I apologize for the lack of updates from me today on albums. I was busy and, let's face it, I couldn't find any albums that had major anniversaries. All of them were odd numbers, and even amongst those albums nothing stuck out as a must listen. But I tried. Here is a record of my attempts
Here's an update:
First off, today is the 51st Anniversary (has it really been that long?!?) of Midnight Ride by Paul Revere and the Raiders! (Released May 9th, 1966)
I listened to this this morning at 10amish. It was solid. The first couple tracks are stellar, raw, catchy rock tracks! Really the album was consistently tuneful while maintaining a certain unimposing rock sound with just the right amount of raw Rhythm and Blues, garagey alements to keep it interesting. I have nothing but generally positive things to say about this record.
I will say it never wowed me, whatever that amounts to. So much of the reactions I have to an album are based on my mood and receptiveness at the time. And I was bloody exhausted today. So there's that.
All in all, I'd say this is a worthwhile listen for anyone interested in the rock music scene of that most fruitful of periods for garage/pop rock music.
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Next, early afternoon I tackled an album that I knew going in I was not in the state of mind to keep up with... Still, a solid album. That album being....
Happy 11th anniversary to St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley (Released May 9th, 2006) .
This lil anomaly of an album, an act, and a towering smash hit for the ages - "Crazy" ruled my world for a good while back in the day.
I had memories, fond ones at that, flooding back as I soaked in the first half of this record. I played this record nearly to death Tback in 07 and 08.
The opener is excellent at getting you primed. Track 2 is the obvious masterpiece of a single "Crazy". That record was played so so so much in the summer '06. Yet I never grew tired of it at all. I think its truly one of the crowning acheivements in pop music last decade. Deserving of all the praise it got. The Cee Lo vocals were new to me and most of the world at the time, and they come in with such authority here. The rhythmic pulse of the track is unique and familiar all at once. A gem.
The rest of the first half is similarly great. I will say the record is utterly lacking in subtlty. I think the best way I can think to explain it is that the album just takes every baller ass element and amps it up and makes it stick way the fuck out for every ear to hear. The thing is so overwhelmingly cool, and then menacing, then creepy, then heavy, then funky, etc. It takes an idea - almost always a brilliant one from Dangermouse and Cee Lo - and just ramps it up and juices it for all it's worth. Then a minute or 2 later, the tracks end, and a new little idea comes roaring into your ears.
This is awesome in small doses for me personally. By the time the last 5 or 6 tracks came along I was just done. Again, I credit a full 60% to my attitude at the time.
Still after a second attempt at getting into the groove of something so I could get inspired for this diary, I was starting to get the idea that today just wasn't my day.
(also, Gnarls' follow up The Odd Couple I maintain is a far greater album. Not so chock full of aggressive escalation and better samples and songs overall.)
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Okay, and then I took a break. I, you know, focused on staying awake and doing my job.
At about 3pm I went out and had a smoke and I decided on a whim to play another anniversary album. This time it was a band I had no familiarity with, And I thought maybe this album with its weird name and weird cover would shake things up. So I pushed play on....
Happy 42nd anniversary, indeed, to In Praise Of Learning by Henry Cow (Released May 9th, 1975)
This album was like a mental and physical adrenaline shot for me. Right as "War" starts and I'm hit with 2 and half minutes of some of the most crazy, manic avant-rock I've ever heard with brilliant little musical ideas flying out a mile a minute, and with some of the witchiest, scariest vocals I've ever heard totally dominating over top, I knew I was in for a mind expanding treat!
The album continues with some seriously brilliant tracks right to the end. Every time I feel the record is going off the rails, I pick up on some insane, fast, brilliant drum part or guitar tecture, or some discordant string part. Everytime I started to get "used" to some mindblowing free jazz "groove", the band threw some ominous and gorgeous ambient part in to give me a time to, in theory, breathe. But the ambient parts aren't breathers, no more than the quiet slow walks down darkened hallways in "Halloween" are breathers. Just like in any effective horror or thriller film, the quietest parts of this album are the most nerve wracking. And then when the inevitable instrumental explosions burst out like some aural Leatherface, it never goes where I imagined it would go.
New paragraph. Phew! Finally. Anyway, yeah, the marriage of vocals and instrumentation make for some of the most venomous, furious, musical moments I've heard. The little snippets of lyrics I hear are angry free form poetic fits. And usually this would make me roll my eyes, but here the lyrics are vague and free and abstract enough that I just find myself getting the rage. It seeps into me as I listen.
