Saturday, January 30, 2010

Education

Look guys....

The word is RIFF.

Rock bands play them. There is no 'T' at the end. A rift is something you can learn about another time. If you are ever going to talk, write or think about music, remember this.

Riffs. They have their own word.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Flower Travellin' Band - Anywhere



Band: Flower Travellin' Band
Album: Anywhere
Label: Phillips
Year: 1970
Rating: 76%

Tracklist:

Side 1
1. Anywhere (Intro)
2. Louisiana Blues
3. Black Sabbath

Side 2
4. House Of The Rising Sun
5. 21st Century Schizoid Man
6. Anywhere (Reprise)

I've been thinking lately about how many lost classics there must be out there in the wider world. I would wager that at least 99% of the music we listen to was produced by English-speaking bands or artists in English-speaking countries. But what happens when we expand the parameters of our musical musings to include the whole human race? It seems to me that if only about 10% of the world's population lives in North America and the United Kingdom (that's a rough estimate), then only 10% of the world's musical geniuses would be there as well. Well, maybe the percentage is a little higher, considering that a larger percentage of the populations of the world's most affluent nations, namely Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and most of Western Europe have time to spend on expressing themselves creatively, rather than having to devote themselves to more immediate concerns such as the pursuit of food and shelter or engaged in labour for the purpose of obtaining said necessities. Is it really so far-fetched to believe that there is a whole lot of people out there capable of producing music on par with anything that has happened within the ethnocentric confines of western music in the last half century? Rock n' Roll is universal, my babies, so remember that. Listen with an open mind and one day it'll break down the petty borders that divide us.

Sometimes all you need is a gateway drug. I first became aware of Japan's legendary Flower Travellin' Band via their cover of the 'Sabs quintessentially evil namesake track. The thing was recorded in 1970, which means you KNOW they were down from the start. Seems they did a lot of covers too, so here's one you might recognize. Although it is the band’s second album, 1971’s all-time epic Satori which deservedly gets the attention of most learned heads and has secured a place for these guys in the pantheon of rock n’ roll masters, I would recommend their first album as the Flower Travellin’ Band, Anywhere, as the best place for the novice to start, because it highlights their roots as hard psych travelers while pointing the way towards their future greatness as cosmic protometal shamen, not to mention the fact that it boasts probably my favourite record cover of all time. Look at that thing! It's fucking brilliant.

The Flower Travellin' band were a bunch of refuseniks who graduated from Japan’s late '60s “group sounds” scene (kind of like boy bands with guitars) and eventually mutated into hard rock titans under the tutelage of manager and sometime member Yuya Uchida, an all-around visionary conceptualist Terry Knight/Sandy Pearlman figure. Releasing one decent covers album in 1969 as the Flowers, the band underwent a lineup shakeup and then pounded out a hardscrabble improvised psychedelic odyssey called “I’m Dead” and put it and a few other tracks on their demo, then slapped on the best title of any collection of music ever – the immortal From Pussies To Death In 10,000 Years Of Freakout. The name is apt, as this demo contains some of the most mind-melting hard psych improvisations ever put to tape. By all means dive in if you can find it, ‘cause it’s a head trip like no other, but more likely the full-lengths are the place to start, if for no other reasons than because the production is better and the words are in English. Filling their live sets with a healthy dose of western rock covers since their days as the Flowers, The Flower Travellin’ band had yet to develop much material of their own by 1970. No matter, in adding their own twist to the work of some of the artists rock had to offer, these astral travelers unwound a seam in hard rock’s stone groove that bands in Japan and North America have continued to mine to the present day.

Anywhere
opens with a finely executed but lightweight attempt at a delta blues instrumental topped by some fine mouth harp work courtesy of singer Joe Yamanaka. The album really starts as the band launches into a mind-melting demolition of Muddy Waters’ “Louisiana Blues”, which is virtually unrecognizable by about the 4 minute point. That means we’re still got a solid 12 more minutes of no-brakes proto-metal jamming after that. To some people, that would be anthema, but fortunately for us, guitarist Hideki Ishima is an absolute master of his instrument, his playing on this track in particular coming across like some embarrassment of riches. This ‘aint no Cream-style yawnathon. Early on, Ishima compliments Yamanaka’s bluesy Robert Plant-style bellyaching and harmonica excursions with some muscular riffing before taking flight all on his own, burning the whole building down in the progress. His playing demonstrates a mastery of feel and momentum, never rushing a good idea, content to riff on an set of notes and figures for any number of minutes to insure the maximum amount of force can be wrung out of his mangled six-string for each one. And to give credit where credit is due, Yamanaka never feels the need to interrupt the musical fireworks going on behind him, instead content to wait his turn while the band rides the groove. But the song never gets boring, primarily due to Ishima’s fantastic sense of timing, knowing exactly when to switch up the tempo and mood, and the band likewise follows him wherever he chooses to roam. Halfway through the track, Ishima switches gears to some bright, upbeat picking which allows the intensity to gradually reset itself to the song’s opening level. Not long after, Ishima seemingly out of nowhere sprays his fucking wad all over proceedings with a Jimmy Page solo-guitar-solo (as in, with no one else playing) before the rhythm section transforms the track into a funky riff-rocker before building to an explosive finale in which Yamanaka finally returns from his smoke break (or whatever else he was doing) and rides Ishima’s riffs all the way home, bringing it down one more time and then blowing away whatever was left of the blues in the track’s final minute. You think Muddy Waters didn’t like Pete Cosey wah-wahing all over his disowned “psychedelic” album Electric Mud? He would’ve fucking hated this, and that’s why rock ‘n’ roll usurped the crown of devil’s music from some retrograde Mississippi guitar pickers and has held it high ever since.

Closing out the first side is the Flowers’ previously mentioned version of “Black Sabbath,” and if it don’t exactly eclipse the original in terms of sheer cathedral spire gothic horror, it certainly does justice to the masters, as Ishima uses the song’s explosive-chainsaw-through-an-escalator finale to try his hand at bettering the master. He doesn’t do it, but you have to admire the man for taking on Iommi on his home turf and almost pulling it off. Yamanaka’s banshee wails are especially psychotic sounding, although he maybe can’t match the sheer terror reflected in Ozzy’s tortured wail. If nothing else, it shows that these guys was some of the most forward-thinking bastards around, and that’s gotta count for something.

Side two begins with the Travellin’ Band’s take on the hoary blues standard “House Of The Rising Sun,” done acoustic murder-ballad style, half the speed of the Animals definitive version and not a farfisa in sight. Although instrumentally, the song shies away from the type of explosive payoffs that make the rest of the album such a treat, Leadbelly would have been proud of these boys’ effective invocation of the darkness at the song’s core. Also, if it wasn’t the acid rock proto-doom ballad that Frijid Pink’s version from the same year was, it is at least enjoyable for Yamanaka’s possibly unintentional mangling of the lyrics into Japanglish (“Down, in New…Or-Reans) and his equally hilarious scat-singing between verses.

Finally, the album goes and unleashes its secret weapon, a fiery version of King Crimson’s apocalyptic art-metal stunner “21st Century Schizoid Man.” If the Flowers lack Fripp & Co’s musical precision, they make more than make up for it in terms of muscular riffing power, extrapolating the original’s infamous laser cutting staccato middle section into an odyssey through the mind of bong-blasted postwar cultural refugees featuring some dirty free-bass and jazz-as-fuck drumming. Greg Lake may have been far too dexterous for these guys to emulate completely, but you can bet that pound for pound, it was the Flower Travellin’ Band which really got down to making that massive opening riff the teeth-rattler it always had the potential to be. Add some stunning fuzz-wah-guitar from Ishima and double the length of the original, and you got yourself a whole new ballgame. The band then tacked on a reprise of the delta-blues breakdown that opened side one, and that’s a wrap. Where to next? Anywhere. Just hit the road, crank the tunes and hang on.

