Top 10 Albums (draft)

The exact order of these changes all the time, but the following accounts for my all time favorite albums:

• The Kinks - Arthur, Or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire
• Tegan and Sara - The Con
• Motorhead - Ace of Spades
• Ramones - Leave Home
• Chuck Berry - The Great 28
• The Who - Live at Leeds, Quadrophenia
• Radio Birdman - Radios Appear
• Stooges - Fun House
• Rolling Stones - Exile on Main St.

Suicidal Tendencies - How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today

Favorite tracks: Trip at the Brain, How Will I Laugh Tomorrow, If I Don't Wake Up, Sorry?!, The Feeling's Back  

My kind of metal. It just might be the punk/metal hybrid. This is what Join the Army should’ve sounded like—live, loud, and alive, to quote Loudness. The vocals sound more confident, the guitars grind, and the drums pound. Mike Muir’s introspective lyrics cry out in desperation, yet maintain a positive undercurrent. In the chorus of the closing track, he exclaims, “I’m gonna fight, I’m gonna live!” as if his life depends on it. Maybe it did. The rest of the band rocks out like their lives depend on it, deluging the record with some of the best riffs Metallica never wrote.

Hell, before I heard this album, I held up Ride the Lightning as the metal album for riffs, but not anymore. How Will I Laugh narrowly beats it not only because of the consistently exemplary riffing, but because of the overall songwriting. While I’ve always enjoyed Metallica, I relate more to ST’s lyrics than I ever did to Metallica because Muir writes songs about insecurity, alienation, and angry. And though Metallica delivered the anger in spades, Muir’s brand of anger’s inner-directed. Unlike many other metal singers/writers, Muir isn’t afraid to expose his vulnerabilities. His literal lyrics read more like sentences ripped from his journal than “proper” stanzas, but this works in his favor because when combined with the manic energy of the music, it gives the songs a desperate quality. I’ve never been one for grandiosity or pomposity—the more down to earth, the better—and Muir/ST don’t put on any airs with their music here.

I don’t think I can say much more without stepping on what Mark Prindle already noted in his review of this album. I’d like to second what he said about the album’s mix: Muir’s vocals and Rocky George’s lead guitar are mixed alongside the backing/rhythm tracks instead of being mixed on top of them. I like how this aspect of the mix allows the solos/vocals to be heard without overshadowing the other instruments. I know of few other albums with this sound. Blue Oyster Cult’s first LP had it. That’s the only album I can think of. But above all, I dig this album. 9/10.

The Monitors - S/T

(Revised from 16 Jan 2011's original draft)

The Monitors – S/T (2003? 2005?)

A1. Electric Knife

A2. Fungus Boy

B1. Missing Hand

B2. Bubble Drome

Yeah! This was the first Milwaukee punk band I saw, back in April or May of 2006 at the now defunct Riverwest Commons. I was 19. The Monitors blew me away—what a sight they were. Wendy (keyboards/vocals) wore a plastic toy motorcycle cop helmet, Ryan (bass) looked slutty in drag, and Mechadrum beat the crap out of his drum kit. No guitar. Jokey horror themes. Fast, funny songs. I got loaded on mixed drinks because like all other new drinkers, I drank too hard too quickly.

Ryan and Wendy have since been in Plexi-3 and have now formed Ramma Lamma with Jered from the Reckless Hearts. When I saw Ramma Lamma opening for White Mystery (see below),they had a box of 7”s at the merch table to flip through. I found the Monitors 7” in there and I jumped. Here was a piece of my history, an out of print record and a concrete link to a ½ remembered, but nonetheless fun time.

As I played it again, the memories came back. The drums sound tighter than I remember, probably because of the studio production. A sweet little record, one of three the band made. 4 songs worth of keyboard driven punk.

A tentative timetable/Action plan

When I started this page, I envisioned it as an outgrowth of my handwritten journals. I like to do multiple drafts of whatever I write, so I think of these journals as drafts or notes for future posts. Not much of what I've written in my three journals has made it up here yet. Here's an iternary for stuff I want to rewrite and post soon:


Joan Jett
Lou Reed
Drive-By Truckers
The Gossip
Various Mix Tapes
The Monitors, or Milwaukee/Riverwest bands
Suicidal Tendencies
Guided By Voices
Urge Overkill
Green Day
L7
Chrome

Linkage

My old roommate EJ started a music blog called Wax On, Dust Off. He's based out of Minneapolis and writes about records, record stores, shows, and more. During our freshman year at UWM we were known, to quote one of our upstairs female neighbors, as "the room with all that weird music." Apparently, she didn't take too kindly to our song selections, but ironically enough, I remember that time as when my music tastes skewed the most conservative, for I'd reverted to classic rock and blues. EJ played a mix of indie hop-hop and classic rock as well. I remember him introducing me to my favorite Clapton album, Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert. We played that one quite a bit. Not a very weird album by any stretch of the imagination.

But I digress--he shot me a message with the address and these memories can flooding back. It's good to hear from him. Though we haven't talked too much since he moved back to Minnesota after the year's end, it looks like the musical dialogue can continue via the web. I'm happy to link to his page. He knows his music quite well and still buys it the old-fashioned way by scouring the shops.

