1 comments about A Place Called El Shaddai's.

1. Like I said before, not their best effort, but worth a listen. It's moody and lo-fi with overtones of beatlesque reverie. Their sophomore CD, Enemy Hogs, displays a more mature and complex sound and boys choir and stuff.

3 comments about Disposable Income.

1. This is snuff at their most experimental and it's quality, the songs go by steadily without a bad song (which can become a token thing). It's good to hear a British punk band release an album so near perfect with there been such a high amount of good bands from california. So pick it up it's good British punk rock.



2. This is snuff at their most experimental and it's good, the songs go by steadily without a bad song (which can become a token thing). It's good to hear a British punk band release an album so goo with there been such a high amount of good bands from california. So pick it up it's good British punk rock.



3. Is it a departure from their Fat Records material? Hmm... yes and no. It's still Snuff, certainly still Snuff. But this time around they have this sort of airy ethereal quality added in to their intense mix. The album comes off as lighter and more pleading almost. The comedy seems to be pushed to the background on this album as there really are no throwaway numbers here like there have been on their Fat releases. There is some experimentation present (sampling, breakbeats), which honestly doesn't always work, but it's good that they're trying. And the production value makes the tracks really sparkle, which is curious since most people blast Fat Records for making a band "too glossy" though Snuff had to leave to make a truly accessibly sonic record.

   There's some excellent tracks here, and a lot of average/above-average stuff, but truly no clunkers which is nice. Well, there is one, and i'm sad to report that the sole instrumental on here ranks as one of their worst. Shame, really. But the "bonus track" at the end is certainly one of the top tracks, strange that it is merely a "bonus" track. I enjoy it, and have enjoyed it progressively more the more i've listened to it. Casual fans might be better off with Demma or Tweet, but the old-timers will be intrigued and (hopefully) pleasantly surprised. A little less gruff gusto, but still great tunes, if you don't mind the wacky quality toned down a bit.

4 comments about Live Till You Die.

1. Well, I can say I have spent some time already in this whole "metal" thing searching for something that would make me say "Oh mercy please!"... Now I can rest for a while as THIS seems to be just what I have been looking for. This is my bad dream come true - a sick man doing sick stuff that rocks like nothing. The way he mixes the live cuts with all the odd side material makes for a hauntingly depressive concept album that is best appreciated on a straight no-pause listen. My personal point is - I enjoy Slayer, but this is what I would expect them to do on an acid trip that would actually TAKE them to hell... Hey, check out the photos in the booklet - man, now I come to grasp the title of his last work, because Steve Austin has really got some serious SADNESS in his eyes... HMMMMM he sure gives me THE CREEPS!



2. This is possibly my favorite album by Today is the Day. Their live sound is much nosier and significantly heavier than that of their studio efforts, and this album represents a rather comprehensive look at several sides of the band. I marvel at the devastating force of "Colour of Pyschic Power", the uncompromising emotion of "Temple of the Morning Star", and the ambient breakdowns throughout the album.

   Needless to say, this music is not for everyone. It's extremely harsh, both musically and lyrically, but it's still excellent music and far superior to anything being played on modern radio these days.




3. First off, let me state this bluntly: Today Is The Day are one of the most innovative metal bands in existence! On LIVE TILL YOU DIE, their abilities are fully demonstrated. The live tracks, ranging from the unplugged acoustic versions of "Temple Of The Morning Star" and "Blindspot" (which both previewed live on the air) to the ferocious versions of "Pinnacle" and "In the Eyes of God", the live TITD experience is fully represented. However, the album doesn't stop there! In addition to the live tracks, there are three covers, two of classic rock songs and one of a cheesy 80's love song; a tape loop created during the I THE EYES OF GOD sessions; and a solo tribute by Steve Austin to his deceased father. The quality is far above most live albums, and if you're a true fan of TITD, you absolutely need this. So what if you'll never look at "Feel like Makin' Love" and "Wicked Game" the same way again?



4. The 15 tracks walk you through the ferocious nature of the band's live shows. The sound is mixed, sometimes so intense and evil and other times morbid and depressive - a great mixture! :) The legendary "Temple of the Morning Star" is filled with a distorted sound and somehow faster riffs in the beginning. The vocals are even more "evil" and I just love them that way. Chris Issac's "Wicked Game" is a true gem, great work done on that song. "Crutch" is... I don't know... That show must have been maaaaaad."Blindspot" is probably the best display of vicious vocals."Why Don't We Do It In The Road" by the Beatles is just amazing, I bet the Beatles wouldn't agree :)

   I highly recommend this live CD to all the true fans, it just makes you listen it on and on.

1 comments about Generic Shame.

