various artists - Mojo Presents: The Songs Of Leonard Cohen Covered

Well, pals, we made it to September. And there are two things I hold to be true about September. One is that it is my month of birth. The other is that it's officially Leonard Cohen season in my house. It's the time where things get a little cooler oustide, a little slower, and the songs of this Buddhist and subject of a great boygenius cut make for a great soundtrack.

So here's a Mojo-curated tribute to the Canadian folk-rock legend, drawn from his 1967 debut (plus a quintet of later compositions). It's a good 'un. The luminaries include Father John Misty, Bill Callahan, Cass McCombs, Will Oldham, and Marc Ribot with My Brightest Diamond. While the Lumineers are not present, the Low Anthem are, if that's your sort of thing.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Mojo Presents: Sticky Soul Fingers (A Rolling Stones Tribute)

I came to a decision recently, and it is this: this Mojo release, cover dated January 2012, is pretty indispensible. A soulful recreation of "Sticky Fingers", it's less a simple re-reading of the classic Stones record, 40 years on, and more an expression of how inspiring it was to these artists. Some of the arrangements are far away from the Jagger/Richards compositions, and that's for the best. I've owned too many tribute records where those offering encomium stuck with a straightforward cover not too different from what you'd hear from in the original release. But Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings performing "Wild Horses" is a great example of how to put your own stank on a classic. "Sister Morphine", played here by Ren Harvieu, takes on new meaning when in the hands of someone who's not been chasing the dragon. And the Bamboos tackle my favorite "SF" track, laying some serious funk on "Can't You Hear Me Knocking".

Yeah, it's a proper tribute, this one. Plus, you get a bonus reading of "Angie". Not bad for a freebie.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Power Corruption & Lies Covered: Mojo Presents New Order;'s 1983 Masterpiece Re-Recorded

When it came time to pick this week's Mojo Monday selection, there was only one inspired choice. Friend o' the blog AJ recently began blogging again over at The Dimension of Imagination. As I told him, I was proper chuffed to see him back in the saddle after what had been an 8-month sabbatical. I think he called me a wanker. He's a proper internet bud.

He posted the 1983 New Order classic, "Power Corruption & Lies" on the same day I found this Mojo comp from 2011, covering the same-said record, plus THE BEST-SELLING 12" OF ALL TIME (TM), "Blue Monday". It was serendipity; one follows another.

The likes of Tarwater, Destroyer, and Fujiya & Miyagi perform yeoman-like work here in reproducing New Order's second record. It's worth listening to a few times, even as it inspires you to pull out that "Blue Monday" 12" for the first time in a while..As someone who was barely alive when "PCL" came out, and whose initial exposure to New Order was through a Frente! cover, I can't claim New Order had some great influence over my life. They've always been there, a living link to things that, at the time, I found more interesting. But you hope that, with age comes wisdom, and I've grown more attached to these Mancunians in recent years. I've been downloading New Order remixes and live records as they've popped on my radar, and, yeah, of course it's all great. A well-earned reputation here.

What this does remind me of is the resilient crew of bloggers, still out there writing, trying to let punk kids and bored teenagers know why a recording is worth hearing. I have a list of the folks I think are worth checking out on the right side of the page there. I stop by every day, paying a visit to see if anything cool is worth commenting on. When someone dips out for a while, it gets a bit scary, like your local coffee shop, bakery, or record store being unexpectedly closed. It's a great feeling when that disappearance ends up being temporary.  These are the little things that make getting online worthwhile. It's while I try my best to be here on Mondays and Thursdays at midnight my time. Gotta open the store, you know?

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Perpetually Twelve #13: The Fugazi Issue

In the real world, most folks don't know that I write here.

They know me as a low-level bureaucrat, a mental health peer leader, a wiseacre, an aging hipster. But they don't know that every few days for the past five years, I talk a little bit about a recording that means something to me. Sometimes, it's something I just picked up recently; others, it's a record that's foundational to the person I've become. I just wanted to find some meaning, to have a discpline, when the world was falling apart because of COVID-19, when I had been laid off from my first minimum-wage job since I was 18 and I had no fucking clue what was going to happen to my life.

I knew I could share some jams. So I did. And here we are, 600 posts in, with no desire to break the discipline.

