Terrace Martin
Velvet Portraits
I was going to say something about this record. I forgot what it was.
It was pretty good, tho.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Someone is Listening to my Phonecalls...
Deftones; Gore
Feature Track: Doomed User
Keep Listening: (L)MIRL
Deep Cut: Gore
I only owned a few band T-shirts back in the day. And one of my favorites was a white baseball syle logo (in blue). If you are any kind of responsible music listener, then you must realize that Deftones possess one of the most unique and infectious sounds in all of rock music. However, in my opinion the last few albums have sounded more like a really good cover band trying to make their own originals.
But Gore comes out of the gate with a fresh new energy that should make even the hippest and most hyped new alternative rock bands tremble with a awe. This is barbaric. It is the classic sound of my youth, imbued with some creative recording techniques to sound like what we remembered feeling like when we first heard this sound.
This looks to be a great experience. The title track, Gore sounds like a social commentary on modern times and hits with a brutality beyond comparison.
I just re-listened to Around The Fur and scanned White Pony to make sure.
The best record they have ever made.
Thank you, guys!
Feature Track: Doomed User
Keep Listening: (L)MIRL
Deep Cut: Gore
I only owned a few band T-shirts back in the day. And one of my favorites was a white baseball syle logo (in blue). If you are any kind of responsible music listener, then you must realize that Deftones possess one of the most unique and infectious sounds in all of rock music. However, in my opinion the last few albums have sounded more like a really good cover band trying to make their own originals.
But Gore comes out of the gate with a fresh new energy that should make even the hippest and most hyped new alternative rock bands tremble with a awe. This is barbaric. It is the classic sound of my youth, imbued with some creative recording techniques to sound like what we remembered feeling like when we first heard this sound.
This looks to be a great experience. The title track, Gore sounds like a social commentary on modern times and hits with a brutality beyond comparison.
I just re-listened to Around The Fur and scanned White Pony to make sure.
The best record they have ever made.
Thank you, guys!
smh
Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals; Call It What It Is
So this album is only streaming on Pandora. Since I switched to Spotify a few years ago, I have never looked back, but I ventured back into Pandora's box to see if I could get a listen to this new record. I love Ben Harper (who doesn't?) and was pretty excited to hear a new effort from him after almost a decade.
However, it seems that I can only get to a list of the songs, but can't actually play them. So I guess I have to create a station and then wait for the songs off the album to come up in rotation randomly.
*long sigh.....
I'll call it what it is. Stupid. It's fucking stupid. I'm sure this album is awesome, but I will never know for sure because now I'm moving on to the next one in the list. Deftones. Their new album Gore is on Spotify, because they are not stupid. smh.
So this album is only streaming on Pandora. Since I switched to Spotify a few years ago, I have never looked back, but I ventured back into Pandora's box to see if I could get a listen to this new record. I love Ben Harper (who doesn't?) and was pretty excited to hear a new effort from him after almost a decade.
However, it seems that I can only get to a list of the songs, but can't actually play them. So I guess I have to create a station and then wait for the songs off the album to come up in rotation randomly.
*long sigh.....
I'll call it what it is. Stupid. It's fucking stupid. I'm sure this album is awesome, but I will never know for sure because now I'm moving on to the next one in the list. Deftones. Their new album Gore is on Spotify, because they are not stupid. smh.
Friday, July 29, 2016
Worth a Little Bit of Patience
Black Stone Cherry: Kentucky
Feature Track: Shakin' My Cage
Keep Listening: Hangman
Deep Cut: The Rambler
Even Deeper: I Am The Lion
If you are the type that revels in derivative post-grunge pop, Please make it Black Stone Cherry. A band that sounds kind of lame at first but constantly provides its own salvation through truly grunge tones and textures. Big guitar fills and solos.
By track three, the trauma of the last 10 years of shit-grunge starts to recede a little and I feel like I can hear this band for what they are. I have nothing left to give of this type of energy, but I would have played this in steady rotation during my teen years.
