[Tha1ChiefRocka]

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Violet by The Birthday Massacre

Year: 2004

Genre(s): Industrial Rock, Darkwave

Synthpop, Gothic Rock

First question: How was this band not a bigger success?

The Birthday Massacre is a band from London, Ontario. They've been consistently making music since the early 2000s to the present day. They have not achieved a great deal of mainstream success, but they seem to have enjoyed a steady cult following. They also seem to have cultivated a very particular aesthetic and symbology surrounding their own music, which is cool.

This 2004 album from the band which, Hey!, is now 20 years ago, is a great entry into the faux-80s worship subgenre.

Second question: How has this band's music not been on 'Stranger Things'?

The Birthday Massacre (keep wanting to type 'The Birthday Party') take a lot from their obvious influences in The Cure, Depeche Mode, etc. but the production and vibe of this album is, almost to a fault, 00s. It would work great on that show. This album can go from hooks to heaviness and intimacy all in the same track. All while maintaining a cohesive theme and feeling. It never feels too derivative especially when you think of what was going on in the alternative rock space at the time.

And, knowing how successful certain emo groups were in this time period, I'm finding it hard to grasp how this band was not a larger part of that scene. They really would only be on the fringe of that scene anyway, because what they are doing on this album (and the great 2007 followup 'Walking With Strangers') is frankly quite a bit better than what was being released at the time. They sound more fully realized stylistically than a lot of the other groups working in the Emo/Goth space in the 00s. (I know they aren't the same, but emo kind of converted a lot of Goths during this time if I'm not mistaken).

Most of those more successful bands had a male lead though. Generally some kind of easily-posterable heart throb. Paramore or Evanescence would be some points of reference, although this band definitely fills it's own niche. If it were a spectrum, then they would be in between those two bands. However, here we have a female vocalist, that is probably one of the strongest points of the band. Paramore or Evanescence would be some points of reference, although this band definitely fills it's own niche. If it were a spectrum, then they would be in between those two bands. Anyways, she's great. Theatrical at times and dynamic. She goes from a kind of spoken word growl-whisper on occasion to clean mainstream alternative vocals in a few tracks. It's a fun juxtaposition. With the spooky synth melodies going over some tracks, it creates a great atmosphere. Lyrically the album has some fun turns of phrase, but it definitely is an album with lyrics for teenagers on it. Nothing wrong with that.

I've had a great time listening to this album and the followup, which is why this spot is reserved for both, as they're remarkably consistent. Take a listen and have some fun.

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

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Brainwashed by George Harrison

Year: 2002

Genre(s): Pop Rock
Singer-Songwriter, Folk Rock, Soft Rock (according to RYM)

It's never fun when I have to admit that I'm a poser. "George Harrison is my favorite Beatle," I've been heard to say on numerous occasion. And, while it's true I've listened to the bulk of his 70s output, this album somehow eluded me. I've honestly never heard anyone bring this album up in conversation about George, so it was never anywhere on my radar. I feel like I may have heard "Any Road" at some point though, because it sounds super familiar, but that may just be the latent George Harrison/Jeff Lynne songwriting hallmarks. I am ashamed to have never listened to this until a few months ago.

Released nearly 1 year after his passing, Brainwashed is very clearly a great musician's last will and testament. It reflects the quiet Beatle's best qualities, musically, spiritually, or otherwise. There's an urgency in the lyricism on Brainwashed that only comes from a man that has accepted the most difficult of all things to accept. It could also be serving as a clearing of conscience in a final moment.

The songs are typical George, and probably the closest he ever came to replicating the brilliance of All Things Must Pass. I'm most impressed by the consistency from track to track on this album. I don't feel that any of these songs really miss the mark at all. Especially the slide guitar-heavy middle suite of "Rising Sun", "Marwa Blues", and "Stuck Inside A Cloud". George is playing his ass off on that slide guitar on those tracks. Beautiful & emotional. The closing title track is George giving the world one last warning before he goes. His off-kilter nasal delivery and politicized lyrics sound like a Dylan tribute in his final song. The last few minutes of the track though is reserved for George's Krishna chanting along with his son and others. George understood that spirituality and God were the keys to happiness and satisfaction in a modern world that offers nothing but artifice and consumerism. It's a fitting end for his career, and a great treatise on living a life not controlled by the will of material possession.

Don't make the mistake I did. Go out and listen to this one if you haven't.

