Month in Review: August '15

Mostly just keeping up with a trickle of new stuff, listening to new record by old favorites like an old person.

Album of the Month
 
The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms - a bristling, thrilling post-punk album bursting with nervous energy

Also Recommended!

Vundabar - Gawk - grownin'-up second record from my favorite local band, it's a propulsive, surf-flecked gem

Regurgitator - Art - Australian rock band makes their what-next 3rd album, watches dozens of ideas breaking off and burn up on re-entry

Royal Headache - High - Australia again! Less visceral energy than their trilling debut, but with hooks and hearts to spare

Month in Review: July '15

Life continues to make demands, a scant sampling of new stuff, cult classics, and Scott Ganem recommendations managed to yield a solid crop of shit worth hearing.

Album of the Month
 
Thee Oh Sees - Mutilator Defeated at Last - relentlessly thrilling, the realization of all the potential these guys have always shone. A busy, galloping, hooky masterpiece

Also Recommended!

Wilco - Star Wars - these guys are still around, putting out another twisty, solid, subtly brilliant album

Nina Simone - Pastel Blues - maybe it's my relative unfamiliarity with Simone, but this blew my socks off. She's truly a force, and this has got all the nuance and character you could dream of

Langhorne Slim - The Way We Move - an earthy, inviting record that takes the long way around to a dozen of my favorite 00's indie rock sounds

Month in Review: June '15

Shit been busy, search been scattered: mostly just keeping up with the new stuff, cramming some jazz.

Album of the Month
 
Jamie XX - In Colour - All those useless tricks I hate, put to good use building a weird, winding wonderland.

Also Recommended!
 

Christopher Owens - Chrissybaby Forever - Insidiously intimate, hooky weirdo pop

 

The Moody Blues - In Search of the Lost Chord - A wonderfully strange, overlooked psychadelic classic

 

Charles Mingus - Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus - His best tracks revisited and improved, a self-performed greatest hits covers album

Month in Review: May '15

Flailings from the quest for the new new new, just looking for anything, any search term or angle or recommender that will yield something worth listening to. A scattered series of finds include:

Album of the Month

Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment - Surf - wildly original and fun as heck. I don't know how an album like this even gets made.

Also Recommended!

Ray Mang - Mangled - One of the better space disco albums I've come across. Solid.

Les Baxter - Ritual of the Savage - A great find mostly because it's just something completely new: retro ripoff exploitations exploded into ironic/unironic funtimes.

Cannonball Adderly - Somethin' Else - Just damn agreeable rollalong jazz

Month in Review: April '15

Yow. Nother good one. It's amazing how much you pack into a month. Went through a mini hiphop kick, continued to root out Roo-players, kept a closer-than-usual eye on new releases, even checked out a little jazz here and there. But first, back to the same old story:

Album of the Month
 
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - I'm in Your Mind Fuzz - Their masterpiece, the perfect blend of wooping riffy freakouts and dreamy floatalong psychadelia. When these guys cut lose they cannot be beat by any band under the sun.

Also Recommended!

Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon - I repeat: possibly the finest piece of hardline ambient ever.

DJ Format - Statement of Intent - Perfect combination of hard-edged // labyrinthine lyricism, backed by effortlessly exciting hip hop production.

Art Blakey Quintet - A Night at Birdland Vol. 1 - Rocksolid jazz that pops off the wax.

The Sonics - This is the Sonics - Shockingly solid album from the garage rock firstwavers.

Camel - Rain Dances - A quietly toothsome take on prog rock.

Month in Review: March '15

Holy shit.

This was an *insanely* good month for music: lots of good new albums released, lots of good finds on an electronic kick, some playing-bonnaroo-driven finds and a dash of my usual trashy nonsense. Brace yourself!

Album of the Month
 
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit - Actual lyrics get at this old heart of mine, this girl do have a wry way with saying words, with a reckoning rumble to back it up.

Also Recommended!

So much!

New releases:

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly - A rich, ranting, blistering hip hop screed to remember.

Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowel - Probably the most crushingly beautiful, sad album you'll hear all year.

