scår søünd

Today's wrap-up is going to be slightly different. I'm figuring this shit out as I go, so it could be a crap shoot. Yesterday I was listening to an album shuffle of random shit out of the 70GB of stuff that is on my iPod; None of which is still on there. Today was a much more deliberate listening experience. The only playlist I listened to today was titled "long overdue"; which is my playlist for albums that I love and haven't heard in a long time, or new music that I have not yet listened to. Sometimes I'll get the special editions of an album and throw the whole thing in there to see how it all sounds in context. I often find that bonus tracks don't quite jive with the rest of the album, and should probably have been b-sides on singles, or left for compilation tracks. There were two such albums on today's list. One of them felt tacked, on, the other felt fluid. Anyway, Without further Ado, the list:

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She Wants Revenge - Save Your Soul (EP)

Save your soul is a four track EP released after This is Forever. All four tracks are previously unreleased, and none are remixed. That means four brand new She Wants Revenge songs for consumption. I was all over it. I really dig She Wants Revenge; They are a kind of vaguely electronic almost Gothic Rock band. They tend to have great, very associative lyrics, and interesting melodies. This release was no different; it contains two decent tracks, and two good songs. Unfortunately there is nothing truly great on here, but it is wholly listenable. I think of this band as my generation's reply to The Cure.



Reggie and the Full Effect - Last Stop: Crappy Town

Reggie and the Full Effect started out as a joke side project for James DeWees while he wasn't playing keyboards for Collide or The Get Up Kids. He had three fairly humorous albums: Greatest Hits 1984-1987, Promotional Copy, and Under the Tray (wherein the disc was literally under the tray, and under a glossy black card). Then all of a sudden He got serious. James had some personal issues problems and got a divorce spawning a much heavier album that relied less on the synthy sound fans had grown accustomed to. No more songs about "Megan 2Kwhatever". Then Mr. DeWees hooked up with My Chemical Romance to play keyboards on their The Black Parade tour. Somewhere along the line he meets Sean Beavan who is famous for producing albums by the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, God Lives Underwater, and Slayer. In between his personal turmoil and his changing genre affiliations Jim acquired a drug habit. Rehab came and went, and out of all of the emotional baggage that causes addiction, and the struggle to free oneself from it came this album. This record is HEAVY. Both in content and in sonic structure. Reggie has eschewed a lot of the keyboard parts and replaced them with guitars, many of which are provided by Frank Lero of MCR. I like the different eras of Reggie for different reasons, but I think this is his best album to date.



Interpol - Our Love to Admire

Interpol are basically the reason I gave indie rock a chance. I kept reading articles in hip zines about this band from NYC who were the coolest of the cool, and had the chops to back up the fashion. Eventually I picked up a copy of Turn on the Bright Lights and I was hooked. A few years later Antics was released, and I didn't get around to buying it right away. I finally bought the special edition with the remix EP and I was slightly less impressed, but I really liked the remixes, and the record grew on me. There was not a bad song on either record, nor on any of the EPs they had released before the albums came out. I heard about Our Love to Admire and I waited with baited breath for it to be released. I had a few fears about this album though. Interpol had abandoned Matador records for Colombia, so they were no longer an indie rock band they were a Rock group. My fears that the band weren't unfounded; the band's sound had changed. The change, however, was a natural progression, it was a maturation of their sound, and experimentation with new techniques. The music had grown, and the band had grown, they needed that bigger stronger structure beneath them to support that growth. Our Love to Admire reminds me of a re-potted plant; the band in it's new pot is free to expand and flourish, while if left in that smaller space they would have become root bound and been suffocated by indie guilt. The reason that I listened to this album today is because I finally found a copy of the bonus track "Mind Over Time." The track fits right in with the tone and texture of the album, but it is not nearly as good as any of the other standard tracks. Interpol's first album as a full-fledged rock band is more inspiring than their second attempt as a group of indie rockers. I'm sure they'll continue to grow and improve in the future, but they have small margins in which to improve. This is about the fourth time I've written a review for this album, see how much I believe in this band.



