I've been listening to The Offspring all day. That's a sentence that probably hasn't been true since my first bout with college. They were one of my favorite bands back in high school. Listening through their entire discography in one sitting was a thing i'd do on at least a biweekly basis. Then Splinter came out, and my faith wavered; Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace was better, but i barely listened to it and then moved along to other things. I haven't even heard anything that they've farted out since then (2008), which a quick Wikipedia trip tells me is only one album and one covers EP. Being as that includes a single called "Cruisin' California (Bumpin' in my Trunk)," i feel okay with my level of exposure. Although, as a Kubrick fan, i am intrigued by "Slim Pickens Does the Right Thing and Rides the Bomb Into Hell."
So anyway, here's what i'm contemplating today. I think most people who care about this sort of thing would agree that the first three Offspring albums (self-titled, Ignition, and Smash) are solid punk (or pop-punk, if you're crass) albums, and deserve to be held in high regard. I would make a passionate case for including Ixnay on the Hombre in the canon, and i'm sure others could put in a valiant effort defending Americana. Anything from Conspiracy of One onward though is tough to go to bat for. One of the biggest problems is that the albums are just so uneven, drifting erratically between radio-friendly formulaic rock singles, goofy and unlikable bullshit filler tracks, and just a handful of solid, listenable songs. So i thought, what if i tried to assemble one cohesive album out of that last bit of their catalog (before i fell off the bandwagon)? Toss out the absolute garbage like Spare Me The Details and Worst Hangover Ever and assemble an album's worth of great stuff like Come Out Swinging and Lightning Rod? And maybe some non-album singles?
Here's what i came up with. This is definitely a more fast-paced Offspring album.
1. Come Out Swinging [Conspiracy of One]
2. Long Way Home [Splinter]
3. Defy You [Orange County soundtrack]
4. (Can't Get My) Head Around You [Splinter]
5. Trust in You [Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace]
6. Million Miles Away [Conspiracy of One]
7. Vultures [Conspiracy of One]
8. Lightning Rod [Splinter]
9. Hammerhead [Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace]
10. The Noose [Splinter]
11. You're Gonna Go Far, Kid [Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace]
12. Takes Me Nowhere [Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace]
13. All Along [Conspiracy of One]
14. Can't Repeat [Greatest Hits]
I'm not saying these are the only tracks from those albums that are worthwhile. Once i had trimmed out everything obvious i was still left with 18 tracks (out of the 39 i started with). And i held on to Dammit I Changed Again until the bitter end, but i really wanted to limit it to 14 tracks (putting it on par with the longest Offspring album, Ixnay on the Hombre).
So yeah, that's what my brain has been doing today while i've been cleaning the kitchen. Try the mix out yourself and see if you like it. Or, suggest an alternate mix. Or, exist, as a reader of my blog, that would be cool too.
You know how sometimes you just get a few lines to a song stuck in your head, and you're not entirely sure what it is for a while? As i was driving home today it was, i eventually realized, the songs Come Around and JC Auto by Sugar. When i got home i went to put those tracks' EP of origin, Beaster, on, and quickly discovered that they sit at a play count of zero in my iTunes library. This particular iTunes library (the Digital Mobyfort) was established in the last quarter of 2012, so it's baffling to me that i haven't listened to Sugar in four full years.
Since i have this blog, where i sometimes muse about music for a captive audience of myself, i thought i'd write a few words about my relationship with this. It is, after all, far more important to me that i write these things than that people read them, so i'll go ahead.
Many of my friends who are into alt-rock that are just a few years older than me should be intimately familiar with Bob Mould's body of work. Husker Du was a big deal in the 80s, and Sugar took up that torch in the 90s, before he embarked on a successful solo career. I, however, was at just the right age when i finally came out of the shelter of classic rock, country, and out-of-context Weird Al that my parents built for me to get swept up in god damn Nu Metal. In the year 2000, i pre-ordered Orgy's album Vapor Transmission (not a thing i admit to lightly), and when it arrived (the day before street date!), there was a second CD in the package. It was the Beaster EP. I believe there was a note in there explaining that they had included something else they thought i'd like as part of a new music promotion. I can't remember for sure if that note actually existed, or if i made that up to try and justify extra items in a mailer. The disc had a notch sawed out of the spine, which generally denotes a radio station promo, so it fits with the story.
I'd go on to listen to that album a lot throughout high school, though i had it filed on my shelf under "Beaster" because i thought that was the band name. The package doesn't make it clear which title is which, and having not known Sugar prior to that, Beaster just seemed more like a band moniker. I don't think i figured it out until college, when i was at a Half-Price Books and found another Sugar album with the same font on the cover. As the years wore on through the rest of the decade, i think it's obvious which disc in that package won out as the more important.
