[Listen] TOOL: “Fear Inoculum” NEW SINGLE! (Part 2)

What follows was initially intended to PRECEDE my final statements (being, as they are, “final”), but was moved later since it’s stupidly long-winded.

Now what exactly this IS is a heavily-edited and approximately 60% authentic transcript of my initial reactions to hearing Tool’s HIGHLY anticipated single, the title track off their HIGHLY anticipated upcoming album, “Fear Inoculum”.

Tool - Fear Inoculum.png

OK this is it, this is it. Thirteen years of studio-silence, and this is what we’ve been waiting for.

“Fear Inoculum”. “Inoculum”? Like the little speck of bacteria that you incubate overnight for larger cultures?

So like… a little speck of fear that thrives and festers to make a whole lot of fear?

That can’t be right.

A break to enlist the aid of the all-knowing G’o-ogle.

OK almost right. It’s a little dose of fear. Just an inoculum’s worth. For whatever purpose. Infection, immunity, shits and giggles.

Alright, now we know what we’re dealing with.

And… play.

[00.00]: Industrial… metallic noise ascending in pitch, OK. I don’t hate it. And some kinda thick undulating BROAAWWM that bounces between the same three notes. And both your ears. LOVE that.

And oh what’s that DO MINE EARS DECEIVE ME?

CAN THAT TRULY BE THE EXOTIC SOUNDS OF THE SOUTH ASIAN DRUM, THE TABLA, ACCOMPANYING NOTES OF VAGUELY EASTERN MODES PLUCKED ON THE VAGUELY ZITHERY-SOUNDING STRINGS OF AN INSTRUMENT OF VAGUELY ASIAN ORIGIN?

NOW WE HAVEN’T SEEN THAT VERY MUCH IN THE METAL GENRE NOPE NOT VERY MUCH AT ALL IN THE LAST SIXTY YEARS.

I’m not complaining though (because it did very much seem like I was complaining, didn’t it, what with the caps and such), it’s got some serious “Planet Caravan” vibes.

[01.20]: OK those vibes lasted all of twenty seconds we’ve moved on oh look ooh the guitar BROAAWM’s getting MEANER. I like this. And DRUMSSSS the real ones now by which I mean those of the western kind. Bringing the Polyrhythms^TM. Now it’s a TOOL song.

[01.41]: Whoops and there I’ve just tripped over the plodding bassline, playing all those jaggedy accent notes on the off-beats. How could I forget good old Justin? Edit: NOW it’s a Tool song.

[2.01]: Oh, hello Maynard. Aw the BROAWM only comes back when he’s not singing. It’s my favorite part so far.

NOT listening to the lyrics. Because FUCK that.

Tool Rule of Thumb:

Tool of Thumb: All any Tool song is ever trying to tell you is FUCK you or if not that then FUCK The Man and if not that then FUCK society and if not that then FUCK you all over again but now on like a psychological level, couched in a broader lament on the loathsome, irrational and undeniable sinfulness inherent in the human condition (or something), like real Christian shit – WHOA stop the presses TOOL IS A CHRISTIAN BAND.

[2.42]: Oooh the BROAWM’s found itself a little riff. A GOOD one. Goes well with the drums and bass. Damn it’s like these guys are kickass musicians or something. Man I hope they don’t tease me with this sweet sonic synergy for just these thirty seconds and abandon it for the rest of the song.

[3.14]: Oh wait no that’s their MO. Now Maynard’s whisper-yelling at me. I don’t like it. “Immunity”? No just. Gimme that wave of guitars again.

[3.34]: Oooh building BUILDING. We’re BUILDING NOW. On a MODIFIED RIFF yup the old one is shot dead and never coming back aaaaaaand the new one’s gone too. We’re doing this other marginally different one now and Maynard’s gonna do his warbling-with-reverb thing over it. Ooh aah energetic drum fills and heavy power-chords. Very metal so MET-AL.

[4.21]: Oop and we’ve gone quiet. Only got our “unconventional” drums going now. Not gonna lie the culmination of that build was a bit underwhelming. But hey, perhaps that was just a local maximum. And the global is yet to come. Because if these guys make a song with (THE AUDACITY TO HAVE) lyrics like “enumerate” and “mitosis”, how could one (HAVE THE AUDACITY TO EVEN CONCEIVE OF ATTEMPTING TO) describe it without dipping into pre-calc lexicon?

