Every time I listen to a record, I leave it next to the stereo. On Monday, before I go back to work, I re-file them all. Below are the contents of this week's pile.

Black Sabbath Vol. 4
B— asked me the other night to name my favourite Sabbath record. We both agreed it comes down to this one or Masters Of Reality. I give the edge to this one based solely on "Supernaut": best riff evah!

This led to an argument over whether "Changes" rules or is wussy bullshit. I say Ozzy's never written a bad ballad, so you can guess where I stand on this one. I even like "Dreamer".

Cat Power – You Are Free
Probably my least favourite CP record, although C— insists that it's her best, I'm an idiot, blahblahblah. That latter sentiment he expresses a lot.

I played this one hoping it would be a good "go to bed, girls" album, but it's not particularly gentle. I guess since it's my least favourite I hadn't listened to it much. Or is it the other way around?

Cornershop – Woman's Gotta Have It
The opening/closing track on this one holds up really well. I remember seeing them open for Superchunk and playing like a fifteen minute version. The crowd was nonplussed, to say the least.

Del the Funky Homosapien – Both Sides Of the Brain
I was listening to this the other day and heard a guitar sample that I couldn't place and was killing me. It took me over an hour to figure out it's the Velvet Underground. Awesome. And that one's not listed on WhoSampled yet. Must rectify that.

Missy Misdemeanor Elliott – Da Real World

Gang Gang Dance – God's Money
This one's supposed to be their masterpiece, but I think I prefer Saint Dymphna. I've only played this one a few times, but it has yet to leave much of an impression.

KMD – Mr. Hood
Know who was in this band? MF Doom. Seriously, he's Zev Love X. Little trivia for you there.

Krallice
The closing track is maybe my favourite black metal song ever. Is that bullshit if it's American second wave stuff? Does it need to be old school Norwegian to be the best?

LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
I've always liked Murphy's stuff no matter how cooler than thou he gets. I don't know anyone who likes his music that's not an over-30 New Yorker, but I am, so I like it. It speaks to me and maybe just me. I also think that, since that demographic must include well over half the country's pop music critics, that's why his media coverage far outweighs his sales.

Anyway, sadly, while I liked his first two records, I've listened to this one a few times and I'm still waiting for it to grow on me. I have a feeling it might just stink.

Main Source – Breaking Atoms

Oneida – Rated O
Too long? I have a feeling an Oneida album can never be. This one's s'posed to be part two of a trilogy. I hope the finale's a quintuple.

Shinichi Osawa – The One

Procol Harum – Shine On Brightly

The Rolling Stones, Now!

Souls Of Mischief – 93 'Til Infinity
Finally got reissued. I've been waiting for this one forever. And it holds up really well. Not a weak track on there.

Spacemen 3 – Playing With Fire

Wavves – Wavvves

Wrath Of the Weak – Alogon
This is one of those records I bought without having any idea who the band is, just because I was ordering something else from their label (Profound Lore, but it looks like they're already out of it, chumps). I still have no idea who they are but this album is awesome. Think a cross between black metal and straight up noise. Like Horrid Cross but not as lo-fi. It's almost too monochromatic to really be brutal, it more trance-like. No copyright date, by the way, so I don't even know if it came out this year, but if it did then it'smy favourite album of the year so far.

X-Ecutioners – Built from Scratch

Yeasayer – ODDBLOOD
Bitterly disappointing. Sounds completely different from the first one, which is admirable in it's own way, but not a good album. And I really liked that first one, anti-Brooklyn backlash be damned. I think they really should have replaced the drummer instead of going with the programmed beats when the old one left.

Oh, also, that video with Kristen Bell sucks.

Stuff I Listened To Last Week – 26 July 2010

Every time I listen to a record, I leave it next to the stereo. On Monday, before I go back to work, I re-file them all. Below are the contents of this week's pile. We've been out of town for the last couple of weekends, so this is really three abbreviated weeks' worth.

Cabaret Voltaire – The Crackdown
Some interesting ideas here, but man, those 80s drum machines sound so dated. Even after the nostalgic revival we were treated to just a few years ago they still leave an unmistakeable mark wherever they're used.

