Well don't let us assholes take this away from you.

Michael K. wrote:

Duff... wrote:

undo wrote:

I'm not actually done listening to this yet but I might as well get started on a post about it... because I feel like I'm going to forget about this one completely by the time it's finished!

I'm interrupting the post that was as in progress here because it was getting very negative and there's a strong chance that at least one person here really likes this. I'll just say that my first impression of this is not particularly great. The vocals aren't doing it for me. The lyrics are just kind of there but don't really suggest anything nearly as profound as the reputation of this album seems to suggest (although there's a lot of additional attention that I could be focusing on them with that I'm just not giving right now). About halfway through this album and I'm not really hearing any traces of the psychedelic masterpiece this is supposed to be. I'd rather be listening to Deserter's Songs or, yeah, anything by The Flaming Lips.

This sounds like a band that was indeed dialed into the direction that indie rock and/or modern music was soon heading but this isn't really grabbing me as an album that feels urgently relevant now or at any point in the last 20 years.

This is more or less how I felt about it when it came out, down to the "rather be listening to... The Flaming Lips" part. I remember kinda liking "El Caminos in the West" but not much else is really going on.

This all sorta bums me out. There are so many beautiful little songs on this album, imo, and I think the theme of technological alienation as a metaphor for latent alcoholism is pretty moving. I also like that the whole thing was recorded by Jason Lytle on his own - it really feels grand and "band-like" for such a thing. In my mind, it's the American Kid A - I'm not unique in thinking that, obv - and that still appeals to me. Of course, I sorta grew up with this album so it's impossible to untangle my more juvenile feelings from the ones I got now. Also, I have a beautiful memory of holding my oldest daughter in my arms when she was 5 or so and bouncing around the living room with her to the beat of "The Crystal Lake" and her giggling uncontrollably asking for it again and again and that's something I'll take to the grave.

yeah same, i was also feeling very bummed about the reaction to this record but idk different people are different

different people are different, amen

undo wrote:All the while, I was cleaning up garbage in the woods by my home. I found a Gamecube disc buried under some leaves. I don't think it's going to play anymore.

Were you actually able to give this a try?  

In this moment of our geriatric lives you've already earned my respect many times over but damn if you had a gamecube just up and ready to go for this shit, I'd move mountains and build churches for you.

Anyway, I know this is an old videogame of WWF but it immediately made me think of old cds of WWF, and I'm gonna make it a point to listen to Macho Man's Be A Man album tomorrow on the way to work.  WWF-to-huge-pop culture crossover attempt moments are something I could very reasonably see dedicating a whole ass podcast to.  Surface-level stuff like The Rock being a thing and Hulk Hogan playing Thunderlips in Rocky III are a given obvi, but I'm really vibing on the extended double episodes that'd probably be necessary to adequately cover the important stuff like Macho Man's baseball/music careers, the ins and outs of Bret Hart's autobiography, and the blow-by-blow of Rowdy Roddy Piper's relationship with John Carpenter.

This album has like 4 different album covers and I don't know which is the "official" one but I'm pretty sure it's not a photograph of an ocean wave.



I am sort of familiar with the album that this is supposedly remixing. (Although I usually don't listen to the whole thing in one sitting or anything, it does have my favorite song by Chapterhouse on it but I also get it if that's not everyone's sort of shoegaze, etc. anyway...) Maybe if I listen to Blood Music a lot more then I'll start to actually hear traces of it in these tracks. Or not. Who knows?

Is that story about Aphex Twin sending in the fake remix tape for a Lemonheads song he was commissioned (?) to "remix" for the band actually true? Probably not? I'm not saying that the band isn't really remixing this music but somehow I get the feeling this is just a different (and also a potentially first) Global Communication album that just happens to have parts of Chapterhouse songs just stretched into little whisps of unidentifiable sound that just weave and wind their way through the dense fog this leaves in its wake. But really, I have no idea at all!

Okay here is the cover:



This is really good imo. Holds up in a way that even a lot of "good" ambient techno albums from that early/mid 90s don't quite anymore... but I refuse to name names! ymmv

Ned Braden wrote:

undo wrote:All the while, I was cleaning up garbage in the woods by my home. I found a Gamecube disc buried under some leaves. I don't think it's going to play anymore.

