Winding Down April...

So yeah, it's been a bit of an unusual month for me. May will see me posting more since I will be free of my current job for which has seemingly sucked away all life out of me. For those who have sent me CD's to listen to, I am sorry I haven't began to post about those yet. That will be coming soon however. Despite that, I did manage to put together the monthly mix for April and have posted it below. Also, the February mix has been removed.

01 - Tosca - Gimmi Gimmi
02 - Genghis Tron - Chapels
03 - Archers of Loaf - Greatest of All Time
04 - Rob Crow - Over the Summer
05 - Creeper Lagoon - Gigantor
06 - Slughog - Hanker
07 - Midlake - Roscoe
08 - Peeping Tom - Five Seconds (Feat. Odd Nosdom)
09 - Colour Revolt - A New Family
10 - The Radio Dept. - Every Time
11 - Don Caballero - Railroad Cancellation
12 - Kill Creek - Cosmetic Surgery
13 - The Naked Souls - Winter Kills Me
14 - Guitar - At the Seaside
15 - Mission of Burma - Careening With Conviction
16 - Podstar - Hop a Ride
17 - Jesu - Dead Eyes
18 - Asobi Seksu - Pink Cloud Tracing Paper
19 - Celebrity - Solstice

Download (.zip file)

Monster of the Absolute...

I would have to say that 2006 is proving to be fairly decent in terms of good music. The only album I had with high expectations attached to it was the new Built to Spill album, which turned out to be entirely forgettable. Sad, considering everything else they've release over the years has been stellar in my mind.

Anyway, there are plenty of great releases to be had this year so far and one of them surprisingly comes from Paik. I say surprisingly because I've never been able to listen to full length album by them and come out of it not feeling a bit bored. Their new album Monster of the Absolute however is a fairly lush instrumental outing that sports a shoegazy feel and dives into occasional psych territory. Best of all though, they manage to keep it interesting and by the end of the album I don't have those nasty thoughts about how I wish the rest of the album could of been like some other track or I am not frustrated by only small glimpses of brilliance throughout. However Paik have seem to nail it this time and I for one am glad as this band has shown plenty of potential over their almost decade long career. The track "October" is exceptionally well done and the most melodic of the bunch, so don't go basing the whole album off this one track. You'll find that some of the other songs are bit more drone oriented, but the band does all aspects of their sound well. In short, give Monster of the Absolute a listen...it's easily the bands finest effort.

Paik - October [MP3]

Buy Paik's Monster of the Absolute directly from Strange Attractors!

Missing in Action...

I apologize for the lack of updates through this week thus far. I have been sort of focusing elsewhere as of late on job prospects and the eventual quitting of my current job. On top of that, yesterday was my birthday. So yeah, I haven't really been able post on here like I would of liked to for much of this week.

Today however, I thought I would continue with the Barbaro post from a week or so ago and talk about Andrew Schneider's previous project in Slughog. The band, which featured the odd combination of two bass players and one guitarist, released a 7 inch EP and two albums titled Grit! in 1996 and Ungodly Amounts of Meat in 1998. The result in both is some very nasty and down right filthy portions of noise. You could file this under music that will undoubtedly make you uncomfortable in just listening to it. The comparisons to such bands as Unsane or Tad are fairly spot on, but the combination of the duel vocal attack presented by Schneider and fellow member/bassist Brian Wright puts the band in it's own niche. The vocals are as spontaneous and frenetic as the music which in the end plays right into very jagged approach Slughog sets forth on. You'll have to look past the highly awful artwork and some of the more gimmicky song titles, but if you can you'll be happily(?) greeted by some highly grotesque music. Which, now that I think about it, maybe the horrible artwork for the albums isn't to entirely out of place for these guys. Regardless, check out Slughog and then Barbaro in the posts below if you already haven't. Two fairly different bands whom both were great in their respective rights.

Slughog - Hanker [MP3] (Grit!)
Slughog - Organ Grinder [MP3] (Grit!)
Slughog - A Man Called Ass [MP3] (Ungodly Amounts of Meat)
Slughog - Left [MP3] (Ungodly Amounts of Meat)


Go here to buy both Grit! and Ungodly Amounts of Meat!

ON and ON...