Those who would be tempted to write off this very good hard rock collection as “just a covers album” would be wise to remember that it’s a long way from Georgia to Japan. If you’ve ever watched any Japanese movies that have been dubbed into English with the subtitles still on, you are probably aware of the discrepancies that arise in the dialogue. It’s kinda the same thing here, as the musical dialogue takes some interesting turns, ones that will reward any listener willing to take a chance and hear something new. Take the familiar songs as a signifier of the band’s estimable good taste and be prepared to look at them in a whole new light. Make it through this one in one piece, and you should be about ready to experience the might of the Flower’s masterpiece, Satori.

Julian Cope’s excellent book “Japrocksampler” was an invaluable resource to me in learning about these guys. I highly recommend picking it and its sister work “Krautrocksampler” up and then proceeding to have your narrow worldview of rock & roll shattered.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Freedom Hawk - Freedom Hawk



Band: Freedom Hawk
Album: Freedom Hawk
Label: Meteor City
Year: 2009
Rating: 59%

Tracklist:

Side 1
1. On The Other Side
2. Universal
3. My Road
4. Ten Years

Side 2
5. Bad Man
6. Jaywalker
7. Hollow Man

Since All That’s Heavy was kind enough to send me Freedom Hawk’s self-titled sophomore effort for free, I feel kind of bad about not liking it as much as I had hoped. I mean, I like the name, and that art looked cool and all… but the music inside was just not all that good. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad. I wanted to like this band. And I do… I guess. It’s just that there isn’t anything here that hasn’t been done better dozens of times before in the last four decades.

I don’t have a problem with derivative music. Stoner rock is built upon trying to explore the template laid out by the original forefathers of heavy. I praised Elder’s spot-on Sleep impression on their debut to high heaven, and let’s face it, Sleep’s Holy Mountain was basically Master Of Reality without Iommi’s renaissance faire interludes and flute-and-butterfly dances. It's difficult for me to rationalize praising one band for tapping into the spirit of the godfathers of Ur-rock and then crucify these guys for sounding like everyone else - It's a fine line between heavy riffs and electric mud. But if you’re going to basically copy the flying shit out of your favourite bands, you’d better either bring some solid songs to the table, or at least some riffs that will flatten mountains, otherwise no one is going to care. I’m sure Freedom Hawk are capable of rocking the hell out of skuzzy dive bars on a nightly basis, but until they come up with something that I’m going to remember after the record is done playing, I won’t be droppin’ any more of my cash than the 3 bucks I paid to get in, kemosabe.

The record starts off strong. “On The Other Side” and “Universal” both lock into a vicious groove propelled by fuzzed out riffing and driving bass that Dave Brock and Lemmy would approve of. The quartet is tight and they have chops to burn. But really, that’s not enough to make you stand out from all the other hard rock bands with myspace pages, and what becomes apparent even after only a couple minutes of this is that Freedom Hawk basically only have one gear. Again, not really a problem if some good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll is all you’re looking for. But if you’re looking for a record you’ll spin over and over again, this one will leave you cold. The record is short, clocking in at just a shade under 34 minutes and only carrying a trim 7-song tracklist, but it still feels like Freedom Hawk have run out of things to say before the thing is half done.

A standout track is “Bad Man”, and for all the wrong reasons. The lyrics are clichéd hard rock chest-thumpery, the performances leaden as opposed to crushing, and the vocal performance is just bad. I mean, Ozzy was a terrible singer too, but his strained yelp was appropriate because it fit the ominous sound of Sabbath's music. The singing on this song is actually painful. And it goes on far too long; at over 6 minutes it's the longest cut on the album. The rest of the album is better than that, and “Hollow Caverns” in particular provides some stylistic departure by splicing a few particles of Monster Magnet’s dark matter into the interstellar engine exhaust the track kicks up.

You could play the “Who does this sound like” drinking game all day to describe Freedom Hawk, but it really doesn’t matter all that much. If they tried tinkering with their formula a little more, and the singer sang in a way more suited to the band's sound and his own natural range, Freedom Hawk could be much more interesting. As it is, they’re just taking you where you’ve already been before. They can play their instruments and string a few riffs together, but without any new ideas on how to re-arrange the pieces, there’s nothing to keep the listener coming back. Here’s hoping that next time out they take a few chances. Freedom Hawk might have a good record in them yet.

This way to Freedom Hawk's MySpace

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Terrestrial

I didn't realize it until recently, but Electric Earth are the wonderful Belgian label behind three of my favorite stoner doom bands right now, Black Pyramid, Elder & Eternal Elysium. Not familiar with the other artists on their label, I've resolved to correct this situation. If you like seriously down-tuned heaviness in the vein of Sleep and the 'Wizard (and if you don't, then you should just get the hell out of here) then there's no reason you won't like all of the bands on their roster. My newest find, Ocean Chief, is seriously downtuned and repetitive doom. A little too repetitive for my liking (and that's saying something) but interesting nonetheless and very, very heavy. All of their releases are pressed on extremely high quality vinyl and packaged beautifully, and having recently received my copy of Elder's eponymous debut I can tell you that it is worth the time and money getting records from these guys. Most, if not all of what they have is distributed in North America by All That Is Heavy, so there shouldn't be any problem with importing their steaming hot platters of heavy rock cuisine.

This Way To Electric Earth

Monday, January 11, 2010

Demarcation

I don't do "classic rock." That sort of American, mid 70's early 80's midtempo melodic banality is of little interest to me. Yet the radio format refuses to die, an insidious catchall whereby the most titanic of hard rock purveyors (Jimi, Sabs, Zep) and most out-there practitioners of mind-entrancing psychedelia (Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, the 'Dead) or even the most complex and ambitious prog professors (Yes, ELP, Rush) are forced to share airspace with 70's AM radio hits. Remember Doucet? he played some lame song about rock n' roll in like 1982. YEAH! Let's throw in a BTO song for our Canadian content and 'Smoke On The Water' too, because that's the only song by Deep Purple that our audience knows. That'll be way better than 'Echoes' because our audience are morons and only like what we tell them to like by drilling the same songs into their heads over and over as 'classics!' FUCKIN' ROCK MAN!

An albums-oriented band like Pink Floyd (Or The Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Hendrix, Yes, Crimson, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple or any other great band recording between 1963 and 1975) is seriously misrepresented by any format which selects single songs from an artist's oeuvre. And who decides which songs to play anyways? Haven't you heard enough of "Money" or "Stairway To Heaven?" Those songs were great because the formed parts of a coherent whole, a single work of art intended to be digested in its entirety. And the artists seem to be arbitrarily chosen, rather than according to style. Who decides to play Genesis but not King Crimson? If we can play a doomy dirge like "War Pigs" every day, why not throw in a Pentagram or Sir Lord Baltimore song? And when anything 'new' (like, since 1989) gets played, it's invariably something more recently by an artist who's main body of work still falls within the "classic rock" station's narrow definition of what makes something classic. Bruce Springsteen has a new song out? Fuck off, why should I care? I never liked him anyways. Otherwise, its like, generic modern rock like 54-40 or the Tragically Hip, who are Canadian, so you know, they have to play those welfare cases. I mean, if all your looking for is bands that do not stray too far from the confines of 70's style rock n' roll (instead of straying too far into any 'experimental' nonsense) you could do worse than to look for bands aping that style now. Hell, slip some My Morning Jacket or Sleepy Sun or Brian Jonestown Massacre into a rotation and your 40+ demographic won't even bat an eye. There's tons of bands from the 70's which have still yet to be unearthed on a wide scale who could fit in perfectly in such a format if given the chance. They just need to be heard. I played the Stooges "Search and Destroy" for my Stones-loving dad and he freaked on it! Get that stuff out there! So what if Bloodrock and Budgie and Captain Beyond never had any hits, they all still kick Foreigers' dicks in the dirt. And if Canadian rock with a 'classic' sound is what your looking for, Vancouver's very own Black Mountain does it better than anyone.

