Albums for Eternity with Bottle, the Curmudgeon

The sound of the end of the world. That's how Robert Smith described the 2004 LP from Scarling., Sweet Heart Dealer. Mark Deming gave it the kiss of death over at Allmusic by saying this is pretty good and "they have potential." Potential to flame out like 95% of all bands. I assume the Sweet Heart Dealer is just a former candy store owner who's been gentrified/property taxed out of his bodega and has a trench coat full of poorly tailored pockets filled with actual stale candy.  Scarling is supposedly a former Noise Pop band from LA that is now only a Noise Pop duo from LA. This was clearly the height of their marketability as far as The Cure was concerned, so i'm not too worried. I'll love it, you'll hate it, normal stuff, let's twirl. I should also mention, this was not an out of nowhere random band, this is the band Jessicka formed after Jack Off Jill broke up. Musically speaking she hasn't done much over the last decade. Who has, honestly? Mast...

27 years later, i think i've changed my mind. It can't be coincidence that i picked up and actually listened to Merkinball with fresh ears. Pearl Jam and Neil Young decided to make an album together after playing at an abortion rights benefit. That's not at all why i picked it off the shelf and decided to review it, but we can't unrecognize it after it has already happened. Times like these i just acknowledge that my subconscious works 24/7 and muddle through as best i can.  My original thought was "what are you supposed to actually do with this EP? Can you even really call it an EP when it's actually structured like a one off non-album single? Are the songs as mediocre as i remember? What do arrowheads and pubic wigs have to do with anything?" Plus, it's easy to say "Pearl Jam and Neil Young made an album in 4 days over 2 months," but you have to include the fact that Eddie Vedder was hiding from a stalker for 2 or 3 of those, and these are ...

You know what i've been unintentionally forgetting to do? Finish crocheting this damned otter. I haven't been avoiding it, it's just after a long day of forklifting and counting and running a warehouse i just don't feel like it. Shame on me. I promised my sister i would make it for her, and i never reneg. So, i think we'll start with Shame, Exposure's Bleeding Out, then dive into Dragged Under's 2 LP's, and at least get to the point where i can attach his wee beady eyes and stuff his head full of polyester.  That of course means i can't do proper internet research or write my patented in-the-moment reviews because my fingers are busy, but shutting up is a thing i allow myself to do every once in a while. We'll hit the kickstarter hard next week and see if we can't materialize an album, then look forward to the rapidly impending release of doubleVee's 3rd album, Treat Her Strangely. August has a Primus album arriving in it. Aw, who am i ki...

It's here! I have copy 218/300 of Shack by Hunting Lodge. Even crazier, Easy Listening included a copy of Bleeding Out by Shame, Exposure, recorded in 1982/83 but never actually released until Knox Mitchell personally mixed the original multi-track tape master and published it.  So i sent him this email:  "Holy smokes! I definitely wasn't expecting the Shame, Exposure album included with my order, but i'm super excited to check it out! Hope life's being as kind to you as possible, and cheers from out here in Iowaland."  If you can remember as far back as May 10, i really enjoyed the 3 albums i listened to by Hunting Lodge, and i'm super excited to check out Shack.  First though, we should talk about Bruce Licher at Independent Project Press. He mostly uses letterpress printing on chipboard and the resulting texture and old-school craft-fair feel is pretty awesome for the ear-splittingly cacophonous nightmare the remaining 82 of you could potentially be abo...

I'm no stranger to double-headers, but this one might be pushing my luck. I've heard tell that the second Lineart Skymall album is better than the first Lyndon Skyndler album, but that of course means i have to listen to them the right way 'round. Fffffffalright.  This particular CD has bonus demos, so we'll not listen to those and just stop at the song no band wants to ever hear requested at their shows. Nope, not even Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute bands actually want to play Freebird, and you can't convince me otherwise. What's their appropriately self-titled "Hello, Atlanta!" album gonna turn out to be?  1 - yeah, your family will definitely not approve of you marrying me. Good start, actually.  2 - what a coincidence that today's Tuesday and it's pretty much over. Still, don't like track 2 ballads, even if they're good songs on their own. I don't like them because you rocked me, but now you're not rocking me. Everything else is kin...

Hands down the best story about Houses of the Holy is that Storm "Inflate the Pig" Thorgerson's original submission for the cover art was a tennis court with a lonely racket on it. Jimmy "That Hurts My Feelings" Page was furious at the GWAR comparison, so Aubrey Powell did a complicatedly color manipulated overlay of two children at Giant's Causeway that he himself hated until he actually listened to the album at the actual Giant's Causeway. Where's Sleazy when you need him?  I have nothing against Led Zeppelin or their albums. Not a fan of the people they were at various times, but that has very little to do with the music, in my opinion. Houses of the Holy is quite interesting in that regard. It's their first non-roman-numeraled album, their last before creating Swansong, the only one with printed lyrics thus far, and critically speaking the apex of their career before the extravagance got annoyingly anti-productive. It's also a Random Crap...

We could do the whole shebang about the worst Jazz album ever intentionally created, but it's Father's Day, so we'll just pour a couple cups of coffee that tastes brown and enjoy the dad-joke that is Jon Benjamin/Jazz Daredevil's Well I Should Have (learned how to play the piano). Hilarious.