[LedZep]

Damn that's some hot shit Chief. Great diary, will be following. So is The Birthday Massacre something like the 00s version of Lebanon Hanover? Female singer, throwback darkwave sound done pretty well, a bit derivative but fun?
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Overall chart
Fake overall chart

2020s

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

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Exterminator (XTRMNTR) by Primal Scream

Year: 2000

Genre (s): Alternative Dance, Electronic
Electro-Industrial, Big Beat, Neo-Psychedelia, Noise Rock, Grebo, Experimental Rock

Yeah man. This is the shit. Over the past year or so, I've been listening to a few cuts off of this regularly. What a gnarly, energetic, and intense album. Really gets the blood pumping. Unlike any other album by the band as far as the consistency and overall vibes are concerned. Screamadelica is fine. Vanishing Point is good. But XTRMNTR is a powerhouse. On this album, you add Mani, from The Stone Roses on bass, and Kevin Shields on guitar/ production; you can feel their contributions all over.

Some artists that end up being pigeon-holed attempt to shed their initial images at some point in their careers with varying successes. It would seem from the firs track "Kill All Hippies" that Primal Scream (Bobby Gillespie, really) are attempting to distance themselves from their Screamdelica roots. This album blends everything great about eh drugged-out formula that worked for them in the past, but it adds a depraved and nihilistic edge to everything that makes a huge difference.

Sorry, before I gloss over it, I just want to make it clear that THE Kevin Shields is present on this album. Like, you know, the Kevin Shields from My Bloody Valentine. Those guitars on "Accelerator" Shieldsian I'd have to imagine. That song is LOUD. Although, I wouldn't say the album is a complete victim of the loudness wars. More a casualty. I think most of the loudness on this album is purposeful and to great effect. Anyway, there's also the song "MBV Arkestra". I can't tell what it has to do with MBV exactly, but it does feature some Kevin Shields/Phil Spector "wall of sound" guitars.

I don't attach certain feelings to albums that often, but this album certainly hits a feeling of rampant drug-bender better than almost any other. The title track, "Swastika Girls", "Pills", etc. could all be the soundtrack for a night (or day) of debauchery. There's also an underlying noir/spy music kind of feeling with some of the samples on here. "Kill All Hippies" and "Blood Money" being the two prime tracks for that vibe.

"Keep your Dreams" is really the only track in which you can kind of calm down on. Although it's a nice track, the vibe actually feels out of place considering how urgent the rest of the album sounds.

One nitpick would be the two different versions of "Swastika Girls" on the album. I'm fine with remixes, but I don't care for remixes to be featured in the tracklist for one album. Good thing is that both versions have their stregths and weaknesses, so it doesn't mess up the flow too much. It just seems like you're repeating a bad trip from earlier in your awful night out. That being said, I think the Jagz Coomer is better than The Chemical Brothers. (By a small margin.)

Yeah, I think this is great. Long story short. It goes real fucking hard, man.

[CharlieBarley]

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

In February of 2024, Rolling Stone revised their 2021 version of the 500 greatest songs of all time. I was unaware of this until last week. Well, I've now spent the last week updating and revising the reactionary list that I had made back in 2021. (Which did not age well in my own estimation.) This new list I feel is way better than the first and is more objective. My goal was to keep about half of the Rolling Stone list and change about half. I ended up with 231 songs in common with the Rolling Stone list. I included a few songs from the RS list that I would not think to put on my own at all, as there are still a few on my own list that might be a little too personal or subjective as well. (See BTS "Dynamite" as an example).

Also, just an update, because I haven't been around here for a minute. I just got done with my 5th and last year of teaching for the time being. In the Fall, I am going to begin a Master's program in Popular Culture. Suffice to say that using this site and doing exercises such as this is preparing me for some of the things that I am going to want to study in the future.

Anyways, here is a spreadsheet with all of the songs and a few bonuses. (There are some other statistics I want to add, but this is good for now.)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/...sp=sharing

And here is the link to a playlist of all of the AVAILABLE songs on Spotify.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3GaJw...8ff4594f94

I plan on actually making a ranking at some point in the future, but I don't think it will be too soon.

Feel free to tell me my best picks my worst picks and everything in between.

[WeWereInLove]

Wow, you did a really amazing job wi5 this list. So many great choices that you don't always expect... "Pacific 202", "Since I Left You", "Come On Let's Go", "Heaven or Las Vegas", "The Light", "Lovesong", "Station to Station", "Disparate Youth"(!!), "Spellbound", ESG, Gustavo Cerati, Kino, Little Simz, Natalia Lafourcade, Nujabes, X-Ray Spex... Unfortunately, I don't care for how much trap there is, but I guess I gotta get with the times.

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

Well, I certainly have not been active on the site much this year , but I hope things are going well for y'all.

