1. DZ Deathrays - "Witchcraft"I discovered DZ Deathrays a few years ago when I found out that they were opening for Bass Drum of Death, who is pretty much Kassie's favorite band. DZ Deathrays will appeal to fans of Death From Above 1979; they have the same minimalist garage jam duo thing going on. "Witchcraft" isn't one of the most catchiest songs on their debut album, Bloodstreams, but it's still kind of fun. It has a swagger to it that reminds me of something that the White Stripes would have done before they were the darlings of modern rock radio in the early 2000's.
I went through a huge Bob Dylan phase about five years ago. I mean like, huge. He was the only thing I listened to for a solid year. "Just Like A Woman" is my least favorite song on one my favorite Dylan albums. It's not that it's a bad song by any means; it's pretty great actually. It's just that everything else on the album is so killer that this one kind of gets lost in my memory. There is a pretty great harmonica solo on here toward the end. It's not an extremely technically proficient solo, but it just has so much feeling to it.
I keep meaning to dig into Brian Jonestown Massacre's catalog because every time they come up in the shuffle I have to look and see who it is. The only song of theirs that I recognize right off the bat is "Straight Up and Down" from the opening credits of Boardwalk Empire, which finally returns for season four this Sunday. "Everyone Says" is a little more alt-rock than most of the other stuff I've heard from the band and isn't entirely representative of their sound. Actually, I don't think that any of their songs are representative of their sound because they really don't have one.
I listened to Tuonela a lot in high school. I really liked the synthy, kind of jazzy spin on death metal that Amorphis was tapping into. It really wasn't death metal at all, aside from a misplaced growl here and there on some of the songs. Now Amorphis is just another band that experimented with their sound in the late 90's and early 00's only to "go back to their roots" in recent years. They have a different dreadlocked singer now who sounds exactly like their old singer; their sound is pretty standard folksy melodic death metal. I still can't make it all the way through one of their newer albums.
Atmospheric black metal is great. It takes a special combination of calculation and luck to nail the kind of atmosphere that Drudkh does on their records. "Summoning The Rain" is equally harsh and melodic; it depends wholly on who is listening and how close they are listening. The melody is hiding under buzzsaw guitars rewarding those who dig deep enough to find it. Their lyrics contain questionable subject matter (what you'd expect from black metal), but honestly I don't pay much attention to the vocals aside from being just another instrument contributing to the atmosphere.
Well, now this is embarrassing. I admit that like many other kids in the late 90's, used to like Korn. I mostly grew out of them by the end of high school, but still listen now and then for nostalgic purposes. I actually got to meet them in 2009 as part of a story I did on Jacob Payne, who was probably their biggest fan. Jacob had a rare disease that confined him to a wheelchair and took his life way too early. Korn were probably some of the nicest famous musicians I've ever met and it was great to see how well they took care of Jacob at their concerts.
I really like some of Dan Swano's projects; Moontower and Edge of Sanity are some of the best melodic death metal I've ever heard. This crap just sounds like Nickelback doing a Jethro Tull cover. The vocal delivery is total cheese, the guitars are of the strum along unimaginatively and the lyrics themselves are just a string of cliches strung together attempting to seem deep. Not all Nightingale is this bad. White Darkness and I are decent prog-metal albums. Every song on Invisible sounds like some sort of misguided attempt at cracking into the mainstream.
I love it when something completely unknown pops up in the shuffle. I've literally never heard this before and I don't even remember adding it. After some investigation, I found out that I starred this less than two months ago. I must have been drunk and reading Pitchfork, because I still have no recollection. "Hotel Catatonia" is pleasant enough. It's a sort of meandering fingerpicked melody that sounds like it could be part of the soundtrack for a Wes Anderson film. Maybe that's where I heard this.
Pearl Jam is held in such high regard, but so much of their catalog is boring and forgettable. Wait a minute, let me finish. Their great stuff is really great and all, but you have to admit that most of their releases since the late 90's have been pretty directionless and insignificant. I hate to say that because they all seem like really cool guys that I would enjoy having a beer with (great beer in Seattle). I did really enjoy their documentary, Twenty, but I feel like it's the only captivating thing they've done in a while. They have a new album out in October, so I hope that will change.
You probably think that I don't like a lot of the music that's on my starred list. I probably just need to be more selective in deciding what's worthy of being starred. I enjoyed Shadows Fall's first few albums and even saw them open for In Flames and Nevermore thirteen years ago at the old Emo's in Austin. All of the metal magazines were predicting that they would be the next Metallica, which obviously never happened. Shadows Fall have been continuously retreading the same ground, into the same kind of autopilot that Killswitch Engage have been stuck on for years.
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| Drink pairing for this post: Hops & Grain Alteration |
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