#048 The Mint Chicks - Octagon, Octagon, Octagon EP

Lets keep it rolling! Breaking up the backwards roll by jumping to the first of their first two EPs I haven't heard.

This doesn't surprise me - they started off as fairly awesome ferocious, angular post-punks, sounding like more like blood brothers or single frame or pretty girls make graves (namedrop combo bonus!) than the thermals. Its rad and weird and noisy and aggressive, but in yet a 4th way, still different than FtGY, CYDN and Screens. This also features the 2nd song that reminds me of the Worlds Largest Band, I almost wonder if they're doing some kind of Menomena-esque generate-and-recreate trick.. In any case I am super anxious to actually hear these albums again in proper forwards order and track this curious path 4/5.

#047 The Mint Chicks - Fuck the Golden Youth

These guys continue to deliver, fast becoming one of my favorite bands of the moment.

In more straight up garagey, thermals-esque punk terrirory here, but the unhinged vocal delivery and little twists and turns are sure fun. Once again, the album starts sludgy and then relaxes and throws itself around the room a little. What a fascinating band, really a lot of progression between their albums, always high energy, clearly talented, slightly out of control heavy rock, but with lots lots of little divergences into pretty, spazzy, squonky and outright weird. Fun shit 4/5

#046 The Radio Dept - Clinging to a Scheme

Got BNM'ed on pitchfork, though I had previously heard and liked Never Follow Suit on an mp3 blog.

What a pretty album, really good atmosphere, I already want to hear it again. Expertly produced, good details, good texture, just the right amount of fuzz, good selectable listening depth. Just a really nice buzzy pop feel that is quickly becoming the sound of the dawning decade. Man, its shocking how much better this year's crop of album's already is than last year's 4.5/5

#045 Mexican Institue of Sound - Pinata

Went clicking around allmusic for artists similar to avalanches, jason forrest, prefuse 73 - I need more high energy experimental madness. Came across this guy.

I'm a bit torn. Some of this sounds kind of trashy, like the same electronica tropes with "mexican flair" added. I don't think its very cool. But Girl Talk taught me not to be an asshole.

Is it any good? Some of it is sincerely kind of boring except as a novelty, but the energy of the first 3 tracks is undeniable, and some of the later songs are legitimately experimental in ways that turn me on, the swerves, of Katia, Tania, Paulina y La Kim, the legitimately squonky dirty synths of Mi Negra A Bailal and La Kebradita. The "mexican flair" is a nice change of pace, with blaring horns standing in where beats and riffs might otherwise be, but I suspect the appeal will wear off quickly. It started to even during this first listen. The album probably requires some cherrypicking, but there are some pretty rad tracks here that I'll keep in mind 3.5/5.

#044 Decendents - Milo Goes to College

Having heard some Black Flag, this became the biggest punk band I'd never really heard anything by.

I like this better. The vocals are standard issue punk shouty, and the guitars are a bit formless most of the time, but the bass. Man, I really fucking like the bass on these songs, great frenetic, unpredictable little runs. Also Bikage is super great. I think I'll like this better on later listens, which I will probably get one or two of, though I don't know if I'm inspired to check out the rest of their discography just yet 3/5.

#043 Black Flag - Damaged

Black Flag is probably the biggest punk band I'd never really heard anything by.

Well, its got a purity to it, no concessions to melody, few concessions to cleverness. The production is spartan, the vocals unsurprisingly raw and shouty. There's actually some interesting structural turns, some textured, noisy breakdowns that belie the blunt force. But for the most part, it all sludges together. It doesn't, in this age, impress me with its energy, and there's nothing particularly interesting or fun about it. Granted, hardcore punk isn't exactly my scene, but to me, this hasn't aged well except as a signpost on where punk went thenabouts 2/5.

#042 The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever

One of my favorite bands going, this is their new one.

