Amon Düül II - Yeti

I can't stop listenin to this fuggin album. New favorite krautrock album. Progressive psychedelic rock and improvisation at its finest. Do you like guitars? this album is guitars

eye-shakin king

Molehill

Molehill was a sludge band in the early 00's here in our very own Birmingham, AL. Alas, I probably liked Nickleback and Linkin Park during those days. Anyway, this is basically just massive amounts of EHG worship, but is that ever a bad thing? Riffs galore. Dirty Southern sludge right here.

Comfort Measured In Razor Lines

Molehill

NoMeansNo

One of my favorite bands ever. Formed in 1979 and still actively performing live and producing quality new material, NoMeansNo is quite simply one of the wittiest, funnest, most interesting and unique bands in punk. Over the 30 years of their existence, they have never once released the same album twice and they haven't released any duds either for that matter. Core members brothers Rob and John Wright are possibly the two best instrumentalists in the genre (bass and drums respectively), and their often humorous vocal tradeoffs are key to their ever evolving sound. Here's a few of my favorites.



Their most well-known and highly-regarded, and also my personal favorite. Wrong is probably NoMeansNo's most straightforward punk release, though it has several funk and jazz moments that allude to their later work. If you don't like "It's Catching Up," "The Tower," or "Rags 'n Bones," there is something wrong with you.

Be strong, be wrong.


0 + 2 = 1 was their next album after Wrong, but it's a huge departure from that sound. It's slowed down for the most part, and it's far weirder than Wrong. A lot more noise and funk is present here and there are even some things that would not sound out of place on an early Primus album, but it's all still catchy as fugg. And John Wright still rips it up.

If every third animal in the world is a beetle, then maybe every third person in the world is a
DUMB FUCK


Sex Mad LP + the You Kill Me EP. Early NoMeansNo when Rob had some kind of weird throat problem and John took over most of the vocal duties. Probably the strangest album in their discography. About half of it is just drums and bass, but the Wright bros manage to keep it intresting with bizarre melodies and equally bizarre lyrics and vocals.

Dad, no!

Skywave

Echodrone

Synthstatic

Skywave were a fucking great noisy lo-fi shoegaze/dream pop band from the early 90's. RIYL: Alison's Halo, A Place To Bury Strangers (share members), Bee Thousand-era Guided By Voices.

Born Against - The Rebel Sound Of Shit And Failure

Classic hardcore material that everyone should have. Political, pissed off punx that were probably one of the most exciting bands in the early 90's hardcore scene with inventive guitarwork, often experimental song structures, and some of the siqqest vokills there are.

up tha

Rodan - Rusty

Failed highschool rap group forms into one of the first math-post-rock-screamo bands. Pretend you didn't see that math word there because the majority of stuff deemed "mathy" is dildos. Which this is not dildos. This here's the real dick.

shrad

Françoise Hardy - La question

If you don't like Françoise Hardy you ain't heared Françoise Hardy yet. Classic French pop/chanson/dumbfrenchterm.

oui

Nara Leão - Dez Anos Depois

One of my favorite bossa nova albums. 24 trax of pure chill with excellent production and arrangements by Tuca. Normally I don't really care for tunes that draw heavily on the singer's vocal prowess, but in this case Leão's godly voice is too remarkable to not enjoy it.

baws

Zero Boys - History Of

Zero Boys play catchy hardcore in the vein of Adolescents, Reagan Youth, and Descendents, except way more aggressive and pissed off than each of them. Shit rips.

what fun what fun what fun

Raison d'être - The Empty Hollow Unfolds

The soundtrack for your decent into Hell. Gregorian monk chants, grim-ass synths, random smashing sounds, nigga what u want.

enjoi hell

Richard Skelton - Landings

I originally gave each track on Landings a one-minute listen, decided Skelton was another one of those folk drone "artists" that loop recordings of running water and random guitar noodling/scraping, and deleted it. For some reason or another, I decided to give it another try. These are simply some of the most depressing, beautiful, and ultimately well-crafted drones I've ever heard. A lot of this was recorded in Anglezarke in the West Pennine Moors in England, where he would apparently wake up at 5 in the morning to go out and play his various instruments to gain the feel from his environment rather than going the cheap way out and simply making some uber lo-fi field recordings. This approach works according to the music found in this album. The landscape shows through Skelton's music. In a genre that's being exploited by several due to its relative ease in creation and composition, this is a true standout. Dissonant and mournful, yet refined and beautiful.

:( :( :(

Drug Problem - Drug Problem

Powerviolence with grim riffs. Loud, fast and evil. Heavy BM influence.

Get

Zelienople - Pajama Avenue

The first and most accessible album from these drone/free jazz dudes. Highly recommended.

DL

Uzi - Sleep Asylum

Brilliantly dark and atmospheric no wave post-punk. It's a shame this was their only album because tsr.

ha-ha-ha

Ekkaia - Manos Que Estrechan Planes De Muerte Y Sometimiento

Fucking great Spanish punx for those who like crustard pie served with their skramzwhiches.

skrums

Souled American - Notes Campfire

This band should be way bigger than they are. Been jammin Frozen for a while now so I decided to finally listen to Souled American's other jamz and Notes Campfire is probably better than Frozen which is saying a lot. More slow, dirge-like tunes for you to get sad to.

a chance before a choice

Ghastly City Sleep - Moondrifts

OH MY GOD THE NEW GHASTLY CITY SLEEP FULL LENGTH. Heard some of this played live back in November(?) and I was like "hey i hope they actually record something so i can jam more than the same 4-song ep i've been jammin for 2 years" and WHAT DO YOU KNOW. This rules so hard.

get it here boy

JUST KIDDING, ASSHOLE. DL IT HERE ON THEIR WEBSITE. IT'S ONLY $6 YOU COCK.

