6th Man of the Year

Discover Weekly, pt 6!

1. Wolf Alice - Lisbon

I feel like it's been forever (it hasn't) since the last time I went through a Discover playlist. "Lisbon" is a great (re)introduction to Spotify's incessant demand that I listen to (what I assume is) popular indie music. I still haven't figured out Spotify's algorithm for these playlists, if it even has one. 

2. Lungfish - Black Helicopters

I think it's just dawning on me that Keelhaul owed as much to Lungfish as they did to anybody. One of the most brilliant aspects of Lungfish has always been the ability to get as much out of one riff as possible - more out of it than should be possible.

3. Echo & The Bunnymen - Silver

If I was teenage-me in the 80s, would have I liked Echo & The Bunnymen? I dunno, because teenage-me didn't care about them in my own temporal sequence. I like them now, though. Would 28-year-old me like them in the 80s, too? 

4. From Indian Lakes - Come in this Light

Moving Mountains-esque but with downplayed emotionality. I'd be willing to listen to this album front to back. 

5. Timber Timbre - Beat the Drum Slowly

This is like if Johnny Cash and Michael Gira co-write Mr. Bungle's "Sweet Charity" while on a Halloween-themed music bender.

6. Unwound - Corpse Pose

Unwound and Lungfish? Am I sensing a pattern? I hope so. Unwound has nearly as many compilation albums as they do proper releases from when they were an active band. If Shellac and/or Slint don't show up on this week's Discover, I'm going to be very disappointed.

7. Father - Who's Gonna Get F****** First

"Who's gonna get fucked first?" asks Father, spoiling my fun game of guessing what "F*****" could possibly stand for. The answer, Father, is the disenfranchised. Duh.

8. Everyone Everywhere - Turn & Go & Turn

I loved this album when it came out in 2012. I still listen to it from time to time. This isn't one of the tracks that I go back to frequently, but it's got lots of frenetic energy to match its twinkliness. It's an infectious bit of punkier emo in the middle of the album that kinda disrupts the slower pace of the rest of the record. It also features this weirdo computer-blown-out guitar solo that seems out of place but is super rad.

9. Yuck - Rubber 

I never listened to this album (or the second) album when it was released. I just have absolutely no gauge of what trendy shit I'll actually like, so I just avoid all of it. I don't mean "trendy" as an insult, either, though it certainly hasn't been used in any way other than pejoratively maybe ever. I mean shit that buzzes, has buzz. Great, now I'm MTV in the 90s. Yuck is/was buzzworthy. I would've dug this album back in 2011 had I listened to it. Slimy Dino Jr/MBV grunge/shoegaze.

10. Gang of Four - Damaged Goods

Gang of Four was just never a band I got into. I know that seems unconscionable, but it's true. I never sought them out and no one around me was invested in them while I was growing up. Obviously when I got to college, I met people who were (possibly just getting) into them, but it was maybe too late? I probably should familiarize myself with their big records, but I dunno.

11. Ghostface Killah, Badbadnotgood - Street Knowledge (ft. Tree)

Dope. Pretty Tony is pretty much always dope. Still don't know what/who Badbadnotgood is, though.

12. Fallujah - Levitation

I've spent this entire song trying to write an explanation as to why I don't like it than actually listening to it. Sometimes it's hard to explain, as someone who likes metal music, why certain subgenres hold no appeal, even when they're really close sonically to other subgenres that do appeal to me. Is there a melodiousness in Fallujah's form of death metal that irks me? Is it that deathcore is a genre that I just generally dislike without engaging with it much at all? Or is it that I just don't listen to much death metal anymore, and if/when I do, I want it/need it to be as gargantuan and ugly as Cattle Decapitation? 

13. Dads - But

I've been meaning to listen to this band. Quavering emo in 6131 Records. I gotta get this album. 

14. Nothing - B&E

Just the saddest bunch of sad bastards that have ever moped around on a record or a stage. They're just miserable. I love them so much. I didn't listen to Guilty of Everything enough when it came out, even though I listened to it a ton. This is one of the most expansive, heart-wrenching tacks on the album. It is loud.

15. Mac DeMarco - A Heart Like Hers

For a long time, I couldn't keep track of Mac DeMarco and Mac Miller and who was who because that's how little I give a fuck about either of those two people/artists. I'll officially take DeMarco over Miller, though. I'm not finishing this song.

16. Chon - Drift

This is just the album intro, so I'm actually listening to the album's second track so I have any idea of who this band is. Prog-emo? This band oughtta call themselves Twinkle Theatre. Nailed it.

17. Madvillain - The Illest Villains 

One of the best hip-hop albums ever made. Simple as that.