I was a bit nervous, each of their album's been a bit worse than the last. The lyrics are good enough, but sort of feel like someone trying to do the Boys and Girls in America era Hold Steady thing, without quite pulling it off. This definitely continues their journey away from straightforward riffers into more nuanced territory, and it largely works here, more so than on Stay Positive. Weekenders is downright pretty, and Barely Breathing actually takes all the tricks, twists, keyboards and horns (!) and turns them into one of the band's most exciting songs (like a hard rock Life in a Glass House). The songs are downright complex in their sound, and Craig spends more time singing mealy mouthed than outright shouting - though the energy kicks up nicely near the end, and the hypnotic stomp of A Slight Discomfort is an interesting direction for them.

Its weird seeing the band go in this direction. Does it work? The fact is, they're at their best when the music is simple and the album structure is complex, and I don't know if this will pass Boys and Girls in America for the non-concept-album prize. I doubt it, but I already like it better than Stay Positive. BaGiA was a grower, lets see how this one fares 4/5

#041 Afrika Bambaataa - Planet Rock

And so my grand plan reveals itself: Afrika Bambaataa was influenced by Funkadelic (themselves influenced by James Brown) and sampled Trans-Europe Express (by Kraftwerk, who were contemporary German electronic music purveyors with Tangerine Dream) and was a predecessor of NWA, who featured Dre, who made The Chronic, which sampled Funkadelic. I'm not sure that wholly hangs together, but there's an interesting web emerging here.

There's some pretty great stuff here - the title track is apparently hugely influential, and I'm starting to see some of these origins falling into place. The real standout is Searching for the Perfect Beat, which transcends party rap and turns into some different kind of pumped up thing altogether. I never knew Renegades of Funk was a cover (as done by Rage), this is a cool version.

Some of the production gets thin on the later tracks, which is a drag, and I don't much enjoy the "3 guys rapping together" style, but the dense, spazzy production, especially on SftPB and Who Do You Think You're Funking With, is a lot of fun 3.5/5

#040 Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express

Another classic Kraftwerk album.

This was (unfortunately) more what I was expecting from Kraftwerk - pre-daft-punk sqronked vocals, pingly loops. Its fine, I'm know it was groundbreaking at the time, and there's a nice hypnoticness to it, but its pretty standard by today's standards.

Good to have heard, and to know of, but its unlikely to get any further spins by me. Where does that leave it? The whole rating things is a bit silly. But rather than killing it, for now let's hedge at 3/5

#039 Brian Eno - Before and After Science: Ten Pictures

Still thinking about Eno, and I realized that this was one I hadn't heard.

Really cool first half, really dense and propulsive, weird but listenable. Sounds very nearly like rap at times, and it's perhaps the most fun half-record Brian Eno's ever done.

The second half really drops off into much slower, ambient spaces - which is an interesting parallel with the two-half structure of Bowie's Low, actually, which was released the same year, and which featured Eno on synths. While I didn't like this half as much, By the River and Spider and I are gorgeous, making this a solid entry in my list of good albums by this guy 4/5.

#038 Kraftwerk - Autobahn

Electronic music theme continues. Kraftwerk is possibly the most important band I've never really heard, so lets get on that.

Once again, I lack a frame of reference. The title track is cool, with some nice space to it, and a chugging motion that's more subtle than I was expecting. It uses its epic length well, never growing boring. Pretty enough, good synth sound. But I think its hard, without really understanding the lineage of electronic music, to really recognize the role of this album, and the other 4 (shorter) tracks don't really sound overly different from a lot of things I've heard before. This is probably relegated to the "ok, fine, now I've heard that" pile, but hopefully it will provide some reference for the hundreds of albums Kraftwerk has theoretically inspired 3/5.

#037 Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

The Brian Eno mention on the MGMT album got me thinking about hearing some more Eno, which got me thinking about hearing some more electronic music. Some list lead me to this.

Pretty, dense, ambient music. I'm simply not enough of a connoisseur to say a lot more. I really like the textured details, little breakdowns and cracks in Mysterious Semblance, reminding me in the smallest ways of The Disintegration Loops, without all the suffocating horror. Reminds me a bit of Brian Eno, actually but I'm sure someone with a better breadth of knowledge on the genre would say they're not all that close. Decent, interesting, I'll probably have it on again the next time I need something ambient, which is occasionally, but not often 3/5.

