The Batlord Listens to Random **** and Talks About It
 

Well, as much as I love my other journal it is just a bit restrictive, so I'm starting a new one. Basically like the title says I'm just gonna listen to random music and give my impressions. I'm not gonna do any in depth reviews, cause that would take far too much effort and get real boring for me real quick. I think I'm just gonna pick some theme based on a genre or a music scene and review a bunch of stuff in a series. For the most part this is gonna be stuff that I haven't listened to cause otherwise I'd get bored. So this is basically just me reporting on my continuing musical education. So...

Adrift On the Sea of No Wave: Part I

Alright, I'm bored so I think I'm gonna take you all on a trippy journey through no wave. *waves hands and fingers in a spooky fashion* If you don't know what no wave is, then basically what death metal is to thrash, no wave is to post-punk. If you want a better explanation then go away. I'm too lazy to make an in depth thing here. I'm not even really gonna tell you about the bands unless I feel like it. On that note, this isn't a subject I'm all that well versed in. I am familiar with a few of these bands, sorta kinda familiar with a few others, and have never listened to some of them. This is just me giving impressions on bands that I feel like listening to over the next few days or weeks or whatever. So if this comes across as some jackass who doesn't know what he's talking about, it's because he doesn't.

P.S. I am led to understand that these are some arty ass bands. I am not arty. Andy Warhol can chug on my cock while Emily Dickinson lovingly fondles my balls. So yeah, it is what it is.

Teenage Jesus and the Jerks: The Pink EP

First of all, before I even listen to this, I'd like to say that Teenage Jesus and the Jerks is a terrible name. For a band that hated punk and wanted to destroy it along with the rest of rock'n'roll they sure picked a generic punk rock name. It doesn't even seem to be ironically mocking punk rock. It just sounds like Lydia Lunch sucks at naming things. Imagine, someone named Lydia fucking Lunch who sucked at naming things. Thank god I'm not her cat. So, without further ado I'm gonna listen to their debut EP...




...Alright, if I were more confident in my musical knowledge I'd say that this definitely had an industrial vibe to it with it's repetitiveness and the sort of monotone nature of the music. The way the guitars sort of sound like metal hitting metal at times doesn't hurt either. I get a vaguely creepy Throbbing Gristle vibe at times, and the drum beat that kicks in on "Baby Doll" reminds me of Einstürzende Neubauten, which is weird cause I checked and this album was released in '79 and EN didn't release their first album 'til '80. Whatevs. I don't really know much about industrial either, so take that with a grain of salt.

Lydia Lunch's vocals sorta sound like some pretentious art chick who does unfortunate performance art after hours at coffee shops and makes sculptures of Reagan out of toothopaste, but they are nihilistic enough that I can't complain. I can take pretentious, so long as it isn't boring.

The music on here seems to have been simplified to the point where the personal element of the musicians' playing has been removed, and all you're left with is pure sound. It's emotionless, monotonous, relentless and conjures up images of a dark, bleak New York street where you will likely end up when your heroin addiction finally gets the better of you. The band has tried hard to take any of the charisma or melody of rock'n'roll out of the music, but there is still catchiness to be had, and after a few spins I find myself not getting bored. The standout song for me would have to be "Orphans". It has this relentless, harrowing cadence that never lets up or changes and you can't help but be swept up in it while Lydia Lunch repetitively shouts along to the beat. Not bad. I like Teenage Jesus and the Jerks more than I thought I would.

So, I guess I'm gonna quit while I'm a head (huhuhuh) and leave you for now.

If you need some album recommendations, I'd be happy to oblige to get you started.

Nah. At least not right now. I've got more ideas than I have any use for, but thanks anyway.

Adrift On the Sea of No Wave: Part II

Sonic Youth: Sonic Youth EP

Alright, this is a band that I'm relatively familiar with, but an album that I've never heard before. I love their debut LP so I have high hopes for this one. I've just heard the first song, and my hopes are being fulfilled, so I'm gonna leave you for a moment while I take the rest of it in...




...Alright, I probably could have started after hearing the first song, but I love that picture and will use it whenever I can. If you don't like it, then suck my balls.

