The Verlaines - Juvenilia (1987)

I'm posting this record because I've been obsessed with the long phrase that makes up the verse of the first song. That chord progression relentlessly forces all of my hairs to stand on end. If I can ever write a pop song that has a similar melodic effect, I will just pee in my own pants all day because that is all that there is left to do.

This is a collection of The Verlaines early EPs, and is chock-full of that good, nice, wonderful & catchy white-guy rock. Those Flying Nun white guys were really cranking it out in the 80s. Get obsessively into it.

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Lisa Gerrard - The Mirror Pool (1995)

All of my readers should already have all of Dead Can Dance's releases, so here's Lisa Gerrard's first solo album which really just sounds like another Dead Can Dance Record. My recent musical exploration has taken me to look into solo works of artists that I like (Paul Westerberg, Bob Mould, Brendan Perry, Lisa Gerrard, Sisqo, etc).

The melodic possibilities of harmonic minor and its modes are explored in fascinating detail here. The songs are less "song-like" than a lot of Dead Can Dance material and function more as melodic adventures over droning backgrounds. I wonder how much of this is improvised, and I wonder how many cues Lisa took from Kind of Blue and how many she took from Indian classical music. That said, shit still sounds medieval as fuck, so blast this Lisa Gerrard album and this youtube video simultaneously and enjoy the best that life has to offer.

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Demigod - The Slumber of Sullen Eyes (1992)

What makes this Scandinavian death metal release special is the darkness & murkiness that it shares with bands like Incantation & Immolation. Some of the melodic leads tend in a direction typical of Swedish death metal, but the dirges and mid-paced parts weigh the atmosphere down. For a perfect example of what I'm talking about, consider about four minutes into "Embrace the Darkness/Blood of the Punished." There is a nice melodic lead over a weird0 wobbly super low frownfest riff; love this juxtaposition of different sides of the death metal spectrum.

Demigod are willing to let a riff ride, which is a very admirable trait when riffs are good. This restraint is particularly admirable amongst riff-happy death metal bands. Phrases are often longer than the standard two measure melodic arc, and slight variations in percussion give motion. What a good way to write songs. Man although the one riff on the record that makes me go insane every time I hear it (the thirds with the backbeat about halfway through the title track) gets shorted a bit. Dang!

In conclusion, this Finnish band makes me think of sinking into a swamp more than any NOLA sludge ever has. A bog flows from my mouth, a bog flows from my mouth, a bog flows from my mouth.

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Guest Mix Volume 12 - Nick Donahue

Nick is really funny. Nick is good at drums. Nick loves music. We have long talks when I drop him off from band practice (we are in PAGAN YOUTH aka DIAPER together). Nick also plays in CANADIAN RIFLE and sometimes in CIVIC PROGRESS. This dude wrote a lot, so I'm only gonna write a little. You know what it is, load it down.

Hi, and welcome to Nix Mix. I put this together in the style of a CD sampler, the most enduring and provocative format for compiled music to date. If you like Wimbledon, please stick around. You're in for a treat! A lil' something about the music:

Some of these songs were prophetic at the time they were written. Consider the way Big Black's "Passing Complexion," from the 1986 album Atomizer, anticipated the way it would sound if the theme music for all twelve characters from Street Fighter II (a game released a full five years later) were layered and played simultaneously.

David Axelrod's 1970 album Earth Rot, where the selection here is from, is a lot like that song "God Hates the World" (adapted from the pre-Auto-Tune original version of the supergroup charity single "We Are the World") recorded by the Westboro Baptist Church a few years ago. It tries to get you squirmin' by making you feel like you're taking a bubble bath on a cloud, and then the cloud starts singing to you about how you're gonna die. The primary difference is that Axelrod's presumed god isn't the celestial embodiment of a far-right militia on a murderous rampage. Still, I think it could be played through massive, Jonestowny stereo equipment around the world and serve as the sonic nudge needed to make things feel really apocalyptic for half an hour.

Making a mix can be a mournful process. For instance, I'm crying right now. But seriously, folks...

I want to say something. Whether you're playing on clay, asphalt, grass, or carpet, inside or out, it remains true: there's nothing wrong with playing the game of life and ending up with "love." I hope these songs help you on that path. Game. Set. Match.