If one can forget the pathetic popular evolution of grunge, it is easy to imagine Black Stone Cherry the next obvious successor to the dark and dirty, sticky wood floors that birthed Soundgarden and AiC.
Kentucky combines a strange combination of authentic late-80's pre-grunge with a modern nearly-kitshe production. Literally, every song starts out with me rolling my eyes. However, almost every song wins over a small part of my hardened, cynical soul with a few perfectly placed riffs or legitimate grungy breaks.
I would say that the music is predominantly generic and would only appeal to a very specific demographic (I will not say which one). A lot of you might want to associate a band like this with Nickel Back, Creed or Matchbox 20. But I feel that there is some subtleties taking place that put Black Stone Cherry into a slightly different category. It is worth taking a quick look at this 15 track album.
If the song sounds like a shitty alt-pop song at the beginning, skip it. But if you like how the opening riff hits you, stay in for the whole song. You will find some definite gems on here, like Hangman!
Feature Track: Shakin' My Cage
Keep Listening: Hangman
Deep Cut: The Rambler
Even Deeper: I Am The Lion
If you are the type that revels in derivative post-grunge pop, Please make it Black Stone Cherry. A band that sounds kind of lame at first but constantly provides its own salvation through truly grunge tones and textures. Big guitar fills and solos.
By track three, the trauma of the last 10 years of shit-grunge starts to recede a little and I feel like I can hear this band for what they are. I have nothing left to give of this type of energy, but I would have played this in steady rotation during my teen years.
If one can forget the pathetic popular evolution of grunge, it is easy to imagine Black Stone Cherry the next obvious successor to the dark and dirty, sticky wood floors that birthed Soundgarden and AiC.
Kentucky combines a strange combination of authentic late-80's pre-grunge with a modern nearly-kitshe production. Literally, every song starts out with me rolling my eyes. However, almost every song wins over a small part of my hardened, cynical soul with a few perfectly placed riffs or legitimate grungy breaks.
I would say that the music is predominantly generic and would only appeal to a very specific demographic (I will not say which one). A lot of you might want to associate a band like this with Nickel Back, Creed or Matchbox 20. But I feel that there is some subtleties taking place that put Black Stone Cherry into a slightly different category. It is worth taking a quick look at this 15 track album.
If the song sounds like a shitty alt-pop song at the beginning, skip it. But if you like how the opening riff hits you, stay in for the whole song. You will find some definite gems on here, like Hangman!
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Schrödinger's Unfortunate Discovery
Autolux - Pussy's Dead
Feature Track: Listen to the Order
Notable Mention: Brainwasher
Keep Listening: Change My Head
My kind of guitar solos! Noise, with only the bare essentials of a hook to hold it together. Sound portrayed as music.Beginning with the break in the first track, Selectallcopy, Autolux lays out the thesis for a collection of songs that breaks from the 'Pink Floyd-esque' ideas of their back catalog. With Pussy's Dead, Autolux solidly steps foot into a new evolution of hook.
Noxious bass lines that reflect off of the pads like a craggy old tree on a winter lake. This band will fool you into thinking you are listening to just another house track. Then, suddenly, it will be an ugly pop song screaming with urgency, breaking free from the pablum. A contemplative album that ebbs and flows with brave expressions of rhythm and granular synthesis.
Deadly unproductive drone tracks such as Brainwasher more than make a nod to The Beatles, but in a way that highlights the power of that McCartney turn rather than try to directly exploit it. Listen to the Order promises A Wolf at the Door kind of high and delivers in less than two minutes with the first guitar break. I am getting blindly and wonderfully disoriented into the world of the drummer during this track. at 2:30 when the rest of the animals come out to play I am beyond elation.
Reappearing sounds like a 60's summer beach song with played in 3 different keys at the same time. Their complete disregard of the currency that is harmony brings a warmness to my soul.
Change My Head is a masterpiece. It sounds like they used a speed-affected sample at different speeds to imply a bass line. These muddy sounds are replaced by an actual bass guitar for the meat of the song, which plods along like kurt kobain trying out a new progression.