The Faint - Fasciinatiion

Check it out, The Faint made an ascii joke. I dig the faint, but I wasn't sitting by the phone waiting for Todd Fink to call me up and let me know the street date for his new record. I did, however, have Wet from Birth in my minidisc player for the better part of a year and a half though. That shit was awesome. "Drop Kick the Punks" Dance-Punk doesn't get much better than that. Some girl I was dating turned me on to them around the time Dance Macabre was released, and it was right up my alley; it was great Electronic Rock music. For a while I didn't think the band had a guitarist, but I turned out to be wrong, they just use a lot of awesome effects. Everything sounded like Bass, Drums, and Keys to me. Of course Connor Oberst was an original member, but that might have been when they were still named Norman Bailer. Fasciinatiion isn't as good as either of the previous two albums. I'm not even sure if it is as good as Blank Wave Arcade (the band's first real foray into electronic rock), but it is decent. "Fulcrum and Leaver" was the only song that I really liked on this album, the rest of it was decent, but not the quality I expect from this band. Maybe the album will grow on me, but my first impression wasn't very impressed.



Black Light Burns - Cruel Melody

Cruel Melody did not make my best of 2007 list. It was the only album in my honorable mention category, because it was the only standout debut album that I heard last year. Since I made my end-of-year list I've had more chances to listen to this album and it keeps getting better and better. The basic reason that I listened to it today is that I got the bonus tracks for the album. There are two b-sides, a remix, and two instrumental tracks. None of the bonus tracks stack up with the rest of the album, but the remix is by Daniel Anderson of Idiot Pilot, who are a great electronic/hardcore duo from Washington. The music on Black Light Burns debut effort is intriguing and complexly structured. The band is like an all-star line-up of former nine inch nails members, and a member of Telefon Tel Aviv. Making them one of the most proficient, and intense groups of sonic artists in the country. Wes Borland, Founder, Frontman, Vocalist, Guitarist, Idea Man, was the only truly talented member of Limp Bizkit, and he couldn't stand being in that joke of a band anymore. After a thick fistful of failed projects with other artists he took creative control and made a group of his own. The band as it exists today is entirely different than it was in the studio two years ago while Cruel Melody was being recorded, but I have high hopes. The lyrics are approachable and entirely relatable. When Wes sings "You Can't, You Can't/You Can't Stop a Bullet/I'm giving you my trigger/But you better never pull it" I get it. When he sings "You're Living a Lie/Just Like Me!" I get it. No, the lyrics aren't dense, and I don't want or need them to be. The sonics are dense enough for everything. But the lyrics are heartfelt and soulful; they speak to anyone who has experienced broken trust, or lost love, and a whole range of emotion. Even after my subsequent listens I doubt this would make my best of list for 2007, but it's honorable mention is a bit more fawning. We might have to wait a little while for a followup to this album, as Wes Borland is currently playing guitar for Marilyn Manson's world tour.



Bloc Party - Mercury (single)

Bloc Party were the first, and only, band that I was introduced to via ringtone. I was browsing the Verizon ringtone site on my phone one day when I came across "Blue Light" and "Like Eating Glass" from Silent Alarm. The words "Like drinking poison/Like eating Glass" spoke to me (Check out the tautology). Dealing with everyday life was just that for me when I first heard Bloc Party. Then when A Weekend in the City was released I was at my local indie record shop day one to pick it up. Bloc Party are somewhat prolific. There are collections of b-sides for both of their full length albums that rival the albums proper in both length and quality. I imagine that the same will be true for Intimacy. They are also unafraid of pushing the boundaries of their genre. Yes, Bloc Party are ostensibly an indie rock band, but they love the remix, and they incorporate electronic elements into many of their songs. "Flux" was the first example of an original Bloc Party song with a strong keyboard presence. "Mercury" follows in the vein of "Flux" and expands the theme by incorporating a vocoder, and a host of remixes. The b-side to this single "Idea for a Story" continues this trend. I have yet to listen to Intimacy the album from which this is the first sings, but if "Mercury" is any indicator I will be pleased with the results of this slightly altered direction.



Eels - Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased: 1996-2006 (disc 1)

Generally speaking I am not much of a lyrics guy. Yeah, I like words, I like prose, and literature, but I tend to put less emphasis on the lyrical meaning of a song than I place upon my emotional response that the sonic tone of a song. Mark Olive Everett is one of the few men who writes lyrics that I always want to listen to. I only listened to the first disc of this today because it is an hour and a quarter, and so is the second disc. Some of these songs are present on the album 1996-2006: B-Sides and Rarities, but I have no qualms with doubling up on the material because it is so good. There aren't a lot of artists who write truly inspiring and truly heartbreaking songs, but E is one of them. I think I'd heard all of the songs on this album before I picked it up, but some of the new versions are great. There isn't a single skippable track on this disc.



