Yesterday Was Dramatic-Today Is OK

long time no see, eh? mike c hasn't yelled at me to post anything so i haven't been motivated. i did, though, have the pleasure of seeing the great mike c twice this weekend. fuckin sweet. anyway...

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it's winter time. it's nice. nice and cold. i love it. here's something nice to listen to. ten beautiful ambient, electronic-ish songs in just over an hour. múm is from iceland or something cool like that, and they rule. this is my favorite album of theirs, but all the shit i have from them is cool as hell. i don't really know how to describe it..it's just wonderful and calming and pretty. download it. listen to it. love it. i'll try to get on updating this shit more often.

múm - yesterday was dramatic-today is ok (TMT 2000)

1. I'm 9 Today
2. Smell Memory
3. There Is a Number of Small Things
4. Random Summer
5. Asleep On a Train
6. Awake On a Train
7. The Ballad of the Broken Birdie Records
8. The Ballad of the Broken String
9. Sunday Night Just Keeps on Rolling
10. Slow Bicycle

The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw

Nothing needs to be said about this album. Nothing really needs to be said about this band, either. Anyone who is a fan of music heavy or music beautiful needs to download this album.

Pelican - The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw (Hydra Head 2005)

1. Last Day Of Winter
2. Autumn Into Summer
3. March Into The Sea
4. •
5. Red Ran Amber
6. Aurora Borealis
7. Sirius

Misery Index

It's time to brutalize this blog...

Assück's "Misery Index" is a masterpiece. 15 songs in 15 minutes; a non-stop full-blown crust/deathgrind assault. And aside from being absolutely brutal, the lyrics on this album are absolutely magnificent.

"When will we concede that there is an absolute significance deficit concept of the human being? The rape is indigenous to our existence and we can never and will never be able to pay the debt of blood upon this land. Burn alive all humankind. Burn it at the stake. Burn it as retribution for its blatant defilement of itself. Burn it for its never ending void of purpose. Burn it on principle alone." (Unrequited Blood)

Unfortunately, aside from all this album and band's greatness, "Misery Index" is also the name of that shitty band. Fuck them.
I can't think of anything else that needs to be said, so...enjoy.

Assück - Misery Index (Sound Pollution 1997)

1. Qed
2. Salt Mine
3. Corners
4. Dataclast
5. Blight of Element
6. Talon of Dominion
7. Unrequited Blood
8. Wartorn
9. Sum and Substance
10. Riven
11. Reversing Denial
12. Lithographs
13. Intravenous
14. Moment to Failure
15. In Absence

Buy "Misery Index" here:
Profane Existence
Interpunk
Relapse

The Difference Between Houses And Homes

Sorry Mike C, I know you're not gonna like this post...
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Every once in a while I remember how much I love Cursive...now is one of those "every once in a while's."

In talking to some of my friends who liked Curisve, I found out that a majority of them had never heard "The Difference Between Houses and Homes." Houses/Homes is a compilation of a bunch of old Cursive tracks from OOP 7"s (including the split with Small Brown Bike(<3)).

Cursive - The Difference Between Houses and Homes: Lost Songs and Loose Ends 1995-2001 (Saddle Creek 2005)

1. Dispenser
2. Pivotal
3. Sucker & Dry
4. Icebreakers
5. And the Bit Just Chokes Them
6. There's a Coldest Day in Every Year
7. A Disruption in the Normal Swing of Things
8. Nostalgia
9. The Knowledgeable Hasbeens
10. Polar
11. A Disruption in Our Lines of Influence
12. I Thought There'd be More Than This

Buy "The Difference Between Houses and Homes" here:
Saddle Creek

Death In The Audubon Ballroom

So the king of mosh, Mike C, has demanded that I update this more often. Sorry, Mike, I'm doing my best! Here's an update I hope everyone can get into, but especially Mike C.
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Straight outta California, some raging thrashy punk/hardcore//skramz from the early 00s. Unfortunately, like most good screamo bands--nay, most good bands, This Machine Kills is no longer around and only managed to put out one full length. Here it is: "Death in the Audubon Ballroom." 9 tracks of blazing, spastic hardcore with "snotty" screaming vocals by a one Steve Aoki who runs Dim Mak records. TMK also did a KILLER split with (fucking) Envy and Yaphet Kotto, which is unbelievable. Maybe I'll put that up another time. TMK also toured Japan with Envy at least once (maybe twice). Any way, they fucking rule. You can get more info about them here: http://dimmak.com/tmk/. Here's the album:

