Sex Drugs & Ratchet

DJ Mustard's still on the beat round these parts. Reynolds mentions a few more here This one I can't deny. I love that minimal spooky fade out at the end but Mustard makes spooky a 'subdued mood of depressive hedonism.'* That's the best description I've heard so far of this sub genre of a sub genre.

Mustard has turned me around on other things. I couldn't get into this at all when it came out. I knew the sonic production was v cool. I thought it was depressing though but now I get that downer euphoric vibe. Like painkillaz and alcohol. I'm not even sure what other drugs this relates to weed, ice? A heroin-y E maybe? Anyway it's a hell of a vibe. Only took me 2 years to get it. Jesus what next Drake?

Actually It was probably this tune that got me to go back and listen to Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid... cd. How is Mustard not on this beat?

I hated Gas Pedal when I first heard it, then hated it again when I gave it another go. I think it was Reynolds who said (and I agreed) it was just a rip off of Snoop & Pharell's Drop It like Hot but then he had it in his singles of the year. So I gave it another go, still hated it. 5 months later now I'm fully into it. The druggy vibe can't be too wasted because they still be horny dudes. The vibe of this song encompasses a panopoly of drugs and alcohol while being on the prowl for some tush (kids, that means booty).

Then there's magic! (I know this is a bit off topic but it kinda fits.) I get chills every time I hear this. I mean it's pop, it's got hooks and it's so fucking anthemic I can't believe it. And I hate that whole New York cultural tyranny thing, makes me never wanna go there. But this song is so good it doesn't matter what it's about. It could be about my dog doing a poo and I'd still get chills every time I heard it. Z does mention E's, well MDMA during this track so that gives you an idea of where the euphoria in this lies. I mean apart from the songwriting and musical arrangement which is enough. A bit like MBV's best tunes it's so euphoric it feels like your on drugs anyway. This is the sonic equivalent of Champagne and an E chased with a few lines of coke.

Also I think this maybe the best pop tune in history.

*That's me paraphrasing a Simon Reynolds quote.

The House In The Woods-Bucolica

Whilst still in the 90s & 00s I have visited now a couple of times I must admit. Didn't really know what to expect with this record. It's the dude from Pye Corner Audio doing some stuff that's pretty different from the music he does under that moniker. We're still in darkly atmospheric territory but this time its more of an organic blur. Only one track has anything resembling a beat. This album is more in line with mid 90s isolationism than haunted slasher soundtracks. Bucolic is a funny word isn't it. I always have to stop and think 'bucolic no its not some hideous disease or poison. Its about idyllic country life.' So it's a word that sounds like it should have the opposite meaning than the one it has. A bit like this record really. This is the sound of wind and rain amongst the trees and mysterious lights off in the distance. I can smell the air and feel the temperature. But I can also feel the melancholy.  There's bliss too particularly on Sunlight On Rusting Hulk, which reaches MBV-like blissed out proportions. Then sinister vibes arrive, but are they though? Or is your mind playing tricks on you for a moment.  Are we just projecting fear onto a lull or stillness. This is a fascinating record. Rural psychedelia lives.  

m b v - My Bloody Valentine

It just came out of the blue. If you can call waiting for 22 years for a follow up to one of the all time great albums out of the blue. What I mean is it was put out with little fanfare. Kevin Shields said the other day it might be coming out soon and then bang there it was on their website. Some people were paying attention though as the website crashed due to immense traffic. I heard one track on youtube Wonder 2 and got a little excited. The next day I'd bought the LP, cd and download for more than 40 dollars. So a nostalgic vibe took over. What was I really expecting though? Surely I wasn't expecting them to blow my mind at this late stage was I? Can they still make dizzy music to disconcert?

In 1996 I was still hopeful about the follow up to Loveless. There were reports of the tracks being jungle and metal influenced. This kept me interested for a few years. Eventually though I came to the realisation that it was never going to come out. Then I was of the opinion that perhaps this was a good thing. Retire at your peak. Nice. Have years of meltdowns, budget blowouts and scrapped half finished albums. This will all add to the mystique and they will become legendary well, more legendary.

22 years on from Loveless and the innovations have become common place. The radical normalised. 22 years of artists pillaging this treasure chest have almost(?) made My Bloody Valentine redundant. So what could MBV have to offer us now? When Loveless came out there were even a few people who said "Is that it?' The shoegaze brigade (Slowdive, Curve, Lush, Pale Saints, Boo Radleys et al.) had already started using and abusing MBV's legacy which perhaps made Loveless less startling than it should have been. Then groups like Seefeel, Flying Saucer Attack, Third Eye Foundation etc. expanded upon MBV's frontiers and perhaps took their blueprint to several logical conclusions. MBV kept being a name checked influence throughout the 90, 00s and 10s. I personally have failed to keep up with the new shoegazers. The last things I heard were from 10 years ago when Pluramon and M83 began exhibiting a heavy MBV influence. The lineage continues to this day apparently with Deerhunter and the like carrying the torch.

