Gal Costa-Gal Costa (1969)

This is a great record to do it to. Especially if you're into doing it all intense-faced and while drunk on something exotic. This would be awesome Brazilian porno music.

Instead, it's just really amazing psychedelic music from Brazil in the late sixties. She's got an amazing voice and her band (in my humble opinion) is better than Os Mutantes. Go ahead and freak out at that comment but this music is just more fun for me.

Truly interesting and a nice break from the winter.

1. Nao Identificado
2. Sebastiana
3. Lost In The Paradise
4. Namorinho de Portao
5. Saudosismo
6. Se Voce Pensa
7. Vou Recomecar
8. Divino Maravilhoso
9. Que Pena
10. Baby
11. A Coisa Mais Linda Que Existe
12. Deus e o Amor

Note: for doing it purposes start record at track 5...

Gal Costa

Urinals-Singles

So, today I put together all of my favorite stuff from the singles that the Urinals released for your listening pleasure.
We had the pleasure of sharing a night with these dudes in San Francisco this summer and boy, they are amazing...still.
Wonderful dudes who are still excited about music and still make incredible stuff. I gushed a lot at them and they responded hilariously. Just fun dudes to listen to stories from and talk music with. They even took it well when Intelligence covered 'Black Hole' immediately before they took the stage, which, well, wasn't a smooth move.

Lest we forget that there are some seriously legendary sounds in these here mp3's. 'I'm A Bug' was introduced to me by Nick Myers and was probably top five of my favorite songs in college. Check this stuff out. Some of it is pretty low-fi, but still just scorches. Everyone who digs post-punk should have this.

1. Dead Flowers
2. I'm A Bug
3. Ack, Ack, Ack
4. Hologram
5. Last Days of Man on Earth
6. Sex
7. Go Away Girl
8. Surfing With The Shah
9. Black Hole
10. U
11. I'm White and Middle Class

Urinals

Donovan-Fairy Tale

There's not much I can say about this record.

I'm posting it for a friend I lost this weekend.

She used to demand it be played whenever we sat stoned on my floor.

Seems cheezy, but I know she'd enjoy that I put it up. So, for Emma...

I Was Born With The Name Geraldine

I Will Give You Aural Pt. 2

Here's another mix. Lots o' good shit. Jacuzzi Boys cut is killing me right now. Worked on trying to get them to show up in order in your iTunes too. Hope it works. If you sort your music by album, then this should show up with the album title being 'I Will Give You Aural Pt. 2' if it doesn't, someone should let me know.

Sahweet.

1. Thee Oh Sees- Poison Finger
2. Urinals-I'm A Bug
3. Ty Segall- Go Home
4. Troggs- We Waited For Someone
5. Television Personalities- Adventure Playground
6. SRC- Checkmate
7. The Saints- This Time
8. Jacuzzi Boys- Dream Lion
9. Redd Kross- Ann (Stooges Cover)
10. Coathangers- Parcheezzi
11. Neon Boys- Time
12. Blank Dogs- Three Window Room
13. Nerves- When You Find Out
14. Narrator- Culture/Counts

get aural

Screaming Trees-Even If and Especially When (1987)

Sorry to have not written for a while. Things have been busy and I've been hit by the S.A.D. It's cold as balls here in Chicago and not very fun to deal with. So...You get a grunge album. One of my favorites though, for sure. Mark Lanegan's voice gets on some people's nerves. Not mine. He was by far the best singer when MC5 did that reunion show with all those yokels singing and pretending they were cool.

This album is probably a grower for most of you. Definitely more psychedelic than most "grunge" at the time, it still is pretty straightforward rock music. "Don't Look Down" and "Pathway" are pretty awesome jams. The weird-ish "You Know Where It's At" gives away the obsession with NZ music.

You might not like this record, but you might also be kinda dumb.

1. Transfiguration
2. Straight Out to Any Place
3. World Painted
4. Don't Look Down
5. Girl Behind the Mask
6. Flying
7. Cold Rain
8. Other Days and Different Places
9. Pathway
10. You Know Where It's At
11. Back Together
12. In The Forest

Screaming Trees

Gandalf-S/T (1969)

This one is a true psych gem. Fast, slow, straight, weird, named after a character from LOTR. What else do you want? OH. Forgot...a bunch of the tunes on here are kick-ass re-worked Tim Hardin songs. O.K. so nowwwww what more do you want?