Well, I kinda dug it at first, but after a while I started to tune out. The songs were repetitive and just kind of dragged on for way too long, so I went back to listening to Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Good thing too, cause I went from being sort of indifferent to them at first, to thinking they were actually pretty cool, and by the end I thought they were fucking fantastic. Well, out of respect for Sonic Youth I'm gonna give this album a second chance tomorrow...




...Good thing I gave this another chance, I haven't given this another full spin yet, but I'm already digging this a lot more than yesterday. Maybe I was just burned out on artiness or something. The atmosphere is definitely different than on their first full length. That one had a dark and reverb ridden production, while this one has an almost normal production. Instead of dark and creepy, this album has a sort of laid back, eerie, dreamlike quality that is intriguing.

I wasn't wrong on my original take. This album definitely likes repetition. Of course, that seems to be par for the course for these no wave bands. Much of the rhythms on this album are either funky bass lines or African folk drumming that seem to be pretty simple and are repeated over and over again. Or at least the stereotype of African folk drumming that I have in my head. Must be a Talking Heads influence. The guitars sound pretty different. Sometimes they even sound like bells. Cool. I'm sure there's a lot more weirdness that I'm missing though since my attention span isn't so great.

I also don't think I was wrong in saying that some of the songs on here go on for too long. Only three of the songs on here really sound particularly good at the moment and I don't know if there's anything truly great on here, though "Burning Spear" and "I Dreamed I Dream" come close. The rest are certainly entertaining, but only for a little while, then they start to get old. As a whole it's sort of unfocused, which isn't really all that surprising given that this was a band based around improvised live performances. Still, all in all it's a good first step and I'm glad I gave this a try.

The point was, that if it's a random review of music, it would also be good from time to time for members to send you stuff that they think you might like and then we can see if you like it or not. Hell I've got a whole load of Styx albums to give you..:)

Adrift On the Sea of No Wave: Part III

DNA: A Taste of DNA EP

I clearly remember listening to this a while back and wondering what the fuck I'd just listened to. I sort of remember it as sounding like Michael J. Fox had taken the Delorean back to 1980 and recorded an art rock album. Bam. That's two jokes for the price of one. Having listened to a bit of it for the last few minutes, I don't think I was wrong. It's definitely spastic and random sounding. It actually sorta sounds like the missing link between art rock and grindcore. Except far more random. I find it intriguing, but I really have no idea whether or not I like this. I need to give this a deeper listen....




...I actually dig the vocals. They're as deranged and spastic as the music, but they don't sound as nihilistic as one might imagine. They're actually rather fun. Of course, he could be "singing" about eviscerating puppies for all I know since it's pretty much impossible to hear what he's actually saying. After a while I still don't know whether or not I like this. I'm gonna give this a day as well, but I think that I'm gonna be sort of meh on this album...




Ah screw it. I don't feel like giving this another day, so I'm just gonna do it now. There's some good parts to the one to two minute songs, but much of it just sounds like random noise thrown together just for the sake of being obtuse. Fun for a few minutes until it all devolves into noise, but other than that I could care less. Maybe if I really liked grindcore it would be different. If you're an arty farty fuck who likes his/her arty fartyness as unlistenable as possible then this might be up your alley. Me, I might give this a try some other day, but for now I'm gonna steer clear.

The fuck? I'm guessing that's supposed to be a joke...

Adrift On the Sea of No Wave: Part IV

Mars: 78+

Finally a band that I've never listened to. Or at least I have no memory whatsoever of what they sounded like off the No New York compilation. Who desperately tries to convince people that they are ignorant of a band? Me apparently. Well whatever. Unfortunately, I post off a library computer and I'm stuck with Youtube and much of the album isn't on there. I'm even having to make do with some of the versions off No New Wave. So that's balls, but a loser's gotta do what a loser's gotta do. Anyways, if you'll excuse me...




Finally, a band I don't have to sit and wait to see if I dig. They are almost straight forward and accessible as far as no wave is concerned. Not that far away from punk or garage rock at times. Though the farther I go on this album the more weird noise songs I hear. I actually sort of like those though, since while they are certainly arty and farty they aren't self-consciously unlistenable. I'm gonna have to give this a few more spins before I really talk any more about them.

