AOTW 2021
Every week I pick one album to obsess over. Like the old days when this shit cost money. lol
1.
AOTW #1 (1/7/21)
Post Punk
Hot Damn! These mf'n cats got it!!! Let's see. Liars? Check. Lightning Bolt? Check. No bloody way! Birthday Party?!?! Why yes, Sir Repo! they actually do like Birthday Party. Now, please. Clean up after yourself, sir. You're getting a bit ravenous.
Post Punk
Hot Damn! These mf'n cats got it!!! Let's see. Liars? Check. Lightning Bolt? Check. No bloody way! Birthday Party?!?! Why yes, Sir Repo! they actually do like Birthday Party. Now, please. Clean up after yourself, sir. You're getting a bit ravenous.
2.
AOTW #6: One To Rule Them All (2/9)
Dread Sovereign deliver a master class in Doom on Alchemical Warfare. Epic, diverse, dynamic & well crafted. The kind of album that gives you chills up your spine because everything is just so perfect. So good. The kind that makes you wish you were back in ninth grade so you could pass notes in class like secrets about this special thing you discovered. Dread Sovereign seem to take in the whole world of Doom in and then breath it back out with a fresh, novel spin. With nods to to the past as diverse as Hellhammer and Reagars' Saint Vitus but in ways that that don't seem like a retread.
This is one of those album’s where you discover a new best song every time you listen to it. Just face it. You don’t need to worship Satan to realize that this is going to be one of the best metal albums of the year. Mark it down. I'm calling it here in February.
Highly Recommended!
Dread Sovereign deliver a master class in Doom on Alchemical Warfare. Epic, diverse, dynamic & well crafted. The kind of album that gives you chills up your spine because everything is just so perfect. So good. The kind that makes you wish you were back in ninth grade so you could pass notes in class like secrets about this special thing you discovered. Dread Sovereign seem to take in the whole world of Doom in and then breath it back out with a fresh, novel spin. With nods to to the past as diverse as Hellhammer and Reagars' Saint Vitus but in ways that that don't seem like a retread.
This is one of those album’s where you discover a new best song every time you listen to it. Just face it. You don’t need to worship Satan to realize that this is going to be one of the best metal albums of the year. Mark it down. I'm calling it here in February.
Highly Recommended!
3.
AOTW #3 (1/16/21)
Indie Rock/Emo
Just a great Indie Rock album that takes me back to the mid-90s! Has the energy and ferocity of early Throwing Muses and late-90s Rainer Maria. And an easy choice for my #3.
Indie Rock/Emo
Just a great Indie Rock album that takes me back to the mid-90s! Has the energy and ferocity of early Throwing Muses and late-90s Rainer Maria. And an easy choice for my #3.
4.
AOTW #7: Eleven Months
aka But Who Knows, I May Need Even More Time!!!
I used to dream of working for Spin magazine back in the early 90s. (Nowadays it would be Pitchfork I guess.) In retrospect, I'm so glad that path never materialized. Because... I do NOT have what it takes. Just ask my kids. I'm a total softie. How could I ever choose? Give one album that highly coveted Best New Music award and let all the others wither on the vine. Take for instance just last month. January 2021 brought us not one but TWO killer post-punk albums. I mean is it 1981 all over again? What's going on?!?! Civil unrest, you say? Blatant widespread racism?! A divisive global pandemic with a response that's been bloody botched?!?! Ok. Ok. You don't have to SHOUT! It does makes sense. I will give ya that. Because post-punk is simply on fire in 2021. But, the two best, by a long shot, are Shame's Drunk Tank Pink and Lice's Wasteland. And barring some unforeseen event, I can't really see any others challenging them for the prized Repo 2021 Post-punk throne. Luckily I get eleven months. And that still might not be enough!
aka But Who Knows, I May Need Even More Time!!!
I used to dream of working for Spin magazine back in the early 90s. (Nowadays it would be Pitchfork I guess.) In retrospect, I'm so glad that path never materialized. Because... I do NOT have what it takes. Just ask my kids. I'm a total softie. How could I ever choose? Give one album that highly coveted Best New Music award and let all the others wither on the vine. Take for instance just last month. January 2021 brought us not one but TWO killer post-punk albums. I mean is it 1981 all over again? What's going on?!?! Civil unrest, you say? Blatant widespread racism?! A divisive global pandemic with a response that's been bloody botched?!?! Ok. Ok. You don't have to SHOUT! It does makes sense. I will give ya that. Because post-punk is simply on fire in 2021. But, the two best, by a long shot, are Shame's Drunk Tank Pink and Lice's Wasteland. And barring some unforeseen event, I can't really see any others challenging them for the prized Repo 2021 Post-punk throne. Luckily I get eleven months. And that still might not be enough!