[4.39]: The guitar’s gone back to the same three-note wave, ground zero, and now I’m kinda getting sick of it. Maynard’s singing… along it somewhat. Never straying too far, melodically¸ and thank God because his trajectory seems totally random.

Revisiting and revising the BROAAWM again. Another fun progression yes why not let’s go again it’s a fun ride, right?

[5.36]: Let it be noted that at this timestamp, he said the word “allegorical”. OooOOOoooh.

[5.51]: NEW RIFF WITH LOTTA DISTORTION. IT’S JUST OK FOR RN BUT I’M EXCITED TO SEE WHERE IT GOES.

I’m yelling, see, because it’s LOUD.

Some good percussion and one-note-per-bar bass notes really helping to hype this bridge.

Oh there’s Maynard again. And of course everything else gets totally muted once he comes along. Guitar’s all clean now, but playing the same riff you know what THAT MEANS it means we’re building again oh so much tension ooh I FEEEL it.

[7.03]: Some power chords mmkay I’m liking this. Drums getting harder. Really letting you know they’re there. Some staccato chugga-chuggas on the guitars, I can get behind that.

[7.36]: When will I learn? It all built up to Maynard’s chanting. What’s that you ask? Why yes, we DID just do this FOUR MINUTES ago. But it’s OK because now the guitar’s back! Playing its shiny new riff for all of us!

[8.43]: The drums and the guitar are engaged in a serious debate about where the song should go next, and I must confess, I’m invested. Where will they go now that they’re back where they’ve started? And for the third time, no less??

Oh, that’s right, nowhere. The drums are just kinda hitting a lot of uniform beats and the guitar’s lingering on the same note for uncomfortably long.

Alright all it’s built to is a ruthless assault on my skull. Nothing’s changing except the INCREASING VOLUME. More of the same monotonous rhythm and for some reason really REALLY amped guitar and bass playing the same goddamn notes AND ARE YOU KIDDING ME THE SONG’S OVER.

#tool2019 or some shit.

– Mans

[Listen] TOOL: “Fear Inoculum” NEW SINGLE! (Part 1)

HOLY FUCK IT’S A NEW SONG

RECORDED IN A STUDIO AND EVERYTHING

THEY SAID THIS DAY WOULD NEVER COME

Tool - Fear Inoculum.png

Now because thirteen years is a long time for fans to build up some pesky EXPECTATIONS and for bands to accumulate some pesky STYLISTIC CHANGES and all, I wanna give my two cents on how I think this whole album is gonna go down in terms of fan response:

Nothing can kill the hype that these guys/the fans have built over the last few years. Especially not with a song like this, so true to their original style, hitting all the right idiosyncratic notes. And for what it’s worth, I did, upon hearing it, pre-order the album. Y’know. For the culture.

Now here’s my two cents on the song itself.

It’s the same old Tool we all knew and loved. Same moving parts, same vacillation between winding along moody minimalist development passages, and dwelling in warm, thick-textured, pleasantly repetitive but short-lived riffs. The same bassline that grumbles agitatedly along beneath the rest for most of the song, rearing its head only during the (several) climactic swells. The same tarantismic correspondence between the drums and the guitars, the whole (magnificently seamless) machine scuttling fluidly and beautifully on its belly like a mutated arthropod, a wet, jet-black abomination of twisted limbs and translucent flesh. Maynard still the star of the show, multiplied for ethereal effect by accordion-folded vocal tracks. Running through all the same old tricks: wailing, whining, grunting, growling, just as well as he’d done on records long past and has continued to do in innumerable live shows since.

Bottom line: A great song, really, if only we hadn’t seen it so many times before. AND the song could have been like a third of the length and still felt complete as a composition. It builds well, as their songs always do. But we just climbed the same goddamn hill like six times. ALSO, unfortunately, Maynard’s vocals were easily the weakest part of the song. Sapping whatever energy the instrumentals summoned over all those minutes, and generally, melodically, sticking out like a sore thumb. Like if someone took that insect-monster that the perfect Tool song seeks to emulate and tried to jab a wooden chopstick into it and call it another leg.