1. Here's what shows how great a great band really is - Nomeansno made an EP of the three "No One" outtakes, and any one of them could find its way onto an imaginary "best of" compilation. The first track is "Sex Is Philosophy", with metallic riffs which make it sound as if they covered Megadeth - and it's brilliant, along with excellent lyrics. The next one, "No Big Surprise", is nothing short of a masterpiece - 11 minutes long, with a drum solo, a mean, slow bass line, and some damn fine guitar work by the new guitar player (Tom, is it?), especially in the last minute of the song. Excellent lyrics, of course. And the last track is an intentionally idiotic ska-punk goof (well, not really punk, it's just real fast), with a yo-ho-ho uplifting feel and hillarious vocals by John the drummer. And the lyrics? Well, how about this: "I know you're worried, you're all distressed/You feel the tension then get depressed/But I don't squibble and I don't cry/'Cause I don't care and I'll tell you why/I get up in the morning, go to bed at night".
   So it's great, it's cheap, and it's smart. Get it.

1 comments about Peel Session.

1. This CD is worth getting, even though it only has 5 songs on it because: 1- they do a cover of Blur's 'There's No Other Way'. 2- Allison breaks into Toni Basil's 'Hey Mickey' during this version of 'Panik'! 3- The feel of the album is very good and really captures the essence of Bratmobile in a way that their other 3 full length albums don't.

1 comments about No Thought, No Breath, No Eyes, No Heart.

1. This CD is georgous. A remix of certain songs from the Golden Palominos's Pure CD, No Thought, No Eyes, No breath will put you into a blissful state of sensory overload. It's best to listen to Pure first, in order to hear where the songs originated from, but its still a great accomplishment on its own.

5 comments about Stoner Witch.

1. people sometimes say that you need drugs to enjoy melvins music but ive always thought their music is drugs. if you let it, it will take you somewhere inside. shevil is the perfect track to do it. she's evil. meandering and atmosperic. buzz sings from behind a concrete wall. it's gentle but tense and yet relaxing at the same time. i always wished this number closed the album.
   stoner witch has a great mix of wierd with accessable material. revolve could easily be a metallica song as many people often say. roadbull in a similar vein. queen is solid and streight forward as melvins get. sweet willy kicks off like an amphetamine rush. goose freight train takes you down a slow hynotic journey and has some of the most bizarr lyrics you'll find any where.
   sadly skweetis never really goes any where, june bug, although you gotta love the title, is forgettable and lividity really has nothing to offer.
   kind of a mixed bag but overall highly recomended for anyone looking for heavy music that is above and beyond the norm. and as always the album art is beautiful. a contradiction to the actual music behind it. mackie osborne (buzz's wife) is responsible.



2. This album, OH MAN THIS ALBUM!!!
   
   I bought this CD because it had two of my favorite songs on it (i.e. "Sweet Willie Rollbar" and "Revolve")
   
   it is a good CD, don't get me wrong, but there are like two tracks with no music on it (like the last track) which kind of pistons me off when a band will do that, put ambient noise on an album and title it as if it were a song!



3. On the excellent "Stoner Witch" the Melvins churn through song after song with a dense primordial energy--think neutron star emissions--buffered with excursions into the darker recesses of imagination. The band is not content to lock in to one particular vibe and often zags when you thing they are about to zig.
   
   It took some guts to concoct this work, and it will take some fortitude to listen intently and loudly. Expect to do so alone if friends, like many of mine, cannot range far from the safe and sure when it comes to music. There's none of that to be found here.
   
   If you enjoy a good dose of lunatic rock, that is distorted guitars, sludge drenched bass, and map cap percussion, intermixed with ambient music from Hell, then Stone Witch awaits.



4. Pacific Northwest rock shamans the Melvins are among the innovators of '80s and '90s "grunge," though they easily defied this simple categorization with every release. For every churning bucket 'o' sludge like Bullhead they released some off-the-wall album of ambient noodling like Ambient Noise Takeover or Honky. Stoner Witch, one part of the trio released during the Atlantic era (the other two are Houdini and Stag), combines both sides of the Melvins' sound into a surprisingly coherent whole while adding a small dose of commercial hard rock sensibility for good measure.
   
   However, don't be mislead into thinking this is some pallid sellout effort, 'cause it's anything but. If anything, the fact that this band ever got signed to a major is a mystery to me (and I mean that in a positive way, of course).
   
   The first four songs kick Stoner Witch off with a bang, with one-minute opener Skweetis (I wish it were longer--Dale Crover's legendary drumming kicks arse on this one), insidiously catchy stomper Queen, balls-to-the-wall speed of Sweet Willy Rollbar, and the excellent Revolve, a minor hit which stands as one of the most accessible and catchy entries in their catalog. King Buzzo's gruff howl and guitar playing is in fine form here.
   