Fugazi was, for me, the band that kicked it all off for me. I liked music well enough before I learned of Fugazi in 1992. It was, after all, the year after Punk broke, and I was exposed not just to Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, but also Sonic Youth and Shonen Knife and Smashing Pumpkins. But I was still more into hip-hop than college rock then; I had to sneak my Public Enemy, N.W.A., and KRS-One tapes into the farmhouse my dad bought in moonshine country. There was an authenticity present in rap music that I didn't quite feel in rock. So when I read a Michael Azzerad review of a Fugazi show at Irving Plaza in a June issue of Rolling Stone, there was something about it that felt not dangerous, but very real. I mean, whqt band comes out of Washington D.C. and releases their own records AND keeps door prices at $5? That's something I can experience, I thought.

I went out and bought a copy of "Steady Diet Of Nothing" a few weeks later. And even though it's now my least-favorite Fugazi recording, Christ, it hit me like a lightning bolt. THIS was what I was looking for.  Even though I didn't think I'd be able to play music like this, I could still participate. I wasn't going to be a hundred yards from the stage, or 200 miles away from the nearest show, or $20 short of buying their newest CD. Shoot, I could write them a letter and send well-disguised cash, and a month or so later, I'd get a personal response FROM THE SINGER and a new record to listen to.

Dischord's always been really good about keeping their catalog in print, especially with their digital archive on dischord.com. And because one of my goals has been to focus on out-of-print or not-readily-available music, that's kept me what diving into one of their numerous blog-worthy records. I don't need to post "Flex Your Head" or "State Of The Nation"; just go buy it from them. But this thirteenth issue of Perpetually Twelve, one of numerous great, defunct zines, seemed like a good one to share for post 600, and an excellent excuse to talk about Fugazi. This is a wonderful digital release, ready made to print out at home or work and read, old-school style. Or you can load the PDF into your digital reader on your phone or tablet and experience 78 pages of Fugazi love electronically.

The accompanying compilation suits the zine well. There's Bob Nanna delivering a solo version of "Kill Taker"s "Smallpox Champion". .org-core punks White Murder, who delivered a pair of outstanding full-lengths back in the 2010s for Recess, cover "Nice New Outfit" from "Steady Diet". San Diego is well represented by No Knife, Andrew Mills of Barbarian, and Brandon Welchez. It's all capped with an amazing version of "The Argument", performed by DC's Devin Ocampo (Smart Went Crazy, Faraquet), spouse Renata Ocampo, David Rich (the Effects), and bassoonist Aaron Harmon. It's a worthy labor of love that deserves an ongoing audience. Which I'm happy to provide.

I'm grateful for y'all who visit here, whether it's once in a blue moon or every three or four days. Thanks for coming by and providing an audience of around 150 folks a day. Happy Boxing Day; now open your presents.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Masters Of Misery - Black Sabbath: An Earache Tribute

I've been saving this for a special occasion. But my brain gets sidetracked all the time by so many things, not to mention the correct spelling of "occasion", which never looks right to me, although the dictionary and spell check tell it is, indeed, correct. And, thus, this has been hanging out on various file sharing platforms for at least a couple of years.

The time for action is now. ADHD be damned.

I was all of 15, and not much of a metal fan, when this came out as a Japan-exclusive release in 1992. Curated by the extreme metal label Earache, and released by their Japanese distributor Toy's Factory, this collects the bleeding edge of what metal was in the last decade of the millenium, all performing songs by the sainted Black Sabbath. Sabbath was on a bit of an uptick, having released "Dehumanizer" earlier that year, having reunited the "Mob Rules" lineup. But at the time to most, Black Sabbath was the band Ozzy used to front, a group that was better known for inspiring bits in This Is Spinal Tap than any music they'd made in the past 10 years.

I guess my point is that Black Sabbath, a band never known as cool up to that point, was decidedly at their most uncool. And to have so many leading lights of the underground acknowledge a key influence that was at its ebb was a very awesome thing. There aren't any duds here, a testament not only to the lineup, but also to the songwriting chops of Iommi, Butler, Ward and Osbourne/Gillan.

