No post here.

Sorry, I'm dealing with some computer crap. However, I thought I'd mention it, since you may deal with it at some point, too.
I have Comcast as my cable TV provider. I am trying to cut that cord, though. However, they have a monopoly for Internet in my part  of the world, so, I will continue to "favour" them as my ISP. If I could change, I would. They like Internet Explorer, and McAfee. I prefer Chrome and Kaspersky. However, Chrome doesn't like Kaspersky, and Google has, in fact, been demonstrably less functional as of late. So- I'm having all kinds of loading issues, and crashes as my Internet service provider dukes it out with my Browser and my Security programs.  Yes, yes, I could get rid of all my computers, etc, and switch to Apple, but I could also just not use a computer ever again, too. In case you don't understand- I'd rather become Ted Kaczynski than use Apple. I think that Apple products trade their users' rights and security for Apple's rights and security and I think that's completely screwed up for people to buy into that system. So, sure, I could also go Linux, and I would if I didn't have a job. The fact is, the American Workplace uses Microsoft. Period. So, I cannot antagonize Microsoft too terribly much.
So, anyway, while I work this out- I cannot talk about the stuff I've been watching ( Walking Dead, Portlandia, and Person of Interest mostly) nor listening to ( new Clutch, David Bowie, Son Volt, Swingin Utters, Hex Machine and Cribs- All of which are great in their own ways.) nor reading ( "This is a Call" the Dave Grohl bio, "Spray Paint the Walls" the Black Flag bio, and "Undisputed" the Chris Jericho auto-bio). So, there's no post here. But, go out, watch, listen and read all that, and I bet you'll be better off than if I described them for you.

Depressed Mode

Remember that joke? People- mostly late eighties dudes who were a bit jocks but dated Alterna-chicks, like me, called "Depeche Mode" that.
Well, I bring it up because it's suitable for the two new CDs I've got- How To Destroy Angels' "Welcome Oblivion" and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's "Specter at the Feast" . Both are downbeat little affairs, with layered loops and kinda "post Rock" vibes. I'll spare you any possible suspense and say that if you have to choose between the two, I'll suggest BRMC , hands down. But, I do own both. So I hate neither one.
How To Destroy Angels can be differentiated from Nine Inch Nails by two main factors: Mariqueen's vocals and more sparse, open arrangements. These are both improvements. I could go a lifetime without hearing Trent Reznor's strangulated Kermit the Frog voice. I understand using claustrophobia as a device in a song, but over the course of  5 out of 8 records, it becomes simply bad songwriting. By reducing the instrumentation, there's less compression on the individual sounds, so I don't feel like I'm listening to the aural equivalent of the trash compactor of the Death Star ( muddy, crushing, junked and it stinks). Now, I didn't hate NIN, but I thought of them as a bit of a put-on. No one feels the oppressed, and oppressive and shifts that many units. So, they always struck me as the "gothic" night at the local disco- dress up in fetish wear and dance to the beat of an auto factory so's people can take pictures of you being "wild". HDA, on the other hand sound experimental and adventurous- in a David Bowie meets Brian Eno in the 1970's Berlin kind of way. Pop music keeps on showing up in the glitchy electronic soundscapes. Still, it's very quiet, or it's very glitchy, and it ends up ultimately being like bad trip hop for me- I'm sure fascinating things are going on in there, but I am not fascinated enough to listen that closely. But, on better tracks, like "Ice Age" there's enough warmth and humanity that I stop and listen, and nod my head. But most of the tracks are so amelodic and glitchy that, well, my CD, as is sometimes the case with promo CDs, is damaged, on the 3rd track " and the sky began to scream" and I didn't notice until the 2nd repeat play. Still, that digital imperfection that they carefully sculpt is the one thing keeping tracks like "how long" from sounding completely like MOR. So, there is a function.( Edited to Add: OK, so I've now verified that I've got a defective CD, here. However, I've listened to a stream of the entire thing, and most of my comments still stand. I would only change that it's not quite as glitchy as I'm emphasizing here, but electronic "noise" and digital imperfections are still a major songwriting tool, here, and I would add that the latter third does go right in between latter day NIN and Trent Reznor's soundtrack work- meaning that the intention might very well be to have a kind of gloomy ambient music. Instead of another green world, perhaps an alternative black planet, hehehe. The pessimist Buddhist lyrical stance would seem to bear that out, jokes aside. ) Ultimately, unlike NIN, it's ear pleasing music that risks a lot, and that really should be rewarded. Maybe I'll buy it when it comes out, in the hopes that my copy is just defective.
BRMC, on the other hand I'll buy because my copy will have worn out. I really dig this Album. It starts slow, with a psychedelic folky run on the first four tracks. It isn't until "Hate the Taste" starts to roar that the rocker in you will come alive. But, yes from there, they alternate between lush ballads like the Verve used to do and raw hardheaded rockers like The Jesus and Mary Chain, with a mescaline psychosis. These guys suffered a bit- contract disputes, band members flaking out, family deaths, and everything else. They have earned the more subdued side. But, when subdued, there is still enough grit that I think of atmospheric bands like Calexico and Pelican, as opposed to I dunno, The Decembrists. It's more like what it would be if George Harrison joined the Who- the gentleness is a foil to the thuggery.  They're downbeat, but not beaten into submission. The swagger, snarl and menace of "Hate the Taste", "Teenage Disease", or "Funny Games" carries through, so that when you get to the final, gentle keyboard coda at the end of "Lose Yourself" it's an earned release. In other words, while Black Rebel Motorcycle Club might still have the tough sound of their Marlon Brando inspired name- much like Brando's Johnny Strabler they have suffered more than they cause suffering, and for that, they are compelling. Damn, I want a 1961 Triumph Bonneville T120, some vintage Lee dungarees and a vinyl copy of this record- it would all fit, trust me. Here's their myth, but hope you like the reality.