This Machine Kills - Death In The Audubon Ballroom (Ebullition)

1. (The Last Poets Sample) Cracking The Mask
2. Bending The Erotic
3. Giving Testimony (spoken word by Yuri Kochiyama)
4. Our Histories Have Burned Holes In Your Flag
5. Running With All These Names
6. Breakdown
7. Hearts And Minds
8. Death In The Audubon Ballroom (samples by Malcolm X)
9. And The Weight Of The Silence Alone Will Choke Us

Buy "Death In The Audubon Ballroom" here:
Interpunk
Put Out The Jams

We Are The Only Friends We Have

Does anyone else love Piebald? I feel like this band has been under everyone's radar for far too long, and I hope one day people actually read this "blog" and go, "Hey! This band rules!" Yeah.

"We Are The Only Friends We Have" is a superb powerpop album. They have this uncanny knack for writing catchy songs that aren't stupidly simplistic. The album is filled with technical (sounding) riffs and surprising mixed meter riffage, along with seamless time changes & sneaky keyboard/synth attacks. Along with the singer's goofy un-poetic lyrics and odd pronunciation (along with his horse mouth). I'm not very knowledgeable on powerpop, so the only band I could even begin to compare Piebald to would be Weezer. They are definitely similar in certain ways, but I wouldn't say they necessarily sound totally alike. Take a listen for yourself and tell me what you think! Woo!

Oh, and I almost forgot. A couple other reasons why this album is totally awesome:
- They wrote a song (#6, "the monkey versus the robot") about how awesome it is to be in a band for a living.
- and on the cover of the album are two boxes of Little Caesar's pizza. Fuck yeah!

Piebald - We Are The Only Friends We Have (Big Wheel Recreation 2002)

1. the king of the road
2. just a simple plan
3. american hearts
4. long nights
5. fear and loathing in cape cod
6. the monkey versus the robot
7. karate chops from everyone but us
8. rich people can't breed
9. it's gonna get worse before it gets better
10. the stalker
11. look, i just don't like you
12. sex sells and (unfortunately) i'm buying

Buy Piebald's "We Are The Only Friends We Have" (on vinyl or cd!):
Interpunk

Unfun

I feel like it's unnecessary to post this album, but a recent experience shows me that it needs to be shared...

I was up north visiting a friend of mine in college, and we were driving around listening to a tape I made of Jawbreaker's "Unfun." My friend loves Jawbreaker, as do I (they're my favorite band), and he did not recognize the album. I'm not doubting his love for Jawbreaker; lots of people love bands without listening to every single album over and over again, I was just surprised that he didn't recognize Unfun. I guess that's because it was the first album I got into, also one of my favorites by Jawbreaker. So here it is: Jawbreaker's 1990 album "Unfun." At the end of the album are the 3 tracks off of their first 7", "Whack & Blite."

I am actually lucky enough to own a copy of Unfun on vinyl. To those of you in a similar situation will know, Jawbreaker on vinyl is one of the greatest musical experiences one can have. Enjoy.

Here's some lovely info on Unfun (pressing info, recording info, etc.) for all the geeks out there: http://loosecharm.org/discog/unfun.html

Jawbreaker - Unfun (Shredder 1990/1992)
1. Want
2. Seethruskin
3. Fine Day
4. Incomplete
5. Imaginary Ware
6. Busy
7. Softcore
8. Driven
9. Wound
10. Down
11. Gutless
12. Drone
13. Lawn
14. Crane
15. Eye-5

Buy Jawbreaker's "Unfun":
Interpunk
CD Universe

introduction

my friend, the king of mosh mike c, told me to make an mp3 blog. i did. i like all kinds of music that i think everyone should like or at least check out. here you go. enjoy.