Cheap Trick

John Coltrane – Giant Steps

Coltrane, Jaspar, Sulieman, Young – Interplay For 2 Trumpets and 2 Tenors

Bob Dylan – Blonde On Blonde

Brian Eno – Ambient 1: Music For Airports, Before and After Science
Eno struggled for over a year to complete Science, and considered it a major disappointment. He was refuted by the critics, who generally lauded it as yet another triumph for Eno. I think I side with Eno on this one; nothing particularly memorable here.

The Flaming Lips – Clouds Taste Metallic
The Flaming Lips considered this one something of a disappointment as well. Frontman Wayne Coyne in particular felt his lyrics were too whimsical. Here I disagree. The lyrics are... fine, the drumming, guitar sounds and vocal meodies terrific.

Isis – Panopticon

Mercury Rev – Deserter's Songs
When it's time to feed our daughters one last time and get ready to put them to bed, the wife always insists that we dim the lights and put on quieter music to get them in a bedtime mood. Usually this means an awful CD of synthesized xylophones programmed to ruin Pixies songs, which the wife likes and assures me that the girls enjoy as well. This is because she's quite convinced that the girls' tastes in music match hers exactly, and that most of Daddy's music is too loud and/or annoying. In an effort to avoid having to once more suffer through the ritual castration of "Debaser" by digital glockenspiels, I'm constantly trying to come up with quiet music from the Shelf that we all might enjoy together. Deserter's has been a (quietly) roaring success on this front.

Great Moments With Charles Mingus
The collectors' desire for things like original pressings has always eluded me. I have no problem with cheapo reissues, as long as I get the music. This has been a spot of good luck as far as my fanhood of Mingus goes, as I have managed to gather no less than three dubious double-LP compilations which consist of little more than two whole albums repackaged as one under a new title, cheaply priced to bilk the unenlightened. Thus I now own the seminal Black Saint and the Sinner Lady and Mingusx5 albums in one convenient package with a 7.99 price tag still affixed to the cover. An original press of either of this albums alone can rarely be found for less than triple that price, but who wants a shitty reissue version? This guy, that's who.

Pink Floyd – A Nice Pair
See above. First two Floyd albums in one convenient package, and with tasteless cover art to boot. Not quite as great a bargain at 19.99, but still cheaper than both albums individually.

Pixies – Doolittle
Sounds significantly better with loud guitars and screamed vocals, since you asked.

The Residents Present the Third Reich 'n Roll

The Rolling Stones – Aftermath

Phil Manzanera – Diamond Head
Seemingly out of alphabetical order because he's getting filed with the Roxy Music LPs. Sorry Phil, but you'll always be the dude from Roxy. Not like Eno.

Santana – Abraxas

Sigur Ros – Agætis Byrjun, ()
More ammo in the war against digital xylophones.

Spiritualized – Lazer Guided Melodies
Why yes, the Ladies and Gentlemen show on Friday was fantastic.

St. Etienne – Only Love Can Break Your Heart 12"

Steely Dan – Can't Buy a Thrill

Superchunk – No Pocky For Kitty

T. Rex – The Slider

Talking Heads – Fear Of Music

U2 – War, Under a Blood Red Sky

Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Zuma, Live At the Fillmore East
It kind of pisses me off how Young's constantly extolling the virtues of analogue recording and vynil LPs, then turns around and charges $32 for single albums. Screw you, Neil. Thankfully I picked up Fillmore on sale, so it was still expensive but at least within the realm of reasonable. $20, maybe? It was a good sale.

Stuff I Listened To Last Week – 5 July 2010

Every time I listen to a record, I leave it next to the stereo. On Monday, before I go back to work, I re-file them all. Below are the contents of this week's pile.

Acetone

Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us

OOIOO – Armonico Heva

David Bowie – Low, Heroes

The Byrds – The Notorious Byrd Brothers

Elvis Costello – Trust

Brian Eno – Ambient 1: Music For Airports

David Byrne-Brian Eno – My Life In the Bush Of Ghosts

Method Man & Redman – Blackout!

