Friday 31 December 2010

Soundtrack to my Year























These are the albums that made me
jump up and down the most this year.

Loads are new but there are a lot from
last year or years ago that I have only
discovered or got around to listening
to in 2010.

My outstanding top releases were:

Stooges - Live at Hammersmith
Kongh - Shadows of the Shapeless
October File - Holy Armour from the Jaws of God
Git Some - Loose Control
Coliseum - House with a Curse
Envy - Recitation
NoMeansNo - Wrong

Followed very closely by:

Ganon - As Above, So Below
General Lee - Hannibal Ad Portas
Wo Fat - Psychedelonaut
Boris - Heavy Rocks
Rosetta - Wake/Lift
Taint - All Bees to the Sea
Rinoa - An Age Among Them
St Vitus - Heavier Than Thou
Acid Tiger - S/T
Tia Carrera - The Quintessential
Bad Wizard - Free & Easy
Ceremony - Rohart Park
Black Bombaim - Saturdays & Space Travel
Alaskan - The Weak & the Wounded
Human Fly - Darker Later
Chickenhawk - S/T
Litany for the Whale - Dolores
Grinderman - 2
Killing Joke - Absolute Disscent
Touche Amore - To the Beat of a Dead Horse
Gil Scott Heron - Pieces of a Man
Electric Wizard - Black Masses
Gholas - 3araka
SirCusCus - Brutal Ethnology
Black Jazz - Shining
Part Chimp - Thriller
Melvins - Houdini
Phantom Glue - S/T

Well, I gave myself a year of blogging to see
what I could do - in the spring I decided that
when 2011 came up I would stop - it became a
chore to post every week day, no comments, no
feed back, take downs and doing it by myself
just seemed a bit - what's the point?

But ............

Visits increased, 'some' comments were being left and
more importantly I was talking to other blogs
and discovering shit loads of brilliant music that
could of passed me by. In particular, Veins Dried Out
introduced me to the murky and sometimes brain
exploding world of doom & black metal / very heavy
sounds and extreme noise rock.

In the last 3 months I have just been posting
whenever I feel like it or when a particular record
has hit the spot and that is the way I intend to
continue next year........ for a while at least!

See ya.

Wednesday 29 December 2010

Acid Eater - Black Fuzz on Wheels (2010)























What do they put in the water in Japan?

Acid Eater are from the same school of thought
as Guitar Wolf but have decided that more distortion
was needed! Fuzz on the vocals, drums, cymbals -
even the space between tracks seems distorted.

But the psych type keyboard riffs are clean!

Garage rock played at full volume - little surf
guitar breaks slotting in nicely - a healthy
disregard for vocal niceties - breakneck
punk tunes - delicate ears be warned!

Monday 27 December 2010

Xmas Posting
















My faithful download monkeys -
my posts will be sparse over the
next couple of weeks.

Now the kids are on holiday,
I can no longer make my money
selling drugs to school children
in the local parks.

I will be building up stocks by
stealing morphine drips from
all the terminally ill patients
in the Greater London area
but this all takes time and effort.

I will try to do a couple to satisfy
the BIL craving but cannot promise
too much.

I suppose you will be dreaming of your
ideal christmas present ..... the chance to
talk to a real girl/woman rather than your
cyber porn avatar.

Well, good news. I was in the final planing
stage of my ideal sniper spot - when I go, I'm
gonna take a lot of people with me - when a
parcel arrived ........ my prototype "Groin
Glove" for the X Box.

No more tossing off to Lara Croft and a box
of kleenex by your side. No, siree....

Slip over your "weapon of destruction" - you
can of course use your own nickname - when
secure and snug, activate the pressure nodes,
plug the USB end into your games console, set
the dial to full "Splurge" and away you go.

Within minutes, I was wiping steaming droplets
of Man Gravy from my monitor.

Just wish I had used the Tomb Raider game - I
felt a slight flush of shame as the burly plumber
from Mario leered at me.

See ya on the other side.

Friday 24 December 2010

Swans - Greed/Holy Money (1986)













As a small respite from all the
enforced yuletide cheer, here
are 2 Swans albums from each
end of 1986 on one CD.

You know what to expect
otherwise you are reading
the wrong music blog!

Thursday 23 December 2010

Fripp & Eno - No Pussyfooting (1973)

















Very early ambient/drone album - not
drone as it is today, there is no SunnO)))
heaviness but nevertheless there is a
quiet menace amongst the atmospherics.

Eno operates two tape decks that are
looping endlessly over each other while
Fripp improvises guitar solos - some
which are looped and some that drift
in and out.

The drones are ever shifting, with textured
layers of sound.

I have heard this called background music but
this deserves to be listened to as a record in
all its glory.

There is a interesting article about the recording
of this Here

Wednesday 22 December 2010

The Fertility Cult - Eschatology (2010)


















A fantastic band from Finland, The Fertility
Cult play a doom/stoner groove - think
faster Electric Wizard tracks ; "We Live"
era with a bit of early Kyuss.

But ......

...... with a saxaphone player. This really
changes the dynamics of the music. If you
like the anarchic playing of Steve MacKay
on the seminal Stooges "Funhouse" then
give this a Listen.

