5) The Almighty Defenders- The Almighty Defenders
Top Tracks: “Cone of Light,” “The Ghost With the Most,” “She Came Before Me,” “Over the Horizon,” “Bow Down and Die,” and “All My Loving”
4) Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion
Top Tracks: “Summertime Clothes,” “My Girls,” “Brothersport,” “Lion In a Coma, ” and “No More Runnin”
3) Deerhunter- Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP
Top Tracks: “Disappearing Ink,” “Game of Diamonds,” “Famous Last Words,” and “Rainwater Cassette Exchange
2) The Pains of Being Pure At Heart- The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Top Tracks: “Hey Paul,” “A Teenager In Love,” “Come Saturday,” “Everything With You,” “Young Adult Friction,” “Contender,” “Stay Alive,” and “This Love Is Fucking Right!”
1) Black Lips- 200 Million Thousand big surprise lol
Top Tracks: “I’ll Be With You,” “Old Man,” “Drugs,” “Big Black Baby Jesus of Today,” “Starting Over,” “Trapped In a Basement,” “The Drop I Hold,” “Short Fuse,” “Take My Heart,” and “Let It Grow”
This list could possibly change if I hear other albums I like from this year, such as the recent Editors album, which is supposedly amazing and/or the upcoming King Khan & BBQ Show release.
Hopes: Jay plays an hour long set! The crowd is really into it and rocks out, so no one (including Jay) is pissed. I hope he plays all (yeah right!) or at least some of these classics: Blood Visions, It’s So Easy, My Shadow, Nightmares, Fading All Away, Waiting For Something, See/Saw, Screaming Hand, An Ugly Death, Always Wanting More, Trapped Here, DOA, No Time, You Were Sleeping, I’m Watching You, It Ain’t Gonna Save Me, Rotten Mind, and Faking It. As my list demonstrate, I want him to play mostly pre- Watch Me Fall material. Lastly, I hope the first four bands are terrific, but do not play too long, so we can get right into one of my current favorite artists, on record anyway.
Expectations: Jay plays about a half an hour. The crowd is more into the show than they were the last time I saw him, mosh more. Perhaps, he does not get pissed, if this is the case. He plays about half the aforementioned songs. The opening bands play longer than I would like. I might really dig one or more of the bands or not phased/interested in some of them.
Some jerk wanted to fight us for playing a “30 minute set” Which he claims is a rip off… I got news for him our set was 15 minutes.. Hey thats still 12 songs..I still owe him a punch to the head..
Hahahaha oh Jay.
If you go to http://www.jayreatard.com you can hear some sample songs from the bands that are on Jay’s Shattered Records Tour with him.
Box Elders: Vintage garage-pop! Hunx and His Punx: Also very vintage sounding; sounds like a hi-fi Reatard! Boneyard: Noise-punk of the Mika Miko variety! Useless Eaters: Lo-fi in the extreme; good bass lines!
So the verdict is that I really like what I’m hearing from all these bands that will be performing before Jay. Seems like this’ll be my first pure garage/punk rock show.
This time I am covering my favorite albums of the 00s, but I am including all of my favorites from the artist. Yay!
Against Me!- The Acousic EP (2001), Reinventing Axl Rose (2002), As the Eternal Cowboy (2003)
The Almighty Defeneders- The Almighty Defenders (2009)
Animal Collective- Here Comes the Indian (2003), Feels (2005), Strawberry Jam (2007), Merriweather Post Pavillion (2009)
Arcade Fire- Neon Bible (2007)
Arctic Monkeys- Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006)
At the Drive-In- This Station Is Non-Operational (2005)
Black Lips- Black Lips (2003), We Did Not Know the Forest Spirits Made the Flowers Grow (2004), Let It Bloom (2005), Los Valientes Del Mondo Nuevo (2007), Good, Bad, Not Evil (2007), 200 Million Thousand (2009)
Bright Eyes- I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning (2005)
Deerhunter- Rainwater Cassette Exchange (2009)
Deftones- White Pony (2000)
The Editors- The Back Room (2005)
Fugazi- The Argument (2001)
GlassJaw- Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence (2000), Worship and Tribute (2002)
Head Automatica- Decadence (2004)
Jay Reatard- Blood Visions (2006), Matador Singles ’08 (2008)
King Khan & BBQ Show- What’s For Dinner? (2006)
King Khan & The Shrines- The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines (2008)
The Mabuses- Mabused (2007)
MewithoutYou- Brother, Sister (2006)
The Nightwatchman- One Man Revolution (2007)
No Age- Weirdo Rippers (2007), Nouns (2008), Losing Feeling (2009)
Page France- Hello, Dear Wind (2005)
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart- The Pains of Being Pure At Heart (2009)
Sonic Youth- The Eternal (2009)
System Of A Down- Toxicity (2001), Mezmorize/Hypnotize (2005)
I am going to ignore the fact that this is a complete corporate sell out for all the bands involved, but hey, Jay/Black Lips/King Khan are a little older now, they don’t shit and spit (well…) on each other that much more these days, and HEY, it can’t be cheap paying for an apartment that you never live in, but regardless, the best bands in the world will be playing the free Scion Garage Fest, coming to Portland, Oregon on October 17.