I did eventually see Bob Mould perform solo in 2009, a strange experience since it was just him and a bass player with no drummer, still playing the music with distorted electric guitars. I don't think they played any Sugar material at that show, but maybe a few Husker Du covers? It was a long time ago. I got the lucky sod who took home the set list to email me a picture, but that email is probably long lost at this point. Most importantly, though, after the show i got to tell Mr. Mould how important his music had been to me through my teenage years, and give him a hug.
In this thirteenth installment of Trevor's Poor-Ass Christmas, you'll find a lot of old stuff. I did experience new music this year, but i've really spent a lot of time digging through my existing collection, making new playlists, pulling out physical discs and putting them in the car for extended periods of time, that sort of thing.
The most notable of my new playlists is called Feminachos. That's a reference to a song that my current band, Cats On Leashes, wrote over a year ago and has been fine-tuning ever since. We've only done it live once. So, as the name implies, the playlist is full of ass-kicking female-fronted rock music. I'll hashtag everything below that's a part of that playlist, because since i built it, it's almost exclusively what i've listened to, and that's definitely impacted the comp.
Also Biffy Clyro and PJ Harvey both released new albums this year that i totally forgot to buy.
It's also worth noting that, since i'm planning on not having my birthday party this year, i'm not entirely sure how i'm going to distribute this one. So if you want a copy, you know, ask, or something.
This was the second consecutive year that Dan Phillips and i produced our own entry for the 48 Hour Film Project. We drew Science Fiction and Fish Out of Water for our genres, and ended up spinning a yarn about a time traveler who accidentally goes too far back in time and destroys her time machine and communicator, thus getting stuck there. My friend Huan-Hua, of the band Gentle Brontosaurus, acted in the film, playing the required character Olivia Castleton. After filming wrapped, Huan-Hua headed home and composed a song about it, recorded it, and sent it over to us while we were doing the post-production. We were blown away, and used it for the end credits. "It's Probably Fine" was the working title for the film, which we changed to The Time Chair, but the phrase pops up four times in the script (only one actually made it to the screen, but modified versions are dropped in here and there). It's also kind of my catch phrase. I never set out intentionally to do that but i say this ALL THE GOD DAMNED TIME. Anyway, enjoy the film.
#Feminachos 2. Damsel Trash - Booze Up and Riot damseltrash.com
Ah, the fruits of another Local Love Fest compilation. Damsel Trash is a two-woman punk band that i count as one of my very favorite local artists; they're a little more difficult to follow around since half of them moved to New York recently, but they're still active enough around here. Caustic is a Madison-based jizzcore musician who is well-known on a national level, because he works hard and never stops. Ever. Like at all. The Man Who Couldn't Stop, they call him. So this is Damsel Trash covering Caustic, because, if you haven't read up from previous years, Local Love Fest is an event where Madison bands cover other Madison bands. It's fantastic. I love everything about this.
When Savages came through Madison earlier this year, i had no idea who they were. Mike, a coworker who's shaped more of the PAC over the last ten years than you'd believe, asked me a few times in the months and weeks ahead of the show if i was going. He thought they'd be up my alley. Robert may have mentioned them as well. I kept saying i'd check them out, and then forgetting. And since the tickets were in the $20 range and i'm poorer-ass than usual this year, i just figured i wouldn't worry about it. Then, Jeri, of The Type and Cats On Leashes fame, who works for a local newspaper, texted me the day before that she had an extra ticket, since her +1 had canceled last minute on her. I swooped in on that hard. Then, suddenly, the night of the show, Jeri canceled on me, and let me take both tickets. So, i got Mike in for free. So now that the boring part of the story is out of the way, the show: HOLY GODDAMN SHIT. That was some magic that i just witnessed. The music, the presentation, the stage presence. So awesome. Lead singer Jehnny Beth leapt into the audience at one point (the High Noon was entirely packed, you could not move toward the stage without a fight), basically walking across the hands of the masses, and eventually coming to a stop right in the middle, where i helped hold her up, taking left shin duties. So i bought both of their albums, and here we are. In some ways, i regret not putting the song Fuckers on instead, that was definitely my favorite, but (a) it's 10 minutes long, (2) there is not currently a studio version available, and (D) the live version is only available on an expensive import single. So, This Is What You Get.
A horror punk band from Chicago that Cats On Leashes played with earlier this year. I thought they were fantastic. I gave them all the money i had in my wallet ($16 or $18?) for a shirt, CD, button, and some stickers, and was pretty happy about it. I was talking to them afterward and telling them there was one song that really stuck out for me, and since i had taken their set list, i tried to point out approximately where it was on the setlist, but picked a Ramones cover by accident. I had been drinking. Anyway. I listened to their CD, and then found they had more tracks up for download from their Bandcamp page, including this one, The Devil of Bedford Street. Turns out this was, without a doubt, the song i was trying to say was my favorite. It wasn't on the setlist, but i'm pretty convinced they played it. Or i was further intoxicated than i thought. Anyway.