The (non) marketing of m b v caught me a little off guard and I was swept up in nostalgic momentum. Wonder 2 is probably the best track on the LP, well at the moment it's only actually an mp3. The first half of m b v has the hazy sweet languidity part of the Loveless equation but lacks the other half ie. the noisy and chaotic undercurrent. These two yin and yang elements are what make My Bloody Valentine  so great. So it's nice but feels half finished. Where are the manic pop thrills?

Then along comes track six New You. I don't really know what to make of this track at all. It just feels wrong. Is this where I say nadir? Is it some kind of attempt at a MOR crossover? It just comes across like a bad Phoenix outtake. Next is In Another Way and thank god! It's a fucking MBV classic with all the elements that we know and love, but is it too little too late? Track 8 Nothing Is sounds like an attempt at a Meat Puppets instrumental?? Finally it's wonder 2. The album starts to really hit its stride with this dose of swirling and shape shifting psychedelia. Then the album's done. It's finished and you're left feeling a little bewildered.

m b v sounds like it could have come out in 1993 as a kind of follow up/companion piece to Loveless. What happened to the metal? Where's the jungle? Those recordings seem to have been scrapped and Kevin, Belinda, Colm and Debbie have gone for a Ramones/ACDC move ie. If it ain't broke don't fix it. They've settled on their bag of tricks and they've decided to sail in conservative waters.  Was there nowhere else to go? Did others get there first? Was there too much second guessing? Were the scrapped recordings shite? How did that winning streak from the You Made Me Realise EP to Loveless come to such a bizarre end? Are these the questions that have plagued Kevin Shields' mind for the last 22 years?

ATP

So i got a text today saying you gotta go to the Melbourne ATP, MBV and Einsturzende Neubauten are gonna be there. First thought was I saw both of these groups over 20 years ago when they were in their prime. EN being probably the best thing I've ever seen. It was at the Old Greek Theatre in Richmond Melbourne. The place felt like it was gonna fall apart. I remember seeing some of the lights falling from the ceiling, not being able to breathe due to fog of hardcore Camel/Marlboro smokers, two chicks having sex in the toilet, hardly being able to walk due to empty beer cans piling up to my shins, blood in my eardrums and then there was the music. Which was the most astonishing thing I'd ever seen/heard. It was so physical, intense, noisy (in a controlled manner), loud, mental, expressive and sexy. That was unforgettable. It wasn't rock. It was totally rock'n'roll though.

I saw MBV twice at The Prince Of Wales, St Kilda on the Loveless tour. It's all a bit of a blur really. First show not so good and the other one was tops. I recall having Belinda's set list from one of the shows on my wall for a couple of years. Should I have kept that?

Anyway I guess what I'm getting at it is, it would be like seein The Stones in the 70's compared to like the Stones in the late 90s. Do I want that mind image? I don't know what else is on ie. there could be a bunch of modern stuff that I like like Gary War, Human Teenager, Rangers, Future, ekoplekz, Sun Araw or whoever on the bill but it was the heritage/vintage acts that were pitched toward me as ticketbait. This also happened several weeks ago when I was told Shellac and Moore/Ranaldo (of Sonic Youth) are playing at the Melbourne Festival soon. I saw Shellac around the time of their first LP.  After Sonic Youth's Don't Look Back Daydream Nation show I thought that's the ultimate in this kind of thing, probably need to pull back a bit from the nostalgia now. Actually it was in an ad in a British magazine I had a little chuckle. I thought that Thurston Moore had gone a little too far by touring one of his 90s solo records Don't Look Back Stylee. Psychic Hearts is an ok record but were there people dreaming of that gig for years, say like I was for a Pixies  (they never toured Australia in their original lifetime) or a Smiths reuion. I bet there are some great things on at the Melbourne Festival for all I know Gang Gang Dance are playing. Note to self see who's playing at these things. This whole Vintage/Nostalgia/Heritage Rock thing is startin to you know get a bit whiffy. As I said in my text though if they get Alan Vega & Martin Rev aka. Suicide out of the old peoples home I might come and see some Heritage Rock.

Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums

The Last truly Great rock band if not the greatest.
Nirvana wish.

Fuck me Rolling Stone have put out a Best 500 albums magazine and geez I'm gonna boil over & end up in the Loony Bin. I've just skimmed through it in a hurry and it's the sane old jive. I thought 'wait I'm gonna spend $10 on something I'm gonna hate, no I will not'. Now thinking that would have been worth it just to write about. God I think I've still got 6 records to go in my Glaring Omissions (on Australian Rock) series at least. So The fucking Clash make top 10 but where are The Smiths, somewhere way down the back. Nevermind is better than Doolittle yeah sure. I even believe they had The Bends and OK Computer above Loveless??? That's pretty funny!  The Clash over the Sex Pistols, I didn't realise Americans were so hilarious. Hotel California over The greatest LP of all time Love's Forever Changes. A Moby Grape LP over The Byrds at their absolute peak on Younger Than Yesterday. Highway 61 Revisited I like but you know what Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation is way fuckin better than that. Pavement's Fall tribute LP Slanted & Enchanted but no Fall albums. Nine Inch Nails but no Skinny Puppy haha... These yanks need to loosen up. Sly's There's a Riot goin on at 99, what about at 9.