The simple fact is that we (we being broadcasters, bloggers, sonic travellers, myself and you, herr music fan) have a responsibility to ensure that great rock n' roll in all of its forms survives and thrives at a time when the internet and ipods have reduced everyone's attention spans to a point where they can no longer sit through a single song, let alone a 45-minute album even once. It's no longer enough for an album to be a grower. It's impact has to be immediate, and for that to be so, it cannot be challenging. Anything which challenges the listener requires work, and immediacy by definition cannot require effort on the listener's part.

I suppose it's really just a matter of what most people (the norms) want. While I don't have any statistics handy, my guess is that the majority of the audience of classic rock radio stations is comprised of white men between the ages of 30 and 55. These people don't want to hear anything they haven't heard before. That's why they listen to these stations which never play anything new. That doesn't make it any less frustrating to your truly. I've spent half my life unearthing buried rock treasure, new and old. The rock of antiquity has slowly seeped back into the public consciousness via its availability on the internet and the tireless editorializing of rock historians such as myself. The fact of the matter is, no matter how unfuckinbelievable some Taj Mahal Travellers bootleg from Japan in 1973 is, its appeal will always be limited here in North America. I can accept that. The obscurity of some of these lost relics is half of what makes them special, and I'll never trade the thrill of the chase for just being able to turn on the radio and hear what I want. I don't listen to the radio anyways, I hate commericals, and only a few DJ's whom I've listened to (Alan Cross comes to mind) have earned my respect as knowledgeable and authentic fans of worthwhile rock in a rigidly formatted corporate industry like radio. That doesn't mean I won't continually rail against the complacency of your average music fan in this here blog. Hey, if I can get you to get off your ass and go to a show or buy a record, it's worthwhile, and if not, well I can deal with pissing in the wind too. But you can bet my soundtrack will still be better than what's on Rock 101 right now.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Viral

Soundgarden announced last week that they're getting back together. Depending on your overall level of cynicism, this is either a good or a bad thing. I'm cautiously optimistic that a reunited Soundgarden will sound at least as good as Alice in Chains without Layne Staley do. Maybe they won't be on the level of a re-energized Dinosaur Jr., but seriously, I can't help but be a little excited to see the return of a band that broke up when I was in Grade 6. And come on, it's not like Audioslave was all that bad. It's just that it wasn't that good... Me, I'm thrilled to once again have the opportunity to enjoy Kim Thayil's unholy channeling of both Tony Iommi and Jimmy Page, that eternal wellspring of hard rock from which all aspiring axe-slingers have drunk. The towers of feedback which he erected while guesting on Sunn O))) and Boris's "Blood Swamp" track shows that this guy is still capable of scaling the heavens. Matt Cameron is in Pearl Jam, so I guess, you know, he's doing alright. Ben's still kicking around, maybe Hiro forgot to set his alarm or something.

More interesting at thus juncture however, is the past decade's phenomenon of previously deceased bands reforming amid much hoopla and excitement among their fans. The cynical among us may point to the potential for dollars and cents to be made by putting aside old differences, but I choose to believe that Soundgarden, much like the Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr. and any other formerly great band that decides to reconnect and "get the old band back together" has simply gotten a little older and wiser in their absence, and realized that the petty conflicts of the past can be overcome in favor of a mutual desire to create art. Realistically, there are always ulterior motives for everyone involved in these situations, but as long as the primary motivation is to move people, I don't think any ill can come of this. Hell, I'll never listen to The Weirdness, but that doesn't mean I won't be there to catch Iggy in the front row if The Stooges ever come to town with James Williamson now in tow. I hope those guys made some cash off that record.

What really needs to be asked is what has changed since 1997 that has made Soundgarden (or any other recently re-formed band) decide that now was the time to do it. My guess is that the internet has allowed bands whose appeal was only marginal in their previous incarnations to reach a far greater audience than they had ever commanded during their heyday. It's not like the Pixies were doing arena shows twenty years ago. Soundgarden's situation is different though, since Soundgarden actually was a pretty huge band after the release of Superunknown. So on this matter, I have to believe that a revival of 70's style hard rock, cross-pollinated with the post-everything musical landscape of the naughts has drawn in a astute brand of musical fan who is better equipped to make musical discoveries. Unsullied by the silly prejudices and genre restrictions of formatted mainstream radio and music television, today's music fans can take what they want from past and present, while constantly looking sideways across ever-multiplying genres and sub-styles. Want to see if a band could bring it live? YouTube it.

During their pre-fame years, and even up to Badmotorfinger, Soundgarden were one of the heaviest bunch of badasses around. Think about it... who was heavier than Soundgarden when that album came out in 1991? The Melvins, Cathedral, maybe St. Vitus... I dunno, not many, and certainly none of them enjoyed the kind of profile that Soundgarden did as they won a Grammy, opened for Guns 'n' Roses, made rockin' performance videos and generally got the big push from A&M. But in today's musical climate, where label clout means little, the best bands will eventually find their audiences regardless. Sometimes it helps to have a built-in audience like Soundgarden do, but it's not necessary if you're good enough at what you do to begin with.

And as far as I'm concerned, this will be worth seeing in person.

And if that doesn't convince you, at least think about how awesome it is that a band that rockin' covered both Spinal Tap and Cheech & Chong.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Top Albums Of 2009 10-1

10. Cauldron – Chained To the Night
Although thrash metal has enjoyed a resurgence in the past half decade, and classic power metal never really went away (in Europe anyways), very few bands have chosen to situate themselves upon the fertile stylistic grounds of early 80’s Metal Massacre-era underground metal. These headbanging Canadian thrashers took the New Wave of British Heavy Metal as a starting point, and explored enough of its divergent branches to make a pretty vivid recreation of the most exciting things happening in metal circa 1983 without situating themselves firmly within the borders of a single style. This sort of rote historical recreation could be tiresome in the hands of a lesser group, but Cauldron has the conviction and chops to pull it off and sound great doing it. They are helped by a dirty production job that sounds both clear enough to enjoy individual performances and yet sounds like an authentically 1980’s underground classic. Their approach is simple enough; add a little teenaged Metallica thrash here, some Discharge-style crossover there, a dash of the early black metal of Venom and the neo-classical flourishes of Mercyful Fate thrown in for good measure. This should appeal to anyone who remembers the band Exciter, or who doesn’t think music needs to be played a gazillion miles an hour or sung by Cookie Monster to qualify as true heavy metal.

9. Sonic Youth – The Eternal
Some may have been enamored with the return towards economical rock songs that Sonic Youth made on Rather Ripped, but I’ve always been a fan of the more out-there guitar abuse that Sonic Youth have indulged in for the majority of their three decade career. That is why I am delighted with Sonic Youth’s first release on Matador, which combines all of the band’s best traits into one exciting package. The songs rock with an intensity that was lacking from most of the more languid recent material, and return to the full-on aggressive rock sound of the band’s late `80’s peak while nearly matching early `00’s records Murray Street and Sonic Nurse in terms of crystalline production and noisy distortion jams. There are just as many hummable tunes on The Eternal as were on Rather Ripped, but the music is much more interesting this time around. Not only that, but Kim Gordon’s vocals on “Sacred Trickster” and “Malibu Gas Station” actually make these songs better, while “Anti-Orgasm” even contains a compelling duet between Thurston and Kim.

8.Black Pyramid – Black Pyramid
Black Pyramid’s debut platter reaffirmed my faith that there was still plenty of inspiration left within the well of straight Black Sabbath/Pentagram worship. Stoner Doom as a rule is a style of music entrenched in primitivism and very few of the bands that work within it are able to transcend their influences in a way that keeps the music interesting without straying outside the sonic parameters established by the forefathers of blunted out ‘70’s hard rock. Black Pyramid is one of these bands. They succeed largely though conviction, inspiration and demonic chops. Darkly compelling gongs such as the standout track “Worm Ouroboros” provide a classic combination of beefy riffs and wah-wah guitar leads while evoking an addictive atmosphere of mythology and mysticism. This is perfect listening for a session of H.P. Lovecraft stories or a game of dungeons and dragons in a smoky basement.

