Live Skull - Bringing Home the Bait (1985)

Inspired in no small part by Sonic Youth, Live

Skull took the New York scene movement as

a starting point but instead of going down the

noise rock route like Scratch Acid/Melvins etc,

they took the abrasive elements and joined them

up with distinctive, arty song arrangements that

had hints of white noise but overlaid with clean

picked guitars and spoken vocals.

They still got dark and made a lovely distorted

racket but always showed restraint amongst the

angular tunes.

So, give this a go if you fancy some S. Youth type

stuff as opposed to Jesus Lizard.

Listen

Band Info

Oh yeah, over the weekend all the S. Youth posts

got taken down which rather put a dent into my

project of reviewing all the albums up to "Daydream

Nation!"

February Music

Here are some tracks from the bands that made me

jump up and down this month.

666 MPH - Bong-Ra (Dub step)

Black Blood - APE! (Stoner hardcore)

Black Lightning - The Bellrays (Detroit type rock/soul)

Creation - UK Subs (if I need to describe their sound,

you are on the wrong blog!)

Ghost - Tephra (Post-metal)

Space - Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corp (Dark Ambient Jazz)

The Lost Army - Sherman to the Fucking Sea (Post-metal hardcore)

A Tale of Tales - Rabbits (Post-metal)

Crossing Over - Dying Sun (Heavy post-rock)

The Artifical Genius - Father Divine (Heavy Mars Volta)

In The Shadows - Talons (Mathy post-rock)

Blind Again - Monotonix ( Punked up garage)

Whore of Babylon - Abandoned (Fast abrasive punk)

Listen

Brother/Ghost - Black Ice (2009)

This short album starts and ends with epic anthems

that build up with gentle drones and swells of

noise.

Acoustic guitar vie with xylophone melodies over

an almost spoken vocal before distorted guitars

kick in and things go kinda post-hardcore.

Although post-rock is the obvious tag, there is a

lot more jarring influences at work here.

All the tracks flow into each other really well,

encouraging you to listen all the way through.

A work of delicate beauty that builds into

something much more sinister as it progresses.

Listen

Band Info

Annihilation Time - This One's for You, God (2002)

Frantic punk/hardcore in the same breath as

Zeke or Suicidal Tendencies.

With a speedy delivery of songs and old school

vocals, this is a quick blast of tuneful aggression.

Plenty of Greg Ginn worship here - nothing wrong

with that - but also with something that Black Flag

had and sometimes gets overlooked - they rock like

a bastard!

Throw in lots of Thin Lizzy type guitar licks and

lightning quick soloing and you have an album that

never fails to put a smile on my face.

Listen

Band Info

Killing Joke - S/T (1980)

This came out and blew me away. Post-punk/

industrial/metal war dance - whatever you want

to call it, it stayed on my record player for a year!

Fat dance bass grooves, stabbing keyboards, wall

of sound guitar that had tunes as well as power,

tribal drumming and of course vocals by Jaz C.

In a year when a lot of new bands were emerging

from the States to make me jump up and down,

the first Killing Joke album was top of my list of

things to play when I wanted to break things!

Listen

Band Info

DJ Shadow - In Tune and on Time (2004)

A live set from 2004, this really needs to be

played as a whole.

Get your groove on as big beat/trip-hop all

gets mangles up with samples from motown,

old surf riffs, film scores and narration among

his own tracks as he seamlessly takes you on

a 120 minutes journey through sound.

Listen

Sherman to the Fucking Sea - The Lost Army (2011)

Lots of ferocious hardcore is let loose on this

album.

Muscular guitar riffs set the tone of things to

come with an almost sludgy feel and heaviness

to the songs.

A pounding rhythm section never lets go of the

intensity which throbs with post-metal power.

The vocals remind me a bit of "La Dispute" -

barked out vents of aggression but never so

mangled that you cannot understand them.

They also have the confidence to drop in an

instrumental rockabilly type song that fits in

really well.

Give them a go if you are into hardcore with a

metal edge - think Cancer Bats or early Architects.

Listen

You can name your price on Bandcamp, see band info

and other recordings -Here.

Thank to Mike for letting me post this.

Judas Priest - Stained Class (1978)

Always had a soft spot for the Priest.

The vocal wailings and twin guitar monster riffs

created on this classic metal album seemed to

come out of nowhere.

The previous stuff was good but this just seemed

to be on a different level.

It was 1978 and some of my mates thought that as

we were 100% punk, this sort of music was not to

be listened to - idiots!

With careful planning (and living in London), you

could see Priest, The Clash, The Damned, Nugent

and the Ramones all in the space of a couple of weeks.

Happy Daze!

Listen

Monotonix - Not Yet (2011)

Israeli Garage Rock produced by Steve Albini.

They have a raw sound that hurtles from song

to song with gritty vocals overlaying the manic

guitar riffs that race along with the relentless

drumming.

There is more than a hint of the Jesus Lizard

in the arrangements but tempered with a real

garage vibe, it is more like filthy punk rock'n'

roll attitude with chaotic results.

Listen

Buy

Sihr - Beneath The Twelve Mile Zone (2009)

Heavy sludgy fuzzed out doom with post-metal

elements. Brilliant rumbling tracks that thunder

from the speakers with High in Fire type guitar

soloing, despairing vocals and a bass heavy rhythm

section that pound along.

Neurosis meets the heavier material of Orange

Goblin, this is a very intense album.

Listen

Band Info