Welcome back to May, dear friend and reader! Is this better? Are you again comfortable? Are you even there?
Welcome, also, to another round of Remember When? as I parse my own archives. Last year's Volume 10 was that in spades, compiling a Best of Me on the way to six thousand more words. I compare it to the (reported) moments before death when reflection can bring peace. Is this the end? Will there be a "Beer and football X"? Will I first conclude "Beer and football IX" with a Super Bowl recap? I just don't know, baby.
I do feel an urgency to bundle everything under a tidy bow in anticipation of one day telling a college-bound daughter, "Here's something to read if you ever get bored." Indeed, Trout Mask Replica recently got its final (?) round of copyedits a good six months after publication, a sure sign of difficulty to let go. ("College-bound daughter." Shudder.) But nothing—nothing—has undergone alteration as often as one-time seat-filler "The continuing adventures of an extended delay" from nine years ago, to the point where I've finally added an update reference. Know that whenever I change something there I have to do it over there too—just think what I'll now have to do here should I make further amendments. These are the problems I create for myself.
How does this retconned list of retconned Biffys hold up? I don't know, what day is it? Are my supposed "favorite albums of each year [since] 1964" represented fairly among the annual playlist blather, signaling confirmation of their achievement? And if not, why? Remember when??
The volume: Zero
The title: What Are the Hours?
The year: 2005
The Biffy: Stooges, Fun House (1970)
The song: "Fun House"
I'm not saying A Love Supreme is my favorite album of all time but it would kind of have to be to prevent Fun House from ascending to Super-Biffy-level heights. So I'm glad the title track gets us rolling, even though it somehow couldn't overtake Dead Meadow on 10 Dynamic Hits! What the!
The volume: One
The title: James Brown Is Dead
The year: 2007
The Biffy: N/A
The song: N/A
This null set, my first real effort and a deliberate CD-length (plus some) playlist, is mostly an artifact of its time (seven of eighteen non-extraneous-EP songs are no older than three years) plus highlighted new/old discoveries (George Brigman), heavy-rotation Technicolor Web of Sound favorites (Electric Banana) and random ain't-I-hip flavor (Julie Ruin). My original Sonik Truth was not yet filled with the physical classics then taking up space in our Cambridge apartment.
The volume: Two
The title: These Are the Problems I Create for Myself
The year: 2010
The Biffy: Groundhogs, Split (1971)
The song: "Split (Part 2)"
More title-track action, in fragmented form. Volume 2 is when I stopped being polite and started getting real.
The volume: Three
The title: Beauty and Perfection Are Mine
The year: 2011
The Biffys: Monks, Black Monk Time (1966); Flaming Lips, Embryonic (2006)
The songs: "Monk Time"; "Worm Mountain"
The honorable mention: "1970 (Take 1)" from the Stooges' The Complete Fun House Sessions
OK, good, there's more than one song here. This whole thing was starting to make me look foolish! So: two songs. Hmm. At least Fun House echoes from Volume 0 to contribute an early take of "1970," courtesy of the most aptly named and realized boxed set in history.
The volume: Four
The title: The Evolution of the Foot Eater
The year: 2015
The Biffys: Deltron 3030 (2000); Fugazi, The Argument (2001)
The songs: "Memory Loss"; "(The) Argument"
Now we're talking! Oh. Still two songs, you say?
The volume: Five
The title: I See You
The year: 2013
The Biffys: Pretty Things, SF Sorrow (1968); Chrome, Half Machine Lip Moves (1979)
The songs: "Old Man Going"; "March of the Chrome Police (A Cold Clamey Bombing)"
Two again. Do I need to write about these? I already did, right?
The volume: Six
The title: Wizard Observes Slam Dunk
The year: 2014
The Biffys: The Jesus Lizard, Liar (1992); The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Orange (1994); Six Finger Satellite, Severe Exposure (1995); Mr. Lif, I Phantom (2002); Sleater-Kinney, The Woods (2005); Off! (2012)
The songs: "Slave Ship"; "Flavor"; "Simian Fever"; "Status"; "Let's Call It Love"; "Man From Nowhere"
The bonus material: "Let's Call It Love" on 10 Dynamic Hits!