7. Crystal Antlers – Tentacles
Crystal Antlers’ eponymous debut EP garnered them a fair share of hype in the underground rock press, and for good reason. With Comets on Fire seemingly an interminable hiatus, someone had to pick up the torch of ragged, chaotic west coast psych. Unlike Sleepy Sun, who border on the currently burgeoning trend in indie rock towards rootsy dressed-down folk rock, Crystal Antlers’ raw and aggressively weird take on psychedelia incorporates mechanistic influences such Japanese noise and “21st Century Schizoid Man”-era King Crimson. Their sound places them somewhere on the fringe of a number of different musical styles, but their brand of psychedelic garage-prog should appeal to fans of all kinds of underground rock.

6. Black Math Horsemen – Wyllt
As if there weren’t enough awesome rock bands with the word ‘Black’ in their name already, here comes another. Produced by former Kyuss bass player Scott Reeder, Wyllt boasts a guitar sound as compelling as anything Sonic Youth has put to tape in the last decade. While songs like “Deerslayer” and “The Origin of Savagery” boast huge riffs and explosive climaxes, it’s really the sustained vibe of darkened psych (and blackened psyche) which permeates the whole album which makes this one an addictive trip into the abyss. Although murky at times, the jamming never overstays its welcome, striking the right balance between atmosphere and economy. Heavy psych just got a whole lot blacker.

5. Sleepy Sun – Live Session
Sleepy Sun’s Embrace was one of the best rock albums of the decade, quietly self-released last year by a band of Santa Cruz hippies who fry brains with equal measures of molten fuzz guitar jams and affecting west-coast acid folk. In 2009 Embrace was re-released on ATP Recordings and Sleepy Sun toured with Fleet Foxes, both of which earned them well deserved exposure in the indie rock press. This year’s iTunes exclusive live EP (the EP part is questionable, as these 5 jams clock in at roughly 45 minutes) takes the template served up on their recorded debut but provides a more telling look at the band in their natural onstage environment. Although all but one of these songs appeared previously on Embrace, this is an entirely new look at a band that Stuart Berman said would trick you into thinking was “heavier than it actually is.” The track selection is the first clue here that this is going to be a facemelter of a live set. “Sleepy Son”, “New Age” and “White Dove” were the key tracks on Embrace, the lengthy guitar freakouts that were bookended by more sedate songs like “Golden Artifact,” and each is presented here in an extended version in which the musicians can run wild. There are no tricks here. Sleepy Sun simply burn the horizon down with their ‘60’s inspired workouts. The rhythm section lays down a bong-rattling din that would make Geezer Butler and Bill Ward nod along in stoned unison while Jimi Hendrix and Makoto Kawabata solo their way into the setting sun. Gorgeous male and female harmonies dance across the scorched soundscape. Sleep Sun’s improvisation is structured yet loose, immediate yet expansive and unhurried yet unstoppable. No one on earth in 2009 commands a better sense of direction and atmosphere in their jamming than Sleepy Sun.

The most noteworthy song here, and the one most likely to garner Sleepy Sun attention from people besides sun-blasted West Coast freaks, is their demolition of the Fleetwood Mac soft rock staple “The Chain” in which the throat shredding dual vocals take centre stage. The result is more Comets on Fire than Stevie Nicks, as the musical attack of the band incinerates any over-familiarity which may accompany the performance of such a ubiquitous song. Often used as a closing number by Sleepy Sun while on tour, here it slides into the second spot, grabbing the listener’s attention early in the performance and providing a nice segue between opener “Sleepy Son” and the astonishing 14 minute version of Embrace opener “New Age” that acts as the centerpiece of the performance. Finally the album closes with an emotionally uplifting rendition of yet another Embrace number, “Oh Lord.” Driven by some sparse piano and sweetly sung vocal harmonies, the song acts as a sort of cleansing ritual, leaving the listener satiated and calm after the draining rock n’ roll excursions that have come before. While the original was restrained and tedious, detracting from the power of Embrace, the live version outdoes the studio version in every way. This performance of “Oh Lord” is raw and emotional, an appropriately poignant sendoff for the set. If you want to sound really cool in a few months when Pitchfork gives Sleepy Sun’s forthcoming sophomore album Super High an 8.7 or something, then listen to them now and discover the best psych rock band in the world.

4. Baroness – The Blue Record
Baroness began life as a group of southern sludgecore behemoths heavily indebted to the likes of Eyehategod and Iron Monkey. 2007’s The Red Album allowed some classic rock 'n' roll influences to seep into their sound. A cleaner production job sacrificed some of their vaunted brutality for clarity, but also showed off some impressive chops married to memorable songwriting. With the second guitarist spot now being filled by new member Peter Adams, The Blue Record continues this trend towards a more classically oriented southern rock sound. Adams and guitarist/vocalist John Baizley both contribute thunderous riffs and compelling fuzzed-out leads that emphasize the exquisite sound of their instruments, while drummer Allan Blickle and bassist Summer Welch contribute performances that balance inexorable force with the grace and restraint of a telepathic rhythm section. While Baroness has not forgotten the power of earthshaking heaviness by any measure, their ever-growing ambition has allowed their monolithic heavy riffs to flow smoothly into delicate psychedelic passages and winding off-kilter jams, all within ambitious prog rock worthy song structures. Yet despite the new subtle new elements Baroness have tweaked their sound with, The Blue Record is an accessible collection of hard rock songs that will please fans of The Red Album as well as newcomers. Anyone with an interest in classic rock (as opposed to metal) should dig this. Clean vocals and harmonies are used along with anthemic hardcore shouts in equal measure, building into choruses that are as catchy as they are explosive. The gorgeous recurring notes of “Bullheads Theme” lends the album a sonic unity and allows the songs to flow beautifully into one another as the record alternately simmers and rages with suite-like uniformity of purpose. The production is bigger than ever, but retains a warm, organic feel. The loose, rustic jams Baroness have become known for come across more like Exile-era Stones than anything on Southern Lord. With The Blue Record, Baroness has created a finely crafted album that is complex and progressive, yet devoid of bullshit or pretention. A classic in every sense of the word.

3. Om – God Is Good
I’ll be honest, I was skeptical at first. Chris Haikus and Al Cisneros have been THE best rhythm section in rock for a decade and a half, first with sludgecore trio Asbestos Death, then mighty stoner doom kings Sleep, and after a long hiatus, as the only two members of riff-drone mantra adepts Om. So when it was announced that Haikus had left the band permanently, I pretty much gave up hope that Al Cisneros would be able to continue the run of excellence that he has enjoyed with the first three Om albums.

Fortunately, Emil Amos, better known as the shaman behind Portland’s astral travelers Grails, has proven himself a more than worthy successor to the dopethrone since vacated by Haikus. Not only does Emil do a spot-on impersonation of Haikus when the band are in full-on thunder rock mode, but he expands the range of the band’s sound in ways that the studies in dynamics on Pilgrimage and Conference of the Birds only hinted at. Here he pushes Al Cisneros’ bass playing to new heights, the two of them taking more risks in the studio than ever before. Rather than sticking to the bass-and-drums setup that has characterized their sound in the past, Om now incorporates various new sounds into their setup. Opener “Thebes” begins with a calming sitar providing colour and ambience over Cisneros’ delicate bass figures and Gregorian-derived chanting. Soon however, Al’s bass playing becomes far more menacing, and the piece builds in intensity before erupting into a huge sludgy bass march punctuated by Amos’s crashing cymbal work. “Thebes” is classic Om, and serves notice that these guys have plenty to say in their new incarnation as well.

