The Ocean Blue - Between Something and Nothing

A nice, jangly guitar pop tune from the late '80s from an American band that sounds distinctly British.

Rolling Stones - Live At The El Mocambo

Official release of a holy grail for Stones fans (1977 club shows in Toronto). Sure, there have been some patched-together bootlegs over the years. Also 4 songs officially released on "Love You Live" (the highlight of that record for sure), but this is otherworldly. Great setlist, great mix. Thanks to the Stones for finally listening to their fans and putting this one out there 45 yrs after the shows.

Dingo - Lakatut varpaankynnet

Just a good rock band. They used to be very popular in the 80s, like the biggest musical phenomenon this country has ever seen. Little girls got wild and hysterical like with The Beatles.

Kendrick Lamar - United in Grief

Stunning already. This fucking guy, I don't know how he comes up with this stuff. You know that's the mark of a great artist if you're saying that.

Yeah, I've spend much of this morning listening to the album, and it is fantastic! The wait was definitely worth it!

It'll take some time to digest. Nothing really like "King Kunta" or anything - it seems more layered and deep.

Crass - It's The Greatest Working Class Rip Off

Thunderous, raw punk. Great.

Renaissance - A Song for all Seasons

I've long maintained that poppier = better when it comes to prog, and this band has multiple albums that exemplify that perfectly. Annie Haslam is an absolute powerhouse.

Dee Gees - Hail Satin

Dave Grohl/Foo Fighters do an album of Bee Gees covers. Admittedly, it's kinda hokey. It works though. Grohl does a decent approximation of Barry Gibb's falsetto. Probably some studio trickery happening there, but whatever..it's fine. The music is well done. It hits all those disco/late 70's sounds, but the distorted Les Paul is underneath it all. Not bad. I may never listen to this again, but I'm glad I dug in once.

Fleetwood Mac - Rumors

I don't know why it's been so long since I heard this. A delightful piece of work. Immaculate hooks and that old kinda 70s style playing, silky and hazy.

Rudimentary Peni - No More Pain 2008
Rudimentary Peni - Great War 2021

I'm not the biggest RP fan you'll ever meet. I didn't hear them until they were out of context for my life. That's to say, I'm not a nut about them like so many are. I like them plenty, but they don't hit me like a ton of bricks. People seem to take offense to that. I don't understand that about people and their favorite bands; that it is a personal attack if your soul hasn't been lightening-struck. As for the newer stuff, these are both good, with the best nod going to Great War.

The Muslims - Fuck These Fuckin Fascists

There's such an incredible simplicity and directness to this stuff. Just honest and abrasive and wonderful.

Grant Hart -Intolerance- The first full-length solo release from the drummer of the legendary Husker Du. Haven't listened to this one in ages. It's a fairly lo-fi affair. Hart was the one writing the catchy songs in Husker Du and that plays out here. Groovy organ, piano, etc... Solid lyrics also. Check out "Now That You Know Me", "2541", "The Main", "Anything", and "She Can See The Angels Coming".

Lagwagon - Stokin' the Neighbors

Some of the riffiest punk of the 90s. I fucking love their album "Trashed", just a good time. Their later stuff is different in tone - more melancholic and serious, though still fast-paced and catchy. They were great when I saw them with Face to Face in 2019.


One of the more interesting recent signings from Epitaph. Sometimes I wonder if they're going back to their punk roots, if in a different way (this kinda stuff instead of NOFX/Bad Religion/Pennywise-style skate punk).
Another good one that the label picked up is Soul Glo. Check 'em out. "Diaspora Problems" is nuts, in a good way.

Yeah I'll have to do that. I've been addicted to Crass lately and The Muslims were rec'd to me by the same left-leaning folks. Thanks for the rec.

Ashra - New Age of Earth.
Beautiful and relaxing.

Göttsching is one of the greatest guitarists who has ever lived. Well, aside from that hyperbole, he's one of my favorite guitarists of all time, and he still has it. Some of his recent live shows are phenomenal. A brilliant artist.