Were you actually able to give this a try?

I don't have a Gamecube. I am not optimistic that it will ever play. It's quite worn out and rotted on both sides.

You guys can come by my place to play it. My Gamecube's computer thinks it's 2136 but it still plays Super Mario Sunshine just fine.

Bark Psychosis - Codename:Dustsucker

This isn't the first time I've heard this album, but its the first time I've heard this album.

I listened to it when it was released in 2004. At the time, I heard it as very 'emo' and kinda wrote it off as such. Honestly, I probably scrolled through it and quickly wrote it off because it didn't sound 'new' to my ears at that time. I was into minimal (techno and contemporary classical), new weird America, and Japanese psych, and those genres were giving me albums that were 'changing my idea of music.' This album didn't sound fresh. It sounded similar to other soft midwest emo bands (slowcore) that were incorporating 'jazz' and 'electronic' elements into their music. So I wrote it off and left it alone.

I saw the original Undo thread in this forum and didn't respond at the time. But, I did re-listen and it struck me in the same way, emo. But, if I'm being honest, 'listen,' was a scroll through every few minutes of each track, quickly writing each one off as inferior to my taste at the time. (I'm guessing footwork, but I don't remember much of 2014.)

April 19th, 2024: Whoa, this is hitting today.
April 20th, 2024: Yup, This is HITTING today.
April 22nd, 2024: This album speaks to my soul. It knows my deep pain, and wants to caress me as a newborn.
April 23rd, 2024: Your Bandcamp purchase...

How about the 303 baseline on Miss Abuse? I mean, you know. This shit is timeless. I'm glad I didn't give up on it, because now, I fell like I need it.

2004, 2014, 2024. It’s a coincidence but also cool and weird, right?

I've been wanting to post about this for a couple of weeks now. I don't know if additional spins of this 14 year-old album is going to get me closer to anything interesting to say about it. I never heard this when it was new. I remember thinking the band name was a turn off, like it was trying too hard to be provocative, like "lol, can you imagine a band made up of women?" That can't be what they were going for, right? I don't think so. Maybe  when this came out (or their debut album a year or two before it) I'd already heard the band Girls and wasn't feeling them at all and didn't think it was cute when another band did the same gimmick with their name. This sounds ridiculous but that's absolutely where my head was at at the time so I wouldn't put it past me. But also, "indie rock" was feeling less and less urgent to me than ever around this time so who cares if another band came out that dudebros were going to freak out over and treat like the second coming of some scene that they never even knew existed until two years earlier? Etc.

Maybe this is one of the best "noise rock" albums ever? Is it derivative? I don't know, maybe? Like that matters if the songs are this good! There's some Sonic Youth-esque guitars in this, but that's only one part of the puzzle. I don't even really like to think about music in that way anymore, like they "stole" from post punk band A, B or Z, which is really just a way of propping up your own ego like you've somehow "figured out" their recipe for success or something.



This has been stuck in my head for days now. Weeks, actually! Sometimes even when I wish it wasn't.

The way these two songs bleed into one another is unlike anything I've ever heard before. Maybe not literally but I'm left with that impression.




I don't quite know how to put any of this into words, the most likely reason for that being a lack of understanding of exactly what this band is doing, but there's a timeless feel to these songs that I rarely experience alongside so many dissonant musical and sonic elements.

I don't have any big conclusion here. This was surprisingly good and has rewarded multiple listens.

I had never heard ///CODENAME: Dustsucker or Public Strain before and I have immensely enjoyed listening to them back to back to back to back. Thanks guys.

Weird coincidence, I was searching for black rice on the internet today and randomly remembered the Women song Black Rice (a potentially worrying amount of my listening boils down to connections like this nowadays). I never listened to Public Strain. Gonna check it out.

Public Strain is such a cool story at this point. It was released and well received but I don’t recall people considering it an instant classic and it certainly didn’t hit me that way.

I came back around to it after the Viet Cong album was released. I still listen to VC a bunch and have always enjoyed the Preoccupations albums.

Cindy Lee wasn’t something I got super into but Diamond Jubilee is on a whole different level for me. But all this has sprung from Public Strain which seems like an album that will continue to get discovered each year and lead to similar domino effects.