If “Thebes” is meant to assure everyone that Om’s brand of lumbering sludge is still alive and well, Side 2 comes as a total surprise. Far closer to Emil’s work with Grails than Variations on a Theme or Dopesmoker, Cisneros’ bass playing on these tracks is sprightly, nuanced and delicate. If “Thebes” evokes colossal temples crumbling into the Nile, then “Meditation Is the Practice of Death” is the sound of flowers blooming in the desert. A flute weaves across the gorgeous clean bass tones emitting from Al’s trusty Rickenbacker. Like much of Om’s music, the ever-present groove allows one to zone out in a trance, and yet it still rewards close attention. No one in music has a better ear for the groove than Al Cisneros, and the gorgeous phrases that he effortlessly spins off are remarkable for their economy and effectiveness… he still really only plays about 5 notes the whole time. Finally, the two-part “Cremation Ghat” is probably the most un-Om like piece the band has ever recorded, and it demonstrates some of the possibilities of this new and formidable lineup. With a nimble bass figure serving as the core of the first half, Al and Emil experiment with the groove for a while before slipping in some chanting interludes. The second half pulls the groove back and explores texture and space in a manner similar to Grails’ hash caravan ambience. The meter and inflection of this piece is about as far removed from a pounding fuzzbass trudge like “Flight of the Eagle” as you can get, but the sound is still quintessentially Om. Om’s sheer power has not dimmed one iota on God Is Good, but an infusion of new blood has given the band more room to take their ideas and fly with them.

2. Mastodon – Crack the Skye
If you’ve been paying attention to what’s been happening in metal for the last decade, you should be struck by how closely the career of Athens’ Georgia’s finest metal band has paralleled that of the first decade of Metallica’s. Both bands emerged as leaders of a new scene during a fallow period for true American heavy metal. Metallica established the dominance of the thrash idiom in the metal underground and remained its foremost proponent for a decade as shamefully weak hair metal dominated the video waves, and in doing so championed an uncompromisingly brutal musical style into the mainstream while their dogged determination and enormous talent for writing challenging and musically accomplished pieces ultimately won them legions of fans the world over. As the last of the MTV glam metal bands finally choked to death on their own hairspray, it was Metallica who emerged as the biggest rock band in the world thanks to their take-no-prisoners attitude, tireless touring regimen and bottomless well of credibility with their core fans. Mastodon hasn’t reached that point yet, nor is it even likely that they will, but in an album by album comparison, Mastodon stacks up pretty well against the first four Metallica albums, bona-fide classics all.

Remission was unleashed on an unprepared world in 2002, and was immediately greeted in the underground as that rarest of treasures; a completely new wrinkle in the fabric of metal. Mastodon’s astonishing technicality in service of utter chaos was just as revelatory for a band as unabashedly metal as James Hetfield's punk-inspired rhythm guitar playing on Kill ‘em All was. Already a touring force in the American south where like-minded bands like Pantera, Black Label Society, Neurosis and Lamb Of God had been flying the flag of true metal for a decade or more, Mastodon had the good fortune of emerging on the national stage at a time when aggressive music as far as the mainstream was concerned was making a comeback. As laughable as nu-metal was in retrospect, it at least got people thinking that metal was not a dirty word anymore. Kids whose older siblings had shunned the technicality of metal for the slacker ethos of 90’s hard rock or even hard core hip-hop were pointed in the direction of heavier underground metal by the facemasks and turntables of MTV metal. As a result, the new generation of bands became willing to embrace old-fashioned guitar wizardry and guttural vocals in aggressive music, elements the short-lived nu-metal explosion did not provide.

Mastodon’s early material took as much from hardcore punk, mathcore and death metal as it did from vintage thrash and power metal, but over time the technicality quotient and ambition of the compositions rose to stratospheric levels. The quantum leap in musicality represented by their sophomore effort Leviathan vastly increased Mastodon’s profile, and an ambitious touring regimen gained the band well-deserved props for their blistering chops and intricate live performances. Everything about Leviathan, from the Voivod-esque polyrhythms to the cerebral lyrical conceits of the Moby Dick concept album mirrored the musical growth Metallica underwent on Ride the Lightning. Two years later, Mastodon’s Blood Mountain did little more than consolidate the musical style they had previously established, but merged it with more refined songwriting and cleaner production, thus further expanding their fan base. By now, Mastodon was getting attention in mainstream non-metal music publications and websites in much the same manner Master of Puppets proved Metallica to be a significant cultural force. If not in sound itself, then certainly in musical growth Mastodon has followed the blueprint of Metallica’s career, and they deserve credit for having the skill and ambition to pull it off.

Fortunately, Troy Sanders didn’t get crushed by a bus (although a drunken Brent Hinds suffered serious injuries after getting the shit kicked out of him in 2007) so Mastodon has delivered their ...And Justice for All with their lineup intact, free to let their musical ambition run wild. So… how is it?

Fucking awesome. Sporting just seven “songs” and a concept so convoluted I couldn’t explain it to you if I wanted to (something about Brann Dailor’s late sister, astral projection, Rasputin, regicide and the Bolshevik revolution) Crack the Skye is the kind of prog-rock hokum that a big name rock band hasn’t indulged in since Peter Gabriel was dancing around in a flower costume. But lest that description scare you off, let me assure you that this is a metal album through and through, albeit one whose sound has been heavily tweaked and processed in studio. In another similarity to Metallica, the sound of this record is as indicative of the time it was recorded as the legendarily neutered sound of …And Justice for All was in 1988. Fortunately, Mastodon’s studio wizardry is merely undertaken in service of presenting these astonishingly complex pieces in the best light possible. There’s no vindictive new-member hazing or Lars Ulrich megalomania here, assuming you ignore those “I’M THE BEST GUITARIST IN THE WORLD!” moments from Hinds. Here’s the thing though… he pretty much is. So when the epic solos hit at the end of “The Czar” and “The Last Baron,” you should probably just agree with him. Things can get a little murky during the epics, and even the shorter songs are crammed so full of winding riffs and stop-on-a-dime breakdowns that it’s easy to become disoriented. Listen carefully and explore the finely crafted terrain that these phenomenal musicians have created. You will be rewarded with tiny nuances in each player’s performance with become apparent only with repeated playing. Besides, Crack the Skye never gets so wanky that it loses its scorching momentum. The furious middle section of "Divinations" could be the most powerful groove the band has yet laid to tape, while the title track features a savage vocal turn from Scott Kelly.

Despite all the algorithms, Crack the Skye is Mastodon’s most accessible album to date. Hinds and Sanders have improved as singers on every outing, and now you’ll find real melodies bursting to the surface where once they had been buried amid the muddiness of their previous recordings. The production is clean, sanding down the rough edges enough to make this record palatable to people who still listen to the radio for their rock fix. Hey, Mastodon’s probably gonna come back with a slick self-titled record full of radio hits in a couple years that will be so catchy and simplistic that it will make them the biggest rock band in the world anyways, so just enjoy the over-the-top ludicrousness for what it is; the most refined example of sheer musical ambition and virtuosity this year.

1. Sunn O))) – Monoliths & Dimensions
The heaviest thing ever recorded. I mean, as far as a composite of all the elements required of a truly heavy album, I’ve never heard anything that can match it. To say it’s the best Sunn O))) album is to do a disservice to these savants. At this point Steven O’Malley and Greg Anderson are on a plateau that very few of us will ever comprehend. Nothing you’ve ever heard could prepare you for this. Seriously, if you haven’t listened to anything by Sunn O))) before, you’ll probably hate this. It took me 7 years to completely grasp what they were hinting at with Flight of the Behemoth, but luckily that whole time was merely an apprenticeship for them, a necessary time of trial and error to prepare them for this sonic momument. Their mastery of the drone and all its composite elements, the texture, the hue and the sheer sonic weight of their sound boggles the mind. Now modern recording technology has been harnessed to the end for which it was always intended. The production is just titanic, and the compositions embrace light to a greater degree than ever before, causing the dark to become that much blacker. Nothing could possibly sound huger than this. The affect is something akin to being sucked from empty, dark and cold space into the crushing abyss of a supermassive black hole, where all theoretical analysis is sucked out of existence.

