Brakes - Give Blood (2005)

Andrew strikes again with a band beginning in the 92nd percentile of the alphabet.  This album is the personification of the drunk at the end of a bar.  (Well, if he were a musician, recorded only when he was mostly coherent, and Scottish.)  


Lyrically, sometimes he's conversational, sometimes a total ripoff of others (like "Hear About Your Band", which sounds like an exact cross of The Silversun Pickups and The Frames).  Sometimes he's very loud and other times eerily quiet.  Sometimes he's capable of imparting incredible insight and humor; other times he simply recites mundane details.  Sometimes you're kept at arms length, other times, he'll mentions the most revealing insight into his life as an aside.  Sometimes he communicates in long diatribes, sometimes in short stacatto outbursts.   He can be the life of the party or the downer that brings everyone down.  Mostly he's alone, but occasionally he'll have a lady friend along.  But there is always an undercurrent of sadness, an inevitability of the weight of reality's yoke that he always slouches under.  (Yes, this description could also apply to The Pogues.)   It's bar rock at its most interesting.

CD Placement Rating:  Car CD Changer.  

What You Would Have Been Listing to in the Early 90's If You Were in School

Okay, I'll admit it:  there are at least three things in that title that are pretentious, assumptive, and/or flat out arrogant.  At least it's not totally self-involved.  That post would be titled something like "What You Would Have Been Listening to in 1992 If You Were at College in the Northeast and Attended One of Our Parties, Including a Mention of Every Roommate I Had at That Fine Institution of Higher Learning."

What You Would Have Been Listening to in 1992 If You Were at College in the Northeast and Attended One of Our Parties, Including a Mention of Every Roommate I Had at That Fine Institution of Higher Learning

I have no shame.

So let's go in order of roommates from freshman to senior year, and reminisce: 

• Jimbo:  Guns 'N Roses - "Sweet Child O' Mine."  Jimbo was a man of planning and action:  he came in with a plan to play Appetite for Destruction at least once, in is entirety, every day our freshman year.   He succeeded.  "Cause worry's a waste of my --- time."  (Per Mr. Brownstone.)

• Mac:  Ziggy Marley - "Tomorrow People."  Sean showed up at school with two music cassettes -- Ziggy Marley and 10,000 Maniacs -- and a Betamax VCR, with a Pete Townsend concert and 2/3 of Trading Places.  (We found out the latter the hard way.)  If you've never heard Mac crooning "Tomorrow Pee-pal" (Ziggy) or "Shiver in Me Bones Just Tinking About the Weathah" (10,000 Maniacs), then you've missed some serious 6'5" Milton (MA) Irish soul.

• Paco:  LL Cool J - "Mama Said Knock You Out."  Paco was into a lot of current rap and hiphop at the time, which helped make the rest of us look a lot more well rounded than our Journey, Night Ranger, and Bon Jovi music collection might imply.  He also had the audacity to buy a glass table for our dorm room, which we somehow managed not to break until we tried to move it into storage at the end of the year.  Don't call it a comeback!

• Jay:  Sinead O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U."  Jay had the best stereo I had ever seen, which I got to try out prior to living with him when a party was thrown on his floor my sophomore year.  For some reason, most of the partygoers decided to hang outside the dorm; Bubba and I took the far more practical route of standing next to the keg and controlling the music.  This was the hot song at the time and sounded great blasting through Jay's stereo.  Classic night and a classic song.

• Bean:  Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Suck My Kiss."  Ben's musical tastes started freshman year with  Eric Clapton and The Grateful Dead; by senior year it had evolved into Lenny Kravitz and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.  When freshmen stole Ben's hamsters, he figured out their voicemail password and horrified their parents; I think this song was playing in the background, but that could be a total lie.  The final takeaway:  partially thanks to said freshman parental horror, the hamsters were swiftly returned, and some of you learned a valuable life lesson:  don't mess with seniors.  This still puts me right back in my dorm room senior year.

• Bubba:  Anthrax - "Bring the Noise."  This was a toss up between Anthrax, Nirvana, L.A. Guns, and the Go-Go's.  If you know Bubba, you'll realize I'm not kidding.  We used to slamdance to this tune in our dorm room.  (But it was really cool, I assure you.  Not dorky at all.)  Our part of the dorm was torn down two years later due to "irreparable structural damage.  Probably a coincidence.