5.
Repo's AOTW#4: Coloring Inside The Lines
aka For those waiting for the next Phoebe Bridgers to Drop, I Give U This...
aka What my girlfriend's from the 90s are listening to right now. Feels like stumbling upon a long lost friend from college (who you always had a crush on) and grabbing a cup of tea at the some college coffee shop and catching up on her marriage and subsequent divorce with the sincere promise of getting drinks later (but also knowing that will never happen).
Makes me miss Boston (more specifically Cambridge)!!! Nothing better than that!
aka For those waiting for the next Phoebe Bridgers to Drop, I Give U This...
aka What my girlfriend's from the 90s are listening to right now. Feels like stumbling upon a long lost friend from college (who you always had a crush on) and grabbing a cup of tea at the some college coffee shop and catching up on her marriage and subsequent divorce with the sincere promise of getting drinks later (but also knowing that will never happen).
Makes me miss Boston (more specifically Cambridge)!!! Nothing better than that!
6.
AOTW#8: The Benefits of a STEM Education
Let’s get one thing out of the way first. The Raincoats are fucking awesome. Do we all get that? Sure they ARE the embodiment of atonal amateurism. And that RULES! Don't get old! Stay young & vibrant and full of spirit forever. Stay cute & playful and full of possibilities. Pretension free never looking over your shoulder as u spin round & 'round until you fall down & down a hill and then u just roll & roll & roll until u (hit) a ROCK.
But! And this is a big BUTT, imagine if you were kindred spirits of The Raincoats ( some girl thrift store super heroes) and it turns out all the girls went to The Berklee "I'm In Love With Massachusetts” School Of Music. We're talking a marriage of The Raincoats spirit with Mary Timony's (of Helium) chops. That's Palberta.
Let’s get one thing out of the way first. The Raincoats are fucking awesome. Do we all get that? Sure they ARE the embodiment of atonal amateurism. And that RULES! Don't get old! Stay young & vibrant and full of spirit forever. Stay cute & playful and full of possibilities. Pretension free never looking over your shoulder as u spin round & 'round until you fall down & down a hill and then u just roll & roll & roll until u (hit) a ROCK.
But! And this is a big BUTT, imagine if you were kindred spirits of The Raincoats ( some girl thrift store super heroes) and it turns out all the girls went to The Berklee "I'm In Love With Massachusetts” School Of Music. We're talking a marriage of The Raincoats spirit with Mary Timony's (of Helium) chops. That's Palberta.
7.
AOTW #2 (1/14/21)
Death Metal
Nothing new here. Just some great straight-ahead, classic Death Metal that goes down like comfort food during these strange, strange times.
Death Metal
Nothing new here. Just some great straight-ahead, classic Death Metal that goes down like comfort food during these strange, strange times.
8.
AOTW #5: Alter Ego (2/2/21)
Aka It’s got a Good Beat and I Can Dance to It
One of the great things about entertainment is it enables you to be somebody else. Even for just for a couple of hours. The baddie. The man with the black hat. And frontman Sebastian Murphy is the perfect foil. A [i]bad[/i] man. He "Ain't Nice!" He'll tell you so himself. He'll use you. Store his shit at your house. Reject your romantic notions about living in a "little cabin in the woods together". He don't need nobody telling him "when to go to bed and when to brush <his> teeth."
The music itself is pure nostalgia for me. Bringing me back to Providence, RI in the mid-90s when bands like Thee Hydrogen Terrors, Arab On Radar, and Six Finger Satellite would wreak havoc at some loft's makeshift stage on a nightly basis." On "Toad", they throw some Jon Spencer bad-assness over some [b]Suicide[/b] synths. Completely irresistible!
So break out that mask. Be someone else. And dance with us. The creatures down at the bottom.
Aka It’s got a Good Beat and I Can Dance to It
One of the great things about entertainment is it enables you to be somebody else. Even for just for a couple of hours. The baddie. The man with the black hat. And frontman Sebastian Murphy is the perfect foil. A [i]bad[/i] man. He "Ain't Nice!" He'll tell you so himself. He'll use you. Store his shit at your house. Reject your romantic notions about living in a "little cabin in the woods together". He don't need nobody telling him "when to go to bed and when to brush <his> teeth."
The music itself is pure nostalgia for me. Bringing me back to Providence, RI in the mid-90s when bands like Thee Hydrogen Terrors, Arab On Radar, and Six Finger Satellite would wreak havoc at some loft's makeshift stage on a nightly basis." On "Toad", they throw some Jon Spencer bad-assness over some [b]Suicide[/b] synths. Completely irresistible!
So break out that mask. Be someone else. And dance with us. The creatures down at the bottom.
1