Mummifier - "Advanced Mummification Procedure" on Grindcore Karaoke

It's beginning to look as if the Mummifier full-length isn't going to be released on CD. Life has repeatedly stepped in and fucked up any chances I had of saving money for this release. I'm not sure it matters, though. For the most part people don't even listen to CDs. People buy them, then put the audio on their iPods, etc, but loading a CD into a CD player and listening to the CD itself has become a thing of the past. I can't say I'm bothered by this. I don't care how people listen to it as long as they're listening.



The cassette version of this will be out in a matter of days via www.hurtstohear.com with a variation of the cover art (fucken' snazzy, isn't it?!). I'll have a few to sell if people want a physical product to hold in their hands, or they can order them from the label directly. But, like LPs and their download cards, people can get a pristine copy of the audio by grabbing it online from Grindcore Karaoke right now. The download comes with 12 bonus tracks (from our two demos) and a digital booklet. Grab it for free here...

http://www.grindcorekaraoke.com/album/advanced-mummification-procedure




Thanks to Kurtis and Randall for their help in bringing this to fruition after 18 months of delays. I hope people will think it's worth the wait.

A-Z PROJECT: 192-198

198 days ago I started listening to all of my CDs in alphabetic order to see if I could do it. I found myself bored with what I was listening to and spending more and more time deciding on what to listen to. I realized I had a lot of CDs I never listened to, stuff I never had the urge to put on, and decided to just listen to all of them in order instead. My goal was to listen to everything in a year, or at least to see how long it would take me to accomplish this. I’ve been tracking my progress on Facebook by posting daily playlists and giving my immediate thoughts on what I was listening to as I was listening to it. I've since deleted my Facebook and thought I’d post my progress here instead since I need to make more use of this Blog site anyway. I don’t consider myself to be a writer, a music critic or an authority on music. This is simply a way to alleviate boredom at a job in which very little is expected out of me. I’m also not posting these playlists to brag about my music collection and I’m not burning copies of this stuff for people, so don’t ask.

(*) asterisks note things that are burned copies and not an original release. CDRs without asterisks behind them were originally issued as CDRs.

Day #192
MYTHOS - "Concrete City" CD (Mythos took a strange turn into synth heavy proto-metal sometime in the late-70s. The guitar and synth sounds and riffing styles are similar to the first Tubeway Army album, but the strong Germanic vocals take forefront here. Whenever there's singing, all focus is on that. This is weird rock-opera type shit, but it's awesome. "Neutron Bomb" has parts that sound as if they were lifted from a Candlemass album. I keep listening to this stuff thinking about covering one of these tracks because they would sound great a little heavier and faster. I'm completely on board with this album.)

MYTHOS - "Strange Guys" CD (The first track on this album, "Aeronaut", is one of the greatest proto-metal tracks ever recorded and I will record a cover of it before I hang up my guitar. That song alone is worth picking this up. "Powerslide" is another heavy and groovy instrumental, the other highlight of this album. The brakes are applied from the second song on to the end of the album, but this is a great synth-heavy German rock record with some flute and piano overdubs that harken back to their earlier krautrock roots. I think this album is unfairly dismissed by fans of progressive rock and krautrock. If only their vocals weren't so stiff sounding, this might have been better received.)

MYTHOS / MESSAGE - "Dreamlab" + "The Dawn Anew is Comin'" CDR* (I received this as part of a trade years ago and never got around to buying "Dreamlab" on CD. Mythos' second album is quite a bit more mellow and relaxed than their debut. Lots of acoustic guitar and loose jamming, still with walls of mellotron providing plenty of ambience. This is a nice, spacey cosmic album, but it's my least favorite Mythos album and that's probably why I haven't replaced this burned copy yet. This Message album is pretty good. Very Anglo sounding rock with some prog tendencies. There are moments that remind me of Genesis and King Crimson, but it's nowhere near as active as either of those bands.)

NAILED DOWN - "Anarchy & Violence" CDR* (This is something I threw together after ripping all of my ND vinyl released up to that point. I was fanatical about Nailed Down in the 90s and still am to some extent today. They were one of the best HC bands to come out of Australia, but they slowed down and cleaned up their recordings too much for my tastes. This CDR has their "Violent Distortion" 3"CD, their split 7"s with Dismachine and D.P.P.S., the "Destroy Deceitful Fellows" 7", "Honour and Glory" 8" flexi and the "Atrocious Damnation" 10", the noisiest shit they recorded. 84 tracks in 78 minutes... That's a whole lot of anger and crust riffs.)

NAILED DOWN - "Resurection" CD (It's nice to hear them playing fast again. 16 songs in 14 short minutes, channeling Negative Approach it seems. This shit is ferocious and unrelenting.)

NAKED CITY - s/t CD (Technically, this was released as a John Zorn album titled "Naked City", but there are Naked City songs on this and it's the same band, so I file it in the "N" section. Another one of my favorite CDs from my teenage years, and another I don't listen to very often now. I've always gotten the impression that Zorn was slumming it playing grindcore, one of those "Neat, I can do that too!" situations. I'm not sure how I feel about jazz intellectuals playing grindcore, but it doesn't sit well with me. The teenage me never considered such things. I should just fuck off, pretend it's 1992 again and enjoy this for what it is)

NAKED CITY - "Torture Garden" CD (This is a great CD. 42 songs in 27 minutes of demented jazz/grind. I can assume most of the people reading this will be familiar with this gem, and if not - you should be. It's one of the craziest albums ever released, and yet contains very little "wacky". Still, this is my first time listening to it in at least 10 years.)

NAPALM DEATH - "From Enslavement to Obliteration" CD (Napalm Death had 1.5 great albums and a whole bunch more that were just okay. This whole album is great and the second half of "Scum" is great. Other than there being too much reverb on the recording, this is just about perfect.)

NAPALM DEATH - "Noise for Music's Sake" 2CD (I bought this thinking it was something else and have been meaning to sell it since then. This is probably a pretty comprehensive collection of Napalm Death's discography, but I haven't heard anything since "Fear, Emptiness and Despair" and haven't enjoyed anything since "Harmony Corruption". I don't know what the fuck I thought this was when I bought it.)

Day #193
NAPALM DEATH - "The Peel Sessions" CD (I forgot about this one when I said they had only 1.5 great albums. This is actually my favorite Napalm Death release after the second side of "Scum". I have the version with the flaming car on the front, atomic green CD and only the first two sessions. Those other sessions are crap anyway.)

NAPALM DEATH - "Scum" CD (I heard this one second, after "Harmony Corruption". Needless to say, it sent me off on a grindcore tangent that hasn't ended yet. I had already devoured Sore Throat's discography before hearing Napalm Death and was well familiar with short bursts of noise, but I wasn't prepared for the intensity of this album.The first side is great, but the gnarly guitar tone on the second side hasn't been equalled since. They should have kept that sound on their next album instead of burying everything in reverb.)

NAPALM DEATH / CARCASS - Split Live CD (Crummy bootleg with lousy sound and very little information in the insert. Mick's between song banter is fucking stupid and annoying. This CD sucks.)

NAPALMED / HERMIT WITH SIST EN 343 - split CDR (This is a reissue by R.O.N.F. of a cassette that was originally released by Abnormal Tapes. Napalmed have been at it forever. I have a bunch of their stuff on cassette, a few 7"s. Radek and I wrote back and forth a few times over the years, seems like a nice guy. There's a lot of variety in his noise, even within a single release. The first song on this is long and sparse with short bursts of noise. Second track sounds like a couple of guys in a factory banging on pipes and dragging sheets of metal around. I've never been in contact with Hermit, but own several of his releases I've picked up from various distros in the 90s. Some of this noise stuff I just happen upon or take a chance with, but Hermit stuff I sought out because it was all good. One of the things I liked about Hermit was that his releases were always so inexpensive. I didn't like them because they were cheap, I just liked that he sold them cheaply. I wonder if he's still recording stuff today?)

NASTY SAVAGE - "Wage of Mayhem" CDR (I acquired this promo somehow, can't remember how. It's two new songs from their new album and their entire "Wage of Mayhem" demo which I already had on cassette. The new songs are good and don't sound too different from their classic albums of the 80s. Good for them for resisting the urge to update their sound in an attempt to make themselves relevant today. The 1984 demo tracks are great and sound like a mixture between "Show No Mercy" era Slayer and Mercyful Fate. How could you not fucking like that?! I'm not sure why these guys were so criminally underrated, but they were. All of their albums were great and Ronnie's vocals were some of the best in the genre. Nasty Savage were a great band.)

NASUM - "En Värld Utan Hopp" CDR (Nasum's pre-Relapse material was some of the greatest grindcore ever recorded, but holy fuck did they suck once they signed with them. Relapse had a knack for getting great grind bands just past their prime. I don't think they had anything to do with Nasum turning to shit, just a matter of bad timing on Relapse's part. As much as I curse Soundlab's cookie-cutter production style for ruining grindcore, this Nasum stuff sounds incredible, even on this shitty Bolivian CDR bootleg with crummy vinyl rips. Tomas Canceras strikes again... I made a better Nasum bootleg for my friend Hagamoto years ago before he moved to Japan, but stupidly, I forgot to burn a copy for myself and have since deleted the wavs I made. It's all been reissued again, so I suppose I could download it if I wanted to. No need to buy it, though, as I already own everything up to the abysmal "Inhale/Exhale" CD. This lousy CDR does just fine in a pinch. Thanks again, Tomas.)

NASUM - "Industrislaven" MCD (Yep, this should have been their last release. Always leave them wanting more.)

NATURALS - "Kaballah-Core" CDR (I assume that's the title, anyway. 3 minutes of grindcore from Las Vegas recorded on a boombox and packaged in a used Phobia CD jewel case with a Priority Mail label stuck to the back of it.)

NECRONOMICON - "Tips Zum Selbstmord" CD (Originally a private pressing of 500 copies, even the CD version of this krautrock oddity fetches big money these days. Crude, rough around the edges and heavy, but not in a Black Sabbath sort of way. "Tips for Suicide" was their only album, and while it's really good, it's nowhere near as great as people make it out to be. I think it's scarcity has built a legend out of this album and created hype it can't possibly live up to. You have to wonder if they had chosen the name Dictionary instead and called their album "Book of Definitions", would anyone be talking about them at all?)

