Big Business is that dude from Karp and that dude from Murder City Devils. They are both newer members of The Melvins, as well, playing on (A) Senile Animal. Massive, sludgy, thundering stoner rock. One of my favorite records lately. These jams WILL get stuck in your head. If you're a fan of The Melvins, Kylesa, Torche, etc... then you should certainly download this record.
I don't even know where to begin describing Frumpy, but if you are a fan of Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, or any of the originators of progressive rock music, DEFINITELY take heed. Hailing from Germany, Frumpy lays out epic prog jams with female vocals, and most importantly LOTS OF B3 Organ! This record dropped in 1971, and while they caught on in Germany, Frumpy never quite took over the American market. It's a damn shame too, since I find these dudes (and lady) to be much more talented and considerably more creative than their American counterparts. As with every truly great band, they put out 2 records (this one, obviously the 2nd) and disbanded, although some of the unreleased material did eventually see light. The record consists of 4 epic jams, the best of which I will bestow upon you now in a youtube video. Listen to this sumbitch all the way through (try to pay attention to the bitchin' lyrics too!) and if you don't dig the shit out of it.....we can't be friends.
THIS SONG ISN'T ON THE RECORD BELOW BUT IT'S ALSO AN AMAZING SONG!
Hawkwind was an English space rock band, once touting a pre-Motorhead Lemmy Kilmeister on bass and vocals (in fact, the name Motorhead was taken from the Hawkwind song, Motorhead, the last song Lemmy wrote with Hawkwind). The music is spacey, pre-punk, rock jams with lots of theremin, synthesizers, and sound effects throughout. Lyrics about space travel, quantum physics and (my favorite) getting doped. If you're a fan of Lemmy, get this record. If you're a fan of synthesizers, get this record. If you're a fan of rock 'n roll joyride jam sessions, get this record.
Hailing from Denmark and featuring members of Amde Petersen's Arme and the Young Wasteners, No Hope For the Kids played catchy, melodic punk much akin to bands coming out of the early LA punk scene. I guarantee that you will be singing along to all of the English lyrics. It's fucking impossible not to. Somehow when I did the vinyl rip of my LP, I left off the final two tracks. Bummer i know, but to make up for it, I included their ridiculously good "Das Reich" EP which had the best song they recorded on the B side, entitled Secret Police.
Pronounced 'wake'. Fucking amazing sludgey, doomy, atmospheric dextromethorphan metal from Little Rock, AR, and awesome dudes to boot (used to play with the singer, CT. He is the inspiration of the bit in the blog info about musicians working at catfish restaurants). Dual vocals, moog synth, heavy as fuck drumming, and melt your face guitar shredding, culminating in a hazy cloud of dope smoke and demon juice. The record starts with a neat little foreboding mandolin motif, giving way to Rwake's fist-pumping, gut-wrenching grime. This record was produced by the indomitable Sanford Parker, and in my opinion, this is one of the best sounding records I've ever heard from an engineer's perspective. The drum sounds will pummel you to the ground and crush your chest, while the guitar tones feed ravenously on your face, leaving you in a helpless puddle of blood, sweat, and opiates. This is heavy shit, so find some good, hard drugs and lay this record on. You'll see, but not for long.
Deciding which Why? album to post was a tough choice, but I'm gonna go with Alopecia. The reason it's such a tough call is that Why? has a slightly different sound on every record, and who the fuck knows which one you'd like. As one of the base members of the Anticon collective, Yoni Wolf (formerly known as Why?) has been involved in the avant-garde hip hop scene since 1998. He was one third of art-rap group cLOUDDEAD and later went on to produce solo material, first as a solo act and now teamed up with a band (now collectively known as Why?). The music they make is a very odd mix of indie, pop, and hip hop. Yoni's lyrics are often very personal, expounding on topics such as his fear of death, lost love, gay men fucking at a basketball court in Berlin, faking syphilis for pity, and plenty of other lyrics that will only ever make sense to him. The instrumentation in his band is also pretty interesting, his brother playing drums and xylophones/marimbas, Yoni vocalizing and playing auxillary percussion (extra toms, snare, tamborine, cymbals), and the other two gents playing a rotation of piano, guitar, bass, and any other noisemakers they can get on hand. The music isn't for everyone, but Alopecia is probably the best gateway as it catches them between the more hip hop influenced indie tunes from the previous album, Elephant Eyelash, and Alopecia's follow-up, Eskimo Snow, which seems to be a little more straight forward indie pop. Here is a little sample. If you dig it, get this record!
In my continuing efforts to get a little of everything on this blog, I knew I was due for some electro-jam. A guy on a message board I frequent brought up Shpongle, and I immediately knew I had to put some Shpongle on this site. The duo consists of Simon Posford, who handles most of the production, and Raja Ram, who lends flute and other arrangements to Posford's psychedelic brand of trance. I've never been good at classifying electronic music, but the best way I could describe this is as very trippy psychedelic trance with a lot of Indian and Asian influence. Top it off with samples from Terence Mckenna and other such drug-induced shamanic talk, and you can't go wrong. This is a great chillout record and anyone into psychedelic culture will appreciate it. Give it a shot.
