Track Listing: 1. Fast One 2. Taken 3.N30 4. Leveled 5. New Song 6. High Lonesome 7. Invisible 8. Union 9. Heron 10. Rest 11.C. Days 12. Bell 13.Leather 14. Old Dominion
This is the fifth album by Richmond Virginia's punk rock band Avail. I never quite got into this one as much as the others, but I can see how someone who is more into the harder/faster side of the band could really dig this.
They certainly kick a lot of ass here, and the energy levels are through the roof! The tempos blast with hardcore speed, but they still remember to make a few stops for some melody every now and again. It is a bracing listen and I do always enjoy it when I put it on, but it seems like they don't quite have the awesome hooks they so prominently displayed on their previous albums. Which is fair, because I don't think that's what they were aiming for this time around. I think it was more of a "we're not going soft," move after the poppier material on "Over the James.. .But I liked the poppier material...I did catch one of their shows right after this record dropped and these high-impact songs certainly were a big hit in the pit...So...
That said, there is one song on here that's among their best..."High Lonesome" is a perfect example of what makes Avail so great. Loud, mid-tempo, a shout-along vocal melody...It's all here. Man, I love this....I might have to play that one again... (press rewind)
Avail has only released one album since "One Wrench," but I haven't heard it yet. In all my travels to the Record Store, I've never run across "Back Porch Stories."...Hell, I wasn't even really aware of its existence until a couple years ago...But if I locate a copy someday maybe I'll check it out and let you know what I think...
Let's recount the important events that occurred in 2000 (the year of "One Wrench's" release):
The 2000 Presidential election results show George W Bush winning over Al Gore, the results are delayed due to extremely close results and allegations of voter fraud...I demand a recount!
Defective tires cause almost 100 deaths... What?! 100 deaths!? The CEO of Firestone demands a recount!
Santana and Rob Thomas win "Record of the Year" for their record "Smooth." Wait...what? The Record of the Year had Rob Thomas on it?! I demand a recount! Alright...Enough recounting...Let's check out Avail's"High Lonesome..." Enjoy...
Track Listing: 1. Deepwood 2. New #2 3. August 4. Fall Apart 5. Nickel Bridge 6. Scuffle Town 7. Sanctuary 13 8. S.R.O. 9. Mid-Town West 10. Lombardy St. 11. Vine 12. Cross Tie 13.Ask 14. Fifth Wheel
This is an album I love to an almost ridiculous degree, It was a real staple during the Summer of '97. The songwriting is more fleshed-out, the choruses are even catchier and the hardcore is even harder...I mean, this album might just have been the reason Mike Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield's ear a month after this came out...
My faves this time around are almost too numerous to mention, the hooky hardcore and soaring chorus of "Nickel Bridge," the surging anthem "August," the towering closer ,"Fifth Wheel." I honestly don't see a weak spot on this thing, and I don't think this band put out an album this good again...If you check out only one Avail album I'd recommend this...but why check out only one Avail album? These guys really hit upon a sort of rustic majesty that makes me wanna drive a John Deere in the moshpit...
.I'm calling it one of the greats of 90's punk...
Remember a couple weeks ago I was trying to think of great album covers of the CD era, and I couldn't come up with anything better than Fabio? Well, I gave it some more thought and came up with these CD covers I like...
Shins: Chutes Too Narrow
(I'm kind of a sucker for fun foldy CD covers...But I think this one goes beyond novelty...I like the colors and design and everything...)
Mars Volta: Amputechture (I find this really fascinating for some reason...)
of Montreal: Hissing Fauna...Are You the Destroyer
(Although I didn't really fully appreciate this one until I got a vinyl copy of it...)
Pink Floyd: The Division Bell (all the story and mystery behind this album cover had me really captivated at the time...There's still not a clear answer as to what the prize was...some people involved say they forgot, or there wasn't one, or it was an area with a bunch of trees planted...who knows...but it was pretty memorable...I also liked this Pink Floyd one...)