Triggerfinger and beyond

There are a few bands that are hard for me to pin down. Most of the time, I've got a pretty good idea what the band wants to accomplish within two or three listens. Sometimes, I know the band well enough that I can figure things out as I hear a new song. Then, there are bands like Triggerfinger. I have been aware of them since about 2008. I finally ordered a copy of their last studio LP "All this Dancin' Around" after seeing the triumphant set they did at Lowlands this past summer. When I heard it was a remaster, I figured they were trying to polish a not strong set of songs. So I didn't worry when it took a month to get to me. I gave the CD a cursory listen, and filed it away. But I remembered that set I saw. So, I listened a few more times this past week. What I can say is that, while I can't pin down who they are as a band, nor what they're trying to do, I can say that they have some strengths that are compelling. First, as should be obvious from following the links above- they put on a hell of a show. Second, Singer/guitarist Ruben Block has a great voice that is mostly like Josh Homme's but with a wailing, killer  howl of a falsetto that he deploys like a cruise missile and plays guitar  with a both a command of his instrument and an underlying joy of noise, in a way that I cannot resist. Third,  drummer Mario Goossens, while a strong drummer, really knows how to produce a record ( he worked the same for Black Box Revelation, and Hooverphonic)- and with this record, he got to do it at Sound City (I've simply gotta see that doc) . Seriously, the record sounds absolutely crackling!  Fourth, Paul Van Bruystegem is a secret weapon of a Bass player. He functions like both an augment to the drums, and as a second guitar player- no mean feat, that. It reminds me of Mike Watt, and you'll hear no higher compliment from me.
However- there's some basic confusions going on. I cannot figure out if they're doing an exercise is blues rock formalism a la The Black Keys and White Stripes, or a psychedelic desert rock grunge revival a la QOTSA and Red Fang. There are definite elements of both, and usually not at the same time. One track is a flat out grunge boogie, and another track a Blues rock scorcher- and they do either one with enough conviction that I'd believe either one is their true calling.  They do covers like some kind of bar band. But they also do originals as their mainstay, like bohemians. They dress like errant members of Grinderman, and yet, with a kind of ironic hipsterdom that reminds me of Cake, circa "Fashion Nugget" .  All this is nearly impossible for me to reconcile, unless I consider them hacks- just blown about by whatever marketing tells them- but that doesn't fit, either. These guys have put in their time- Ruben was in a psychobilly band, Mario a grunge band and the sound would fit between those two influences. Also, if they wanted to sell out, I would think that a more pop direction would get them farther. So, I'm not buying that.
There is a precedent - Thin White Rope.  Now I'm not saying that Triggerfinger sound like Thin White Rope, or that they have the same talent one of my favorite bands of all time, but I am saying that mix of reverence for golden era blues and roots music mixed with a heavy metal love of sheer volume and brash rock theatrics. They, too,  would passionately record covers but then put out truly convincing originals. They, too flirted with irony on their image without becoming parody. The resulting sound they had would also fit neatly halfway between Psychobilly and grunge. Also, let's not forget that aforementioned "golden age"- what made many of the artists of that time forebears of bands we love now was their ability to walk between worlds. If Ike Turner hadn't mixed blues and country, there's no rock n roll. If Les Paul hadn't decided to mix studio wizardry with virtuoso musicianship, modern music doesn't happen. If people hadn't decided to sing more than one melody line, there's no harmony. You can take this as far back as you'd like- the point is the same- Art is about confusing our expectations. It's about both commerce and piety at the same time, and about joy and pain, and everything else. I know that's pretty heady stuff. Triggerfinger just play Rocknroll, so don't make it more than that because that's enough to make it more than worth your while, whenever you come across it, and however it forms.
On the other hand, such concerns are important to me- whether art innovates, renovates or replicates matters to what and how it communicates. Something that's just replicating says that there is nothing more to be said and is therefore closed. When a bar band does their level best to play the hits of the day, exactly as the original artists did, they are erasing themselves, and stating that the here and now matters less than the fantasy of what could have been. Such is why I loathe "tribute" bands. They are saying- right now sucks, and wasn't it cooler, or wouldn't it be cooler if we were watching AC/DC? Further, it's even making the object of their Tribute a closed off proposition - their songs are preserved in amber, like million year old mosquitoes, no longer able to breathe, or live in any real sense. When a musical Artist innovates, they are also saying that something  no longer works, but they are trying to fix that. They are asking us to let go of our fantasies and see what might be next. I vastly prefer that, but the best choice for me is when Art renovates- when they say this is great, but let's customize it, let's make it function better for our purposes, now. That, to me, is at the heart of what I think Culture should be. So, while it's not truly important if Triggerfinger hews to that line, it's important that I point us in that direction.