NECRONOMICON - "Vie Kapitel 1" CDR* (At some point their only LP was reissued as part of a 4LP expanded set, the third LP being the album. Call me crazy, but I think I like the bonus stuff more than the album itself. It sounds like it was recorded on two tracks during rehearsal, but the songs are looser and bluesier. I'm used to low fidelity recordings, so the sound doesn't take away from the enjoyment at all. Thanks to the Internet for making this stuff available again.)

NECRONOMICON - "Vie Kapitel 2" CDR* (From the same recording as the above album. The two long tracks that close each side are fantastic.)

NECRONOMICON - "Vie Kapitel 4" CDR* (Eh, see above posts. Fuck it, I can't write about the same album three times.)

NECRONY - "Pathological Performances / Mucupurulent Miscarraige" CDR* (I missed out on Necrony while they were around and don't own any of their releases. I downloaded this stuff a few years ago when I remembered they existed. Nasum formed as a side project of Necrony, then sort of took over. Necrony are more metal sounding, less straight forward grinding. The triggered drums sound horrible, and it could be because I'm 30 minutes away from getting off work, but this CD is putting me to sleep.)

Day #194
NECROPHILIACS - "Discography" CDR (German grind/noisecore with some of the stupidest ham-sandwich-in-the-mouth vocals ever. Contains their "Primitive & Uncultivated" LP, "Hardcore Psychos" 7" and split 7"s with Incisive, Meat Shits and W.B.I., all ripped from my vinyl with the exception of that pesky W.B.I. split I was never able to track down. I was never able to find their split with Leucemie, either. The material from the bands they did the splits with is on here, too. Any band that writes a song about David Hess is okay by me. At least one of these guys went on to form Flachenbrand.)

NECROS - "Bloated Discography" CDR (Someone from a message board I used to post on sent this to me years ago. The guy who owns Touch & Go Records, Corey Rusk, used to play in this band and has refused to reissue any of this stuff. By doing so, he's just succeeded in feeding the bootleggers. I have most of this stuff on a bootleg LP in addition to this CDR, but I'd rather have a nice, official CD release with liner notes, etc. I'm sure this CDR was sourced from vinyl rips, but the audio sounds great. Necros were one of the first HC bands from Ohio releasing their first 7" in 1981. This disc collects all their material from 1981-1983 + a live set and an interview. I didn't like this stuff when I heard it the first time, but it grew on me, enough so to purchase the aforementioned bootleg LP.)

NEE! - "Nee Means No" CD (Nee! were a great noisecore band from Holland. This was a self-released CD they did 300 copies of. They were one of the earliest bands I was in contact with and they were the first band I released a record of. Their singer, Dennis, always sent great letters with weird doodles all over them and even contributed artwork for a couple C3L releases. I tried getting in contact with him a few years ago about releasing a Nee! discography CD, but he doesn't seem to be online and the letter I sent him was returned. He's in an awesome sludgy band called Death to Music now, well worth checking out. Nee! played 30 second or so blasts of noisecore, usually starting out with a riff, then dissolving into noise. Their drummer was fantastic and played strong blastbeats while Dennis made retarded monstrous screams, sometimes with a pitch shifter. Their drummer eventually sold his drum set and got heavily into analog synths and making noise. As great as they were, their material was sometimes spotty. Their demo was excellent and the reason I asked them to do a 7", but the material they sent me for the record was probably their worst. Years later one of the members told me he didn't like that material either and wondered why I didn't refuse it and request better material. I never questioned it. I figured if that's what they sent me, they were okay with it being released. Pairing them with Warsore didn't help matters. Few bands could hold their own when compared with them. Listening to this now fills me with regret. I wish I had done a better job of staying in contact with these guys. The Internet age sort of ended that. Maybe one of them will see this and leave a comment?)

NEGATIVE APPROACH - "Total Recall" CD (Their first 7" is pretty great, the LP less so and the live stuff that fills out this CD is pretty forgettable. Usually when I listen to this CD I just turn it off after the 7" tracks. The 7" alone secures their spot as one of the best HC bands ever. I heard that "Reproach" tribute before I heard Negative Approach, actually, so when I listen to this CD it always makes me think of Rupture, Dropdead and Spazz, haha...)

NEGATIVE FX / LAST RIGHTS - split CD (Today has been a great day for HC. NFX were a great HC band from Boston, harder and faster than most of their area, except for maybe Siege. Last Rights was a band the singer did between NFX and Slapshot. They only released this one 7", but it fucking rules. This CD is great, gets listened to frequently at my house. They should've included the NFX demo, though. It's great, too.)

NEGATIVLAND - "Dispepsi" CD (My first introduction to Negativland was through the Over the Edge series. I found one of them used in my home town and picked it up because I've heard the name before and because it was cheap. I'm not sure what made me buy more of their releases. I don't remember liking the one I bought, but somehow I acquired more. Lots more. It clicked for me when I heard "Escape From Noise". I Picked up "Dispepsi" when it was released and liked it right away. This is one of their more musical releases, compared to a lot of their releases this seems pretty accessible. Essentially a 43 minute commentary of the cola-war mixing samples, sound collage and folky songs. When this was released, that cola-war shit was all over the place. It seems that shit was crammed down our throats everywhere we turned. Nothing is solved, though a solution was offered in the liner notes, but this was very topical at the time and someone needed to tackle it, I guess. "Happy Heroes" is a great song, one of my favorite Negativland songs. This is one of their better albums.)

NEGATIVLAND - "Escape From Noise" CD (This is probably the Negativland CD I listen to the most often. I'm not going to say it's their best, but it's my favorite. Their albums are so hard to describe, that's part of what I like about them. There are several memorable songs from this release that stick with me for days after hearing them. This contains the great "Christianity is Stupid" song the band used to try to inject themselves into controversy by saying the song had nothing to do with David Brom killing his parents. They would later cover this in more detail on "Helter Stupid".)

NEGATIVLAND - "Free" CD (They tackle patriotism, violence, religion and drunk driving on this one. Again, fairly song heavy compared to a lot of their catalog, but still with heaps of sound collage peppered over it. "Happy the Harmonica" breaks up the dark tone of this album with a 10 minute reading of a children's story by the Weatherman. Another great album.)

NEGATIVLAND - "Happy Heroes" CD (A short stab at commercialism with multiple ads for Mertz, a fictitious brain shaped pill that makes your mind up for you. Orson Welles reveals what a colossal prick he is in outtakes for a Green Giant commercial, Col. Sanders reveals he can't fucking talk and OJ Simpson let's us in on his workout routine.)

NEGATIVLAND - "Helter Stupid" LP + "Guns" EP + "U2" EP CDR* (I have "Helter Stupid" on LP, but wanted it on CD, too, so I downloaded some stuff I didn't have to fill out the disc. "Helter Stupid" is great. "Guns" was released as a substitute for "U2" after it was deleted. All of this stuff rules.)

Day #195
NEGATIVLAND - "Over the Edge Vol. 1: Jam Con '84" CD (The OTE discs are great, but they're an endurance test to listen to. Taken from their weekly radio show, it really does sound like tuning into 5-6 different radio stations at the same time. There's always some loose concept involved, but the content is all over the place. It's not for everyone, that's for sure. Years ago I bought loads of the OTE sets from an online distributor that was going out of business. They were too cheap to pass on, but I probably wouldn't have paid full retail for these. I bought loads of stuff from that distro: Residents, Renaldo & the Loaf, Snakefinger, Fred Frith, Drums & Tuba, Henry Cow, Negativland, etc, all at half price or cheaper.)

NEGATIVLAND - "Over the Edge Vol. 1 and 1/2 The Starting Line" CD (Dick Goodbody leads us through a round of automobile trivia and other nonsense. Dick's voice is hypnotic, perfectly suited for radio. This was the first Negativland CD I bought and it's one of my favorites now. I don't think I understood what the fuck was going on at the time, not sure I do now, either. The phone-in singalong is one of my favorite pieces from their catalog. We also get an uninterrupted 5 minutes of the Weatherman's neighbor's Roto-tiller in action. I guess I should feel stupid for paying money for this at this point, but I don't.)

NEGATIVLAND - "Over the Edge Vol. 2: Pastor Dick: Muriel's Purse Fund" CD (When my friend Hagamoto still lived in Minneapolis, listening to these OTE discs on the drive up to see him was sort of a tradition. Being stuck in a car for 5 hours is the best way to listen to this stuff. I think I may have listened to this only once. I'm not remembering anything as I listen to it just now. Dick Goodbody returns as Pastor Dick doing a pledge drive to replace the $180 taken from Muriel's purse. Callers confess to three sins, then Dick tells them how much they should pledge for their sins, then takes a sip of champagne for every dollar pledged getting drunk in the process. As usual with these OTE discs, it dissolves into complete nonsense and overlapping noise towards the end.)

NEGATIVLAND - "Over The Edge Vol. 3: The Weatherman’s Dumb Stupid Come-Out Line" 2CD (David Wills opens up the lines for people to follow his example and come out of the "Homosexual Closet" and attracts a bunch of angry homophobes instead. The Weatherman criticizes people's pronunciation "homa-sexual", claims to have had sex with his Super-Booper and states that he's a complete embarrassment to the homosexual community while a cacophony of noise including "YMCA" and a repeated clip of "fuck this faggot" plays in the background. On the second disc the Weatherman turns into the Clorox Cowboy, but there's no real theme to this disc, just a bunch of nonsense.)

Day #196
NEGATIVLAND -"Over the Edge Vol. 6: The Willsaphone Stupid Show" 2CD (The Weatherman gives us an interesting glimpse into his childhood by playing tapes he recorded of him and his family as a child. David recorded everything, kept everything and broadcast it over KPFA. His whole house was wired with microphones and speakers, he would tape his parents talking in the kitchen, then speak to them from his bedroom over the speaker. His parents were terribly supportive of his hobbies to allow such nonsense. At one point he even gets his mother to say "Are we not men? We are Devo." One of the better OTE installments.)