#036 MGMT - Congratulations

Catching up after a weekend away - gotta stay on pace! Heard this album was a weird turn for this band, got curious.

Wow, it really is. I didn't love their first one, but this is actually quite cool. Its a weird, sort of experimental pop experience - a little bit ambient at times, catchy at others, usually quite pretty. They sort of ruin the comparison game when they name a song Brian Eno - that seems like as good a touchstone as any. Enjoyable, mysterious stuff 4/5.

#035 The Mint Chicks - Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!

I really liked Screens, out of nowhere, thought I should check out their extensive discography.

Man, some weaknesses in this experiment - I listened to the 1st 3 tracks, didn't love them, came back after a couple days to hear the rest and loved them, and then replayed it. So this is tainted.

The album starts off as sort of a blunt, punk, noise thing, really throwing you off, but then it turns into a really great, spazzy, noisy catchy band for the rest of the record. Great hooks, really pretty production, interesting left turns, but with a listenable structure and flow. Really a curiously brilliant band, eventually sounding more like Enon, or a listenable Ween, or a future-60's band (as I've described them on Screens) than the pummeling sludge act they start as. Really like it, probably would have been a 4.5 even without the confounding issues in my listening experience 4.5/5.

#034 Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician

Electric Ladyland made me remember Electric Larryland, which lead me to check out what is supposed to be their best, or at least most undiluted, album.

Well. Hm. I can't say I'm sorry I heard it. I'm glad this project made me stick with it, because there's some sort of brilliantly weird moments on here. Its certainly uncompromising, and I have to admire that.

But its also awful. Mostly unlistenable, sometimes just profoundly lazy. If you want spazzy, uncompromising freak-punk, can you expect anything else? But what it comes down to is, do you buy into it? Do you believe that they believe in what they're doing? Or maybe it just comes down to the fact I don't like it, except in a few moments that don't seem worth getting to 2/5.

#033 Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland

Found this in my music folder, realized I'd never actually heard it.

I'm late to the party on this. Not a lot more to be said. Its super great riffage, super psychedelic, with awesome production and surprisingly good pacing. Both weirder and more listenable than I was expecting, somehow; when I'm in the mood for this sort of thing I can see it being awesome to have around. I don't know quite what to do with it though. Its heavier than what I often want from a psychedelic record, too dense and too weird for straight up rocking out. Maybe if I did lots of drugs. I suspect it will grow on me a lot, but for now - 4/5

#032 Red Sparowes - The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies the Answer

They were playing with some band I like at the Echo, and the Echo webpage's description sounded promising.

I should have known by the album title. Ok, ok, you guys have heard Explosions in the Sky, fine. Maybe connoisseurs of longwinded instrumental post rock could tell me different, but this just sounded like a less epic version of the same stuff. It was decent programming music, so I made it though, but it gets a meh-plus 2/5.

#031 Starfucker - Starfucker

Heard their song on a Target commercial and finally tracked down its origin.

Man, I like this album a lot. Its quite simple, but there's a mastery of catchiness here, knowing just the melodies and chord changes and beats to use when, combined with some really pretty, juicy, lush production in places. Its somewhere this side of Ratatat, but better paced and more focused on pop and prettiness. I don't know what the role of 5's are on this little rating system, but if I'm ever going to give one, this has to qualify, I was immediately grabbed by this, really enjoyed it front to back, with only one brief uneven patch near the end 5/5

#030 Sly and the Family Stone - There's a Riot Goin' On

Funk. Go!

Man, I don't know what word fits better than sick. The beat on the first track, the jams on later tracks, and the pervasive coolness of the whole thing. Reviews talk about how dark this album is, but maybe that's just in contrast to what people at the time were expecting from a previously upbeat band and era. Its a bit dark, but not oppressive. I can see where a lot of DFA stuff got its ideas. Drags a bit at the end, but I dig it a lot otherwise 4.5/5

#029 Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove

Funk. Go!

I dig this one, more what I was hoping for - longer and jammier than I expected still, but with lots of energy and punch to spare. Even the slow song works. The bonus tracks from the bonus EP / cd version muddy the waters quite a bit and screw up the flow, I'd consider the core songs a far stronger canon. Will totally listen to this again, rockin, funky, ass-motivating stuff 4/5.

