Weekly Playlist Vol 6 -the Cure edition

Some one said one morning that I am like the Cure dark on the outside and a marsh-mellow in the inside. I told them then I would make this, so here it is. I was pondering in this thematic series doing David Bowie, because while the Cure is one of my all time favorite bands, David Bowie still edges them out of the top spot and even Robert Smith would admit he would never have done what he did without Bowie. But readers with fine tuned ears or who are just not stoned enough to pay attention the lyrics might notice many of the songs in the Play List series has a common theme...love. Or something in that realm of emotion. This made the choice easier since when David Bowie tackles that subject matter he does so typically in the larger than life theatrical manner he does everything in his world, the exception being the songs on the b-side of  the "Young Americans" album he has a more soulful take.

Robert Smith on the other hand is someone whose perspective fit better. He is bi-polar as hell either in a low swing and writing about wanting to just disappear or he is bouncing round and it's all pastel rain bows swirling around like a lava lamp. This morning I could only listen to the Cure and was trying to get to the lava lamp swirling place , but was in a low swing so these are the songs where the lyrics said..."Oh yeah I feel that way" For better or for worse , music is a major part of my mental health. The Cure helps stabilize me when I am anxious, where metal can make my skin crawl. So here are some songs where Robert Smith meets his marsh-mellow side half way. He muses that sure if my be crazy and insecure, but he is going to embrace his feelings. He is either longing for someone there is a distance between or he is skipping around planning a picnic and smelling flowers he is so head over heels. I can relate. Here I'll shut up and give you music now, not the all time best Cure songs he has a ever written , but a great soundtrack for when I'm fluttery.

"Underneath the Stars"






"Before Three"



 


 "Six Different Ways"






"Strange Attraction"







" There is No If "








"Speak My Language" 







 "Close to Me"






-"Untitled"







"the Perfect Girl"



 

Alkymist : " s/t"

While they are being called doom, the first song on the band's self titled debut reminds me of a cross between Godflesh and Neurosis. I don't think all doom bands should owe the totality of their existence to Black Sabbath. I do think the difference between doom and sludge lies in the sense of mourning , where sludge has a dirtier more apocalyptic chug to it, that is being displayed here. I'm just working off my first impression of the opener so maybe their entire families get killed before the second song and the album takes a more despondent turn. I can also hear some Crowbar influence in the grunt of the vocals . Midway into the song the bass line does lurch into something darker that comes closer to doom, so they did not need great loss in their lives to get their in time for the guitar solo.

The second song combines a great deal of other elements all carrying an oppressive crunch and meeting somewhere between doom and sludge. There is more melody and atmosphere to "Myling" which retains the hints of Neurosis , but also couple with shades of 90s metal if we are talking Type O Negative, not the band's goth side, but the heavy crunching lumber.  The more Black Sabbath side of things begins to stir on "Paradise". The vocals are almost like My Dying Bride, but not gothy. They eventually go back into the throaty bark that has been their primary function thus far. The vocal colors on this do shift. One such change occurs midway into the song.

"Serpent" started off more Pink Floyd like. The vocals take on a more Amebix feel as the over all sound has that more dystopian crust feel.You can here how Killing Joke also influenced this brand of music. The guitar tone is much cleaner  here and the atmospheric elements are very organic. The roar of the vocals is much more Neurosis like as they sit against the heavier modulation. It's a pretty impressive display of pounding. I'll around this down slightly to am 8.5 , due to the fact this is obviously not the most original thing going. They still manage to make this their own despite that fact and that says a lot so if you are looking for a new sludge album this should be your jam.

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Clutch : "Book of Bad Decisions"

The bar is held pretty high after "Psychic Warfare" . The opener is not as strong as "X-Ray Visions", but it has a groove that is what the band does, there might be a little more atmosphere. I guess it feels like Fallon's delivery is not as urgent. "Spirit of  76" finds the band back where I want them to be. The title track has a similar slinking blues groove, though marginally less impressive than the previous song. "How to Shake Hands" finds Fallons narrative locking into to the song with his more noted personality. The funk to "In Walks Barbarella" is hard to deny. The hook is there and finds Fallon's vocals gather the needed grit to add to the song's hook. The more standard rock fare of the much less adventurous "Vision Quest" doesn't do as much for me. I guess when it comes to straight up rock n roll , it's pretty decent , but I think I have already heard these guys do straight up rock n roll better.