Pink Floyd: Pulse (I don't really like the cover so much...It reminds me of one of those all-over shirts you'd buy at Walt-Mart...I like this one for that flashing red light that's built into the cover... .It cracks me up to hear that people still have a faint red flashing light that's going 24/7 twenty years after the fact...I never bought it because I think that's too big a commitment for me...)
Cut Copy: Zonoscope (I have no idea who this band is but I saw the cover at the record story and really liked it...I think it's dance music or something...I don't really have any reason to listen to dance music, since I'm totally averse to dancing.
Except this dance...
...that dance was awesome...)
Well, that's all the cool CD-era covers I can think of today...If I think of any more later I'll post them too...In the meantime, let's check out by Avail. Enjoy...
Track Listing: 1. Simple Song 2. Order 3. Tuesday 4. '92 5. McCarthy 6. (Ben) 7. Monroe Park 8. Armchair 9. Fix 10. Blue Ridge 11. Swing Low 12. F.C.A 13. Hang 14. Governor 15. Nameless
Avail's mighty 1996 album follows "Dixie's" established sound of blistering hardcore, giant choruses, and blue-collar vocals. I actually like this one just as much as "Dixie."
I can still recall my friend Joe bringing this album over and putting it on for the first time, after anxiously waiting for 2 years. We were greeted by the roaring guitars of "Simple Song," Which is a fine welcome indeed! I also love the catchy wrecking-ball swing of "Tuesday," which is closely related to "Dixie's" "Tuning."
"Armchair" and "Nameless" explore scene politcs to endlessly hooky results. Again, this is the same type of stuff you've heard on "Dixie," perhaps the only real departure is when the band busts out the acoustic guitar for a cover of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot," which is pretty cool...
This album works as an excellent companion to "Dixie" and brings back warm memories of the 1990's pop-punk heyday...an era I always thoroughly enjoy revisiting, despite my pounding headache today...You see, I was recently told by a doctor to cut my caffeine intake. I ingest an almost lethal amount of caffeine everyday once you factor in the sheer volume of coffee, Pepsi and Beer Bulls that I ingest daily...So I went ahead and kicked it cold turkey...Which turns out to maybe not be the way to go since I've had a splitting headache that won't go away...But it's hard...I love caffeine...No matter how little sleep I get, once I pound some coffee I'm as good as new... Why are all the things that make life so enjoyable so bad for you? I've compiled a list of things that are bad for us but I still love despite their faults...
No. 1: Alcohol!
C'mon! I love beer! No matter how shitty a day I might have had, a beer melts away the stress immediately...How can that be bad? It seems like something this effective in its stress-reducing qualities should be good for you, right? This is unfair!
No. 2: Red Meat!
Look at it! Its aesthetic beauty alone is life-affirming! Unless, you're the animal being eaten...And what really sucks is you can avoid all the items on this list and something else just comes along and kills you! This game is rigged, I tell ya!
No. 3: Stress, Itself!
Stress is so much fun! There's nothing quite like getting pissed off when the car in front of you cuts you off! And nothing quite like the exhilarating feeling of getting out of your car, finding a tank and demolishing half the downtown area in an orgy of destruction! Can't a guy have some fun?
No. 4: Crack Cocaine!
I just can't believe this stuff is bad for you! I mean, 1070 mg of sodium per serving! That should be illegal!
Hey, I didn't invite you guys over just to unload on ya...I invited you guys to my Friday Night Record Party so we could rock out to Avail's "Armchair." So let's go...
Track Listing: 1. On the Nod 2. Clone 3. Tuning 4. Song 5. Sidewalk 6. 25 Years 7. Virus 8. Beliefs Pile 9. Treading on Heels 10. Model 11. South Bound 95 12. Pink Houses
This was another Lookout Records release that was really big hit with me and my friends back in the mid-90's...I think my friend Cory (R.I.P) introduced me to this band. I'd describe them as a melodic rural hardcore band, bringing to mind Carhartts and lawns scattered with car parts and rusted tricycles. I mean, they even do a punk version of John Cougar-Mellencamp's "Pink Houses!" Rural as fuck!