Got turned onto this by my boss Tim at the record store and pretty soon it was being played every day. The tempos on it are near perfect and it seems that the record flows in a strange intuitive way. Don't know much about these guys and I don't think that they even went on to release another record. Bummer.

'I Watch The Moon' is the jam here, but there are all kindsa runners up to that. 'Tiffany Rings' a great version of 'Golden Earrings' that supplies the real psych-out here.

This one is super highly recommended.

1. Golden Earrings
2. Hang On To A Dream
3. Never Too Far
4. Scarlet Ribbons
5. You Upset The Grace Of Living
6. Can You Travel In The Dark Alone
7. Nature Boy
8. Tiffany Rings
9. Me About You
10. I Watch The Moon

Gandalf

Pere Ubu-Dub Housing

"Pere Ubu is not now nor has it ever been a viable commercial venture. We won't sleep on floors, we won't tour endlessly and we're embarrassed by self-promotion. Add to that a laissez-faire attitude to the mechanics of career advancement and a demanding artistic agenda and you've got a recipe for real failure. That has been our one significant success to this date: we are the longest-lasting, most disastrous commercial outfit to ever appear in rock 'n' roll. No one can come close to matching our loss to longevity ratio." – David Thomas

Pere Ubu is pretty much the weirdest band I can think of. I know everyone is going to come up with shit to discount me, but compare those bands to the musical weight (no pun intended, David) of Pere Ubu and it doesn't come close. These guys were trying to be weird at times, sure, but it came so naturally for them. 4/4 time for them sounds foreign. Hard to believe that David wrote 'Sonic Reducer' while he was still in Rocket From the Tombs.

As weird as they seem to be, this record is a great, solid, engaging record. Quality is never sacrificed for plain freak outs (although there are plenty of those). I know a lot of people have already heard this record, or own it, but i figured that it's probably sat under a bunch of other shit for a few months. Hopefully, this will encourage some of you guys to give a complete listen to a record that simply kills.

1. Navvy
2. On the Surface
3. Dub Housing
4. Caligari's Mirror
5. Thriller!
6. I Will Wait
7. Drinking Wine Spodyody
8. Ubu Dance Party
9. Blow Daddy-O
10. Codex

Dub Housing

Loudon Wainwright-Album II

So, I said that I would post an album today for someone.
Here it is.

This is hands down my favorite folk record of all time, and the only record I want to listen to when I fucked up in the middle of the night doing shit I really shouldn't be doing.

The lyrics on this album are totally insane. I have never, and quite possibly will never, hear such macho vulnerability. It's a total mind-fuck. Not to mention the fact that this dude has been on all my favorite TV shows and is a total bad ass. What happened to his kids? They suck. I mean, Loudon got totally cheezy in his old age, but we have already had the latter day sins discussion right?

'Trilogy: A. I Know I'm Unhappy B. Suicide Song C. Glenville Reel' has put me in a pretty fucked up mood more than once.
'Motel Blues' is totally fucking twisted and incredible, it's also probably Loudon's most recognized song.
The first line of 'Saw Your Name In The Paper' is awesome.
One of the grower songs on here is 'Samson and the Warden'. It's kinda goofy, but the delivery and phrasing is impeccable. Proof of the sheer songwriting ability this man has.

First line of 'Plane, Too' is pretty sweet too...

So totally fucking recommended...

1. Me And My Friend The Cat
2. Motel Blues
3. Nice Jewish Girls
4. Be Careful There's A Baby In The House
5. Trilogy
6. Saw Your Name In The Paper
7. Samson and the Warden
8. Plane, Too
9. Cook That Dinner, Dora
10. Old Friend
11. Old Paint
12. Winter Song

Motel Blues

Coachwhips-Bangers Vs. Fuckers

It's Monday morning, I am in my office.
Let's try something brutal to wake us all up, eh?
I feel that this could be the soundtrack for the Blackhawks pounding of the Coyotes last night too.

