Randomizer #6

It's been far too long since I've written anything. Who's up for another random thingy?

Baroness - Wailing Wintry Wind

I must admit I haven't listened to much Baroness.  On paper, they sound like a band I should enjoy.

This song, from their Red Album, is either an instrumental or has a very long intro. It's nice and mid-tempo with some flashy-in-a-good-way drumming and some nice guitar work.  Kinda spacey, kinda now, kinda wow.

AH! Here come the vocals. He sounds upset. I was feeling a little lulled by that mellow intro, but now things have gotten a bit more urgent.

Atmospheric intro, a bit of yelling, then some frantic guitaring, then a really good little somewhat airy solo underpinned by some staccato, jagged chords.

Not knowing much about the Red Album, this song makes me wonder if it might be a concept piece. What I mean is, it sounds like it's part of a greater whole. That would suit me just fine and Wailing Wintry Wind is intriguing enough to make me want to listen to the entire album.

Randomizer #5

It's 7AM and I've been up most of the night, so guess what?  Let's have a song.

"World's Greatest Lover" by Cheap Trick

"You're the world's greatest lover...in my world..."

This song is from the Trick's 1980 album All Shook Up.  Here we have a straightforward love song from Rick, Robin, Tom and Bun E.  Not normally my thing, if I'm honest, but this is CHEAP TRICK. Even at their worst, they're better than most.  Not saying this is their worst, and it's infinitely better than that fucking "Don't Want To Miss A Thing" garbage where Aerosmith finally gave up trying to bring the rock and decided to let themselves sink into Schmaltzville completely and cater to the housewives and aging jocks who need something to play in the car when they want to try and impress some empty-headed bimbeaux with how sensitive and romantic they can be.

It's a well-known and accepted fact that Robin Zander is one of THE greatest voices ever in this music we call rock 'n roll, and Cheap Trick are THE masters of twisted, catchy rock/pop-rock/whatever you want to call it...they rule the roost, Chickie.

And listen, if you're going to have something as stupid as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cheap Trick needs to be in there. Green Day before Cheap Trick? This is one reason I don't want to live in this world. I'm fucking serious. Fuck you, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

And you know what else?
FUCK YOU, Aerosmith. But most of all, FUCK YOU, GREEN DAY.

Randomizer #4

"Riff Wraiths" by Lightning Bolt

 Drums and bass. Bass and drums. Noisy, thrashy. Muy-distorto vocals.

I'm slightly pissed and I'm liking this a whole bunch.

I guess I'm supposed to picture these guys in a live setting. I'm doing that and it's pretty fucking awesome.  Nice key changes.

Attila the Hun on bass, Animal on the drum throne. Crushing all that lay before them.

 Eat this, hipster.

Randomizer #3 ("I Listen To This Shit So You Don't Have To" Edition)

"Dance 4 U" by Charli XCX

I like Charli XCX.  I don't take as hard a line these days about the types of music I'll check out and this is indicative of that.

This song, however, is not so good, Efrem.  To be fair, though, it's from a mixtape, which are not always chock-full of an artist's best material.

Basically, when it comes to pop music I'm in the "The Stupider, The Better" camp almost all of the time and this song, believe it or not, is not stupid enough.  If you know what I mean.

Sorry, Charli.  "Dance 4 U" is awful.

Randomizer #2

"Child Activist" by Guided By Voices

I like GBV very much.  This is sorta what you'd expect from this gang of lo-fi lotharios.  Eighty-two savory seconds of catchy mud.

If you're not too familiar with this band, leader Robert Pollard writes way more songs than probably anyone else in the world.  He seems to release all of them, too.  This isn't a bad thing, because the majority of his work is really nice.

The first album I heard by GBV was Bee Thousand.  It was getting loads of good write-ups upon its release and I was swayed enough to fork out the cash for a CD.  It's a marvelous record and I always have a lot of time for Guided By Voices.

Randomizer #1

"Suffering Bastard" by Burn The Priest

Well, here we go.

Burn The Priest is what Lamb Of God used to be called.  I know almost nothing about them.

This doesn't sound much different from LOG to my ears, but that makes sense, I guess.  Nice, grindy guitars on this one, lots of guttural gutturing.  Not too shabby.  Short, too, so that's a bonus.

I found this nifty video for the song so you can check it out yourself, if you're so inclined.