Electronic stuff:

Zongamin - Zongamin - Glitchy, bouncy, subtly strange, completely listenable accoustic/electronic.

Krazy Baldhead - The Noise in the Sky - Rockist electronica with great hooks and flow, plus a spark of something new you just can't put your finger on.

Lindstrom and Prins Thomas - II -  Both at the top of their game: those krauty basslines, those helixical synth lines, pure space disco hypnosis.

Africa via roo '15

Songhoy Blues - Music in Exile - Intricate, toetapping guitar music that slithers all around the outside of "rock"

William Onyeabor - World Psychedelic Classics 5: Who Is William Onyeabor? - About ahead of its time as sounds come, beats and grooves so sure, so pure.

The usual:

White Reaper - White Reaper -Yep. Still a sucker for too-loud, too-fast, wheelscominoff garage rock.

Month in Review: February '15

Was all over the map this month, in life and music both. Went back and scraped the bottom of the "best of the 60's" barrel for a few things I hadn't heard, but it was a hodgepodge.

Album of the Month
Dan Deacon - Gliss Riffer - The Dan Deacon album I've been waiting for for years - totally listenable, full of heart, and infinitely rich in the details.

Also Recommended!
Nobunny - Secret Songs: Reflections from the Ear Mirror - Dude got his vocals working and suddenly those endlessly inventive, classics-riffing songwriting chops shine through. And bright!

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - Gaddamn, these guys really did have a lot of good albums. Check this out if you've only heard their super meaty stuff and have *any* tolerance for proggy nonsense.

The Districts - A Flourish and a Spoil - I must have been in a bad mood or been hung up on their debut EP when I gave this a 3 because this's a great bit of gritty, soulful, rockin' indie rock.

The Red Crayola - The Parable of Arable Land - Alright, one gem out of my 6th trawl through the 60's: this fullon freakout's a slab of psychadelia that's damned worth hearing if you're feeling weird.

Month in Review: January '15

A seemingly weak Bonnaroo lineup had me checking out some of the unknowns and trying wicked hard to get into My Morning Jacket.

Good news is pretty much all of my favorite albums of the month fell out of that trawl, some real good shit to be had after all maybe. 

Album of the Month
Benjamin Booker - Benjamin Booker - damned hooky stuff with just a bit of grit and soul. Rock solid, enjoyable rock records always find their way into my favorite list, at least for a little while.

Also Recommended!
Tycho - Awake - best instrumental, looping, loping electronic/analog jam since Ratatat's self titled.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Twelve Bar Bruise - this garage rock revival is just the gift that keeps on giving. These guys are heavy and hard and nasty and weird.

The Districts - The Districts - raucous little shouter this one, lots of subtle inventiveness tucked in among the big dumb riffage.

Strand of Oaks - HEAL - desperate, skylorn, gigantic country-flecked rock that wallows and climaxes and will knock your socks off once or twice.

Month in Review: December '14

Main theme was finding Japanese electronic label Maltine's site, where they have dozens and dozens of albums as free downloads. Some fun stuff! A couple of surprisingly good releases from some old favorites in there too.

Album of the Month
Glassyo - Jazz EP - A strange, funky little record that I just like more the more I hear it. Check out his Jumbo EP too.

Also Recommended!
Girl Talk and Freeway - Broken Ankles EP - Girl Talk goes for it full production style! The transition's surprisingly smooth so far; he's got a future in this shit if he sticks with it.

Pantera - A Vulgar Display of Power - Never quite sure which of the metal classics that I'm working my way through are gonna move me. Lives up to it's title, surprisingly fun.

The Smashing Pumpkins - Monument to an Elegy - Surprisingly good record from a band I'd long since quit on. Maybe they stopped trying too hard. Or maybe my standards are just that low.

Month in Review: November '14

A life-busy, music-thin month that was mostly fueled by the discovery of the great Shake Appeal column, packed with "garage and garage adjacent" coverage.

Not a lot blew me away this month, but here's a couple of gems for ya:

Album of the Month
Lindstrom - Where You Go I Go Too - strangely emotional, quietly eternal. A space disco epic meant for straight-through listens.