. Wipers - Taking Too Long
2. Skull Kontrol - Camouflage
3. Big Black - Passing Complexion
4. Minutemen - Paranoid Chant
5. Polvo - Feather of Forgiveness
6. The Rats - Defiance
7. Zomes - Petroglyphs
8. Louie Lasky - How You Want Your Rollin' Done
9. Willie Colon with Hector Lavoe - Que Lio
10. Ruby Andrews - You Made A Believer Out Of Me
11. Gal Costa - Cinema Olympia
12. Magazine - Cut-Out Shapes
13. David Axelrod - The Warning Talk (Part III)
14. Cold Sweat- Nightmare
15. The Fix - Cos The Elite
16. United Mutation - Final Solution
17. G.I.S.M. - ABC Weapons
18. Rudimentary Peni - Sonia
19. Born Against- Five Dollars An Hour
20. Condominium - Barricade
21. Billy Bao - Factory of Repression
22. Masta Ace, Inc. - Boom Bashin'
23. O.V. Wright - He's My Son (Just The Same)
24. Richard & Linda Thompson - The Calvary Cross
25. Geechie Wiley & Elvie Thomas - Last Kind Words Blues
26. The Breeders - Oh!

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International Harvester - Sov Gott Rose-Marie (1969)

This record starts out with an ominous theme stated amongst bird songs. Unlike much of the psychedelia of this era, the myth of a flower-coated noble savage does not exist here. Similarly, progress and refinement are rejected, and the dark side of nature is embraced.

A droning version of song structure is applied throughout and creates a hypnotic effect. A theme is repeated until it reaches atmospheric saturation and it begins to tickle ritualistic impulses. These are rich melodies filled with just the right amount of whimsical trippiness to mold your imagination into a beautiful, Stravinskian pagan scene.

And don't think for a second that just because there's a clarinet on one of the tracks that this is useless music dressed up with surface level "interestingness." Bizarre instrumentation and sound effects supplement textures and structures perfectly capable of standing on their own.

I would hesitate to draw too solid of a line between this release and the Norwegian black metal scene of the early 90s, but I will say that Scandinavians writing droney, minimalistic music that lashes out against modern civilization is one of my favorite things.

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This review originally appeared in Jettison Quarterly.

War Cry - Trilogy of Terror Demo (1983)

Metal celebrity Paul Speckmann's (of Master & Death Strike duh) early work. While his later bands recorded some of the best primitive riffing of all time, this is Sabbath worship at its finest. Chicago metal, represent represent.

Later doom bands can plod, but they are not this heavy because their songs are boring. Later stoner bands know the pentatonic scale, but that riff factory is about worn out. This demo deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Saint Vitus & Trouble.

Also, I'm a connoisseur of "ooh"s, and the one at the beginning of "Wicked Warlock" is fucking phenomenal. Nice and drawn out. It's also cool because it sounds like dude is pushing down on his floating bridge while chugging, so the pitch keeps wavering. Happy accident or genius subtle touch? Either way: WICKED WARLOCK! OOH!

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Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus & Max Roach - Money Jungle (1962)

Recently, I've been making an effort to control the magnitude of the media consumption in my life by tying up loose ends. This means I've been finishing books, finishing series, and plowing through archives of unlistened-to music. I finished Twin Peaks & Ken Burns' Jazz in the last week. While that Ken Burns film is pretty annoying in a lot of ways, there is some excellent material in there, like this little gem which you may have seen if you are my friend on social networking behemoths Twitter & Facebook: When presented with the Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon, Ellington kissed Nixon four times. When the president asked why, Duke replied "one for each cheek."

Anyway, Money Jungle is an old favorite of mine. This recording is weird in a way that almost seems aggressive, but actually quickly settles into a feeling of "oh actually these guys are just way the fuck smarter than me." Listening to this thing is throwing off my internal equilibrium and I'm reeling around in my chair. Or maybe it's just weird allergy-related sinus pressure.

On the title track, Duke's piano trills and Mingus's bizarre bass slides and Roach's surprisingly hard-hitting drumming are legitimately unlike anything that I've ever heard. This is kind of like a Sun Ra record in that it exists entirely in its own musical paradigm. The theme to Wig Wise actually reminds me a lot of Thelonious Monk, with it's slightly off-kilter pacing and almost dissonant melody, with a playful-sounding resolution to the phrase.

I've been meaning to really dig into Duke's discography for awhile, and I'm gonna do that as soon as I've caught up on my "to listen to" folder. Life goals, man. Life goals.

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Guest Mix Vol 11 - Lauren Lorendewski

Hey look here, my friend Nora Liebenbowski is a genius geologist, and is really into death metal and Klaus Nomi. The above picture is of her living the dream at the Tibetan Plateau this last summer, which is probably cooler than anything that you and I will ever do. Read Ms. Lunarovski's paper here in several months when it is published. And hey, I recently got into The Lemonheads because people said my band sounds like them. Anyway, this mix is awesome. DEAD! YOUR GOD IS DEAD! FOOLS! YOUR GOD IS DEAD!.