Don't let the above comparisons come off as diminutive towards Autolux's accomplishments with this album. I see this band as one who is working to understand the new language of alternative/psychedelic music. This language has rapidly developed in the last 15-20 years as main-stream rock, alternative rock, EDM, classic rock, hip-hop, jazz and classical have all started to blend together as influences of popular music. It is an ever shifting and ephemeral dialogue and Becker is as fine a punctuation as any to end any significant statement. Such as, Pussy's Dead.
Feature Track: Listen to the Order
Notable Mention: Brainwasher
Keep Listening: Change My Head
My kind of guitar solos! Noise, with only the bare essentials of a hook to hold it together. Sound portrayed as music.Beginning with the break in the first track, Selectallcopy, Autolux lays out the thesis for a collection of songs that breaks from the 'Pink Floyd-esque' ideas of their back catalog. With Pussy's Dead, Autolux solidly steps foot into a new evolution of hook.
Noxious bass lines that reflect off of the pads like a craggy old tree on a winter lake. This band will fool you into thinking you are listening to just another house track. Then, suddenly, it will be an ugly pop song screaming with urgency, breaking free from the pablum. A contemplative album that ebbs and flows with brave expressions of rhythm and granular synthesis.
Deadly unproductive drone tracks such as Brainwasher more than make a nod to The Beatles, but in a way that highlights the power of that McCartney turn rather than try to directly exploit it. Listen to the Order promises A Wolf at the Door kind of high and delivers in less than two minutes with the first guitar break. I am getting blindly and wonderfully disoriented into the world of the drummer during this track. at 2:30 when the rest of the animals come out to play I am beyond elation.
Reappearing sounds like a 60's summer beach song with played in 3 different keys at the same time. Their complete disregard of the currency that is harmony brings a warmness to my soul.
Change My Head is a masterpiece. It sounds like they used a speed-affected sample at different speeds to imply a bass line. These muddy sounds are replaced by an actual bass guitar for the meat of the song, which plods along like kurt kobain trying out a new progression.
Don't let the above comparisons come off as diminutive towards Autolux's accomplishments with this album. I see this band as one who is working to understand the new language of alternative/psychedelic music. This language has rapidly developed in the last 15-20 years as main-stream rock, alternative rock, EDM, classic rock, hip-hop, jazz and classical have all started to blend together as influences of popular music. It is an ever shifting and ephemeral dialogue and Becker is as fine a punctuation as any to end any significant statement. Such as, Pussy's Dead.
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Lubomyr Melnyk - Illirion
Lubomyr Melnyk - Illirion
Eternal Bliss. Freedom of motion, outside of time. A discipline of thought manifested as sound. Vibrations bound by intent and focus, momentum obtained and retained by presence, alone. Submission to the changing moment of continuous existence. Motives built on breath instead of Meter. Searching. Painting with Black.
Eternal Bliss. Freedom of motion, outside of time. A discipline of thought manifested as sound. Vibrations bound by intent and focus, momentum obtained and retained by presence, alone. Submission to the changing moment of continuous existence. Motives built on breath instead of Meter. Searching. Painting with Black.
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
PEARS - Green Star: A Breath of Life for a Dead Genre
PEARS
Green Star
Feature Track: Anhedonia
Keep Listening: Green Star
Deep Cut: Doorbell
When I was a freshman in high school, there was a group of upper classmen who I met through community theater. I can't say that I was ever "part of their group" or anything, but they were nice to me and introduced me to a few things that contributed to my nascent personality. For instance, my first beer was a Rolling Rock poured into my mouth from the 2nd balcony by Scott Kearny at a cast party.
One of the most influential people for me during that time was a girl name Br3it Anderson. Yes, she spelled her name with a 3. I thought it was badass. Actually, I still do. Br3it was a bad ass chick. Rumors abounded that she met Marilyn Manson at the Rock & Roll hall of fame and "dated" him for a bit. I have no idea if that is true, but I want to believe it. She was the daughter of my English teacher. Her father introduced me to the work of Joseph Campbell and once gave me extra credit on an exam because I was able to name the song 'Rats' by Pearl Jam based on a 15 second clip of the song. Her mother was an obsessive Rock & Roll fan and had a 8'x6' afghan with the likeness of Steven Tyler on it. She made it herself. She always had an Aerosmith shirt on.
