Time to Kill
Waiting for this CD to finish burning at work. It’s the A Frames new album, Black Forest, and it’s very, very good. I’ve been making a concentrated effort to listen to stuff that’s recent and stop mucking around in old music by dead people, at least for a little while. So here’s new stuff I really like.
A Frames: Black Forest
Kind of like a bunch of second-string Amphetamine Reptile sessionmen trying to do Devo versions of Transylvanian War marches. Their self-titled album is great as well. Songs about surveillance, being a robot stuck repeating the sum .333333333333333, Eva Braun, chemicals, and being caught in a very boring hostage crisis.
Dub Trio: Exploring the Dangers of
Live dub reggae done krautrock style. I like dub a whole bunch, and I’d stick this right up against anything by my beloved Scientist.
M.I.A.
Sri Lankan refugee art student blah blah blah blah blah. The songs are really, really good and the beats are frankensteined [do I capitalize this when using it as a fake adjective?] together. It made me pull out my Clash albums, which I listened to, and then put most of them away again. Why did I buy Sandinista? What the fuck?! I was eighteen or something, and didn’t know any better. In fact, I didn’t even know Sandinista was supposed to be a triple album, and my copy only has two of the records. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to hear the second record, but I’ll bet it sucks. This M.I.A album isn’t better than London Calling but I’ll bet her next one will be, assuming that her ego hasn’t swelled to the size of something that’s really fucking swelled.
Angels of Light: Sing Other People
This is kind of a cop out because Mikey Gira is about 80 years old, but this album is real swell. Thanks, Akron/Family, for making an old man sound good! (Note to self: also thank current hacks in the Fall for same, must be harder when dealing with a 48 year old toothless wetbrain.) Better than any Swans album, probably, except Soundtracks for the Blind, maybe. Or maybe I’m just getting old. Now that I think about it, I never really liked the Swans.
The Daughters: ?
I don’t know if these guys have an album out yet, but they’re a hilarious gore/grind band from Providence RI who dress in H&M clothes (or something) and are fronted by a long-haired Southern Rock looking guy who is really, really funny. When I saw them he did all the standard stuff, you know, spat on the crowd, pulled out his wee wee, etc., but his ongoing standup between numbers was great. I’m going to see them again, even though all that grindcore shit sounds exactly the same to me.
Anyway, time for me to get out of here and do some writing.