This is the one and only John Dwyer (Pink & Brown, Thee Oh Sees). I have been playing Oh Sees stuff a whole lot, but after it was brought to my attention that putting that record up would be kinda shitty, I'll put one from his now defunct garage band.
This shit is so loud that when it comes on shuffle you think that the speakers on whatever you're listening to it on are going to explode (It has destroyed a pair of iPod headphones). Great stuff, really fun, and great lyrics even though you can't understand them.

This stuff isn't for the faint, it's fast, loud, and all the songs are kinda same-y. The funny thing is, it doesn't detract from the record at all.

Fuck Monday!

1. You Gonna Get It
2. Extinguish Me
3. I Knew Her
4. Purse Peekin'
5. Dance Floor Bathroom
6. I Drank What?
7. Evil Son
8. The Alarm
9. Recline, Recline
10. Muscle of Love
11. Good Night, Good Bye

I Drank What?

Trojan Rocksteady Rarities Box

Simply had to give you guys the link to this it's incredible shit.
This blog is great for rocksteady stuff too, so look around.

The Saints-Eternally Yours (1978)

We got new thoughts, new ideas it's all so groovy
It's just a shame that we've all seen the same old movies

The Saints 2nd record is and is not a departure from (I'm) Stranded. There's definitely more of an R&B feel and it's hard not to notice the horns blaring, but the idea is still pretty similar. Bailey's voice is one of the best in rock and roll history and I feel no sense of hyperbole by saying so. He can honestly sing a line without trying to sing a line.

The themes of these tunes are pretty dark and show these dudes growing desire to be removed from the "punk" scene. The amazing thing about the Saints is that this is 1978 in Australia. It's not like they're from NY with a bunch of buds who wanna be in bands and go see shows. They were fucking marooned.

Simply a fantastic band, an even more fantastic singer, and great songs. If you aren't already up on this you need to be.
(This is from the reissue, so I threw a couple bonus cuts on here, i'll denote the original tracklist with asterisks)

1. Know Your Product
2. Lost And Found
3. Memories Are Made of This
4. Private Affair
5. A Minor Aversion
6. No, Your Product
7. This Perfect Day
8. Run Down
9. Orstralia
10. New Center of the Universe
11. Untitled
12. (I'm) Misunderstood
13. International Robots
*14. L.I.E.S.
*15. Do The Robot

Eternally Yours

Tall Dwarfs-Slugbucket Hairybreath Monster EP (1984)

This is a great little EP. I cut one of the songs (Phil's Disease Day 2) because it's pretty much unlistenable and I think I didn't even rip it. It's strange, these guys ran close with the Clean but definitely were on the weirder side of shit. The first time I heard this EP, Ethan was playing it at Continental and I remember searching and searching for it since that night. It was like three years ago. One of those things that is intriguing because it just sounds so out of left field, but not in a way that suggests it is trying to do so. I investigated after and tried to get into other Chris Knox (the brain behind Tall Dwarfs) stuff but was actually pretty disappointed at how lazy it sounded. Good ideas, but too many of them, and none of them holding hands.

This is the exception, four hands down awesome cuts from a band trying to find legs. I would say it is worth checking their other stuff if you dig this simply because everyone's experiences are different. In fact, most people who I talk with about this EP fall all over themselves talking about how great Stumpy and Weeville are.

Either way, classic New Zealand lo-fi.

1. The Brain That Wouldn't Die
2. Crush
3. I've Left Memories Behind
4. Phil's Disease (Day 1)

Slugbucket

Women-Women

This record totally feeds my monster that is my post-rock past. The guitar playing is great, it's kinda wussy sounding at points and really scary at others, pretty neat stuff. Everyone I play it for really likes it, and that kinda says more about the people I associate with than it does the record, but if you like the other stuff I put up here, chances are you'll like this.
Totally surprising that these guys are a newish band that doesn't really have that much hype yet. This seems like it could ride the Deerhunter train straight to coolsville.

That said, there's a bit of that "noise rock" shit going on here which I have pretty much no tolerance for. Go ahead, say what you will but that shit is fucking boring. Do you just go to the airport and listen to planes taking off? I know that likely sounds real dumb, and that there are groaners out there saying that I am an unenlightened individual. To those people I say this...Stop trying to pretend that you are an artist when you are merely a hipster.

