PRONG 'No Absolutes' (2016)

Geez, ANOTHER studio album from Prong? YEAH..Its even better than Ruining Lives I think. Been listening to this for days. Tommy Victor again killing it with his punchy and crunchy rhythms. Title track is my immediate favorite. Also 'Cut and Dry' is the single they're pushing. This will be in my rotation for a long time.

3/11/2016

2 weeks later and connecting with Tommy again on Facebook. An old friend. Hardest working man in metal. Machine.

MARKED MEN 'Ghosts' (2009)

They've been popping on my radio feeds for some time now. They're from Texas and so I could only guess that they're in cahoots with the Riverboat Gamblers who I've been on top of for the past few years. And now I've finally had time to listen to the full album. Similar to the RED DONS who I've been on a kick with, this is loose and fun punk with a little pop sensibility. Some of it sounds like old Wire sped up real fast. I'd gather they put on a good live show.

RED DONS 'Fake Meets Failure' (2010)

There's something about this album that's got me playing it on repeat on and off for days. Very fluid and seemingly effortless punk rock playing with melody and urgency. Quick. And enough hooks that it doesn't get old. I guess they're from Portland, OR. No idea. Every website I find says something different. 'Secret Agent' is kicking my ass. It reminds me of a time when Maximum Rock and Roll introduced unique bands. Definitely will be revisiting this band!

TODAY IS THE DAY 'Pain is a Warning' (2011)

Not too familiar with this band's material, but I know they're noisy and damaging. This 2011 album is no different. Plenty distorto, off tempos, lacerated vocal chords. 'Death Curse' is a exercise in brutality. Their 9th album. Steve Austin being the mainstay and now they've signed to Southern Lord records. 'Wheelin' is my pick hit and has a nice groove to it.

CARBONAS 's/t' (2007)

This is a pretty nice upbeat punk band. Garage-y and catchy. Atlanta band that hit me the right way since I haven't been listening to this style of music for a while. Drummer rockin the kit and it seems to be faster than the bands which are recalled. Short album as all the songs around 2 minutes, the way this sound should be played.

RED ROCKERS 'Schizophrenic Circus' (1984)

Very college radio rock music where I hear immediate Big Country and Alarm influences. I went through a phase a few months ago where I was all about discovering the records I never listened to in the early 80's because I was obsessed with metal and punk. There are a few catchy songs on this, but a great deal of it sounds over produced too, even by today's standards. 'Shades of 45' is a good laid back pop song for decades gone by. This makes for a good shuffle band, but I'll probably not listen all the way through again.

Various Artists" RISE 13; Magickal Rock Volume 1 (1999)

While playing Corrosion of Conformity  Radio on Spotify, one of these bands popped up as a similar artist, but similar to the newer sound of C.O.C. which I am not thrilled with. The compilation has literally only 2 bands which I thought were decent; Spirit Caravan and Orange Goblin. This is all stoner metal; slow Sabbath dirge but the songs aren't as interesting as Black Sabbath.

ALICE COOPER 'The Alice Cooper Show' (1977)

So this live album was released when I was a youngster and the cover horrified me. A f'n ogre coming out on stage and kidnapping the singer. Decapitations, snakes, and other terror. Listening to the whole thing decades later when I actually became an Alice enthusiast I like the loose, live feel of this. 'I love the Dead/Go to Hell' medley is perfect. Still plenty dark and scary. Pretty terrific set list of the highlights up that point. And the music can stand on its own without the theatrics.

AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED 'Agorapocalypse' (2009)

I know a very little bit about this 'grind' band, but I'm glad I took the time to discover what's listed as their 4th studio album. Not as guttural as NAILS which I have been listening to non stop, but its still brutal. Typically bands that use drum machines have to make it very obvious for me to appreciate the art. This is not obvious. Still, its a super sequenced onslaught.

NAILS 'Abandon all Life' (2013)

No shocker that I fucking LOVE grindcore. I like it a lot more than death metal too. What a find. And after some digging, yes, I am late for the party again. I can use a string of adjectives to describe how fantastic and cathartic this album is, but unless you know the finer points of the genre you won't understand. In the past few days, I've played this one about 5 or 6 times all the way through. Tempo changes up the ass. Armageddon production, Lyrics just perfect. If this album was released in 2016 it would be in the top 10. BRAVO! I'll hold off punching the walls or a human being today thanks to this record.

