Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Three Wishes

   I was at a warehouse show with some friends, and after the second band finished their set we were all milling around the parking lot. Ryan grabbed me to go smoke a bowl with him and his friend who had a backwards hat on. The car was in the lot behind the venue, next to an emaciated tree being held up by posts in an industrial island. I got into the back passenger side seat.
   As we passed the pipe around, Ryan posited a fairly straightforward question, as far as stoned inquiries go anyway: If some kind of Aladdin scenario were to ever befall us, were a genie to grant us three wishes, what would those wishes be? What do we really want?

   His friend answered pretty quickly, "unlimited weed." We all agreed that that was a strong answer but Ryan pointed out that such a concept should be expanded to general multiplicity, so that one could not only have unlimited weed but also unlimited food & drink, whatever. Point well made.
   Traditional superhero-type 'powers' like flying, invisibility, transportation, etc. were being bounced around the car, and believe me I would have no qualms with any of those things being bestowed upon me, but somehow none of those things felt like the right answer to me. Those are physical attributes, mere characteristics; what is a 'power' beyond a means to an end?
 
   What value does ability have without purpose?

   It's not something I've never pondered before. Surely, that laughter in the university hallway held some weight, right? Reading of the universe, beholding the absurdity,
   Feeling the unimportance...
   Surely.

   As the chatter continued in the front seat I stared out the window towards the tree, withering in a concrete holster and being force-fed nutrients so it will stay alive. Why should it stay alive? As a reminder? A condolence to those paved? Do those futile leaves desire their existence?
 
   Forever in the stone.

   "So what do you say, Ian?"
   I had no answer.
   "What's your wish?"

   I had no answer so I changed the subject so I wouldn't have to think about it but I couldn't stop thinking about it because when a knife cuts into your heart it's best to just leave it in there; if you take it out everything is gonna spill and you're gonna have to clean it up. Just turn the knife until it fits.

   The smoke was gone and we got out of the car, and I never had to answer their question.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Playlist for June 2014

This is a list of all the albums, EPs, demos, singles, etc. that I listened to in their entirety during the month of June 2014. Afterwards is a list of the live performances I saw in that time period, as well as my notes regarding both.

MUSIC
6/1/14
Ghost Noise - "This Is The Next Part of Your Dream"
end of the summer - "Second" EP
end of the summer - "Three" EP
Remembering Never - "She Looks So Good In Red"

6/2/14
Chasms - "Riser" EP

6/3/14
The B-52s - "Cosmic Thing"
KMFDM - "WWIII"

6/4/14
Pedestrian - "Everyone I Know Who Skis Is Dead"
Suicide Silence - S/T EP
The B-52s - "Cosmic Thing"
The Gravitys - "Nutrition"

6/5/14
The Gravitys - "Nutrition"

6/6/14
Madonna - "Ray Of Light"
51D - S/T EP
Midlife Crisis Winery - Demo

6/7/14
Jimi Hendrix - "People, Hell, and Angels"
The Mamas & The Papas - "16 Greatest Hits"

6/8/14
Violent Femmes - S/T
Violent Femmes - "Crazy" digital single
Hail, Adventurer! - S/T
Coalspur - "Others"
Black Flag - "Six Pack" 7"
Sparks - "Hello Young Lovers"
Francie Moon - "Free to a Good Home"
Minuet - S/T
The Pretenders - "The Singles"
Parallax Scroll - "Floaters"
Banshee - "Raoul" digital single

6/9/14
John George Campbell - "The Family Album"
Open Mike Eagle - "Sir Rockabye" EP
Leonard Lawrence - July 2013 Demos

6/10/14
Calexico - "The Black Light"
Code 13 - "Discography 1994-2000"

6/11/14
The Gravitys - June 2011 Demo
The 144 - "Goodbye Cool World"/"Rock and Roll" digital single
Paleface - "One Big Party"
Duffy & The Beer Slayers - S/T

6/12/14
Damages - "Unlucky Love in Lonesome Twenty-Something Hell" EP
Riboflavin - "Trapped in the Toy Aisle"
Secret Machines - S/T

6/13/14
Jack's Smirking Revenge - "A Monumental Shame"
Mouse Ear - S/T 7"
Cool Drinks - S/T demo
Crisis Arm - "Fetch" EP

6/14/14
Ocean Hands - "Singles" CD-R
Pinegrove - "Mixtape Two"
Graf Orlock - "Destination Time: Today"
Wolf Parade - "Four-Song" EP

6/15/14
Tiger Army - "Music From Regions Beyond"

6/16/14
Chic - "C'est Chic"
Kaioken - Demo
Flaccid - Demo
Langdon Alger - "Following the Lizard King"