Six! Now we're really talking! These song titles read like chapters in the next tasteless Ben Winters narrative.
The volume: Seven
The title: Congratulations, It's a Yak!
The year: 2015
The Biffys: Kiss, Hotter Than Hell (1974); DJ Shadow, Endtroducing..... (1996); Yo La Tengo, I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One (1997); Comets on Fire, Blue Cathedral (2004); Shellac, Dude Incredible (2014)
The songs: "Strange Ways"; "Napalm Brain/Scatter Brain"; "Deeper Into Movies"; "Blue Tomb"; "Dude Incredible"
The bonus material: "Dude Incredible" on 10 Dynamic Hits!
Another triumph! Ben Winters, super-hack, may be onto something.
The volume: Eight
The title: From Out the Space to Yours
The year: 2016
The Biffys: Fuzz, Fuzz II (2015); Ty Segall, Emotional Mugger (2016)
The songs: "Say Hello"; "The Magazine"
The bonus material: "The Magazine" on 10 Dynamic Hits!
If I'd only looked into Gøggs three years ago.
The volume: Nine
The title: Instead of Small-Minded Arrogant Fools
The year: 2017
The Biffy: N/A
The song: N/A
"Nixon, Trump and their champions are obstruction" who, fittingly, lock the doors against those who actually accomplished things before them. There's no other explanation.
The volume: Ten
The title: Where Are They? Did They Ever Exist?
The year: 2018
The Biffys: Bad Brains, Rock for Light (1983); Metallica, Ride the Lightning (1984); Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993); Six Finger Satellite, Law of Ruins (1998); Thee Oh Sees, Orc
The songs: "Right Brigade"; "The Call of Ktulu"; "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta Fuck Wit"; "Sea of Tranquility (Part 1)"; "Animated Violence"
Flip "Sea of Tranquility" and "Animated Violence" and this is the best story of them all.
Now that formality and bloated preamble are accounted for (not quite), I direct the Lower Galactic Biffy Council to calculate the Biffy® Hit/Miss Ratio™ of engaged versus forsaken annual title-holders.
Fifty-five albums…
Twenty-seven "hits"…
Twenty-eight "misses"…
Inflation…
Trade war…
Equals…
Forty-nine point zero nine zero nine (etc.) percent of Biffys generated one of the four hundred forty-one (!) collected songs. That seems low and shameful, so let's fudge the numbers, Russian-meddling style, for a more impressive result. In fairness, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme (1965) and Led Zeppelin's first album (1969) were plenty glorified over the years, earning comfortable "MORE CREAM PLEASE" recliners at right. So we'll consider those covered…
Fifty-two point seven two seven two (etc.) percent.
Zeppelin I was also included as part of the Nomar Day festivities and "How Many More Times" even survived the hindsight. So, too, did Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, though a minor tonal shift was made from its "Don't Believe the Hype" to "Terminator X to the Edge of Panic." Who gives a fuck about a goddamn Grammy! The Ramones, though, moved up a year and replaced Rocket to Russia's "Cretin Hop" with the 1976 debut's "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World." These scabs play nicely back to back and will factor into our revised equation…
Fifty-six point three six three six (etc.) percent.
Once upon a time there was an inter-net. This (n)ether region was soon populated with elaborate email signatures, cat videos and stolen credit cards. "Apps" like Uber and Venmo were developed to destroy millennial budgets and others like, I don't know, Cougr made it OK for pervy train passengers to ogle and swipe through prospective mates right out in the open. And somewhere in there, perhaps in the whispered "dark web," was carved an eleventh commandment:
"THOU SHALT NOT COVET MORE THAN ONE ARTIST APPEARANCE PER BLOG PLAYLIST."
Scandal was avoided in 2014 when a consideration to sandwich both parts of Bernstein's "No No Man" around the Zombies' "Tell Her No" was incinerated by the Lord's personal stash of lightning bolts. Sin is a delicate art and, thus, Mudhoney's self-titled album (1989) and Thee Oh Sees' Carrion Crawler/The Dream (2011) fall redundant victims to their own 2018 siblings Digital Garbage and Smote Reverser, respectively. Disqualifying them…
Fifty-eight point four nine zero five (etc.) percent. A near ten-percent jump—larger if you exclude Smote Reverser prior to this, its first year of eligibility—is applauded by those who still believe in polling results. But what of the neglected forty-one point five zero nine four (etc.) percent? Who are these remainders?