Morrisey

I'm not a fan, so don't get this wrong, but I genuinely feel very badly for the man. Perhaps you've heard about his illness?  I can relate to that. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with the same thing. Fortunately for me, I do not have Barrett's esophagus. I do have a hiatal hernia, and I'm what they call an "overproducer" meaning, in a nutshell, my guts are rotten, and will probably be the death of me. Uncharacteristically, Morrissey is underplaying how ill he is, if that diagnosis is accurate. Esophageal cancer is more deadly than lung cancer, and Barrett's is pretty much the gates for the world of Cancer. When they misdiagnosed me, they also literally were asking me about "end of life" options. So, I can say, from experience, the poor man is in terrible shape, and , even in the best of cases, is going to suffer for years to come.  So, I really do wish the best best for him, and hope he does as well as me.

San Angelus

I don't know how I missed them, but miss them, I did. San Angelus are the flipside of Aeges.  First there's the Pelican tie-in of Larry Herweg, but there's also the all-star cast of ex-members of  great post-hardcore bands ( Sparkmarker, in this case)  and the music is a more metallic version of great post hardcore. But just as Aeges have a strong Los Angeles vibe, San Angelus seem more Seattle. Specifically, I'm hearing early Heatmiser, Sparkmarker (of course) and even a little Band of Horses. The music is very complimentary of Aeges and Pelican, as you might expect, but closer to the moody Punk side of things. Rather than confuse things, let me put it this way- if Aeges are Quicksand, San Angeles are Rival Schools- there's more structure, but the music is simpler, the melodies might be sweeter, but they're not quite as sublime as Aeges can do.
I could go on, but I think it might benefit you more to point you to their Bandcamp site, where you can download the debut release at the price point you prefer. Just two last notes, though- one is that I wonder if they're named after these folks? If so, that's pretty effin' cool. Second, they're on Revelation records, which is pretty much the post-hardcore seal of approval, no?

