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Sleep Token - Even In Arcadia

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Yup, Even In Arcadia I gotta put up with this crap. Well, at least, that’s what I assume the title of Sleep Token’s much malaised most recent album is trying to say. Could be more like “who woulda thunk it, Even In Arcadia?!” Definitely not some kind of tied score in the Arcadian Sportsball League Championship Quarter Finals. Whatever it is, it can also be found in Arcadia, wherever the hell that is. I know exactly Vessel, Sleep, and like 4 songs about Sleep Token, so there’s not really much let down this 4th album can throw at me, other than turning out to be a crummy album that doesn’t stick to the concept or form a coherent perspective. I suspect it will, I might even enjoy it. Only one way to find out. I wonder if they know the cover looks like Foals – Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Part III? Not a deal breaker, it’s just that’s what the pink foliage/black flamingo make me think of. I can’t imagine anyone confusing Foals and Sleep Token, though; they are not similar. Oh boy, do...
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Fudge Tunnel - In A Word

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Holy hell, I had no idea. I should have, but my life has never stumbled across Fudge Tunnel until this very moment. They are literally Nirvana meets Tool at a Helmet concert in a way that makes all 3 bands sound like they can only handle 33% of the responsibility. It's not that i don't know who Alex Newport is, he's half the secret sauce of Nailbomb, but music stores in Oklahoma didn't have Fudge Tunnel albums in them when I was a tweenager, and now I totally resent the universe for it. In A Word is just a collection of B-sides and live jams, but it's exquisite. Maybe it lacks something if you actually knew Fudge Tunnel existed in the early 90s, but I guess 30 years later is better than never. 3 thumbs up. I don't know who's severed thumb I pulled out of my pocket for that rating, but I doubt they'll miss it as much as my cerebral jukebox has obviously been missing Fudge Tunnel.
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Meat Puppets

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There comes a time in every man's life when you have to ask yourself "is Meat Puppets really that good?"  Not the band in its entirety, but their self-titled debut. Women can ask it too, but it's not compulsory. Yes. It sounds like it was written and performed by puppets made of meat. I'm coincidentally reading Jason Pargin's John Dies At The End, and this is exactly what the opening scene with the meat monster in the basement freezer sounds like in my brain. Saying they can't play their instruments is not at all true. Maybe you're not "supposed" to play them that way, but it's definitely on purpose and well rehearsed. And yet, Meat Puppets makes Butthole Surfers sound cold and calculated and constructed by committee after several rounds of test screenings. Meat Puppets sounds like everyone in the studio was too scared to politely ask them to leave. It's true, I like Meat Puppets II better, but I don't think i can argue that's...
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Cracker

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Cracker is as good an example of a one-hit-wonder as i can think of. All anybody vaguely remembers is the lead off single from their second album. I urge you to not be some junkie cosmonaut, and check out their humble alt-country rock self-titled debut.  The world needs a new folk singer/Frank Sinatra like he needs a hole in his head. Then La Bamba, but as a sarcastic "happy birthday to me."  The concept is pretty fantastic. This is Cracker brand sardines and fried eggs, a product of the U.S.A., packed for Virgin Records America, Inc., in Beverly Hills. Yes, the Richard Branson label, but like his franchise period, not the full UMG sellout. You can compare them to Gin Blossoms because it's 1992, and this is what everybody else's answer to Geffen's Nevermind was going to be in 4 years.  Nirvana, Guns 'n Roses, Metallica were 1991, "alternative rock" was what was going to be the next big thing. Cracker was right there, but they didn’t quite connect bec...
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Snackd Out - Obstacle Illusion

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Do you wish you could transfer to the space-time continuum where Midwest-Mathcore WAS Pop-Punk? I've got some great news, Snackd Out is a band. The bad news is that you have to spell pretzel wrong to find them, because @pretzlerecords is a new label in Champaign you can't tag with an at sign until later in your post after you follow them. Polyvinyl's address is actually a Safelight AutoGlass shop and the owner says "NOT A RECORD STORE" on the Google business page. College towns are fun (I've lived in or near 5 of 'em). https://www.facebook.com/share/1F4BuroP9L/ Juli and Doug of Snackd Out formed the label, and since I also live near Champaign because my significant other got a job at UIUC, and there's a saxophone on their 2023 album Obstacle Illusion, I totally paid for this record separate from the other 200+ dollars I spent at Record Swap yesterday. I am not at all disappointed. Hi, Pretzle Records i'm actually Bottle's Music, a transplant ba...
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No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom

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I legitimately forgot how good Tragic Kingdom is. I didn't forget it's awesome, I forgot how awesome. Come for the bass lines, stay for the overt feminism, be surprised by the Sitar on Hey You, and the Bluesy Circus outro to side A, The Climb. I'll allow not caring about No Doubt after this 3rd album, or Gwen Steffani's solo career, but Tragic Kingdom is a masterpiece of Ska-Punk-Blues-Funk-Disco. You know the singles, but the deep cuts are all the more fantastic for not being pop-radio friendly.  We've gotta find another way to make the world go 'round. 30 years later and that lyric rings deafening loud, doesn't it? I demand a transfer to the dimension where we followed this album instead of this one, because whether you like Gwen Steffani or not, this Tragic Kingdom we're living in right now is B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
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Fuchsia Chicken - A Surfin' Bird

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There's a chicken Surfing in the sky, He'd like to come and meet us, But he's still a little shy... I will always eventually shamelessly plug my friend Steven Stark, and his latest melodic-electronic project is Fuchsia Chicken's debut album A Surfin' Bird. It lies somewhere on the spectrum between Yacht Rock and dentist office adjacent Vaporwave, and I couldn't be happier.  For one thing, I'd rather follow an intergalactic surfing chicken than some of the leaders we have down here on terra firma. For another, it's nice to hear something not very serious for a change. I know, I know, it's still musically serious, the chord changes and orchestration will twist your brain into a deliciously salty pretzel, and the concept reminds me of a cross between Ziggy Stardust and Bluebird from Nektar's Remember The Future, but it's easy on the central processing unit without being over the top ridiculous like The Electric Cow Goes Moooooog!  Give it a try,...
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