A short little year-end roundup today, from Jamie Zawinski, who I've maybe been reading stuff from longer than any other person online, as I recall first encountering reading something from him back in 1995. I'm going to see about putting up some kind of year-end wrapup here myself towards the end of the month, I'd like some time to spend time with all the new stuff I've picked up.
Here's today's tunes. It's a good set today!
Mantar, "I, Omen"
Ode To The Flame, now, that's a proper metal album name. And, you know, it sounds pretty much like something called Ode To The Flame should sound like. Gotta love the over-the-top theatrics of it when a metal band really leans into it.
The Cows, "Down Below"
This song comes from The Cows' masterpiece, Cunning Stunts, a triumph of filthy noisy rock that was an eye-opener for me back when I bought it, more or less based just on the cover. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the music on it, but I couldn't get enough of it. Along with Tar's Jackson, this is the album that really kicked my obsesssion with Amphetamine Reptile Records and noise rock in general into overdrive.
LCD Soundsystem, "45:33 (iv)"
The first appearance of James Murphy's dance-punk/disco-revival/too-cool-for-school outfit, LCD Soundsystem. I think they're tremendous, relentlessly fun and extremely catchy, and even when they're kind of flat, they're still very listenable. This happens to be one of their flatter moments. I actually don't think too highly of this entire album (45:33, named after the running time of the album) compared to the rest of their work, but still enjoy it occasionally.
Nirvana, "Tourette's"
A truly remarkable thing about Nirvana is that, after becoming the biggest band in the world and changing the face of pop music, they turned around and made a deliberately uncommercial record, a record that was actively hostile to most of the new audience they'd built up. They took their fame and attacked it from the inside. Of course, we now know that Kurt Cobain was battling his own demons, and it's hard not to listen to In Utero through the lense of Cobain's suicide. But aside from the context of their career and Cobain's death, it's also a great album, an uncompromising rock record that stands with the greats of the genre, and is probably a better album than Nevermind.
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, "An August Theme"
Inner circle Pretentious Band Name Hall of Fame member ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead shows up here with an ostentatious little bit of filler from one of their later albums. They'll be back, so I'll talk more about them when we have something substantial to listen to.