Oh, the rest of the record is good. I actually don't even really mind the noise stuff. Just had to get some off that shit off the chest.

1. Flashlights
2. January 8th
3. Upstairs
4. Shaking Hand
5. Group Transport Hall
6. Sag Harbor Bridge
7. Black Rice
8. Woodbine
9. Lawncare
10. Cameras

women

Teenage Fanclub-A Catholic Education

I have been playing this record entirely too much. I'm voting it best 'ride home from work on the 66' album of November. Truly, a distinguished accolade. There's something about this record for me as opposed to 'Bandwagonesque'. I'm not sure if it's just a tad less pussy, or if the songs are just better. It's a really brilliantly produced record. The guitars sound like a tweaked synth but not at all when you focus on them. It's bizarre. The lyrics are fantastic and really funny at points, but at others some of the most desperate/plaintiff/confused one-liners around. The fast songs seem like they're being dragged behind the band and it's great. Yeah, there's some duds on here. I think that should be expected. But, for this time of year, I can't really come up with any good reason to listen to anything else as regularly as I listen to this.
'Every Picture That I Paint' and 'Everything Flows' are total classics, but these dudes really shine when they get a little snarky and funny, so make sure to take lyrical heed to 'Everybody's Fool'.

Super Highly Recommended

1. Heavy Metal
2. Everything Flows
3. Catholic Education
4. Too Involved
5. Don't Need A Drum
6. Critical Mass
7. Heavy Metal 2
8. Catholic Education 2
9. Eternal Light
10. Every Picture That I Paint
11. Everybody's Fool

A Catholic Education

The survey winner....Neil Young-On The Beach

So I know that the survey thing was dorky, but in all honesty, so am I.
As promised, here is the victorious Neil record in its entirety.

This was the awaited follow-up to his commercial success 'Harvest' and is a pretty big departure.
If you read Shakey, you know that this is also the album where Elliot Roberts introduced the boys to 'honey slides' which is pretty much a bunch of weed cooked into a shot glass with honey and done like a shot. It's quite incapacitating and is purportedly the reason behind the slow down on side two of the album.

Neil is something else. Truly someone that I would defend at any juncture of his career. Nobody talks shit on Neil Young unless they have no fucking clue what is going on.

1. Walk On
2. See The Sky About To Rain
3. Revolution Blues
4. For The Turnstiles
5. Vampire Blues
6. On The Beach
7. Motion Pictures

On The Beach

Kool Keith-Black Elvis/Lost In Space

Certainly my favorite hip hop album as of right now, this thing is fucking hilarious. I'm sure a lot of you know this record, but some of you indie rock kids might not have ventured into this territory yet. As Keith says: 'Black people mingle, white people buy my single'. In other words, even if you have bangs, you might like this record.

Keith is a true original and definitely a strange guy.
Miles has some pretty decent stories if you get a chance to ask him.
While I'm at it, you should roll over to the Reader's site and read his write-up of the No Age show at AV-Aerie
here.

1. Intro
2. Lost In Space
3. Rockets on the Battlefield
4. Livin' Astro
5. Supergalactic Lover
6. Master of the Game
7. I'm Seein' Robots
8. Static
9. Intro 2
10. Black Elvis
11. Maxi Curls
12. Keith Turbo
13. Fine Girls
14. The Girls Don't Like The Job
15. Clifton
16. All The Time
17. I Don't Play

Black Elvis

Sparks-Sparks/Halfnelson (1971)

Definitely an acquired taste, but one that is hard to get out of your mouth either way. This one is their first and in my opinion resides near the top of their output. Produced and signed by Todd Rundgren, you can see how someone would be drawn to the optimism and ingenuity of the songs. 'Wonder Girl' is a definite hit and completely strange all at once, 'High C' is probably my favorite cut on here though. All over the place and great, Highly Recommended for fans of Ween and to those of you who dug the Soft Boys record (kind of a stretch but...)

1. Wonder Girl
2. Fa La Fa Lee
3. Roger
4. High C
5. Fletcher Honorama
6. Simple Ballet
7. Slowboat
8. Biology 2
9. Saccharin and the War
10. Big Bands
11. (No More) Mr. Nice Guys (Bonus Track)

Halfnelson