Bottommost line: just go listen to “Rosetta Stoned”. You’ll have an almost identical but marginally better time.

In-depth analysis of the lyrics coming never.

-Mans

[Find]: MAJESTIC CASUAL

A few days ago the music channel Majestic Casual on YouTube published a short note to its viewers explaining its radio silence.

Citing personal issues and a sense of non-purposefulness, the YouTuber asked viewers to answer a few questions, ‘what inspires you about majestic?’, ‘what connects you to this journey?’ and ‘what keeps bringing you back?’. In honor of the music channel that sucked me into the complex, layered world of electronic music, I think I could answer those questions in a few words.

YouTube is a fantastic place to find new music, and I think one of the primary reasons why is because the music itself is never separate from its identifying visuals, be it album covers, curated photos, art or even animations. Some of the most spectacular albums of the past few years have had equally memorable visuals, Jamie XX’s geometric dances to Flume’s deeply saturated bio-inspired visualizers.

Rory Seydel, creative director of LANDR, a music promotion platform, quotes ‘seeing will always be part of hearing’ in an argument that album art will always be critical for success. And just like how a great album cover would convince you to buy a record, images on YouTube work quite the same way; these little worlds flash in your recommended, drawing you in to new music like a moth to a flame.

In other streaming platforms, this connection is quite dilute, often lost in the overwhelming flood of recommended tracks. Majestic, along with its contemporaries such as TheSoundYouNeed and even better, Colors, weaponize visual material to catapult music to new audiences. Majestic uses a curated selection of photography and art from various platforms such as flickr and instagram, Colors uses extremely specific hues to create the atmosphere of their artists.

Though it has taken awhile for Majestic to find its stride in pairing the perfect image with a track, the channel’s most well-known promoted tracks are inextricably linked to their visual accompaniment. These range from a literal (but no less compelling) translation , such as Mura Masa’s Miss You or a translation of rhythm such as Mura Masa’s Move Me or even purely just a translation of feeling such as Tom Misch’s The Journey. Mura Masa and Tom Misch are some of the many artists that gained immense popularity through this incredibly intuitive combination of still image and music, the former a peek into a whole universe of experience the tracks explore.

majestic2 majestic3 majestic4

Majestic created a brand for itself with white lower-case text centered upon the video frame. The ‘Est. 2011’ date stamping the branded logo on both track and image creates ownership over content despite its crowd-sourced origins. Other channels have have emulated this combination but often not as well, missing the consistency in quality of aural-visual pairing (including a specifically designed name, logo and font).

Even if the music is good, its the quality of the package that really pulls viewers in, elevating the channel’s content from flippant, passive listening to engaged and productive music exploration. There are so many channels now doing exactly what Majestic intended to do, branded white text on colorful images ubiquitous in my recommended. Yet only a few really do stand out.

So yes, what inspires me, connects me and keeps bringing me back to Majestic is that I’ve found much more than just music on this channel… and eventually the channel has persuaded me to much prefer YouTube over any other streaming platform.

In a landscape of information overload, I’ve formed attachments to these tracks that I would have never have found if not for Majestic’s unique delivery of content… a technique that is much more than just the characteristic of another YouTube promotion channel.

I’ve linked some of my current favorite tracks from the channel below.

[Listen] COWS: Cunning Stunts (Part 2)

This is the recommendation part of the recommendation.

Image result for cows band

I suppose I owe you that much. You’re too busy to listen to the brilliance of a whole twelve-track experience. A 38:56 masterpiece. Philistine.

Nothing in this world could make me butcher such genius, hack it down to a paltry “top three”, just to accommodate your laziness, to tolerate your irreverence.

My own stubbornness, though, that might do it.

Here goes:

“Walks Alone” because I can’t resist the speed, the sheer energy, the adrenaline that it instills in me. It never gets old. Hey why are the fast songs never considered “the best” of an album?? Anyway- the song has no brakes. It just goes, verse after verse after verse with no real chorus or even a guitar solo – besides a four-bar, four-note guitar break between verses. And the lyrics are about some vagrant or something. A street rat. And how heeeeeeeeeeeee walks alone.