#028 Nice Nice - Extra Wow

Read a promising review, liked the band/album titles.

Interesting stuff, technoey, but rides the groove in a way that actually reminds me of some of the funk I've been listening to. Lots of interesting atmospherics and sound experiments. Is a bit too all over the map as far as energy level, I can't decide if this is music to get pumped up to or armchair headphone fodder - probably the latter, but there's a couple of pretty great raveups on there that might get plucked for mixes 3.5/5

#027 Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters

The funk bone-up continues.

I hear this was influenced by Sly and the Family Stone, which is on my list, so I'll have to see about that. For the most part, there's something about this that doesn't appeal to me. Its a little formless, without the groove that characterized the James Brown stuff, and there's just something tacky about the sound that I can't put my finger on - the sax sound is a little too clean, the bass sound a little too smooth, it just seems sort of plastic somehow. The 2nd half of Sly builds up a good froth, but generally, meh. Maybe its just too jazz, which is a genre I really have to work to like sometimes 1.5/5

#026 Galaxie 500 - On Fire

A recent reissue and review got my attention, then it came on after I finished the Dum Dum Girls album and I stuck with it.

The first song, perhaps benefiting from this transition, is really vibrant, like the best heartfelt 90's rock (though this came out in '89). The second song made me thing the high-singing thing, against dense, colorful drones, was going to get old. But I actually found it to find an enjoyable space between high energy and background music. I get something of a radiohead vibe here and there, and certainly a velvet undergroundey post-punk thing, but with a 90's flair? It strikes me as something of a missing stylistic link album.

More than anything, I'm really compelled to listen to this again, it made a real impression on my subconscious that I need to work to the surface via some kind of leverage 4/5

#025 Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be

Pitchfork review, but then a second mention by Nick got me to it.

Busy, hazy, all-girl post-punk with girl-group old-school vibes. Sounds like the Vivian Girls! Though granted, their wall of sound is a little more dense, and their sentiment a little more telegraphed from across time for spooky effect. But its also less fun. I could see it getting its hooks in me 3.5/5

#024 James Brown - The Payback

Old rap got me thinking about old funk.

I was expecting the tighter, bite sized blasts of funk from this album, and unfortunately the jammier 12+ minute slabs of hypnotic funky jazz / jazzy funk were not ideal garage cleaning music. Some enjoyable stuff, and given the way Maggot Brain worked its way into my head this might do the same - I sense it would benefit from anticipation of and intimacy with its finest hooks - 3/5

#023 Those Dancing Days - In our Space Hero Suits

Found a track on an mp3 blog, finally followed up.

What an enjoyable, catchy album. Fun, bouncy pop punk, with just enough unexpected weird synthy turns to keep you interested. I was interested front to back, and I'm a pretty distractable guy. Punk is a funny word, in this midst of listening to this I heard a real punk influence, but then read up on them a bit and heard them described as this super twee band. Are those ideas compatible? The person who wrote that knew they were a sweedish all-girl band with internew buzz origins, whereas i just head what I heard, so I'm going to say I'm not necessarily wrong. Separately, I'm fascinated by the lineage of punk forms and sounds and how the fun bits have been wholly stripped from the actual sentiment and mentality of the scene that spawned them.

Anyway, this is not the kind of blog this is supposed to be. Very promising 4.5/5

#022 Stiff Little Fingers - Inflammable Material

Now back to the punk bone-up.

Not super impressed by this, decent shouty punk, but nothing super inspiring. On the other hand, every time I started to lose interest, some surprisingly catchy bit would catch me. Back to the first hand, the lyrics are (by now) pretty generic tales of isolation and sort of formless aggression (bombs, barbed wire, fire, etc, ok, ok). If I make it back to this one again I suspect I'll like it better, but don't know if I'll make it back or not 2.5/5.

#021 NWA - Straight Outta Compton

The classic rap catchup continues.