.
Like I said, this record was a big hit in my area, the mid-tempo pounder "Tuning" in particular. I can recall hanging out at bonfires on Friday and Saturday Nights at either Scott or Joe's house... Everybody would pull up their trucks and play their car radios...and this one was one we'd all beller along to...We even went to one of Avail's shows in Detroit right around the time of this release of this album. I'll never forget the show because once we were in, some guy pulled his shirt up to reveal a gun he had tucked in his boxers... So I was a little nervous to say the least. But nothing bad happened....Avail played a mighty set, full of favorites from the "Dixie" album, winning over the crowd in big way, despite some persistent sound problems... I went back to see these guys a couple more times during the '90's.
They really were an incredible live band, and I consider their run of albums starting with "Dixie" through "Over the James" to be highlights of that era. Catchy, sweaty, shout-a-long punk. We need these guys back...
While we're listening to Avail's 1994 classic "Dixie" let's take a look back at the events of 1994...
This was the year of the "Whitewater" scandal; which began when investigator's took a closer look into real estate investments made by Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates Jim and Susan McDougal and...
...You know what? This is boring.
Let's just combine all of the events of 1994 into one big exciting event...
In 1994, after killing Kurt Cobain...
...O.J. Simpson and Tonya Harding drive a white Ford Bronco...
all the way to Norway for the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer!
It's hard for me to believe this record is 13 years old...Where does the time go?
Oh, yea...beer...
That's where it all went...Oh well... I can clearly remember hearing this back when it was a new release...I already liked At the Drive-In cos I had the "El Gran Orgo" EP and listened to it quite a bit...I remember going to the Drug Store/Record Shop ( I believe I've discussed this already...) and seeing this copy of ATDI's "Relationship of Command." This record had an incredible amount of hype at the time, so I was dying to hear it. See, I used to deliver pizzas for a living back in 2000, so mostly I just drove around listening to music. I put this on while I was doing deliveries and was absolutely dumbstruck at the level of improvement this was over their previous material. "Arcarsenal" was just so explosive I couldn't believe it. "BEWAAAARE!!!" indeed!
The guitar players sounded like they was decoding strange alien signals with their instruments, while Cedric Bixler jabbered and screamed in some heretofore unknown tongue. Who can forget hearing "One Armed Scissor" for the first time? With its endlessly bizarre lyrics and apocalyptic urgency, it was scary and exhilarating all at once. Even Iggy Pop was there, giving his most out-of-his-mind performance yet! His manic stuttering is what makes "Rolodex Propaganda" so great. He sounds totally out of control. His chillingly abstract ransom threat on "Enfilade" is equally awesome.
I'm still convinced "Invalid Litter Dept." would have been my favorite song on here if they would have only written a second verse for it...The repeating-the-first-verse thing doesn't work so well when you're doing the spoken word bit, but I'm willing to overlook it for that awesome chorus.
It really seemed like these guys (along with the Refused) were going to be the future of punk at the time. But unfortunately it never quite happened. This was ATDI's final record; the band splintered off into two different bands ( the prog/punk/metal bizarros the Mars Volta, and the more straight-forward radio-ready rock of Sparta). They also seemed to not have actually influenced anyone. I think their sound was a little too singular and complex to duplicate.
Oh well...It was one of those things that was good while it lasted
and I still have fond memories of driving around that Michigan autumn of
2000...blaring "Pattern Against User" with the windows rolled-down on
my Dodge Neon, delivering pizzas, reeking of garlic...
I mean...I still reek of garlic but it's for completely different reasons...Anyway, let's check out "Rolodex Propaganda" by At the Drive-In...
Track Listing: 1. Give It a Name 2. Honest to a Fault 3. Winter Month Novelty 4. Intermission 5. Fahrenheit 6. Picket Fence Cartel 7. Speechless
I first came across this band on a punk compilation I got at some Warped Tour sometime during the 90's, in one of those free swag bags they give out there...you know the one's full of Sugar Ray fly swatters and the like...