NEGATIVLAND - "Over the Edge Vol. 7: Time Zones Exchange Project" 2CD (I'm cleaning the house while listening to this, so I'm only half paying attention. This sounds more like a Fireside Theater broadcast than Over the Edge. I'm having a difficult time figuring out what the fuck is going on, to be honest.)

Day #197
NEGATIVLAND - "Over the Edge Vol.8: Sex Dirt" CD (It might be that I've reached saturation level with Negativland at this point, but this CD seems lazy and stupid, like a couple of guys fucking around in a studio for an hour laughing at the same joke over and over, which is exactly what this is. Lazy dance beats with samples of sex ed records over them while the Weatherman talks about Clorox and Formula 409. I understand that coming up with original material for a weekly radio show is difficult, but they probably could have left this off of a CD release.)

NEGATIVLAND - "Points" CD (No, I haven't reached saturation point. This album is great. Their second album, and one if their weirdest/darkest sounding. The krautrock influence is really apparent in this one at at times this sounds like Faust or Cluster. Negativland too their "band" name from a Neu! song, afterall, and their label name, Seeland, from another Neu! song. David's mother starts out the album with her rendition of "Harry to the Ferry", then things move into darker territory after the happiest song on the album, "The Answer is...". We're treated to a mixture of home made electronics, tape manipulation and samples. Without the samples, this really would sound like something recorded in 1971 Düesseldorf.)

NEGATIVLAND - "These Guys are From England and Who Gives a Shit?" CD (The expanded deluxe version of their infamous "U2" single. There's speculation that the band released this themselves, but it's released on Seelard, not Seeland, and is considered a bootleg. The "U2" single is great, and some of these bonus tracks are great, too, but we're hearing variations of the same material for 74 minutes, more or less.)

NEMESIS -"The Day of Retribution" CDR* (I made this CD from rips I did of my cassette I bought in Minneapolis in the late 90s. I don't know if it's ever been released on CD, but there was a 2LP reissue of it a few years ago with bonus stuff. Nemesis was Leif's band before Candlemass. The music is very similar, but the vocals are nowhere near as strong. Awesome mid-paced, doomy metal with decent production. The cassette I bought was the reissue on Metal Blade and has a two song Candlemass demo at the end, also with Leif doing vocals. This stuff is great, right up there with "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus", essential for doom metal fans. I've always wanted to record a cover of "Black Messiah".)

NETJAJEV SS - triangle 8", bonus 5" + final 7" CDR* (Clay from Rescued From Life sent me this after I bought the 8" and it wouldn't play on my turntable. He said I was the only person who complained about it not playing, but sent me this CDR so I could listen to it. Magnus of NSS gets bored easily and ends one project and starts another all the time. Even within one project he'll change styles a few times, as was the case with Netjajev SS. What started as sort of a Rupture tribute band eventually added surf parts, keyboards and other weird shit later on. No complaints from me, though, I loved the changes. I just wish he would stop changing the name of his projects so it would be easier to keep track of this shit. I didn't even realize Syphilitic Vaginas was his band until after he stopped using that name and moved on to something else. I think I liked NSS the most of all his projects, but Rupture are my favorite band, so that makes sense.)

NEU! - s/t CD (I was so happy when this was reissued. I found bootlegs of the other two albums in Iowa City, but never this one, so it was the last one I heard. It's also their best album. Both members of Neu! played in an early version of Kraftwerk. I can't remember if they quit or were kicked out, but the human element of Kraftwerk's sound left with them. Klaus Dinger, their drummer, pioneered the "motorik" beat (if you've heard it, you know what I'm talking about) and in the process created one of the most defining elements of krautrock. This first album is an absolute classic, not only in krautrock, but it's one of the best albums in any genre. It's mixture of light and airy hypnotic instrumentals, dark ambient industrial noise and pre-punk aggression somehow works to create a spectacular album, not just a collection of diverse sounds. This is a masterpiece of sound, a 10/10 album, in my opinion.)

NEU! - "2" CD (A bootleg on the Germanofon label, the first Neu! album I heard. I distinctly remember being completely underwhelmed by it and felt as if I had been ripped off. Having run out of money half way through recording this album, they slowed down, sped up and fucked with existing songs to make "remixes" out of necessity to create a full album. I still think the "remix" songs are terrible, but the proper songs on this album are fantastic. I usually just skip past the fucked up songs, but I'll be listening to them today.)

NEU! - "75" CD (Another Germanofon bootleg. Not able to come to an agreement on styles, the two members decided to split the album up so each could do whatever they wanted on their side. Rother's side is awesome, totally mellow ambient piano heavy instrumentals. Really spacious and melodic, simply great. Dinger's side is much more aggressive, almost protopunk with snarling angry vocals and hard rhythmic beats. Both sides are great, but the mellow stuff wins out by a mile.)

NEUROPATHIA - "Graveyard Cowboys" CD (I bought this in Felix Havoc's distro after looking through it, not finding anything else and not wanting to walk away empty handed after taking up so much of his time talking about stupid shit. This sounds like Exhumed with a touch of early Blood Duster, but with stupider vocals than both. I don't remember the vocals on their other releases sounding like this. I'd sell this if anyone wants it. I'm not digging it today at all...)

NEUROPATHIA / PUTRESCENCE -split CD (Neuropathia's vocals are just at average level of stupidity on this release, sounds as if they've hung up the pitch shifter for the most part. This is way better than the CD above. The songs are faster, recording is better, etc. Putresence's half of the CD is even better. Nice grimy grindcore with unique throaty vocals and a slightly dirty recording that suits this style just fine.)

NEUROSIS - "Pain of Mind" CD (I realize I'm doing it wrong, but I really only give a fuck about Neurosis' early HC stuff. Their apocalyptic doom stuff from "Souls at Zero" and on out doesn't interest me at all. I've come to the conclusion over the years that the "Pain of Mind" CD and "Abberation" 7" are all I need. I have the Alternative Tentacles reissue of this, the one with Bud Dwyer blowing his brains out on the cover. It was reissued again as a 2CD with loads of bonus stuff, but I've not heard that version. My first exposure to these guys was "The Thing That ate Floyd" 2LP. Neurosis and Stikky were the two best bands on that compilation. I bought everything I could find of both bands then, but didn't acquire this one until it was reissued. By that point I had lost interest in them for the most part, but curious enough to hear it anyway. I'm glad I picked it up. It's pretty heavy, but those touches of dark/emotional shit that would take over on their later albums was present at the very beginning on songs like "Black". I'd rather all of it sound like "Dominoes Fall" instead, and enough of it does to secure a place in my CD collection forever.)

NEUROSIS - "The Word as Law" CD (This CD is pretty good, too. The recording is certainly better and the songs are still really heavy and tighter than on their debut, but it's noticeably less HC and Scott started doing that annoying thing where he stretches out words as he sings them on this one. It's also about 20 minutes longer than it should be. It's better than I remember it being, actually. I don't think I realized there was a Joy Division cover on this album until just now, though. It's been a looong time since I've listened to this.)

Day #198
NEW YORK AGAINST THE BELZEBU - "Are You Ready For Noise?" CD (I live for this kind of sloppy noisecore shit. NYAB were from Brazil and essentially played German style noisecore: short musical intros followed by short blasts of noise with shouted group vocals, usually silly. The great thing about having your own label is you can release whatever you want, including your own band. The guy from Rotthenness Records was in NYAB, and while they might have been able to find another label to release this stuff, it might have been difficult talking someone into doing a proper CD of live boombox recordings. There are a couple "studio" sessions mixed in among the live tracks, but the majority of this sounds completely overloaded and maxed out, but I'm not complaining. I traded with Nelson a bunch of times in the 90s. He was always quick with sending his stuff out and seemed like a nice guy. There's 82 songs on this CD and it's just under an hour. It took me years to find a copy of this, and once I did, it was well past noisecore's heyday new for $5.00.)

NEW YORK AGAINST THE BELZEBU / EMPTY GRAVE / PURE NOISE - "3 Way Grindnoisecore" CD (As many times as I've listened to this, I'm completely unable to figure out which tracks belong to which band. It sounds as if there are 4 bands on here instead of 3 and there's way more songs than the 99 track markers indicate. NYAB are easy to identify and play the same silly HC inspired noisecore as on their other releases, but this time with a clearer recording and added keyboards on a few tracks. I'm pretty sure Empty Grave starts at track 29. While still super noisy, they take on sort of a black/thrash feel most of the time, sounding at times like Confusion. At track 51 there's another noticeable change in style with even shorter songs, most under 5 seconds, stripped of any metal influence and with pitch-shifted vocals. Track 99 is 15 minutes long, a bunch of short songs together on one track. The songs are tighter and longer than the previous bunch and with two vocalists, one pitch-shifted and another high and raspy like Nate from Black Market Fetus. It sounds like a different band than whoever tracks 51-98 was and I can't imagine the third band would take up the last 30 minutes of the disc while the other two bands had 15 minutes each. Regardless of the murky tracklist, this is a great CD. All of the bands are super noisy with decent production. I sold heaps of these through Mortville.)

PHIL NIBLOCK - "G2,44+/x2" CD (My good friend Mike sent this to me years ago. I'm not sure who Phil Niblock is or if his other releases sound like this, but this is pure drone, one tone for a solid hour. A solid, consistent note is held for 30 minutes on two tracks played by 4 guitarists (including Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore). The effect is awesome, and this sounds totally different at various volumes and at various distances and positioning from the speakers. "Earth 2" and SunnO))) have nothing on this guy. This is the purest drone I've experienced.)

THE NIGGERS - "Singles" CDR (Two songs of sloppy, poorly recorded garage rock/punk. The vocals are screamingly loud compared to the music which is barely audible. The insert says these guys are from Ohio and that this is limited to 50 copies. This is pretty forgettable.)