   Then it starts getting weird. You've got nice chilled slow burns like Goose Freight Train and the dreamy 6-minute Shevil; a dark evil dirge titled At The Stake that would've fit right in on their earlier albums; and Roadbull and Magic Pig Detective, which screw with expectations in some entertaining ways--the former starts like one of the earlier, more accessible tracks before turning into a marching tune complete with whistling, and the latter starts with a wall of noise then suddenly drops in a bit of rock to make it go down easy.
   
   The best two songs, however, are saved for last. June Bug is a great little instrumental with excellent dynamics and melody that cries for a longer run time. The album closes with Lividity, a 9-minute creeping ambient drone that somehow manages to be driven mostly by a handful of REALLY HEAVY bass notes and sporadic Dale hits seemingly placed just right to make you jump. Fans of Earth, Sunn0)))) and the like (all Melvins-influenced, natch) will love this one.
   
   All in all, Stoner Witch is one of the most interesting and varied "major label" albums ever. If you're going to start with any Melvins record, make it this one. Chase that with a round of Houdini then the sonic extremity of Bullhead and Ozma/Gluey Porch Treatments. If you're not singing the Buzzo's praises by then consider yourself lame.



5. lets get one thing straight: Melvins are one of the greatest hard rock bands in metal/punk/alt. history, hands down. they're not only one of the heaviest, they're also one of the loudest and most expressive, and most experimental, never becoming predictable or boring. with each album the band takes one step beyond what you'd expect, but is always--ALWAYS y'hear?--remarkably similar to themselves. in every track on this glorious CD, one of their least hard 'n' heavy, the band takes early 90s Grunge to fantastic new levels of Sludge and dire weirdness, the standouts (to me) being BULLHEAD and MAGIC PIG DETECTIVE. If you want the sameole MTV, corporate radio, emo andor Nu Metal filth thats acting as a plague to modern music, then go away. you won't like this because, quite frankly, your brain has bee shrinked to a level so small as you can never understand what is so special about this music. Melvins use both ambience and talent to pump out one of the strangest and most entertaining bunch of songs ever recorded, and this is, in my ohsohumble opinion a PERFECT companion piece to HOUDINI. if you like these two, move forward and get THE CRYBABY and HOSTILE AMBIENT TAKEOVER before checking out their earlier works. If you don't like it, besides being a musical retarded, you won't like much of this band's legend. 'nuff said...
   
   but thats just my opinion. i could be wrong.

1 comments about Where Am I?.

1. Mike Johnson is highly underrated. Imagine Lou Reed crossed with Leonard Cohen for the vocals. Add very pleasant melodies, thoughtful guitar, and gracefully depressing lyrics, and you have the album. I think his buddy J. Mascis plays drums and perhaps some guitar on this album.

5 comments about The Tape Of only Linda.

1. Not a bad album, but it has very good songs among others more pedestrian. A lower 4 stars, if this could be calibrated on Amazon. Every LF album has astonishing moments and bewildering ones. Each album that Miller has ever done contains also mundane stretches, and annoying bits. It's, as he will explain on the next LF album, his "philosophy." "Tape" remains my least favorite CD only by comparison with the other 4 LF discs, you understand. If a newcomer to the band, I would buy this only if you have liked the first "Plants" CD. The vocals, the words, the complexity are not your eager power-pop. No twinkly new wave. Harsher, meaner, if not leaner. With LF, you're blitzed with an overload of psychic stimuli.
   
   Not counting the diffused 2006 effort half-credited to LF, this is closer to Attractive Nuisance in its mix of more direct, economical (if only by comparison), and tighter tunes with Scott Miller's signature sound of expansive, swirling, mini-epics full of vocal twists, musical filigree, and lyrical legerdemain. A quieter tone, it takes awhile to sink in. Its best songs insinuated themselves, however, much more quickly than usual. I tend to have to listen quite awhile to LF albums for their charms to fully sweep me away.
   
   "Tape" has should-have-been-hits and nice-try-near-misses, even though it follows the template laid down by most of Miller's efforts with Game Theory and LF. He writes and sings most of the time; another band member often guests on one or two songs, taking over the mike. The efforts of the other musicians are to be applauded for their own effort, and Miller for his democratic generosity. But, they usually pale by comparison. Like Ringo's generally did, I suppose.
   