Anyway, I'd usually skim those samplers when I got home. Usually there wasn't much on them but I remember at the end of one of these tapes there was this band called At the Drive-In that just totally blew away all the other bands.. I believe my friend Joe might have originally bought this and gave it to me shortly thereafter...
It's basically your standard late 90's emo-punk, but there was just something about this that was just a little bit special... At the time I had no idea how incredibly awesome these guys would become... Fans of ATDI's 2000 breakthrough "The Relationship of Command" and the later spin-off the Mars Volta might be somewhat surprised at the straightforwardness of this EP. (Is ATDI the accepted abbreviation? It seems weird to put a 'T' in there and ADI seems to short for such an epic band...)
Like I said, at first glance it's your standard high-drama '97-type Emo/punk, but the playing is a little trickier, the choruses stick a little more and the singer is a lot more interesting than what you normally get with these bands.
Cedric Bixler's lyrics aren't quite as opaque as they would eventually become. You can actually clearly grasp that "Fahrenheit" is about child abuse and that "Give it a Name" is a relationship song,
And what do you serve guests for dinner when you're throwing your Friday Night Record Party?
Why, what else but a nice refreshing word salad?
This is a really enjoyable EP, as long as you don't go into it expecting "Relationship of Command," if you take it for what it is, you might like it...
Track Listing: 1.Wake Up 2. Hold On 3. Into Action 4. Translator 5. Take This City 6. Inner City Violence 7. Oh No 8. Lady Demeter 9. Among the Dead 10. Cold Blooded
Alas, "The Poet's Life," the first solo collection by renowned bard Tim Armstrong, author of such melodious sonnets as "Dope Sick Girl" with his poetry slam group Rancid...
Alright, I'm getting myself together...ahem...
This is Rancid vocalist /guitarist Tim Armstrong's first solo album. Best known for his marble-mouthed punk, on this album he explores his love of sweet 60's ska with backing band the Aggrolites.
I think this is probably my favorite release from Tim since Rancid 2000; there's no punk at all, just track after track of throwback smooth 60's type ska... It's a great album to kick back and play while you're downing a box of Red Stripe...
(Man, I should pick up some Red Stripe tonight...I love those little bottles...Last night I drank some Sessions..
.
Those come in those little bottles too...)
Wow. I was able to include a photo in that parentheses...
Sometimes his delivery can veer towards unintentional comedy (especially when he attempts to rap or toast...) but I'd say he pulls this off alright...The Aggrolites, however nail this sound. If it wasn't for the singing and the crystal clear recording you could talk me into believing these were real old school ska songs...it's really closely related to Armstrong's recent work with Jimmy Cliff. Also recommended for fans of Rancid's ska material...
Track Listing: 1. Hot Body Rub 2. Bright Lit Blue Skies 3. L'estat (Acc. to the Widow's Maid) 4. Fright Night (Nevermore) 5. Round and Round 6. Beverly Kills 7. Butt-House Blondies 8. Little Wig 9. Can't Hear My Eyes 10. Reminiscences 11. Menopause Man 12.Revolution's a Lie
********I kept having people tell me they were leaving comments but the comments never posted...I just figured out that I had the comments turned off, so if you comment now it should post...Sorry about that... **************
I heard a lot about of good things about this album and it sounded like something that might be up my alley. I found a vinyl copy of this at the local Zia Records in Tempe, AZ for a good price and decided to check it out.
(I love this place...)
I probably jumped in expecting too much. See, I'm a Guided by Voices fanatic. I love everything about them. The music, the prolific output, the spotty track record, the basement recording quality; it's all part of the experience for me. Ariel Pink is often (unfairly, I think) compared to Mr. Pollard, because all those above-mentioned qualities are often attributed to Ariel Pink too. This was hyped as being his most accessible release, so I figured it would be the best place to start.