I saw this band compared to the Velvet Underground on a Youtube comment. Not a bad comparison I guess. Although I might call them a more deranged Pere Ubu. They're not always totally avant garde with their songs, but the aesthetics of their musical style are always out there in the stratosphere. The vocals have this "mental-patient-on-cocaine-and-having-the-time-of-his-life" quality that is bags of fun. When the songs are more straight forward, they are quite catchy, and the bits of noise and sound effects thrown over them make them sound delightfully bizarre. When they do go oddball though, they go for the gusto. I'm listening to a song called "The Immediate Stages of the Erotic" that is a fucking trip. It has this repetitive drum beat that sounds like conga drums. Then they have this noise that sounds like electricity (I'm guessing it's some kind of feedback) that goes in and out while the vocalist just tortures his throat and screams here there and everywhere, not wholly unlike Diamanda Galas. Then there's the random dude shouting random syllables in the background every so often. It pretty much sets the standard for any song that wants to explicitly sound like some dude being tortured by electrocution.

Not everything on here is necessarily essential, but there's enough truly good stuff on here that I definitely recommend this.

CLEVELAND ROCKS!!!: Proto-Punk and Art Rock In the Land of Drew Carey - Part I

Since I enjoyed the no wave doohickey so much I've decided to do another series. So, back in the days of the first wave of CBGB's bands and when the London punk scene was just getting started there was a group of bands using much the same playbook as them in Cleveland. Unfortunately they didn't have a pub circuit or a dedicated venue like CBGB's to get more notice so most of these bands faded into obscurity. For no apparent reason I have decided to chizeck this shiznit out. Here we go...

Tin Huey: Tin Huey EP

This is the band that made me wanna do this. I have no idea why. I remember listening to their debut EP a while back and thinking that it was dull, pretentious crap. Then the other day I just had a random urge to give them another try. Here's hoping they suck less this time around...


Moderator cut: image removed


Aw crap. Goofy vocals and self consciously silly music that sounds like art school students without any quality control. This is gonna suck. I don't really know how to describe them. Sorta jazzy at times. Sorta proggy at times, although I know fuck all about prog rock so ignore that if I'm full of shit. It does give me that silly, overblown vibe that some prog does though. I guess it's kinda poppy too, but it sounds too random to really be catchy. None of these songs really sound all that much alike either. It all sounds like unfocused, experimental what-the-fuck-ness. Sounds like this band wasn't really ready to record yet. I'd try to understand this better, but I'm bored out of my skull and don't wanna.

:rofl: I seriously cracked up for a good 5 minutes. Your sense of humor is outstanding.

You did no wave and didn't do The Ascension by Glenn Branca?

Maybe we should start calling you The Big Pussylord

The funniest/strangest thing is that we're supposed to take an interest in what somebody who flaunts his worship of Manowar and irrational fear of spiders has to say about Lydia Lunch and Sonic Youth. I find it difficult to say the least.

I actually have a small bit of a revue of his Lesson No 1 for Electric Guitar, but I need to give it another listen to be able to even attempt to finish it. I'll get back to it at some point, but I have the attention span of a gnat so I tend to flit around from this band or this genre at the drop of a hat.

Manowar rules and spiders are the avatar of Satan on Earth. :finger:

CLEVELAND ROCKS!!!: Proto-Punk and Art Rock In the Land of Drew Carey - Part II

Rocket from the Tombs: The Day the Earth Met the Rocket from the Tombs

Alright, so this isn't really an album, and it wasn't released until decades after the band went kaput, but they never actually released anything and it would be impossible to do this without looking at Rocket from the Tombs. Half the band went on to form Pere Ubu for god's sake. As far as I can tell it's just a collection of random demos and live recordings, so it'd be impossible to review it as an album, so I guess I'll just have to treat it as a collection of songs.




Sounds like good-but-not-great proto-punk. Like The Stooges' little brothers. It's not something that I've never heard before, but it is gloriously raw. It's also kinda fun to hear David Thomas singing in a much more raw style than he would in Pere Ubu. I could certainly see how this band would have been influential in Cleveland. Of course, used toilet paper could probably be influential in Cleveland. Fuck Ohio.

There's not a whole lot to say about this. I mean it's pretty cool Stooges worship, but it's not a revelation, and it's not much more than raw proto-punk so it's not like I have to explain it to you. If you're an Ubu fan then I'd recommend this just for the history lesson, but for anyone else it's not mandatory, although "Sonic Reducer" is just the bee knees.