NIGH - 2002 CDR (15 minutes of crispy electronic noise done on what sounds like a synth of some sort. There's some tape manipulation going on, too, I think. This kind of home-made lo-fi noise appeals to me in small doses. 15 minutes is just about right for something like this. Any longer and I'd lose interest.)

NIGHT SUN - "Mournin'" CD (Their only album from 1972 reissued on the great Second Battle label. This is heavy German progressive rock, borderline metal not too different from Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and the first Lucifer's Friend album. This shit's all over the place, crazy arrangements and powerful high pitched vocals. One of these guys played with Guru Guru after Night Sun split up.)

NIHILIST - "1987-1989" CD (Swedish death metal, pre-Entombed. This is a collection of all of their demos I picked up at Extreme Noise in Minneapolis a few years ago. The sound is a bit murky, but better than rips I found online, nice thick booklet with lots of liner notes and photos. I probably listen to this more than any of the Entombed albums.)

NIHILIST COMMANDO - "Noisecore Violations 2002-2008" CD (Brutal, angry noisecore violence from Finland, one of the angriest sounding projects I've heard in my life. Take the angriest and harshest 7MON recordings, run it through an overdrive pedal, strip it of all traces of art and politics and you'll have an idea of what this sounds like. This stuff is insane.)

NIHILISTICS - "13th Anniversary" CD (Reissue of the NY scum punk band's "legendary" first 7" from 1979 and LP from 1983. Totally rough, sloppy and stupid, just what they were shooting for, I'm sure. The 7" is better than the album, in my opinion. The cover of the booklet promises a glow in the dark CD, but it's a load of shit. I bought this in Denver ages ago because I remembered them from the great "New York Trash" compilation, because Rupture covered one of their songs and because it was cheap. It's worth the $8 I spent on it, but I probably wouldn't pay $12 for it.)

MIHILISTICS - "Vaginosis Volume 1" CD (This is a live CD Released by Yeah, Mate! Records in 2000 consisting of a set recorded at CBGB's in 1984 and a set on WNYU in 1989 with a silly interview. The audio is okay, not great, soundboard with a lot of tape hiss, artwork is extreme close-ups of diseased, hairy vaginas. I think I prefer the 1984 live set to their 1983 studio album after listening to them back to back just now. The stage banter is annoying, but funny. These guys sound like they'd be total shitheads to hang out with. This was the only non-Rupture release on Yeah, Mate!.)

"Where's Your Beard?" on Grindcore Karaoke

Speaking of Grindcore Karaoke, MORT:004 is seeing new life as GK#56 and gaining a whole new audience thanks to Randall's impeccable tastes. His download has embedded artwork, a digital pdf booklet and the option of a FLAC download, so even if you've grabbed it from my blogsite before, it wouldn't hurt to grab this updated version, too.

http://www.grindcorekaraoke.com/album/wheres-your-beard

Band list for "Where's Your Beard?"

Bad Acid Trip

Wadge

Captain Three Leg

Gore Beyond Necropsy

Pyuria

Parade of the Lifeless

Hated Principles

Machetazo

Grossmember

N.O.Y.F.B.

Violent Headache

Noisear

Pantalones Abajo Marinero

Krabathor

Autoritar

Humanextermination Project

Blood Suckers

Pissed Cunt

Drunken Orgy of Destruction

Carrion Crawler

Senor Lululalo

Ruido

"Attacked by Bees..." C-35 comp 1998

"Attacked by Bees..." was my second compilation tape. I ended up dubbing 400 copies of this before stopping. It was loads of work assembling these things between dubbing the tapes at real time, typing out each label, cutting out and numbering each cover and cutting, stapling and folding the booklets. I certainly didn't charge enough for them considering the materials and amount of work involved. Being able to effortlessly sell 400 copies of this tape inspired me to start up Mortville and do my first vinyl release.

As with my other compilation tapes, the majority of these songs are exclusive to this release. The exceptions were Kungfu Rick and Arden Chapman, both of their tracks came from their demos. The tracks from Dahmer, Unholy Grave and Taste of Fear would all be released on split 7"s later, but were unreleased when I compiled this. Overall I'm really happy with the track selection and feel this was a solid release.

A couple of years ago I considered releasing this and "Where's Your Beard?" on one CD, but I've since abandoned the idea. It was 4 seconds too long for both of them to fit on a CD and it would have been too much work tracking down all of these bands to send them free copies, anyway. Some of them I haven't been in contact with since sending them copies of this tape. I decided to just make it available for free download instead.

J. Randall has a great thing going with his Grindcore Karaoke website, so I thought that would be the best place to host it. He's up to almost 100 releases now, all free for the taking. Go over to his site to grab this compilation, then look over his other titles while you're there.

http://www.grindcorekaraoke.com/album/attacked-by-bees

Please note: Because this was assembled 13 years ago, the addresses listed on the bands graphics probably aren't accurate today and were included for archival purposes only.

Band list for "Attacked by Bees..."

Agathocles

Arden Chapman

Bete Noire

Cornucopia

D.U.I.

Dahmer

Depressor

Disability Recovery Project

Dismembered Fetus

Decomposing Serenity

Ear Bleeding Disorder

Feces Munchers

Feculence

Final Exit

Flammable Child

Forced Expression

Green Beret

Hated Principles

Hypo-Christians

Kungfu Rick

Liquified Maggots

Morbid Vomit

Nothing

NOYFB

NY Against the Belzebu

Malignant Gimo

Person Inside of Regan

Religious Fucks

Rot

Sockeye

Soiled

Spew-Gina

Taste of Fear

Tender Love

Unholy Grave

Victims of Tradition

Viscera

Warsore

Yeast Infection

86'd

A-Z PROJECT: 184-191

191 days ago I started listening to all of my CDs in alphabetic order to see if I could do it. I found myself bored with what I was listening to and spending more and more time deciding on what to listen to. I realized I had a lot of CDs I never listened to, stuff I never had the urge to put on, and decided to just listen to all of them in order instead. My goal was to listen to everything in a year, or at least to see how long it would take me to accomplish this. I’ve been tracking my progress on Facebook by posting daily playlists and giving my immediate thoughts on what I was listening to as I was listening to it. I've since deleted my Facebook and thought I’d post my progress here instead since I need to make more use of this Blog site anyway. I don’t consider myself to be a writer, a music critic or an authority on music. This is simply a way to alleviate boredom at a job in which very little is expected out of me. I’m also not posting these playlists to brag about my music collection and I’m not burning copies of this stuff for people, so don’t ask.

(*) asterisks note things that are burned copies and not an original release. CDRs without asterisks behind them were originally issued as CDRs.

Day #184
MINUTEMEN - "Post-Mersh Vol. 3" CD (This is another great collection, this time with the "Paranoid Time" EP, "Bean Spill" EP, "Joy" EP, "Tour Spiel" EP and the "Politics of Time" LP. All of these are great, even if the LP is a mixed bag collection of recordings with varying sound quality - some of which are downright dreadful. These earliest Minutemen recordings are great. This CD gets played pretty frequently, it's one of my favorites.)

MISSUS BEASTLY - s/t CD (Garden of Delights is one of my favorite record labels. I've never purchased a CD of theirs I didn't like. Their releases always sound and look great, usually have bonus tracks and have booklets so thick they're difficult to fit in the jewel case. They've done a great deal to preserve German psychedelic and progressive rock of the 70s and I wouldn't have had the chance to hear most of this stuff if not for their reissues. Missus Beastly are an early krautrock obscurity, formed as early as 1968. If I remember correctly, members of this band left and formed a new band also called Missus Beastly. This first album of theirs alternates between shorter psychedelic rock numbers and longer bluesy/jazzy jams. "Chinese Love Song" is an early example of tardcore and is completely disposable. Other than that one song, this is a pretty enjoyable album. I've not heard their other albums, but I understand they are more jazz/fusion style and more technical.)

MIXTURIZER + PHIL TARR & FRIENDS - "Collaboration" CDR (I'm not sure I've listened to this before today. It's not sounding familiar to me. I have no idea who Phil Tarr is or what part he played in this collaboration. I'm not a big fan of shouted obscenities over music or noise. I think that has a lot to do with why I was never able to get into Bastard Noise. The first 4-5 minutes of this CDR is filled with shouted obscenities. It moves from there into two channels of medium-grit electronic noise before the the vocals return along with what might be a guitar, though it's so distorted it's difficult to tell exactly where the melody is coming from. 12 minutes in it's apparent it was a guitar I heard earlier, followed by several minutes of abusing said guitar. I think I might be able to enjoy this if were vocal-free, but 40 minutes of this sort of stuff isn't easy to take on at once. A rare "miss" from the R.O.N.F. label.)

MOB 47 / PROTES BENGT - "Garanterat Mangel" CD (I bought this from Vacuum when it was released in the mid-90s. It was the first time any of this material had been released on CD, it's since been expanded and rereleased at least two more times. Mob 47 were the fastest of all the Swedish D-beat bands, at least until they topped themselves with the proto-grind Protes Bengt 32 song 7". I haven't listened to this in several years, but this is shit-hot. Most CDs with 80+ songs are, though. I can't imagine how mind-blowing this stuff would have been back in 1982. It still sounds fresh today.)

M.O.D. - "Gross Misconduct" CD (I've owned this on all three formats in my lifetime. While not even coming close to touching the greatness of their first album, this one is terrific in it's own right. Strangely enough, as much as I like this album I've never heard any of their releases after this one. M.O.D. were one of the best crossover bands, in my opinion. They were angry, funny, tight, heavy, wrote catchy songs and had that great Megaforce crunch so many of the bands on their roster had. I think this was the first album of theirs I heard. That's probably why I still consider it to be a classic. This CD has a song about Batman, "Dark Knight", as a bonus track, but it's pretty shitty. I wish they played more stuff from this album when I saw them live a few years ago.)

M.O.D. - "Surfin' M.O.D." CD (A strange choice for a sophomore release, and probably one of the strangest thrash/crossover albums ever recorded. Instead of playing it safe, they recorded a beach party concept album with cover versions of Beach Boys, Isley Brothers and Chicago. One side of the album is "The Movie", the second "The Soundtrack" without the sketches and intros. This is a fun album, but it never occurred to me until just now how essentially this is just a bunch of NYHC guys making fun of west coast culture. The spoken bits are really, really stupid.)