I played this record about 25 times since it came out, and I'm of the opinion that it's about 25% incredible, 50% alright and 25% unbelievably irritating. In my eyes, this is a worse batting average than most Robert Pollard albums...But again, that's really an unfair since I don't think these two artists are comparable at all.... Pollard uses classic rock (the Who and the Beatles), prog (early Genesis comes to mind often, listening to his material) , and punk (especially early Wire) as his starting points, but he really hits his stride when he twists these sounds into new, distinctly different mutations. Arial Pink to me, sounds like his takeoff point is late 70's- early 80's soft rock, and the closer the replication, the more enjoyable he becomes.
The album opens with a cover version of Eddie Murphy's "James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub..."
...that leads us to "Bright Lit Blue Skies" that's apparently a cover of some song I've never heard, but it nails this old AM radio vibe so successfully it's almost awe-inspiring. Gauzy, spaced-out, hooky. By this point in the album, I was totally sold, despite the awful opener (which was mercifully brief). This totally made up for it...Then I was on to the next track "L'estat (Acc. to the Widow's Maid)." God, this song was dopey but I was able to handle it until the irritating recurring "Cheer Up!" section...I was about to take the record off...Seriously...
Then "Fright Night" came on I become 100% neutral. Somehow not good or bad...just a cavernous blandness.
Huh.
But it was enough to convince me to wait it out...and then "Round & Round" came on and everything about this album suddenly just clicked for me! This song is fantastic! I love it! It kind of reminds me of Hall & Oates, or the Bee Gees. It takes a long time to finally get to the chorus (about 2 minutes) but good Lord Almighty! That chorus is totally hit-worthy! Well, probably not a hit now, but circa 1982, I could totally imagine it being all over the radio.
The Same goes for "Beverley Kills" and "Can't Hear my Eyes." "Can't Hear My Eyes" is a dead-ringer for "Eye in the Sky"-era Alan Parson's Project. Just a stunning piece of easy-going yacht-rock... "Little Wig" is a lot of fun too...
Unfortunately, I also had to sit through "Butt House Blondies" which is maybe the most singularly irritating song in my entire album collection. And I have a Toto record!
The rest of it is kinda so-so, doesn't bug me, doesn't thrill me either...
So yea, that's how I fared with this, I'd maybe borrow it from a friend or something... I haven't sold it or traded it or given it away yet, because there really is some spectacular stuff that I love revisiting time after time. On the other hand, I almost have to mentally prepare myself to be kind of annoyed before I put it on. Why don't I just simply skip the tracks I don't care about?
That's a pretty good question. One I ask myself all the time...I guess the answer is..I just don't. I mean, an artist went through all the time and trouble to sequence an album, so if I choose to listen to it, I'm going to honor that decision. It's for the same reason I just don't fast-forward Godzilla movies to the end, even though I'm really only watching the movie to see the last half hour where Godzilla shows up and does some serious damage to Tokyo....
I guess I see the imperfections as part of the journey...maybe it's some sort of mental defect...Why should I sit and waste precious moments of my life on some track that bugs the shit out of me? Well, sometimes those things you can't stand can later become somewhat endearing... It's happened quite a few times that I eventually fall in love with a song that I didn't care for initially...
So yea...the answer is...I don't know...
But I don't want to put you guys through this...Let's skip ahead to "Round & Round." (which might only seem great to me because I had to sit through " L'estat (Acc. to the Widow's Maid)" to get to it...sigh...)
Track Listing: 1. Fashion Bleeds 2. Dead Red Eyes 3. I.N.S 4. Perfect Time 5. Slick Tricks and Bright Lights 6. One Slight Wrong Move 7. Banging on a Dead Drum 8. Smokers in Love 9. After the Last Laugh 10.White Trash Heroes
To date, this is the final Archers of Loaf album. Hopefully, they'll rectify that soon, since they recently reunited to play some shows...
This is an interesting final album. It doesn't quite have a "final album" feel...It seems like they were trying to transition into something different... They do nothing but try on new guises on every track. Eric Bachmann even tries on some new voices. Sometimes I can't even tell if it's him or someone else in the band singing...could be a mix.. The sparse and spooky "Dead Red Eyes" sounds like Neil Young singing (I love when the full band comes in and that incredible, growling bass guitar lurches around the track. Hell yes!). On the post-punk pastiche "I.N.S" it sounds like Ian Curtis has returned from the afterlife to haunt us one last time, and is it just me or is that Neil Diamond crooning the title track?