I spend about nine months of the year sitting at a desk in Michigan nerding about things like plateaus and mountains. The other three months I attempt to fulfill the destiny of a girl raised in the suburbs by traveling, hiking, etc. As fucking brutal as modeling plate tectonics is, I sometimes have trouble working in front of a computer when there are so so so many cool rocks for me play with outdoors.

My mix is composed of the songs that help me get through my infinite work days-the ones that after a 12 hour date with my computer I realize I have listened to on repeat 3045834503485 times, mostly because they remind me of gratifying experiences anywhere but my office in Michigan. Actually, every day I just listen to the entire Bat Out of Hell album on repeat, but I thought people who didn’t get it might become bored with a pure Meatloaf mix:

Tracklist:

1. Talking Heads - This Must be the Place
2. Alkaline Trio - Nose Over Tail
3. Nick Drake - Place to Be
4. Screeching Weasel - I Wanna be a Homosexual
5. Descendents - Pervert
6. R Kelly - I'm a Flirt
7. The Smiths - Miserable Lie
8. The Temptations - Isn't She Pretty
9. Yo La Tengo - Center of Gravity
10. Billy Bragg - California Stars
11. Archers of Loaf - Fat
12. Lemonheads - Rockin Stroll
13. Morbid Angel - Chapel of Ghouls
14. New Order - The Village
15. The Wedding Present - All This and More
16. Bob Marley - Don't Ever Leave Me
17. Woob - Creek
18. The Misfits - Skulls
19. Gorguts - Obscura
20. Klaus Nomi - Cold Song

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The Zombies - The Lost Album (1969)

"I'll Call You Mine" is my favorite Zombies song. "Walking in the Sun" is also up there. It sounds like some bossa nova ass shit with the mournful brass playing somber melodies. So beautiful. "I Could Spend the Day" is quite a bit bluesier & heavier than standard Zombies fare, which actually works out really well in this case. And a bit more grit in Colin Blunstone's breathy voice is a welcome addition, if only to hear what it sounds like.

There is also a cool hokey "live" track with weird applause after each vocal part. Reminds me of Type O Negative's Origin of the Feces.

Fuck, I think "I'll Call You Mine" might actually be my favorite song. So what you should do is listen to these songs and feel extreme envy for The Zombies' song-writing brilliance and also the tone of Colin Blunstone's voice. Then, you can feel a bit better about yourself because some of these tracks are really weak.

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Note: It is my duty to recommend these videos on insulin resistance and metabolism. As someone who thinks about nutrition a lot, these have been impossibly valuable to me. So far I've watched twice to try to absorb everything, and I'll probably give another go 'round soon.

Moondog - Moondog (1956)

As seems to happen, I don't know, just about four times a year, a new issue of Jettison Quarterly is freely available for your internet reading enjoyment. Once again, my opinions on music are featured, as are conversations with Cutis Mann, Cody Hudson and Carrie Schneider, director Ky Dickens, author Joe Meno, Andy Butler of Hercules and Love Affair, designer Ra’mon Lawrence, and Ron Banks of The Dramatics. In celebration of this historic release, here are my thoughts on a Moondog record that appeared in a Jettison Quarterly of yore.

This record is well known for its idiosyncratic use of found-sound animal noises and baby cries, and its almost haphazard blending of genres and styles. These elements are, of course, essential to the feel of these recordings, as well as an important chapter in the inimitable legend of Moondog (a blind street musician clad in self-made, Thor-inspired garb). However, framing a discussion of this album in terms of its quirks fails to properly explain that the actual songs and melodies here are completely spell-binding. These microsongs state an idea and fill it out with bizarre percussion and found sounds. There is no room here for narrative and structuring ideas; these pieces exist as only as melody, texture, and slithering percussion. Moondog isolates melancholy through stark piano and violin melodies, and adds bubbling primal instincts through rolling, syncopated percussive arrangements. Sounds of frogs and passing cars whisper deep, important secrets of the nature of men trapped in modern society, but looking for more than civilization can offer.

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Kylie Minogue - Fever (2002)

Flawless dance/disco record. Bangers and mash front to back (not a bad track on here). This thing has burned the disco in my head out over and over and over again. Maybe I will post a September record at some point too, hmmmm. Not much to say here other than get this immediately and fuck life-haters.

Who'd like a banger in the mouth.

*link removed*

Guest Mix Volume 10 - Danny Polak

Yeah, we've got Danny Polak, a man of impeccable taste, serving up a nice heavy, full course guest mix for you today. He is in culinary school, so he really knows how to put it in the pot, and let it steam, let it brew. But for real, Dan has obsessive tendencies with anything that he likes. I admire his weirdo connoisseur of knowledge of cologne, porno, heavy music, and food....makes perfect sense for this dude to be a musician and a chef. Anyway, the above photo is from LEFT HAND PATH's last show with the Cro-Mags. Dan also plays drums for LIKE RATS and we pretty much rock. This write-up is really funny and insightful, and these songs are really heavy, so please enjoy.