   The strongest songs open and close the record, which hits a lull in the middle after some promising tunes on "side one." Soul Drain ramps up from a mid-tempo to a punishing hard-rock sound fueled by stuttering guitar. It fits the frustration of its words well. It's also a pleasure to hear LF turning up the amps. The first album "Plants [etc.]" tended towards little bits of studio fun and solid pop-oriented, if admirably quirky, songs that managed to express a lighter emotional and lyrical approach that expressed itself in a brighter set of diverse songs-- sort of like a mini "Lolita Nation." On "Tape," the band sounds restive and ready to break out of its soundboard and software processed hibernation.
   
   "My Superior" sounds like a "Tape" item. It's bouncier, and lighter in attitude, but it does lurch about in typically unpredictable style, if it seems a bit clumsy in the attempt. "Marcia & Etrusca" has the type of double-meaning that Miller delights in. (As in the song and album titles he selects, not to mention the sly cover art on "Tape."). More percussive than usual, it displays this album's tendency to burrow deeper into a denser terrain than that of "Plants" or his GT albums. Pop culture collides with ancient Rome, and beyond. The usual erudite touch to transform, Midas-like, our media detritus. It's a clever song, as to be expected from the words, and it also seeks, as with the first two I mentioned, to shift gears halfway through, dissolving into a neo-psych parody of far-out voices and effects.
   
   "Hyde St Virgins," if hits were made from Miller's songs, would be one. It's hummable (not always a Miller trademark!) and catchy. An alternative universe, as he might well agree from his own scientific career, may well rank this as a classic pop ditty. After this, the songs become more workmanlike. "It Just Wouldn't Be Christmas" is a rarer type of a Miller song, a topical one addressed at a particular class of people rather than at or about an individual. Social satire suits him as well as personal invective! Like "Hyde," it has a lighter style that allows it to float more than wedge in the listener's consciousness.
   
   As with the best songs on "Tape," the last one rescues the disc with aplomb. "Ballet Hetero" provides a litany of wistfulness and regrets, mostly romantic ones failed or accomplished, as the title would lead you to expect. It too leaves its poppier start behind for a stretch at altered tempo that allows the melancholy sounds to yearn and reach farther than on any LF or GT album. It tries to soar, freed from Miller's anguished voice. That's how the album ends, with this ethereal longing.



2. Nobody ever accused Scott Miller and the Loud Family of being direct or easy for casual listeners to get into, but this CD may be the closest he's gotten. It doesn't have all of his best tunes or even printed lyrics (a must with his work - it needs reader's guides as much as Finnegan's Wake), but Tape of Only Linda has some knockout songs that stand up to his work with both Loud Family AND Game Theory. The only problem with the record is the length - 10 songs is fine for many bands, but with Miller you always want something a bit more sprawling. By the way, the title is a reference to a tape of Linda McCartney's vocals isolated from a live mix - pure unintentional comedy.

   Best Tracks:
   "Soul Drain" - Good opener, very alterna-catchy.
   "My Superior" - Classic rock updated by indie kids, this is one of my all time LF songs. Great guitar riff, just the right amount of synths - a hands down winner.
   "Hyde Street Virgins" - Jangle Pop 101...more like Jangle Pop 495. Advanced study for those who already mastered the form and moved on.
   "Still It's Own Reward" - Cute and singsongy, this is an overlooked gem on this album. It may be a bit too sweet for the hardcore alternative/psychedelic fans but I think it's a keeper.




3. Let me first of all say that again as my review of Plants and Birds and Rocks and things im Zachary Smiths daughter. therfor making my reivew a tad bit biased. yet I know what I like and i do like this. It is not good all over but some songs really stick out like "Soul Drain" "Hyde Street Virgins" "My superior" (written by my father by the way). Please buy this CD and give the loud familly a try or another one for some ppl



4. When this came out, many Miller fans found it a little over-polished and moaned about the appearance of songs by other members of the band. Miller's never, in 20+ years of pop song genius, allowed anything less than wonderful to have his name on it, and this is no exception. Song structures and melodies are perhaps less skewed than on Interbabe Concern or even Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things (both of which are "better" albums to old fans), but the production (Mitch Easter) is luscious and a joy to listen to. Years later, this stuff is still catchy and fresh, and some of it ranks among Miller's best-ever songs. A fine second or third LF purchase for the new fan.



5. The music is pretty direct and the playing fairly brutal. What makes this work to some degree is the brilliance of the songs. "Soul Drain", "Wouldn't Be Christmas", "My Superior", and "Baby Hard-to-be-Around" are particularly inspired.

1 comments about Califone.

1. Plenty of interesting experimentation here, worth a listen. If you don't feel like paying a ridiculous amount for this and the other collectable self-titled release, check out "When Good Weather Follows Bad People," a compilation of both discs.