• BA:  Naughty by Nature - "O.P.P."  Besides being the object of adapted lyrics like "Ain't Gonna Hurt Brad's Mommy" or "I've Had Enough of Brad's Mom," BA turned his freshman obsession with Kool Moe Dee's "Go See the Doctor" into a senior year music infatuation with Naughty by Nature.  It's timeless.  Well, sort of.  Just don't ask him to dance to it.  

• TC:  The Police - "So Lonely."  Besides bringing "Safety/Doorknob" to school, Tim introduced us to the song we played at every party we ever threw.  Did it seem odd to see 10 guys chugging at a specific spot in a song that's all about loneliness?  Probably not.  Probably not.

• Salami, er, Snilch:  Bob Mould - "It's Too Late."  If you read any of my reviews, this should not be a surprise.  One of my favorite songs ever, and the one that really sparked my interest in finding great but obscure music.  And I still love it as much today as I did when it came out 21 years ago.

• Turner House:  Seal - "Crazy."  Our MWF schedule 2nd semester senior year staggered so that the five of ended up playing this album in its entirety five times a day.  We could not figure out why everyone else who lived near us hated this album, until we figured out that this was how our schedule has magically settled.  And that was in April.  A self-described mutant, Seal provided the soundtrack for our senior year.

Appearances have been altered to protect the innocent

How does this soundtrack hold up today?  Well, our focus group of three will find out this weekend.  Early odds will be that the songs will hold up just fine.  Our tolerance, on the other hand, is likely to be another matter entirely.

- Snilch

Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare (2010)

When I played this for Mrs. Snilch Report, I asked, "Who do you think recommended this?"  It took her about 5 seconds.  This is a classic Bubba album for sure.  

Think of some Metallica fan who watched a ton of Metalocalypse (on Cartoon Network, if you're not familiar), and wishes he could sound like the guy from Queensryche or Axl Rose.  For as cheesy as this could be, it's really not; it's better than most of the current metal wanna-be's.  But it's got a low ceiling, as it's more brute force than finesse.  Best used for psyching up your frat for Keg Wars, getting back at your annoying neighbors, or torturing suspected insurgents in your basement.

CD Placement Rating:  CD Rack.

Back... finally

Yes, here we are at the start again at The Snilch Report.  We're going to try something different this time around -- we'll be posting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until my attention wanes again (probably by Friday).  The Whiskey Dregs is no more (at least for music reviews), so this is where you will see stuff from me for the time being.

Please adjust your social calendars accordingly.
  
- Snilch

Yes, I Got Your E-mail. Now Leave Me Alone. Part 1.

I do (eventually) get around to most of what you recommend.  I generally try not to publicly disparage you unless you really provoke or annoy me.  Which most of you do.

In any case... here are your feeble well-intentioned efforts to expand my already prodigious musical vocabulary, and the details on how you all have failed me yet again.

• The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You (2009).  Al actually sent this to me to listen to, which is good because I probably wouldn’t have bought it on my own. Oddly enough, he chose this week to get all over me about listening to it as well.  Normally I run screaming from this brand of light pop, but I have to say it’s decent.  It’s very nice, light, and introspective, although I rarely sit down to listen to music on the porch rocker with my corncob pipe to watch lightning bugs.  Nothing against that; I just don’t do it that often.  But this is decent and well worth a listen.
  
  CD Placement rating:  CD Rack.
  
  
• Adam Ezra Group - View from the Root (2008). Brian (via John S.) recommended this one, as a light powerpop album in the vein of Alanis Morrissette.  As I listened to the opening track (“Vision”), I was more struck by a cross between the Dave Matthews Band and the Goo Goo Dolls, with the vocals reminiscent of the lead singer of the O.C. Supertones.  Now, it is true that I’d like to like both Dave Matthews and the Goo Goo Dolls, but they both lack some indefinable something that ultimately sours me on both.  Not here.  Adam and the band play in that folk-rock vein that can very easily verge into the self-indulgent; they have a bit more substance than that and manage to stay on the correct side of the ledger throughout, even when they veer to the brink (like in “Basement Song”).  Ultimately there’s less Goo Goo’s and more Dave Matthews, but the more authentic lyric quality and meticulously produced sound is ultimately undeniable.  Now don’t turn into Train, guys.  
  
  CD Placement rating:  Portable CD Case.
  
