catch a triptychnosis/if you ever try to smoke this

Happy Halloween everyone! This is my holiday special, and I should have a little something for everyone.

This song is from the end of the first Final Destination, normally I wouldn't find a song this tame appropriate for a Halloween post. But that is just it, the song sounds just like a mid 90's alt-rock radio tune, but the lyrics are actually pretty morbid. It was orginally done by Laura Nyro in the 60's, but I have never heard that version. Nor have I heard anything else done by Joe 90, that would violate my automatic bias against bands with retarded names.

Joe 90 - And When I Die

This is just a short bit of the Gravediggaz, and I know that I have posted on them before, but they are so perfect for Halloween I couldn't resist. A tongue-in-cheek take on Funkadelic's "Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?" this song actually has my favorite beat on the album along with a quick verse from each rapper in the group.

Gravediggaz - Mommy, What's A Gravedigga?

Now here's the real Halloween right here. This band plays a genre of music known as gore-grind, the lyrics of which probably wouldn't actually offend anyone less knowlegable than a graduate anatomy student but the sound pretty much lays it out for everyone else. The Brazilian Lymphatic Phlegm plays almost hypnotic music that you will either really hate or really love, but listen before you decide.

Lympahtic Phlegm - Happy Sickness Of Life (Exulceration)

Lympahtic Phlegm - Tuberculous Degeneration of the Lymphatic Ganglions Aroused by the Outcoming Bacillus from Blood and Lymph

he wages war with the devil

I heard this song the other morning while in the shower, my suitemate was playing it over his stereo which has one of it's speakers in the bathroom. I was pretty bleary, but there was something about this song that I immediately paid attention too. Maybe it was the bizarre lyrics about Jesus with "a pistol by his side" or maybe it was the sweet dark piano lines that punctuated them. Whatever it was, I asked him later and he told me it was from the Elizabethtown soundtrack. He was half-right, the song is on the soundtrack, but it's the version the Hollies did. I haven't heard the Hollies' version past the clip that Amazon has, but I think I like the original better if only for the piano. Either way, it's a good song, so enjoy.

Judee Still - Jesus Was A Crossmaker

all my friends are ghosts

Been digging through some music I haven't listened to in a while, so that will probably be reflected in the next couple of posts. Two songs for this fine friday afternoon, both punkish bands that I listened to around the start of high school frequently. The first song that shares a title with this post is a great little punk song, with lyrics addressing disillusionment among friends and the depressing side of living repetitive lives. Not the brightest subject, but it's catchy bassline, buzzing guitar and faint organ really go well with the classic punk vocals. The second song is a slightly more poppy and positive song about wanting a girlfriend. Not really breaking any new ground in lyrical subjects obviously, but I probably like this song the most out of MxPx's catalouge. It just hums along and leaves you with the same nostalgic puppy love-like feeling after watching a John Hughes movie or some sort. I don't know if that is an appealing or deterring description, but hopefully you'll like at least one of these songs.

Scared of Chaka - All My Friends Are Ghosts

MxPx - Let It Happen

heavy metal

Wow, this song started it all for me. Before this, hardcore was the heaviest music I listened to, and it was melodic at that. I heard this band on a compilation called Fools Rush In Where Angels Dare Not Tread, put out on Takehold Records, which is now sadly defunct. Even sadder though is the state of the band, who pulled a musical turn-around for the worse harder than any other band I know of, (I have heard people refer to the Cave In in a similar way, but I never really listened to them). When I first heard Underoath, it scared me honestly, but at the same time I could not stop listening to it. Their music was something pure and gloriously defiant to everything that was wrong with the world I was getting to know in more disillousioned fashion thanks to adolescence. It was them, and a few others who gave me a window into seeing that I could still be Christian, but in a way that I respected. Their songs not only took a very agressive stance against things like rape, (google the lyrics for this song), and suicide, but they also challenged stale fellow Christians to walk their talk. The album this song is from, Act of Depression and the subsequent Cries of the Past were and still are albums that mean very much to me because of their combination of lucid, meaningful lyrics and the considerable quality of the music itself, (I think, and many agree that Cries of the Past is one of the best unknown metal albums - I posted on it here). They are so important to me that I'm not even going to sell them on ebay, where the original CD's are going for $50, and I am broke as a joke. They even influenced how I like to play guitar, this song was the first that I taught myself, and I still tremolo pick all over the place, (more prominent on the second album though). Ok, enough talk, more rock.