Charles Mingus At the Bohemia

The Popguns – Landslide 12"

Psychic Ills – Catoptric

Quasi – The Sword Of God

Talking Heads – Remain In Light

U2 – The Unforgettable Fire

The Velvet Underground

Stuff I Listened To Last Week – 28 June 2010

Every time I listen to a record, I leave it next to the stereo. On Monday, before I go back to work, I re-file them all. Below are the contents of this week's pile. By the way, last weekend I was out of town.

The Beatles, The Alternate Revolver
Apparently there's a whole series of these Alternate bootlegs made up of outtakes of each track from a particular album. None of these are particularly revelatory, but as a Beatles fan, they're kind of all you've got. I mean, they quit touring in '66, so it's not like there's a near-infinite number of live bootlegs out there like you've got with the Dead, the Stones, Springsteen, etc. As for these versions? They're... not as good as the album, but interesting.

Blur – Modern Life Is Rubbish, Parklife

Eno – Another Green World
Credited only to "Eno", not "Brian Eno". As was all of his work in the early 70s, even the credits on the first couple of Roxy albums. The first one credited to "Brian" was... I can't remember, and I just read it in that bio I've been reading.

Fripp & Eno – No Pussyfooting
He also always takes the second credit on duo collaborations. Not something I read, something I noticed.

Ladytron – Velocifero

Nachtmystium – Assassins: Black Meddle, Part I
That pun in the title sucks.

The Pretty Things – S.F. Sorrow
How did I miss this one? I was way into 60s psychedelia in college and I never heard this record. How is this still flying under the radar to this day? Great record, by the way.

The Refused – The Shape Of Punk To Come
This might be one of the most accurate album titles of all time. It really does sound like nothing else that came out at the time, but sounds exactly like tons of hardcore bands ten years later. It's fucking uncanny, one of those albums that basically single-handedly invented an entire subgenre. So how does it hold up? The riffs still kick ass, but the electronica interludes sound dated and really kill the momentum. Overall grade: B.

Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure
The most surprsing thing about listening to the first two Roxy records today is that the coolest moments are the extended guitar and sax solos. Not Ferry's songwriting, not Eno's synth shit, just the old-fashioned arena rock.

Sigur Ros – ()
This is either the best or worst album title of all time, but it's nothing in between.

Sonic Youth – Dirty [box set]
This remains (a) the most underrated Sonic LP, and (b) the best sellout album of all time. It sounds like contemporary grunge rock, they got Butch Vig to produce, but there's still some pretty harsh, uncompromising elements (the opening seconds, for instance).

I think it's one flaw has always been that it's too long. Not that there's bad songs or a lot of filler, but some great ideas get repeated more times than necessary. The box set sequence, which restores some outtakes, only exacerbates this problem, good as those outtakes are. One of the earliest examples of the CD age producing albums that are about ten minutes too long. Forty-five minutes was just right.

U2 – Achtung, Bbay
It baffles me that U2 haters (and there are, understandably, many) could actually listen to this masterpiece and not compromise their stance. Still fresh, possibly even better now than it was twenty years ago. Actually nineteen years; expect a 20th anniversary deluxe reissue next year about this time.

The Velvet Underground – The Quine Tapes [box set]
Yes A—, you're right, it costs too much. But it's the fucking Velvets, and it's awesome, and it's worth every penny, because it's twelve sides of vinyl and five of those sides are entirely "Sister Ray".

The Wedding Present – Brassneck EP
This is the one with the Pavement cover. Also their first time working with Albini.

Wierd Compilation Volume II: Analogue Electronic Music 2008
Not as jaw-droppingly awesome as Volume I, but what could be?

Stuff I Listened To Last Week – 14 June 2010

Every time I listen to a record, I leave it next to the stereo. On Monday, before I go back to work, I re-file them all. Below are the contents of this week's pile.

Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star

DJ Shadow – Endtroducing...
Yeah, it's a little long and there's some filler, but the strong stuff holds up really well. Impressive for a genre that tends to date poorly.