M.O.D. - "U.S.A. for M.O.D." CD (An absolute classic crossover album. Mean spirited and tough as nails, controversial enough to vilify Billy Milano for years to come. This sort of humor spoke right to me as a teen and I've yet to outgrow it. Bands like M.O.D, and Dayglo Abortions have done more to shape my personality than I should probably admit. Humor aside, the music on this is fucking intense with a nice dirty production job by Scott Ian. "The Hate Tank" still sends the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.)

MONASTAT 2600 - "Haunted Lullabies and Nursery Rhymes" CD (I'm assuming this is one or more of the guys from Monastat 7. This shot sounds like Faxed Head, but nowhere near as good. I'm not a fan of "wacky", and this CD has it in spades. No thanks...)

MONGOLOID WITCHCRAFT - "A Disgusting Gush of Perished Hymns" CDR (I had the pleasure of meeting Ian, the drummer/singer of this band on one of my trips to Colorado to see my friend Ace. They had hung out previously and got along swimmingly and Ace thought I should meet him, so Ian and I both planned a trip to Denver to meet up. While there, we recorded a bunch of songs with Ace and Sic-Nic of Yeast Infection, but they're still unreleased today. I had traded tapes with Ian before then, but I didn't know it was the same guy until I got there. Ian explained to me that Mongoloid Witchcraft is 100% improvised in the studio, then the good bits are edited out later and vocals are added after the fact. As a result, the music is often quite noisy and sometimes lacking in structure. This also creates interesting, unique short bursts of songs that don't sound like any other band. Not all of this works, but it often does. It's somewhere between noisecore and black metal, but not really either. I lost contact with Ian over time. He was a fun guy, easy to play with and we had a great time that week.)

MONGOLOID WITCHCRAFT - "Practice Makes Predictable" CD (See above... This was their first, self-financed CD.)

Day #185
THELONIOUS MONK - "The Best of the Blue Note Years" CD (I'm not terribly versed in jazz. Monk's name gets thrown around a lot, so I bought this to check him out. I don't think I know enough about jazz to say if it's good or not. Monk's playing is very percussive and angular, doesn't flow very well and I imagine he'd be hard to play along with. I've not heard anyone with this particular playing style before or after, so I guess that's something. Wikipedia says Monk is the second most recorded jazz artist after Duke Ellington and that's an accomplishment because while Duke composed over 1000 pieces, Monk composed only 70 or so. The more I listened to this CD the more I liked it, but I never got around to buying more of his stuff. I'm definitely open to hearing more, though.)

THE MONKS - "Black Monk Time" CD (Monks were a late-60s garage rock/proto-punk band. If I remember eight, they were American GIs stationed in Germany and the band broke up when they returned to the states. I heard them on the Nuggets box set and wanted to hear more. They were the subject of a documentary a couple of years ago, but I haven't seen it yet. They're a cult band of sorts and their sole album was even reissued by Henry Rollins at one point, but there's way better stuff that's similar to this that people don't cream themselves over. Hear this if you have the chance, but I wouldn't go out of your way or pay collectors prices to do so.)

MONTY PYTHON - "The Final Rip-Off" 2CD (This is a compilation of sketches selected from all of their previous LPs. I had a history teacher in 10th grade that showed "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" during class time. That was my first exposure to Monty Python. I'm not sure how he didn't lose his job over that, but none of his students complained. I bought this 2CD set sometime after that. Aside from a few short linking pieces, there is no new or exclusive material on this, hence the title. I've heard this too often to laugh at it today. Most of this stuff I can recite from memory.)

MONTY PYTHON - "Monty Python Sings" CD (This Monty Python stuff is giving me a headache today. I stopped enjoying it half way through the last disc.)

ENNIO MORRICONE - "Dario Argento Collection" CD (This shit is great. Most of it is really minimal, all of it is creepy. Unlike some of those Goblin scores, which I also love, there isn't a shred of disco on this stuff.)

ENNIO MORRICONE - "Molto Mondo Morricone" CD
ENNIO MORRICONE - "Mondo Morricone" CD
ENNIO MORRICONE - "More Mondo Morricone" CD (I'll talk about all three of these together since they came in a set and because they're so similar. This stuff was taken from soundtracks to underground + cult Italian films from the 70s, most of which I'm sure I'll never have the chance to see. Words can't describe how great this set is. A lot of this is lounge music-like/ jazzy sounding with bouncy bossonova rhythms, lush instrumentation and light/airy female vocals that float above all of it. Stereolab did similar recordings after their drone period, but nowhere near as smooth sounding or as sexy. Underneath all of these smooth sounds are complex arrangements and instruments I can't quite place a name to their sound. There's an underlying sadness to most of these pieces, too. This shit great, I can't recommend it enough. Morricone's range is amazing to me. While I haven't heard a lot of his output, none of it has been bad.)

Day #186
ENNIO MORRICONE - "The Thriller Collection" 2CD (This set is better than the "Dario Argento Collection" and shows he has a wider range of styles than just moody atmospheric background material. I suspect I'm still in the dark re: the range of his work and the full scope of his genius. With well over 500 film soundtracks under his belt, I'm sure there are very few people that can make such a claim. The entire set is great, but "Revolver" (from the first disc) is a stand out. It's such a powerful piece of music, full of tension, explosive percussion and punctuated by sharp horn blasts. This is a nice overview of some of his darker work.)

MORTE MACABRE - "Symphonic Holocaust" CD (This is a great CD. With the exception of the last song, it's all covers of songs from Italian horror films. I think the guys from Änglagård were behind this, you should be listening to them because they're awesome, too. Modern day prog metal guys covering familiar territory with amazing results.)

MOTHERFUCKERS - "Limited Chaos: Discography" CD* (A friend of mine burned this for me, I was never sure if this was a real release or just something the band threw together to send to people. Brutal balls-out HC that borders on grindcore at times. They released a demo tape, two 7"s and recorded for a split LP (I think?) that didn't happen. All of that stuff's on this disc.. The vocals are great, nice and clear, with stupid and offensive lyrics. More people should have been into these dudes, but most people are fucking stupid.)

MÖTLEY CRÜE - "Shout at the Devil" CD (The first two Crüe albums are a lot of fun. I need to replace my "Too Fast for Love" cassette one of these days.)

MOTÖRHEAD - s/t CD (Straight out of the gate Motörhead delivers a noisy batch of dirty rock 'n' roll. I prefer the versions of these songs from the "On Parole" album, but it's easy to see why they re-recorded this stuff and went with this as their first album. This sounds like Motörhead, whereas the other only sounds like them occasionally. This is a solid debut, everything we've come to expect from them was there at the beginning.)

MOTÖRHEAD - "Ace of Spades" CD (One of their best releases. Things have tightened up since the first album, but this still swings. Lots of great, classic songs on this one.)

MOTÖRHEAD - "Bastards" CD (I'm not a huge fan of their releases past "Iron Fist", but this is still enjoyable enough. Still, I doubt I'll listen to this again anytime soon.)

Day #187
MOTÖRHEAD - "Bomber" CD (This album doesn't get the attention it deserves. It's one of their best albums. I'd guess that I listen to this one more often than "Ace of Spades", even. You never see/hear anyone talking about "Bomber".)

MOTÖRHEAD - "Iron Fist" CD (Yep, this one is great, too. I read on Wikipedia yesterday that the band didn't really care much for this one, thought they they just slopped it out. Sounds perfectly fine to my ears. The guitars sound massive on this album.)

MOTÖRHEAD - "Live, Loud & Lewd" CD (I have this exact same live set on another CD called "What's Words Worth?". I didn't know they were the same when I picked this up. This is an early live recording made up of songs primarily from their first two albums. The sound quality is pretty good.)

MOTÖRHEAD - "On Parole" CD (This is probably my favorite album of theirs. It was recorded in 1975 before their debut, then shelved until a couple of years later. The label didn't see any potential in it at the time, then cashed in on it after Motörhead went to another label and found success. These recordings do sound poppier than the versions on their self-titled album, but they sound good like this. Larry Wallis from the Pink Fairies played guitar on this album and sang a couple of the songs. As much as I like the Lemmy/Clarke/Taylor line-up, I wish there were more recordings with Wallis on guitar. I've always liked that guy's playing and he always attached himself to cool projects.)

MOTÖRHEAD - "Overkill" CD (Huge leap in heaviness from their first album and this one. Another album full of classic songs, including the great "Damage Case". The main riff for "No Class" sounds exactly like the main riff in ZZ Top's "Tush". I know they were fans of ZZ Top because they covered one of their songs early on. There's no way they couldn't have spotted this similarity.)

MOTÖRHEAD - "What's Words Worth?" CD (Some guy I knew in Spain from a message board, "trollucifer", sent this to me for free years ago with another CD I bought from him. I wonder what happened to that dude...)

Day #190
MR. BUNGLE - s/t CD (When I was in high school this was just about the coolest CD ever to me. I bought this and it didn't leave my CD player for at least a month, and after that it was played all the time. I have a difficult time listening to it these days and enjoying it. No amount of dumbfuckery can take away how great the playing is on this album and how unique it was at the time, but decades of shitty, wacky imitation bands and of Patton proving time and again how big of a fuck he is have tainted the experience for me. As an adult I'm unable to separate someone's personality from their art. If someone repeatedly says and does things to make me dislike them, I have a difficult time enjoying their work no matter how much I enjoyed it in the past.)

MR. BUNGLE - "Disco Volante" CD (When I bought this CD I was disappointed it didn't sound more like their first album, but I ended up liking it more than the first eventually.)

