Tag: rock

496. Violent Femmes

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Episode 496 is the VIOLENT FEMMES. Their first album is the soundtrack to my college dorm years, providing drunken sing-alongs for students trying to get real-life affirmative answers to the questions in “Add It Up.” The Femmes were alt music a decade before we started using that term. They’re labeled folk-punk but I’d call it geeky neo-skiffle. There’s a clear resonance with Jonathan Richman, but I hear parallels with They Might Be Giants (and a bit of Talking Heads, not surprising given their association with Jerry Harrison). I stopped following them after the second album and expected a drop-off from there, so I was pleased to find out they generally kept it fresh and fun over the decades.

Favourite album: Violent Femmes

Favourite song: Add It Up

Special sauce: the bass work of Brian Ritchie

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: The first album is essential, especially for those of us of a certain generation, but it’s worth exploring other stuff too. 

495. The Amboy Dukes

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(May 2023) Episode 495 is THE AMBOY DUKES. Known primarily for the psychedelic gem “Journey to the Center of the Mind” and for being Ted Nugent’s first band, they made some good recordings covering the range of late 60s/early 70s sounds: blues rock, psychedelia, groovy rock, prog. Overall it is an uneven affair, within and across albums, never solidifying a musical identity. They eventually did when, amidst personnel changes, Nugent full took over with his guitar-frenzied boogie rock, with which he transitioned seamlessly to a successful solo career.

Favourite album: The Amboy Dukes

Favourite song: Journey to the Center of the Mind

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: a greatest hits album will suffice, although “Journey” is the only essential thing

494. Radio Birdman

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(May 2023) Episode 494 is RADIO BIRDMAN. An early and energetic punk band from Australia. Their version of punk derived from the garage-band lineage, particularly the proto-punk sounds of the Stooges and MC5, which is not a surprise given guitarist Deniz Tek grew up in Michigan. They didn’t last long (there was one reunion album) but what they did was great.

Favourite album: Radios Appear

Favourite song: Aloha Steve and Danno

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The first album is a bucket of primal, propulsive fun. 

491. Katatonia

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(May 2023) Episode 491 is KATATONIA. A band from Sweden named Katatonia should give reasonable assurance of quality death metal.  Alas, not at all.  The first couple albums are decent doom metal. But then the singer had to give up the growl and they adopted a more accessible but rather mundane rock sound, with album after album of mushy prog metal that doesn’t deserve the label “metal.” So boring.

Favorite album: Dance of December Souls

Favorite song: Without God (Jhva Elohim Meth version)

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: Avoid. There are plenty of other alternatives out there.

489. The Flaming Lips

~ ernopepper ~ 1 Comment

(April 2023) Episode 489 is THE FLAMING LIPS, the durable indie/alt band out of Oklahoma that constantly reinvents itself led by the creative weirdness of Wayne Coyne. Their initial sound was very much 80s college radio, evolving into fuzzy guitar-driven psychedelic music, when they got their 15 minutes of pop fame through MTV’s play of “She Don’t Use Jelly” and a guest appearance at the Peach Pit on 90210. Starting in 1999, though, they shelved the guitars in favor of synths, creating a lush and heavily-processed sound, which bored me.  Coyne’s weak voice, while fitting on some songs, is a liability in the heavier tunes, although this is “fixed” by the later processing, for better or worse.  Kudos to them for recording (with mixed success) reinventions of Dark Side of the Moon and Sgt. Pepper’s, a quadrophonic experiment, several concept albums, and even a Christmas disc.

Favorite album: In a Priest Driven Ambulance

Favorite song: Unconsciously Screamin’

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: the four early 1990s albums (from “Priest” to “Clouds”)

486. Flower Travellin’ Band

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(April 2023) Episode 486 is FLOWER TRAVELLIN’ BAND, an excellent Japanese psychedelic group from the late 60s/early 70s. They started out as a female-fronted band doing covers of UK and US rock songs (something my parents told me they heard a lot of when they visited Tokyo in the 60s) including, ambitiously, 21st Century Schizoid Man, but were mostly notable for two album covers in which all band members were naked.  They followed with three great psychedelic albums with tinges of prog and proto-metal.  It’s like a mix of Cream, King Crimson, Iron Butterfly and Rush’s first album, but FTB owned their own sound, which influenced others.

Favorite album: Satori

Favorite song: Satori II

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: highly recommend Satori, Made in Japan, and Make Up

484. Lynyrd Skynyrd

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(April 2023) Episode 484 is LYNYRD SKYNYRD, begun after the death of founder Gary Rossington.  I do love me some southern rock.  They came out of the gate with songs ready-made for classic rock radio where they dominated and presumably still do.  Catchy, but lacking the soulfulness of the Allman Brothers, the gold standard of the genre. The plane crash survivors reunited years later to put out nine albums of bland material, resembling a bar band with a famous name, and cultivating an image with Confederate flags and titles like “God and Guns.” I try to separate the art from the artist, but eww.

Favorite album: (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd)

Favorite song: Freebird

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: just wait for their turn on a classic rock station

483. Monster Magnet

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(March 2023) Episode 483 of the “opus project” is MONSTER MAGNET. I didn’t know exactly what I was expected, but overall what I got what less than that. However, the first three albums are a fantastic run of space rock, a mix of Hawkwind, Spaceman 3 and Alice in Chains. But in the mid-90s they dispensed with the fun insanity and switched (sold out?) to a more radio/music video friendly hard rock sound, which bored me for seven albums.  Their most recent two albums mark somewhat of a return to the spacey sound.

Favorite album: Spine of God

Favorite song: Black Mastermind

Best freakout dirge: Tab

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: the first three albums: Spine of God, Superjudge, Tab (technically an EP)

480. Gong Gong Gong 工工工

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(MArh 2023) Episode 480 is GONG GONG GONG 工工工. This is a Beijing-based duo (one from Hong Kong, one from Canada) who turn amplified busking into a surprisingly mesmerizing distorted groove.  Inversely, the guitar keeps the rhythm while the bass does the melodic work, with occasional vocals that give a regional flavor, done in Chinese (I can’t tell if it’s Mandarin or Cantonese) in the pentatonic style. It’s primitive but it captures you  – that’s the essence of rock n’ roll, right?

Favorite album: Phantom Rhythm 幽靈節奏

Favorite song: Notes Underground

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: try it. It’s great motivational music for household chores and other activities

475. Japandroids

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(February 2023) Episode 475 is JAPANDROIDS, an indie guitar/drum duo from Vancouver. My feeling about them is this: the teens who thought they were punk because they listened to Blink 182 grew up to be the Millennials who assumed they were still edgy/cool by liking Japandroids a decade later. I wanted to like this band, and I appreciate the energy, but it comes off as annoying hipster-fuel. So, Millennial.

Favorite album: Post-Nothing

Favorite song: Crazy/Forever

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: take a pass