The bold and foolish lambs.

The Nation Of Ulysses - Plays For Pretty Baby

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The Nation Of Ulysses was a DC band in the early 90s. They fused manic straight edge punk and free jazz rhythms with a radical ideology to become one of Refuse's largest influences.
Most obvious is the live spoken word intro on this record mirrored at the beginning of "Protest Song '68". Nation of Ulysses saw themselves as a political party rather than a band: an idea Refused would adopt and form a "party programme." Other things the bands shared: dressing well, political zines, the idea that one does not need to be a great musician to create music, and affinity for Ornette Coleman.

If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution.

Rye Coalition - Teen-Age Dance Session

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New Jersey's unsung heroes of post-hardcore/proto math-rock. If you're into the VSS, Unwound, or Ink & Dagger.
Oh, and you've probably seen this cover on a Refused album somewhere...

Howl.

FIRST,
I'd like to say THANKS to everyone that supports this blog. I never had any intention of this becoming a legitimate thing, but I guess Google does wonders. Has kept me motivated to always be on the look out for good music.
Guess I should have prefaced that by saying that I've been getting a lot of DMCA complaints lately and just wanted to show gratitude if this blog were ever taken down suddenly.

Ornette Coleman - The Shape Of Jazz To Come

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The reason I'm posting this record is not only because it is a great landmark in free jazz, but also because I'm on a Refused trip today.
I'm an avid reader of Decibel magazine and found out that they finally managed to get all of the members of Refused to agree to do a Hall Of Fame piece for the Shape Of Punk To Come (basically in depth analysis of the album and the period in which it was made, for anyone not familiar with the publication/feature). Needless to say, I was pretty fucking excited when the new issue came in the mail today as this is one of my favorite records of all time.
SO, the next few posts will be recordings that in one way or another influenced The Shape Of Punk To Come. This one most obviously by name, but it also happens to be one of the band members favorite records.
Enjoy.

Whitehouse - Total Sex

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I was out of my head.

Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three

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1. Rise Above – Chuck D & Henry Rollins
2. Nervous Breakdown – Keith Morris
3. Fix Me – Iggy Pop
4. American Waste – Neil Fallon of Clutch
5. I’ve Had it – Cedric Bixler Zavala of The Mars Volta
6. I’ve Heard It Before – Jeffrey Moreira of Poison the Well
7. Room 13 – Corey Taylor of Slipknot
8. Wasted – Exene Cervenka of X
9. Jealous Again – Nick Oliveri of Queens of the Stone Age
10. TV Party – Henry Rollins
11. No Values – Hank Williams III
12. Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie – Dean Ween of Ween
13. Depression – Casey Chaos of Amen
14. Six Pack – Mike Patton
15. Police Story – Ice T
16. Revenge – Tom Araya of Slayer
17. Thirsty & Miserable – Lemmy of Motorhead
18. What I See – Chuck Dukowski of Black Flag
19. No More – Tim Armstrong & Lars Frederiksen of Rancid
20. Black Coffee – Henry Rollins
21. Slip It In – Henry Rollins & Inger Lorre
22. Annihilate This Week – Henry Rollins & Kira Roessler
23. My War – Henry Rollins
24. Nervous Breakdown – Ryan Adams


I've been on a Black Flag trip lately. This is a benefit compilation released in 2002 donated to pay off legal fees of the "West Memphis Three." I think they were a group of kids wrongly accused of murder or something. Don't really care.
This is basically a Black Flag karaoke for famous people. Some songs are awesome, some are amusing, and some are eh.

Dirty little boy.

Solvent - Subject to Shift

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Random album I stumbled upon while at Amoeba. Canadian electronic music with lots of stylistic shifts. Sometimes it sounds like minimal German techno, sometimes it's a throwback to 80s synthesizer, other times it sounds like early Fischerspooner, and then it even sounds like that really creepy Lord Faunterloy remix of "Come To Daddy" by Aphex Twin.
Not the best record you'll ever hear but it makes for good background music.

KILL EVERYBODY THERE

Have A Nice Life - Deathconsciousness

Download.

Part 1
Part 2

Everyone should listen to this.

Shut up and listen.

The Screamers - Demos 1977-78

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What's wrong with me that I haven't posted this before? The Screamers were a Los Angeles synth driven punk band. Sounds like a danceable nervous breakdown. They never officially released anything but they are fucking huge in terms of their influence in modern music. Specifically Le Shok-a band that everyone ripped off for the past nine years or so-who I would say singlehandedly made this band popular.

