As we plummet toward the end of this
wretched year, we are being bombarded with a mountain of new records
to help hold us up against the awfulness of the world around us. It
feels like I have been single handedly keeping the postal service in
business by the amount of vinyl mailers that are on my porch every
day when I get home.
. . .
The Hammered Hulls self-titled seven
inch that was put out by Dischord is the most frustrating of all the
new records that I've picked up. It's frustrating to me because no
record should be allowed to be that good and only have three songs on
it.
The band is Alec MacKaye (The Faith,
Warmers and Ian's younger brother) on vocals, Mary Timony (Autoclave,
Helium and Ex Hex) on bass, Mark Cisneros on guitar and Chris Wilson
on drums.
I end up listening to the same three
songs for damn near an hour hoping at some point an additional albums
worth of songs will magically appear but they never do. Hopefully
this single is just the warning shot of something more to come in the
near future.
Hammered Hulls--Bandcamp
. . .
Monolord has once again done what they
do best and dropped a building's worth of Swedish stoner/sludge onto
my turntable. No Comfort is
the band's first release on Relapse Records, the long time metal
label out of Upper Darby, PA.
I'll
have to do some more homework on their prior releases to confirm but
I think No Comfort is
the best Monolord has sounded, production wise, since I've been
listening to them. The low end rumble on the bass lines jumped out
at me immediately upon first listen.
Of course, there
was the usual over abundance of vinyl options pressed that this over
achieving nerd had to get his grubby little hands on. The most
creative of which was plain orange vinyl that also came with a slip
cover that was made out of the same material that is used to cover
Orange amplifiers.
No Comfort--Bandcamp
. . .
The
new incarnation of the Pixies brought forth Beneath The
Eyrie. I have really been
enjoying this latest run of albums that they've been putting out. Indie Cindy, Head
Carrier and Beneath
The Eyrie are very different
from the Pixies first spasm of creativity. There is no way the band
could recreate the magic that brought us their earlier albums so
heading in this new direction as solidly as they are is very
rewarding to the ears.
The
only downside of Beneath The Eyrie
is that it really makes me miss Jefferey Lee Pierce every time I
listen to it. I'm not saying that the Pixies are borrowing from the
Gun Club. The record makes me wish that Jefferey Lee Pierce was
still alive and playing with some version of the Gun Club and they
would tour with the Pixies. That is a bill that I would gladly
overpay Ticket Bastard fees to see. I always end up letting my
depression off the leash and listening to Mother Juno
after this Pixies record now. They fit so well together.
. . .
Boris
came bursting out of their laboratory with Love & Evol. They have moved over from Sargent House to Third Man for US
distribution this time around. As much as I have issues with Third
Man, the label did put together two reissues of hard to come by Boris
albums to go along with the new record. Feedbacker and
Akuma No Uta were
early Boris releases that were always way too expensive to pick up on
vinyl and at least that problem has been remedied.
As
with every Boris album Love & Evol
takes multiple listens to work through the density of what the band
has unleashed and I am still trying to wrap my brain around it. Seamlessly going from soundscapes to drones to paint peeling guitar
riffs to form one cohesive piece that makes me feel like I am not
smart enough and need to work harder to solve that problem.
In addition to
black vinyl through Third Man's mail order, there was a tour pressing
of orange and blue vinyl and an indie store exclusive of clear with orange and blue swirls. Buyer beware on the Love & Evol
tour exclusive vinyl. As pretty as the records are, they have a
distracting amount of surface noise. I haven't had a chance to
listen to the black vinyl yet to see if they suffer from the same
issue.
Feedbacker
and Akuma No Uta
also had tour pressings which are difficult to come by since Boris
came nowhere near Pittsburgh on their tour that just ended. To the
Discogs!!!
Love & Evol--Bandcamp
. . .
Until recently, I was opposed to using any public money being
used to rebuild the cathedral of Notre Dame. What changed my opinion
was hearing Ghosteen
by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. They should rebuild the cathedral,
have the Bad Seeds play the album front to back and then burn the
fucker to the ground after the performance because that will have
been the greatest thing to have ever happened in the building and it
will no longer serve a purpose.
I have
only listened to the album twice but I have been stopped dead in my
tracks both times. And again, I have been confronted by art that I
am not smart enough to understand without digging in with repeated
listens.
The
sounds that the mad genius Warren Ellis is creating feel so
incredibly large to me that the only venue that would be big enough
to contain them would be a cathedral. The only thing that I can
think of that could match the enormity of the synth sounds on
Ghosteen would be the
pipe organ in an old church.
As
always, Nick Cave is in fine voice and making me feel more than
inadequate when it comes to putting words next to each other in some
sort of form. I've already reacted more than once with “Oh, come
on” to his use of language on this record and I'm sure my feelings
of inadequacy will only get worse when I take a look at the lyric
sheet when the vinyl comes out in November.
It
feels like Nick Cave was first in line at the talent buffet and
didn't leave any for the rest of us.
. . .
Iggy
Pop has followed up Post Pop Depression with Free which
finds the true king of rock 'n' roll flipping the switch from rabid
badger to smooth crooner.
Iggy is
back in the same territory as his previous albums Preliminaires
and Apres where he has stepped away from the animal and
put his jazz singer chops on display.
Lyrically,
from beginning to end, Free sounds like Iggy is having fun
and being playful with his word selection. The second track, “Loves
Missing,” is the standout for me. The band establishes a groove
that could crack the Earth.
On
guitar, Iggy has enlisted the soundscape talents of Sarah Lipstate
who performs under the name Noveller. She was the opening act during the
Post Pop Depression tour back in 2016 and I was an immediate
fan of her brand of weirdness.
. . .
As I
have been going back over this stack of records, it suddenly dawned
on me why I was bored senseless by the new Tool album. All of these
bands and artists seem to be pushing forward and trying to break new
ground with their creativity or at the very least are attempting to
hone their craft. By doing that they're making me put in the same
amount of effort as a listener and expanding my musical palette.
Tool
seems to have made a record for 1997 me that didn't know anything as
opposed to house full of records me that is always looking for
something new and weird to jam into my earholes. I gave it three
listens and was still waiting for something to happen and relieved
that I only forked over money for a download. Maybe they should have spent less
time on designing the $50 CD packaging and more time on writing
better songs that would challenge the listener instead of showing
that they were stuck in a creative rut.
It
didn't really help their cause that I read about some of the singer's
problematic past behavior while looking into the hullabaloo
surrounding this release. I found myself regretting handing over the
money for the download and wanting to take a shower.
. . .
There
are still two months left in the year to see what else lands on my
turntable so there's at least that to look forward to. I haven't
even had a chance to listen to the new Kim Gordon record that came
out last week and I'm sure that will give me some level of brain
damage so I can't wait to get that one in my ears.
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