18. Pure Bathing Culture - Seven to One

That's one funny band name. They're from Portland - I was just in Portland! Dreamy, wistful lo-fi Brit-pop-inspired indie music. It has a very unmistakably 80s vibe that I can get behind.

19. Majical Cloudz - What That Was

Majical Cloudz, who apparently have a new album out, was the type of band that we got into and could not figure out how we weren't finally crossing musical paths with trendy folks. I don't necessarily know what we found/find so appealing about Majical Cloudz versus a litany of other bands they presumably sound like, but I think it was always how downtrodden they were. Listless, sure, but not afraid to just be fuckin' bummed. I think too much listless indie music is afraid to embrace pure bummer. Don't be scared of your feelings, folks. Embrace them shits.

20. Periphery - Stranger Things

Holy shit this is un-fucking-believably bad. Prog-metal butt rock par excellence? I can't stop listening to it in the same way you can't turn away from Faces of Death when you're 15. It's like the wussiest version of Meshuggah ever concocted. Good god.

21. Loscil - Goat Mountain

Well whaddya know! That band that kept haunting all of my Discover playlists and YouTube choices finally appears. If this song is indicative of the rest of Loscil's oeuvre, I just found a new favourite artist. Beautiful, sprawling ambient dronescape to lose yourself in. Rising waves crash down on expanses of sound in subdued yet encompassing aural catharsis. This is music you can inhabit. 

22. Tiny Moving Parts - Sundress

"I love you - at least I used to" I'm immediately so in love with this band I can hardly stand it. 

23. Pelican - Perceptual Dawn

Spring Break junior year, I went to a hippie fest with my friends. Pelican was playing (for some reason). They were on some tiny stage at like 1am across from the Disco Biscuits. About 25 people watched them, and I'm almost certain no one knew who they were. I was on ecstasy and asked them to play "Mammoth" or "Into the Woods." (I get that asking a band to play a song live is about the most gauche thing you can do, but we were at a hippie fest, I was on ecstasy, and I figured they'd appreciate some recognition that anyone in the crowd knew who they were.) They did neither. What they did do, though, was be bad live, which is what they've been every time I've ever seen them. Also they've failed to release compelling music since Australasia, aside from a song or two here and there. This is not one of those songs.

24. A Place to Bury Strangers - Straight

I always mean(t) to listen to this band more than I do/did, but I kinda always forget to. That's more a commentary on me than APTBS.

25. Girlfriends - Brobocop

Frantic, short-lived math-rock/emo band from the late aughts/early '10s. They were probably more suited for the early aughts, though. 

26. Carpenter Brut - Obituary

This act has some relationship to Perturbator, which is clear from their sound. (They were on one of Perturbator's albums). It's got a little more of an early-NIN vibe, though. It's dark and dancy and gothy and delicious.

27. Jordaan Mason & The Horse Museum - Racehorse: Get Married!

Is this a horse-themed Neutral Milk Hotel tribute band? Jordaan Mason looked at the Elephant Six Collective and thought, "Nah. Wrong animal. I got this."

28. Tides of Man - Desolate. Magnificent.

This is a post-rock song, but apparently this band was some sort of band that toured with the likes of Dance Gavin Dance before becoming a post-rock band. Huh. 

29. David Sylvian - Maria

This is goth-folk ambient. To hell with your descriptions of it, Allmusic.com. 

I feel like I gotta give this playlist a strong A. Multiple bands I love + multiple bands I will begin loving. Only two lowlights. Strong.

Johnny Five How I'm Rollin' with the Metal

Spotify Discover Weekly, pt 5!

1. If These Trees Could Talk - Breath of Life

A lot of post-rock happened that fell by the wayside. This was one of those bands.

2. Adult Mom - Survival

I just saw a write-up of this band somewhere - either they were playing in Atlanta/Athens soon or somethin'. I was only half-listening when this song came on, so I'mma have to go back and see if this isn't somethin' worth checkin' out. 

3. Battles - Yabba

It's worth noting that I got through all seven minutes of this song!

4. This Will Destroy You - New Topia

One of the post-rock bands that emphatically did not slip through the cracks, though they almost certainly spent a few years flying far too under the radar. A magnificent band.

5. Black Breath - Forest of the Damned 

From their acclaimed Sentenced to Life. Fast, heavy, gnarly as hell. A good reminder to listen to the new album that came out recently. And to listen to more Entombed.

6. St. Vincent - Prince Johnny

I'm torn on St. Vincent. I think should probably like her. I never feel compelled to listen to more St. Vincent, though. Like, I hear a St. Vincent song, and at no point does it strike me to either complain about or compel me to listen to an entire album. That's where we are.

7. Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment - Miracle

Somebody had me check this out earlier in the year. I didn't pay attention much while it was playing. Oh well!

8. Pianos Become the Teeth - Old Jaw

At Wrecking Ball back in August, we walked upstairs to get a beer and watch a few minutes of Pianos Become the Teeth. I really liked The Lack Long After, but I hadn't really kept up with them since that album. It's not that they changed their sound significantly, it's just that they faded back into more traditional emo than the heavier brand of screamo they were playing before. Listening to this track now, I can't wait to get really into this album. 

9. Cheatahs - Northern Exposure

The guitar work is really nice on this track. It has this fluid Dino Jr feel to it. I like this. The slightly distorted, whiny vocals over the wall of sound guitars and up-beat rhythm section. Cool song.

10. Part Time - I Want to Go

This is from 2013 apparently, but when it started, I was sure it was from the late 80s or early 90s. It's a lot like the Cure but if the Cure came after the Cure and purposely recorded their music in bedrooms with cheap equipment. 

11. Ben Frost & Daniel Bjarnason - Simulacra I

The title of this song is perfect, because this song is a representation of all of Mono's most subdued moments, especially from For My Parents. It gets a little synthier than Mono towards the end, but the whole feel is Mono. That's not a bad thing, either.

12. Amiina - Kolapot

This fits beautifully alongside later Sigur Ros. What's with Icelandic musicians and folksy, hauntingly ethereal soundscapes? This song also has a neoclassical feel with the specific instruments in use. Top notch stuff.

13. Gucci Mane, Sick Pen - Mama

BITCH I MIGHT BE

14. Alice in Chains - Whale & Wasp

Ah the interlude song from Jar of Flies. Welp, time to go back to never thinking about Alice in Chains!

15. Avey Tare - Laughing Hieroglyphic

Oh whoa! I hate this!

16. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Arabian Knights

Yes yes yes of course. This is a nice follow-up to whatever the hell that garbage was that came before it. From the classic album Juju

17. Hundred Waters - Murmurs

I just find this type of indie/pop music just totally boring and uninteresting. It has no connection to me whatsoever.

18. Hail Mary Mallon - 4AM

Had I found out Aes Rock was in a duo with Rob Sonic in 2011, I would've been somewhat stoked on that. I'm not as stoked in 2015. I will always love Aesop Rock, specifically Labor Days and the Daylight EP. I just know younger me would be way more stoked about discovering this than I am right now. It's not bad, though.

19. Tim McGraw - Grown Men Don't Cry

Um what. Can I file a formal complaint with Spotify about this?

20. Silver Mt. Zion - For Wanda

One of the most important post-rock albums of all time. I think Silver Mt. Zion should probably get more credit for being the moodiest and emotive of all the post-rock giants.

21. Crystal Castles - Deicide

I'd rather listen to a Deicide song called "Crystal Castles" than a Crystal Castles song called "Deicide"

22. Defeater - Warm Blood Rush

I liked this album when it came out, but I never spent a ton of energy on Defeater. It's weird, because it's a type of hardcore that I really like. Maybe because it felt like a lot of bands were doing exactly what Defeater was doing in the late aughts/early '10s. This song is great, though.

23. Richard Skelton - Noon Hill Wood

I've never heard this, and this is phenomenal. Neoclassical post-rock in the vein of Silver Mt. Zion and GY!BE but mostly strings. Damn. Damn.

24. Owls - Everyone is My Friend

Noodly emo! I can never say no to noodly emo.

25. Gorguts - Le Toit Du Monde

Killer track from long-time purveyors of death metal. Goooooooood stuff.

26. Ben Lukas Boysen - Only in the Dark

Minimalist soundscaping. Beautiful.

27. The Appleseed Cast - On Reflection

Classic song from a classic album. This band has never done anything bad and probably never will. Goosebumps every time I listen to this band.

28. Magrudergrind - Bridge Burner

Haven't listened to Magrudergrind in a while. DC powerviolence that does everything right. Rumour has it they might have a new album this year? Hope that's true.

29. Failure - Another-Space Song

I never got into Failure. The timing wasn't there. This album came out in 96, and while I was certainly listening to music just like it, they didn't have the exposure that a nine-year-old me would need to find this album. I get why people a few years older than me would be obsessed with this band, though. 

30. Julia Brown - Library

There's a classical composer named Julia Brown. There's also a singer-songwriter named Julia Brown. This is a Baltimore-based indie/emo band with that same name. This song has a delightful delicacy and intimacy. Love it.

