Today Is the Day - Live Till You Die

I Am The Enemy

#76) Today Is the Day - Live Till You Die

 1. The Color of Psychic Power
 2. Pinnacle
 3. Feel Like Makin' Love
 4. Temple of the Morning Star
 5. Wicked Game
 6. Crutch
 7. Ripped Off
 8. High As the Sky
 9. In the Eyes of God
 10. Users
 11. TDA
 12. Blindspot
 13. Why Don't We Do It In the Road?
 14. Afterlife
 15. The Man Who Loves to Hurt Himself

this record is a collection of live recordings and unreleased studio stuff.

tracks 1, 2, 8, 9, 14 & 15 were recorded in October '99 throughout Europe. i was worried that the sound quality was going to be terrible like on the Die By the Wolf dvd but it was actually pretty good.

tracks 3, 6 & 13 are covers recorded at Austin Enterprises in Clinton, MA during the Eyes of God sessions. these covers are TITD through and through. i actually prefer the demo of Do It In the Road but this version is good too. Feel Like Makin' Love is awesome and you can never go wrong with a Chris Isaak cover, especially if it's been warped TITD style.

tracks 4 & 12 were recorded live on 10/30/97 at 91.1 WRVU. these tracks consist of Austin screaming and playing an acoustic guitar over some bongos and what sounds like a shitty Casio keyboard. it's pretty rad.

track 6 was recorded live in June of '98 at Middle East in Boston, MA. the quality is pretty terrible yet it's still better than the Wolf dvd.

track 7 is an acoustic demo that was recorded in '96 at Austin Enterprises in Nashville, TN. pretty cool to hear how that song started.

track 10 is an electronic loop created during the Eyes of God sessions. it sounds like he took a clip of some old like 1930s or 40s music and reversed it. one day i'll test this theory out.

track 11 is an instrumental dedicated to Austin's father which was recorded in '98 in an apartment in Nashville on 1/4 inch reel to reel.

besides the covers, which are definitely the best part of the record, there's not much here for the casual listener. i dug it a lot but this is probably a record best recommended to completists.

03/10/12: Deerhunter - Cryptograms (2007)

03/10/12: Deerhunter - Cryptograms (2007)

1. Intro
2. Cryptograms
3. White Ink
4. Lake Somerset
5. Providence
6. Octet
7. Red Ink
8. Spring Hall Convert
9. Strange Lights
10. Hazel St.
11. Tape Hiss Orchid
12. Heatherwood

     I have owned this album for a long time. It was a random purchase due to all of the raving I heard about this band and album at the time but I never gave this album much of a chance. Deerhunter is a indie rock band that also falls into other genres like noise rock, shoegaze, ambient and post-rock just to name a few. "Cryptograms" is a surprisingly inconsistent album because of how it was recorded. They recorded both halves of the album during 2 separate day long sessions that were months apart and because of that fact, the first and second halves of the album are completely different. The first half is mostly instrumental and very ambient and had some of my favorite tracks. The second half had a more poppy vocal feel with more traditional song structures. Its almost as if they had recorded 2 EPs and released them together as one album.
     Overall I didn't love this album. The first half was the highlight for me because I enjoyed their ambient and more experimental stuff much more than the shoegazey second half. I could have enjoyed the more straightforward stuff a bit more if I liked the singers voice a bit more. The ambient tracks were really interesting and used a lot of tape looping and synth etc. Once the second half kicked in I became a little more bored with it. Shoegaze as a genre is very hit or miss to me. There were a couple tracks with singing that i din't mind but I just don't think this band is really my cup of tea. Maybe I'll just check out some of their later albums later on to see if I like what they did later better than this. (070)

Today Is the Day - In the Eyes of God

We'll Walk The Stars Unashamed Of Who We Are

#75) Today Is the Day - In the Eyes of God (1999/2010)

 1. In the Eyes of God
 2. Going to Hell
 3. Spotting a Unicorn
 4. Possession
 5. The Color of Psychic Power
 6. Mayari
 7. Soldier of Fortune
 8. Bionic Cock
 9. Argali
 10. Afterlife
 11. Himself
 12. Daddy
 13. Who is the Black Angel?
 14. Martial Law
 15. False Reality
 16. The Russian Child Porn Ballet
 17. The Cold Harshness of Being Wrong Throughout Your Entire Life
 18. Honor
 19. Worn Out
 20. There Is No End
 21. Afterlife
 22. Argali
 23. In the Eyes of God
 24. Martial Law
 25. Possession
 26. Why Don't We Do It In the Road?

originally released in '99, this is TITD's 5th album and it continues the sample laden experimental craziness found on Temple of the Morning Star. there's not really much to say about the sound that i haven't already said. the biggest thing to note is that Austin completely reorganized the band for this record, recruiting Brann Dailor on drums on Bill Kelliher on bass, who would go on to form Mastodon shortly after leaving TITD.

the version of the album i have is the 2010 Relapse reissue that comes with 6 bonus tracks and a dvd. tracks 21 - 26 are bonus demo tracks that were recorded live in the studio. it's cool to hear the demos but the highlight is definitely the Do It In the Road cover.  apparently they recorded the whole album in one take during that session. the dvd, called Die by the Wolf, is a video diary of the band while they toured with Napalm, Death, Neurosis, Voivod and Soilent Green.

i'd definitely recommend checking it out.