"Weird Times" is there brand of rock n roll once again, though the drums are more upfront in the mix and this album doesn't find the bass as up in your face which makes the overall sound not as heavy as the previous album. Their drummer is really sweating for his paycheck on this album, so if you are a drummer this will not let you down. When the bass does resurface on "Emily Dickinson" it doesn't have the same growl it's had in past. For this song they can get away with it as it's more melodic and bluesy. Fallon takes on more of a country croon, though in his resonate baritone. It wanders off into something more psychedelic by the end of the song. "Sonic Counselor" has almost more of a ZZ Top feel. There is a little more of Sabbath to the chug of " A Good Fire". The blues drenched hook bounces around the song and is what you expect from their formula.

So far the more explosive elements seem toned, so going into "Ghoul Wrangler" my hopes are high for them to rocking a little harder. It is however nothing new for these guys and I have heard them commit to this harder. I can hear traces of Judas Priest in the more palm muted riff. They rock pretty well into "H.B is in Control" . Lyrically this might be one of the album's best moments.A slide guitar opens the twangy "Hot Bottom Feeder".  It is pretty much what you would expect from these guys and rides a pretty solid groove, the bass still could use a boost and really the mix is the only gripe about this album, as it would give this song more balls. The tempo picks up for "Paper & Strife". It's another meat and potatoes rock n roll song, along the line of 70s radio rock like Mountain.

The album ends with "Lorelei" a darker more somber song, that is a nice directional shift. Fallon talks his way through the verse and goes into his more gritty for the chorus. It ebbs back down kind of like "Hell"s Bells" I'll round this down to a 9 and see how it sits with me, some of the more straight forward rock n roll moments doesn't do as much for me as the song driven by the kind of thicker grooves that I want from the guys. Sometimes it feels like Fallon's hooks are just being dialed in a little and they are working more of a formula, but overall their formula work, The Drumming and guitar playing are so great they can easily carry this album. 

Mammalek : "Out of Time"

This album is so weird , the boundaries of these songs is loose . I found myself on the third song after having no clear definition where the first two songs began or ended. It is a darker form of post-rock clouded with angular gloomy and vocals that moan and growl. They are never really the focal point for of a background narrative. The guitar is mainly clean and almost jazz like. "God is the Irrational Number" comes out of it;s dreamy guitar drift with a swirl of effected vocals hypnotizing you. The used of more aggressive vocals just feels like some one is being driven crazy rather than roaring at you like a monster. This approach might be more unnerving as it sounds more like someone walking into the studio and cracking. The guitar playing is not metal , but it is polished. In fact there is not much about this album so far that actually is metal. Things get tense at times but not heavy.

Their is a little more growl to the narrative on "Recompense is Real". Its more like a growled spoken word as it's not following the beat of the song. Then is left to rant alone when the music drops out. I like the more sweeping dynamic build that comes after this and how the tension darkens it. This brings what might be the album's first metallic moment. "Doomed Beast" almost sounds more like a heavier take on a Tom Waits song. The guitar continues to flow smoothly under the organized chaos being called a song here. There is more of a groove to " Out of Love" ,but the weirdness plays against it until flowing into a bizarre middle eastern atmosphere. These guys get credit for keeping me guessing and having a dynamic range of sounds. "Where Is My Friends House" starts of strong with an undeniable groove that they give over to atmosphere. The lyrics all seem to be very abstract as well. This is not metal at all, but what it is could be hard to lay a finger on as so many odd elements from jazz to post-rock are colliding.

Sometimes the odd pairings of styles are more effective than others as I question the funk of "My Master, My Father, My Author". It just breaks the dark and surreal mood this album has already established. Things begin to fall apart as the weirdness eclipses what made these songs work on "the First is Last" . "Almost Dead Dog" has a more melodic emo feel to it's dreamy sway. "Absolute Knowing" sounds like something from a Faith No More album even with the more gurgled death metal vocals. It does conform to a more traditional song format, instead of just wandering around. The last song is pretty much just an instrumental outro. I'll round this album down to an 8, as some of the noisy parts detached you from what was really going on, but over all this is a pretty dark and adventurous album.

Pig Destroyer : "Head Cage"

The album starts off more grind core than not, these guys go for the throat with the anger of hard core coupled with the more metallic leanings of death metal. The vocals are more in line with hard core. Feed back squeals out from the edges of the songs. There is more groove to "Army of Cops". It proves these guys can actually write a song when they put their heads to it. There is a little more of a thrashing feel to "Circle River" . The vocals take on a more punk howling. By the time it gets to the amped up tempo of "the Torture Fields" it is clear their drummer is really talented, but everything else is descending into a mire of chugging and beginning to all sounds the same. We do have that rule, cool riffs alone do not a good song make.

Their grind core tendencies are more fully indulged on "Terminal Itch". It's a little straight forward for me. The riff to "Concrete Beast" is not wildly different from many of the other metal tinged riffs on the album. The vocals are a higher choked scream. The songs begin to sound the same on "the Adventures of Jason and JR". The verse riff is really mean. The vocals keep falling along the same lines of screams with just a few minor differences tonally. Their need for speed begins to wear thinner on songs like "Mt. Skull". Some of it comes across a little busy. The bass player they have recently added makes himself known going into "The Last Song" which hits a chug much like something Converge would have fucked with. I like the extra layers of sound they add to things .