Sigur Rós - Hvarf-Heim (disc 2: Heim)

This is the second disc of material released in CD format as a soundtrack to the Sigur Rós documentary of the same name. Heim Consists of live acoustic, and orchestral versions of the tracks used in the film. Six tracks clocking in at around thirty-six minutes, the first disc is around the same length. I don't know, I like Sigur Rós, and I'm into the post-rock thing, and their exclusive use of Icelandic and whatever made up language it is that they use, but these versions weren't any better than the album versions. Truthfully I like the studio versions better in every case. I listened to the first disc at some point last week, and I had a similar reaction. It is okay, but nowhere near as great as () or Ágætis byrjun.



Datarock - Datarock Datarock

Datarock are fun Norwegian Dance-Punk. I'm into Norway, I'm into DP, so this piqued my interest. The only track that really stood out to me on this album was "The New Song". Everything else on the album was sort of meh. Yeah, it's fun, sure it is dancable, but in the end it is forgettable. I would probably throw a few tracks from this album on a playlist for a party because it's something that you can shake your ass to, but that's about all it is good for.



The Birthday Massacre - Looking Glass (EP)

I can't remember where I first came about The Birthday Massacre. It was probably on a Deadsy message board a few years ago. What I know is that I heard a few remixes that they did for Combichrist, and Mindless Self Indulgence and I wasn't knocked over by them, but they were interesting and better than average. So I picked up Walking with Strangers when it Came out, and I got copies of Violet, and Nothing & Nowhere. Yet again, they aren't great, but they are better than average. They are and electro-pop band with a female lead singer and they have a unique perspective. The Looking Glass EP is an expansion upon the Walking with Strangers era sound. The title track itself is a new song, and there are a few good remixes of "Red Stars" which was itself a standalone single. The high point of this release is a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells "I Think We're Alone Now", which was popularized by 80s teen idol Tiffany. The new version doesn't venture too far from the source material, but it puts a cool spin on the old idea, and everybody knows that retro kitsch is always in.



Roadrunner United - The All-Star Sessions

You would do well to click the first link to get a good idea of what this album is. I was actually pleasantly surprised upon listening to this record. I had been putting it off, and putting it off since it was released, and I finally bit the bullet today. I thought, I hate half of the team leaders on this, and I don't think they can do anything interesting songwriting-wise. And I was fucking right about half of them, but it was a different portion than I expected. I assumed that Matt Heafy could only write songs like Trivium. Because I knew that dude when I lived in Orlando, and motherfucker doesn't have a lot going on other than loving the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and writing staid solos and riffs. But he came up with a couple of pretty interesting songs. One of his tracks is a straight-up hardcore punk tune, and another is a good strong rock song. Joey Jordison was the other stand-out, but I knew he would be. That dude wrote a ballad, and a rock song, and a brutal face crushing black metal song, and a synth addled tech-metal song, and a post-hardcore rumbler with Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw and Head Automatica. Rob Flynn went for the metal and didn't look sideways, let alone back. Disappointingly Dino Cazares, whom I had assumed had some versatility in him just went for speed and thrash tunes. All in all this is a pretty good fucking album, but I hoped for a little bit more versatility from it. I knew there wouldn't be which is why I waited so long to listen to it, but what have we if not for dreams? If I had access to any Roadrunner artist ever I think I could come up with something more inspired.



HUM - Fillet Show

This is HUM's debut album on Twelve Inch Records. It shows none of the polish found on the later albums You'd Prefer an Astronaut or Downward is Heavenward (which are both space-rock masterpieces), and it doesn't have the heaviness of Electra 2000, but it does show the seeds of the "Pioria Sound." It is loud guitar rock by a band of midwestern kids who like space. Basically the only reason I even have this is that I am an obsessive completist, and I hadn't heard everything HUM had ever released. While it isn't a great album, it does show the promise of who HUM would eventually become.



Emilie Autumn - Opheliac

I only learned about Emilie Autumn about a week ago, and I was intrigued. I probably clicked on a link from some other gothic-industrial something or other, and came about this cute, pink haired, white faced, corset-clad, violin brandishing girl from Malibu, CA who relocated to Chicago, got a bad attitude, and started making interesting electronic music. I have a soft spot for strings, with the guitar being my favourite instrument, but Cello coming in a very close second, and the music of Antonio Vivaldi being my favourite classical music essentially because he wrote primarily for strings. Which is also the reason I really like chamber music, well that and the presence of Harpsichords. Emilie has dubbed her particular brand of sonic expression "victorian-industrial" and she is spot on. There are some guitars on the album, but it is largely synthesizer based and accented with her violin. The songs deal with suicide (obviously), broken relationships, and emotional hardship. The lyrics are interestingly expressed, and obviously heartfelt. There does seem to be a false moment on either disc of this album. The second disc is comprised of a couple of instrumental tracks (one of which is a Bach composition), a few b-sides, and three poems with distorted backing sounds. This is not Ms. Autumn's first, album, but it is good, and it makes me want to look into more of her material.