Oh, and is it just me, or does this sound like The Damned's "New Rose"? I'm pretty sure this was made before the Damned even existed, but I have no idea how The Damned would have even heard this. Is there another earlier song that both those bands copied or something?

Edit: Never mind. I just looked and apparently it's a Velvet Underground cover. So I guess The Damned "borrowed" it.

CLEVELAND ROCKS!!!: Proto-Punk and Art Rock In the Land of Drew Carey - Part III

Devo: Be Stiff EP

Alright, so Devo are from Akron and not Cleveland, but it'd seem wrong to not include them. I actually remember being disappointed the first time I ever listened to them. I'd heard some story that at Devo's first performance it was just one dude in a gorilla mask who played a repetitive riff on a piano over and over again just to see how long 'til everyone got annoyed and left. So, I was hoping for something truly bizarre. Instead I got "Jocko Homo". Which is weird, but you know, not gorilla mask weird. I've never really listened to them since. So, here I go...




Alright, Tin Huey's attempt at being self consciously silly sounding on their debut EP blew, but these guys are both fun as hell and catchy. So take that Tin Huey. I've already listened to the whole EP, and am trying to get through the rest of it, but I'm stuck on the cover of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". It's fucking awesome that they've used a dance beat to give that song as much energy as the original. I'm gonna have to listen to the Stones version some time, cause the Devo version might just be better.

"Jocko Homo" and "Mongoloid" sound like the sort of new wavey pop that I sort of associate with Devo through their reputation: quirky pop, with simple-as-Pauly-Shore rhythms. Weird as hell sounding, but fun. The rest of the album is pretty much power pop/punk of amazing to pretty damn good quality. "Be Stiff" might just be one of the best power pop songs I've ever heard and has enough power to run Jenna Jameson's vibrators for the better part of a year. I've already played this album at least five times and will definitely be checking out their debut LP for a review soon.

CLEVELAND ROCKS!!!: Proto-Punk and Art Rock In the Land of Drew Carey - Part IV

Pere Ubu: 30 Seconds Over Tokyo/Heart of Darkness and Final Solution/Cloud 149 singles

These aren't albums, but there's no way in fucking hell I'm skipping over Pere Ubu's early singles. Get ready for me to gush like a sad fanboy. Time to kick my ass again...




Basically this sounds like a cleaned up and classed up version of Rocket from the Tombs. And what a difference a year(?) makes. No longer do David Thomas and Peter Laughner sound like charmingly noisy amateurs. Now they sound like masters of making professional sounding garage(ish) rock that sounds like it could bring 60's garage rock into the modern era if it was released today. Some may see these singles as stepping stones to greater things, but I think that's missing the point. These may not be as self consciously experimental and arty as their albums, but they are very much worth your time.

If I had to describe Pere Ubu at this time, I'd have to say that they sorta sound like a proto-punk version of Black Sabbath. They play relatively slow and heavy-as-fuck. The songs are longish and don't necessarily go anywhere too quickly but prefer to build up with ever increasing tension until they explode with unleashed power. Like the music, David Thomas' vocals are more restrained here than they are in RftT or later Pere Ubu, and they fit the music perfectly. Yet even if Pere Ubu isn't exactly a pop band at this time, they certainly know how to pull catchiness from the jaws of intelligent art rock.

All of this shiznit is pretty much essential, but the star of the show is "30 Seconds Over Tokyo". Just a lumbering beast of a song that crushes you with apocalyptic claustrophobia before exploding with the aforementioned unleashed power. I'm not usually a lyrics kinda guy, but I make an exception for this song. They describe the Doolittle Raid, which was the first bombing run on the home islands of Japan during WWII. The lyrics describe a terrifying, tripped out fantasy journey that sounds like the world is about to end. I could listen to this song over and over again, and will probably take up smoking weed again at some point in the future just to listen to this song while baked off my ass.

There is one odd man out though. "Cloud 149" doesn't sound a million miles away from Devo's oddball pop, but it throws a strange riff over it all that somehow reminds me of country. Weird but cool. So, I'm gonna stop now lest my fanboyism becomes truly embarrassing.

I can't imagine you listening to Devo, but their debut album is a classic of its time. In fact I love the first five albums.