They close the album with "House of Snakes". At seven minutes long it's the longest song on the album. From the beginning it reminds me of "Orion" before dropping down to the thump of the bass against a sample. At a minute and a half in you can't imagine anyone thinking this isn't heavy as fuck. The guitars wind around in varied levels of harmonized chugging. These guys are good at what they do. That is why I am rounding this up to a 7.5, they are not re-inventing the wheel here.  So fans is this worth a six year wait ?

Wilcifer's Top 10 Folk Artists

Since the Weekly Playlist is weekly , I can only publish one a week, yeah, I know its my fucking blog so I could do anything I want, but then it would just be chaos. I am not opposed to chaos, but it would then turn into the bi-weekly playlist. The reason for the Weekly Playlist, was it was the audio equivalent to leaving notes in your crush’s locker in high school. The lyrics to some of these songs could still say..” Do you like me ? Check yes or no”, but not all of them , in fact some are on the angry side. So I made this a top ten list, cause you kids like them. I am not saying they are the greatest of all time, as it lacks the Bob Dylans and Phil Ochs. In fact I let Last FM sort them out and rank them by who I have listened to the most. The Top 10 folk artists, Wilcifer Has Listened to the Most According to Lastfm.com, so really an unwieldy title so , it is what it is. I did not list the song titles by the artists as that would imply they are the best songs by that artist. I just picked these songs because I like them. Some the lyrically content is particularly potent, which I think is a key component of folk, since it’s sripped down more honest story. The John Vanderslice song could have been a letter I wrote to my mom at the peak of my heroin addiction. The Chelsea Wolfe song pretty much sums up my marriage. So I could have titled this locker note…”Here Is What My Life Was Like Before I Met You”. But that title is also very long. It could be argued that these are not all soley folk artists, but by that reasoning neither was Bob Dylan as he took his music to other place. Here there are going to be elements of rock and blues mixed in , but I think that is part and parcel, granted there are many folk artist who came out in the 90s and were marketed as being singer -song writers since folk was not the easiest crossover market at the time. So we could nit-pick this list all day and I don’t have time for that, in fact dear reader while I hope you enjoy this , you are really just a voyeur to me leaving another audio note in the locker. 10- Rome

   



9-John Vanderslice

 

8-Cat Power


 



7-Damien Rice



 


 6-Ani Difranco

 


 5-Dax Riggs

   


4-Brendan Perry


 



3-Death In June



 


 2- the Decemberists



 


1- Chelsea Wolfe

 

the Weekly Playlist Vol 5 : Nu-Metal edition

Breaking away from the trend of artist specific playlists I had going there for a couple of weeks to switch gears into a sub-genre specific playlist. I was going to stick to the artist theme and then make this a top ten list, but this makes more sense since we have a bunch of top ten lists as it as and the end of the year will be here before we know it. While I was no longer teenager when the nu-metal subgenre exploded in the late 90s, I appreciated the first wave of albums that came from it. Once certain artists got too much radio play it began to become watered down. Even after the first wave a few bands included here slipped by to make decent music.

This afternoon I played DJ for the female of most significance in my life and cued up music of this era to invoke a time when life was simpler. The unbridled joy of catharsis this music could still bring was very touching, So here some deeper cuts from some of those same artists and others from that time period. This music carried an undeniable groove and proved easy to get caught up in as the angst it often boiled gave voice to pain otherwise left to feel unheard. I often reach back in time for music that spoke to me at certain place so listen to the voice of my younger days. I time when idealism was the language of dreams and the weight of the adult world was a burden not fully realized.

Music is a time machine. It reminds me when I was not as calloused by beatings life had given me and I could throw caution to the wind and free fall into feelings with abandon. Older and wiser I try to have a more balanced approach, but music helps keep the vibrations balanced until my mind can catch up to my heart. So maybe dear reader, you to might share such a place in time with these songs, perhaps you might discover a song that went under the radar at the time . Either way life is too short to not have a soundtrack to remind us when we lived and loved at 80 mph. Perhaps we now know, more sustainable speed at which to engage this journey, and every journey needs a soundtrack.  

Disturbed - "Believe"

 

 Static X- "Love Dump"


 

 Korn - "Swallow"


 


Orgy- "Fetisha"

 


 System of a Down - "Spiders"


 


 Slipknot- "Vermilion"

 

 Flaw- "What Do I have to Do"

 

 Mudvayne - "Nothing to Gein"



Deftones-"Mx'