Beatles – A Hard Day's Night (1964)
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced (1967)
Curtis Mayfield – Superfly (1972)
Hawkwind – Space Ritual (1973)
George Brigman – Jungle Rot (1975)
The Damned – Damned Damned Damned (1977)
AC/DC – Powerage (1978)
Motörhead – Ace of Spades (1980)
Black Flag – Damaged (1981)
The Fall – Hex Enduction Hour (1982)
Mission of Burma – The Horrible Truth About Burma (1985)
Dead Kennedys – Bedtime for Democracy (1986)
Big Black – Songs About Fucking (1987)
Public Enemy – Fear of a Black Planet (1990)
Black Sheep – A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (1991)
Make-Up – Save Yourself (1999)
White Stripes – Elephant (2003)
Jay Reatard – Blood Visions (2006)
Dungen – Tio Bitar (2007)
Black Mountain – In the Future (2008)
Dead Meadow – Three Kings (2010)
Ty Segall – Sleeper (2013)
Thee Oh Sees – Smote Reverser (2018)
And whatever shall we do with them?
1. The Voices of Conquest – O Yes My Lord
2. The Damned – New Rose *
3. Make-Up – Save Yourself *
Fifteen hundred words and we're only now getting to the goods? A new low in self-satisfaction. To save time and pixels I'm going to group commentaries when appropriate—setting a dangerous and lazy precedent—for this Lord/Damned/Save Yourself trinity has potential! Unrealized potential, though, not like this Voices of Conquest drummer. Get a load of him! At least I'm checking off two Biffys from go. Let's stick an asterisk on them.
4. Black Sheep – Pass the 40 *
"Pass the 40 cuz my mother's not lookin'." Ten years later, "Pass the manslaughter conviction cuz the New York authorities are watching American's Most Wanted." Also, who knew that hip-hop songs with multiple guest stars passing mics and/or malt-liquor bottles around were called "posse cuts"? Thanks, Wikipedia! I'll see you several more times! So how'd everyone do here? The perfect lead-off and closing skills of Mista Lawnge ("I put gum in my ass cuz I like to pop shit") and Dres ("I play 'em like vitamins and take a hoe a day"), respectively, make it impossible to grade the rest without a curve. First up is our favorite Sing Sing resident, sounding twelve and leveling out at a B+. He's clearly the only non-Black Sheep with a rap future, if 1992's The Fabulous Chi-Ali constitutes a career. An unnamed child-abuse enabler follows who might go by "Hot Diggity Dog" and, if my timeline is correct, basically sketches out Snoop Dogg's entire career a year early. Other than that he's a D+ mess who hits bottom (har! har!) with "And when I'm fuckin' those bitches they go… hunnh!" Ur-Dogg then passes to "Chris," who was out sick the day they assigned street handles. I'll call him "Solid Cee" thanks to a passable effort hampered by "Here's a DWI for driving drunk with a mic," which would actually be a DDWM. The formally named Dave Gossett relieves Chris's weak grip and delivers the worst line of all: "They got their money, think it's funny, always scoopin' all the honeys. Oops! I meant to say 'hoe.' Broke my own rhyme." Actually you nailed it with money–funny–honeys. Those rhyme. Money–funny–hoe, though, they don't. Your closing "Act like gonorrhea and burn, baby, burn" is wonderful and nudges an earned F to a D–. Stick to A&R, Dave.
5. Dungen – Introduktion *
Technically this song is called "Intro" but I've done a weird thing where I'm renaming all instances of "Intro" and "Outro" in my music library. They're too common and vague. A simple tactic is to pull a bit of stage banter—"Perhaps They're Shy, Guy" from Fugazi's live Metropolitan University Student's Union—or crowd chatter—"Look at That Guy's Pants" from the Stooges' Georgia Peaches—in order to distinguish whose "Intro" is whose. But what to do with a studio instrumental made by foreigners? What's Swedish for "introduction"? On with the show.