No matter how much good stuff was on this playlist, I'm giving it an F for that Tim McGraw song.

Drifting Four Ever: Spotify Discover Weekly Playlist (pt 4)

Discover Weekly 4!

1. Knapsack - Shape of the Fear

Classic pop-punk/emo/indie from the 90s. Definitely a major influence on a lot of what's happening in the pop-punk/emo scene now.

2. Johan Johansson - A Memorial Garden on Enghavevej

Beautiful minimal-classical scoring. 

3. Megadrive - NARC

80s-sci-fi-influenced driving electro music. I'm not against it.

4. Lone - New Colour

Really unforgettable electro dance music.

5. Broken Social Scene - Capture the Flag

I never really got into this band, though the timing was right. This is the opener to their acclaimed Your Forgot it in People. Pretty legendary indie stuff, but I dunno. It never connected with me.

6. Prodigy - What U Rep

I bought one of Prodigy's solo albums in college. It was not very good. This is pretty on par with that album. Sometimes dynamic duos should stay dynamic duos.

7. Kate Bush - Pull Out the Pin

Louise: "I'm Leafy Greenbriar"

Regular-Sized Rudy: "And I'm Kate Bush!"

One of the greatest things about Bob's Burgers is the kids ability to make pop culture references in ways that really mimic how media-saturated kids would. Rudy's so sure of the brilliant reference without possibly possessing the ability to know exactly who Kate Bush is. This is great angry, weirdo stuff from Bush in the early 80s. Challenging and obscure with lots of raw emotion.

8. Texas is the Reason - Jack with One Eye

Growing up, Revelation Records meant Bold, Chain of Strength, Gorilla Biscuits, Judge, and Youth of Today. It also meant finding out about all these non-hardcore or quasi-hardcore bands that were on the same label. When you're young, you unintentionally pigeon-hole independent labels. Revelation, from the beginning to now, always refused such a myopic understanding of underground music. I remember thinking about Texas is the Reason, among others, "This band is on the same label as Warzone?" and then totally getting it. Revelation Records really was tapped into the polymorphous landscape of hardcore and punk and alt music in the 80s and 90s (and 00s). Texas is the Reason was such a great band - guitar-driven emo with off-center vocals and just the right amount of brooding and aggression. 

9. Desiderii Marginis - Procession

Dark, haunting ambient songs with dense texturing and layering. Gorgeously constructed soundscapes of black forests, empty cities. 

10. The Mountain Goats - Southwestern Territory

I wasn't into this band when they were big, and I'm not about to be into them now. I bet this album shows up on a lot of Top 10s this year. Not for me.

11. Sandwell District - Falling the Same Way

Minor-key synth riff looped incessantly over distressed sounds of echoes in empty rooms with a little electro-flair to build up feelings of anxiety and elation. Then it turns into this dark-alley dance track that sounds like the internal monologue of a rogue vigilante putting on his black leather jacket. It's too ethereal to really dance to, but it keeps you engaged in this bleakly upbeat way. 

12. Balam Acab - Welcome 

I am really, really into this. Apparently this dude came from the witch-house scene in the late 00s, but this song is creepy and disorienting until it erupts into this this orchestral light show that only adds to its haunting sound. I gotta listen to this album

13. Prince Rama - So Destroyed

This is totally fine psyched-out lo-fi indie stuff. I don't connect with it at all, but I get it. I bet it would be cool live. Or maybe I leave after a couple songs. I dunno. I'm maybe glad it's already over?

14. Beach House - One Thing

From their super-secret extra special new new album! The drifting, listless ennui of this song has to be the major appeal of Beach House, right? Like suburban kids feel bored, and this is what boredom sounds like. Instead of getting angry and finding punk rock, they just languished. I get wanting to drift, but not on this slow-motion ocean. 

15. Donovan Wolfington - Die Alone

Top Shelf's current poster band. I think they're playing with Free Throw when I'm going to be out of town. I bet seeing them live would've turned me onto them big time. Free Throw was so good at Wrecking Ball. Maybe I'll jam that new DW album now.

16. Biosphere - Uve-Ursi

Substrata is a classic ambient album. This is from the follow-up Substrata 2. It's chock full of ambient goodness for all your ambient needs.

17. Faith No More - Sol Invictus

No. No no no. Why are you foisting the new Faith No More album on me like this, Spotify? I don't want anything to do with it.

18. Tonstartssbandt - Black Country

This type of stuff just doesn't appeal to me. I don't know if its the vocals or what, or if it suffers from the same enervation of Beach House, but I find myself totally uninterested after ninety seconds.