CLEVELAND ROCKS!!!: Proto-Punk and Art Rock In the Land of Drew Carey - Part V

Electric Eels: Having A Philosophical Investigation With The Electric Eels

I actually had to spend a good amount of time just finding a site that had their discography. I am led to believe that this is a formerly unreleased album by this band. Hopefully this is so...




It's certainly noisy. The vocalist sounds remarkably similar to Johnny Rotten. The lyrics that he seems to be shouting are even similarly anti-everything. But they broke up in 1975 and didn't seem to have released anything in that time, so I sort of doubt that this is anything more than a coincidence. During my searches I kept coming across people who seemed to worship these dudes. I was expecting something mind blowing. All I'm really getting is tuneless noise. The only song that's really sticking in my head for even five seconds is "Agitated" which works for much the same reason that any Sex Pistols song works. Catchy and delightfully abrasive. But even this song sucks monkey balls compared to the Sex Pistols. I'm gonna chalk this one up to a loss. Thanks anyway, dudes.

CLEVELAND ROCKS!!!: Proto-Punk and Art Rock In the Land of Drew Carey - Part VI

Dead Boys: Young, Loud, and Snotty

Alright, I've done Rocket from the Tombs. I've done Pere Ubu, a band that came from the ashes of RftT. So, I guess I'd better do the other band that formed after RftT imploded...




Yawn. Now listening to Generic Punk Rock Album No. 2746. I dig punk as much as the next angry twenty something, but I do like my punk to actually sound good. The Dead Boys do not. They sound like everything that was boring about Rocket from the Tombs, just with a shittier singer. If they wanted to do what they were doing without the artiness of Thomas and Laughner, then they could have at least upped then ante and not just stuck their thumbs up their asses and whistled a jaunty but boring tune. This album is masterful at taking second rate songs and doing absolutely nothing at all with them. I am almost done with it and not a single song has stuck out to me as worthy of note. Even their version of "Sonic Reducer" can't touch the Tombs version. Good job dropping the Dead (huhuhuh) weight Ubu.

CLEVELAND ROCKS!!!: Proto-Punk and Art Rock In the Land of Drew Carey - Part VII

Tin Huey: Breakfast with the Hueys EP

To wash the taste of failure (i.e. Dead Boys) out of my mouth I'm now trying the next Tin Huey EP. Why do I keep getting the urge to listen to a band that I have no reason to think that I like? I don't know, but here goes...




Well, for starters, this is actually a single. I don't know who, but somebody lied to me. Ah well. At times this sounds as much like jazz as it does rock. And it always sounds at least somewhat goofy. I really don't know how to describe this band in an intelligent way since I know fuck all about jazz and even less about musical composition. So, I'm sort of stuck at goofy, weird, jazzy, and occasionally even rockish. This doesn't sound nearly as random or incoherent as the debut EP, but it's certainly not particularly straightforward. But the songs do actually sound like songs this time around.

The first song, "Robert Takes The Road To Lieber Nawash" (yeah, me neither) starts off with lounge jazz and bizarre, stream-of-consciousness lyrics, until it descends into chaos with what I can only describe as game show music. Eventually it builds to a crescendo of drums, guitar, and for some reason, horns all blasting away at you as if to say, "HEY! ISN'T THIS ****ING WEIRD, YOU DUMB ****?!?!?!" Yes. Yes it is.

"Squirm You Worm" almost sounds like an actual rock song. But, with you know, jazzy bits. It's almost a straightforward rocker kinda sorta. It has a simple driving rhythm courtesy of guitar and saxophone (I think) and a vocal performance that has some sort of proto-rap quality to it at times that is actually rather entertaining. I think that I...I actually like this song. *gasp*

I don't know how much I like this single, but I definitely like it a hell of a lot better than the debut. I might actually check out their debut album at some point. Maybe.

The Batlord Learns to Like Country...Maybe: Part I

I've been meaning to give country an honest chance ever since I realized that I liked Johnny Cash. But I'm not sure that I'm ready for Patsy Cline just yet. By the way, who the fuck is Patsy Cline? Anyway, so I'm gonna try some alternative country first.

Uncle Tupelo: No Depression

I remember listening to this once or twice at some point a few years ago and not being repulsed by it, so I figure it's about as good a place to start as any. Apparently it's country by way of punk rock and highly thought of. Unfortunately this is another case of not being able to find a lot of the songs on Youtube, so yeah, fuck people who don't upload the whole album. You're making my life more difficult.