*
10. Hawkwind – Time We Left This World Today (Live) *
11. MC5 – Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa) (Live)
The concept of a mini live set was born as I pondered how best to insert live tracks from
Space Ritual (1973),
The Horrible Truth About Burma (1985) and
Three Kings (2010) into the mix without the jarring transitions that would likely result. And then Black Flag walked into the room like
"Aren't you sure you'd rather give Loose Nut
the Biffy? I know it's a little random but it's good stuff." And in comes Dead Meadow, all
"You realize that 'Beyond the Fields We Know' is only on the special edition of the album, right? Maybe go with one of the studio tracks instead?" Well fuck! I need to pad "Time We Left This World Today" somehow! The abruptness of that ending! And
then who struts in but Fela Kuti, trailed by ninety-nine topless wives.
"Hey… erm… what happened to Zombie
? That won 1976, didn't it? And now it's the goddamn Ramones?" Two wrongs make a right and I offered
"Let's start with 'Let's Start'! Har! Har!" He was amused and appeased. Mission of Burma, though, slipped back in before the door even latched behind the ninety-ninth sweet ass.
"Really? You do know we covered '1970' on this thing, right? Enough for the Damned but not us?" Well–
"And 'Heart of Darkness'??" Fine, you're in again. The horrible truth is I don't know what I'm doing.
12. Curtis Mayfield – Little Child Runnin' Wild *
"Can't reason with the pusher man." You're telling me! Fat Freddie got pinched and was run over like a dog!
13. Jay Reatard – Waiting for Something *
"The music review online magazine
Pitchfork Media placed
Blood Visions at
number 200 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s," with a score of eighty-one on their absurd zero-to-one-hundred (or
zero-to-ten, out to one decimal, depending on their nitpicking mood) scale. #127:
The Woods, with an original score of eighty-seven. #74:
Elephant, with an original score of seventy-nine. #45:
The Argument, with an original score of eighty-five. Hmm, something doesn't feel right. Is your sorting corrupted? Let's skim the rest of the list. Sleater-Kinney shows up again at #72 with
One Beat, earning a score of… eighty-two? The White Stripes again with #12
White Blood Cells, eighty-seven points. A lot of albums scored eighty-seven points in their initial reviews, right up to inevitable #1
Kid A by Radiohead, which is now a hundred twenty-six spaces above its once-equal
The Woods. Meanwhile, albums by Andrew WK and someone named Clipse can't even crack seventy points and still end up dozens of positions over
Blood Visions, while Michael Mayer (who?) released a perfect-hundred
Immer (what?) only to end up at #116 in this retrospective clickbait. Enough! No more clicks from me!
14. Stereolab – Harmonium
This 1992 single leads off the mid-nineties compilation
Refried Ectoplasm and
still can't get recognized under the "In popular culture" section of Wikipedia's
The Sirens of Titan page. So it goes.
15. Doors – My Eyes Have Seen You
"It's time to include the Doors" is a fine (and accurate) example of a typical note I'll write to myself in Google Keep over the course of a random Tuesday morning commute. Its flip nature, though, is in direct contract to the amount of consideration I waste when assembling the final product:
"Stereolab right into the Doors… of course!" "My Eyes Have Seen You" sounds strangely contemporary and I've come to realize that a lot of Doors songs sound out of place next to what was going on around them, excluding the Elvis-y strings and horns of
The Soft Parade. "Tell All the People" was a contender here and my sixteen-year-old self would have rolled over in his sober virgin grave.
16. Ali Touré Farka – Karanda Bala Bozo
The Doors right into Ali Touré Farka… of course! "The African John Lee Hooker" had a hard time deciding where to place his "Farka" ("donkey") nickname: Ali Touré Farka? Ali Farka Touré? It's your call, man. In other translation news, "Karanda Bala Bozo" means "devilish right-wing bozos."
17. Michael Yonkers – Lovely Gold
Oh, what blossoms from a free
"Sold America" Sub Pop download. Tis a
lovely sunflower.