This has been reissued and resequenced a number of time over the years, the first time in 1995. Cadaver's cover of "Sweet Leaf" got dropped, and contributions from Anal Cunt, Ultraviolence, and Iron Monkey added, reflecting Earache's contemporary roster more accurately. It wasn't for the best, in my humble opinion. This remains the definitive version of what is still my favorite Sabbath tribute.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Uncut Presents: White Riot Vol. One (A Tribute To The Clash)

They can't all be winners, people, but as far as tribute records to the Clash go, I respect this one, because it leans into "Sandinista"-era Clash moreso than other Clash tributes, and there are some rather-unknown artists here (for me, at least), plus an unreleased Mescaleros track and a contemporary Stiff Little Fingers songs about Mssr. Strummer, and, anyway, this run on sentence has run on. Shit, it came free with a copy of Uncut...what more do you want out of life?

There's a Volume Two, as well, with some more familiar artists on it, and maybe I'll buy a copy one day and write a hundred words about that one also.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Sides 1-4

Allow the cheat on this one; I am not the original ripper. although I have faithfully owned a copy of this for almost as long as it's been out. You can get a download or physical copy here from the very good folks at Skin Graft, and you probably should.

It's time to share my two cents on Steve Albini. So you get two posts in a day.

When this double 7" came out in 1995, I knew Steve Albini mostly from his engineering and his criticism. I was aware he had done a band with a couple guys from Naked Raygun in the 80s, and a band with a pair of fellas from Texas in the early 90s, but THIS was Shellac Number Seven, and my intro to them musically was a cover of Bon Scott-era AC/DC. Which kinda hurt my head, but also I dug in a huge way, even though I never got into AC/DC with the same enthusiasm as a bunch of the dudes I went to high school with. Anyway: cool intro.

But I worked backwards as time moved forward, as Steve's fingerprints continued to leave marks all over my taste. I bought a copy of "The Rich Man's Eight-Track Tape" at the same time I bought "Terraform", all the while discovering his recordings of Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, the goddamned Jesus Lizard. I had heard rumors that Fugazi went out to Chicago to record with Steve, only for his recording of "In On The Kill Taker" to get memory holed in favor of a Don Zientara engineered/Ted Nicely produced record. You knew I spent at least a dozen years trying to pin down a copy before a kind friend finally scored me a 4th generation dub. By the time "1000 Hurts" came out, I was a bona-fide fan, absorbing whatever wit and insight I could find in the pre-internet days from yellowing Forced Exposure reviews, and, in the instances where he'd own up to it, treating an Albini credit on a record as much a Seal of Quality as the Dischord logo or the Impulse! livery.

I discovered he could be a real prick, and sometimes cruel in the service of humor, but who amongst us isn't when we're 19 or 25 or 33, opinionated, sharing our thoughts publicly in a way so easily referenced. But more often than not, he was right. He, like all the best of us, held, demonstrated, and demanded a strong moral compass. He worked hard not to get in the way of other people's art, but, rather, tried to elevate them in the ways he knew how. His life was a great example that you could lead an ethical and intentional life, that you could also acknowledge your previous failures with grace and accountability. There are a few of these influences in my life; I rarely met them, but I appreciate the example they set, one that I strive to follow.

I've been discussing the loss of leaders a lot recently. People around me continually lament the death of those who become our North Stars, our cultural compasses. "Who will fill their shoes?" they ask. I'm sure as shit not going to record a "Magnolia Electric Co." or "24-Hour Revenge Therapy", but I cqn live an ethical life and help raise others up. This world can be shit a lot of the time, but it doesn't have to be that way. Thanks to Steve Albini for reminding me of that every single time his work crossed my path.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Yesterday (16 Fab B**tles Reggae Classics)

4/30 update: apparently, I forgot to post the link. And Mega was giving me a hard time, so you get a Kraken link on this one. Sorry, gang. On with the shit talk.

It's confession time. I....(sigh).

I do NOT like the Beatles.

It seems antithetical to my current "let's see how dumb I was to dislike this when I was 18" stance, but I still cannot get into the Fab Four in my late age. I will offer grudging respect to solo George Harrison and Paul McCartney, definitely fuck with Beatles-adjacents like Billy Preston and Yoko Ono, but I just can't hang with the Liverpudlian legends. Maybe it's the boomer worship, maybe it's that John Lennon always struck me as a self-important pud, maybe it's just because the Stones are more fun. But I just don't get how anyone under the age of 60, most of whom weren't alive when the Beatles were a working band, can worship them.