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
The wife like "Summertime Clothes". She says it's the first track she's heard by them that sounds like more than just a bunch of hype. She doesn't even let herself get sentimental about "My Girls", an angle I've tried to push more than once. Shameless, I know.

The Beatles – Let It Be

The Bee Gees – Idea
Title track opens with the sickest piano riff, I can't believe it hasn't been sampled yet. Has it? Anyone?

Daryl Hall and John Oates – Bigger Than Both Of Us
Philly massive. It's the one with "Rich Girl" on it.

Jesu – Heart Ache

Mogwai – Come On Die Young

Van Morrison – St. Dominic's Preview

Pixies – Doolittle
M— and D— gave us this wretched CD of Pixies songs played as lullabyes. Ugh. The wife loves it. I'll stick with the originals, thanks. Hopefully the girls will follow suit. I can't imagine ever liking children's music. So pandering.

Psychic Ills – Mirror Eye
Not as good as Dins. I just got it, maybe a few more listens.

Saviors – Into Abbadon
This album rocks. Super stripped down no-frills riffage, old-school heaviness start to finish. Saw these guys open for High On Fire a couple years back. No idea if they're still around.

Sonic Youth – Bad Moon Rising
Picked this one up for around $12 in Tokyo last year. Possibly the highlight of the trip. That or the beer girls with kegs strapped to their backs at the baseball game.

Spiritualized – Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space
Just got tickets for this show at Radio City this summer, taking the wife, got Mom lined up to babysit. What more could you ask?

Trans Am – Surrender To the Night

Stuff I Listened To Last Week – 7 June 2010

Every time I listen to a record, I leave it next to the stereo. On Monday, before I go back to work, I re-file them all. Below are the contents of this week's pile.

The Bee Gees – Odessa
Yes, plenty of other bands have released two-LP concept albums. But how many have had red velvet sleeves?

Brian Eno – Here Come the Warm Jets
Just started reading a new Eno bio, so I'll be hitting a bunch of these in the next couple of weeks.

The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
The Lips are one of my favourite acts of all time, but I'm still trying to figure this one out. The songs are slippery, tough to grasp, tough to remember after they end. They seem to be built from riffs and sounds rather than vocal hooks, which is a big shift for this band. I think this is their Kid A.

I've just started noticing themes repeating from one song to another, so I know there's a grand plan at work here, I just haven't fully sussed it out yet. Hard work, but fun work.

Gang Gang Dance – Saint Dymphna

Jay-Z – The Black Album

King Crimson – In the Court Of the Crimson King
M— picked this one out the other night when he come over to hang out and see the girls. Nice choice. I had just grabbed Warm Jets. M— didn't even realise that Fripp and Eno had collaborated, so it was just a coincidence. That could probably happen with Eno and about half the records I own. OK, a third, but still.

Krallice
Finally saw these guys live last week and they were awesome. Too short, but great while it lasted. It's weird how trancey black metal can be when it's really loud.

By the way, Profound Lore, hurry up and put their new one out on vinyl. And the last YOB album. And everything by Cobalt. Get on that shit. Who the hell still buys CDs anyway?

M.I.A. – Arular, Kala
Honestly, I really don't think the Lynn Hirschberg piece was that harsh. There's a few digs here and there, but really, who among us didn't already know that M.I.A.'s revolutionary schtick is bullshit? And when you get down to it, what popular artist's schtick, from midwestern Jewish nerd Robert Zimmerman to posh English business student Michael Jagger, isn't bullshit? The music holds up, and whether or not she's the one doing the creative heavy lifting, she's clearly the one whose vision is in charge.

And another thing: I pronounce it "MY-uh" and no one's telling me otherwise. It's her first name, for sobbing out loud.

Saint Etienne – Foxbase Alpha, So Tough
The Tiger Bay reissue's finally out, but I don't know whether they're doing the vinyl or not. I'm not sure that one ever came out in the first place.

Uncle Tupelo – Still Feel Gone/March 16-20, 1992