MUCKY PUP - "Can't You Take a Joke? / Boy in a Man's World" CDR* (I downloaded this stuff from the band's website, had both of these on cassette back in the 90s. The first album is still mostly good and there's some good stuff on the second, but they really turned to shit quickly after that. Their first album is quirky HC/trash crossover with silly and "offensive" lyrics, enough crunch to hold a metalhead's interest. It sounds like something M.O.D. might have recorded after their first album had they not done "Surfin' M.O.D.". The second album on here slows things way down and sheds most of their metal sound. For the most part it sucks. A year or so ago I found a CD used with their 2nd and 3rd album on it for $6.00. I bought it, but ended up giving it to my wife. I couldn't get into it. They should have reissued the first album, instead.)

MUMMIES - "Death by Unga Bunga!!" CD (Mummies were a great band from the 90s that played throwback 60s garage rock with some of the dirtiest production this side of Charley Patton, all played on vintage equipment, of course. This is a retrospective CD, a "best of", I guess you could say. The song selection is nice and makes for a fun 45 minutes of rowdy rock. This would be a nice introduction for those that missed out on the vinyl. Most of their output is out of print now.)

MUMMIES - "Party at Steve's House" CDR* (I ripped my LP and made this CD of their fake live album. There's a good chunk of songs on here that don't appear on their other LPs. I ripped their Peel session songs from one of the "Running on Empty" LPs, too, to fill out the disc. These Peel sessions tracks were the cleanest sounding recordings they ever did. I'm sure they hated them as a result.)

MUMMIES - "Play Their Own Records / Never Been Caught" CDR* (More rips from my vinyl. The first is a collection of their 7"s, the second is their first and only studio album. Both are great, nice and noisy.)

Day #191
MX-80 SOUND - "Hard Attack / Big Hits" CD (This shit is amazing. I'm so glad I stumbled upon this. I don't remember why I was looking up The Gizmos online, but it led me to the Gulcher Records website where I found this CD and a live CD from 1977. I knew MX-80 Sound from their "Out of the Tunnel" LP on Ralph Records, but didn't listen to it enough for it to stick, certainly not enough to buy two more CDs of theirs. I'm not sure what made me pick "Hard Attack" up, but it became one of my favorite CDs. This CD collects their first 7" and first LP, released on Island Records strangely enough. Pre-dating punk rock and heavy metal (for the most part), MX-80 came from Indiana playing a weird mixture of punk, metal and jazz with two drummers, a guitarist who's shit-hot and some of the most deadpan, dry, not-giving-a-fuck vocals ever recorded. The addition of saxophone pushes this into no-wave territory, but way too fun, way too mid-western and not nearly serious enough to be lumped in with those bands. They get labeled "art-metal" a lot, but these tags are really meaningless. There are moments that sound not unlike Chrome, but even that comparison is forced. This is just great music in a league of it's own and sounds totally fresh, even today. Island dropped them right after their LP, they signed to Ralph, moved to San Francisco and lost one of their drummers in the process.)

MX-80 SOUND - "Live at the Library" CD (This CD unearths a live recording from 1977 at the Monroe County Library in Bloomington Indiana. The liner notes make unnecessary apologies for the sound quality, but other than a few expulsions of guitar, this sounds pretty good. Vocalist Rich Stim sounds especially disconnected and bored on this recording and provides amusing banter between the songs, some of which are previously unreleased. This wouldn't be a good place to start with the band, but it's essential for fans.)

MX-80 SOUND - "Out of Control" CD (This CD collects their second and third albums, "Out of the Tunnel" and "Crowd Control", both released by Ralph Records. These are slightly less quirky than the "Hard Attack" album, darker in tone. The guitar takes a more prominent role and, while still being strange music, this sounds a little tamer than their previous releases. "Crowd Control" slows things even more, but takes on a harder, more metallic, musical style. Both albums are great.)

MY MINDS MINE - "48 Reasons to Leave This Planet" CD (A partial discography, all their 7"s and splits. It's nice having all this stuff in one place, even when owning all the vinyl. There's heaps of live stuff on the end of the disc that's exclusive to this release, too.)

MY MINDS MINE - "Between Soothing Consolation and Uncontrollable Madness" CD (Awesome Dutch grindcore. This was their first release and was later released on LP. I sold heaps of these through Mortville and released a split 7" with them shortly after hearing this and their first 7". They really sped things up after this release, moving into blurr territory.)

MY MINDS MINE - "Scenes of the Complete Annihilation of the Planet" CD (As far as I know, this was their last release. I haven't heard or seen anything from them since. They were great up to the end.)

MY SOLID GROUND - s/t CD (These guys were one of the earlier krautrock bands. This, their first album, was released in 1970 and found a second life on CD thanks to the great Second Battle label. If you skip the meandering first track, this is pretty good. Unless you're in a doom band, 13 minute songs should have more than one part. The music is a mixture of hard rock, blues and psychedelic, all with piano playing that's probably too high in the mix, but gives this a unique sound that sets it apart from a lot of other German bands from that era. The CD is crammed full of bonus tracks, including the great "Flash" that clocks in at just under 25 minutes. This is a nice reissue with great sound.)

MYSTIC KNIGHTS OF THE OINGO BOINGO - CDR* (As far as I know, aside from the soundtrack album to "Forbidden Zone", the Mystic Knights only released the one 7" on Pelican Records. I was able to find 29 of their songs on soulseek, though. Most of them are live, but a few were studio recordings. Formed as a performance group in 1972, they later achieved fame after cutting back to just an 8 piece band and playing ska-influenced pop music. Before shortening their name, though, their music sounded like 1920s flapper-era cartoons and sometimes 50's doo-wop music. I'd love to get clear recordings of this stuff, but I doubt it will ever see a reissue.)

MYTHOS - s/t CD (The first Mythos album is a cosmic krautrock classic with long spacey passages and some mid-eastern influence. The second half is the real gem, though, two long songs telling the story of Man's destruction of the earth. The Teutonic vocals make this album sound much creepier than intended, I'm sure. This is one of the greatest krautrock albums ever.)

A-Z PROJECT: 177-183

183 days ago I started listening to all of my CDs in alphabetic order to see if I could do it. I found myself bored with what I was listening to and spending more and more time deciding on what to listen to. I realized I had a lot of CDs I never listened to, stuff I never had the urge to put on, and decided to just listen to all of them in order instead. My goal was to listen to everything in a year, or at least to see how long it would take me to accomplish this. I’ve been tracking my progress on Facebook by posting daily playlists and giving my immediate thoughts on what I was listening to as I was listening to it. I've since deleted my Facebook and thought I’d post my progress here instead since I need to make more use of this Blog site anyway. I don’t consider myself to be a writer, a music critic or an authority on music. This is simply a way to alleviate boredom at a job in which very little is expected out of me. I’m also not posting these playlists to brag about my music collection and I’m not burning copies of this stuff for people, so don’t ask.

(*) asterisks note things that are burned copies and not an original release. CDRs without asterisks behind them were originally issued as CDRs.


Day #177
MELVINS - "10 Songs" CD (Melvins have been terrible for so long, I had forgotten how great their earlier releases were. I found this used in Denver for cheap years ago, I really wasn't too familiar with them at the time, just knew my brother listened to them all the time and that this was out of print. There's very little rock on this album, instead heaps of plodding, thick, sludgy stuff with lots of changes and snarling, overdriven vocals. The recording has just the right amount of dirt and rawness for this kind of music, sounds like all of the instruments were recorded live without additional overdubs.)

MELVINS - "Eggnog" CD (Short, noisy and fun. I've always found Buzz's vocals to be annoying, even back in these days, but I suppose that was the idea. The first few songs on this are good, but the 13 minute long doom song that closes this CD is the reason to pick this up.)

MELVINS - "Electroretard" CD (This CD is made up of alternate recordings of a couple of songs from the "Stoner Witch" album, some cover songs and other weird stuff. The cover of Wipers' "Youth of America" is great, equally as good as the original. The Pink Floyd cover is fun, too but the rest of this album is pretty disposable. It's interesting once or twice, but not after that. I'm not a big fan of wacky, and this CD is full of it.)

MELVINS - "Gluey Porch Treatments" CD (This is the 1999 reissue with bonus tracks. I bought this in Denver the day after buying and listening to "10 Songs". Listening to "Eye Flys" right now, it's embarrassing how hard I ripped off the intro of that song when years later I recorded "The Wrath of Sasquatch" with Billy Crystal Meth. It's almost an exact copy. This shit is mind-boggling. The amount of parts crammed into a single song is staggering. Some don't ever repeat within the song, and none of it seems showy or technical for the sake of being technical. It's like prog rock played by punkers who listened to too much Black Sabbath growing up. Some of this stuff sounds similar to what Man is the Bastard were doing towards the end of their run. I didn't make that connection until just now. This is my favorite Melvins release. It sounds like they had something to prove and wanted to get it all out at once in case this was their only chance to do so.)

MELVINS - "Houdini Live 2005: A Live History of Gluttony and Lust" CD* (I don't think I've listened to this before today. I burned a copy of it when I borrowed it from a friend, but I think I've been sitting on it for 6 years because I don't remember hearing this before now. I suppose if you wanted a live recording of "Houdini" in it's entirety you couldn't do better than this. The recording is clean, playing great, etc., but this whole thing is unnecessary. It sounds too close to the studio album to warrant releasing it. I'll never choose to listen to this when the studio album is an option.)

MELVINS - "Mangled Demos From 1983" CD (This CD starts with a great radio broadcast from an ELKS lodge Christmas show / fund raiser. The stuffy hosts of the event don't know what to make of their noise and keep making jokes about their sinuses being cleared and getting a foot massage as a result. I'm sure they regretted letting them play as soon as they started up. The bulk of this CD is made up of demos recorded in 1983 while Mike Dillard was still in the band. The audio is surprisingly good and the songs are more HC and less complex when compared to their other releases. Buzz's vocals sound like a cross between Blaine from the Accüsed and H.R. from Bad Brains.)

MELVINS - "Stoner Witch" CD (Their second release on Atlantic Records, probably the best of the three. Sounding like a rock band this time around, less wacky shit on this one. This is probably the straightest these guys have ever played it, but there's enough familiar territory on here not to scare away many of the old fans. It's one of their best releases.)