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Now that I'm done with the wrap-up, yeah, I'm not going to do the full thing anymore. It is a long process to review every album I listen to in a day. I started writing this at around 01:30 and completed it a 04:50, so obviously a lot goes into it. I am going to have to be more selective. I do like that I have to think about what I've listened to. I think it gives me a greater appreciation of what I've experienced, and it gives me a more well formed, better informed opinion about what I am listening to. If I were a betting man, and I'm not, I would expect one or two reviews a day.

I also intend to get more into my personal music projects. I lost all of my multi-tracks and finished recordings when my PowerBook died on me, so now I'm starting from scratch. Go me for backing up everybody else's shit but nothing of my own creation. I have some better software now, and I'm always improving my playing technique, and my personal creative point of view. It is Post-Electro-Metal-Gaze-Core or something along those lines. Have a day.

Probably because I just started this thing I'm going to do a daily wrap-up of the albums I listened to today. I don't expect this to last. Though I do expect that I'll continue with the mini-review thing I'm going to do for this.

The Future Sound of London - Accelerator

The First album I listened to this morning was The Future Sound of London's Accelerator. I haven't listened to this album for about two years, but I love FSOL. This was their first album and spawned their biggest "hit" "Papua New Guinea." Which is actually my least favourite song on the album. I really prefer Lifeforms, and especially Dead Cities, but all in all it is a good album for a debut effort. It was recorded at the height of the Acid House movement, but didn't quite have the wonderful soundscapes that FSOL later perfected.



KMFDM - Rules (single)

KMFDM are one of my favourite industrial bands. The Rules single is comprised of three tracks, one unaltered track off of XTORT and two remixes of songs from the same album. All in all it's decent, but if one weren't a huge fan of the band I'd leave it be. It is basically standard fare for 1996 KMFDM. Which is to say that it is pretty much straight up industrial-metal that's heavy on the sampling.



Collide - Chasing the Ghost

Collide's Chasing the Ghost is standard fare early 2000's dark electro. A lost of people categorize them as Industrial, but they are really just standard issue electronic rock with female vocals. It isn't bad, by any means, just not incredibly remarkable. The reason I listened to them was because Amazon put them high on my list of recommendations. There is a cover of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" on the album, but that is really its only stand-out feature.



Pixies - Bossanova

(see below)














Marilyn Manson - Coma White (promo)

I don't remember where I came about this, I probably downloaded it with a bunch of other MM singles. "Coma White" is a great fucking song. The disc itself has the album version of the song, and an acoustic version, that's it. The song is about both drug use, and the troubles of fame. Really the entirety of Mechanical Animals is an extended metaphor for the dangers of celebrity culture told through the guise of drug addiction. It is "Glam-Industrial" at it's best. I am actually more impressed with Apoptygma Berzerk's version of this song than I am with Manson's. I didn't really like this song when I first heard it ten years ago, but it has grown on me over time.



Current 93 - Crooked Crosses for the Nodding God

If you're a fan of neo-folk, or gothic music C93 is a group to get into. This is another of David Tibet's collaborations with the UK industrial underground. Members of Throbbing Gristle, HÖH, Coil et. al provide music, and lyrics to this outing. A lot of songs about rape and a disparaging god. Almost everything by Current 93 is very dark material, and certainly mood music. But I dig it. Then again, I'm really into ambient, shoegaze, post-rock, and experimental noise, which this isn't.



Fugazi - The Argument

Fugazi have always been a mainstay of indie rock, and for good reason. They are the product of the dissolution of several early 80's DC Hardcore bands. The band is known more for their stance on merchandise, and the cost of shows and albums. They are the epitome of indie attitude, literally. The Argument is their best album. It is also their last album. So, maybe I only like it best because it is more accessible than Red Medicine", but so fucking what. Sometimes you want to listen to music because it is well written and pleasant to listen to. I don't always want to listen to dense, or complex fucking sound. This is that album by Fugazi. Ian and Guy have different writing styles, and both of them are well represented on this album. They are a good point and counterpoint of the best aspects of Fugazi.