I liked this a lot better than I expected to. Maybe it was because I listened to it in the midst of a potentially soul-crushing garage cleaning, and its unashamed bravado and fast beats were what I needed. The production was repetitive, and the rapping aggressive and mysogenistic, but maybe I'm just getting desensitized, or maybe it just worked. The rapping was good, the pacing was good, the hooks hooky. Whouda thunk it. Will probably revisit, I suspect this will go up or down on revisiting it, but for now I have to concede a generous 4/5

#020 Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

The Rap Classics Catchup continues.

Eh, I don't think the rapping's really all that tight on this, and Flavor Flav on this is just obnoxious. There's something sort of maniacal about it that was probably fresh at the time, but that just doesn't hold up. The party vibe is there, and I like the subject matter, that its not as negative as a lot of the early west coast stuff I've been hearing, but nothing that blows me away 2.5/5

#019 Dr. Dre - The Chronic

The Snoop album got me back on my mission to hit the purported rap classics. I tried to do this for the first time years ago, but I don't think I had the perspective, couldn't get into it at all - maybe some time, hearing some more rap, and reading a bit about the context of this album have gotten me ready.

So, usually I like more overt melody and energy from my rap production, but this album does have a swagger, a groove; loping bass lines and drunken flutes. I heard that the style's marked by slow grooves, gfunk samples (reproduced live), and Snoop's languid drawl. Ok, knowing that, ok, I can see it, I dig. The misogyny and posturing still annoy me, but when I focus on the bass lines and let the rhymes serve as rhythm, I liked it more than I expected to.

Some of the actual rapping is just lazy though, some of the rhymes already tired by then, some verses just talking about killing guy after guy after guy, this way and that way. Ok, ok, you're hard, fine, jesus, you convinced me 9 verses ago. One last gripe, why are rap albums so goddamn long? They almost always reek of filler.

I've learned rap is good doing the dishes music. I can't just listen to it, but I need to be doing something mindless enough that I can pay attention to the lyrics. Therefore, as I assume was the intention of Dre, Snoop, etc, I mostly listen to rap while I wash dishes and knit. This'll join the rotation. Whitest rap review ever? Man, I am what I am. - 3.5/5

#018 Caribou - Swim

I liked his first album under the Manitoba name, thought I'd check out his new one years later.

I think I liked this, a bit weird, a bit much to take in, but I think once your brain knows the paths it takes a bit it could wear a groove. Its awfully experimental for still being very tuneful and beat-ey. But then, this is one of the limitations of this project is that this is a 1st listen, and one done while I'm working no less, and this is an album that probably demands closer attention. Oh well, its mostly for record's sake anyway - I don't see it being a huge hit with me, but there's an outside chance. Spinning it again now - 3/5

#017 Devo - Q: Are We not Men? A: We are Devo!

Have been hearing a lot of devo-inspired surf rock lately, so I thought I'd check this out, having never heard this, their first album.

I remember seeing Devo on a punk compilation (albeit the expansive, 4-disc No Thanks) and saying "Devo isnt punk!" thinking mostly of Whip It and while this question gets into overlaps of punk, new wave and post punk, I can see the argument. This album's got a confrontational, propulsive, occasional maniacal, often ugly energy that give it plenty of punk spirit if you're willing to cast the net wide enough. They're certainly no more pop than the buzzcocks or the new york dolls.

Anyway! This album, as summed up above, is before the poppier quirkiness of Whip It: lots of shouting and pounding and some groovy guitars, with a frustrated urgency that makes it tense fun. Its listenable enough, a huge influence on many bands I like, vaguely inscrutable, and strangely sort of cool - I think my rating will go up or down significantly when all is said and done, but I will definitely be back. For now: 4/5

#016 Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Tyranny of Distance

Following up on them after seeing them live, heard this was their best album.

The only album of theirs I'd heard was Hearts of Oak, which I didn't much love if I recall, but this is a fun one, simple groovy indie rock, like polished Guided by Voices or Pavement. You would never guess the fury of their live show from this though, its actually pretty backgroundey at times. A couple good catchy tracks (Timorous Me, The Great Communicator), and I will totally see them live again, but nothing really blows me away on this one 3/5