The Darkness - Permission To Land

The English really liked this album. This band was practically playing stadiums before we even heard of them over here. From the dumb cover the throw back outfits the aping of every over the top band you could think of...there was nothing original about this band...but maybe that's why they were good.

Everything that was good about Queen and Meat Loaf rolled up with Van Halen rhythm tone. Brown sound with more bombast than David Lee Roth on the 4th of July.

They really should have stuck around longer. Too many drugs hidden in their cat suits. Justin Hawkins was last writing songs for Mr. Loaf Aday and there were rumors the brothers were back together after Hot Leg and Stone Gods might not have done what they wanted.

Please guys....you were so much fun. Come back. I miss you.

Them Crooked Vultures

First hearing about this was one of those moments where you just start laughing. Really? That Guy? Him? Why Him? Yeah he's good...but why?

I don't like Led Zeppelin. Seriously. I've always wanted their albums with just drum and bass tracks. Does that exist? Jimmy Page is okay...but I've just never been interested. Robert Plant makes me cringe. Bonham is a beast, and I think the only thing I had before this album with John Paul Jones was the orchestral stuff he did on Automatic For The People.

Honestly, I don't love this album because it's a super group. I think John Paul Jones is a stellar bass player. I love almost anything Josh Homme does. I mostly just love this because Dave Grohl is playing drums again. And BOY HOWDY does he play drums. I've always loved his drumming because he had a sense of making the drums into the hook of the song. The thing that grabs you. Probably comes from being a pop song writer and playing drums for a minimalist guitarist like Cobain.

On this album Grohl unleashes more than he ever has. He plays sloppy when he's supposed to. He plays so hard hitting that it makes all of his Nirvana work look like the kid in Hanson.

When I saw this band live on their tour I just stood there giggling. There was Dave Grohl's hair flipping around. Reminded me of the old drummer of Hole that played in Motley Crue when Tommy Lee got injured. She had a fan just to make her hair look all flippy and cute.

I just don't know what else to say. I just have a crush. Swoon

Sleater-Kinney - The Hot Rock

Call The Doctor made them known. I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone. But it was too riot grrl for most.
Dig Me Out got them in Time Magazine. Best Rock Band.
The Woods got them praise. Yeah the album where their own producer said "I don't really like your band."

This was the album that cemented them as important to me. I'd heard them a little back in the 90s. Living in the Northwest and knowing about stuff made them at least available to hear. It wasn't until a girl in Chicago sent me a mix tape with Words And Guitar (from Dig Me Out) that I understood them.

This album was so subdued musically. Where were the hooks? They aped the hooks on Dig Me Out and on the two follow ups to this album. This was like the Temple of Doom album. The Empire Strikes Back. The darker follow up to something that got them noticed.

I think this album for me really did it for me because it seems to have a tone, a place, a feeling all it's own. Yeah it still sounds like Sleater-Kinney, but it didn't need to be so happy or so angry or so in the red with guitar solos that sound like garbage. Maybe this is the Blood On The Tracks. I've never really thought about it. Never been one to analyze lyrics. This is just the album that sounds to me like they aren't trying to grab you...it just does.

Be Your Own Pet- Get Awkward

What a breath of fresh air this was. Children...playing punk rock...and it didn't suck. It wasn't pop punk. This band knew about Blag Flag. This band had a girl singer that was more in love with Iggy than Tom Delonge. Paramore...I'm looking at you.

I knew nothing about this band. Usually I like to know everything before I even purchase something. I just kept coming across reviews that sounded intriguing. Steven McDonald (Redd Kross, White Blood Cells, Off!) producing. Thurston Moore discovered them. I was confused. I had to hear this.

Fun. Noisy. Songs about partying. Food fights. Zombies. They got the joke. Good musicians that were playing shitty rather than shitty musicians trying to play good.

They broke up apparently before I even bought the album. They weren't even successful. What the hell was wrong? Jemina Pearl (lead singer) put out an awesome solo album.

I keep trying to get people into this band. I don't want to be the only one. I play it for people and for some reason it never really clicks. Click dammit. Get it. You'll be surprised how much fun this is.

Bjork-Vespertine

 

Okay....so maybe it's not soooo heavy. Maybe even the least "heavy" of all of Bjork's albums. This is the esoteric "swan dress" album. The lush atmospheric one. You could probably say that about all her albums, but most had bumping beats. She'd be chilling with Goldie (one time James Bond villian and ENIT Festival mainstay) and do crazy vocals over some techno. This one didn't have the beats.

The thing I always think about with this album is that it came out some 6 months after KID A. You know...the album that suddenly every music kid decided they liked "weird" music and OK Computer and guitars weren't popular anymore. But no one could afford a Moog....yet Squiers were still easily accessible. 

The reviews at the time were basically saying Radiohead and Bjork were the only artists that were creating something "new" and were the only important musicians of 2000 and 2001. For some reason Vespertine was Bjork's "answer" to KID A. Like she had directly listened to KID A and said "Well...because of that...I'll do this."

The big difference was that Radiohead was a guitar band using synths and Bjork was a synth artist using strings. Big difference. Suddenly the beeps and bops of Bjorks past work were replaced by natural instruments that were being manipulated by electronics. Almost like Bjork became the guitar band when Radiohead gave up on that. 

I'll say this. I've never owned KID A. I thought it was really overrated when I heard it 1000 times living in the dorms. I was heartbroken that one of my favorite bands of the last few years forgot that they were a weird Brit pop band. That they had pop hits. That they wrote Creep and Just. 

Bjork on the other hand created something that sounds crazy and fresh and whimsical all at the same time. Still today I don't feel 'burnt out' on this one. Maybe not as fun as Homogenic or Post, but those whispers and everything being almost hushed made this much more compelling than that British guy with a lazy eye.

This is going to be a blog about music....reviews and the like...I'm kinda behind doing a Top Albums of the last 10 years. Maybe we'll do a few. Andrew W.K.- I Get Wet

This album came out of no where. A beacon of hope. That pop music wasn't going to be wussy again. The revolt against nu-metal/rap rock would come in the form of Billy Joel vs Cannibal Corpse. Alas, it didn't pay off. Pop music got wussier than it was in the 80s and we got such genres as Lo-Fi Indie Folk, and Modest Mouse. 

It's like the hip kids heard this and said "I don't get it...it seems contrived." Maybe that's the point. Maybe the blood wasn't shocking. But the music sure was. No one had ever gone to Kevin Shields level of guitar layering just to make their Billy Joel songs sound like 20 death metal bands with 30 rhythm guitarists fighting to be heard in the mix. 

Instead of being touted as a musical genius, he became one of those characters they talk to on I Love The 90s. Like him and Michael Ian Black should probably write essays together. His albums kept the exact same formula, but didn't at the same time. His positivity and outfit stayed the same. The powers that be that decide "what's cool in music" decided they were right and that he was a joke. They just didn't get that this was the kick in the ass everyone needed. 

I remember staying up all night and going to Circuit City to buy this the day it came out. In a state of delirium...on spring break....recording music ourselves...we threw this in the cd player and woke everyone up. If the world was right...everyone would play this album before they go out on the town. We would all be really positive. We would all care about our fellow man. We would just....Party.

I'm looking at what this looks like.