After noticing a fairly positive response to the track I posted by ON from the "driving music" post, I figured it would be a good idea to just go ahead and write a bit more about the project. Essentially ON is nothing more than Ken Andrews' solo project, which he started working on after the break up of his previous band Failure. In 2000 the debut Shifting Skin was released through Sony, which displayed Andrews pursuing a more electronic influenced style of music. The songs are still deeply rooted though with Andrews' writing style and touch that was seen in Failure, as the melodies still run rampant throughout both of ON's releases. The album Shifting Skin was all multi-instrumentalist Ken Andrews where as on the second album Make Believe, which would see an independent self release in 2003, featured extra musicians to work on the project. It turns out that those musicians would actually be the future members of Andrews' other project Year of the Rabbit. With that, Make Believe sees almost the complete absence of the high electronic element that Shifting Skin contained. Instead, the album almost serves as a complete predecessor to what would be the sound featured on Year of the Rabbit's eventual debut release. However, I still find some songs to be a bit more interesting and overall better than the material that would be written by Year of the Rabbit, as I was highly disappointed by the sterile and overall boring direction on that album.

ON - Soluble Words [MP3] (Shifting Skin)
ON - Building [MP3] (Shifting Skin)
ON - The Only Thing I Know [MP3] (Make Believe)
ON - Revolution [MP3] (Make Believe)

Since the release of Make Believe, Ken Andrews has gone on to do mostly producing and mixing work for a slew of different bands and projects. He also managed to get married in the mean time and is now in the process of writing and recording yet another solo effort, which whether it will be under the moniker ON or not, is exciting news. He is also tackling a new project dubbed The Los Angeles Digital Noise Academy, which Ken himself describes as a "Postal Service on steroids". You can take a listen to that over at their MySpace located here. You can also check out Ken Andrews' own MySpace here.

You can still purchase both ON albums online or through Itunes.

Purchase ON - Shifting Skin through Amazon.
Purchase ON - Make Believe through CDBaby (Currently out of stock, sorry folks! Keep checking though!).

In Need of Morphine...

There is something entirely special about music that can capture a perfect setting in which it can be played. Having this happen usually is icing on the cake for me after listening to a band and initially liking the music for what it is. If it can take you elsewhere or just make you think of a place applicable to the sound of it, that's a great accomplishment in my book.

Morphine was one of those bands, and over the course of their time together they released 5 albums of what I would describe to be definitive mood driven music. Unfortunately however, the bands run together was brought to a premature and tragic end when front man Mark Sandman collapsed and died on stage of a heart attack in July of 1999. Their final album titled The Night was posthumously released in early 2000 through Dreamworks Records.

The music played by the group was unique to say in the least. Not relying on guitars of any sort, Sandman however opted for a 2 string slide bass and partnered that up with a contributing saxophone from Dana Colley and drums from Billy Conway. The end result was a low end bluesy sound that really can't be compared to anything else. Surprisingly enough though, even with their odd brand of music they were able to build a fairly large fan base with the releases of their debut Good and follow up Cure for Pain (my personal favorite). If anything though, I believe people probably could feed off Sandman's self deprecating and detached lyrics. However, what draws me in the most, aside from the strangeness of it all, is the incredibly seedy vibe the music seems to carry. Something about it always makes me think of the lowest of dive bars and obscene amounts of dirty women. Not a nice thought I know, but it's kind of the same deal as when you watch Goodfella's and how it makes you want to be in the Mafia, at least until the end.

Morphine - Good [MP3] (Good)
Morphine - Thursday [MP3] (Cure for Pain)
Morphine - Whisper [MP3] (Yes)
Morphine - French Fries With Pepper [MP3] (Like Swimming)

Morphine's entire output and even a compilation spanning their earlier career highlights can be found here for purchase, or basically any other major online retailer.

Barbaro - Nolte

Good bands just don't stay together long enough anymore. It's an all to common occurrence anymore for a band to release one great album and call it quits shortly after. This practice deeply saddens me each time it happens, however the positives are that former members generally go on to do something else of interest. Then again, the chances of it not being anywhere near as good as the previous project is always there too. The Boston based Barbaro are one these bands, however some of the members went on to do other worthwhile things as opposed to sucking it up in some other band. Most notable is Andrew Schneider who would later put together another great band with Placer, which I assume is also now defunct. Schneider also went on to do some producing work, mostly with Cave-In as their go to man for such things.