Underoath - Innocence Stolen

i got beat by weather

Yes indeed, everyone's getting beat by weather around here. At least that's what the AIM away message consensus is. This is actually the first song I ever heard by Pavement back when Terror Twilight came out. It was on a new music program on WHFS, back when WHFS was not a spanish music station and they actually played a good indie song once in a while. I taped the program that this song was on, but somehow missed the DJ announcing name and the artist. So I had this on a tape that I listened to alot, and whenever it came to this song it always bothered me that I didn't know who it was. So imagine my glee when I was filling in the gaps in my Pavement collection, and this gem was at the end of it! I got so excited, I forgot to tell my friend who was driving at the time what the deal was. So, maybe, just maybe you also had this on a mixtape and always wondered what this bright little song had for a name. And if that is not the case, no loss, you still can laugh with us at the line: "Don't waste your precious breath /explaining that you are worthwhile," and enjoy the sound of one of the great bands of the 90's exiting with a wink and a smile.

Pavement - ...And Carrot Rope

*By the way, the Acid Mothers Temple show was fantastic. Here is a pic of the show, courtesy of my "artistic" (read: crappy) digital camera.

MAXIMUM! (the only english heard from them, instructing the sound guy on volume control)

Acid Mothers Temple - Atomic Rotary Grinding God (excerpt)

just one more poorly thought out post

Uh, I apologize for the rambling of the last post. I wrote what I thought was something good, and then firefox went and crashed on me. (Say what you will about IE, but it never crashed on me like that, oh well firefox has me hooked with the tabbed browsing.) Anyways, I tried to remember what I had written previously, and kind half-way did, and it ended up what you see below. I decided to do tomorrow's, (today's...), post at 2 in the morning because I think I probably won't feel like it tomorrow. It's quick and simple. Some Neurosis songs dedicated to the girl I saw wearing a Neurosis shirt the other day at my old high school. I wish Neurosis shirt girl had gone there when I did. That is all. Goodnight.

Neurosis - Children Of The Grave

Neurosis - Enemy Of The Sun

Neurosis - Sovereign

Neurosis - Suspended In Light

Neurosis - Resistance To Skin

the heat goes on

Nice little fall break there. Now it's back to school, although I'm going up to Philly to see Acid Mothers Temple tomorrow night. Which will be awesome. The song that I have for today is on the longer side, so maybe it will make up for the lack of updating that will result from this shorter week. I forgot my external hard drive cord at home anyway, so I wouldn't have much music on hand to post either way. All I have at the moment are my CD's and those will become obsolete shortly...ha, not really. And even if that is so, the album this song is from is an integral part of my stranded in my truck on I-95 for days collection. This along with Liquid Swords, Cries of the Past, and Surfer Rosa, obsolete or not, they are the first CD's I reach for if I need music I can count on. The album, Remain in Light, is one I am sure the majority of you all have heard of by now, it was produced by Brian Eno, yadda yadda, you can see what other more established critics have to say about the masterpiece. For me, the album doesn't get any better than the first track, it's rhythm is so thick you almost feel full, like after satisfying meal even as the razor's edge of trebled guitar and tight drumming spins dangerously close to slicing anything in audible proximity. The rest of the album is excellent as well, with the much better known, "Once In A Lifetime" smack in the middle. Still, I don't think anything matches David Byrne and Co.'s rallying cry that builds up through the song, the heat does go on, and no it's nothing new. And a little heat is always easier to take when you're stepping to some excellent brain funk.

Talking Heads - Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)

angels on ariels in leather and chrome

Good afternoon all. Fall break this weekend, and I am looking forward to going home. My brother got this sweet black little 110 cc dirtbike and I look forward to ripping around on that some. And while we are on the subject of black motorbikes, I present today's post. My art teacher in high school exposed me to some great music that he would play while we worked, and this was one song that we heard alot. I asked him to make a cd of some of his songs for me before I left, from which this song is from. Since then I have gotten other Richard Thompson, but I still love this song the most.