The record ebbs and flows with grace and subtlety to match its power. The grasp of dynamics that the two masterminds have attainted here is nothing short of astonishing. The growth they have demonstrated over the course of their career from the stone-faced Earth-impressionists of the Grimmrobe Demos to the sonic sculptors of this masterpiece of a musical statement can scarcely be charted by humans. And this time, they bring more friends than ever before to help them. Atilla gets his shining moment on the opening dirge, “Aghartha.” With a voice so deep it seems to be resonating from a place deep within the earth, Attila does not so much “sing” as open his throat and match the crushing weight of the band with his intonations. As the piece dissolves from an agonizing blast furnace into floating nothingness like a rotting corpse on its way to Valhalla, only Attila’s deliberate vocalizations remain as a constant. “Big Church” begins with an angelic choir that pierces the oppressive blackness for a brief moment before the shithammer guitars return once more to crush the will out of any who dare to resist the power of the drone. Gloom and doom are nothing new to this band, but the startling stop and start dynamics of this piece increase the impact exponentially. Even the tolling church bell in the distance which at first seems like a perfunctory nod to the conventions of doom metal comes to be seen with additional listens as an emotional axis around which the rest of the piece develops. “Hunting & Gathering” returns to full on doom-crawl mode complete with gurgling vocals from Attila, serving to erase any memory of past or present, and plaster one’s mind firmly to the cosmic ether. War horns sound in the distance as the heavens split open and a divine power finally makes its presence felt. Ever the wise innocents, O’Malley and Anderson’s doom axes are channeling all of the physical and metaphysical potential of the universe. Through them is run the energy of a trillion supernovas, eons of time and space spiraling outwards forever and ever. Listen to this record loud enough and you’ll wonder if the voice of god could be any louder. But as triumphant as the record has been up until this point, nothing can surpass its arching apogee for sheer ambition. “Alice” is a microcosm for the entire spectrum of human emotion. All of creation can be summed up in its 16 minutes, as events play out in the listener’s mind upon a biblical scale. A truly inspiring example of human imagination, Sunn O))) so thoroughly explode their previous style within this piece as to make quaint notions about a band’s “sound” or “genre” completely irrelevant. You might ask yourself what instruments like tuba or harp are doing on a drone-doom record. A better question to ask is why it takes some scary black metal fans in silly druid robes to make music that is absolutely progressive at a time when technology allows humans to advance the art of musical composition to a degree unsurpassed inhuman history.

Nothing about what these guys do is inaccessible to you or me or anyone else with the time to think about music and the will to make it. But no one has ever done anything like this before, and for that reason I have to say I haven’t heard anything better in music this year. Monoliths & Dimensions is a monument to technological and psychic advancement, a testament to the power of the cosmos when harnessed by the eternal creativity and will of the human spirit. Like the masters said themselves… listen without distraction, maximum volume yields maximum results. Don’t passively hear it, but listen. The drone is inescapable, but for the acolyte, it is merely a sonic signifier to prepare you for your journey into oblivion. Commune with the godhead and you will be saved. Monoliths & Dimensions will stand for all time as an altar before which one may prostrate the living body and merge one’s soul with the eternal holy drone of the amplifier. Amen.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Top Albums Of 2009 20-11

20. A Place to Bury Strangers – Exploding Head
Great title. These guys still kick up a furious din, but this time out there’s some serious songwriting chops too. Taking the endless climax of their debut’s showstopper “Ocean” as a starting point, the band stretches out on several numbers, giving the jams more room to breathe. Although maybe not quite the revelation their debut was, Exploding Head is as good as advertised.

19. Boxcutter - Arecibo Message
I don’t really know much about dubstep, grime, or any one of the other billions of electronic subgenres that are out there, but I know what I like. Boxcutter’s brand of dubstep is heavy and dark, but Arecibo Message incorporates new tricks into the English DJ’s tried and true formula. Rhodes keyboards bring a funky vibe that keeps the proceedings fun, and there’s more than enough sub bass to keep a metal head like me coming back for more.


18. Nadja - When I See the Sun Always Shines On TV
A collection of covers slowed down to interminable lengths and fried in so much fuzz that they are barely recognizable. The artists covered here range from Elliott Smith to Slayer, all of them shot through Nadja’s unique post metal (metalgaze?) prism. If you ever thought Loveless would have been a better record if My Bloody Valentine had just used more distortion, this should be right up your alley.

17. YOB – The Great Cessation
After a four year hiatus, the mighty YOB has returned once again, and their newest opus was worth the wait. The Great Cessation is not only their heaviest record, but it’s also their darkest. Gone are the stoner metal flourishes of The Unreal Never Lived. In their place are deliberate, monolithic dirges made for bongs the size of asteroids. This is the kind of doom that weighs on your soul and crushes any hope out of existence. And if that sounds like something you’d want to listen to, you probably need help.

16. Gates of Slumber - Hymns of Blood & Thunder
Mighty Conan rock from Lee Dorrian’s Rise Above. Riffs aplenty, with tasty fuzzed-out leads throughout. Gates of Slumber alternate between clean and growled vocals, and bring the kind of operatic heavy doom that hasn’t been done this well since Candlemass. Hymns of Blood & Thunder is a more agile monster than one may expect upon first encounter, and it moves with single-minded purpose. There’s a shade of early `90’s Cathedral on the slower numbers, but Gates of Slumber know how to up the tempos when necessary to bring things to an explosive peak. It’s a monument, an obelisk, A GIANT FUCKING HEAVY THING, and it crushes everything in its path.

15. Pink Mountaintops – Outside Love
I should have liked Outside Love more than I did, but seeing as I haven’t actually had to go through any heartbreak recently, I’ve had little need for any solipsistic break-up records. It’s a testament to Stephen McBean’s genius that this collection of sonic comfort food was good enough to keep me coming back to it this year despite that fact. The Pink Mountaintops frequently function as an idea dump for McBean, which causes their albums to frequently be scattershot in terms of style and consistency. Fortunately this is the best Pink Mountaintops album yet, full of great, emotionally resonant songs. Even if you don’t have a need for something like that right now, Outside Love will always be there for when you do.

14. Isis – Wavering Radiant
Wavering Radiant is a far more interesting and memorable affair then the uninspired In the Absence of Truth. Isis’ efforts to evolve their sound by incorporating ethereal atmospherics on that record were laudable, but somehow it just didn’t seem to click. Fortunately, Wavering Radiant redeems them completely. Glacial heaviness has always been Isis’ forte, but now the oceanic grooves and layers of guitars have been further thickened with a glorious organ tone which unobtrusively adds colour and warmth. Some absolutely gorgeous guitar phrases dot the landscape throughout, especially on standouts “Ghost Key” and “20 Minutes/40 Years” Although Isis will never return to their sludgy roots, Wavering Radiant ensures that there’s plenty of gas left in the tank for these post-metal stalwarts.

13. Future of the Left - Travels With Myself and Another
It’s good to have a world where Andy Falkous is angry and telling people about it, even if us norms can’t really even figure out what’s got him so riled up. Future of The Left’s pile-driving musical attack is more straight ahead than Mclusky’s demented post-punk was, but really the differences between the two bands are minimal. As you might expect then, this is an ultra-dense, tight as fuck and completely hilarious rock and roll record, crammed full of catchy songs about stupid shit. Travels with Myself and Another is a rock album made to be listened to while hurling bricks at trains.

12. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
I liked Street Horrrsing better at first because it sounded more like an experimental noise rock band than a reclusive electronic collective. That doesn’t mean I can’t also bow down and worship at the altar of this massive statement. Tarot Sport is more of everything that made me like them in the first place. More noise. Heavier sub bass lines. Longer grooves. Who says I have to choose anyways?

11. Shrinebuilder – Shrinebuilder
Al Cisneros. Dale Crover. Scott Kelly. Wino.

Top Albums Of 2009 30-21

30. Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way To Blue
Ultra-compressed sludge that was supposed to sound good on the radio. What the hell, a decade and a half of listening to all manner of heavy riffs with varying degrees of fidelity hasn’t made me immune to liking something this overproduced. These songs still sound a helluva lot better than most of the crap I hear when subjected to the radio anyways. New lead vocalist William Duvall is basically invisible, except for when he’s filling in those classic Alice in Chains harmonies. Really, Jerry Cantrell’s songwriting approach here is no different from Degradation Trip, which was an Alice in Chains record in all but name anyways. Still, it’s good to have these guys back, doing what they have always done. Nobody is better at making heavily distorted minor key grinds with mournful yet catchy harmonies on top. Besides, would you rather hear a new Staind song on CFOX instead!?