The festival will go down at four venues: Satyricon, Berbati’s Pan, Someday Lounge, and Dante’s. Roky Erickson, the former 13th Floor Elevators frontman and general all-around psych-rock O.G., will headline. The bill also includes Black Lips, Jay Reatard, the King Khan and BBQ Show, the Almighty Defenders (the supergroup featuring the Black Lips, King Khan, and Mark Sultan), the Dirtbombs, the Deadly Snakes (reunited!), Simply Saucer, the Dutchess and the Duke, Harlem, Box Elders, the Beets, Fresh & Onlys, the Coathangers, and many others.
May I also say that I wish I lived in Portland, too?
Artist: Jay Reatard
Title: Matador Singles ’08
Year: 2008
1) See/Saw– 10- My personal favorite from Jay Reatard. It’s heavy, catchy, funny, surely one to get stuck in your head! To me, it exemplifies everything great about Jay’s music. He creeps me out, but he creeps me in again.
2) Screaming Hand– 9.8- A nice tale about the young Reatard singer and how he was different from everyone else and started his band. I love the “You are my hero” and “oh No No No.” Extremely catchy. I find that SH goes well following See/Saw.
3) Painted Shut– 9.5- Simply Classic Reatard
4) An Ugly Death– 10- I try to avoid giving out more than one 10 on any album, but this definitely deserves it! I think this was the first Jay song I came across and it is very powerful to say the least. I love the epic guitar opener; it just makes my ears anticipate what will happen next. Even after listening to the tune a ludicrous amount of times, I still can’t get over those powerful, yet simple chords. When I’m shuffling songs and AUD pops up on my ipod, I can never muster the will to turn it down. My actual favorite part of the song is the “for you, for me, for all to see” the vocals and guitar are just perfect. I also dig the ominous lyrics meshed with the upbeat music.
5) Always Wanting More– 8.8- One of my least favorites on this compilation, but nonetheless a hooky and genuinely decent tune.
6) You Mean Nothing to Me– 9.0- Typical Reatard. It gets stuck in my dome from time to time. In terms of lyrics, People being meaningless to Jay seems to be a recurring theme.
7) Fluorescent Grey– 9.2- This is a Deerhunter cover. Having never heard the original, I don’t know how it holds up, but I enjoy it very much. Giving the nature of Deerhunter’s music, this one is a bit softer and more experimental than previous Reatard singles/songs, lacking the familiar chainsaw guitars and pop hooks. It works though and foreshadows future Reatard talents.
8) Trapped Here– 9.6- Haha, I always find myself laughing at Jay’s disturbing, malicious lyrics! Violence, particularly one villain torturing his victim and remind them that they can’t escape and that they will soon parish is a frequent theme in the long haired punk’s lyrics. Memorable lyrics include “Relax, Relax, Relax, my little victim” and “You have nowhere to hide and you have everywhere to die.” Haha, the music itself, menacing, perfectly compliments the creepy lyrics.
9) Hiding Hole– 9.4- Another signature Reatard tune. Extremely, catchy, loud, fast guitars, fast, shouted vocals.
10) DOA– 9.8- One of the more popular singles and it’s certainly easy to see why. One of the heavier and yet absolutely endearing songs from this album. It includes perhaps the best example of the classic Reatard technique of slowing down the guitars and drums and simply shouting one line over and over again till its burned into your brain. In this case “It’s No Fun! It’s No Fun! It’s No Fun!” for whoever is dying on arrival haha.
