Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime (1984)
reviewed june 1st
A weird and off-kilter album that has heart and a message. Minutemen are one of my favourite punk bands, yet it's hard to describe them as such. With influences that draw more from funk and CCR than Black Flag or the Germs, their style of music is distinctly not punk, yet it makes them more punk than most of their contemporaries. A fourty track double album was never the norm, but Minutemen use it wisely! The band are very skilled instrumentalists, and they use the medium to its fullest capacity. The songwriting varies from notes left by neighbors about a broken tub to a vicious attack on the United States' interference in Nicaragua. All things I can get behind!
My favourite tracks: Untitled Song for Latin America, Viet Nam, Corona, 'Take 5, D.'
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (1988)
reviewed june 2nd
An album that manages to strike a powerful balance of beauty and noise; abstractness and structure. As the band moved away from their no-wave origins, Sonic Youth steadily became better and better. EVOL saw the band head in a gothic direction, and Sister showed a real promise of powerful (really) alternative rock. Daydream Nation, however, really fulfilled this development. The songs are longer, noisy breakdowns permeate through songs for minutes at a time, but every second serves a purpose, building an atmosphere of noise and beauty unlike anything before it, from themselves or anywhere else. Don't get me wrong, though, there are some beautiful moments on this album; the alternate tunings don't give the songs any kind of darkness as much as a level of, for lack of a better word, liveliness. FANTASTIC!
My favourite tracks: Teen Age Riot, The Sprawl, Trilogy
Radiohead - OK Computer (1997)
reviewed june 3rd
An absolutely incredible album on all fronts that becomes more and more prescient with each passing day. As the band became less and less interested in performing cliché alternative rock, their music became got exponentially better. From the mediocre Pablo Honey to the great but somewhat conventional The Bends, it was clear that the band had a desire to try something new. With OK Computer, they accomplished this in spades; an art-rock masterpiece that was uncannily ahead of its time, with topics of isolation, paranoia, and fear that seem all too present nowadays. Some amazing aural sounds coming through here, use of effects, production techniques, all that stuff that makes it sound amazing 25 years later. Can't say enough! ESSENTIAL LISTENING.
please come to boston.
My favourite tracks: THE WHOLE THING, but especially Paranoid Android, Let Down, No Surprises, The Tourist
Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand (1994)
reviewed june 4th
A really interesting lo-fi rock album from one of the genre's odd ones out. Who would expect a bunch of middle-aged men from Ohio to make some sick alternative rock? Not me, at first. The album is lo-fi, owing to the cheap four track recorders the band recorded on, but it still sounds suprisingly powerful. The record just works, even in spite of the production (or lack thereof). Some really powerful songwriting on display too, delightfully weird but pertinent. Recordings are compiled from 1993 all the way back to the band's earliest sessions in 1984. COOL STUFF!
My favourite tracks: Tractor Rape Chain, Echos Myron, Gold Star For Robot Boy, I Am A Scientist
Pixies - Surfer Rosa (1988)
reviewed june 11th
One of my favourites--a dirty, weird, and influential album with some cool ideas. Some really interesting ideas were presented on this full-length debut. Mixing punk, surf, and Captain Beefheart together for a crazy good album. Would prove incredibly influential to the alternative rock scene of the late 80s and early 90s, and I can see why. Whether it's the noisy diversion of Vamos, the reverberating roar of Where Is My Mind, or the ode to incest that is Broken Face, there's some crazy stuff going on. Powerful production from Steve Albini makes for a great sounding album too, especially the drums. WOW!
My favourite tracks: Something Against You, River Euphrates, Where Is My Mind, Vamos