18. Ty Segall – Sleeper *
19. Helium – The Revolution of Hearts
20. Motörhead – (We Are) the Road Crew *
Main man Ty Segall, to my knowledge, has yet to release a studio album in 2019. Wither his trust fund? Regardless, "Sleeper"—a.k.a. "And, Goodnight (Part 1)"—took advantage and its understudy experience was not in vain. Despite a "quiet" 2019, he (solo, as a member of Gøggs and backing Tim Presley's White Fence on drums) and Ian Svenonius (Make-Up, the Nation of Ulysses and Weird War) lead the pack with three appearances each and should take a nap. Meanwhile, Helium's epic "The Revolution of Hearts" (split across two sides of
The Magic City because vinyl is dumb) once stood in full glory atop the playlist until it was reminded of the twelfth commandment: "THOU SHALT NOT LEAD OFF BLOG PLAYLISTS WITH SONGS YOUNGER THAN THE AUTHOR, EXCEPT FOR VOLUMES ZERO AND ONE, WHICH DO NOT REALLY COUNT ANYWAY." Drag. Leading lady Mary Timony, too, is no slouch and will return with Ex Hex in eighty minutes. And Lemmy? Do not panic! He's making an encore after acting as
Space Ritual's secret weapon earlier. "Himself!" For completists, and with a plea for leniency in the event I missed anyone, let's acknowledge other repeat offenders James Canty (Make-Up and the Nation of Ulysses), Steve Gamboa (ditto), Michelle Mae (Make-Up and Weird War) and Stephen McCarty (Dead Meadow—
a better band with you in it—and Weird War). DC networking at its finest. Anyway, these do abide by the eleventh commandment as described above because while the individuals are indeed making (coveting?) more than one appearance here and elsewhere, the identified artist labels (eponymous solo project, group collaboration, guest spot, etc.) are not. Hellfire averted.
21. Atomic Rooster – Devil's Answer (Demo)
"1970 demo with Carl Palmer" and unheralded original singer Nick Graham, who really elevates this version over the official boogie-rock single. Taken from the bird-titted
Atomic Roooster reissue, helpfully labeled "sic" due to the extra O.
22. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Love or Confusion *
Are You Experienced and the Rolling Stones'
Out of Our Heads are the two exceptions I make when it comes to favoring reassembled American albums over proper sixties canon because they're the ones I grew up with. "Love or Confusion" plainly states the argument: preference (i.e., love) of one version over another, or disorder (i.e., confusion) due to multiple versions in the first place? You tell me, baby. "Purple Haze"… "Hey Joe"… "The Wind Cries Mary"… "The Last Time"… "Play With Fire"… "Satisfaction"…
USA! USA! Eat it.
23. Thee Oh Sees – Last Peace *
24. Sonfolk – Homecoming
"Last Peace" into "Homecoming"… so much wasted spiritual potential.
Thee Oh Sees earned the 2018 asterisk in a photo finish against Ty Segall's
Freedom's Goblin, a good album that likely suffered from a January release and a little too much fat.
Smote Reverser, though, is widening the gap and "Last Peace"
or "Nail House Needle Boys"
or "Moon Bog"
(Lovecraft fodder) or "Sentient Oona" was a tough call. Maybe the answer lies in Sonfolk's bible, in Revelations. I wouldn't know. And I won't.
25. Public Enemy – B-Side Wins Again *
If this were a record—which it isn't, because vinyl is dumb—and if each side of a record could hold, say, an hour and fifty minutes of music, then PE appropriately rewards you for getting off your ass and walking over to the goddamn turntable to flip the sucker. Again and again, again! So dumb.
26. The Nation of Ulysses – Mockingbird, Yeah!
Featuring "the Doo-Wop Assembly" on backing vocals:
Kathleen Hanna, Kathi Wilcox, Tobi Vail and Billy Karren from Bikini Kill; Brendan Canty and Guy Picciotto from Fugazi; and
Complete Discography cover-boy Alec MacKaye.
To Kill a Mockingbird, for all its hype, underwhelmed ahead of the first meeting of the
CSGNFBØQEBCBBL but eked out an upturned yellow thumb and three out of five stars on Goodreads. Katy Tur's
Unbelievable was better (though no
Game Change or
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72) while Wes Moore's
The Other Wes Moore was a self-serving humble-brag that became startlingly religious at its conclusion. And Arundhati Roy's
The God of Small Things? And Arundhati Roy's
The God of Small Things!