29. Absu – Absu
Absu do a thrashy take on Black metal that merges the dense ice-in-a-blender guitars of prime Bathory with the more baroque leanings of late-period Emperor. This means lots of synths and keys in the background, and enough jackhammer blast beats and flailing guitars for you to not notice them unless you listen real closely. The production here is clean and powerful, in contrast to just about every Mayhem record I’ve ever heard. Despite the growls, the vocals are actually intelligible too. Besides, this ‘aint no ultra-satanic gorefest we got here. Absu know their shit. There are whole worlds of arcane Sumerian mythology to be explored in the lyrics, if you’re so inclined. For fans of TRUE BLACK METAL, this stuff is probably anathema, but fuck ‘em, they’ve probably lost their hearing by now anyways. If writing songs with dynamics, atmosphere and riffs that are brutal but still stick in your head is selling out, then who wouldn’t want to sell out? Use this as background music for performing bloodletting rituals to the moon goddess if you want, but the lyrical and musical depth of this album will even impress non-black metal fans.

28. Naam – Naam
Trippy psych with heavy riffs? Sign me up! Opener “Kingdom” eases its way into your consciousness by seemingly evolving out of silence into explosive noise and needs every one of its 16 minutes to reach its bloody apogee. Similar buildups can be heard on “Icy Row” while riff monsters like “Fever If Fire” simply burn everything in their path with gorgeously fuzzed out guitars and a highly developed sense of space and texture. Naam know just how long to hold back for when riding a groove, and when to drop the guitar assault to squeeze maximum power out of the riffs. This album is as meditational as it is heavy, and will soothe all manner of troubled souls.

27. Mantic Ritual – Executioner
The Metallica of the “Big Four” of new thrash bands. Executioner lifts the light speed multipart suites of Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, although they add a healthy dose of Possessed’s deathly nightmares to keep things from getting too fancy. In case you were wondering, Warbringer is Megadeth, Toxic Holocaust is Slayer, and Municipal Waste is Anthrax. Not that the originals aren’t still going strong, but it’s nice to have understudies just in case. And if you actually understood the parallels I alluded to between each of those bands, there is absolutely no reason you won’t think this is awesome.

26. The Pains of Being Pure Of Heart - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
If I was 14 and in love there is no way this wouldn’t have been my favourite record of the year.

25. Pelican – Ephemeral
This EP is better than the actual full length Pelican put out this year. “Ephemeral” might be the single best song the band was written ever. Although “Ephemeral” appears on What We All Come To Need, this release is the superior of the two due to the very good B side “Embedding The Moss” and its massive cover of Earth’s “Geometry Of Murder.”

24. Kylesa – Static Tensions
While not a match for their 2005 masterpiece To Walk a Middle Course, Kylesa’s brand of sludgy hardcore on Static Tensions has plenty of memorable songs to back up its thunderous riffage. Anyone who seriously digs Fucked Up or Harvey Milk should find lots to like here.

23. Pyramids with Nadja – Pyramids with Nadja
Sometimes I think post rock is kind of a static genre. Then an album like this comes along and completely clusterfucks my perception of what that style can be. Mono is positively Neolithic compared to this.

22. Brian Jonestown Massacre – Smoking Acid
Anton moved to Iceland? When did that happen?

21. High on Fire - Live At The Contamination Fest
It’s been a long time in coming, but the titanic power trio High on Fire has finally released a live album. Their old label Relapse has opened the vault and released this pristine recording of a live performance taken from a 2003 label showcase. Speaking from experience, I can tell you that High on Fire is an absolute juggernaut on stage, and the evidence here only supports that assertion. For fans of the band, Matt Pike’s ridiculously heavy guitar tone at this show will be like mana from heaven. Due to the time period, the set list focuses on their then-current second album Surrounded by Thieves, but I find the renditions here to be superior to the album ones. Surrounded by Thieves suffered from an overly muddy mastering job which was undeniably bone-crushing but made it hard to pick out Pike’s mind-bending leads. These live versions are just as powerful but boast more separation in the mix which greatly enhances the clarity. Every instrument comes though crystal clear. If I have any complaints, it’s that Pike at this early date had still not refined his vocal technique to the powerful Lemmy-meets- Tom Warrior bellow he now commands, and instead sticks to the hoarse bark heard on the band’s first two albums. That’s a minor quibble though, and the band more than makes up for it with this incredible 34 minute set, capping it which a bulldozing cover of Venom’s “Witching Hour.”

Top Albums Of 2009 40-31

40. Kreator - Hordes of Chaos
Hordes of Chaos = EVERYONE AGAINST EVERYONE!

39. Voivod – Infini
Leave it to these French Canadien neuro-thrashers to make their most accessible album ever as their swansong. Infini is the final album to feature Voivod’s brilliantly creative lead guitarist, Piggy. These visionary metal scientists assembled Infini from Piggy’s final recordings in tribute to their fallen member, who succumbed to cancer last year. It’s not as though “God Phones” is going to be a hit or anything, but it’s a far cry from “Fuck off and Die.” Voivod are different, always have been. Not straying too far from the template set out on previous Newsted-era albums, Infini features lots of Voivod’s trademark off-kilter thrashers in between some more straight ahead heavy death ‘n’ roll, all featuring Piggy’s singular guitar attack over and around Newstead and Away’s blistering grooves. Snake uses clean vocals more than ever before, to great effect. You might even find yourself screaming along. Here’s to the career of one of the greatest experimental heavy metal bands ever.

38. DOOM - Born Like This
Surely there are better hip-hop albums than the Blueprint 3 out there? Here’s one at least. DOOM, or whatever he’s calling himself these days, has delivered another hilariously over-the-top super villain fantasy. Not that I’m really in a position to write intelligently about this kind of thing, but to my dilettante ears, these beasts are hard and raw, similar in to those of his Wu Tang collaborators, and DOOM’s bizarre personality and low key delivery are way more compelling than whatever auto-tuned bullshit Lil' Wayne is shoveling.

37. Atlas Sound – Logos
As good as Deerhunter’s last album Microcastle was, I found that its momentum waned during the slower numbers in the middle. Not that Logos doesn’t have a few duds as well, but I’m willing to forgive a little more of Bradford Cox when he’s in an experimental mood, simply because what he does make is so brain-shakingly relevant to forward-thinking mutherfuckers like ourselves. Tape loops and krautrock jams are the new signifier of indie cred anyways. Lots of people can write songs, but very few ever break the mold in a way that’s wholly original.

36. Master Musicians of Bukkake – Totem One
Do people still talk about that “new Weird America” thing? Though they might fall on the fringes of acid folk, I think these guys are too brain fried, and too enthralled by scorched earth guitar fuzz to win fans of Joanna Newsome or Animal Collective over. But if you ever thought Sunburned Hand of the Man were like, totally awesome, then this should be your cup of incense.

35. Prefuse 73 – Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian
Glitch-hop? Guess I’ll have to throw that handy appellation out the door. Sounds more like schizophrenia to me. Like Sun Ra meets Aphex Twin, with beats going in a hundred directions at once, and some of the most beautiful sound textures you’ll ever hear. And not a rapper in sight. Call it a reinvention if you want, but it’s mostly just music that sounds like it’s from the future. A really cool version of the future.

34. Booker T. Jones – Potato Hole
Yeah, that Booker T. Trust me, this is the last record I would have expected to love this year. But the ancient organist brought some friends to party with, namely Neil Young on lead guitar and the Drive by Truckers pounding it out. The result is a supremely satisfying and laid back rock record featuring a healthy combination of guitar fuzz, soul organ and impassioned performances from all present. No vocals here, but when musicians this good get a chance to let it rip, who cares? Listen and be rewarded.

33. Flaming Lips – Embryonic
Who would have thought that at this late date, the Flaming lips still had it in them to make the kind of grand psychedelic art rock albums that Harvest-era Pink Floyd made? Certainly not yours truly. While Yoshimi was certainly a masterpiece, it was about as far from Finally the Punks Are Taking Acid as you could get. I had pretty much written them off as purveyors of brain damaged indie pop on At War With the Mystics, and now they turn around and record their noisiest freakouts since they were trying to put one album on four CD’s! Good on them, I says.

32. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
“Singing is okay, but playing guitar is way better.” – J Mascis.

Amen to that, brother.

31. Megadeth – Endgame
I guess Dave Mustaine finally realized that no one ever listened to Megadeth to hear him sing. Endgame dispenses with the distracting production flourishes that marred the otherwise-strong United Abominations and focuses on what Megadeth does best – fucking shred. Although there are still some regrettable themes running through Mustines’s pseudo-political commentary, it just doesn’t seem to matter too much, because with about nine guitar solos in every song, there’s not a whole lot of room for the words to get in the way. At a time when thrash is enjoying a comeback in a big way, it’s nice to know that Mustaine and his ever-revolving crew of sidemen are still releasing ferocious technical thrash metal of this quality. Probably their best record since the first Bush was president.

Top Albums Of 2009 50-41

Ranking albums in numerical order is a pointless exercise at best, but something about it is just so much fun that I can’t resist. It’s not just a matter of expressing your own personal taste, but it also forces you to think very carefully about the music you listen to (something people don’t do enough of, I say. If they did, most pop music wouldn’t suck so bad). It can stimulate discussion with like or unlike-minded fans, and might even introduce you to something cool you’ve either overlooked or forgotten about. Plus it’s a great way to make fun of your friends for liking something lame.

You wouldn’t know it from reading the year-end lists of the major music websites and magazines, but some really awesome music was made in 2009 (Yeah Pitchfork, I’m looking at you… I’ve been reading that website for a solid decade now, and I can’t remember ever seeing a more boring year-end list) If you find my list biased towards freaky noise or skuzzy guitar fuzz and that I totally shoulda put Jigga’s latest Blueprint retread on or whatever, then make your own goddamn list and prove just how wrong I am. I welcome it. But be ready to talk about it intelligently, ‘cause I won’t let you off easy. The criteria is simple… any musical piece released for the first time either commercially or online as long as it was done so legitimately (that is, with the blessing of the artist in question) during this past calendar year. Anyways, there were at least a hundred albums that were better than Meriwether Post Pavilion this year, so here’s 50 of ‘em.


50. At War – Infidel

How did I miss these guys the first time around? I guess the really nice thing about the thrash revival is the number of old ‘B’ and ‘C’ level thrash bands that have returned as going concerns. It’s nice to see Kreator and Exodus and Testament are still going strong, but what about the ones that never made it big in the first place? Case in point are former also-rans At War, whose war-themed thrash in the `80’s left them a mere footnote in the annals of metal. But, lo and behold, they are back with a new album which boasts a modern production and plenty of machine gun double bass drumming and tank-tread riffage. Of course, that wouldn’t mean much if the songs weren’t good. Fortunately, At War place enough hardcore shoutalongs among the savagery to keep things interesting. The breakdown at the end of R.A.F. is a particular highlight.


49. Municipal Waste – Massive Aggressive

Once kings of the “party thrash” genre, Municipal waste have gone and gotten all growned up on me! It seem just like yesterday that screaming “MUNICIPAL WASTE IS GONNA FUCK YOU UP”

between pilsner shotgunning sessions was the only way to spend a Friday night. Well, now they’re back and expanding their songwriting to include such topical fare as horror movies, the Chernobyl disaster (which happened when Bonded by Blood was still state of the art) and not listening to what the media says. Well, at least they can still rip like D.R.I. on a speed bender. Blink and you’ll miss ‘em.


48. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez – Xenophanes

The world of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez must be a crazy one. Not only is the guy a phenomenally talented musician and song arranger, he is also massively prolific, recording multiple solo albums per year while also finding the time to form one half of the core duo behind the Mars Volta as well as do all sorts of guest appearances on other people’s records. Many have said that if these guys had a better self-editing process they’d be true world-beaters, but I’ve long accepted the sometimes scattershot nature of every recording from the Mars Volta and their spinoffs as simply part of their charm. What a surprise then, that not only is Xenophanes consistently entertaining from start to finish, but also upstages the last two records made by Rodriguez-Lopez’s regular band and rivals the first 3 `Volta albums for being the best thing he’s ever played on. Xenophanes is simply bursting with musical ideas, but also contains enough placid moments to allow you to catch your breath. There are also enough liquid guitar interludes and vocal turns (albeit in Spanish) to almost resemble -gasp!- a conventional guitar rock album! Unlike much of his previous work, this album is as enjoyable as it is accomplished.


47. Skeletonwitch – Breathing the Fire

Skeletonwitch play blackened thrash that is thoroughly modern. The name of the game in music today is combining genres to form new permutations, and Skeletonwitch have hit upon a hybrid that will please metal heads who wear both capes and eyeliner OR steel toed boots and jeans. Technically adept and willing to experiment with various elements from sometimes conflicting styles, Skeletonwitch remain at the forefront of the metal pack with their sophomore release.


46. Ancestors – Of Sound Mind

Bigger, although not better than their debut, Ancestors take the same approach for twice as long and come back with an enormous double album which follows the same formula as Neptune with Fire. There is some filler here, as those interlude tracks add nothing but length, but screw ‘em. The important thing is, the jams are awesome, and that’s all anyone cares about anyways. Fortunately, Ancestors have stuck to their guns instead of trying to write real songs, and just concentrated on bludgeoning the listener with heavy riffs before taking flight with some spacey organ supported psych excursions. For that, I salute them.


45. 3 Inches of Blood – Here Waits Thy Doom

I used to hate these guys. I found the singer’s voice insufferable, which is generally a make or break proposition with me. But it seems they got a new singer, and although his approach isn’t too different from the other guy’s, it’s not quite as over the top. Not only that, but the band has lost most of its deathly leanings and concentrated on making thrashy power metal similar to Ontario’s Cauldron. The songs are anthemic, but still raw, hitting the sweet spot between `Maiden and Cryptic Slaughter. That’s enough to change my mind about ‘em.


44. Pelican – What We All Come To Need

While it didn’t match the aforementioned Ephemeral EP in end to end enjoyment, Pelican’s newest full-length is still crammed full of gnarled fuzzy guitars and chiming atmospherics. While Pelican’s move to Southern Lord has not heralded a return to the kind of glacial sonics that defined their earliest forays, What We All Come To Need features enough powerful eruptions of pure sound to please die-hards while an improved level of song craft make for a more memorable listen than 2007’s City Of Echoes


43. Jesu – Opiate Sun

Justin Broadrick’s sound on his Jesu project has changed very little on this post metal EP, but if you enjoy his cross pollination of ethereal shoegaze and the heaviest of metal as much as I do, that’s not a problem at all.


42. Built To Spill – There Is No Enemy

By now it shouldn’t be a surprise what a new Built to Spill album sounds like, but there are enough interesting touches here to keep the veteran indie rock band interesting, and of course, Doug Marsch writes some catchy melodies and plays the hell out of his guitar. There’s nothing here as astonishing as “Goin’ against Your Mind” or even “Conventional Wisdom” from You in Reverse, but the album has more good songs and is probably better overall. It’s a grower too.


41. Snail – Blood

These guys were out of their time in 1993. Though they once shared stages with the likes of Sleep, this Santa Cruz hard psych group did not go on to bigger and better things, instead releasing only a single album before breaking up, too spacey and too heavy for labels looking to sign the next Pearl Jam. Flash forward sixteen years, and stoner rock alumni are everywhere, getting written up in SPIN, auditioning for Metallica and playing in mediocre super groups with John Paul Jones. Seems the time was right for a reunion! Seriously though, with the number of bands out there copping Snail’s formula (HEAVY sub-Sabbath riffs, psychedelic noodling, rocker dude vocals) it’s hard to blame them for jumping back on the bandwagon, especially since the album is so good. Moreover, it just makes you wonder why if these guys couldn’t make it, how come Fu Manchu are on their tenth album?