Olde Cthonic Music

So, I've got 3 new CDs looking at me. The new Richard Thompson  "Electric" double CD,  and the new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds CD "Push the Sky Away".  At first blush, they may not seem to fit, but I think they do in this fashion- both men fashion deep dark tales rooted in music so organic that calling it "roots" doesn't connote the proper depth. Thompson constructs Celtic Rock hybrids that put lessors like the Pogues ( who are no slouches, but still less deep than Thompson. His stuff sounds like it was composed by a druid with a friend in Robert Johnson) squarely into the "pop" category. On this one, recorded live  at Buddy Miller's house,  the blues are writ large. It's raw and charging in a way Thompson did back in the late 1970's- this doesn't sound like Dire Straits on whisky like his 1980's output did, nor his burbling  early 1990's output. The man is a fretboard demon on a level with Hendrix, Tom Morello and precious few others, so absolutely nothing is sloppy, but don't confuse his virtuosity for polish- He's just one of a dying breed- the kind of musician who nails it live, and any extra tracks are just ornaments, not patches. The subject matter is dark, as always- tales of unrequited lust and revenge ( Stony Ground, Sally B,  Another Small thing in  her favour, Straight and Narrow)  and general malaise and bitterness ( Stuck on the Treadmill My Enemy, Where's Home? Good Things Happen to Bad People) with moments of pure beauty ( the Snow Goose- with Allison Krause). So, if you want to hear the dark roots of what shiny happy people like The Arcade Fire, or Mumford and Sons are referencing, you really must go to Thompson. Country, Rock, Folk, it all comes from the Gaelic ore that Richard Thompson mines with more fervor than any other.
Nick Cave is less obvious, this time around. Now, apart from a rather grim lyrical outlook, I can understand how, on paper, Nick Cave seems very different from Richard Thompson. However, as Nick  ages, his voice is starting to take on some of the same weathered, and yet still mannered qualities as Richard's voice. Yes, he's a deeper baritone, but the same sandy, antique distressing is evident. Like a desert borne Victorian quality- Allan  Quartermain as a vocal quality. Because of this, and because there is something primal to it, "Push the Sky Away" seems like a great fit .With the Bad Seeds, Nick Cave is wont to explore an eerie Gypsy/vagabond Carnival ambiance, like his closest American analog, Tom Waits. This time out, though, the music is more skeletal, and raw.  Often, it evokes a more Francophone Doors type of feel- with prominent keyboards, and single note guitars.  As such, he's moved into stranger territory, something almost Gaelic, albeit of a different stripe- Think Jacques Brel's persona inhabiting Jim Morrison's crude Mojo Risin' . It makes perfect sense that his tour dates start with Los Angeles and Paris. However, you'll note that this is much more modern than some of his more "tin pan alley" forays. So, why am I still seeing it as primal? Because his themes and wording are still an unholy admixture of the profane and the profound. It's a voice straight from the limbic, reptilian brain. I'm not going to go over song titles other than to say the two "Jubilee Street" songs are the core and emblematic songs on the short LP. Instead, go to the Guardian and stream it.
I'd have a lot more to say, but honestly, these are just serving as a tonic to MBV for me. I'm sorry if that seems dismissive, but these two fantastic records had the misfortune to arrive on my doorstep shortly after the album of the year, for me.

New Coliseum Video

See it here. Are they talking about these guys? Anyway. The album seems like it's gonna be awesome...

And on a Completely different Note

I saw Warm Bodies yesterday. I don't care to talk too much about the movie. I mean, must hollywood turn absolutely everything into a rom-com?  a "Cute" Zombie flick? Ok, why not, and not my problem. However there was something noteworthy in the film- Rob Corddry.  I haven't gone too far deeply into his catalogue, but, of what I've found, whether on the Daily Show, or Hot Tub Time Machine, or Harold and Kumar Escape Guantanamo Bay, he doesn't exactly play nice guys, and seems to specialize in playing the least sympathetic characters possible. He plays the guy you don't feel bad about wishing physical pain upon. As in, the plot contrivances in the broad farce require that someone get canned in the genitals, and he's the guy you want to see wracked.  But, in this movie, he actually generates real lump-in-the-throat sympathy and empathy. You genuinely feel bad for the guy, and want to see something good happen to him.  As such, it's a minor revelation. I'm not saying it's a great movie, or a deep revelation, but considering what the man is known for, it's a real leap, and it says something. Maybe we're finally getting over the Bush years in America? Yes, I know that's a stretch, but it seems to me that this is another crack in the armour- we're softening , from the culture of meanness. Maybe. We're still probably the most violent and predatory society ever to exist, but if we can rehab our punching bag into a teddy bear, maybe we're moving a bit? I hope so. Maybe we can warm up, just a bit?