Sandra Boynton and David Baldacci should make room on their hollow, gold-plated bench. It's a good thing I like the people and that our discussions have been interesting—I'm curious to hear from someone who
did enjoy this garbage—because the selections themselves so far have disappointed, unlike the majority of my assignments with the Ladies. Rereading
Into Thin Air in a couple of months, followed by my own
All the President's Men nomination, will hopefully right the ship and avoid Roy's "extraordinary" bullshit; her "imaginatively supple" lack of character development; the "poignancy and considerable sweep" of the book's juvenile wordplay; a "lush, magical" miasma of overlong metaphors that underscores her "dazzling" lack of storytelling ability and "morally strenuous" effort to fill three hundred-something pages; and—finally! sensibly!—her "execrable" reliance on a disjointed timeline to disguise the fact that there isn't much happening here. Good riddance. (Hey Kathleen. What's up? You like to read?)
27. Mudhoney – Nerve Attack
28. Beatles – You Can't Do That *
29. Dead Meadow – That Old Temple *
These three hit it off last year and wanted to hang out again. Pass the hash pipe cuz their mothers ain't lookin'. If it weren't for Mudhoney's so-so
Digital Garbage ("Nerve Attack" and "Oh Yeah" are the highlights) late last year I would have chosen
Piece of Cake's "Thirteenth Floor Opening," not only for its nod to the stars of track seven but also because I work on my building's thirteenth floor, which shouldn't be acknowledged for mystical fears of "bad luck." As a result, elevator buttons read "13" whereas digital displays—existing only in a world that doesn't know how to count—insist upon arrival that "14" is your destination, so don't freak out! These are the problems superstitious architects and schizoid engineers create for themselves.
30. White Stripes – Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine *
31. Silver Apples – You and I
32. Black Mountain – Wucan *
33. Dead Kennedys – Chickenshit Conformist *
34. White Fence – Arrow Man
This was to be a silver-and-black sandwich on white bread until Jello insisted, loudly, that I should
"Be a slave to the sequence and not to the construct!" So let's consider "Chickenshit Conformist" (or,
"Chicken S. Conformist" at home) the, I don't know, Russian dressing over turkey (Silver Apples) and roast beef (Black Mountain), with the White Stripes and White Fence a hearty sourdough or something. Time for lunch.
35. Liz Phair – Shane
"Liz Phair has described
Whip-Smart as a chronicle of the beginning, middle and end of a relationship: a rock fairy tale, from meeting the guy, falling for him, getting him and not getting him, going through the disillusionment period, saying 'Fuck it' and leaving, coming back to it." Plus draft-dodging. Don't forget the draft-dodging.
36. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – Moonlight on Vermont
Well duh.
37. Chuck Berry – Oh Louisiana
"She shamed me in sorrow," alright.
Oh Louisiana. Oh Kentucky. Oh god.
38. AC/DC – Sin City *
On the train in Salem last week a middle-aged woman boarded and asked to sit in the vacant seat between me on the aisle and another person at the window. (It's understood that people on the aisle will never slide to the middle seat unless the new arrival is pregnant or blind.) As she settled in I admired her backback, emblazoned with black-and-white AC/DC logos. "Nice backpack!" Simple enough, anticipating a standard
"Thanks!" in return so I could get back to racing through, yes, the dreadful
The God of Small Things.
Book clubs, man. Instead, paraphrased and with my bracketed asides: "Thanks! I stole it from my daughter." [Lowers book.] "Haha." "She was like 'Mommm!'" "Well, she'll like them one day, right?" "Oh, she already does. She likes all my stuff. She's always like 'Mommm!'" "Haha. Nice." [Returns book to reading position.] "I just love this band. Rrrrrr! What's your favorite album??" [Lowers book again. Really thinks about the answer and its relationship to continuing adventures.] "Probably
Powerage." [Actually prefers
Highway to Hell,
Back in Black and the original
TNT but 1978 was a lean year.] "What?? No! I just love when the old drummer left and the way the new guy plays on 'Thunderstruck.' That's, like, so amazing." [Refrains from arguing that Phil Rudd is a much better drummer than Chris Slade and that she never explicitly declares
The Razors Edge her favorite album.] "Mmm." "I was in a garage band… my daughter found us on YouTube… 'Mommm!'" "Mmm." [Resumes reading.] "Kiss! Deep Purple!" "Yup." [Despises book.]