Richard Thompson - Vincent Black Lightning

fools and kings decide ways to live your life

I generally consider myself able to manage my own life, sometimes I need some help, yes, but I think mostly I am capable of my 20 year-old existence. This is not a view held by everyone though, and even though I try to forget it, people like my napolenic RA find great ways to remind me. Getting back to school today, I opened my email to find one from him announcing his campaign to have a meeting next Tuesday. I was made aware that this was only the first reminder email, there would be more to come, along with physical signs posted throughout the dorm. He even defined "Manditory" for me, in case my poor LD ravaged brain couldn't conjure it up. "Manditory means that I will be taking role, and giving it to the HR." The content of the meeting is still a mystery, not unlike the pyramid-scheme "work from your computer" TV ads that never actually tell you what the work is, but apparently the meeting will "go over a range of things." Oh boy, maybe this range of things will include how to correctly dress myself without assistance, because last meeting was all about how to operate the washing machine.

Sorry to complain, I don't plan on doing this much here, but Guided By Voices was exactly the right thing to be listening to as I checked my email today. It made me laugh when the line from "A Good Flying Bird" that I used for the title of this post came on as I was reading email. Robert Pollard's unaffected musings over the unmistakeable snoring during "Ex-Supermodel" is the best antidote for dorm-life inspired angst. And hey, it sounds just as good whatever your mood, so enjoy.

Guided By Voices - A Good Flying Bird

Guided By Voices - Ex-Supermodel

Guided By Voices - Little Whirl

he wear his beard like a frizzly haired grizzly

I don't tend to be one of the mp3 bloggers that posts recent music, in fact I'm not sure if I have done this previously, but hey...why not? This song has appeared on some other blogs, I think I probably got it from Moistworks, (where there are some other great RZA tracks posted as well, including one of my favorites, the Gravediggaz). So, if it's breaking some mp3 blog code to post the same song later, or if it's just lame, I'm sorry. It's just that I really like this song, even if the guy I got it from didn't think of it that highly. Call it what you will, RZA-dominated promotional gimmick, whatever... check it out if you haven't yet, and I think you'll enjoy it. And if you don't we can both at least witness a certain rapper claim he will shoot Satan, and don't tell me that isn't entertaining.

MF Doom & RZA - Biochemical Equation

i been dirt and i don't care

Hello everyone, if you're in school, I hope midterms are going well. The pile of work I had seems to be diminishing in a haze of caffeine and 5-hour nights, and all is well again for the moment. I hadn't listened to the song I posted today for a long time, but over the last few days, the base line just randomly surfaced in my head. Its drowsy stomp just echos on and on, like the dumber but brawny brother of "When the Levee Breaks". You can almost see Iggy Pop mumbling about burning dirt after a week-long heroin bender.

The Stooges - Dirt


*Bonus! Just found out about this band recently, a good new death metal band from Virginia, no less, check them out:

Arsis - The Face of My Innocence

Arsis - Return

awesome cover art

yeah i listen to techno, so what!

Well, I'm not sure whether these songs qualify as techno, IDM, or some electronic sub-genre that I don't care to find out. Either way, the title for this post comes from a one of my brother's friends about 6 years ago. They were all into being punk/metal, and he yelled it loudly and exited the room quickly when some credibility destroying pop-electronic music was found on his computer. That action indirectly correlates with the title of the M83 track posted today, ironically enough. Today I thought that I would just post two songs of the digital flavor, both are from the respective artists' latest albums. The M83 track is probably not the best on the album, but it gets stuck in my head a lot, and I think the afore-mentioned title is kind of interesting in relation to how the song sounds. The Vitalic song similarly sounds innocuous, but works its own little way into your consciousness, and you find yourself thinking of the melody that could seemingly be from anywhere in your memory. (See, you always get rewarded by mental metaphysical meandering if you just wait until the end of the post...)

M83 - Teen Angst

Vitalic - U and I