Band: Motörhead
Album: Ace of Spades
Best song: Either the title track or “(We Are) The Road Crew”
Worst song: “Jailbait” is dumb and very creepy.
Despite my job responsibilities, I’m really bad at Twitter. I mostly just tweet out stuff about wildlife conservation or random thoughts — of import to no one other than myself — about music, baseball, etc. However, my proudest Twitter moment is one that involves Motörhead: Continue reading
Band: The Mountain Goats and John Vanderslice
Album: Moon Colony Bloodbath
Best song: “Scorpio Rising”
Worst song: “Emerging” has a lot of things I hate about the Mountain Goats.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of concept albums; I love the format of using music as a storytelling device or to explore a theme. The only perfect piece of art is a concept album and it could be argued that my favorite recent album is one, too. Continue reading
Band: Benjamin Gibbard
Album: Former Lives
Best song: “Bigger Than Love” is very good.
Worst song: “Oh Woe” misses the mark quite a bit.
I used to have a theory that creativity was like a pool of liquid. It was something I came up with when I was in high school, largely based on late-career Bob Dylan. The best artists have a bigger pool, of course, but that pool runs out. Dylan’s earliest work, I was thinking at the time, was his best. Continue reading
Band: Pallbearer
Album: Sorrow and Extinction
Best song: “Foreigner” is magnificent.
Worst song: Oh, man. Every song on this album is great.
Most metal is more of an aesthetic pleasure than it is an intellectual one, largely because the more satisfying metal bands are ones that trod the same lyrical themes over and over. The best subgenres — doom metal being the operative one for me lately — are ones that have a very distinct musical language but also have a very distinct lyrical and naming language. The bands have names like Weapon or Funeral or Death and their albums are called things like Epicurean Mass or Lamentations. **
Which is to say that I do not care about whatever the fuck the dudes in Pallbearer are doing lyrically. It doesn’t matter. It’s not important that the record is named Sorrow and Extinction. I don’t care that the song titles include “An Offering of Grief” and “Given to the Grave.” I’m not interested in the fact that the band’s website’s “about” bit says simply “A PLACE OF MOURNING FOR THE SERVANTS OF THE DEAD.” I don’t care that the cover art has the Grim Reaper on it. It’s not interesting. If I cared about the weird Satan-y or death fetishization, I’d go for Ghost. Those motherfuckers know what’s up. Continue reading
Band: ¡All-Time Quarterback!
Album: ¡All-Time Quarterback!
Best song: “Send Packing” is brilliant.
Worst song: “Untitled” is the weakest song on a strong set.
Patton Oswalt does a lovely bit on the Phantom Menace and the notion that seeing Anakin as a little kid is similar to seeing into Jon Voigt’s balls in 1974 because you think Angelina Jolie is beautiful. He’s not incorrect, of course, and it’s a common storytelling device. Dan Harmon, on his podcast, has said the same thing about the recently DVD’d Prometheus; watching two hours of prologue that ultimately ends up little like that which we know — the actual aliens of the superlative Alien — isn’t what consumers want. Origin stories work when they are well-done, not when they’re meandering or of a poorer quality. Continue reading
Band: The Atlas Moth
Album: An Ache for the Distance
Best song: “Perpetual Generations” is a great, great song.
Worst song: “Horse Thieves” is the weakest song on a very strong record.
Technology’s affect on music fandom is something about which I’ve written a bit, mostly from the industry side. But, nevertheless, the march of the MP3/computer has made physical media (and radio. And the record store.) largely obsolete and made the fan experience widly different than when I was being molded into the music fan I am today. Continue reading
Band: Sunny Day Real Estate
Album: The Rising Tide
Best song: “The Ocean” and “Fool in the Photograph” are the best songs.
Worst song: “Tearing in My Heart” isn’t much.
As a nonreligious person, an absurdist (in the philosophical sense) and a bit of a contrarian, I welcome things that challenge the status quo. However, I also tend to worship at the altar of science more than the average cat, which can be a tenuous stance. Science is progressive, so the preeminent science of today may be considered bunk in a week. Continue reading
Band: Superchunk
Album: Indoor Living
Best song: “Watery Hands” is a great song and the impetus for the piece.
Worst song: “European Medicine” isn’t great.
I’ve been feeling particularly nostalgic lately. I’ve also been very busy with work, so I’ve not had the time to write as much as I’d like in this space. Because of this, I’m posting something to which I’ve linked, but still remains something I really like. I wrote this six and a half years ago, posted it on Livejournal and have done a few edits this week — not for time stuff, as it should still be read as it was written in 2006. Indeed, here are some caveats about the piece:
It’s worth nothing, though, that I’m a big proponent of digital media and own a Kindle, as well as an iPod and haven’t bought a physical CD in ages. So, I’m part of the problem. Nevertheless, take a read, as I think it’s an interesting piece of work. Also, remember that a 25-year-old wrote it. Continue reading