I actually stumbled upon this one myself.
Hunx Turns 30 Today
Handsome Furs on CNN
Beavis and Butthead On Fake Plastic Trees
Classic
Chris
Classic Album Review: At Action Park
Artist: Shellac (of North America!)
Full Title: At Action Park
Year: 1994
Label: Touch and Go
Grade: A
Tracks:
1) My Black Ass– 10, Open up a can of whip (black) ass!2) Pull the Cup- 7
3) The Admiral- 8/9
4) Crow– 9
5) Song of the Minerals– 9
6) A Minute– 9
7) The Idea of North- 8
8) Dog and Pony Show– 9
9) Boche’s Dick– 9
10) Il Porno Star– 9
Comments: Steve Albini is Killing Me Slowly with His Songs! At Action Park delivers a full blast of audio assault and yet it’s so soothing to my ears. Albini and crew whip you with their guitars, so brutal you are wetting yourself in Kim Gordan’s panties. But, it aint rape man ahaha, it’s a fucking fix! Most artists I adore are very pop like in nature. With Albini, it’s a whole other kitten to tackle. The Albini “sound” is heavily guitar driven, mean fucking guitars complemented by pounding drums (“Crow” is a great example of this). The record opens with the beloved, fan favorite, “My Black Ass,” an immensely catchy number and one of the best guitar riffs in all of Rock music. There’s a spectacular groove that just rolls through your headphones and slides down your skin; it feels better than sex… ok, I have no authority to say that :( but, it will one day feel better than sex :). This groove thang is commonplace throughout AAP, but is best exemplified in the closing track, “Il Porno Star,” which highlights one of Albini’s greatest talents: Dark, strangely humorous, and often malevolent lyrics. Albini shouts, “Porno Star Arrives… No English… No Money.” Go Figure. Overall, I highly recommend this classic to all Albini fanatics and newbies as well. If you don’t like it, you can kiss MY (BLACK) ASS!
Chris
Woe Is KLYAM?!
I haven’t had access to a computer for a couple of days, hence the lack of posts. I think the last post was made on Thursday. Damn, too long! Oh well, reviews, chris ons, and miscellaneous are on their way. Enjoy!
Chris
King Khan BBQ Show In AE
Go to your nearest American Eagle (or just take my word for it) and you might just hear The King Khan & BBQ Show. Take a look:
Don’t be mistaken for genius on part of the corporation, though. Radio K, the radio station of University of Minnesota, won some competition that allows them to have their customized play-list looping throughout all stores in the USA for a select time period. Other great bands that you might hear if you go into an American Eagle (why the fuck would you in the first place?) are Atlas Sound, Deerhunter, Girls, Handsome Furs, Julian Casablancas, MGMT, Peter Bjorn and John, Phoenix, Shout Out Louds, Thee Oh Sees, The War on Drugs, Thurston Moore, and Yo La Tengo. Typical college radio.
Ham Talks New Album
Hamilton Leithauser on The Walkmen’s untitled sixth studio album:
I’m not 100 percent sure what’s going to be on it; we’ve written so many songs. We wrote a lot of songs for You & Me, but we ended up basically using like 90 percent of them on the record because we wanted it to be a long record. But this time, I think we recorded 22 songs or something like that. There’s talk of doing a 20-song record or something, a White Album kind of a deal. But I don’t think that going to fly because I’m not sure that all of them deserve to be on it. But I mean, I don’t know. It’s coming along nicely now. We just did our first session by ourselves. We haven’t done one of those, where we engineered everything and recorded, in like five years. I’m really happy with the way we did it. I was actually impressed that we could still do it.
CD Review: Beat The Devil’s Tattoo [2010]
Band: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Release: 3/2010
Label: Vagrant
1. “Beat The Devil’s Tattoo” – A-
2. “Conscious Killer” – B-
3. “Bad Blood” – B
4. “War Machine” – B-
5. “Sweet Feeling” – C+
6. “Evol” – C+
7. “Mama Taught Me Better” – B
8. “River Styx” – B-
9.”The Toll” – B
10. “Aya” – B
11. “Shadow’s Keeper” – C+
12. “Long Way Down” – C+
13. “Half-State” – B+
Comments: Kasabian, say what?! My reviews are based on impulse and usually aren’t structured AT all. Like what I just said. I brought up Kasabian and then made a random comment. And then I just did it again. Okay, what I meant to say is that as soon as I first popped on “Beat” all I could hear was the band Kasabian with a bit more overt influence of the blues and garage rock. That’s basically a pretty good thing. I think the song could have exploded in some parts more effectively, but overall it’s memorable and great and all that crap. There is an apparent line in between forgettable and pretty cool. For a song like “Bad Blood,” it’s something that I normally would dig, but has me scratching my chin at some points. It’s funny how BRMC really wears its influences on its sleeve. I can even see a band like The Dig drawing influence from BRMC, even if it’s unintentional or indirect. Just look up The Dig and you’ll see what I mean. The thing about BRMC is that they seem to give a shit about what they are putting out. A lot of other garage rock bands that I love and adore don’t come across as spending a shit load of time on every song. I’m not being critical of one way or another…just putting what I hear in words. Another thing I’m getting: BRMC is probably a tight live band.
Grade: B- (82)
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 