Playlist for July 2012

These are all the albums, EPs, demos, etc that I listened to in their entirety during the month of July 2012. Everything I listened to this month was released within the last 7 months, all 2012 releases.
At the end are my notes and a list of musical performances I saw this month.

7/2/12

Periphery – “II: This Time It’s Personal”
The Allah-Lah’s – “Tell Me (What’s On Your Mind)” 7” single
Lucero – “Women and Work”

Twin Shadow – “Confess”

7/3/12

The Bouncing Souls – “Comet”

The Men – “Open Your Heart”

Chris Shiflett & The Dead Peasants – S/T

7/4/12

Nick Waterhouse – “Time’s All Gone”

The Gravitys – “Bring You Down” live abum

3 Inches Of Blood – “Long Live Heavy Metal”

7/6/12

Cursive – “I Am Gemini”

Teenage Sweater – “Coconut Water” single
Father John Misty – “Fear Fun”

7/14/12

Terra Firma – “TF” live EP
Shady Characters – “Sunny Days” EP
Liars – “WIXIW”

Daylight – “The Difference In Good And Bad Dreams”
Moonface – “With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery”

Sociopathetic – “Self Titled EP Of Death” EP

7/15/12

Tanlines – “Mixed Emotions”
Linkletter – “The Dave Sessions” live album
Ceremony –“Zoo”

Apathy – “Desolate Terra” EP

HEALTH – “Max Payne 3” OST

Dreaming Dead – “Midnightmares” EP
Hollow – “MMXII” demo

Cloud Nothings – “Attack on Memory”

Dead End Alaska/Dead End Sons – “Family & Friends” split EP
Chromatics – “Kill For Love”
KIDS – “Cloud Island” EP

Kone – “Legend Days” EP

Black Dice – “Mr. Impossible”

Treacherouskin – “Altar of the Beast”

Fucked Up – “Year of the Tiger”

Reproacher – tape MMXII
Chairlift – “Something”

Light Years – “Just Between Us” EP
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – “Acid Reflex” remix album

7/16/12

Citizen/Turnover – split 7”
Aesop Rock – “Skelethon”

Moon Shrines – “3 songs” demo

7/22/12

Purity Ring – “Shrines”

Apathean – “Aggregation” EP
Gold Panda – “Mountain”/”Financial District” 7”

Dead Weight – “Backstabber” demo

Baroness – “Yellow & Green” 2CD

7/27/12

From Hell – S/T EP

Bloom – “VI. V. II.” Tape

7/30/12

Wildlife – “Sleeping” EP
Helsott – “Folkvangr” EP

Alex Metric – “Ammunition” EP
Kill Devil Hill – S/T

Erol Alkan & Boys Noize – “Roland Rat”/”Brain Storm” single

Plagues/The Cold Front – split EP

Love American – “Disquiet”

Gesaffelstein – “Rise of Depravity” EP
Colombian Necktie/Seizures – split EP

7/31/12

John Talabot – “FACT mix 315”
Pollution People –“Future Trash” EP
Divider/Colony – split EP
Breakbot – “One Out Of Two (ft. Irfane)” single

Burn Your Life Down – “Don’t Try” EP
Jim-E Stack – “Come Between” EP
Aukerman – “It’s No Time Ta Talk About Girls” demo
A-Trak – “Ray Ban Vision (ft. CyHI da Prince)” single
Hostage Calm – S/T
Fang Island – “Major”
Squarepusher – “Ufabulum”
Midnight Parade – “Living Room” demo
French Exit/Signals Midwest – split EP
Skrillex & Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley – “Make It Bun Dem” single
The Murderburgers – “How To Ruin Your Life”

NOTES:

-          This was the first month of 2012 where I didn’t listen to even ONE Cannibal Corpse album…for shame

-          This new Lucero album is my favorite one of theirs that I’ve heard

-          Twin Shadow is cool but he’s a bit overrated; sometimes his melodies sound like direct rip-offs from well-known 80s hits, it’s just a bit much

-          The new Bouncing Souls album is much better than the last 2 were.

-          The Men “Open Your Heart” very well be my favorite album of the year. Those guys are just on POINT.

-          Nick Waterhouse sounds like he is FROM the 50s, not imitating the 50s, FROM the 50s

-          “Long Live Heavy Metal”…really? That’s way too cheesy, even for 3 Inches Of Blood

-          “I Am Gemini” is up there in terms of best albums of the year as well, and really maybe even my favorite Cursive album…the theme really works throughout the album I didn’t think they’d be able to pull off a concept album of this sort but they did

-          That Sociopathetic EP was one of the worst things I’ve listened to all year. Just terrible.

-          What’s up with Ceremony? They suck now!

-          No, the Apathy on this list is not the well-known underground rapper. It’s some hardcore band that just doesn’t give a fuck.

-          HEALTH did the music for the video game “Max Payne 3” and that’s ostensibly their new album…weird

-          New Cloud Nothings album, also very good. In the top 20 of the year so far I’d say

-          Kone is a badass DJ who came down to Temecula and played some crazy electronic instrument I’d never seen, and then when I went to try to trade one of my tapes for one of his releases, somehow he already had my tape…BUT he still gave me his stuff! And its dooope!

-          Treacherouskin is heavy as FUCK

-          Fucked Up can call “Year Of The Tiger” a single all they want, at 36 goddamn minutes I’m gonna go ahead and call it an album

-          Dead Weight’s demo is one of those noisy powerviolence/core releases that you cannot tell what song is what and then its over in less than 10 minutes… all of Side B was blank. Make your own judgements.

-          It sounds like Baroness really wanted to one-up Mastodon’s “Crack The Skye” but it’s not nearly as memorable and some of the songs legitimately sound like they could be Nickelback songs...That’s not to say this isn’t a cool album, this is still Baroness after all, but don’t come into it expecting the same heaviness whatsoever…Disc 2 is better than Disc 1.

-          For being a “supergroup” of aging second-tier hard-rockers far past their glory days, Kill Devil Hill’s album is actually pretty good for what they’re doing. I’ve heard a lot worse Alice In Chains/Soundgarden throwbacks in recent years. This is an alright listen.

-          I listened to a lot of splits this month

-          John Talabot’s mix for this month’s FACT magazine is an hourlong-plus track of dance mixes…and its good.

-          The spoken words on the Burn Your Life Down EP make it so much more menacing

-          The new Fang Island album, also on the best-of list for the year. So catchy

I also saw Midnight Parade, Honest Abe, A Search For Clarity (twice), Depakote, Jose Alegria, Co.Fee, Falcons, Kone, 1984, Nick Wuebben (twice), Crisis Arm (once acoustic and twice regular), Hello Penelope (twice), Game. Blouses, Beanvian Stalks Guava, Linkletter, KIDS, Mouthful Of Snow, Apathean, Reproacher, Bloom, Moon Shrines, Sailors Of Neptune, Glocca Morra, Vice, Ages, Dead Weight, The Coltranes, From Hell, Wildlife, Dead Words, Charlie, Pollution People, What Hands Are For, and North Americans perform live this month. 

The Gravitys also played 3 times and I played as end of the summer for the first time in awhile.