Re: Listening to lately

481
Long time no viddy, droog! (around here, anyway)

What I've been listening to (all of it for work, though much of it is pleasurable):

Dario Mollo/Tony Martin, The Third Cage - T.Mart lands on his feet. Nice hard rock effort.
Vore, Gravehammer - Local DM act. Solid, though hardly innovative.
Lamb of God, Resolution - Suuuuucks.
Goatwhore, Blood for the Master - Rockin' Celtic Frost worship.

And others that I'm still digesting:
COC, Corrosion Of Conformity
Meshuggah, Koloss
Municipal Waste, The Fatal Feast
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

Re: Listening to lately

483
Cloud Nothings, Attack On Memory--a rare indie rock album these days in that it aspires to rock. Which is funny considering they don't really use much if any distortion, the lead guy sounds like he grew up thinking the Strokes were The Shit, then later discovered Nirvana and is trying to move his sound in that direction. Nice brutally dry Steve Albini production (sorry, 'recording') helps.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Listening to lately

485
Built to Spill is from Idaho. Probably not your cup 'o tea but for a really cool mellow album with 8 minute ripping guitar suites, "Perfect From Now On" is recommended.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Listening to lately

488
Picked up a few over the course of this year, haven't gotten as many albums in the past but overall quality has been pretty good.

The Men--Open Your Heart. I liked their last one (Leave Home) better, it's meaner and a little more random. This one tends to get a little repetitive with the surfy drives, but I like surfy drives so that's OK.

Lotus Plaza--Spooky Action At A Distance. Side project from one of the guys in Deerhunter, very good melodic indie rock album.

Diiv--Oshin. Shoegaze guitar stuff, only about half the songs have vocals which is just fine, this is a great album to put on in the background while you're doing other things.

Metz (self-titled)--Great AmRep-style punk band from Canada, I really like this one. Good melodies, lots of distortion and drive, songs don't wear out their welcome before moving on to the next blast.

Peter Gabriel--So/Plays Live. Had to get these digitally after seeing him in September, pretty darn synth-y but the songs and voice hold up just fine.

And just yesterday, got the new Soundgarden and Deftones. Soundgarden is about what you'd expect, a lot closer to Down on the Upside than Louder Than Love, but even that comparison probably doesn't give DotU enough credit in the songcraft department. Cleaned up as that was compared to the early days, the songs were still very good. Most (not all, but most) of the new one has most of the latter day Soundgarden sonic elements but few memorable riffs. A couple tracks are fine but they are not heavy ones. Really, there's not a lot of heavy to be found on it. Just started listening to the Deftones, it appears to hold more promise.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Listening to lately

489
Oops, forgot the new Bob Mould, Silver Age (solid entry, doing what he does) and the new ..And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Lost Songs (best they've done in years, probably still a click down from their heyday back around the turn of the century).
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Listening to lately

490
I just picked up the new Soundgarden last night and I'm listening to it for the second time through (my office moved right across the street from Independent Records, which is dangerous). I'm a little underwhelmed by it so far. A lot of these slow songs sound like they could be from a Chris Cornell solo album. Some of them sound a lot like Healing Sixes, one of Jason Bonham's old bands. I want more intensity from Ben Shepherd and howling guitars from Thayil. This album just feels too safe.

Re: Listening to lately

491
big d note wrote:I just picked up the new Soundgarden last night and I'm listening to it for the second time through (my office moved right across the street from Independent Records, which is dangerous). I'm a little underwhelmed by it so far. A lot of these slow songs sound like they could be from a Chris Cornell solo album. Some of them sound a lot like Healing Sixes, one of Jason Bonham's old bands. I want more intensity from Ben Shepherd and howling guitars from Thayil. This album just feels too safe.
Agreed. And good luck managing your music budget!
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Listening to lately

493
voïvod - target earth. well, i can say immediately that it's a voivod album. meaning, it's taken time for each album to grow on me before i declare it a masterpiece or something i will never listen to. this one i do like, but it's far from a masterpiece for me so far, being just a couple listens into it. all the hype that it's more like KT, DH and NF... well, i don't know about all that. there are hints i suppose, but there are also traces of the s/t aplenty. not that that's a bad thing, but i wish people would stop trying to resurrect the classic voivod by simply wishing it to be true. it's not going to happen. i was hoping for a more organic production. i was hoping for a bit more of the DH range from snake. and frankly, i'm not sure i like the more "rock" guitar parts on the leads - sweeps, bends, harmonics, etc. i appreciate that chewy's not piggy and admire that he's not just going to do a piggy impression thankfully, but these are all new things for voivod and i'm really not sure i get it yet. also, the bass sound is really weak for what i thought we'd get from blacky. i know i'm nitpicking this, but i had very high hopes. and again, it may grow on me, but these are first impressions.

audrey horne - youngblood. thankfully, the title does not reference the rob lowe/patrick swayze film. all the hype surrounding this - massively high reviews, tons of blurbs about how great it is, etc. - has been omnipresent. i don't get it. i think no hay banda is a far surperior album. granted, i think this is better than le fol at first blush, but it's way overly-80's-ie. sounds like what babylon a.d. would sound like if they were still together.

holy grail - ride the void. skinny jeans metal. yuck.

Re: Listening to lately

494
To my ears, the new Voivod is them trying very deliberately to ape their late '80s sound and more or less doing a passable imitation of it. But I'm used to the band expanding and evolving on each record and there's none of that here. Decent listen, nothing more.
This is a snakeskin jacket. And for me it's a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom.

Re: Listening to lately

495
Iceage--You're Nothing. Very nice slurry Danish punk band, enough touchstones/roughness to remind you of the 80s heyday, enough noise and dischordance to remind you of the 90s, has one of those singers who can't really sing but it fits with the vibe.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Listening to lately

500
fister - gemini
if you haven't yet listened to this, i HIGHLY encourage you to do so. i've never been much of a "doom" fan, but i absolutely love these guys. i'm not sure what they are doing is traditionally "doom", but it's also not "stoner metal" or whatever. it's like latter day darkthrone mixed with godflesh or something. i love, love, love this.