Reminds me of The Replacements if their country influences were more explicit. The punk influence is obvious, but a lot of the time it sounds more like power pop to me. When the songs veer toward the heavier end of the spectrum the riffs are big and hard and catchy as hell and wouldn't be out of place on any FM radio rock station, though Uncle Tupelo is always ready to throw in some charming cow-punk into the mix to bring back the country fun. Kick fucking ass. When they go for a country ballad it's heartfelt and the singer's voice makes you feel comfortable as country should. Thankfully his singing voice is recognizably Southern but without that cheesy twang that makes me wanna gag. Slow or fast the songs never feels folky though. They feel more like something you would hear in a greasy bar while bikers are either smashing beer bottles over each others' heads or shedding a sneaky tear.

If the rest of the stuff I check out is as good as this then I might just be well on my way to digging country. Highly recommended.

The Batlord Learns to Like Country...Maybe: Part II

Neko Case and Her Boyfriends: The Virginian

Continuing on, I likes me a female singer. They make me happy and disarm me in a way that most male singers just can't, which sounds just about perfect for country. I tried to remember the name of some chick I'd heard of a while before, so here I am about to check out Neko Case. Cross your fingers...




That's more what I think of when I think of when I think of country. It's got an bags of energy and fun that could put Sylvia Plath in a good mood. Neko Case's voice might be annoying to some, but it's just as charming as a june bug with a fiddle. I don't know what that means, but I wanted to say something nonsensical that sounded Earthy. I don't know enough about old school country to compare this to that, but it has a feel to it that reminds me of what little I know of stuff like that. Just with a modern take that lets you know that Neko Case is aware of punk rock and alternative, though it never sounds like cow punk. The music just has a pep to its step that I don't imagine it would have before 1976. I imagine that this wouldn't be out of place at either a club full of college kids or a hoedown.

Of course it's not all fun and games. This is a country album after all. It's not a country album if there aren't ballads about how your man/woman done you wrong, and this album is no different. Neko Case's voice can be fun and bouncy one moment, but the next it sounds like the most heartbreaking jukebox-in-a-middle-of-nowhere-hillbilly-diner country singer.

There is something that sounds like irony throughout the album though. She definitely loves country, but I can't be sure that she's taking the whole thing entirely seriously. Maybe I'm wrong though. Either way, Neko Case is as addictive as heroin, so if you have any interest in country then I'd highly recommend this.

The Batlord Learns to Like Country...Maybe: Part III

Townes Van Zandt: Our Mother the Mountain

An actual old school country album for once. Yesterday a friend on another forum suggested the title track to this album and I listened to it about five times in a row. I even looked up the lyrics to follow along. I never do that. So, I'm kinda stoked to listen to this...




I'm not used to this kind of minimalist country so it's taking a little work to get into. It's pretty much just him and his guitar. There are accompanying instruments at times but the guitar is the center of the attention. His voice is low though not as low as Johnny Cash and is perfect for imparting despair and world weariness. But like I said, it takes a bit of getting used to and I had to actually go look up the lyrics and read them while listening to really reveal the songs' true scope, which is often quite engrossing and atmospheric. Some of this is some truly dark stuff. You could seriously slit your wrists to songs like "Our Mother the Mountain" or "St. John the Gambler". I wouldn't normally go through this much effort to read lyrics like this, but even just hearing bits and pieces of them got me interested. My favorites so far are the dark, surreal stories that I imagine are probably metaphors for his rampant drug use (apparently he was known to shoot up heroine in front of his children, and apparently he even injected the odd jack and coke into his veins) and death.

Given time, I might very well consider this brilliant, but I've got a ways to go before music like this comes naturally to me. This album doesn't really have any rock or pop influences to make it go down easy. It's pretty pure folk country and if you aren't making an emotional connection to the music then you might as well go listen to something else. Even so, I dig it far more than I probably would a lot of his contemporaries in the sixties/seventies.

If you dig Townes then try checking out Steve Earle, whom Townes taught all he knew. Steve also did a tribute album to his mentor, called, er, "Townes"...

Already done.

The Batlord Learns to Like Country...Maybe: Part IV

Emmylou Harris: Pieces of the Sky

Alright, I'm trying another actual old school country album. Here's hoping...