This isn't exactly my favorite album by the band but oddly enough it's the one I probably find myself reaching for the most now. There's something about all the unanswered questions it presents...it also doesn't hurt that "Fashion Bleeds" is one of the most kick-ass opening tracks ever! I'm a sucker for that ear-splitting keyboard sequence that takes over at the end of the track...I'd probably keep rewinding it if I didn't know "Dead Red Eyes" was coming next...
I was in college back when this was released and I can remember selling some of my other records to buy this one. I was absolutely enamored with "All the Nations Airports" and suddenly saw this in the CD store in the Alpena Mall.
I know most malls are pretty sparsely populated these days, but I'm telling you, the Alpena Mall was totally desolate during the freaking 90's!! Those were boom times, right? I don't even know if they're still open... Do malls even still have places to buy music?
Are there still Tape Worlds?
...or Camelot Music Stores out there? Where the CD's cost $17.99, or whatever...Haven't seen one in awhile.... Holy shit, blank videotapes used to cost $15.99?!
Well, let's say goodbye to the Archers by playing "Fashion Bleeds."
Track Listing: 1. Strangled by the Stereo Wire 2. All the Nations Airports 3.Scenic Pastures 4. Worst Defense 5. Attack of the Killer Bees 6. Rental Sting 7. Assassination on X-Mas Eve 8. Chumming the Ocean 9. Vocal Shrapnel 10. Bones of Her Hands 11. Bumpo 12. Form and File 13. Acromegaly 14. Distance Comes in Droves 15. Bombs Away
Now, this is how you do a major label debut! The ambition is off the chart and the cleaned up sound gives them a depth that you didn't even realize was previously lacking.
This plays like some sort of loose concept album, with its repeated themes of terrorism, airports, assassinations, police and detectives, but I'm not sure exactly what's going on. These guys aren't known for their legibility, still, it nails a distinct, addictive dark mood, while remaining memorable and melodic.
The songs are all strung together into a loose suite; The guitars crackle and buzz to life on "Strangled By the Stereo Wire" which spirals out of control into "All the Nations Airports" and so on... There's a few breaks and some awesome instrumentals, particularly the blinking charm of "Acromegaly."
If nothing else, at least check out the desolate piano ballad Chumming the Ocean," which features extremely vivid oceanic imagery, yet I can't quite pinpoint what it's getting at...On the surface it appears to be about a diver about to be eaten by a damn shark, yet it also seems to hint at something bigger and more universal than that...I don't know. Yet I feel every moment of it... I guess you might as well let it play through the next couple of songs too, since "Vocal Shrapnel" and "Bones of Her Hands" are two of the bands most careening, slamming and catchy rockers yet...
(Above, 2012 reissue Cover. Either cover works fine for me, honestly...)
So, yea...One of my personal favorite albums from the 90's. The replay value of this thing is off the charts...I probably played this album just about everyday from 1996 to 1999...It brings back fond memories of my late high school/early college days and the endless hours blown playing Sega and listening to this CD... Who knows, maybe I'll dig out the Sega tonight too...
Who's down for some Mr. Bones?
While we're playing Mr. Bones, let's listen to "Chumming the Ocean," by the Archers of Loaf...Enjoy...
Track Listing: 1. Wrong 2. South Carolina 3. Web In Front 4. Bathroom 5. Tatyana 6. What Did You Expect? 7. Ethel Merman 8. Funnelhead 9. Quinn Beast 10. Telepathic Traffic 11. Don't Believe The Good News 12. Smokin' Pot In The Hot City 13.Mutes In The Steeple 14. Revenge 15. Bacteria 16. Freezing Point 17. Powerwalker 18. Backwash
An Archers of Loaf compilation album featuring early singles, compilation tracks, etc. This has been made almost (but not quite) obsolete by the recent 2012 reissues, but there are still a few tracks here that don't appear on them.