39. Ex Hex – Good Times
Mary! Hello again! A. and I saw Ex Hex in Portsmouth in April, which was half the cost and a tenth the hassle that their Boston show in July promises to be. Logistics for the win. 2019's
It's Real is pretty good but I prefer the
plain good Rips and it's looser Ramones spirit. Much of
It's Real (though not "Good Times" and its drop-dead harmonies) reminds me of bad eighties hair metal, thanks mainly to the
other singer's contributions. Curious. Anyway, since I saw them in concert, I couldn't help but comply with the thirteenth commandment: "THOU SHALL FEATURE ON BLOG PLAYLISTS ANY HEADLINE ACT WITH WHOM YOU SHARE A BALLROOM." Done and done! What's that,
L7?
Twice, you say? I promise to get you back in 2020, even though you appear to be skipping Boston on your current tour. Drag. So it's you, Guided by Voices (whom I saw Friday and therefore after the April cut-off—"THOU SHALT NOT SPILL INTO JUNE AGAIN, MOTHERFUCKER"), Black Flag and the Fall, the latter two remaining orphaned since
Damaged (1981) and
Hex Enduction Hour (1982) have yet to find their forever homes. (Prior appearances in
2011,
2013,
2014 and
last year sub as reliable foster parents.) How about "Shove," "Motor Away," "Room 13" and "Hip Priest" next May? Right. We good? (Hey Jennifer. Wanna join a book club?)
40. The Left Banke – Nice to See You
41. Gøggs – Vanity
Nice to see you. Nice to see me!
42. Mr. Airplane Man – Pretty Baby I'm in Love With You
43. George Brigman – DMT *
At last, our
Super-Biffy flank is formally defended against all comers by Brigman's unique brand of low fidelity, which has
nothing on Mr. Airplane Man's official debut.
44. Budos Band – Old Engine Oil
45. Big Black – The Power of Independent Trucking *
Double BBs taming ass and killing the environment with their machines. "I got an exit book here, shows the best steak on any mile of interstate in the whole pig-friggin' country."
46. Roxy Music – Editions of You
Thanks to Mudhoney for showing me a little more of Roxy Music. And thanks to the (no doubt) British Wikipedia contributor for (no doubt) his precious observation that "'Do the Strand' has been called the archetypal Roxy Music anthem,
whilst 'Editions of You' was notable for a series of ear-catching solos by…" etc. "Whilst!" Woo
oooooo!
47. Lafayette Afro-Rock Band – Hihache
Our penultimate song is a mind-expanding instrumental for the third year in a row because "THOU SHALL–" oh forget it.
48. Weird War – Pick Up the Phone and Ball
"Weird War was initially formed as an umbrella organization in 2001 to encompass disparate anti-authoritarian groups and to challenge the idiocy of the new epoch." Man, Ian Svenonius for president. Unfortunately you can hear the exact moment Neil Hagerty grows bored with the band's "ideology" about a minute and a half into this: "
Pick up the phone and ball! Pick up the phone and ball! Pick up the phone and ball! Pick up the phone and ball! Pick up the phone and ball! Pick up the phone and ball! Pick up the phone and ball. Pick up the phone and ball…"
With sincere apologies to Black Flag and the Fall: we've got nine songs from the sixties (three from '69), another fourteen from the seventies (just two from '71, quashing last year's uprising), four—four!—during an inclusivity exercise!—from the eighties, seven from the nineties, six from the aughts and eight from the teens (two from '19). God bless you, daughter. I'm in love with you.
More furious madness: Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4 | Volume 5 | Volume 6 | Volume 7 | Volume 8 | Volume 9 | Volume 10
The game: Patriots vs. Rams
The beer: Proclamation Derivative Vic Secret Pale Ale
"Also, look at Jaki's simple drum kit pictured in the reissue cover above."
The game: Patriots at Chiefs