Oh god. I tried, but I'm only human. This is about as dull and cheesy a country album as I was hoping to avoid. I tried to listen to the whole thing, but I had to give up after like fifteen minutes to go clean the vomit from my shirt. Now, I think I'm gonna go smash my testicles with a hammer to make myself feel better.

May I suggest trying some Dwight Yoakam? Particularly, his "This Time" album.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Ti...t_Yoakam_album)

For me it'd be "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc"...
Point of order, Mister Chairman: what Steve Earle have you listened to? Just wondering....

Just Copperhead Road. I wasn't exactly overwhelmed. At least after the first half.

The Batlord Learns to Like Country...Maybe: Part V

Johnny Cash: At Folsom Prison

So, this is the first country album I ever listened to, but I just bought it so I figured I might as well talk about it. It helps that I'm still not all that familiar with it. So...




Dude, a live album recorded at a prison. How cool is that? Seriously, you can sound like two dogs fighting in a blender all you want, but do you have an album recorded in a prison? No? Better luck next time Cannibal Corpse. And it's not just a cheap gimmick either. If this album is any indication, then prison audiences are loud and energetic as fuck. I guess if I got a break from staring at the wall and getting raped by my three hundred pound cell mate then just about anything would be worth cheering about. Yet Johnny doesn't seem to be intent on making the convicts forget about their circumstances. Most of the songs on here are about the narrator committing crimes, getting arrested, being in jail, getting executed, etc. And the cons fucking love him for it. Any time he sings about some guy swinging from a noose or shooting his wife they cheer like Marilyn Monroe just took off her top. Apparently Cash spent some time in prison himself, and it shows in his rapport with the "audience". He doesn't condescend to them, he doesn't seem at all scared of them, and he doesn't try to pretend that he isn't singing in a fucking prison. Hell, he doesn't even bat an eyelash at bringing his wife onstage to sing a song with him. Instead he banters and jokes with them and in general treats them like human beings. You can even see a picture of him shaking hands with a prisoner in the audience in the liner notes. Crazy motherfucking dude.

Of course there's also music on this album too. Much of the music on here is simple, energetic country with a heavy rock influence that gets the blood pumping. There's also the heartfelt ballads that, along with Cash's baritone, really puts the image of the lonely, suffering misfit who is usually on the wrong side of the law. This album can sooth as much as it can excite and it's enough to convert anyone who doesn't like country.

The Batlord Learns to Like Country...Maybe: Part VI

Jason and the Nashville Scorchers: Reckless Country Soul EP/Fervor EP

Alright, I'm combining these two albums for this review, since I can't find a lot of the songs here on Youtube. Balls. Also, Jason and the Nashville Scorchers would drop the "Nashville" from their name after their debut EP, but I refuse to call them Jason and the Scorchers. That sounds like the name of some generic punk band. "Jason and the Nashville Scorchers" has character and makes it sound like the band couldn't give less of a fuck if some people are put off by the name. Anyways...




This could just as easily be considered as much punk as country. Some songs are more one thing than the other, but in general the division is pretty straight down the line. If Johnny Cash was twenty years old and living in a London squat in 1977 when he first saw the Sex Pistols, then he might have formed this band. This band uses punk to inject some serious energy into some rough and ready country. This is just pure fun. Nothing particularly complicated, though they do know how to break out some melody for a ballad now and again. That's not to say that this is just some two bit punk rock band with a few twangy riffs. These dudes know how to write some truly world class songs that have more energy and charm than a wizard/witch gangbang. If you're driving down a country road and you wanna wake up the rednecks all across the county then you could do worse than this.

Some really entertaining sh...tuff here BL. The Cash review had me cracking up a bit.

Just fuelin the fahr.

If my memory serves me correctly, Johnny Cash was never sentenced to prison. He was held in a cell, posibly overnight, when arrested for carrying drugs from Mexico into Texas. They turned out to be prescription drugs, not illegal narcotics. For some reason, though, he seemed to relate to prisoners, despite them having committed serious crimes. It may have come from his childhood and seeing that it was easy to turn bad if you had a difficult early life. A lot of celebrities claim to have had a poor upbringing, but Johnny's was genuinely tough.