A large chunk of these I just listened to a couple of days ago on the "Icky Mettle" reissue, and these are honestly all of my favorites here. I love "South Carolina" which is an awesome track that outlines a civil war between North and South Carolina. "What Did You Expect" is catchy too! All of this "Icky Mettle" -era stuff is so visceral and fun, I can't help but love it.
The tracks that appear on the "Vee Vee" reissue are a lot more laid back and is more in line with that album's twisted melodic sense. "Telepathic Traffic" being an easy favorite.
Now for the material that doesn't appear on the reissues; "Funnelhead" is a cover of a song by the band Tree People (who I'm not familiar with). It's a 6/8 rocker that's not bad by any means, but nothing to write home about...
"Dear Mom,
Today I listened to Archers of Loaf cover a song by the Tree People...It was pretty catchy and I liked it a lot..."
See, there's just no reason for it...
The album ends with a great 5 song Peel Session. They do a version of "Freezing Point" that I like even more than the version on "Vs the Greatest of All Time." It's a bit more easy-going and catchy. It would easily trump the original if they didn't have to censor it for the BBC, but honestly, when they replace the offending word for "BBC," it is kinda funny, so I'm going to let it slide and declare this the superior version. They also do a monster 7-minute song that doesn't appear anywhere else, called "Bacteria,...
Would I buy this if I already had all the reissues? A good question...to be honest, as an Archers of Loaf die-hard I would say go ahead if you found it for a decent price...I'd say the Peel session and the Tree People cover are worth a good five bucks...
Actually, just print this one on your home computer, and take it to the used record shop and buy it now! How's that for service?
Let's check out "Tatyana" by the Archers of Loaf...
Track Listing: 1. Step into the Light 2. Harnessed in Slums 3. Nevermind the Enemy 4. Greatest of All Time 5. Underdogs of Nipomo 6. Floating Friends 7. 1985 8. Fabricoh 9. Nostalgia 10. Let the Loser Melt 11. Death in the Park 12. The Worst Has Yet to Come 13. Underachievers March and Fight Song
It kind of seemed that right around this time, the Archers of Loaf could have really broken through, but to their credit, they didn't dumb things down, or grasp for an obvious hit...
Their approach this time around was opening things up without losing even a bit of their edge...If anything the guitars were tangled into even more impenetrable knots, and in this process they discover a sort of queasy beauty...
I mean, when I listen to the song "the Greatest of All Time," it makes me want to cry and it gives me a distinct seasick feeling...I can't explain it...There's an unexpected poignancy to the line "The underground is overcrowded." I actually find it touching for no reason on Planet Earth, which is the type of reaction that make me obsess about records and blather about them endlessly on blogs in the first place...
"Harnessed in Slums" is just a ripping indie-rock anthem. Big, rousing, and infectious, you won't have any choice but to pump your fist in the air and shout along "We Want Waste!" Wait...what are we shouting? "Fabrico" also falls into this category. One of my favorites Archers tracks, this never fails to get me going! I also love the instrumental "1985" that basically functions as an intro to "Fabrico," it reminds me of fried Christmas lights.There's just so many cool little things to hear on this record. I listened to this possibly even more than "Icky Mettle" at the time... This was definitely a summer of '95 staple...
This is the alternate cover they used for the 2012 remaster...it's pretty cool but I think the original photo cover was more mysterious...Even though this one has weird tentacles coming out of the grill of the car...
And what do you serve to guests at your Friday Night Record Party when you're spinning "Vee Vee" by the Archer's of Loaf?
Why, what else but...
Nachos...
and a microbrew...
Sounds good to me...Let's relive the summer of 1995 (during which apparently there was some unprecedented heatwave that hammered the Midwest...Huh...Don't remember that.. Must have been hanging out in the air conditioning watching the O.J. Trial...)
(I wonder if my O.J. pogs are worth anything yet.... )
Anyway...let's relive 1995 by listening to "Harnessed in Slums" by the Archers of Loaf...Enjoy...