Wax On, Dust Off here: http://waxondustoff.wordpress.com/

White Mystery – White Mystery (2010)

Side A

1. White Widow
2. Power Glove
3. Lions Of Tsavo
4. Overwhelmed
5. Vorpal
6. Switch It Off
7. Farmer

Side B

1. Take A Walk
2. Don't Hold My Hand
3. Halloween
4. Respect Yourself
5. Aaron
6. Ye Olde Stone
7. Trance

I saw them on 16 January at the Cactus Club in Milwaukee--balls out two person (brother and sister, natch) garage rock.* Drummer Francis White lays down heavy, stomping beats and singer/guitarist Alex White rams her Rickenbacker through a Big Muff pedal. They kick ass both on stage and on record, and I'd never heard of them until a mere two hours before I went to show. I'd found The Onion A.V. Club's recommendation and was glad I did, because White Mystery delivered the goods that night—total energy, total abandon. Alex jumped around and never missed a note and Francis kept the Scott Asheton-style drumbeats coming. After the show, I chatted with Alex and Francis a bit and picked up their self-released LP. Like their show, it's consistently rocking and energetic, perhaps too consistent, since all their songs fall into the mid to mid-uptempo range and have multiple fuzz guitar breaks. Most of the songs sound like they were recorded in one take, perhaps more than one song at a time. The LP definitely sounds live, which plays into my “keep it as live as possible” credo, so that's some added bonus points right there. I take their song “Take A Walk” to heart, since it extols the virtues of walking and going car-free all while riding a hard blooze groove. The song could have summed up my college career.

8/10.

More info: White Mystery's Myspace page.

Addendum: some thoughts on two person guitar/drum/vocal bands...

Intensity = The key to a successful two person band. Play so hard people forget the bass isn't there. Overactive drumming helps to fill in some of the aural gaps. Fuzz guitar always helps. Playing notes 'n' chords guitar riffs a la the Black Keys or White Stripes also works. But above all, if a two person band's going to play rock and roll, they need intensity and power.

*Like Mr. Airplane Man with less blues or Magic Potion-era Black Keys with more fuzz. Or the White Stripes' "Black Math" sound stretched out to 45 minutes.

Playlist: January 2011 in review

Playlist: January 2011 in review

First, the new songs and bands:

• Sleater-Kinney – All Hands On The Bad One. Favorite songs: All Hands on the Bad One, You're No Rock 'N' Roll Fun, Leave You Behind, The Swimmer, Pompeii
• The Gossip – Live in Liverpool. Favorite songs: Yr Mangled Heart, Don't Make Waves, Eyes Open, Standing in the Way of Control, Fire/Sign
• Lou Reed – Walk On The Wild Side: The Best Of. Favorite songs: Wild Child, Sweet Jane (live), White Light/White Heat (live), Coney Island Baby,
  • from The Definitive Collection: The Blue Mask, Looking For Love
  • from Transformer: Vicious, Wagon Wheel
• Elvis Costello – This Year's Model. Favorite songs: Pump It Up, No Action, Lipstick Vogue, The Beat, Radio, Radio
  • from Armed Forces. Favorite songs: Oliver's Army, Green Shirt, Senior Service
• Plexi-3 – We Know Better 7” Favorite song: Stabbing Fantasies
• White Mystery – White Mystery. Favorite songs: Power Glove, Switch It Off, Take A Walk

- A damned good month for new music. I knew next to nothing about Sleater-Kinney's music until I picked up All Hands at the library on a whim and stuck it in my car's CD player. It's been in there two weeks running now. I'm liking their occasionally wiry, interlocking guitars and autobiographical lyrics.

- Hardly anyone does live albums anymore, which bothers me because I think Live In Liverpool's an excellent overview of the band's catalog. The show finds them blending the newer, more danceable Standing In The Way Of Control songs with their older garage blooze material. The bonus DVD shows the band rocking full tilt, especially with the tirelessly energetic Beth Ditto jumping around onstage.

- Despite knowing “Walk On The Wild Side” since I could walk and listening to The Velvet Underground for years, I've never played much of Lou Reed's solo stuff. It's one of those strange instances where I know he's there, I know he's good, and I know I'd probably like him, but it never happened until now. It started with a Goodwill purchase of Best Of for $.50, which gave me those two live rendition's of “White Light/White Heat,” “Sweet Jane,” plus some of the songs above. I've always liked the original Velvets version of “White Light,” but I didn't love the song until I heard the live version. Oh boy, were Lou and the band rocking out on that one. The dueling guitars on it knock me out!

- Fans of garage rock will definitely like White Mystery. I caught them at The Cactus Club recently and they put on a good show. Raw, fuzzed out guitar, pounding drums, and howled vocals. Also, they wrote a song about the Vorpal sword from the “Jabberwocky” poem. Too cool.

The old classics:

• D.O.A. - Take A Chance
• The Byrds – Positively 4^th St., Eight Miles High
• Screeching Weasel – Hey Suburbia, Dingbat
• Tacocat – Muffin Top, Bike Party
• Drive-By Truckers – Guitar Man Upstairs, Zip City, Puttin' People On The Moon (live)

Play these songs in any order.