ALICE COOPER 'Flush the Fashion' (1980)

Watching Alice Cooper on Kirchner's Rock Concert as a kid somewhere between 1975 and 1977, and being confused and horrified at his show, bolstered with my mother's warning that, dammit, "that guy is on drugs", it was only a matter of time before I needed to appreciating him and his band. In the past few years I'd been doing a lot of time with his music and constantly having to remind myself that this is PROG rock. And since this glam rock weekend has a few more hours to go, a few listens to his 1980 record that I'd glossed over shows big hints of New Wave. (What year did new wave actually start?)  Anyhow, the single 'Clones' (We're All)' immediately recalls a dark and mechanical Gary Numan. But the song structures are still prog rock. I saw Alice only once that I can remember and he and the band were tip top form. 'Killer' is still my favorite album from him though.

T. REX 'Electric Warrior' (1971)

Since this has been a glam rock weekend I guess, I should dig deeper into the origins. Not familiar with anything but the hit 'Bang a Gong' from Marc Bolan and co. This appears to be the 6th studio album released in 1971. Its also sub-categorized as 'proto punk' but I don't ear that at all. Need to give this album a few more days of play to understand it's importance especially since there's really not much on this that's kicking my ass.

DAVID BOWIE 'Diamond Dogs' (1974)

I was never a terribly huge Bowie fan, though I've always liked a lot of his material. Not as much as a lot of people out there. I love the big commercial hits as well as a few back wall tracks. So sadly only after his passing do I feel a need to go back and discover what I missed. What was hailed as his farewell to glam rock and a concept album, I'm glad I took the time to experience this start to finish but without the Wiki, I'd have no idea what he was trying to do. 'Sweet Thing' is probably my favorite Bowie find this year as a track. Side 2 however goes on too long without memorable hooks.

BOTCH 'We Are the Romans' (1999)

It's funny to recall how much of an influence Jesus Lizard had on hardcore bands in the 90's. Lots of twisted riffs with heavy guitars and scream-o vocals galore. Tight musicianship often with droning and buzzing guitars. Very well recorded. Hydra Head was/is always a quality label. Plenty of interesting stuff where the instruments are concerned but the vocals are sort of one dimensional. 'Man the Ramparts' is my pick off this album.

LUSTMORD 'Krakow. October 22, 2010' (2010)

Dark ambient drones and beyond. I think this was more of a visual experience when this artist played this set live in Poland in 2010 but even the audio is intriguing, 'Black Star' was used by the Church of Satan in their mass. I like the mixes and playing he did with the Melvins, Jarboe and other bands but this is extremely dark even for me to have in repeated plays. I would like to see him perform live one day though.

HYPOCRISY 'End of Disclosure' (2013)

With art being a contender for one of the worst album covers ever (even beating out Destruction's 'Release from Agony.), I have to say that Hypocrisy's 12th studio album is pretty excellent. There's tuneful progression where the music is concerned and obviously not with the vocals. This Swedish band have been around since 1990 and somehow I'd only really started my investigation into them recently. There's a bit more in the compositions to distinguish them from the generic run of the mill blasting and Pro-Tools drum programming. Lyrically, its pretty standard death metal stuff but with a little more cryptic/arty flavor. Good effort.

IAN BROWN 'Golden Greats' (1999)

My longtime friend Scott and I have been trading music finds and recommendations quite a bit lately and a few weeks ago the topic of Oasis somehow morphed into the Stone Roses who I've always liked, and ultimately the solo work of vocalist Ian Brown which I was not previously familiar with.

     OK, where to start. It's going to be blasphemy to some, but in this case, we both find Brown's solo work to be better than the Stone Roses output for a few reasons, but mainly because the songwriting is just flat out better and noticeably more refined. I first thought I was going to be listening to a greatest hits album, and when I found out that this was the title of his 2nd album, I thought to myself that he'd be a pretentious and arrogant fuck similar to the guys in Oasis. That may well be for all I know, but the album however is a definite dark pop treat and the production is as was as modern as it could be for 1999. A little bit of soft electronica and programming in places where they would typically be just straight instrumentation. My 3 pick hits on this album; 'Free My Way', 'Set my Baby Free' and 'Dolphins Were Monkeys' all have beautiful melody lines. Next month, after I digest this album I'll listen to his other solo output.