Gellers - Gellers

Reasons you should listen:
1. Japanese Noise Rock
2. Shugo Tokumaro is a member

Doesn't sound like his solo stuff but who cares

The Boats - Songs By The Sea

Electronica melodies for people who like to feel sad. I don't know how to write an album description.


DL

The Lounge Lizards - No Pain For Cakes

A "fake jazz" combo featuring actor John Lurie (Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law) on Saxophone, Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello) on guitar, among other prominent jazz instrumentalists. No Pain for Cakes draws on influences from punk and no wave to create a listenable avant-garde jazz album.

DL

Benoît Pioulard - Précis

I go through a Benoit Pioulard phase at least once a year where I think this album is the greatest album ever created. Usually when I'm not in a Benoit Pioulard phase, I just think this is one of the greatest albums ever created. This is some of the most brilliantly-produced folk you'll ever hear. At each song's core is a simple folk song, but layered over each are organic field recordings, soft fuzzy electronics, and a wide array of shoegazey guitar techniques. The end result is a perfect dreamlike fusion of ambient electronics and simple folk songs that sounds completely natural and alive. I know those words sound like music that's been done before and beaten to death, but there simply isn't another album like this one.

fufzzzz

Womb & Disciples of Mockery Split

In the period in limbo after the breakup of Incantation and before the creation of Disciples of Mockery, there was Womb. Womb is basically the same members of Disciples of Mockery minus the guitar and plus more bass creating fucking repulsive death metal with a healthy dose of Man Is The Bastard's filthy sludge moments. If "Bound, Fucked, Humiliated" ain't the nastiest song u ever heared, man i dont even

o yeah and there's some Disciples of Mockery on there i think you guys like that idk its good?

FFUKCED

Steven Jesse Bernstein - Prison

The strangest of fucked up spoken word set to lo-fi acid jazz samples. Bernstein used to recite his poetry with a live rat between his teeth, and one time removed the heart of a live rat on stage in order to "calm it down." Dude committed suicide by stabbing himself in the throat three times. Makes Elliott Smith look like a pussy bitch.

no grandpa guitars here

BIRMINGHAM, AL

The official local bands post for our good ol' hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Not exactly a city that comes to mind when you think "awesome music scenes" to your average Amerikaner, but the homegrown scene that we have absolutely kills and we take great pride in it. Here's a few bands that have come out of here. Some dead, some still around. I'll prolly update it periodically with other bands but this'll do fer now. Help these guys out if you dig it and buy merch or an album or go see them if they come your way.

Korova

Noisy, angry hardcore punk. I didn't have the opportunity to see them earlier and I'm not sure if they even play many shows these days, but this full length is pretty siqq.

Buy it
DL it

The Broken Letters

Fantastic autumnal indie folk. RIYL: Will Oldham, Neil Young, perhaps American Football. All of their releases can be downloaded for free at www.burningalphabet.com Donations are taken too so yeah.

Black Hole Kids

Relatively new psychedelic screamo(ish) stuff. Got to see them for the first time playing at a Magrudergrind show a few weeks ago and they ruled. RIYL: Gospel, Cease Upon The Capitol, other bands I can pointlessly namedrop to get you to dl this rad demo even though they probably don't really sound the same.

DL

Wildcat Revival

Wildcat Revival is ridiculously good post-hardcore for fans of stuff like Frodus, Fugazi, etc. etc.
An old EP right hur: Music's Greatest Hits Of All Time Ever. They have a few more tunes you can check out on their last.fm page.

Also, hit up their myspace to barter cash for media.

The Recluse

Unfortunately now defunct, probably my favorite of the numerous straightforward hardcore punk bands to come out of the area. I think? some of the members are still active or soon to be active in new bands/projects so that's awesome. Great dudes.

Sumr Showrs EP. And I don't know if they still have any vinyls/CDs still in print but it couldn't hurt to ask! Myspace

Legion

Ya'll know em, ya'll love em. Birmingham's premier heavy as hell sludgy/powerviolencey hardcore band Leegeyun. Recently discovered that they're actually pretty well-known outside of Birmingham which makes me pretty happy. For those of you who haven't heard em yet, here's a lil sampler. They have a split 7" with Mammoth Grinder out now that you can get here. $5? Pick that shit up son. The most stompin track of all timez is on that split. Also, if they're playing somewhere near you, you best see em. As many times as I've seen them, they still slay every single time.

Kriegis PhilBM

ok sry had to

Robert Burger - City of Strangers

There's a good chance you own an album that Robert Burger plays on and just don't know it (multi-instrumentalist for Norah Jones, Bill Frisell, John Zorn, Lucinda Williams, Iron & Wine...to name a few). City of Strangers is a collection of nostalgic compositions used in various film soundtracks.

Mediafire