The album Nolte was the bands only release, as they broke up during the recording of it. With it though, they left a sprawling sludgy mess across 11 tracks. I listen to this album and think of what could of possibly been had they stayed together for a longer period of time, because the combination of their lumbering bass driven rock with just a touch of blues here and there created a fairly pummeling sound. That said though, just as fast as the band could run you over and leave you for dead, they could impress with some fine tight and clever songwriting. Seamlessly the band manages to work in catchy melodies into their heavy tight niched sound, helping along the way are the duel male/female vocals providing as a nice accent along side of it all. I actually dig the girls voice for the most part, and the songs for which they are prominently featured serve as some of my favorites off the album oddly enough. I highly recommend this album, as it's surprisingly unique and just a really solid record. It deserves a bit of attention.

Barbaro - My Teeth Are Falling Out [MP3]
Barbaro - Leaves Like Ice [MP3]
Barbaro - Spend [MP3]


Buy Barbaro - Nolte here!

Gunfight Anyone?

One thing I enjoy about living right outside of Kansas City is being so close to an area that is great for producing strong melodic hard rock bands. Despite its falling out of favor with the majority of the music listening community, it still is unforgettable if you live here. Albeit, many...if not all of the bands are gone, some managed to survive on past that era. An overlooked gem in my opinion was the band Gunfighter. What was originally just a side project for the members of Kansas City's Molly McGuire, Gunfighter would later draw full attention from vocalist Jason Blackmore to which he would drag along fellow Molly McGuire members Jason Gerken (before he left for Shiner) and Toby Lawrence. Blackmore over the coarse of time had written numerous songs for Gunfighter which some would be collected and recorded for their first album Pro-Electric. Originally supposed to be out on Loosegroove Records, the label would fold and the band would eventually have to release the album on their own label High Noon. Shortly thereafter a second album called High Noon with collected recordings from the same sessions would be put together.

Unfortunately the band would part ways while hitting their stride with their third and final album Serpent's Serenade. A rock album that pretty much carries on with the great music that was consistently produced in KC throughout the 90's. The music isn't noticeably heavy, however their is a snarling grittier feeling to it than music of the same genre. Being a more raw and power chord oriented band than Molly McGuire was, Gunfighter isn't something that will make you think or challenge you. However, Blackmore is one for melody and it has been best applied to the songs on Serpent's Serenade. The album also features the excellent drumming from Traindodge's Rob Smith. I would suggest hitting this album up first and then working your way back if you like it, including Molly McGuire material.

Gunfighter - The Bomb Market [MP3]
Gunfighter - Dear Lover [MP3]
Gunfighter - The Serpent's Serenade [MP3]


You might have to scope out used record stores for Molly McGuire albums, they should however be very cheap. There is always eBay if all else fails.

Buy Gunfighter - Serpent's Serenade here!

Night Driving Songs...

I spent this weekend out in Kansas hanging out with one of my close friends, in which while listening to various music we briefly talked about and mentioned songs that were good for listening to when you're just out driving around at night. I've always felt some songs are absolutely perfect that mood, some are incredibly seedy and dark which lends themselves greatly to the night time. Others though are more upbeat, however contain a sort of free feeling to them to which I've always found myself feeling much more energetic and out going at night. I don't know why, but it seems like all the fun happens at that time, so that may have something to do with it. Anyway, I went through today and compiled a few songs that I've found myself kind of listening to throughout the past couple years or so that have always filled that bill.

Codeseven - Sounds of Cyan and Magenta [MP3]
Sway (aka: Keepee) - Us Girls [MP3]
Medicine - Fried Awake [MP3]
Sneaker Pimps - Half Life [MP3]
ON - Avalanche [MP3]
Soundgarden - 4th of July [MP3]
Ulrich Schnauss - On My Own [MP3]

Some of the albums from which these songs are from could easily be listened to as a whole for driving around at night. Most notably would be Superunknown from Soundgarden, which I have fond memories of driving home from work and friends houses in the AM hours of night/morning. Anyway, for those of you that read give me some others, or some that you might listen to. I find it interesting what others might suggest.