What’s great about this song, and about the Cows in general, and about their singer Shannon Selberg in general, is that despite their (self-imposed???) restrictions on their musical abilities, and their lyrics being similarly pedestrian (on this album especially: “He sits alone/In a park/’Til after dark/ etc. It’s not exactly poetry, y’know?), Shannon’s delivery still makes them hit the mark, catch the listener’s ear with patterns in meter rather than in melody, or measured, exact rhyme. Like spoken word, almost. OK wait so I guess it is like poetry. The Cows are poets now, I have declared them as such.

“Mine” just because it’s got this one line that goes “if you’re some commie scum that wants to share it all, remember, IT’S MINE”. HEH. The guitar’s going in both ears, constantly, in a heated argument with itself, with the bass and drums playing a comfortable and simple enough pattern to keep you grounded through that chaos. And Shannon isn’t screaming, but he’s definitely pissed about this thing that it’s imperative you know is his.

Let’s talk about the next song.

“Everybody” because it captures that feeling of being left behind by everybody because everybody is doing something and you’re not and you don’t know why you’re not or why everybody is doing whatever it is they’re doing but you suspect that it might just be because everybody else is doing that thing. Right? Well, the brilliant thing about the song is that it says all that and more clearly too but in only six words total, two of which are “everybody” and “something”. All the frustration, the derision, the circular reasoning, the bafflement, are conveyed by the simple repetition of these lyrics, in a melody that oscillates between like, four notes. It’s mocking them. Who? Everybody.

Aaand YouTube links:

Here’s the whole album again

And here’s my selected three

Now, my disciples, go forth and spread the good word of the Cows.

-Mans

[Read] COWS: Cunning Stunts (Part 1)

The best cacophony ever to shatter your ossicles.

The Cows made nine full albums during their decade-long existence, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that every single one is sheer perfection, impeccable artistry the likes of which you’ve never conceived.

They lived in Minneapolis, and for the majority of their recording career released their music through the equally Minneapolite Amphetamine Reptile, with the exception of their debut (Taint Pluribus Taint Unum, 1987) which was made by uhhhhhhhhh Treehouse something. Doesn’t matter. I’ve got an album to talk about.

Cunning Stunts, made in 1992, only just beats out Peacetika and Orphan’s Tragedy as my favorite by the very narrowest of margins. I’m sure I could find some dud tracks somewhere in the Cows’ catalog, the not-brilliant, the less-good, the more-forgettable, but I could listen to these tracks all day and not really need to skip any. In fact, I do! For weeks at a stretch. It used to take conscious effort and much pain to tear myself away to listen to someone else for a while. And with me being a person who compulsively skips potentially incredible songs for fear of wasting a couple of minutes being bored, this means something, alright? Believe me.

Please?

This album is kind of an anomaly in the Cows’ discography, since it feels like, for the first time after four years of (almost) tuneless screeching on their respective instruments, the band spared a thought on palatability. And, for once, this wasn’t a catastrophe for their identity, a torpedo to their unique sound. Past albums were all about flooding your brains with noise, melodies that were more like anti-melodies that sort of dropped off halfway through or were just barely discernible, filtered through layers and layers of guitar-fuzz, or that didn’t give a solitary fuck about what you, with your innate human ability to detect concords and cadences and intervals and such, about what you expected.

Cunning Stunts, in contrast, decides to throw your ears a bone every now and then and not be so damn confusing. The melodies are there, they’re simple, they’re predictable, and they’re still dripping in electric noise, but not to the point of being obscured. Like “Mr. Cancelled”, which for the first thirty horrifying seconds, is tame and repetitive enough to be reminiscent of some kinda zeitgeist-conforming pop-punk TRASH, but just when you’re about to give up on life in general and your finger hovers over the skip-forward icon, the song accelerates for a little bit to give Thor (that’s the guitarist’s name!!! Thor!!!!!!) a designated space for his crazy little guitar flourishes instead of having them wailing in the background of the whole song, before returning to the comfort of predictability for a while. It makes sense, see? The songs just feel more constructed that way, more finished. There’s space, here. Parts left quiet or half-empty, where every instrument isn’t going off at once. “Down Below” is a favorite of mine for that alone. “Ort”, too.

The whole thing’s a pleasant listen, start to finish, though I should give prospective listeners a heads-up for “The Woman Inside”, the one track where Shannon decides he likes screaming too much to ditch it for a whole album. Of course, I still think it’s a brilliant song, though I would concede that it’s more of an acquired taste.