Yeah, being pretty much ignorant of Cash I definitely bow to your assumed expertise, so I may have just read wrong. I definitely read about some brush with the law though, I can't be imagining that.

The Batlord Learns to Like Country...Maybe: Part VII

Townes Van Zandt: Townes Van Zandt

I'm in a shitty, depressed mood, so what better time to give Townes Van Zandt's next album a try...




There's something truly beautiful about Townes Van Zandt's music. It's country folk, but it's not generic strummy strummy stuff. I wish I knew more about musical composition, but I can still tell that there's stuff goin' on there. Every song on here really stands out and has an identity all its own. "Columbine" has dreamy guitar playing that really gives me the image of a beautiful summer day with the wind blowing, yet is somehow melancholy. "Waiting Round to Die" is Van Zandt at his most nihilistic. It seems to come from that panicky, claustrophobic place where it feels like the world is caving in on you and you can't stop the emotional pain from washing over you in waves. That place where swallowing a bottle of aspirin starts to sound like a comfort. Townes' guitar playing is somehow hypnotic and creates a compelling atmosphere that draws you in and then his sorrowful voice whispers the sad, cruel truths of the world into your ear. He seems to express himself so fully that it's like his entire being is in his songs, so that it's like he's sitting right here next to me. Or something less pretentious. I've never really been a big fan of folk, but this guy is really something else. In the course of less than a week I've gone from interested to in love. I could listen to this dude for hours. Well, I don't quite know what else to say, since I'm a shit reviewer, but don't let my failings stop you from checking this dude out. If you're in a sad, reflective mood and need something to comfortably wallow in your misery to then this is what you need. Oh, and it should be raining.

The Batlord Learns to Like Country...Maybe: Part VIII

Steve Earle: Copperhead Road

Alright what the fuck is happening here? I started this series figuring I'd listen to a few country albums, hate most of them, maybe find a few that I liked, and then move on. But, I've only listened to the one Emmylou Harris album that I didn't like, and the rest have been kewl. Am I like, a secret redneck or something? Whatevs. So I keep seeing Steve Earle's name popping up and Trollheart had good things to say about this album so I'm givin' it a whirl...




Alright, so far if I had to use two words to describe this album they would be: Bad. Fucking. Ass. A good description, since it tells you that it kicks ass, sounds like redneck talk, and implies that I can't count. I'd call this southern rock, but I keep seeing this get called alternative country. I guess because it's more southern than rock. The distinction is too thin to really be justified in my opinion, but who cares? Earle's voice may be a bit too hillbilly for some, but if it doesn't bother you and you like Lynyrd Skynyrd then you should be on the right track.

Alright, now that I've listened to the whole album, I am forced to ask, "What is this bug snot?!" The whole last half of the album is nothing but eighties style power ballads. What happened Stevie? Did the record company bend you over and have their way with you? The first half of the album is quality though, and anyone who digs country should hear the title track. It's one of my new favorite hillbilly songs. Too bad about the other half though.

How much longer is this country lark going on for? The only interesting thing so far is somebody shooting a gun.

That was my last one actually. And if you're getting bored then feel free to go give Eddie Vedder a handjob.

The Pixies: Surfer Rosa

This is just one of those bands that I've been meaning to listen to for a while now. I listened to a little of this album a while back, but I have no particular memory of it, so...




Just after a few minutes I'm diggin' it. Fun and catchy and delightfully unhinged. Black Francis' vocals are too cool. Dude sounds like he's having the time of his life and entertaining a moderately serious personality disorder at the same time. Along with the chaotic music it gives this an energy that most bands could only dream of. I haven't listened to this enough to know whether I like this over Nirvana, but I definitely know which one I'd rather listen to on cocaine.

Steve Albini's production is simply fantastic. It has a power that makes a lifelong metalhead truly happy. It's stripped down and gives the album a strange, almost creepy vibe. I don't quite know why I think it's sort of creepy, but for whatever reason it's there. Maybe because the stripped down production leaves some hard to really define empty spaces under the music and with a certain amount of reverb immerses you in it so that you feel like you're trapped with the band playing right in your face in some sort of large empty room. With headphones at least.

As easy to listen to as this is, it feels like this is a bit hard to really grok in just one sitting, so I imagine that my opinion of the album still needs to be refined before it really becomes intelligible, but fuck it. Trying is for losers.