19. The Soft Boys - I Wanna Destroy You

Really fun early British poppy post-punk. Snotty, punkish take on 60s rock

20. Actress - Rule

I remember finding Actress on Spotify last year and thinking, "Where's this been all my life!" and then promptly forgetting all about it. It's impossible to not nod your head to this beat.

21. Orcas, Michael Lerner - Infinite Stillness

I wanna like this. I do. But I can't. The vocals ruin it for me. I gotta figure out a way to describe these kind of vocals, because they drive me fuckin' insane. 

22. Biggie - Things Done Changed

One of my favourite Biggie songs ever. Either ya slingin' crack rock or ya got a wicked jump shot. Man. Hard as fuck.

23. Olan Mill - Cotton Access

I used to have this Olan Mill's album on my iPod queued up for reading days during my Master's program. Beautiful ambient sound textures. 

24. Marconi Union - A Temporary Life

At this point, it's beyond clear that listening to nothing but Harold Budd and Brian Eno in the office this week has influenced this playlist. Apparently they wrote a song called "Weightless" that some for-profit neuroscience lab claims legitimately reduced anxiety and heart-rate in listeners. They were named Inventors of the Year by Time in 2011. Gonna have to listen to that all week long.

25. Jon Hopkins - A Drifting Up

I bought this CD for a dollar at Schoolkids Records in Athens a bunch of years ago. I think I've probably moved on from this.

26. Mew - Fox Cub

And the Glass Handed Kites is so good that you sometimes have to wonder what we did to deserve Mew. Like, I don't deserve to listen to Mew, but here I am, listening to it. 

27. Cold Cave - Oceans with No End

Wes Eisold is my hero, and that's all I'm gonna say. Well, I'll say more, but later. Wes fucking Eisold. I feel bad for everyone who has never had Wes Eisold in their lives. How do you manage?

28. Rivka - Swim High

"We are a Pittsburgh based electronic group currently producing chill vibes and summertime highs," reads Rivka's bandcamp. That's a fair assessment, so let's leave it at that.

29. Snowing - I Think We're in Minsk

If there's one thing that I truly love and will never stop loving, it's twinkly, whiny emo with big sing-along choruses. It's all slightly off-key, and I love it. Ah god it's so good.

30. Pan-American - The Cloud Room

This is like the fourth group that has Loscil listed in its "Related Artists" category. Loscil also kept showing up while I was listening to different Harold Budd albums on Spotify. Guess I gotta listen to Loscil now. This song is really nice - soft drums holding together a falling bass line and spacey, shiny guitar and synth tones. I'm into it.

I gotta give this week's playlist an A, if not because I liked/loved most of the songs, but because it was clear Spotify was paying attention (i.e. had its algorithms running correctly). I love ambient music and emo music, and Spotify knows that. Good work, everyone! 

Keeper League: Finding the Year's Best Rookie

In dynasty and keeper leagues, especially in such leagues where players have cost/value to the owner of the fantasy team, how you handle locking up a rookie involves numerous variables - primarily foresight and luck. Rookies are risky in all sports, none more so than basketball, where rookies rarely impact the game positively throughout an entire season. When Kevin Durant won Rookie of the Year, an award he most certainly deserved, he posted a BPM (box-score plus/minus) of -1.4 and a WS/48 0.04. Not great! Kobe, the MVP of the League that Year (07-08), posted a BPM of 5.4 and a WS/48 of .208. (Kobe's rookie numbers look almost identical to Durant's while KD's stats from his MVP season blow Kobe's away.) Even the best, most transcendent players in the League will be bad their rookie years.

That's just kind of how basketball works. Of course, fantasy basketball leagues don't care about advanced metrics, but BPM, being box-score-based, does have some relationship to regular counting statistics (which fantasy basketball leagues do use). What's all of this mean? It means that I've clumsily drawn analogy between NBA rookie performance, the risk involved in retaining rookies in fantasy keeper and dynasty leagues, and how to evaluate a rookie band's impact. The analogy gets even clumsier when you realize that often a band's original material is both subjectively and objectively viewed as their best, putting them in an inverse relationship with NBA players. Boy, I've really made a mess of this. Let's see how much more nonsensical I can make this.

We also have to define more clearly what we consider a "rookie band." If we use the amateur/professional split of most professional sports, then I think it's fair to consider demos as time spent in the amateur leagues and a band's first proper release as their elevation to professional status. This gets muddled when you start parsing out self-released material and label-released material, but I think this construction has merit. You don't call a band's demo release their "debut album" (or maybe you do, but that's because you're a weirdo). Some bands don't release demos, but preps-to-pros is dead, so shut up.