Now how do I link this album. Have they got a Bandcamp too or do I have to go hunt for legal YouTube uploads and painstakingly stitch together a playlist of my own? Why the fuck can’t these bands that don’t exist anymore make anything of theirs easy to find?

Alright, this looks legit enough. One o’ them YouTube “Topic” channels. Someone somewhere is getting paid for clicks, I assume. I hope it’s the right someones.

Fuck I forgot to address how stunning the cunts are. Or how cunning the stunts? What?

– Mans

[Read] Goodbye to Friday Mixtape

Image result for friday mixtape

“Welcome to Friday Mixtape 378. I might wind this down soon. It’s getting progressively more difficult to find quality freely downloadable music. Arists just aren’t sharing free mp3s anymore. You can thank Spotify for that.”

With 13.3 thousand twitter followers, Friday Mixtape was one of the most prolific promoters of great music on the internet. So many artists made their debut on Hype Machine through this little side project of photographer Duncan Rawlinson, now I can’t even find Friday Mixtape’s listing on the blog aggregator.

Friday Mixtape was one of the few old-school blogs that posted high-quality mixtapes of under-represented music with no other frills attached. Just hour-long mixes to look forward to every Friday through which you’d discover your new favorite artists of the week. And all the mixes were free! and downloadable! and in mp3!

no subscriptions, no new accounts, no ads, no option for removing ads, just good-hearted music discovery.

Rawlinson, however, has said goodbye to his blog, that had been posting mixes since 2009. Citing other commitments and the Spotify phenomenon, this is truly a sad goodbye. His disappearance is just another symptom of the repercussions of algorithm-defined music in the music industry; a decline in personal curation, serendipitous discovery or song-finding due to your specific cultural and social context.

Though there are plenty of advantages to streaming music, including lower starting costs, easy marketing and avenues for self-promotion, these services has removed all the middle-men in the way music is delivered to people. No longer are your friends as involved, or that guy from that one TV show, the bored gas station employee or an airport cafe with particular good taste. Blogs and radio shows are falling into the same chasm.

I might be painting things a little darker than necessary, but that just seems to be the right mood. But for the sake of ending on an optimistic note, I think finding good music that means to you and the people you care about is a matter of personal effort. Note down those fleeting lyrics you heard in the shopping mall, hunt for sources of music that resonate with you and make your own blog! Those monthly $5 dollars you spend on Spotify can never measure in value to any kind of music you unearth yourself.

In honor of Friday Mixtape, his first and last post:

https://fridaymixtape.com/page/379/

featuring Cut Copy, Justice and Miami Horror

https://fridaymixtape.com/page/2/

featuring artists I’ve never heard of, but should have heard of.

Thanks for everything, Duncan

Ami

[Read] THE KOMINAS: Stereotype (Part 2)

Vagabonds.

Image may contain: one or more people, text that says 'THE KOMINAS'

OK, now the music

Being a (very) small Desi girl born in America at the tuft-ended tail of the 90s, and despite all those things, a hard rock fan, I’ve grown quite accustomed to the psychological acrobatics necessary to find myself in the music of very old white men. Usually it’s that unfortunate offshoot of hyper-masculinity that sometimes crosses a line for me – namely, the anti-femininity (looking at you, Axl Rose). The other exclusivities of the genre, those of race and sexuality, forever lived in the shadows of these most heinous offenses to my gender. In other words, finding a South Asian-American band like the Kominas was a faraway dream. I never even thought to look.

This is the first time that I’ve found a band that’s so close to home, for me, not just in ethnicity, but in sound. I’ve listened to some Bangalore-produced heavy metal before. It’s good, but not something I’d listen to every day. The Kominas just hit the right spot. Maybe it’s because they’re hyphenated-Americans too, like me. Maybe it’s because they’re punk rockers and that just really seems to jive with me right now.

Whoops I lied, NOW I talk about the music

The overall impression is very surf-rock, but with rigid, rapid guitar rhythms that keep the mood persistently heavy. The Bollywood aspect really isn’t too noticeable in this album (though a cursory look into their back catalog revealed songs entirely in Urdu/Hindi and even Bollywood song covers), but appears in subtle forms. Maybe in their modes. Maybe in their penchant for repeating lines over and over, with slight variation. Maybe I’m imagining it entirely.