HOWEVER...I can absolutely get behind a Beatles cover. Whether it's Motown covering the early pop catalog, or Nina Simone's version of "My Sweet Lord", or this collection from 1991, there's something about a different artist interpreting Lennon/McCartney that makes it click for me. This has a few AAA headliners on it (the Maytals, Dandy Livingston, John Holt), but it's a lot of deeper cuts from the Trojan vaults AND includes a fair amount of solo work. Even viewed as a relative novelty, this helps prove that the Beatles weren't TOTAL shit, and maybe I should pull my head out of my ass on this one.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - If I Were A Carpenter

Let's face it; this is probably the only time I'll ever post something with Sheryl Crow on it.

But this is an important record, right? There had been tribute records before, but this one came out on A&M Records, home to Burt Bacharach and Cat Stevens and Janet Jackson and the Police and, yes, the Carpenters. And for every Sheryl Crow and Dishwalla, who both easily fit under the broad "alternative" banner 30 years ago, there were also Redd Kross, Shonen Knife, and Babes In Toyland. It also led to a very memorable (to me) video of Sonic Youth performing "Superstar". Would it surprise you to learn that Richard Carpenter doesn't like that version of "Superstar"? 

No, that's not Margaret Keane artwork; it's a reasonable facsimile of Karen & Richard listening to records. It's an indelible image from that time for me; I remember seeing POP in the backroom of the first record store I worked in, a small signifier that I was amongst fellow travelers, weirdos who might put their own twist on the most saccharine of art.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Let's Do It For Lance! J Church Tribute

We live in a world where a wonderful, kind Hawaiian man who had an encyclopedic knowledge of the 80s UK anarcho-punk and who wrote some of the finest, most literate punk rock songs of all time has been dead for 16 years, Yet Donald Trump still darkens the planet. It hardly seems fair.

Lance Hahn was always a dude I deeply admired. He made great music, released some great art from his friends, shared his knowledge freely. J Church remains incredibly underrated. Cringer is barely a blip on the modern radars of music listeners.  But his successors are legion, filling up Gainesville's venues every Halloween, treading the boards in punk house basements and on stages in tiny clubs from San Pedro to the Lehigh Valley to Manchester to Sendai.

A bunch of labels put together this record to aid Lance's healing back in '07. It's a suitable monument to his songcraft, as well as those he inspired. It has some pretty great bands turning in pretty great versions of the man's cuts. It's a great sing-along record. The organizers got Ben Snakepit to do the illustrations. If you see this one on a rack for $5, I say, grab it quick.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - This One's For The Fellows: A Sonic Salute To The Young Fresh Fellows

One of the things I enjoy about living in the Seattle area is stumbling across the regional releases that I never saw or even heard of back on the East Coast. Rarely are they much money, so it's really easy to stock up on recordings from 15, 20, 30 years ago that I might otherwise not consider picking up. I've ended up with a bunch of releases on C/Z and Up!, all kinds of records from the Murder City Devils family tree...even those bands that might have opened for R.E.M. back in the 90s that I would never have bought at full price.

Case in point: this tribute to the Young Fresh Fellows, released by Visqueen associate Peter Hilgendorf on his BlueDisguise Records, I get power pop a lot more in my 40s than I did in my 20s, so this vein of PNW punky sweetness in literally music to my ears. Hilgendorf assembled a great lineup for this one: YFF contemporaries like Robyn Hitchcock, the Figgs, and the Silos, locals like the Makers, Mono Men, and Presidents of The United States of America, and out of towners like the Groovie Ghoulies and Stephen Malkmus all contribute their takes on a catalog that stretches back to the days of the Paisley Underground. It's pretty good stuff, all told, made all the sweeter that I think I found it for $2 in one of my regular huants.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - In The Name Of Satan: A Tribute To Venom

Sigh...