KRISIUN 'The Great Execution' 2011

I really like Krisiun a lot. Brazilian death metal power trio. I've seen them twice, own a few of their CDs and a T-shirt. Their live performances are true to their album sound. With the exception of a song where there's a vocal sung by hardcore punk band Ratos de Porão vocalist Joao, this release doesn't stray from their formula or offer anything new. I still like it more than the past 2 albums, but they've yet to surpass the "Assassination album I think. I like the fact that their albums are 'human' albums and not just studio trickery when it comes to the drums, but there are so many songs they have that follow a set pattern.

JUNIOR VASQUEZ 'Generation Next' (2010)

If my memory serves me correctly, between the years 1998 and 2002, I'd heard Junior Vasquez DJ at various clubs roughly 75 times or so. When he was ON, he was a mind melting turntable master and remixer that blew us through the stratosphere week after week after week. And yes, a lot of drugs were in the mix too. When he was in a bad mood for whatever reason, he made a lot of terrible noise on purpose to clear the crowd out. I got off the boat when he started screwing over his fans and contemporaries in 2002. I figured that he just faded into obscurity since other DJs started musically kicking his ass all over and his appearances were to empty clubs. But this 2010 disk is a pretty good representation of what he MIGHT have sounded like if he still cared back then. Pummeling beats and top notch tracks, vocals and music. He's since retired and his career never seemed to recover after his rise and ultimate crash in the mid 2000's.

SPACEHOG 'The Chinese Album' (1998)

Made it through half the album, stopped, and then went back to the rest later hoping to pick up on what this band was trying to do. It's classified as 'Glam Rock' but I'm completely lost on this one. Nothing cohesive for me, so maybe I can't identify glam rock. Michael Stipe is featured on 'Almond Kisses' but even that escaped me. And that is probably the best or worst cover art ever. I need to give the Brits a rest.

UNDERWORLD '1992 - 2012' (2014)

I was first introduced to this UK electronic duo a few years ago when I heard their most excellent track 'Dark Train' (Dark and Long mix) when eMusic was a decent source for music and didn't charge so much money to be able to experiment with PURCHASES. And though they'd formed in 1980, looks like they'd compiled a 10 year best of. Their house-ier, 4 on the 4 floor stuff comes up much better than the 'electro' sound of the mid 2000's that I do not like. And since I'd started listening to house music in 1997, I'd never ever seen or heard them on a beatmixed show or stream, but some of the music on this collection could be placed in a folder with New Order. 3 x set here.

808 STATE '808:88:98' (1998)

On a Spotify radio shuffle, I was pleasantly surprised to be reminded of a terrific track called 'CUBIK' that was remixed for house music by DJ/producer legend Victor Calderon back in 1998, which was a brilliant year of discovery for me as far as house and electronica. This band's contemporaries (Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, Groove Armada, Faithless) had me buying 12" wax aplenty that year. Finally coming around to discovering what fell through the cracks as far as this groups full length.'Cobrabora' is the immediate 2nd single that I'll be playing in a shuffle regularly. Not too many break beats on this album and it comes across pretty smooth. I would definitely make 1998 one of the years I could relive if I could.

THE ENID 'Invicta' (2012)

Strictly because my favorite keyboardist Mark Kelly (Marillion) lost out to The Enid's keyboardist Robert John Godfrey in this years prog awards, I had to find out what this band sounded like. Oh boy. This band is soooo prog that they make Marillion sound like the Ramones. These are not songs here. They're classical compositions. A lot of orchestration, no chorus and basically nothing to grasp onto unless you read the lyrics in which I tried and which only 1 song on this album held my attention 'Who Created Me'. Bio states they've been around since 1975 and I seem to remember seeing a review of 1 of their albums in Kerrang! magazine out of the UK. I have no idea under what circumstance I would ever want to listen to this band again since other than Marillion, Rush and Genesis, I am not a big prog fan.

ULTRAVOX "The Very Best of..'

'Dancing With Tears in My Eyes' may be the big hit, and a very good one, but I don't think that this 'Very best Of' album holds my interest too much. It's a collection of mediocre songs. I think even more novelty bands like Devo did this synth/electro sound better. Granted 'Best of' albums are almost always a farce since record labels almost never get these things right. I don't think I have enough energy to seek out a more respectable and memorable list right now. Next...