King Gizzard - Crumbling Castle

Played this a shitload right up until the pandemic began. A great tune. Melodious and with a cool chorus hook.

Moses Sumney - Doomed

Moses Sumney's Aromanticism is a sort of concept album dealing with the idea of being an aromantic person or someone who consciously cultivates and integrates lovelessness in their personal life; as far as the normative and societal expectation parts of relationships go anyway. The songs are deep and dark and breathy and light with varying shades of minimalism...and the lyrics are entirely brilliant and all is mostly well executed. 'Doomed' is still the crushing centerpiece though. His voice, my god!

Am I vital
If my heart is idle?
Am I doomed?

James Blake - Retrograde

Shuffle gets it right and pivots to another centerpiece, this time from James Blake's Overgrown which is another minimal thing packed with considerable thoughtfulness.

Ramleh - Hole in the Heart

The people who think power electronics is just "noisy crap" need to hear this album. The self-titled track and Product of Fear are both atmospheric noise classics.

Been listening to the Buzzcocks and Christ on Parade the past two days. Buzzcocks is new to me, because 70's punk Rock has never been a thing for me. Heck, most early 80's punk didn't really grab me. It's different now, so the oldies are starting to grab me...sometimes. I still find myself listening to some of them and feeling them uneventful.

How do Neurosis fans feel about Christ on Parade? From the first time I heard them on Wild Riders of Boards and Sounds of Nature, I was intrigued in the best of ways. Just a fantastic, unique band. Thank goodness for random, unknown used records that pop into your life and change your little world. So yeah, you big Neurosis fans, what's your take on Christ on Parade?

God, I love them. Love that song.

The Dead Kennedys - Kill the Poor

Heard them a few times now but just bought this. Definitely iconic stuff. Biafra is wild, a real personality.

Billy Idol - Eyes Without A Face

This is my chill out song after a long, hard day of listening to death, black, thrash metal etc. Not totally chill though as Steve Stevens has an explosive guitar solo near the end. But the way that the song begins has some soothing effect on me.

Crass - Penis Envy - this has maybe become my favorite Crass to actually play and not just look at, but that isn't saying a lot. As I said earlier, I don't enjoy listening to them much.

Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols - I hope FX eventually airs the mini-series on cable and not Hulu only.

The Dead Kennedys - Soup Is Good Food

Now this is some brutal fucking lyricism. Music is a groovy surf kinda thing. Very cool band.

Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers

Having a hard time nailing it down but it is super interesting anyway. A raw wound of an album. Vulnerable and dense.

Aphrodite's Child - 666

RIP Vangelis - a legend in not just electronic music, but also prog, as he was the primary songwriter in this band before he began his solo career. This double concept album was one of the most ambitious, eclectic and creative of its time. It's one of those flawed masterpieces where the quality of each individual track is all over the place, but when taken together as a whole it's a massive success.

Crass - Christ The Album

This one seems a bit different; you can tell they put a lot more work into it, which does sort of take the scrappy fun of the debut away. But at the same time there's a real feral intensity to this stuff. It's like a more refined version of the gonzo weirdness of their second album, and there's something powerful about it.

Are you listening to remasters, original masters, or what? I would have to go double-check, but I think I've read the 2019-2020 remasters are not good. I believe it was the Crassical Collection in particular that have been significantly revised and remixed, dropping the vocals into a normal level and bringing up the guitars in a contemporary way. The originals have the vocals very loud and up front in the mix with the guitars subdued. At the time, Penny's productions were unique like that. It was one of the many hurdles for the listener. You know, these vocals almost out of place because they were so out front. I don't want to paint myself a Crass expert. I don't know shit about them, but I do remember the first time I heard 5000, and the vocals took some time to handle.

Buzzcocks - Singles Gone Steady 1979 - I prefer the first two albums, but this is the one many seem to listen to instead.