Also Recommended!
OBN III's - Live in San Fransisco - Great, garagey fuckoff energy, this is what live rock and roll is meant to be.

Adhesive Wombat - Marsupial Madness - Proof 8-bit doesn't have to be a gimmick, this is muscular headbobbing, bodymoving stuff.

Hawkwind - Space Ritual - Enormously, insanely, indulgently proggy. If you're going to do space rock, do it all the way.

Month in Review: October '14

A frantic month of work left me with too little energy to get super adventurous with new stuff or embark on any epic research projects. Instead I ended up hitting mostly-underwhelming albums by known quantities (!!!, Cibo Matto, Basement Jaxx, Legowelt, Tobacco, Sjukstugan) and trawled the blogs for newer stuff to round out my 2014 lists. Still gems to be had! Especially from the seemingly-endless expanses of Ty Segall collaborators, a connection that seldom disappoints. For example:

Album of the Month
Mikal Cronin - MCII - I've cooled on this a bit, it's a little too pop to last as your favorite thing ever forever, but I listened to this a boatload this month. Catchy, intricate, undemanding, never boring, a small masterpiece of big-guitar power-pop.

Also Recommended!
Meatbodies - Meatbodies - On the other side of the Segall spectrum, these guys make heavy, hooky garage-psychadelic-metal that hits like a ton of bricks and still manages to be a ton of fun.

Kurt Vile - It's a Big World Out There (And I Am Scared) - Just when you thought Vile's drawnout, hypnotic, epic guitar sound and craggy groan couldn't get any better, he trims the fat, adds some synths, and ends up with something familiar, different, and quietly magical.

Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2 - A hip hop album packed with intricate rhymes and impossible production moves, all while sounding completely effortless, the record in the block of vinyl just waiting to be found.

Courtney Barnett - The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas - Not so much a full recommendation as a special prize for being something I liked a bit when I expected to //hate// it, and for getting Avant Gardener solidly stuck in my head something fierce for a solid week.

Month in Review: September '14

September hinged on the discovery of the Noise in France compilation (see below), which sent us off and digging up the best of a surprisingly vibrant French garage rock scene. Anticipated releases by Aphex Twin and Death from Above 1979 were solid, but didn't quite move me in my old jaded age.

Album of the Month
VA - Noise in France - A thrilling who's who in recent French garage / noise /experimental rock, banging out a strikingly potent cocktail of adventurousness and listenability.

Also Recommended!
Lorde - Pure Heroine - I was surprised how much I liked this little pop gem, it's hooky, intricate, spooky stuff.

The Dying Falls - Pheromones - Finally got around to listening to this album by some local favorites: extremely catchy, synth-wielding NY-style postpunk that demands a dancing-to.

The Octopus Project - Fever Forms - Packed to the gills with overbusy, superfuzzy, damned hooky electronic jams.

Purling Hiss - Lounge Lizards - Simple, strutting, nasty rock and roll doing what it do and doing it good.

Month in Review: August '14

This was the month I finally lost patience with trawling the classic rock best-of lists, weary of the diminishing returns on listening to the 18th best album of 1972, the 3rd best Grateful Dead album.

So now what? Desperation leads to following Spotify accidents, like looking up an old DOOM album and finding a similarly-titled track by some kickass Sweedish hip hop dudes, which got me thinking international, which lead to New Zealand week, capping with a happy also-named-The-Gordons bluegrass accident. The future is now motherfuckers.

Album of the Month
Ty Segall - Manipulator - Still love this dude. Kicks his shitkicking garage rock mastery to the curb, brews up a sprawling, hypnotic glam-rock masterpiece instead. Still rules.

Also Recommended!
Lonnie Mack - The Wham of that Memphis Man! - Can't get enough rollicking rockabilly, this was a great surprise find.

Sjukstugan - Rap pa Svenska - Who knew? Them Swedes can sure bang a bangin consonant-heavy syllable together.

The Gordons - The Gordons - Major highlight of New Zealand week, these guys make rock and roll with that kind of couldntgiveafuck energy I love.

Wire - Chairs Missing - Still some value in the old lists! Thrilling, knotty, hitchy postpunk.