AFI - Black Sails in the Sunset

Black Sails in the Sunset is the first AFI record that Jade Puget played on. The band's sound became remarkably more sophisticated, and more interesting. This is also the last AFI record that can really be called Hardcore Punk. The Band's themes have always been dark, but this record took them to a different level. The album isn't anywhere near as good as decemberunderground, or Sing the Sorrow, but it is a far cry better than the three albums that came before it. It seemingly took a group of young punks four albums to hit their stride. I think Jade had A LOT to do with their improved sound.



The Daylight Curse - Black and White Memories

Standard-issue Metalcore. There is nothing remarkable about this album. It is listenable for a few tracks, but then you just want to skip the rest of it. It is technically proficient, and loud, and heavy, but who fucking cares, it gets grating after six minutes. I'd rather listen to an Evergreen Terrace album.




Nine Inch Nails - Fixed (EP)

Fixed is the remix record to NIN's best release. Every song on Broken was absolutely fucking brutal. The problem is that the remixes didn't keep with the spirit of the originals. Sure the remixes on this EP were created by Coil, and J.G. Thirwell (aka Foetus), but they're just not as heavy. That being said, I really like the canonical release of Fixed. The songs are industrial, they are dark, they are experimental, they are grating, and they are electronic. 1992 was several years before Trent Reznor signed Coil to Nothing records, but it was the first time he worked with them in an artistic fashion. With Songs like "Screaming Slave" (a remix of "last"), and "Fist Fuck" (a remix of "Wish") this is not for the feint of heart, but is a must-have for fans of industrial music. The remixes left off of the EP were left for good reason. Butch Vig remixed "Wish" and missed the entire point of the song, and Paul Kendall remixed "Happiness in Slavery" to slightly better effect.


Toad the Wet Sprocket - Acoustic Dance Party (EP)

Toad the Wet Sprocket were a pussy sort-of-rock band from the 90's. Glenn Phillips wrote songs that, I assume, were intended to make girls take their panties off. I suppose there's nothing wrong with writing songs to get pussy, but I'm not really into vag-rock. It's just... It is missing something essential. There is a certain heart that can be felt in music that comes from an artistic place. This is not that music.



Jay-Z - The Black Album

This is a great fucking album. There is a reason that there are hundreds of mash-ups of this record. The lyrics are smart and interesting, and the album goes from weaker songs to stronger songs. It only gets better until it finally ends. The samples and backing tracks are from interesting sources, and the words are meaningful and from the heart. Sure, the first few songs are full of thuggish braggadocio, but Sean Carter comes out a few songs later and becomes a man that you is easy to empathize with. Sure the statement of this being the last Jay-Z album was a lie, but that hardly detracts from the social impact of this album, and the fact that it is a great album despite all of the hype.


Hole - Celebrity Skin

Celebrity Skin is Hole's Worst album by far. Oh, it isn't a bad album. Celebrity skin is a totally listenable album, and it even has like two really good songs. The title track is an undeniably powerful pop song. What you might not know about this record is that it wasn't really written by Hole. None of Hole's records were actually written by the band. Courtney Love is not a musician, she is an opportunist. She dated Billy Corgan around the time that her band was recording Pretty on the Inside, and then later when Celebrity Skin was recorded. Corgan was the primary songwriter on the latter, and an important songwriter on the former. When Courtney married Kurt Cobain he became the primary songwriter on Live Through This. All of those allegation being made, Celebrity Skin is a Billy Corgan album. The album was Billy writing a pop album after he got over his Adore phase. He has always been a prolific songwriter, and has never taken issue with playing songs written by others or writing songs for other musicians to play. If Corgan had not been involved this record would have been absolute shit. His involvement saved Hole from Utter failure, but only by a slim margin.

I am listening to Bossanova by Pixies. I always tend to dismiss this album because it isn't Surfer Rosa or Doolittle. What I seem to have failed to notice in all of my listens to this album is that it is both heavier, and poppier than any of that earlier material. The album, by and large, sounds like Frank and the gang went about songwriting in a very different way than they did on their pervious records. Except for "Is She Weird" it is also a curiosity why the album was released on 4AD. Which I suppose is a valid question for almost everything that Pixies released on that label excepting a handful of songs. It is a better album than I remember it being, which promises to push it up in my considerable queue for future listens.

I am almost certain that the only way Bossanova got onto my iPod in the first place is because it was in my "random" playlist. A playlist dedicated to unlistened albums. Of course I just bought a new computer, so there are only about fifty albums that I have listened to since its inception. I do, however, think that this was an unplayed album from the library on my PowerBook as well.