6/17/14
Khanate - "Clean Hands Go Foul"

6/19/14
School Of Seven Bells - "Disconnect From Desire"

6/20/14
The Gravitys - "Nutrition"
Plague - "Unholy Offerings" EP
Diamond Rugs - S/T
Leer - "SPRINGBREAKNOPARENTS"
Transcendence - "Morbid Reality" EP
Battles - "Mirrored"
Sum 41 - "All Killer, No Filler"
Madrost - "Maleficent"

6/20/14
P$O - 7-song demo CD
Refused - "This Just Might Be...The Truth"
Television - "Marquee Moon"
Devastation (DVT) - "Rebel Streets"

6/21/14
Faith No More - "Who Cares A Lot? The Greatest Hits" Disc 1
Tiny Hawks - "People Without End"
Susy's Owner/Contron - Split
D.A.V.E. The Drummer - April Mix Pt. 1
Bucket Full Of Teeth - "IV" EP
Whitman - "Sinking" EP
The F.U.s - "FU82" EP
You, Me, and Us - "Stay Inside" EP
Fatty Cakes - "1998 Lisa Frank Diary" EP
Steve Miller Band - "Greatest Hits 1974-78"
drowning with our anchors - "You Can Never Go Home Again"
John Thill - "Broken Freeways"
Necrophagist - "Onset  of Putrefaction"

6/22/14
Born Against - "Battle Hymns of the Race War" 10"
D.K. Slider - "The Greatest" digital single
Tawny Peaks - "In Silver River"
Wisp - "The Shimmering Hour"
Demimonde - "Gentrify This!" EP
Whore Paint - "Swallow My Bones"
Ground Up - 2008 4-song demo (mastered version with bass)

6/23/14
Svvipht Noir - "Farce Alarm" digital single
Regents - S/T EP
V/A - "Cali Co-Op Vol.1" mixtape
Leftmore - "Smile, It's Not That Bad"
The Nerves - S/T EP

6/25/14
Mother Room - "Scorched"
Operation Ivy - "Energy"

6/26/14
Necrophagist - "Epitaph"

6/27/14
Solids - "Blame Confusion"
We Were Skeletons/MNWA - split EP
Dangers - "Five O'Clock Shadow on the Edge of the Western World"

6/28/14
Sunn O))) & Ulver - "Terrestrials"
Out Of Focus - S/T EP
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "What Hits!?"
His Hero Is Gone - "Monuments To Thieves"

6/29/14
Blonde Redhead - "Misery is a Butterfly"
Eastern Bakery - S/T EP
Kidcrash - "Naps" EP
The Wrath - 5-song demo CD
Just Friends - Demo 2013
Dysplasia/Detroit - "Repulsed" split LP
Korn - "Issues"
Karoshi Boy - "Nothing Is" EP
Rude Geeks - "Naughty Language/Strains of Bullshit" digital single
Opeth - "Ghost Reveries"

6/30/14
Hell/Mizmor - split 12"
Detroit - "Vs. North America" tour tape
Nodes Of Ranvier - S/T
Ash Borer - "Bloodlands"
None Of The Living Remain - "Grim to the Brim"
Between The Buried And Me - "Alaska"
Dangerously Sleazy - "Bad Things Just Happen" EP
Brain Eater/thediscordofaforgottensketch - split EP
No Truce/Crucified - split EP
Witch Prayer - "The High Priestess Reigns Again" EP
Santana - "Abraxas"

