Although readers of this here blog may not know it, closer's 2018 debut record, "All This Will Be", was one of my most unfuckwithable, favorite, most-listened to records of the past five years. No foolin'! It's tough to make a screamo record (or ANY punk record, for that matter) that makes me want to shake my ass and lose myself in the music, but a song like "Hardly Art" takes me back to the late 90s...to clap alongs and group leaps at the drop and mic piles in dim basements with shitty PAs. It evokes bands like Envy, Majority Rule, and Funeral Diner.
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
closer - within one stem
Although readers of this here blog may not know it, closer's 2018 debut record, "All This Will Be", was one of my most unfuckwithable, favorite, most-listened to records of the past five years. No foolin'! It's tough to make a screamo record (or ANY punk record, for that matter) that makes me want to shake my ass and lose myself in the music, but a song like "Hardly Art" takes me back to the late 90s...to clap alongs and group leaps at the drop and mic piles in dim basements with shitty PAs. It evokes bands like Envy, Majority Rule, and Funeral Diner.
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Rob Swift Presents Soulful Fruit
Friday, January 22, 2021
Flipper - Sex Bomb Baby
Thursday, January 21, 2021
Sea Of Cortez - Age Of Anxiety
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Vinegar Syndrome in January
From "Cthulhu Mansion" (Juan Piquer Simón, 1992) |
I feel a bit bad, because I missed writing up Vinegar Syndrome's November and December releases. As a result, I didn't get to talk about what I got in the Black Friday sale (a lot more porn than I would have expected, for one), and I didn't cover what I didn't pick up. But here we are, in January, and there's a solid slate of new releases coming at the end of the month, so no need to kick ourselves in the ass for the past when the future is so near.
From "Satan's Blood" (Carlos Puerto, 1978) |
So, what am I buying? I think I'll cop that "Taxi Girls"/"Heavenly Desire" 2-pack, as well as both AGFA releases to start. If I'm feeling real frisky (aka I come into some loose money), I'll add on "The House Of Usher". As always, if all four Vinegar Syndrome/VSA titles float your boat, you can save some serious bread ordering the the January 2021 Package, at a relative bargain price of just $99.99 (with free shipping!). I promise to be back in less than 30 days with the February lineup. Until then: be easy, and don't go blind.
Saturday, January 16, 2021
various artists - Pump Up The Volume (Complete Soundtrack & Score)
Friday, January 15, 2021
Sailor Moon & The Scouts - Lunarock
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
various artists - Solid Gold, Coxsone Style
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Iggy And The Stooges - Metallic 'KO
Sunday, January 10, 2021
The Third Sex - Card Carryin'
Saturday, January 9, 2021
Yah Congo Meets King Tubby & Professor At Dub Table
Friday, January 8, 2021
Robert Mitchum - Calypso - Is Like So...
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
The Wrens - Abbott 1135
Tuesday, January 5, 2021
Żegota - Movement In The Music
This was John Ericsson's new band after he left Catharsis, another outstanding political HC band from the late 90s. Named after the Polish Żegota Council to Aid Jews, there's no confusion where they were coming from politically. The final track on this, their first record for noted hard left label CrimethInc., is titled "Open Disobedience; Bold Resistance". They were pro-bikes, anti-cop, pro-organization, anti-melody, pro-hollerin'. It's a perfectly good soundtrack to Food Not Bombs, Black Bloc, and chaining oneself to the doors of an international bank.
I'm not certain why I never owned a copy of this up until last year, but when I came across a copy in a Half Price Books "fill a shopping bag for $20" sale, I couldn't pass it up. Its digipak is printed on recycled material, doncha know? It's weird and jammy and dirty and smells funky and it makes me want to run thru a brick wall to punch a Proud Boy. Viva la resistance!
Click here to download.
Monday, January 4, 2021
various artists - Let There Be Doom II (A Kult Collection Of Massive Sub-Harmonics)
It's Monday. "Happy first Monday of 2021," says I. How about some doom metal?
What you have here is a sampler from the good folks at Southern Lord, circa 2004, of some of their finer doom metal bands. Now, I'm not nearly kvlt enough to offer some new and interesting insight into what you'll hear here, should you wish to download and listen. But I've found Greg Anderson to be an arbiter of good taste, it's his label, and he has half a dozen songs here, so I'm guessing that's why I snagged this when I did. Wino also appears a few times here, via songs from the Obsessed and Saint Vitus, and a guest appearance on a Place of Skulls track. Hell, things wrap up with a cut from Dave Grohl's Probot project, featuring Lemmy on vox. Skål!
