December 2011
72 posts
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Flashback Friday: UTFO, "Bite It" (1985)
I distinctly remember riding to Huntington Beach in the back of my buddy Tarik’s dad’s Jeep Wagoneer with a handful of friends, blasting this cassette on a boombox, and trying to nail impressions of the E.T. voice in the intro. To this day, I’m still not sure how T’s dad put up with a bunch of obnoxious, sugar-fueled 11-year-olds being that simultaneously annoying without...
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Random Start: One Day As A Lion, "Wild...
Jon Theodore on drums. Distorted Fender Rhodes. Fronted by Zack De La Rocha. There’s no way in hell this wasn’t gonna end up being one of my favorite things ever. I just want more of it. Like, now.
Buy One Day As A Lion’s self-titled EP here.
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Random Start: Lagwagon, "Never Stops"
Joey Cape’s voice is one of my favorites in punk rock, and hearing it takes me straight back to the mid-nineties, commuting to college by day, and trying (and failing) to play along to songs on Trashed and Hoss by night. I always made a point to catch Lagwagon whenever they played locally, and going to those shows was a huge influence on my desire to make music and be in a touring band....
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Random Start: God Is An Astronaut, "Infinite...
I could listen to this on a loop all day long. (And I just might.)
If you’re a fan of instrumental post-rock like Explosions In The Sky, Jakob, If These Tree Could Talk, etc. you need to own everything God Is Astronaut has ever put out.
Start by picking up “All Is Violent, All Is Bright” right here for $4.99.
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This Week's 3hree Things: My 12 Favorite Albums Of... →
Since I lack foresight and tact (and motivation), I’m STILL counting down my 12 Favorite Albums Of 2011 over at OCWeekly. Read this and tell me how bad my taste in music is (and what my list is missing) or don’t.
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Random Start: Johnny Cash, "Hung My Head"
At this point, this is the only way you could really get me to willingly listen to one of Sting’s solo songs. And even then, it’s one of the weaker tracks on an otherwise solid Johnny Cash record full of covers. Sting outside of The Police just doesn’t do it for me.
Buy American IV: The Man Comes Around here.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-25) →
The Life and Times (12)
Brontide (11)
Other Lives (11)
Intervals (5)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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Random Start: Nine Inch Nails, "Eraser"
Let’s get weird (and awesome).
It took me a long time to get into Nine Inch Nails. For whatever reason, when The Downward Spiral came out in 1994 my ears weren’t ready to appreciate it, which seemed a little weird to me since I was listening to a lot of punk, metal, and heavy grunge at the time. Nine or ten years later, I saw them live at Coachella, something clicked, and I got...
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Merry Christmas Dorks!
Christmas - 1980
I hope you have a safe, happy and healthy holiday.
I also hope I’m never forced to sit on the lap of a man with a stare like that ever again.
That’s not a Christmas list in my hand. It’s a ransom note.
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Flashback Friday: LL Cool J, "Rock The Bells"...
From back in the day when LL Cool J wasn’t playing a detective on TV and actually wore a shirt on occasion. I was in junior high, had this record in heavy rotation, and really wanted one of LL’s signature Kangols.
Buy Radio for $5 here. It’s a a classic. Worth $50 as far as I’m concerned.
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Random Start: Dimmu Borgir "The Sinister...
“Leather shoulder pads…check, spiked shin guards…check, medieval wrist guards…check, ca- wait…what? WHERE THE FUCK IS MY CAPE?!”
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Random Start: Refused "Last Minute Pointer"
I want to be David Sandström when I grow up.
Buy Songs To Fan The Flames of Discontent here.
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My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-18) →
Tycho (36)
David Bazan (31)
Author & Punisher (19)
Periphery (13)
The Roots (13)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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This Week's 3hree Things: My 12 Favorite Albums Of... →
In this week’s 3hree Things, I reveal three more of my favorite albums of the year, and share a few words on which ones just missed the cut.
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Random Start: Tool, "Stinkfist"
It’s been ages since I last listened to Tool.
I’d kinda forgotten how great a record Ænima is.
Buy it here.
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Random Start: Faraquet, "Conceptual Separation of...
My brother fed his ears a steady diet of Faraquet on our last tour, and kept talking about how great their The View From This Tower record was. I made it a point to check them out as soon as I got home, and it’s been well worth it. Although the track above is a mellower fare, the record is full of really well-executed slightly mathy, angular rock/post-hardcore in the vein of Fugazi, Engine...
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Flashback Friday: Jodeci, "Forever My Lady" (1991)
Then: I was a 16-year-old white kid driving around the suburbs in a red Izusu Trooper blasting the hell out of this and singing along at the top of my lungs.
Now: The song still holds up, but so does the punchability of a dickfaced teenaged me turning his drive to school into the world’s shittiest mobile karaoke in a mini firetruck.
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Random Start: Justice, "Phantom, Pt. 1"
Justice is often described as “French house”. /vomits into lap
Would it be impossible not to laugh in the face of someone who said, “I have, like…super eclectic tastes, but I dunno…I really tend to gravitate toward a lot of French house”?
If you gravitate toward French house, buy some more French house here.
This is also a French house.
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Random Start: Broken Social Scene, "Texico...
WHAT?
Buy Forgiveness Rock Record here.
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Random Start: Ben Harper, "Another Lonely Day"
After listening to a ton of Ben Harper in the mid-nineties, I just stopped. I haven’t listened to any of his records in almost a decade. I’m not really sure how or why that happened, but I’m pretty sure I need to fix that. He’s got some fantastic songs—simple, honest and soulful.
Buy Fight For Your Mind here.
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This Week's 3hree Things: My 12 Favorite Albums Of... →
This week’s 3hree Things is the beginning of a laborious four-week rollout of my favorite 12 records of the year. Read on. Maybe you’ll find something you’ll like. Or maybe you’ll realize that you can’t stand my taste in music.
[image via Keith Barney]
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-11) →
The Joy Formidable (37)
Converge (22)
Trap Them (17)
Touché Amoré (13)
Russian Circles (12)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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Random Start: Dub Trio, "Safe and Sane"
I couldn’t find an album version of “Safe and Sane” on YouTube, but as it turns out, this live footage from a show at Red Room in Vancouver in September of 2007 is an even better representation of how great a band Dub Trio is. On paper, a dub/metal/math/indie/rock project sounds like a trainwreck waiting to happen, but these three killer musicians pull it off flawlessly.
Buy...
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Random Start: Touche Amore, "Sesame"
I’d heard a lot of good things about Touche Amore, but didn’t get around to checking them out until I saw Geoff Rickly of Thursday mention them in an interview on Fuse a couple a few weeks ago. I’m glad I did. Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me is a great record. I’m embarrassed that it took me so long to get around to hearing it. With bands like La Dispute and...
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Random Start: Black Roc, "Done Did It" (Feat....
From the project in which the Black Keys wrote ten instrumental tracks and had a handful of hip-hop artists (Mos Def, Q Tip, Raekwon, RZA, etc.) rap/sing over them. When I first heard of it, I thought it the concept sounded like it had the potential to be cool, but a misstep in its execution would make or break it. Thankfully, the Keys and producer Damon Dash pulled it off and BlackRoc ended up...
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This Week's FlipCollective Post: You Never Know... →
This week at FlipCollective, I write about change, and how I’m not sure where I’m going, but I’m sure I’ve come too far to go back to where I was.
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