Keeper's MMXIV has all of the trappings of a demo: it's called the year it was released, the CD/cassette copies are very cheap, and the band describes this recording as "2014 demos." It's also a (somewhat) different record, featuring shorter songs (they're still between eight and ten minutes long) and a sound that isn't as sprawling, though just as heavy. It is a ridiculously good demo, the kind of demo that gets you a top five pick in the draft for sure.

So, you're in a keeper league and looking for that rookie to lock up for the future. You think maybe you should snag Crimewave, but you're worried that they're not gonna release anything else after this year. You look at Viet Cong, but the name-change debacle has you a little worried in their future consistency. Lockin Out's roster is full of rookies with big numbers, but they, too, have had trouble producing beyond their first years. The safest pick, the pick you were going to make all along but just needed a little support for your gut, was Keeper.

Look at what Keeper has produced in 2015: debut LP The Space Between Teeth on Crown & Thrones LTD, a cassette split with Old Witch for GrimCVLT, and a split 12" with Sea Bastard that got released by like six different labels.

Total songs? 5
Total time of songs? 72 goddamn minutes, an average of 14.4 minutes per song
The aesthetics? The Space Between Teeth on clear gold vinyl limited to 150, the split with Old Witch as a Grimoire/CVLT Nations collab with a gold-embossed box for the cassette (featuring misprint of "Keeper" on both sides of the tape!), and the Sea Bastard split on a limited run of black vinyl (sold out in the US and UK, only 30 remaining from Canada).

So on paper (or wax or plastic), Keeper looks good. But do they pass the ear test?

As I said before, Keeper's MMXIV featured shorter (but still lengthy) songs that were all doom punishment. It's clear the band is establishing themselves as as purveyors of the almighty riff. Some people might even prefer the songs on the demo!

For their rookie season, though, Keeper dives into the abyss and really stretches out, taking up as much negative space as possible. This is the apocalypse in slow-motion, a millisecond by millisecond breakdown of the end-times, thoroughly detailed and agonizingly embraced. Keeper write music that wants to inhabit every atomic nano-inch of space of life's sorrowful and painful moments. They fill up little sliver of space - the space between your teeth - with worlds of aural devastation and monolithic doom.

There's also a profound beauty to Keeper's music, an affirmation of life's pleasurableness and immensity in the confirmation of its bleakest realities. There's a poetic delight in the hopeless abandonment of "The King" and "Four Walls; A Home," not necessarily a cynical embrace of sadness, but rather an honest enjoyment of self-actualizing tragedy. The only thing sadistic is the volume. It's misanthropy with heart.

Jacob Lee's vocals remind of Burning Witch and Thou, scathing and eviscerating and expressive. Their rawness imbues the pummeling, unforgiving, and relentless riffage with personality. It all lends itself to the image of crawling on all fours, puking up damnation, while feeling the earth under palm and knee, sometimes plush and sometimes shards.

It's opioid euphoria tied inextricably to the visceral come down. It's bright and bleak and gold and black and clouds and razorwire and breathing and suffocating and sprawling and fetal and crawling and falling.

Keeper, the sonic representation of the cataclysmic drought in their home state of California, are worth the investment - both temporally and monetarily. This might've been a season for the ages. Everything else that comes next is icing. You hope, of course, that such prolific output this early in a band's career doesn't foreclose their bright future. You hope, instead, that Lee and Keats are the next coming of Thou, able to churn out brilliant music at an alarming rate. In that case, Keeper might become a dynasty.

Ghost in the Shell of Your Former Self

Just a few weeks ago, the band name "Sweet Cobra" popped into my head, and I immediately went to Spotify to jam a few choice cuts Mercy and Forever, two albums I hadn't listened to since about 2013. Big, burly vocals, huge riffs, and a mammoth drum section. The only thing surprising about Sweet Cobra's admittedly formulaic music was how fucking bad ass their riffs were. Sweet Cobra were great at sounding like other bands while still being unmistakably themselves. It's an I-can-do-what-you-can-do-but-better mentality that absolutely worked on those albums. I wish I was listening to Mercy while writing this.

Instead, I'm listening to Earth, Sweet Cobra's first album in five years. I listened to it for the first time last night walking to and from the bar. The cold beer didn't help. 

It makes sense that a band that definitely changed between their first albums would change again after a five-year hiatus. It would be ridiculous to expect Mercy 2.0. What you might expect, though, is a consistency in quality. Forever and Mercy don't have the same sound (I know I'm ignoring Praise, but I don't really remember what that album sounds like at the moment), but they were certainly of a similar quality. Earth, on the other hand, is sadly a step down for Sweet Cobra.