I'm just going with the originals from the bandcamp page. Haven't had a lot of money so there was no way I was buying the Crassical Collection stuff. This is the only one I've actually bought a CD for yet though. And yeah playing Penis Envy in the car the other day showed me how odd the production was.

You don't seem to like the music as much - I think there's something cool about how jagged and abrasive it all is. Next up is their final actual album which I have not heard and apparently that's like the weirdest one.

I really don't like the music very much. As I said, it was the drumming that immediately drove me crazy. The vocals weren't far behind though. So loud in the mix and the thick accent. One of the things I hated about UK punk was the accent. I've softened a lot to it with age (the past few years especially), but when I was first hearing it all, it was like nails on a chalk board. But Crass had this magnetic, fantastic aesthetic with lyrics I wanted to read and engage. I could just feel something great was there, and in that unique way, I could appreciate this particular band at a high level and not really want to hear the music. As intended, the music was secondary. If you look at them from a traditional musical sense, that sounds cockeyed, but in the context of it all, that's how Penny and crew intended it to be. Challenging on every level and in every way. As you said, the music was made to be abrasive and jagged, and their brand of abrasive and jagged was not something I could stomach for very long. I love experimental music and noise, so abrasive and jagged is good, just not their brand of it. This is why I think now I would rather listen to Penis Envy. The experimental nature of that album is within my wheelhouse.

The record covers and entire packaging are works of art. I still think they're as cool today as I did the first time I looked at them. Maybe even cooler now.

I've always been drawn to challenging stuff. It speaks to me.

Dead Kennedys - California Uber Alles

The surfy, more accessible guitar makes this a much easier listen, pretty kickass.

5-minute tracks on Frankenchrist is too longwinded for me, but that album does spotlight how much East Bay Ray can sound like David Gilmour. At times, I swear he's borrowing note for note from Meddle. I'm told the surfness is Dick Dale ish.

New Model Army discography binge. I always wondered why they're not big. Even on RYM only one album has 1000+ ratings

Sevdaliza - Shabrang

Amazing atmospheric album with wondrous trip hop moments and desolate pop material. Original and emotional.

Stockhausen - aus den sieben tagen

Just started this today. I'll only listen to maybe 60 minutes, taking it in segments. If you like electro-acoustic stuff, which this is not, you might appreciate this. If you like clanging and squonking free jazz, which this is not, you might appreciate this. I sold the 7LP box because I didn't appreciate it enough to take up the space and not take advantage of the collector market at the time, but I do like it enough to re-visit it here and there. I started the morning with True Romance from the Merzbox, and I ended up here.

One of the greatest bands ever.

And as to the previous discussion I'd had - Frankenchrist is an exhilarating album to me. Brilliant, heady stuff. Loving it.

New Model Army - I Love the World

I feel like I gotta play at least something by them every so often - this is so good, a breezy, poetic epic of an album.

New Model Army - Get Me Out

Impurity doesn't have any real classics like both the albums before and after it, but every song is solid and it's a fun, groovy listen all the way.

I really dig Impurity, but I get the feeling I'm gonna say that about all of their albums. Space, Purity, Innocence, Whirlwind, Get Me Out, Lust For Power...I'm listening to it right now and they're all great songs...Marrakech, Bury The Hatchet, I love em all.
I'll have a pile of NMA cds turning up very soon and I'll be able to build a bigger picture of how Impurity fits in with the rest of their catalogue.

Yeah I mean I like all of it. I just don't think any of the songs are quite at the level of "Green and Gray," "Ballad of Bodmin Pill," "White Light," "Here Comes the War." It's weirdly understated but it's all enjoyable anyway. To me it was a good transitional piece but both of the albums around it were such fucking monumental works of art.

Yeah I think it's probably benefiting from the fact it's my first album from them. I wasn't too keen to listen to it at first and I was tempted to wait, because I prefer from experience to start at the beginning of a bands discography, but curiosity got the better of me. Nevertheless, if you can enjoy one of the lesser albums as much as I have with Impurity, then you know you're in for a great ride with the rest of the discography.