"Never give in & never give up. Die trying." - Steve Austin

Today Is the Day - Today Is the Day

I Am The Serpent

#74) Today Is the Day - Today Is the Day (1996/2008)

 1. Kai Piranha
 2. Marked
 3. Bugs Death March
 4. A Man of Science
 5. Realization
 6. Black Iron Prison
 7. Mountain People
 8. Ripped Off
 9. The Tragedy
 10. She is in Fear of Death
 11. I Love My Woman
 12. Dot Matrix
 13. Hands and Knees
 14. Pipe Dream Zero

TITD's 3rd album was originally released in '96 and then remastered and re-released with 2 bonus tracks in '08. the bonus tracks, Hands and Knees and Pipe Dream Zero, were originally released on the Clusterfuck '94 split with Guzzard and Chokebore.

to me this is where TITD started to really draw away from the more "noise-rock" sound. overall the songs are heavier and more experimental than the previous 2 albums (1993's Supernova and 1994's Willpower.) it's also the first record to feature electronics more heavily. this is due to the fact that while TITD had always been a 3 piece, on this record Austin didn't use a bassist and instead got a keyboardist, Scott Wexton,  to round out his sound. it's unfortunate that he was only on this album because i think he complimented Austin's songwriting/guitar playing very well, especially on tracks like Bugs Death March and the odd but awesome Black Iron Prison.
i really dug this album and i think it was a perfect lead into the experimental metal radness that is Temple of the Morning Star (for my thoughts on that record go here, as this was also our first Crossover deal you can check out adam_biedermann 's thoughts here.) and the bonus tracks are dope as well. Hands and Knees is your usual rad TITD jam while Pipe Dream Zero sounds like Austin's take on weird 60's psychedelic rock.
all in all a great re-issue, definitely worth checking out.

Women in Tragedy - Dead Actress

Poltergeist Drama

#73) Women in Tragedy - Dead Actress (2009)

 1. Poltergeist Drama
 2. Tragic Heat
 3. Castles
 4. $M$o$n$e$y$
 5. Social Ghost



so this is the first in the Cave Sessions series (i've already talked about Vol 2 and Vol 3) and it's definitely my favorite. the tracks seemed noisier and more experimental but still fit in the noise pop/psych found on the other 2 volumes, and the album opener kind of hints at the full band post-hardcore that was to come later on Medusa.
i got in contact with the people over at Plasticrane and the link is fixed. if you're gonna pick up 1 Cave Session, i recommend Vol 1

03/09/12: Don Caballero - Punkgasm (2008)

03/09/12: Don Caballero - Punkgasm (2008)

1. Loudest Shop Vac in the World
2. The Irrespective Dick Area
3. Bulk Eye
4. Shit Kids Galore
5. Celestial Dusty Groove
6. Pour You into the Rug
7. Challenge Jets
8. Lord Krepelka
9. Why Is the Couch Always Wet?
10. Slaughbaugh's Ought Not Own Dog Data
11. Dirty Looks
12. Who's a Puppy Cat
13. Awe Man That's Jive Skip
14. Punkgasm

     Don Caballero is a math rock band. I had always been meaning to listen to more of them due to the fact that their former guitarist Ian Williams went on to be a member of Battles after Don Caballero broke up in 2000. I was doing my research and apparently this album was not a good starting point. The band released five albums from 1993-2000 with the original lineup that included Ian Williams. The Drummer, Damon Che reformed the band in 2003 with himself as the only remaining original member. This version of the band has released 2 albums with "Punkgasm" being the most recent release and from what I can tell, they are still together. I didn't realize there were 2 versions of this band until I had already listened to it a couple times. I meant to listen to the band that included Williams but oh well, I'll visit earlier albums from the original lineup soon.
     All of those details aside, this was still a really cool album. The mathy compositions throughout this album make it very easy to see why Don and Battles are connected. This album sounds like a more organic version of the music Battles plays. Less electronics and more strange drumming. There were a lot of guitar parts that took me by surprise in the grand scheme of the album because they were much more metal sounding than I expected within this genre.  I can see where the title Punkgasm comes from as well. The album does have a lot of punk rock parts littered in to their proggy mathiness. They were enjoyable changes of pace that give the album a unique feel. This album also has a couple songs with vocals throughout which I guess was a first for the band even with the second iteration of the group. A couple of the songs with vocals ended up being highlights of the album while the concluding title track Punkgasm was very meh. I enjoyed my couple listens of the album, but I look forward to seeing what the original lineup was doing because from what I've read Punkgasm is mellow in terms of their full career yet it was still a really rocking album. (069)