In the positive column:

• Voivod, Nuclear Assault, Kreator, and Sodom, all appearing on a tribute to black metal "originators" Venom
• It cost me a buck
• This copy has a hole punched through the barcode, which tells me the first owner of this paid little to nothing for it

And in the negative column:

• This is the American version of the release on Deadline/Cleopatra, with an extra track by the Electric Hellfire Club jammed into the middle of the comp
• As the US-released version, they dropped the "In The Name Of Satan" part of the title, so as not to offend anyone in middle America
• This isn't an hour of bands influenced by Venom doing riffs on this EP

This isn't "good", but it's worth hearing at least once all the way through.

Discogs

(using the OG German cover b/c it's cooler/cornier)

Click here to download.

various artists - Sweet 16's Turned 31: A Tribute To Bob Seger

I only bought this b/c it had a Sweep The Leg Johnny track on it. I don't like Bob Seger, I don't know any of the other bands on this EP, I've never otherwise heard of Urinine Records. But it looks like this was kind of a thing for Urinine, getting indie rock bands to do tribute EPs to 70s and 80s rockers.

So, there you have it. Four indie rock/math rock/post hardcore bands from the turn of the millenium, covering four of the Silver Bullet Band's greatest hits. It's a thing...clearly.

Discogs

Click here to download.

McCoy Tyner / Pharoah Sanders / David Murray / Cecil McBee / Roy Haynes – A Tribute To John Coltrane / Blues For Coltrane

I mean, shit, if I'm going to talk about Trane for a minute, how about another deep cut tribute featuring a pair of his sidemen.

This one came on out Impulse! back in the late 80s, featuring pianist McCoy Tyner and saxophonist Pharoah Sanders playing three Coltrane compositions, along with a Tyner track, a Billy Eckstein song, and one by David Murray that I typically skip over.

That's your call, homey.

Yet another one that I think is worthy of reissue; Pharoah pretty much wails on this. Great to hear him play "Naima" alongside Tyner. I think it gets missed because it came out in that weird "MCA/Impulse!" period when the catalog was probably not being paid close attention to, and just as a new generation of freaks was starting to discover the likes of Sun Ra and Archie Shepp.

Anyway, dig on it.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - This Is Springfield, Not Shelbyville!

Ah, maybe these minstrels will sooth my jangled nerves.

Here's a turn of the century tribute to the Simpsons, featuring a strong nod to "This Is Boston, No L.A." and a grip of Tri-State hardcore and punk bands. My favs? How about Milhouse adapting "Firestorm" with Bart-inspired lyrics? Or Lifes Halt's thrash paean to the state's first Aquacar factory? Maybe it's Black Army Jacket's tribute to Poochy? They all tread a thin line between clever and stupid.

Whoops, wrong reference.

I'm not sure how I managed to miss this record's existence for almost 20 years. Is this just an excuse to post a .gif from Frinkiac? No chance, nerd. Does it fit thematically with yesterday's post? Sure. Is this a cheap ploy to get some more eyeballs and ears to the blog? Probably. Did it work? Who knows?

This blog is over.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Our Band Could Be Your Life

I think a lot lately about musical mini trends that have been lost to time.

Can you do a tribute comp in 2020? I mean, sure, you COULD theoretically put one out. But who'd care, much less buy enough copies to break even? I feel like the tribute comp went out around the time that Fearless put out their tenth Punk Goes! release. Although, as I writing this, I'm remembering that Guilt By Association comp that had Petra Haden doing Journey, Superchunk doing Destiny's Child, etc. That was good stuff that a year or two later probably would have been an MP3-only website release for someone like Merge or some publicist firm. But I digress.

I remember being SUPER stoked on this when I snagged a copy in 1996. "Oooh, Jawbox! Oooh, Tsunami and Unwound and Kaia and Treepeople! Doing Minutemen songs! Oooh!" And app. 25 years later, it still holds up. I hate to describe this as a novelty, because releases (the indie rock tribute to [Band X]) like this were numerous throughout the 90s and early aughts. But seeing it in the flesh (aluminum?) feels weird, even if it sounds so good. The most pleasant surprise for me was re-hearing Seam's version of "This Ain't No Picnic". I have a real yen to revisit their Touch & Go catalog now.

"Our Band Could Be Your Life: A Tribute to D Boon and the Minutemen"
ripped at 192kbps from the 1994 CD release on Little Brother Records
(DL)