I'm not so sure I'll be active much in the future either, but I would like to say that I have enjoyed my time here over the years, and I'm very grateful for the good conversations and deeper appreciation and understanding of music that I have received from the collective knowledge of users on this site.

I am overjoyed to be back in school, and I have had ample opportunity in courses to share some of my, ahem, particular musical ideas with people in meaningful ways. If I do post here in the future it may have to do with research I'm conducting or some short critical response I wrote.

In any case, I think it's important to remember that 2024 is the year that Scott Stapp played Frank Sinatra in a movie about Ronald Reagan.

"I did it my way/ with arms wide open"

-Fratt Sinapp

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

In the interest of writing a few little blurbs about some albums that are turning 30 years old this year...

Why?

Well, because this old chunk of coal is also turning 30 this year.

How well do these albums age? How well have I aged?

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Worship The Glitch by ELpH Vs Coil

In the world of John Balance and co. ELpH vs Coil tends to be one of the releases that seems to fly a bit under the radar.

"Worship the Glitch" was released during an in between period for the band. After the underground successes of their late 80s and early 90s albums, the band came back in 1995, 4 years after their last proper LP "Love's Secret Domain" in 1991, rebranded as "ELph vs. Coil".

This "rebrand" was not without warrant. This was a marked departure from the band's earlier sound, and it is also unique compared to their work as "Time Machines" in 1998, and the "Musick To Play In The Dark" series that would come later.

From Discogs, here is the description of what "ELph" was:

The musical equipment is as much as a contributing member to any musical group as any other person. ELpH is the entity Coil use to describe what musical compositions come out of the equipment that are sometimes unrehearsed or consciously thought of.

During the studio sessions that developed into what would become "Worship the Glitch", Coil became aware of random compositions emitting from their gear, and were at odds with constant "accidents" that were perpetually plaguing the recordings. The band called these unintentional emissions "ELpH": a conceptual being that is one part physical equipment, one part celestial being... constantly playing the role of trickster, throwing a wrench into Coil's methodology. Eventually, these accidents and mistakes were embraced by the band, and the process of misusing audio software to create intentional "errors" was adopted as a musical technique. The acceptance of the "mistake", and the use of discovered mistakes as intentional elements slowly became the drive and concept behind the album, thus birthing the title "Worship the Glitch".

"Worship The Glitch" features no vocals from Balance or any other instrumentation; I believe this was the band's first "fully electronic" album. The absence of the vocals further centers the album around the mechanical and indeterminate aspects of the music. To what extent the members of Coil had in making this album is hard to determine at all as a sticker on the original release states that it was "untouched by human hands".

Here are some further notes on the CD release:

The CD has no printing or graphics at all, no color, making it impossible at first glance to determine which is the playing side as both look identical. The playing side is the one with non-mirrored matrix/runout data.

[From sticker on jewel case:]
This is a Sidereal™ Sound Recording untouched by human hands
100% Recycled Sound

Durations are not listed on the release.
[/i]

Not knowing the production process behind this album before I gave it a listen a few days ago, I am dumbstruck by a few things.

One, as the title implies, it is one of the earliest releases on discogs to have "Glitch" as a genre tag. It's not quite what I think of when I think of the prime glitch releases which would come around 1999-2001 (Or later that year with Oval's 94 Diskont which I'm sure I might talk about as well). While a decent amount of tracks I would not categorize as "glitch" in the sense that I know it to be, a track like "Opium Hum" was definitely ahead of it's time by a few years. "The Halliwell Hammers" is probably my other favorite track on this, all three "versions" giving a different flavor of decay and spontaneity on the main theme.

I do wish the album would have remained completely vocal-less, but there are some weird little pitched up rantings on two of the tracks near the end of the album "Decadent & Symmetrical" and "Ended". Should have mentioned that a lack of percussion on this album adds to the kind of "possessed equipment" thing going on. It also takes it away from the industrial music of Coil's earlier days as industrial music tends to rely heavily on percussive elements thematically and musically.

One other thing I thought about after I learned of the production of this album was the encroaching usage and availability of AI in music production. Reading the thoughts behind this album, and the concept of using the machine's limitations and errors as a means to create something new, has me relatively hopeful. What will happen if AI programs are given the opportunities to create art with minimal human input? Will we get something we've truly never heard before? (IDK could have already happened by now. This shit moves too fast ). It actually kind of makes me feel better about the situation in a way; although, I can't fully articulate why that is.

Anyways, I had a good time with this one, and I look forward to getting around to some other albums from 1995 to see how they stack up.