Honestly though, what I like even better than this unique blend of genres and relaxing oohs and catchy motifs is their lyrics. They’re serious, and they’re heavy (regardless of what music videos seem to suggest), but delivered with upbeat rhythms and melodies – the aural equivalent of a smile.

Some of my favorites from this ‘un:

“Again and Again” – hearing is not believing/ you’re here but we all know you’re leaving

“Banana” – I’m a believer, in my own way, rip my T-shirt, give my heart away

“4 White Guys” – ‘cause y’all been messin’ with my mojo/ y’all been messin’ with my mind

“Freedom” – dirty scab fox-hunting wankers – Just sounds like a stereotypical Anglo-Indian (Anglo-Pakistani? Is that a thing? I don’t know!) dad going off on some guy he doesn’t like.

“Pigs are Haram” – The whole song. All of it. Pls listen.

Here’s their Bandcamp again.

I’m gonna go back to working on not going Bananas.

-Mans

[Read] THE KOMINAS: Stereotype (Part 1)

Rapscallions.

Let’s talk about the Stereotype.

By which I mean, of course, the 2015 album by Desi-American rock band The Kominas. If I had to describe it, I’d call it reggae-infused Bollywood-punk, but they call it taqwacore, so we’re going with that I guess.

There’s a lot I have to say about the album’s music, but I’ll take a while to get to that, so I should say up front that I’ve been listening to nothing else this past week and my ears very much enjoy the pleasant beachy bounciness of these lil’ tunes, especially since there’s little beach or bounce to be found anywhere in lil’ ole Manhattan at any time ever, and it certainly doesn’t help that the lil’ ole Hudson’s frozen the fuck over and fully within my view for eight hours of the day.

Great album.

Unnecessary intro that’s just about my misconceptions prior to actually listening to the album

I wasn’t expecting much when I stumbled upon this album. In fact, I found the name pretty predictable, coming from a predominantly Pakistani-Muslim but technically also featuring Hindus (hyphen) American band. I probably wouldn’t have given it a second look if the cover art didn’t LITERALLY snatch my eyes out of their sockets.

OK, figuratively. How can one not be expected to double- or triple-take at a line-drawing of a balding Desi uncle in women’s underwear with his hands tied behind his back being fed laddoo by a sari-and-very-toothy-smile-sporting auntie?

But don’t let that “edgy AF” album cover fool ya. The Stereotype is every bit what you’d expect, fittingly, and the album cover seems to be nothing more than a non-sequitur. A red herring. A flibbertigibbet, a will-o’-the-wisp, a clown.

So it’s about being Muslim in America. And being suspect in the eyes of every white American around you, even when you’re doing “just Desi things” like eating kaati rolls on the subway and transporting one of those stackable steel tiffin boxes in a seat of its own on the subway or reading “The Urdu Times” on the subway.

That’s pretty much what happens in their video for “See Something, Say Something”. But in case having a camera follow around a paranoid white man as he repeatedly shifts seats in attempts to avoid Brownness-turned-up-to-eleven was too subtle for you, there’s a totally unambiguous alien in the video too! An alien that dogs the footsteps of this paranoid white man that switches between its tentacular form and the form of four different Pakistani dudes. Because THEY’RE ALIENS.

Oh oh oh oh and then, there’s a twist. At the end of the video, the alien traps Mr. White Man, and he finally confronts it and knocks it down and takes the mask off and Oh My God it’s HIM in the shitty alien costume, Mr. White Man himself, because do you get it yet we’re all the same.

I’m not trying to criticize them for being over the top. I like hamfistedness in my satire. It’s humorous, usually. It’s entertaining. And I honestly like the lyrics to the songs too, I think they explore the nuance of being proud of your heritage and a believer in your faith in the face of miscast stereotypes that are indeed very real in post-9/11/post-Afghanistan war/post-ISIS terror/post-Trump’s election America, like:

“Just because of his beliefs, they call him a liar and a thief” – Again & Again

“Now I’m invincible/Feel the vibe/It’s so nice to lead/A foreign life/That’s just for white guys” – Four White Guys

BUT

Where the hell did they get that tiffin box?? Did they get one of their moms to send it to them or something? I literally have never seen one of those outside of India, and seeing it on a subway just felt surreal.