MUSIC NOTES
- I had "Amethyst" by Ghost Noise stuck in my head for like a week straight
- I might do a needlessly in-depth review of "Cosmic Thing" one of these days
- KMFDM is a drug against war
- How in the blazes does Jimi Hendrix have a new album out???
- Jackson Doty aka Hail, Adventurer! is probably my favorite local guitarist besides of course myself
- This was a pretty good month for 'new finds', some of the bands I 'discovered' this month really hit me hard. Favorite new finds for June: Coalspur, Minuet, Diamond Rugs, Leer, Tiny Hawks, Contron, Bucket Full Of Teeth, Tawny Peaks, Wisp, Svvipht Noir, Solids, Dangers, Kidcrash, Just Friends, Dysplasia, Ash Borer
- I listened to that Coalspur album twice in a row. I never do that. Check them out they're excellent.
- That single Pretenders listing is a poor indication of how often I was listening to "Talk of the Town" on repeat this month..."Maybe tomorrow; Maybe someday, When you've changed your place in this world..."
- The one or two solid songs on my dad's CD are drastically overpowered by the many, many godawful ones
- Worst of the month: Leonard Lawrence (boring/overdone/predictable); Riboflavin (so over the top cutesy that they have a song about goddamn Disneyland); Ocean Hands (trying to be Neon Trees I think); Fatty Cakes (mind-blowingly annoying); Dangerously Sleazy (sloppy and lame)
- "This is hardcore for the kids, not for the fucking system. If we're not doing it for ourselves, you see, it makes no difference."
- I thought Paleface was gonna be like post-HC or something, not the quasi-folk stuff it really is...Disappointment
- I can't believe I forgot about how much I loved that Secret Machines CD..."Last Believer Drop Dead" and "I Never Thought To Ask" are both like modern classics in my mind, especially the latter...Fucking beautiful
- Graf Orlock never gets old
- "Music From Regions Beyond" is far and away Tiger Army's worst release, which is a shame because it's also their most successful, so a lot of people probably got a poor idea of them from that - especially with that terrible 80s-inspired song, sheesh
- "Freak Out! Le Freak, C'est Chic!"
- Man, Khanate is dark but just way too droney for my tastes...let's not even get started on Hell.
- SVIIB will always hold a special place in my heart...ILU
- Diamond Rugs is a side project from the Deer Tick guy and it sounds so much like Deer Tick its stupid...but I like Deer Tick so its also okay by me
- That was the first time I listened to more than Sum 41's radio hits and I feel completely justified in talking all that shit for the last decade
- There is a lot of shitty throwback/skate thrash coming out of this area again and it makes me look at former me like the dumbass I really was
- Every song on that Refused album has like the exact same guitar stuff going on but my god is it badass
- I never realized how fucking stupid most of Steve Miller's lyrics are...just turrible
- I can't put my finger on who the dude from Born Against reminds me of the most...there are elements of Guy Piccioto or maybe even D Boon but like, more core
- I can't believe I scoobied around and waited until AFTER Tawny Peaks played at The Dial to listen to their stellar album and learn that date was part of their FINAL TOUR.....I'm such a dumbass
- I didn't like Jason's singing on "Eve" (as duly noted in my review on this blog) but his solo acoustic project Svvipht Noir is very very good
- How did I sleep on Dangers for so long?
- RHCP is so annoying most of the time but goddammit if "Behind The Sun" isn't a burner for the ages
- "Issues" isn't nearly as terrible as I imagined it was gonna be; that said, its still really not my shit. Johnathan Davis is just the worst.
- I know I've listened to that Karoshi Boy EP at some point earlier but this time around I liked it a lot more
- "You're gonna have to die young."
- I was hoping that Detroit would be so much doper than they are...That's an cool name
- Ash Borer is some heavy, evil shit
- It's weird how the first time I ever listened to "Alaska" I wasn't really into metal at all yet and it was like the most technical thing I'd ever heard...Nowadays it's like second nature to hear songs put together the way they do but goddamn if this wasn't part of the blueprint for whats normal in metal today
- thediscordofaforgottensketch almost got put on my "Worst Of" list because I didn't like a single one of their songs, but I can see how they could be good and maybe I just heard them at a weird time...Its just too off for me but maybe it comes together on their album or something
- That No Truce/Crucified split really makes me miss my earliest days getting into hardcore, even though these bands came after that period, it just seems like modern hardcore isn't the same...
- Some of my friends are tripping on Witch Prayer right now, and I like them okay, but I don't get being like really stoked on them yet...Then again they're still very new

LIVE PERFORMANCES
6/1/14 - In Tetra Heights @ The Dial
6/2/14 - Crisis Arm/All Your Sisters/Pale/Chasms/60 Cycle Hum @ The Dial
6/6/14 - Cash'd Out @ Uptown Tavern
6/19/14 - Kaioken/Eros/(The Gravitys)/The Swift Beats/60 Cycle Hum @ The Dial
6/25/14 - Crisis Arm/King Woman/Mother Room/Foie Gras @ The Dial
6/28/14 - Ill Com/Happy In Hemet/Interracial Bookclub/(The Gravitys)/The Violent Mindfield @ Morgan's Tavern

LIVE NOTES
- All Your Sisters is goddamn heavy
- I usually don't like cover bands but a bunch of older couples started old-school couples dancing for some of Cash'd Out's set and it was really dope
- That Gravitys set was the first time Jason had played live with us since 2011. Eros covered "Weird Fishes" really well, and then I hurt my back headbanging to Kaioken. It is an injury that still persists.
- That second time seeing Crisis Arm last month was one of the best times I think I've ever seen them play. Which is saying a lot since I've seen them about 20 times
- One of my coworkers came to our show at Morgan's Tavern in Riverside, making it the first time someone from my office has come to see me play in the 2 years I've been here...and it wasn't even a local show. Odd.

TIME NOTES
- I can't believe this year is already halfway over. It really did fly by.
- Congratulations to the Class of 2014