MELVINS + LUSTMORD - "Pigs of the Roman Empire" CD (I was prepared not to like this today as I didn't like it in the past, but today has proven different. The dark ambient passages on this are good and the effect of thrash riffs weaving in and out of the noise periodically is pretty cool. Even better, a lot of the Melvins' contribution to this release is instrumental, so we're spared Buzz's annoying vocals for a good chunk of this. This is okay, but not great.)

MENTORS - "Trash Bag" EP + "You Axed For It" LP CDR* (At some point in the 90s I owned a CD with both "You Axed For It" and "Up the Dose" on it, but I traded it away. I had no idea this stuff would be out of print forever when I let go of it. Thank goodness for file sharing! Pioneers of the sleaze-rock genre and one of the biggest targets of the PMRC, the Mentors played bone-headed rock with some of the stupidest lyrics ever and coined the term "rape-rock". The "Trash Bag" EP was their first release, came out on Mystic Records and contains the great" Going Through Your Purse" and "Woman From Sodom" which was covered years later by German sleaze-grinders Dead. The sound on this EP is rough and the style is closer to punk rock than their Metal Blade releases, but this stuff is great and I wish there were more recordings from this era. With their first LP comes a huge jump in sound quality, but only minimal improvement in the musicianship (thankfully). Just as stupid as their EP, but with ripping guitar leads throughout. This stuff is fun for a while, but wears thin after a 5-6 songs. Their singer, El Duce, died in 1997 just days after being interviewed by the BBC about Curt Cobain's death and saying that Courtney Love offered him $50,000 to kill him. He was found cut in half by a train. RIP El Duce, you left behind a lot of stupid songs to remember you by.)

Day #178
MERCYFUL FATE - "The Beginning" CD (I was straight-up obsessed with King Diamond when I was in middle school, but sold all of his releases when I started listening to death metal thinking I would eventually re-buy all of them on CD. I've since picked up a few used, but would like to get more eventually. I bought this in Denver while visiting my friend Ace (RIP) the last time I was out there. I never had the chance to hear this one during my childhood, so it was new to me. What a scorcher this turned out to be! I've always preferred Mercyful Fate to King's solo stuff, so it was great finally hearing their earliest material. This has the "Nuns Have No Fun" EP on it as well as demos for the "Melissa" album. The recordings are crisp and powerful and King's voice sounds terrific. It's great hearing him without so many layers of backing vocals and not slipping into falsetto so often as his lower register vocals are just as unique, in my opinion. Unlike a lot of demos that leave you wanting to listen to the album versions, this stuff stands on it's own just fine. As far as traditional heavy metal goes, you'd have a difficult time finding a better band than Mercyful Fate.)

MERCYFUL FATE - "Don't Break the Oath" CD (This was their second full-length, and while it's not quite as good as their first album, it's the darker and more eerie of the two. There's something strange and unnerving about this that I can't put my finger on. When I was a kid, this spooked the hell out of me end I really felt like I was doing something wrong by listening to it. I got the same feeling from listening to the first Candlemass album as well. The production on this album is sort of thin and the guitars could use a little more meat on them, but that flimsy production just enhances the strangeness of this album. This is great, a "must own" for heavy metal fans.)

MERCYFUL FATE - "Melissa" CD (A landmark release, and for good reason. This is one of the greatest heavy metal albums ever recorded, that's an indisputable fact. Catchy, memorable songs, great playing, heavier than anything else recorded in 1983 and topped off with some of the best vocals King Diamond has ever laid down. "Melissa" is a dark album. Wether the lyrics were serious or not, these songs sound as if they're singing love songs directly to Satan himself. The vocals on the title track are so intense you can almost see the tears welling up in King's eyes as he's delivering those lines. I'm thoroughly enjoying these albums today.)

MERZBOW - "Music for Bondage Performance" CD (I think one of the reasons I never seriously got into Merzbow was that I'm a bit of a completist and if I like a project/band I have to seek out everything they've released. With a project like Merzbow that's impossible and it would could thousands of dollars just to keep up with where I started at in the 90s. My introduction came with the maxed-out digital era and I'm still in the dark re: the complexity and variety of his work because most everything I bought sounded so similar because it all came from that time frame. I had 7-8 other releases at one point but have since sold them off. This was the only one I kept that didn't sound like radio static ran through a distortion pedal cranked to 11. All week long I've been dreading listening to this stuff on headphones, but this CD is pretty mellow when compared to "Pulse Demon". It sounds like scraping metal over dark ambient through most of it, lots of dynamics and interesting stuff going on throughout. I'm terrible at describing this stuff, so I'll just say that today I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would.)

MERZBOW - "Oersted" CD (Okay, this is what I was expecting, total harsh noise overdose. This CD has 4 lengthy untitled tracks, each more or less non-stop noise. This was released by Vinyl Communications and was priced pretty cheaply compared to how expensive Merzbow releases were typically. I don't remember where I picked this up, though.)

MERZBOW - "Pulse Demon" CD (Another aural assault from the Release label, Relapse Records' sub-label for noise and electronic releases. 74 punishing minutes of harsh noise on this one. It took everything I had to keep from skipping past this CD. Yowzers...)

MERZBOW - "Venereology" CD (It's been said that this is his death metal / grindcore influenced album, and I suppose if you put your imagination to work you might be able to discern some death metal sounds on this release. It's certainly the harshest Merzbow release I've heard (that's saying a lot), pulsing, jack hammer-like rhythms can be heard throughout this mess and without a doubt this CD is mastered louder than any other CD I own. "Slave New Desart" starts out with what might have been a thrash riff, but 2 seconds in it's swallowed up by noise before it's heard for a fraction of a second minutes later. I did enjoy listening to this one today more do than the previous two, though I couldn't begin to tell you why.)

MESRINE - "Jack is Dead 1999-2004" CD (Taking their name from the famous French criminal of the same name, Mesrine are a serial killer obsessed Agathocles influenced grindcore band from Quebec that rose from the ashes of Thinkshit and Dahmer.It doesn't sound all that different from Dahmer, but without the pitch shifter. This sort of stuff works best in small doses, but I picked up this discography to fill in the gaps of my vinyl collection. I picked this up at a Bodies Lay Broken show in Minneapolis in 2005 or so. I debated between this CD and Wadge's "Road to Hana" CD, then spent years looking before I was finally able to track down a copy of said Wadge CD.)

Day #179
MESRINE / BADTRIPPE - split CD (I know it's cliche for grind bands to release a CD of cover songs, but they're usually a lot of fun. The Mesrine half of this is all cover songs and it sounds as if they had fun recording them. Impetigo, S.O.D., Unseen Terror, Dropdead, Agathocles, plus a bunch more get the Canadian goregrind treatment. I'm not sure where Badtrippe are from, but their samples are in French. They play grindcore, too, but thrashier than Mesrine and with dual vocals, neither of which are particularly powerful. The blasts are nice and strong and some of the riffs are memorable, but this doesn't move me at all or make me want to check out more of their releases.)

MESRINE / TRAUMATISM / NYCTOPHOBIC - 3 way CD (I can't remember exactly, but this might be Mesrine's first release. Sounding more like Dahmer than usual, this early stuff of theirs is still great. Nice crusty grindcore with manic vocals and a perfectly dirty DIY recording. Traumatism were a Canadian death metal band. I used to be in contact with one of the members and have their first CD and 7", but the guy I was in contact with quit the band and I stopped following them sometime in the late 90s. I don't remember them sounding as raw as they do on this CD, though. The guitar and bass tone are almost identical making it sound as if one or the other are missing. It's not sloppy, by any means, but this recording is messy. I'm not complaining. Nyctophobic are from Germany. I've tried getting into these guys several times, but they don't do anything for me. Their stuff on here is live and all you can hear is drums and vocals on the first half. The second set of songs sound like they were recorded by a boombox placed inside a metal trash can. No thanks...)

METAL DUCK - "Auto Ducko Destructo Mondo" CD* (Catching the tail end of the thrash metal scene, UK's Metal Duck released only this LP and a split LP with Lawnmower Deth. Some of these songs appear on the split LP, but they're recorded a little better this time around. The drums are bathed in reverb and the vocals are gruff, almost Popeye-like and give this an almost black metal feel. This isn't as fun as the split and the playing is still pretty sloppy, but it's an enjoyable album overall. I have this on LP, this CDR is a rip of my vinyl copy.)

METALLICA - "Kill 'Em All" CD (Over time this became my favorite Metallica. I know it's full of recycled NWoBHM riffs, but I don't care. These are the catchiest songs they've written (stolen) and this is better than anything they've released since. It's better than anything any of those thrash metal bands released. Never have I been let down more by a band than by Metallica, though. A lot of people attribute their descent into complete shit to Cliff Burton's death, but since when has the bass player been the glue and driving force behind any metal band? Metallica recorded a lot of fruity shit while he was still alive and I suspect they would have followed the same path had he lived. With the exception of maybe Kirk, this band is populated with the biggest bunch of douche bags ever. Throw bags of money at a group of douche bags and you get what they've since become, but, I suspect Lars has always been a horrible person to be around. It certainly seems as if that's the case, anyway. None of that matters, though. This album is great no matter who wrote the songs or how big of douches the people who recorded it were or still are. Sure, the drumming is shit, but these riffs are undeniably great. This album never gets old to me. Every time I listen to it I want to break stuff.)

METALLICA - "Master of Puppets" CD (Stripped of most of the NWoBHM influence, Metallica recorded what most people consider to be their best album. This is a great album with thick production and crunchy guitar riffs. There's enough noodling melodic shit on here to raise eyebrows (if such a genre as "chick-thrash" were ever to exist, "Welcome Home" would be the blueprint), but for the most part it's kept in check. I've probably listened to this 300 times throughout my lifetime, but this is my cut-off point. This was their last great album.)