Sweet Cobra's goal on Earth is pretty clear: let's be a more dynamic band by expanding the sound by incorporating more melody, add some poppy, bouncy riffs, and eschew the old vocals for something more accessible. You know, like Torche and Kylesa and Baroness and Helms Alee. (Mastodon belongs, too, especially since they're Baroness' apparent influences for every decision good or bad they've ever made, but Remission came out so long ago, that it's not even worth talking about it like it's from the same band. I like Mastodon's newer stuff, though.)

The issue, though, is that Baroness is fuckin' terrible now, Kylesa's Ultraviolet was so bad that I doubt I'll listen to the new one, and Helms Alee's Sleepwalking Sailors isn't nearly as good as most people think. Baroness replaced intricate heaviness with up-its-own-ass prog navel-gazing, Kylesa acid tripped their way into the most boring psychedelic rock I've ever heard, and Helms Alee's latest offering was a relatively forgettable blur of good job good effort. (Torche, and specifically Steve Brooks, doesn't know how to release a bad record, so they're the exception here.) 

Sweet Cobra must've paid attention while they were away, because that's pretty much the blueprint for Earth. Heavy bands writing less heavy music isn't inherently fascinating. I know that's not groundbreaking, but it feels like any time a heavy band lightens up they think they're breaking new ground and not treading dirty dishwater. All of those bands sacrificed urgency and aggression, and it's maybe Sweet Cobra's greatest sin on Earth. It doesn't have any drive, and it's driving me away from it.

It's not that Earth is even necessarily a bad album, though it has really bad songs on it (lookin' at you, "Repo" and "Stiff Fits" and other faceless songs from the middle of the album), it's the ways in which it isn't a great or even good album. It'd be one thing if Sweet Cobra's sonic experimentation was unique, but it's just a reproduction of the ways Torche and Baroness and Kylesa tried to reinvent themselves. It all seems stale. Is it really experimenting if you're just following directions? Well, yes, obviously, says every scientist ever in unison, but it's certainly not the risk it once was. Hell, it might've been riskier to stay heavy.

Fortunately, there's still some old Sweet Cobra on Earth, not-so-coincidentally on songs titled "Future Ghosts" and "Old Haunts." The spectrality of the song titles mimics the brief glimpses into the dead and gone Sweet Cobra of old. That band's still creepin' around, willing to rear its ghastly head under cloak of darkness, but we know it's time to say Rest In Pieces to the band that wrote "Brux" and "Mercy" and "Crusader" and "Fucking Fertilizer" and "Chopping Block." We have to give up that ghost. Maybe if we do, we'll be able to come back to Earth and really appreciate it. 

I mean, I already like it more this second time than I did the first time. Maybe I'll look back on this post in a couple weeks and laugh at myself for being so myopic. I mind being wrong about a lot of stuff, but I'd rather initially find a good album to be bad than the reverse, which I'm guilty of way more often than I'd care to admit. Fingers crossed I'm wrong here.

The New Discovery Network

Spotify Discover Weekly Part Three let's go!

1. Frank Zappa - Inca Roads

Imagine how many drugs you'd have to do to write this song, and then imagine how many drugs you'd have to do to listen to the entire thing without getting super bored.

2. Kelela - Guns & Synths

This track was produced by Bok Bok! I don't know what that means, but it's true.

3. µ-Ziq - XT

Hell yeah look at that name got a µ instead of "mu" and "ziq" instead of "sic" you know it's lit. It's not, though. It's festy chill vibes that I'm gonna pass on.

4. David Bowie - Subterraneans 

This album is great. This song is really great. Spacey ambient weirdness

5. Doss - Softpretty

This song would've/could've been a staple at Highwire around late 2010.

6. Low - Sea

From Bowie's Low to seminal sad guys Low! I'm not sure I've ever listened to this Low album before, or maybe any Low album that wasn't Things We Lost in the Fire. Do I have to have, like, a Low discography day soon?

7. Power Trip - Hammer of Doubt

The pride of Texas. Just saw they're about to start working on their second full-length. Riffs riffs riffs riffs riffs fuckin' riiiiiiiffffffffffffs.

8. Dr. Octagon - 3000

So the last time I remember listening to Doc Oc was, like, 2011, and we were at this chick's lakehouse for a weekend, and Kanye West's MBDTF had just come out. It was late, and a few of us were hanging out on the porch drinkin' and whatever, and we started talking about that album, and I said something about how much I liked "Monster," and this scrawny munchkin made fun of me for still liking that song since it had (apaprently) been a radio single for a while. I should've slumped him for that. Later, we listened to Dr. Octagon. Great album.