MBV

I'm now on my fifth listen to this. I'm not as overwhelmed, but I still don't feel entirely coherent. I'm going to attempt to discuss my impressions of the music, but, truthfully, it seems a bit pointless. If you wanted to hear this as much as me, and had access to the Internet, you have it, and are listening to it, now, rather than reading this. If you didn't have the same level of excitement as me, then, I'm not sure you're going to understand what the fuss is about. At the same time, how do you describe your dreams without sounding like a small, slightly crazed child?
So, here goes-
Track 1 and 2 , "she found now" and "only tomorrow" are on the gentle end of the My Bloody Valentine spectrum. Shuffling beats with spaghetti western guitars distorted into the sound of sonar and depth charges in a Swiss lake- and yet, you'd be hard pressed to say how anything has been processed. Kevin Shields sounds like he's only using a fender, through a pretty severe fuzz box and massive volume. The rest is just in his hands.
Track 3, "who sees you" shimmers and sways almost exactly the way My Bloody Valentine are supposed to.  In fact, it may supplant "Soon" as my go-to track for explaining MBV for the uninitiated. It sounds oceanic and undulating. The vocals are about as strong as they get but still sound like whispering reeds along the shore. What is the song about? What do you want it to be about? It's just what it is.
Then, on track 4, "is this and yes", time stops, and the keyboards come in. It's like you get to step into a single bar in another song and wander about, three dimensionally. It's like being suspended in a jelly made of sound.
Then, on track 5,  "if i am" it feels like we hear the song that we were wandering in just previous. The song is lush, romantic and sentimental, like the aural equivalent of a lovely girl reminiscing in some French film made in the late 60's.
Track 6 "new you" is a dance track, but still gentle, feminine and coy. It's like the inside of some club girl's sleepy daydream- all pink, frilly, and sweet, with the beat almost an intrusion, only there because of its ubiquity.
So, the buzzing mosquito bagpipe guitars that announce track 7 "in another way" sound extra aggressive. The snare roll is machine-like, and the song is masculine and propulsive, with at twist at two minutes eighteen seconds in that sounds like the war pipes for a locomotive-riding tribe of grasshoppers from Mercury. This is Hawkwind's Silver Machine come into galactic life and it is sentient, and has its own designs.
The resolution is in the glitches and recursive loop of track 8, "nothing is". It's like a skipping record on some long-lost industrial white label EP. Kind of like a less groovy Loop, and just like Loop, it's actually very subtle- the variations are hidden inside the pounding of the beat, and then, it just vapourises.
Which leaves us with track 9, "Wonder 2", the fabled "Drum N Bass" MBV track. It sounds like skydiving in an altered state. The beat rushes by, and yet seems to be perfectly still. At about three minutes thirty seconds in, the track blooms into Brian Eno's Another Green World  and pulses and breathes on its own, while the beat keeps rushing by. Then it just ends. No resolution, no fade, no crescendo- it just ends.
So, does any of that make sense? I didn't think so, but, I'm sure I'll be talking more about this. I just hope you can see that even more so than usual- trying to write about this music is really like dancing about architecture.

My Bloody Valentine MBV

What do you say? I heard My Bloody Valentine before my son was born, at roughly the same time. My life was forever changed, by that time period. My first, horribly ugly,  marriage the birth of my son, and my consequent behaviour changes, my changes in career, and living- literally I was transformed in every way you can be, and Loveless was released  3 weeks before my son was born. It was the soundtrack to all those changes, and I loved it with a fierceness that few things will ever command in me. It was the sound of my rebirth, in the wake of all my changes. I play the guitar, and instantly, everything I knew about my instrument was thrown out. I spent years trying to re-learn this new thing. I looked at my new son, and I wanted things for him that I would not have wanted before I heard this music. Within a year, I had quit my jobs, and I got divorced soon thereafter. I got a new job, relocated and tried to raise my son differently, and as unbelievable  as it may seem, Loveless was part of that. I had the Soon 7 inch, the Isn't Anything LP, and the Glider cassette, and they were all excellent, but Loveless changed everything, even as everything changed.
Then, 21 years later, things have changed for me. My son is grown, and living on his own. I have changed careers twice since then, gotten remarried, and I live a few thousand miles away from where I did. I am a middle aged man, now. I didn't have to leave my bed to buy this new release, which is fortunate, given my current circumstances. I've been told by a friend that MBV is trending higher than the Superbowl on Twitter, whereas in 1991, I was one of few Americans to hear it, let alone care. That's multiple lifetimes'  differences so, by what measurement can I possibly judge it? It's worth more than music to me, and yet, all it is, is music.
So, I will say- it's everything it says that it is, and it remains to be determined if it's more than that. The music does sound like a successor to Loveless. New developments are unobtrusive. Some drums are a bit influenced by newer trends, there are a few more discernible keyboard sounds and the mix is a bit more clear, but this otherwise is a pure continuation of Loveless.
I cannot give you standout tracks, because I have been listening to it for the first time as I type, and have been doing other things as well, but I can tell you that I believe it may very well change someones world. Will it change mine/ I don't know, but even if it does, that could not happen again as it did last time.
In the meantime, find it, listen, and see- maybe it will change you?