Anyway, long story short, I really love this album. I was not expecting to have my mind blown. I had almost given up for the day. But this thing restored my faith in this anniversary project. After all I would never have had the impulse to listen to it today or probably anytime soon if not for the fact that it came up on my album anniversary list
Thanks, Henry Cow!
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And with that, I have made an entry today, 17 minutes to spare.
See you tomorrow.
Not to get y'all too excited but I will say we have our first truly even decade anniversary tomorrow to dive into. I'm getting tired of the anniversaries ending in 5 (unless its a 25 or 75, those are the best) or 6 or 1. Tomorrow we get a "0" at the end of the anniversary! #Hyped
Scratch that. I was mistaken. Still there are indded some cool albums tomorrow, but the album i was thinking of is not tomorrow. So no "0" anniversaries tomorrow after all at least none that I see now. Shoot.
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Also, if any of you have anything to add or comment or recommend here on this Diary, feel free. I'm loving the feedback.
I am like Ginny Weasley, and I want you all to Tom Riddle the shit out of this Diary! _________________ -Ryan
Okay, and then I took a break. I, you know, focused on staying awake and doing my job.
At about 3pm I went out and had a smoke and I decided on a whim to play another anniversary album. This time it was a band I had no familiarity with, And I thought maybe this album with its weird name and weird cover would shake things up. So I pushed play on....
Happy 42nd anniversary, indeed, to In Praise Of Learning by Henry Cow (Released May 9th, 1975)
This album was like a mental and physical adrenaline shot for me. Right as "War" starts and I'm hit with 2 and half minutes of some of the most crazy, manic avant-rock I've ever heard with brilliant little musical ideas flying out a mile a minute, and with some of the witchiest, scariest vocals I've ever heard totally dominating over top, I knew I was in for a mind expanding treat!
The album continues with some seriously brilliant tracks right to the end. Every time I feel the record is going off the rails, I pick up on some insane, fast, brilliant drum part or guitar tecture, or some discordant string part. Everytime I started to get "used" to some mindblowing free jazz "groove", the band threw some ominous and gorgeous ambient part in to give me a time to, in theory, breathe. But the ambient parts aren't breathers, no more than the quiet slow walks down darkened hallways in "Halloween" are breathers. Just like in any effective horror or thriller film, the quietest parts of this album are the most nerve wracking. And then when the inevitable instrumental explosions burst out like some aural Leatherface, it never goes where I imagined it would go.
New paragraph. Phew! Finally. Anyway, yeah, the marriage of vocals and instrumentation make for some of the most venomous, furious, musical moments I've heard. The little snippets of lyrics I hear are angry free form poetic fits. And usually this would make me roll my eyes, but here the lyrics are vague and free and abstract enough that I just find myself getting the rage. It seeps into me as I listen.
Anyway, long story short, I really love this album. I was not expecting to have my mind blown. I had almost given up for the day. But this thing restored my faith in this anniversary project. After all I would never have had the impulse to listen to it today or probably anytime soon if not for the fact that it came up on my album anniversary list
Thanks, Henry Cow!
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yeah, I myself have been floored by Henry Cow. Truly impressive, manic avant-garde stuff. I was floored by this album....
Yeah Listening to Unrest now. I listened to it earlier this evening, now on a revisit. It's fabulous. Not as psychotic a as Praise of Learning, but just as inventive (and still pretty wild and cray) _________________ -Ryan
Today is actually the birthday of 2 music icons (probably more, but I'm capping it at 2)....
Happy 71st Birthday to a man who has been getting some attention and love around these parts lately thanks to another (superior) music diary - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DONOVAN! (May 10th, 1946)
Also, it is the 57th Birthday of a singer who consistently wows us all with his humbleness, his sincerity, and brilliant self-awareness - Happy Birthday, BONO! (May 10th, 1960)
----> I listened to them both. Back to back. As I mowed the lawns, and wacked the weeds. And it was fun. They felt like 2 brothers who came from the same mother - punk rock - but went forward with total opposite interpretations of where to go with the vibrant punk revolution. Extreme noise pure aggression? Or pop synth laden, sharp sing alongs that you can dance to? It's sort of like the movie The Good Son. I'll leave you to decide who's 10 year old Elijah Wood and who's 10 year old Mccauley Culkin.