  
• A Band of Bees - Free the Bees (2004).  Andrew likes to recommend bands whose names start from A-L so he doesn't have to scroll too far down to see his name.  This strategy plays off here in spades.  A Band of Bees took a time warp directly from the 60's, and have refused to adapt past that musical technique, style, and production.  Even the vocals make you think this is from 40-50 years ago.  It's a pleasant listen, just not really my thing these days.
  CD Placement rating:  If you still listen to The Beach Boys or Herman's Hermits, this will be a Portable CD Case or Car CD Changer pick for you.  For me, it's nice, but ends up in Sell-back Pile 1.
  
  
• Miklós Rózsa - Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (Soundtrack) (1982). Another Brian recommendation, who keeps trying to expand my musical vocabulary with soundtracks, and it must be working because I keep picking these things up.  First impression:  it’s orchestral.  (Thanks, I’ll be here all week.  Please try the roast beef, and tip your server generously.)  It's very good, but I lack the musical vocabulary in this genre to explain exactly why.
  CD Placement rating:  Portable CD Case.
  
  
• Killing Joke - What's THIS for...! (1981, re-mastered/re-issued 2005). The mysterious uzine and its unidentifiable author posted a response to a 2007 post in August 2010 (!), claiming I had wrongfully represented Killing Joke's best album as their first, despite the statute of limitations on that review having long since run out.  (Yes, these are the jokes.)  I went back to Killing Joke source/"expert" Mark, who immediately backed down from his 2007 statements with a "well, I haven’t listened to EVERYTHING they’ve done," thus hanging me out to dry.  So I now throw him under the bus in public.  (Well, this blog really only qualifies as "semi-private.")  Having listened to their sophomore follow-up, I find that it is really splitting hairs:  they're both great albums.  If I had to pick one, I'd probably give the edge to the first album over the second simply because the second doesn't have an equivalent to "Wardance" or "Complications."  But this one is musically more mature; in two or three years I could easily see reversing my opinion.  Or not.
  CD Placement rating:  Car CD Changer.
  
  
• Plunderphonics - Plunderphonics 69/96 (2001).  I had to pick this up off iTunes as I didn't want to plunk down the massive quid based on what I believed was a "blind" recommendation by Donna M.  Quite simply, this whole album (all 60 tracks) is absolutely nuts.  On the first disc it's sample after sample after sample -- the album starts with the final piano chord at the end of The Beatles' "A Day in the Life," and continues with Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin, Public Enemy, Dolly Parton, and everywhere in between.  There's even a song that appears to be a career summary of The Doors. So it's all over the place with rock, rap, pop, etc., until the second half, which is spoken word and orchestral, which is also nuts, but different, and, much like this run-on sentence that seems like it will never end, in some ways you don't want the album to end either because you're not quite sure what's coming next.  I didn't know what to call this music, but allmusic.com calls it "Avant-Garde," which is another way of saying "you will love this or despise this."  Allmusic has a lot more prose, flowery language, and pointed descriptions of this album as well.  My take is "Me likee."
  CD Placement rating:  This is a Car CD Changer worthy play for me, but could be Pile of Death for you.  One word of warning:  these songs most definitely are not shuffle friendly; play them as an album, it is an experience.
  
  
• The Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site (2003).  Thanks to @gcn1 for this one.  Somehow all Canadian bands (from Sloan to The Tragically Hip to Glass Tiger) all share a common tonality – I can’t put my finger on it, but I knew The Weakerthans were Canadian before I read the liner notes.  (Okay, so the song “One Great City!” with the line “I hate Winnipeg” may have been a pretty obvious clue as well.)  Overall, it’s excellent Canadian indie/garage power pop touched with a twang of Uncle Tupelo, with the standout track “The Reasons” occupying my T rides on repeat for the entire month of November.  They’re fun, smart, self-depricating, and they rock.  Great car drive fare. 
  
  CD Placement rating:  CD Rack.  Go get “The Reasons” on iTunes, jackass.
  
  -Snilch

11 Songs I'm Playing Constantly These Days

In no particular order:

1. The Weakerthans – "The Reasons"
2. Scott Bishop – "The Start (Again)"
3. The Wrens – "Rest Your Head"
4. Ride – "Time of Her Time"
5. Ride - "Furthest Sense"
6. Idlewild – "Little Discourage"
7. All – "She’s My Ex"
8. The Shiela Divine – "Like a Criminal"
9. Manic Street Preachers – "Marlon J.D."
10. Bob Mould - "Paralyzed" (yes, still)
11. The Big Sleep - "Pinkies"

- Snilch