Shout Out Out Out Out, “Spanish Moss And Total Loss” (Normals Welcome, 2012)
Good electro-dance stuff with a bit of a disco feel, some tropically tripped-out interludes, and cool vocodered vocals.
Try 3, 6
8/23/12
Side By Side, “You’re Only Young Once” (Revelation, 1988)
Late ‘80s NY/CT straight-edge hardcore, leaning more to the street-fighting end of the spectrum. These guys rock hard and heavy, with a loose but precisely pummeling rhythm section driving a gut-punchingly thick, serrated guitar-roar. Songs are anthemic as hell, too.
Try A/1, A/2, A/3
7/29/14
Siege, “Drop Dead” (Deep Six, 2008; original recording 1984)
In early ‘80s Boston, Siege were almost so far ahead of their time they didn’t quite know what to do with themselves. Taking hardcore the next step beyond Void and Negative FX, they generated an evil-sounding light-speed blur that anticipated grindcore and power violence, sometimes still structured like generic HC, but at their best attaining a fractured, rhythm-smashing frenzy reminiscent of Mars but at 78 RPM, or two of three different songs battling to occupy the same space.
Try A/1, A/3-6, B/1
10/22/11
Silver Jews, “Early Times” (Drag City, 2012; original release 1990-91)
First e.p. and album from this band are a very cracked, lo-fi and intriguing affair, with memorable melodies lurking across the dust-caked glass. Mid-tempo pummel reminiscent of a looser, Neil Young-inflected Pavement, but the song structures here actually anticipate Pavement’s later work (influenced it?), rather than vice versa.
Try 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10
7/29/12
Siouxsie and the Banshees, “A Kiss In The Dreamhouse” (Geffen, 1982)
The last great Siouxsie and the Banshees album, and their most swooningly dense, ornate and romantic ever, the postpunk guitar-chimes and tribal, driving beats blossoming and unfolding into towering, brilliant forests of sound.
Try A/1,A/2
4/30/12
Sleeper, “Smart” (Arista, 1994). Like their contemporaries Elastica, this group played loud-guitar Britpop w/a debt to Blondie and Elvis Costello, but they better grasped the subtlety of those artists’ approach to songwriting, and rocked harder, too. Try 1, 5, 13.
11/12/12
Screaming Trees, “Dust” (Epic, 1996)
Last LP from this pioneering Pacific Northwest group, whose exploration so fthe nexus between Beatlesque psych-pop and Sabbath-style sludge-blues were an acknowledged influenced on Mr. Cobain. “Dust” is at once their clearest, most assured work and their most desolate and soul-stirred.
Try 3, 5
11/10/16
Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel, “Nail” (Some Bizarre Self-Immolation, 1985)
“Hole” is more eclectic, but this is the most coherent and epic outing from Lydia Lunch’s ex, Mr. Jim Foetus (a. k. a. Clint Ruin/Foetus All-Nude Revue/You’ve Got Foetus On Your Breath/Foetus Über Frisco/etc. etc.). The singular sound of Foetus—informed by funk, big band, industrial, post-punk, neoclassical bombast, swamp blues, and just about anything else you can think of – here rises to a fever pitch of glorious, grandiose madness, like the soundtrack to a suppressed film about imperial triumph and collapse as composed by Danny Elfman if he was possessed by the devil.
Try A/2, A/5, B/1
1/6/12
Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel, “Hole” (Thirsty Ear, 1995; original release 1984)
Weirdest/wildest/arguably best album from this industrial/swampabilly/noise/big-band/funk/everything-but-the-kitchen-sink colossus. Words fail me. Be prepared to have your mind twisted like saltwater taffy.
Try 1, 4, 7, 10.
1/13/13
Savage Amused, “Savage Amused” (Mind Cure, 2012; original release 1985)
Harecore from Pittsburgh, unusually distinctive for the genre’s mid-‘80s lull. Lots of weird high-speed twists and turns, bits of Misfits and metal floating around, and some nice fuckup-anthems.
Try A/1, A/4, B/1
7/29/14