But the real BUT is that it’s all a little too nonchalant. The white guy in the video gets off a little too easily, just seeing himself in the alien costume. His behavior a little too passive. As much as they decided to ham up the metaphors and the anti-Islam, anti-brown behavior, it comes off like a joke and nothing more, because none of the true horrors of being treated as “the Other” are even showcased as horrors. They’re comical distortions, I understand, and they definitely succeeded in being comical (“Urdu Times”), but the videos seemed to undermine the more cutting critique that the band clearly intended to convey, by the sound of their lyrics. They make me feel stupid for even taking the lyrics seriously.

OK, I’m done nitpicking.

Here’s their whole album, free to listen, on their Bandcamp:

And that one music video I couldn’t shut up about, from their YouTube:

More to come on the actual, like “music” part.

– Mans

[Listen] BLUE ÖYSTER CULT: Sampler

Remember “Don’t Fear the Reaper”? Well, forget it.

Image result for blue oyster cult

I mean, it’s a good song and everything, but falls far short Blue Öyster Cult’s best. I’m sincerely baffled that they’re not more well-known, considering how irrefutably awesome their music is. I don’t even mean that in some kind of abstract, holistic, or in any other way “niche” manner, I mean it’s just plain clever and catchy and GOOD.

Like, objectively.

I couldn’t limit myself to three songs for this sampler. I mean, I did for this particular one, but there’ll be more, believe you me.

[EDIT 3/1: So I can’t seem to leave this post alone, I had to change the second song from “Godzilla” to “Shooting Shark” it’s just it’s just it’s just BETTER.]

“Kick Out the Jams”, from Some Enchanted Evening (Live album, 1978)

“Shooting Shark”, from The Revölution by Night (1983)

“Astronomy”, from Secret Treaties (1974)

“Kick Out the Jams” is a cover of a song by MC5. It’s a very frequently covered song, whose original version is also very good (as is the cover by Rage Against the Machine), but this. THIS is “Kick Out the Jams” with Buck Dharma. The song is already fast paced, not allowing any of the members a break (even the poor keyboardist, whose name I can never remember), but still Buck outshines everyone, dominating your ear-space, thickening the texture with all these improvisatory flourishes in even the smallest gaps. There’s not one Buck-less second. Which means, of course, that there’s not one second not worth listening to.

Which, I hate to say, is not the case with every BÖC song. There are some painfully long ones. But that’s why you’re listening to a sampler, right? You want to be guaranteed goodness. You smart little cookie, you.

[EDIT 2/24: OK OK OK this is important apparently the original “Kick Out the Jams” first came out 50 years ago almost exactly and here’s a cool article I found about it that alerted me to this little tidbit

Brothers, Sisters and Motherf&#kers

But whoa isn’t that crazy??]

“Shooting Shark” is one of the best anti-love songs I’ve ever heard. Actually, anti-love doesn’t do it justice. It’s like a breakup song, I guess. Its lyrics are wonderfully poetic, but I can’t credit BÖC for that; not beyond having incredibly talented poet friends (in this case, Patti Smith). Anyway, it sounds what a pop song of its time should sound like, with piercing drum-beats and sweeping synth. And saxophone??? The whole song is kept from sounding too much like “Radio Gaga”, however, being unable to escape its persistent “dark” quality. It seems to be drowning in a quagmire of its bass line and synth flourishes, and the free-roaming sax and Buck’s momentarily optimistic vocals seem to be straining against their clutches.

ALSO Randy Jackson from American Idol is the one playing bass on this song WHAT

“Astronomy” was the first song of theirs I heard, and still it transports me now as it did when I first heard it. It epitomizes everything I love about BÖC. The sometimes-relaxed, sometimes-intense, dreaminess, the fairy-tale lyrics, and even its structure. It’s not terribly unique, being verse/verse/chorus/ or whatever, but it builds wonderfully, with well-placed instrumental breaks (not to mention a killer guitar solo) and nothing… overdone or overwhelming or overshadowing anything else. It’s just a great song.

Justice for the Cult of the Blue Öysters.

– Mans