METALLICA - "Ride the Lightning" CD (This is a unique album, certainly the only Metallica album that sounds like this. There's almost nothing recognizable from their first album on this one, like a completely different band wrote and recorded it. I guess the addition of Cliff and Kirk changed their writing a bit, as I understand most everything on "Kill 'Em All" was written before either were in the band. It still doesn't explain why they never sounded like this after this album, though. The songs are more melodic, but also heavier. The production is great and this sports the best guitar sound they've ever had. "Fade to Black" is proof positive that Cliff Burton would have been fine with them selling out. It's one of the shittiest, wimpiest songs they've written, equally as shit as "Unforgiven". Add all the crunch and power chords you want, it still doesn't undo the acoustic drivel that makes up the first half of the song.)

METALLICA - "No Life 'Til Leather" Demo / DEATH SQUAD - "Split You at the Seams" CDR* (A friend sent me this as part of a trade years ago. James hasn't quite found his voice at this point and does a lot of high pitch wails throughout. It's pretty funny, actually. The Metallica demo is really cool, but just makes me want to listen to their first album instead. Death Squad were completely unknown to me before this and an Internet search turned up very little. I've learned they're from Olympia, Washington, that this was released in 1991 on Ever Rat Records and that they had another album after this one called "Driving Blind". By 1991 the thrash bands that didn't break up or turn into death metal bands got really fucking heavy. Comparing these guys to Sadus or Demolition Hammer wouldn't be out of line. This is really fast with staccato, choppy shouted vocals and a clean bass guitar high in the mix. There's quite a bit of groove in this as well, but not enough to push it into the meathead territory of bands like Pantera. I forgot how good this was until revisiting it today. I'm curious to hear their demos and second album now. There's some demo-era Napalm Death stuff on this CD as well, but only 3-4 songs.)

MEXICAN POWER AUTHORITY - "Haiku... Gesundheit" CD* (See the entry below for a more detailed description of their sound. This CD collects their three cassette-only releases spanning 1991 to 1994, I believe. This was also released as a double LP with more songs. I have the 2LP, but downloaded and burned this CD for portability.)

MEXICAN POWER AUTHORITY - "I Just Want it to be Easy / 100 Year Old Shack" CD (MPA, from Canada, were a late 80s to early 90s band formed by the guitarist of the Neos. Neos might be one of the most extreme HC bands ever, and one of those great accidental noisecore bands that played so fast and sloppy you couldn't make out what was going on. Taking a different approach with MPA, this stuff blends HC, jazz, noise, progressive rock, metal, grindcore, pop, etc. Their earliest demo stuff was more straight forward hardcore and was released as a double LP and is one of those "must-own" releases, in my opinion. By the time they recorded this stuff they had added all sorts of bizarre elements to their music making it really difficult to describe. Mixing all those genres usually brings to mind a Naked City-esque start and stop thing where they shift from one style to the next seamlessly, but that's not what's going on with MPA. Somehow they manage to be all things at once without it sounding forced. It comes off as brilliant instead of pretentious. The material on this CD is made up of an LP and a 7", though the LP didn't come out until a great deal after this CD. I don't know anyone that's heard this and didn't like it.)

Day #180
CHARLES MINGUS - "The Charles Mingus Quintet & Max Roach Live" CD (My exposure to jazz has been limited. I never knew where to start with an artist who's released 100+ albums over their lifetime, so growing up I didn't buy as many jazz CDs as I would have liked. I checked out Mingus because Mike Watt said in an interview that more people should be listening to him. That was recommendation enough. I bought three of his CDs before moving on to something else. In the years since, I've downloaded a lot of Mingus stuff that I've enjoyed more than the CDs I bought, but never got around to buying them on CD. Let's face it, my money isn't nearly as disposable as it was in my 20s when I still lived with my parents. I like this CD okay. The first song is a slow sombre number, then leads into a meandering and noisy improv piece that kinda stinks. "Haitian Fight Song" is the highlight of this for me and things pick up from then on out. If you skip the first two tracks on this disc it's pretty great.)

CHARLES MINGUS - "The Complete Town Hall Concert" CD (Mingus was considered a genius at composing and arranging, but he also had a horrible temper and was nicknamed "the angry man of jazz". He always considered this recording to be a failure and abandoned it without finishing it. It wasn't released until the sometime after his death. This is Mingus leading a big band attempting to record his opus "Epitaph" (which didn't get recorded in it's full 2 hour+ running time until after his death), but with failed results. The band was unprepared, unfamiliar with the material and often the band is out of synch. At one point during the performance Mingus was so disgusted with the results he stormed off stage leaving the band to fend for themselves. You can't hear any of this on the recording, of course, but the music is often clumsy. The band got off easy. Mingus had a violent temper and on at least one occasion assaulted a band member. This is an interesting album with great moments of cohesion, but if Mingus didn't want us hearing it during his lifetime, it probably should have been left unreleased. I think my biggest complaint is that the horns are screamingly loud over the rest of the band. It's really ridiculous how loud they are.)

CHARLES MINGUS - "Mingus Ah Um" CD (This was my introduction to his work and I've read it's one of his best releases. It's the best of the three CDs I bought, for sure. I don't listen to this as often as I should, it sounds great today.)

MINOR THREAT - "Complete Discography" CD (It's hard to believe this stuff was recorded on a 4 track machine. Minor Threat were a great DC hardcore band and I think straight edge started with them. They released three 7"s and a 12", all collected on this CD. The earlier stuff is better, naturally, but with the exception of the "Salad Days" EP, it's all great.)

MINOR THREAT - "First Demo Tape" CD (Recorded in 1981 at the same studio they recorded their 7"s, these 8 songs don't sound too different that how their EPs sound. I suspect this was released to thwart the efforts of bootleggers. My friend Brian gave this to me. What a guy...)

Day #183
MINUTEMEN - "3 Way Tie (For Last)" CD (Their last album barely resembles their output from just 4 years earlier. You couldn't tell they were even the same band if you hadn't heard the releases between. This is a weird record with lots of cover songs, lots of rock, some spoken word and very little punk. At one point this was my favorite Minutemen album, but I don't listen to it very often now. Some of these songs rock harder than others, but so much of this sounds like amped up folk music to me. It'll probably be a while before I revisit this one again.)

MINUTEMEN - "Ballot Result" CD (Minutemen, to me, are one of those bands I can't understand how people don't like them. I see and hear a lot of people say they hate them, and I can't wrap my head around that. Hate some of their material, sure, but they covered so much territory during their short existence that they should appeal to almost everyone who listens to punk rock and underground music. For a good portion of my teenage years they were my favorite band and I was even in a band for a couple of years that tried our hardest to emulate their sound. It's not easy to do, and we fell way short. The "3 Way Tie (for Last)" LP came with a ballot for fans to check their favorite songs and mail in their votes to help select the tracklist for their upcoming triple LP, half of which was to be live recordings. Before the triple LP was realized, their singer/guitarist, D.Boon, died in an auto accident. This double album is mostly made up of the live tracks from the results of the ballot, hence the title, that were planned for the 3LP. The bulk of this sounds great, as if it was taken from a soundboard recording or a radio broadcast. A lot of these songs are from the later part of their catalog, but there's some older, noisier recordings towards the end of the disc including a track recorded by Katz Seki of Gorgonized Dorks fame (dude's been around a long fucking time!). The almost 8 minute long recording of "Mr. Robot's Holy Orders" is my favorite track from this release. This is a fun collection and a nice addition to their studio releases.)

MINUTEMEN - Demo + Live CDR* (This is stuff I downloaded from corndogs.org, all stuff Mike Watt gave the admin permission to share. It contains the Reactionaries demo from 1979, the "Georgeless" EP, live 10/26/1981 at Mabuhay Gardens + the "Just a Minute... Men" bootleg from 8/24/84. There's very little Minutemen sound in the Reactionaries demo, but one of these songs was included on the "Politics of Time" CD. The "Georgeless" EP is boombox quality, recorded during the brief time between the Reactionaries and when George relented and joined Minutemen. For the most part it's pretty forgettable. The live stuff on this CD is great, especially the stuff from 1981. Watt's bass sounds huge, like there's 2 or 3 of him playing at once.)

MINUTEMEN - "Double Nickels on the Dime" CD (The title refers to driving exactly 55mph on highway 10 home to San Pedro and was a reaction to Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55", his response to the national speed limit of 55. Minutemen commented that they'd rather take chances and be rebellious with their music than prove how dangerous they were by breaking the speed limit. Originally planned as a single album, once they caught wind of Hüsker Dü's "Zen Arcade" double album, they expanded it to two to sort of rub it in their faces. This is considered by most to be their crowning achievement, and it's a great and ambitious album, but I still prefer their earlier, more jangly recordings. It's remarkable they were able to record 2 albums of material at once and for none of it to be filler. I don't think this is their best work, but it's all solid. It's a shame Jackass has ruined the song "Corona" for me forever.)

MINUTEMEN - "Live at Flynn's Ocean 71" CDR* (This is a decent soundboard recording from 1984, I believe, with most of "Double Nickels..." making up the setlist. If you're a fan of that album, you'll probably like this, though the audience sounds as if they're asleep most of the time.)

MINUTEMEN - "Post-Mersh Vol. 1" CD (Collecting their first two LPs, this CD contains my favorite Minutemen releases. "The Punchline" is 15 minutes of perfection. The Wire and Gang of Four influence is strong on their earliest stuff and the songs are short, powerful and to the point. Only two songs of the 18 break the one minute mark. The sonic distance between Watt's booming bass and D's paper thin, jangly guitar has never been larger than on this release. "What Makes Man Start Fires?" is a great LP, too, but a little too produced when compared to "The Punchline". Everything sounds smoother. This isn't a bad thing, but shows how fast they were progressing as a band early on. The structures and playing have always been complex, but even more so on this LP. The longer song lengths, even if only slightly longer, have added more space to cram awesomeness into.)

MINUTEMEN - "Post-Mersh Vol. 2" CD (Another great CD collecting their "Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat" 12" and the "Project Mersh" 12", both great. "Buzz..." is a back to basics album of sorts, stripping away all the fluff and keeping things simple. It's my second favorite album after "The Punchline". "Project Mersh" was their rock album, a concept album of sorts. Having shied away from fade-outs, guitar solos, overdubs and traditional song structures in the past, they broke out every rock cliche and created a great album that's completely unique in their catalog. This one gets better the more you listen to it.)