I didn't absolutely fall in love with either album. But I dug Rio for its playful aspects and especially for some stellar bass work.
And I enjoyed less so Junkyard cuz, idk, it was just really loud. And I was still riding a certain wave with Rio and i just wasn't in the mood to be assaulted through me earholes so thoroughly. I did dig the guitars though. at times. so junkyard has that going for it. which is nice.
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It's also the 23rd anniversary of this classic....
And, obviously this is the best album of the bunch as far as I'm concerned. It's just such an amazingly brilliant fresh exuberant pop album with some of the heaviest and funnest rock riffs in all 90s alt/indie.. And the songs are almost all just so on point and catchy and resonant. Not as great as Pinkerton in my opinion. But still top 100-150 level awesome in my book.
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Some other albums I kinda wanted to get to today but haven't had a chance to, and likely won't are ...
Lovesexy by Prince turns 29 today! Hey, we'll catch it on it's 30th anniversary next year. maybe. *fingers a-crossed* (short review...its bloody brilliant. If you like good funky music, Check it out.)
Also Modern Life is Rubbish by Blur is 24 today. Which is something I guess. I listened to the first half of the first track today and it was not vibing right. So I put Weezer back on. Sorry to all you Blur and Brit Pop fans out there.
And one I REALLY wanted to give a go at for similar reasons to why I felt I needed to check out Wishbone Ash a few days ago, Jethro Tull's 1972 classic Thick As A Brick turns 45 today! I actually am considering giving that a proverbial spin before the clock strikes midnight! That was one of those albums my dad picked up on tape at a truck stop and had me listen to on a loop for several hours on the way to visiting my grandma. It was in like 2002. I was 13. And not feeling it particularly. or at all.
I think the time is ripe for a reassessment.
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Also I'd be remiss to not mention (as a former FREAK FAN of this band) that the 34th anniversary of the debut album, With Sympathy, of Ministry was today as well. Woohoo! I hear its pretty bad , tinny, synth pop. I never gave it a full listen. Sounded TERRIBLE as a 15 year old industrial-metal head devotee of Psalm 69, The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste, and Filth Pig. Sound kind of intrigueing now tbh.
Okay, That's all for this wildly overlong rambler! _________________ -Ryan
Happy 71st Birthday to a man who has been getting some attention and love around these parts lately thanks to another (superior) music diary - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DONOVAN! (May 10th, 1946)
But I dug Rio for its playful aspects and especially for some stellar bass work.
One of my favorite albums of the 80s & easily Duran Duran's finest hour. I think it would make my top five best new wave albums easily. And yes, the bass is badass.
Today we finally have an anniversary that ends in a zero. Long time coming It's an album, so what I'm about to give you is not the thing I am speaking of...although this first entry is about as cool an anniversary number as you can get.
First, just saw that this is the 50th anniversary of this song being RECORDED.
Now, this is a first for this diary, mentioning the date recorded that is. But I just wanted to take this time to point out how mindblowingly awesome this fucking song really is. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever heard when I was young, and I still think its up there.
Right from the first cymbal crash, the pause, the beaitiful guitar melodies, then the deeply beautiful bass comes in, then Jack Bruce saying something about something, then clapton comes in with the iconic wah wah riff, while Ginger Baker beats out an immaculate groove, I am in love and swept up in its majesty! Bless this great great song.
At their best in songs like this, "White Room" and a few other songs, Cream were just insanely brilliant. To bad they will perpetually be overshadowed by another Trio with mad chops based out of england who's debut came out within months of theirs. 'tis life _________________ -Ryan
Yes, that's right, 30 years ago today Bathory put forth this epochal work of frightening, detached evil.
I'm revisiting it now, like literally as I type I'm listening to it. Track 3, "Woman of Dark Desires" is wailing in my ear.
I view this as the first Bathory album to really put forth the signature sound of black metal. Their debut is incredible, intense, and all that, but I hear a lot of the other extreme metal styles of the times in there - mostly those thrashy riffs. And their also quite good second album "The Return..." is slower and at times doomy. But with this album, they came out and put those thrash and heavy metal influences mostly aside, and came out with THE quintessential black metal album. Its all so barren and dark and laden with sloppy and scary riffs and blood curdling screams, and runs of extreme speed. This album is so great.