9. Jeff Buckley - Vancouver

Legit question: do people care about Jeff Buckley's music that isn't "Hallelujah"? I mean, I get why they would, but do they? I bet not really. (I don't.)

10. Deniro Farrar ft. Denzel Curry - Bow Down

Hell yeah weekend playlist jammer for sure. 

11. Animal Collective - Who Could Win a Rabbit

I don't want to listen to anymore Animal Collective, Spotify. Please stop. Thank you.

12. John Tejada - Breacht

Maybe the worst song of the three playlists I've listened to thus far. Unimaginative Euro dance music that no one could possibly give a shit about.

13. Dino Jr. - SludgeFeast

J Mascis is exactly who Neil Young woul'dve been had he been born 20 years later. That's the highest compliment I could pay anybody. Wonderful song/album/band.

14. Modest Mouse - Truckers Atlas

Before they forever ruined the landscape of music by making indie music household pop music, Modest Mouse released a bunch of albums I loved. Lonesome Crowded West was definitely one fo them. It's their fault vinyl is so expensive these days, though, so fuck 'em.

15. Tycho - From Home
YouTube and Pandora tried for years to get me to listen to Tycho's Drive. I just stubbornly refused. This song is from their debut album Past is Prologue. It's airy downtempo dopeness. Next time it's sunny in Atlanta, I'mma listen to this while I walk around.

16. Beach Slang - Dirty Cigarettes
I haven't listened to the full length yet; I need to go buy it this week. I loved few things in 2014 more than two Beach Slang 7"s. They were so great at Wrecking Ball, too. Also, the singer is like in his 40s? I love everything about this band.

17. Chris Cohen - Don't Look Today
More Deerhoof side projects. I have a really hard time imagining that album ever actually resonated with people. Like, I'm sure in 2012 people liked it, but they've 100% forgotten about it by now, and with good reason.

18. RATKING - So It Goes
One of the main dudes of RATKING is named Patrick Morales. If Patrick has been living a double life as a dope NYC MC all these years, I am going to be so fucking mad at him. This shit is dope. I wish someone would've recommended this to me when it came out last year.

19. Key - Give 'Em Hell
"I luh Jesus Christ but I'm bout da give 'em Hell." That shit is flames. Gonna bounce to this banger a lot in the coming weeks.

20. Björk - Stonemilker
I had no thought about listening to Björk's new album. I am now very much thinking about listening to Björk's new album. Really splendid. The way she sings the word "juxtaposition" just made me combust.

21. Metz - Acetate
Metz and Drug Church should tour together. It legit surprises me that Metz is as popular as they are. I don't understand popular taste. This should be way off people's radar. Instead, somehow, a grungy noise rock band is popular. Whatever, you bunch of inconsistent dummies!

22. Inter Arma - The Survival Fires
Something kept me from being into Sky Burial when it came out in 2013. I have no idea what it was. I even feel like I saw them live? I dunno. This song is a cool mix of black metal and doom. Might have to revisit this album to solve this mystery. Maybe it's because this song is 25% too long.

23. Elliott Smith - Speed Trials
God, when Summer and Morty force Tiny Rick to listen to Elliott Smith to confront his feelings? What a show.

24. R.E.M. - Laughing
One time I saw R.E.M. at a hippie fest while I was on ecstasy. It was still unenjoyable. Stipe's voice is way more bearable on this early song, though.

25. Gayngs - The Last Prom on Earth
Wooooooooo this shit is sexy. But it's also kinda corny. But sometimes sexy music is corny. Sometimes ya just gotta sex that shit up sexy and deal with the consequences.

26. Ilovemakonnen and like 5 other people - Vodka on the Weekend
Definitely. Definitely.

27. Sonic Youth - Shadow of a Doubt
This shit is sooooooooooo good. Kim Gordon was on one for this track. Prolly gotta go back and listen to Evol for the first time in forever now.

28. UGK - It's Supposed to Bubble
People who don't like UGK are snakes and not to be trusted. If you ever hear a disparaging word about Pimp C and Bun B, that person is almost certainly a sociopath. Screwston, Texas all damn day.

29. Group Home - Supa Star
Super slick mid-90s hip hop. Can't believe I've never heard this before. The one dude's lisp is legendary.

30. Ghostface Killah - Wildflower
If you're the Cappadonna of your friend group, that sucks a lot. Is it crazy that Ghostface's Fishscale is the third best solo Wu album? This shit, his debut Ironman, is really great, too. Tony Starks to wrap things up.


After last week's garbage playlist, Spotify brings the heat for a solid B+. Ugly start that turned into something very consistent.