Like RadioFuckhead are anywhere near as good as this!

It is quite a skewed list when you get further down. The Velvet Underground's Loaded LP comes in way higher than the two more superior records White Light/White Heat and The Velvet Underground (or 3rd). Who knew Eric Clapton had so many projects and that Americans (well RS writers anyway) loved every single one of them. Tracey Chapman's there, but seriously who's listened to that LP in like 20 years. I am coming from an Australian perspective so maybe there's some cultural thing I'm missing. Anyway who really likes Van Morrison or Randy Newman? Oasis made it in somehow but other great British 80s into 90s bands missed out. No Happy Mondays, Pulp, Spiritualised or Stereolab here. Then there were the fab America 90s psych/pop bands like Mercury Rev and the Flaming Lips who don't appear. The 2 strangest entries are The Zombies who come in very high with Odyssey and Oracle who I really like and Peter Wolf with his record Sleepless (who outside The US even knows what this is? Was he the dude from J Geils band?). Things like Alexander Skip Spence's OAR or The Monks: Black Monk Time don't turn up let alone other great stuff like Karen Dalton, Silver Apples or The United States of America. Electronic music forget about it, There is one Kraftwerk LP as a token.

I remember a list like this in the magazine, maybe from 1988 and the first 50 have not changed bar about 3.It's like it's been set in stone and they have to have a Vatican council meeting for the slightest change to be made It's weird, old, way too rigid and no fun. U2's Joshua Tree comes in ahead of The Doors first LP. The anomalies just keep coming. Weezer's debut ahead of the Pixies Surfer Rosa. Here's a ripper Guns and Roses Appetite For Destruction comes in ahead of these 3: Led Zeppelin II, ACDC's Back in Black and Zep's Physical Graffiti. Then there's 3 inferior later Roxy Music LPs that come way ahead of their all time classic For You Pleasure. Joy Division's Closer makes it but where's Unknown Pleasures. Green Day come in ahead of Lou Reed's Transformer with Dookie. They've got token country, jazz Reggae & even trip hop. The most recent LP I think is The strokes debut. It's not like it's all shit music quite the contrary. Maybe they shouldn't number them, you know it's not sport, just put 'em in alphabetical order or chronologically. Oh but then they have to have a secret ballot and get the pope to smoke his pipe through a hole and then a cardinal will have to interpret the smoke for the decision to be made.

Some bands that missed out that perhaps should have been considered - The Residents, The Ventures, OS Mutantes, The Insect Trust, Comus, The Incredible String Band, The Seeds, America, Goblin, Pere Ubu, The Gun Club, The Saints, X-Ray Spex, The Feelies, The Wipers, Can (but they're not American or British uh oh), Cluster, ESG, The Meat Puppets, Burzum, The Dream Syndicate, Vanity 6, Throbbing Gristle, Chrome, Cabaret Voltaire, The Birthday Party, Cocteau Twins, Scott Walker, Donna Summer, Gong, The Groundhogs, Jimmy Castor Bunch, Booty's Rubber Band, Chic, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Flipper, Talk Talk, Dinosaur Jr, Boredoms, Slint, Royal Trux, Aphex Twin, Marc Acardipane, Boards Of Canada, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Burial..........I could go on forever.

I've made up a different top 10 from the top 500 just off the top of my head and in no particular order.

ZZ Top's lunch. That cheese is gonna be a problem

• Tres Hombres - ZZ Top 
• Dirty Mind - Prince
• Marquee Moon - Television
• Suicide - Suicide
• Double Nickels On The Dime - Minutemen
• Stand - Sly & the Family Stone
• Paranoid - Black Sabbath
• The Queen is Dead - The Smiths
•  Look-Ka Py Py - The Meters
• Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye

Now that's a bloody great top 10 and it's not the same old SGT Pepper, Blonde on Blonde etc. These records are just as good if not better than the actual top 10. I'd rather listen to this one actually.So why is this not the top 10 then?

Is there a need for this list now in this day and age of access all areas and Internet flux? No and we're not buyin it. We make our own top 500s now It's 2012 the times belong to the Ariels, Gang Gangs, Ferraros, southern hip hop etc. Then there's 70s Afro psych/beat/funk, Indonesian 70s rock, Chica/Cumbia from Peru, 70's Hungarian Funk, Swedish psych from the 60/70s, Thai genres like Luk Thung & Molam, 60/70s Anadolu pop from Turkey etc. to listen to so why the fuck would I want to listen to Radiohead, Green Day, Pearl Jam, Eurythmics, No Doubt or Coldfuckinplay!  It's kinda a little bit sad that the old farts (nothing too modern here please, like from the last decade or anything unless it sounds like something from a previous decade and keep it American or British, nothing too exotic please. Where did I leave my walking stick? Christgau have you seen it anywhere?) at RS are hangin onto their James Taylor's, Janis fuckin Joplins, Linda Ronstadts & Vans.  Who cares?

In a word redundant!

the best

I don't mean to be obvious but speaking of best songs of the eighties, how could you go past this?

Any track on MBV's You Made Me Realise 12" could be a contender!