I have a love/hate relationship with music. There are times where I look into songs trying to find this hidden code woven into space and time that may unlock all the answers to mysteries surrounding this very world and our lives. For a moment, these random notes and rhythms make the bad good, the mundane exciting, and the dead lively. It is one of the only constants in life that is always there for you. You can talk through it but not to it. It makes you a better listener. I love music for these reasons.

Then there are times where I feel like it owes me something. When I cannot find the answers I sometimes feel betrayed. I hate music for these reasons.

And god forbid I listen to the continuous bowel movement that is popular music. Not to say that all 'pop' music is a stinky turd, but most of it is. I just cannot identify with a bunch of alpha (or beta) losers moaning over cheating on someone or whatever subject matter that is not really important that you can put over a digital drum beat that makes your peepee tingle when grinding and possibly vomiting on some random stranger in the club or where ever the hell these made up creatures in my head go. Even though the last statement sounds glorious, it also makes me hate music (granted that I just made an unfair generalization, but so what?). I am territorial about the things I like. I see it as more than just a beat with auto tuned singing over it and I want people to comprehend that.

I guess I have spent so much time engulfed in this musical fantasy land that I have almost severed all my ties with reality. I cannot really say that I care because we all need an escape sometimes. Mine so happens to sing to me, how about you?

Some years ago I had received my last mix tape. A real life mix too. You know, recorded on to a blank tape via compact disc and record player? It was so full of life, living and breathing. Although I did not like 100% of the songs, I can say that I still listen to it and will never forget that time in my life.

This is my creation for you. I hope you like it and can appreciate these songs for what they are. Some speak to me and some can put me into a trance that blocks out anything that had been riding on my mind for a short while. They make me happy and full. I love music for that.

Oh, and now that I am thinking about it, maybe I take back those rude comments earlier. When you think about it, having a tingly peepee is a damn good thing, right?

Cheers.

- Your Friendly Neighborhood Dan

1. Trouble 'R.I.P'
2. Acrimony 'Million Year Summer'
3. Candlemass 'Under the Oak' (Tales of Creation version)
4. Failure 'Stuck On You'
5. Kiss 'Goin Blind'
6. Leaf Hound 'Freelance Fiend'
7. Plastic Bertrand 'Ca Plane Pour Moi'
8. Anathema 'Are You There?'
9. Uriah Heep 'Traveller in Time'
10. Norman Greenbaum 'Spirit in the Sky'
11. Ride 'Chelsea Girl'
12. Only Living Witness 'Voice of Disrepair'
13. Captain Beyond 'Raging River of Fear'
14. Herman's Hermits 'End of the World'
15. Mindrot 'Despair'

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Antonio Carlos Jobim - Wave (1967)

This is music that my mom likes. About once a month, she talks to me about being interested in new music, but she mostly sticks to her Putumayo CDs. However, I've managed to get her a few bossa nova albums that she plays regularly, and that is something that I feel good about. This is the least I can do for this strong woman who I love.

Click on that *Brazil tag to see how I feel about the bossa nova melody. My god, that shit is so beautiful! Most of these tracks are instrumental, with the melodies carried by wind instruments or piano. I wish the guitars were mixed a little bit louder so I could better hear the chord voicings. Lots of ii-Vs; that minor seven chord really just speaks to me and only me. You could never understand. No one has ever felt like this before. Perfect for getting lost in feelings that are being had for the first time ever in the history of the human race.

The "bum bum" in Lamento is fucking great. I feel it vibrate down the entire length of my okapi tongue.

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Nitzer Ebb - That Total Age (1987)

I've been in a phase recently, where, if the music I'm listening to doesn't flirt with questionable political ideologies or symbols (either as po-mo concept art or genuine interest in extremist politics), I'm not interested. Via my attempts fill the always-empty hole in my soul with music, I found this blog: I Am Surrounded By Incompetence (highly recommended reading). And, on this blog,I found this Nitzer Ebb record, which I have not been able to stop listening to. I urge everyone who maybe thought the KMFDM song on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack was cool to really get into this.

Nitzer Ebb uses minimalist structure to create a stark, bludgeoning songs that evoke images of feral humans warring in the streets of a failed industrial megalopolis. It's no surprise, then, that Detroit techno musicians such as Derrick May have acknowledged the influence of the ol' Nitzer.

Also, I really like dudes yelling in my ear about muscle and hate, because that is basically what my internal dialogue is saying to my all the time.

MUSCLE & HATE MUSCLE & HATE MUSCLE & HATE

Huh good thing I've been looking into meditation recently.

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