Now I'm On track 4, "Call From The Grave", and there is that somewaht traditional sound of the solo midway through. It's one of the few moments on the record I feel calls back to metal's more basic form. But even on this track the vocals are haunting and switching back and forth from side to side, like 2 devilish beings cornering you in the depths of hell. And that riff is utterly unforgiving.
The rest of the album is similarly inspired and engrossing, with surprisingly beautiful moments to offset the noisy walls of epic evil. "Enter The Eternal Fire" is a metal song for the ages! The moments of guitar beauty are just as perfect as the moments of grandiose extreme black metal screams. And then that goes straight into the horror movie intro of "Chariot of Fire". I have never enjoyed and rocked out to a black metal album so much in my life!
This album started a string of 3 albums which are all canonized as Black Metal (and later "Viking Metal") classics, with the 2 follow ups Blood Fire Death, and Hammerheart being the next 2. This is the album of theirs I've spent the most time listening to. And with this most recent revisit being so friggin awesome, I know I'll be dipping into their albums more starting now.
Tomas Forsberg (aka Quorthon) is such an incredible vocalist. I usually don't care for the black metal screeching vocal style, but Tomas just has a feel for switching up the sound so different emotions and messages come through with each line. And when he goes nuclear with his most insane and emotive screeching moments it really pays off. The rest of the band is great here, but Tomas Forsberg is in my opinion the MVP on this LP.
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Okay, I know there are black metal fans out there. Let me hear from you. Do you love this album or think it pales in comparison to other 80s black metal albums? Am I totally clueless in thinking this is maybe the first really clear example of the Black Metal genre? Should I get my head out of my rear and listen to more early black metal? Is there an album that predates this one that should be held up as the Momentous album which cemented Black Metal as a separate and distinct , fully formed metal subgenre? Cuz as of now I think of this album in relation to Black Metal somewhat like I think of Kill Em All for Thrash, or Seven Churches for Death Metal ---aka I think of it as the first mission statement album which set it apart as a musical movement.
Anyway, I'm repeating myself and have not much else to say of any import. So, please give me recommendations, or comments. Whether you're a huge black metal fan or not, I like hearing from you.
Tom Riddle the shit out of this diary (yes I'm gonna keep on saying that until it becomes a thing) _________________ -Ryan
I gave this a listen first today, to be honest. I wasn't ready to jump into something so loud as Bathory to start my day.
And I was really impressed with this record. It was effortlessly cool, edgy, nonchalant. And it was just overall a good listen.
It's impressive to see how they altered their sound from this to their 3rd album (the one I'm most familiar with and my fave of theirs that i've heard) Faith. On Faith there is a suffocating atmosphere, super slow but brilliant bass grooves, and a general hazyness which I love. Those features are not really on great display here. On their debut they sound like just another cynical post punk band (though, a very good one). They were still very much in the shadow of truly iconic bands of that late seventies post punk scene.
They had even back then a great ear for insidiously catchy tunes, and turns of phrases, which I loved on this record.
Happy Birthday, TIB!
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A little later on I gave this 2 straight spins for it's 36th anniversary:
It's solid. I still don't see the allure of this band. Is it the fact that they construct such clinical, perfect lil pop songs and melodies with something so disassociated with perfect lil pop songs at the time? If so, that's cool. This record was chockful of pristine, clear, and sometimes beautiful songs that were completely devoid of normal human methods of expressing emotion. It was all very clean of all impurities. I dig it well enough.
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Started listening to Grace Jones' Nightclubbing album. Today is its 36th anniversary as well. I got interrupted and didn't come back to it. But the first 3 or 4 tracks are pretty sweet.
And that wraps this day up. Tomorrow we have BY FAR the most WILDLY significant anniversary we've ever had around these parts. That includes this diary as well as those early THIS DATE IN MUSIC posts from '13. (Hint: remember what I mentioned as the coolest anniversary is? 25, 50 and 100...? Well, that's all I'll say.)
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I was mistaken. Still there are indded some cool albums tomorrow, but the album i was thinking of is not tomorrow. So no "0" anniversaries tomorrow after all at least none that I see now. Shoot.
No, you're the best, Ryan! 
It's an album, so what I'm about to give you is not the thing I am speaking of...although this first entry is about as cool an anniversary number as you can get.