Ann Margaret

Chelsea Wolfe - Advice & Vices Single

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Single for her forthcoming LP with 3 non-album tracks. Haunting goth-folk, the best kept secret of 2010.

Hellion.

Integrity - The Blackest Curse

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Integrity are one of the most influential bands in modern hardcore despite the fact that they haven't put out a good album since 1997. BUT The Blackest Curse is a real return to form for Dwid Hellion and crew. Hellion, the mastermind behind the band, is basically into all of the same things that neofolk/industrial guys are into: Charles Manson, misanthropy, expatriating to other countries (in this case Beilgium), surreal foreign cinema, etc.
Features Boyd Rice on one track.

Melvin Gibson

Listen to this:
Whitehouse - Dedicated to Peter Kürten

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Watch this:

Brighter than the Sun.

If The Bomb Falls, A Recorded Guide To Survival

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Lots of nice finds at the record store today including this: a narrated guide to surviving a nuclear attack in 1962. Explains air siren warnings, stocking up on alcohol and tranquilizers to fend off boredom, building shelters, disposing of human waste, etc. Really unnerving stuff. I can't imagine what it was like having to live with the impending threat of nuclear war.

Sunshine.

Entombed - Left Hand Path

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SWEDISH FUCKING DEATH METAL.

Rice on the side.

Pablo Toto - Dame Chocha

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This record is pure class. 1980s New York/Puerto Rican freestyle all about EATING PUSSY. Really ridiculous shit. Bummed out I didn't buy this on vinyl when I had a chance.

Wonder Bread.

Dismember - Like An Ever Flowing Stream

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Benelux

The Names - Swimming

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It's been too damn long since I posted some Belgian post-punk. The Names were a melancholy Belgian post-punk band forming in the late 70s. They released one album and a few singles through Les Disques Du Crépuscule-basically a Belgian division of Factory Records-before breaking up in '82.
This is the 1991 reissue which includes 8 bonus tracks.



If you like this I heavily recommend this, this, this, this, and there are a bunch of great compilations under the 'various artists' tag.

Pitchfork approved.

This Comp Kills Fascists Vol. 1

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51 songs of grindcore and powerviolence mayhem. You can check the full track list here.

This Comp Kills Fascists Vol. 2

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74 tracks of more grindcore and powerviolence goodness. Bands included: Lack of Interest, Owen Hart, Noisear, Hummingbird of Death, Drugs of Faith, Marion Barry, Crom, Apartment 213, Septic Surge, Population Reduction, Despise You, Triac, Idiots Parade, Extortion, Three Faces of Eve, Voetsek, Superbad, Strong Intention, and Social Infestation.

Neoclassic.

Venetian Snares - Rossz csillag alatt született

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High tempo break beats with classical music: awesome.

39

Nature And Organisation - Beauty Reaps the Blood of Solitude

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One of the best neofolk albums ever.

Xanax

Apparently Zola Jesus is going to be playing The Palladium in Los Angeles this September in support of the XX....WHAT??? This is a huge venue that fits around 4,000 people. I don't know how she's going to manage to do this because I saw her do her first show at the Smell back in January, which fits maybe a couple hundred people, and she looked like she was about to have a nervous breakdown. Not the best live performer, but she's very young and a sweet girl with good taste in movies; I wish her the best.

Anyway, here is a new collaboration between her and Amanda Brown under the moniker of LA Vampires.

LA Vampires Meets Zola Jesus

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Out come the Wolfes.

Chelsea Wolfe - Tour CD 2009

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You haven't listened to Chelsea Wolfe, but you're going to download this and you're going to like it. When was the last time I was wrong? Cold Cave is on Matador, Dum Dum Girls/Crocodiles are playing sold out shows together, Pitchfork has a huge boner for Zola Jesus, Blessure Grave ripped off a bunch of people and they're still everyone's favorite Joy Division fatty fanboy worship, etc.
Chelsea Wolfe is a girl out of Sacramento doing my favorite new thing of 2010: sincere folk songs with a very "goth" "dark" "brooding" insert your favorite buzz word here. She plays real instruments, she really sings (no fucking reverb here) about memorable stuff as opposed to going to the beach and getting high or whatever Wavves/Best Coast sing about now.
Anyway, this is earlier transitory stuff as is nowhere near as good as her new material, but that's not even released yet and I can't post it. Regardless, listen to her, love her, support her here.