I found this on the wonderful and varied blog
Udols thanks man.

Tuesday 21 December 2010

The Jesus Lizard - Goat (1991)























Goat is the second album by the schizo-blues noise band.

Masterful rusty chainsaw guitar riffs scrape throughout
the songs backed by a rhythm section high on strange
punk/funk mutant psychotic moonshine, which all sets
the stage for David Yow and his deranged vocals which
(to my mind at least) remind me of Bad Uncle Nick in
the Birthday Party.

Produced by Steve Albini so you know what to expect -
I know I said I had no more Albini stuff left but so many
of my most played albums feature him in some way, so
expect him to come up again.

Monday 20 December 2010

Beefheart & Zappa - Bongo Fury (1975)



















Both gone - both missed, I don't see many
people coming up to replace them either.

Friday 17 December 2010

The Flaming Lips - Clouds Taste Metallic (1995)

















London is dark, wet, cold and todays
post had concert tickets, which mean
I will be taking my 9 year old daughter
and her mate to her first gig - Wembley
Arena - where I have seen Bowie, Metallica,
The Cult, Alice Cooper and others but next
week I will have to sit through a pile of
steaming shite served up by a bunch of
auto-tuned, dancing twats who call themselves
a "band" and who come from that nail in the
coffin for music show - the Shit Factor!!!!

Anyway, here is some sunny underground pop
psychedelia.

Thursday 16 December 2010

Count Five - Psychotic Reaction (1966)



















This album from the Count Five had their
most famous track - Psychotic Reaction ...
a raw fuzzed out slab of garage rock. Some
of the other tracks are not quite up to this
standard but think Stones doing early r'n'b
covers and add on some thick fuzz guitar
tones which in '66 must of been fantastic
to hear for the first time.

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Alien Sex Fiend - Who's Been Sleeping in My Brain? (1983)























Shut up! Stop moaning - this is not "goth" ......Nik Fiend
likes to white out his face but this is not music for pale
faced students dreaming of sucking off Neil Gainman.

ASF play a dark version of punk art-rock. For this and the
next 3-4 albums - before they became very electro based-
crappy old synths churned out primitive tribal drum
patterns, guitars riffed away drowned in fuzz and reverb
with an almost psychobilly feel and then there was the
vocals - shouting, talking, chanting, crooning away with
insane lyrics that seemd to be made up on the spot.

"Acid Bath" and "It" were very good as well.

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Hawkwind - Warrior on the Edge of Time (1975)



















This is the last album with Lemmy on. Following
on from "Hall of the Mountain Grille", this has
a more clean cut rock sound than earlier stuff.

Hey, it still has the space psych vibe but with
a much heavier and driving feel which seemed
to fade away in the next couple of releases -
which I have always put down to the lack of
Mr L.

Fantastic songs with a lot of lyrics from Michael
Moorcock - mostly from his Eternal Champion books -
but most of all a great listen all the way through.

As this is from my CD, it also has the bonus tracks:
Kings of Speed and a very slow version of "Motorhead"
........ oh yeah, this would surface in a years time sounding
very different indeed!

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Head of David - Dustbowl (1988)























A heavy sounding band with Justin Broadrick
in before he went on to form Godflesh and
Jesu, Head of David were signed to Blast First
and are described as Industrial Rock/Stoner.

I can also spot bits of Killing Joke/Sabbath/
Sonic Youth.

Using a drum machine as a noise weapon, murderous
bass and uber heavy guitar, riff after riff pound
away in a thrilling mixture of power and scuzz.

This was produced by Steve Albini and (unlikely
as it seems!) gave them quite a 'rock' sound
complete with guitar solos and tunes!!

Friday 3 December 2010

Big Black - Songs About Fucking (1989)























Steve Albini led band using a drum machine and an
abrasive guitar sound that did not care who it hurt!

This went beyond post-punk and took in hardcore
and noise rock ...... the first time I heard them
described as this, it made perfect sense.

Big Black's pounding drum machine rhythms,
repeated guitar riffs and abrasive textures must
of played no small part in the blueprint for
industrial rock.

This is a savage album but with a controlled fury.

Thursday 2 December 2010

Public Image - Album (1986)






















Lydon, Ginger Baker and Steve Vai. Even in black and
white in front of you, it seems an impossible band to
ever come together.

Well, it happened and guess what - it was great.

Huge sounding drums, a fluid shifting bass line + Vai
guitar work - not too widdly in the solo department
and harsh sounding chords which blended with the
vocals ....... Lydon employed all his vocals trademarks -
the "warble", shouting, sneering and even a bit of singing!


This is a very solid record with no filler tracks - classic
song writing is in evidence here.

Some PIL fans thought it "too rock" but I liked it.

I have stuck with Mr Lydon through some absolute
crap as well as some tracks of genius and I just wish
that he would get together with a heavy guitar sound
for a whole album.

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Devo - Live at Walkers (1978)























The Spud Boys from Akron, play a blinder on this live
album. I have always thought that the studio recordings
sounded a bit tinny and lifeless compared to seeing them
in the flesh.

This captures the manic intensity and crazed performance.

Are we not men?

No - we are Devo

D-E-V-O!