So if you're feeling some bass-heavy sounds on this Monday morning (or whenever you happen to read this), then dive right in. I find this to be an excellent set of recordings to read e-mail and write white papers to. But I have issues that I solve with prescribed pharmaceuticals, so take that with a grain of salt.
Click here to download.
Sunday, January 3, 2021
Shout! Factory in January
From "They Live" (John Carpenter, 1988) |
Like December, January is a light month for Shout! Factory releases. A mere five films/shows arrive on 5" discs in the first month of 2021. HOWEVAH! Two of these are must haves for the Ultra High-Definition collector. What, you didn't get a 4K TV and UHD Blu-ray player from Santa this Christmas? Well, maybe yours is on backorder with mine, sure to arrive within the next 12 to 24 months. Never mind that: let's look at what's coming.
Anime Limited is the latest label to join the Shout! family. This Scottish distributor is already pretty well established in the UK and EU, spinning out of the Scotland Loves Anime convention 9 years ago. They hit my radar back in May when they announced they'd be releasing "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and the two films from the series on Blu-ray for the first time ever. They'll be releasing Masaki Watanabe's adaptation of Araki JOH's manga "Bartender" ("バーテンダー") on Blu-ray on the 19th. Originally airing in Japan in 2006 on BS Fuji, "Bartender" centers around Ryu, a genius barman with a kind ear and a golden arm. It was only available on DVD in Japan, along with some unsubbed, undubbed bootlegs, so the announcement back in September that this would be appearing in Region A & B was welcomed. It's a cool looking set: along with all 11 episodes on two discs, purchasers will get nine recipe cards featuring Ryu's best cocktails, and four bar coasters. It's rare that anime inspires me to drink, so bottom's up to "Bartender" coming to Blu-ray.
From "Lupin III The First" (Takashi Yamazaki, 2019) |
Things get back to normal in February, with a full slate of new releases, Steelbook reissues, another NECA action figure, and even a Shout! exclusive color of vinyl headed our way. I'll get back to normal by writing and posting this before the first of the month. Hooray! Be there...aloha.
Friday, January 1, 2021
Portishead - Live on Later...With Jools Holland, 15 April 2008
Beth Gibbons, Portishead, "Later...With Jools Holland" |
Jesus. 10 years since the last Portishead release. 13 years since their last full-length. Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley are making soundtracks and guesting on other folks' records. I can only imagine what Beth Gibbons is up to; I hope it's something involving her, some folk songs, and an English cliffside. The magic, the mystery of how and when they make music. There's very little like it in this world.
Listening to a Portishead record for me is a bit like reading a Bible is to others. Seeing them live is church. It's a worship of sound, a spiritual experience unlike few others I've had. I'd see them anywhere, but I feel like the best would be to see them in a deconsecrated space, to keep with the metaphor. Give a holy sound a proper venue.
"Third" came out April 2008. I remember it being a really odd time, an odd sense of doom and hope permeating the air. The first single from Portishead in 10 years, "Machine Gun", had debuted a couple months ahead of the full-length; I think it was one of the last times I went to Pitchfork for any music news. It sounded like the end of world to me. I couldn't wait for the whole deal.
I wouldn't get "Third" right away, but I was more than satisfied by the group performing live on "Later...With Jools Holland" the week the new record came out. They played two cuts: "The Rip" and "We Carry On". Some soul during the heyday of music blogs kindly ripped both performances to MP3 for me; I share them here. These are, by far, my favorite versions of each song. "The Rip" sounds even more ethereal, Barrow's drums so thin and ghostly. "We Carry On"...it's a song that makes me want to run through walls, its motorik beat, slapped against metal, and Silver Apples-style keyboards offset by guitar that plinks and then EXPLODES! I can't hear it without imagining a music video, directed preferably by Ben Wheatly, of medieval soldiers, muddy from head to toe, fighting and dying.
There should be a new Portishead record in 2021, is what I'm saying.
Click here to download.
Read This One
Post #400: Double Dagger - Ragged Rubble
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