Anyway, one day during a rehearsal for our Highschool production of Three Musketeers, she gave me a mix tape, out of blue. I have no idea why she gave it to me or what made her think (realize) that I needed it. This was back when mix-tapes were literally cassettes. I can't remember all the tracks, but I remember most of them. It was a collection of the sickest tracks I had ever heard. Blag Flag, Prong, Minor Threat, Green Jelly, Bad Brains, Fugazi and many other bands I had never heard of. I wore that tape out! My first listen through that tape was one of the most crucial moments of my youth and it sticks with me and informs my sensibilities to this day.
The older I get, the more difficult it becomes to really get excited about bands in the "punk" genre. Over time this genre has become so watered down and confused that one never knows what will come out of the speakers. It could be pop music, hard-core, screamo or any number of other types of music that do not make me think of "punk".
From the get-go I knew that PEARS was legit. The average length of any track is about 90 seconds and their sound flows through meter changes and sonic moods in a way that took me right back to that cassette tape. There is a specific feeling that I get in my gut, head and soul when I hear some of those old mix-tape songs and for me most of this new album resonates on that same frequency.
PEARS brings a new sophistication to a legitimate brand of punk by allowing subtle hints of pop, rock and hardcore to seep through for seconds at a time while never veering from the tried and true patina of dirty garage punk rock.
Green Star
Feature Track: Anhedonia
Keep Listening: Green Star
Deep Cut: Doorbell
When I was a freshman in high school, there was a group of upper classmen who I met through community theater. I can't say that I was ever "part of their group" or anything, but they were nice to me and introduced me to a few things that contributed to my nascent personality. For instance, my first beer was a Rolling Rock poured into my mouth from the 2nd balcony by Scott Kearny at a cast party.
One of the most influential people for me during that time was a girl name Br3it Anderson. Yes, she spelled her name with a 3. I thought it was badass. Actually, I still do. Br3it was a bad ass chick. Rumors abounded that she met Marilyn Manson at the Rock & Roll hall of fame and "dated" him for a bit. I have no idea if that is true, but I want to believe it. She was the daughter of my English teacher. Her father introduced me to the work of Joseph Campbell and once gave me extra credit on an exam because I was able to name the song 'Rats' by Pearl Jam based on a 15 second clip of the song. Her mother was an obsessive Rock & Roll fan and had a 8'x6' afghan with the likeness of Steven Tyler on it. She made it herself. She always had an Aerosmith shirt on.
Anyway, one day during a rehearsal for our Highschool production of Three Musketeers, she gave me a mix tape, out of blue. I have no idea why she gave it to me or what made her think (realize) that I needed it. This was back when mix-tapes were literally cassettes. I can't remember all the tracks, but I remember most of them. It was a collection of the sickest tracks I had ever heard. Blag Flag, Prong, Minor Threat, Green Jelly, Bad Brains, Fugazi and many other bands I had never heard of. I wore that tape out! My first listen through that tape was one of the most crucial moments of my youth and it sticks with me and informs my sensibilities to this day.
The older I get, the more difficult it becomes to really get excited about bands in the "punk" genre. Over time this genre has become so watered down and confused that one never knows what will come out of the speakers. It could be pop music, hard-core, screamo or any number of other types of music that do not make me think of "punk".
From the get-go I knew that PEARS was legit. The average length of any track is about 90 seconds and their sound flows through meter changes and sonic moods in a way that took me right back to that cassette tape. There is a specific feeling that I get in my gut, head and soul when I hear some of those old mix-tape songs and for me most of this new album resonates on that same frequency.
PEARS brings a new sophistication to a legitimate brand of punk by allowing subtle hints of pop, rock and hardcore to seep through for seconds at a time while never veering from the tried and true patina of dirty garage punk rock.
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