Monthly Archives: April 2011

Undertow

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Band: Tool
Album: Undertow
Best song: “Prison Sex” is probably the best song, but the entire album is very strong.
Worst song: I honestly like every song on this album.

This is the week of Passover and I’m on quite the streak of nonseders. Oddly enough, Passover is probably my favorite Jewish holiday, as it’s the “eat food and tell stories” of Jewish holidays.

But, I haven’t had a seder in many years and I’m perfectly OK with that. Instead, I buy a bottle of Kosher wine and drink it in one night, usually in front of the TV. It’s a pretty great tradition and I’m glad I do it. Continue reading →

Transmissions from the Satellite Heart

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Band: The Flaming Lips
Album: Transmissions from the Satellite Heart
Best song: “Slow Nerve Action” and “She don’t Use Jelly” are classics.
Worst song: “Be My Head” isn’t amazing.

Beavis and Butthead was sort of a defining show in my youth. The show came out at a time when I fetishized the adolescence that I was going through, so having “role models” — not in any classical sense — like the two miscreants on MTV was perfect for myself. Continue reading →

Badmotorfinger

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Band: Soundgarden
Album: Badmotorfinger
Best song: “Jesus Christ Pose,” “Rusty Cage,” “Slaves & Bulldozers,” “Outshined” and “Room a Thousand Years Wide” are all great.
Worst song: The whole album is pretty excellent.

Though it wasn’t at the time — I was likely still listening to MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice as an elementary school kid — 1991 was a huge year for music. It’s well-known as the year that grunge “broke,” shooting the transition from hair band nonsense to punk/indie nonsense as the popular rock music genre. R.E.M.’s Out of Time was released in 1991. Slint’s Spiderland — one of my favorite albums of all time, but one I did not discover until I was in late high school — was released that year. Pearl Jam’s Ten was released that fall, two weeks after Metallica’s black album was released. Even the mediocre, post-peak records were very good, as evidenced by Ozzy’s No More Tears album. Continue reading →