11) No Time– 10- Once again, a rare 10! I love this song so much! Completely Unreatard. One (you’ll see) of the softest Jay songs I have ever heard. When I first heard this I was confused, I thought I may have put on a different artist. In this number, we see a gentle Jay (it sounds so strange) expressing his deepest emotions. “It seems I never have the time to make my mind feel fine,” Jay’s best lyrics and one of the best lines I ever heard period!
12) You Were Sleeping– 9.8- It gets even stranger! I can picture this and the former pissing some Reatard fans off. Especially some serious Blood Visions motherfuckers. Most of the previous statements I made about “No Time” apply here. It’s a sensitive song, I couldn’t even imagine Jay playing live when I saw him.
13) I’m Watching You– 9.7- A fabulous closer to a fabulous record! Softer than most Reatard songs, but heavier than the previous two. Unlike the other two though, it’s an upbeat single, but it’s similar to them in the sense that they all violate the typical Reatard format. I always smirk whenever I hear the line “You see, to me, you always were a cunt.” Haha. This is much better than the Watch Me Fall version in my opinion.
Grade: A:One of the best albums (though it’s technically just a compilation of singles) I’ve ever heard and certainly of the past few years. Probably the best from 2008. Jay and the gang bring their roaring flying Vs with them from Blood Visions and Singles ’06- ’07 and mash them up with more pop and delve into previously unknown or unforeseen territories! Foreshadowing their next effort, Watch Me Fall. There’s a notable progression that is perfectly displayed here.
Artist: Jay Reatard
Title: Blood Visions
Year: 2006
1) Blood Visions– 9.5- Perfect opener: loud, fast, simple catchy, a great foreshadow to everything else Jay would later do on this album and beyond.
2) Greed, Money, Useless Children– 9.2- Quick, little catchy number. Employs the classic Reatard pop technique of slowing down the guitars and drums and simply shouting one line repeatedly, in this case- “Greed, Money, Useless Children.” It is clearly effective and we see this over and over again.
3) It’s So Easy– 9.7- Lyrically this is classic Reatard. Apathetic… to the point of not caring when your friends die haha.
4) My Shadow– 10! Arguably the band’s greatest offering (actually “See/Saw” is my favorite!) or at least a major fan favorite. And it’s not hard to see why. The song begins with simple and slow, but menacing guitars then erupts into a heavy motherfucker with Reatard hollering MY SHADOW at the top of his lungs! The best track on this album by far.
5) My Family– 9.2- Funky guitars, spooky/disturbing lyrics, it works for me! Displays Jay’s bizarre interaction with the other humans or “assholes” haha in his life. This theme continues on this album and throughout his current discography.
6) Death Is Forming– 9.0- The classic Reatard technique is exemplified on this track. See #2 I dig how he evolves “Death is Forming” into “Forming Death” haha.
7) Oh It’s Such A Shame– 8.5- Decent, nothing wrong with it, but for some reason, just doesn’t stand out.
8) Not A Substitute– 8.8- Another typical Reatard track…. actually a bit shorter, but it works here.
9) Nightmares– 9.5- Excellent Pop song, sounds more like a track off Matador Singles ’08 or Watch Me Fall. Fabulous love/hate song. The lover Jay speaks of causes him to have horrible nightmares, yet he keeps “Searching” for her. Good Stuff
10) I See You Standing There– 9.0- Jay Stalker haha. Just listen to the lyrics to understand what I’m saying. Musically, very catchy and endearing. I especially love the final line, which is shouted extremely fast: “DON’T MOVE!” ahaha.
11) We Who Wait– 9.0- Great sing along. You could march this one haha. Once again we see lyrics containing themes of isolation and generally misanthropic thoughts.
12) Fading All Away– 9.9- Amazing! Hilariously savage. Lyrically this is a extremely malevolent tune about an apparently psychopathic/sociopathic/schizophrenic miscreant who will go to no end to kill his victim because of “the voices in my head.”
13) Turning Blue– 8.2- Eh, it’s a decent track, but comparatively it’s just ok. For some reason it doesn’t do all that much for me.
15) Waiting For Something– 9.9- Sums up Jay’s outlook on the people around him and his situation at the time. Waiting for something bigger to happen and get away from all the "creeps" surrounding him. Perfect title for the brief documentary on him, which I advise all fans to check out!
Grade: A: A fantastic example of modern punk music with undeniable pop hooks and elements of noise rock. One can hear glimpses of the incredible (noisy) pop Jay and his crew unleash in their future material.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 