Here's the first direct result of the Feminachos playlist. I mean i've been into Juliana Hatfield forever but her music has rarely made the cut (twice: 2008 and 2009). Also for some inexplicable reason i haven't purchased any of her albums since around then (How to Walk Away is the most recent one i have). But anyway. With that playlist on a nigh-constant loop when i'm at home, her songs have come up a lot, which has reignited my preference for hearing them over not hearing them. This song in particular became a standout, probably as a result of all the weird shit i've been feeling the last couple years. I like it.
Here's a 20-year-old alternative rock band that i just discovered this year. Pretty sure i'd heard of them before, but never listened to their music. Well, before i completely stopped giving a fuck and just started watching Netflix all day at work, i was starting to use Pandora pretty heavily again. Pandora, if you're unfamiliar or if you've forgotten (since it's been half a decade since Pandora was a big thing), is a web site where you build a "station" by feeding it the names of a few bands you're in the mood for, and then it plays a mix of those bands and other bands that it thinks are similar, using the Music Genome Project. Placebo began to pop up on several of my stations, always tracks from the album Meds (Special Edition) and often this one. By sheer chance, within a few weeks of noticing this pattern, i found a copy of the Special Edition of Meds in the bargain bin at Half-Price Books. It was even unopened. Good work, me.
It's noteworthy that this was going to be the first song on this year's disc until Huan-Hua wrote It's Probably Fine.
So here's a weird one. Komputer, or I Start Counting (as they were known from 1982-90), or Fortran 5 (as they were known from 1990-1998), was (is?) an electronic music duo that claims inspiration and samples from Russian cosmonaut radio chatter, trash compactors, and cell phone ringtones, according to their Wikipedia page. I don't really have any recollection of how or why i came into possession of their 1998 album The World of Tomorrow, or, really, how or when i started listening to it. But i put this song, Looking Down on London, on my playlist for the potential soundtrack to that Eurotrip movie that i've been (sort of, a little bit) working on for the last three years. So i've been listening to this song a lot, due to that, and eventually it started to pop up in my dreams. It helps that i've got some pretty spectacular visuals that i associate with this song. Someday, i'll finish the movie, and you'll see what i mean.
I'm fairly certain that this band was recommended to me by Robert, the Boblin King. He's always trying to make me listen to weird music, and then gets upset when i don't include any of it on the PAC. Well, Ron, here you go.
This song has actually been included on the playlists for a couple of PACs, most recently 2014, and it keeps getting cut late in the process. This year, i felt strongly that it not get lost. I feel that it flows well with the rest of the disc, and frankly i just really enjoy it. This song, this band, is filling a particular need for me and i can't suppress that anymore.
I have a story about this band. Perhaps you've read it. The short version is, on the aforementioned Eurotrip, Amanda + i were in Athens during a citywide music festival, completely by chance. If i'd known, maybe we would have planned things differently. So, after getting lost and taking a few wrong turns, we found ourselves at this outdoor stage with a modest crowd gathered as a band was setting up. I thought i'd just film a song or two for posterity, and ended up enjoying them so much that i shot their entire set. That band was, of course, Macadam Dive, from Switzerland. I talked with them a little after the set, and bought a shirt. Unfortunately their album was not to be released until that November, but i had every intention of grabbing it when i could. Well, due to various complications with the very prospect of overseas shipping, i was never able to get ahold of a copy. However, for Christmas last year, they went ahead and put it and its companion remix EP up for free download from their web site. So while i still haven't come up with a physical disc, at least i can listen to their music.
This song is maybe not the best example of their work, but it's (somewhat paradoxically) my favorite song of theirs. The bulk of their album is trip-hop with some rapping, both of which are things that are in my wheelhouse. This is a pop song. But here we are.
The Ting Tings are yet another holdover from the New Zealand trip. Gosh, that was pretty much the linchpin of my life, right there. Anyway i discovered this band due to the NME Awards Compilation which was one of the few discs we had before the very end of the trip.
You might remember The Ting Tings from a runaway hit several years ago called That's Not My Name. Well, i came up with that album at some point in the last few years, and this year decided that it needed to stay in the car for several weeks. Amanda was less than impressed and kept taking it out, calling it "preppy girl music," which i can't really argue with; this year, i also finally watched and thoroughly enjoyed the movie Mean Girls.
Here are some locals. To be honest this song should've made the cut last year, but i think i received the Hillbilly Zeus EP as i was finalizing that track list and didn't want to squeeze anything else in.
This song gets stuck in my head all the damn time. I'll find myself humming that guitar riff just constantly, or tapping out some inept approximation of the drum beat on a table or some body part.
Fun fact: two of these guys used to be in Helliphant.
13. Queen - We Will Rock You (BBC Radio Session) queenonline.com
This was a last-minute addition. This link to a Some E-Cards article, of all things, popped up in my Facebook news feed on October 22, the day before i mastered all the tracks for this year's disc, and i was so taken by this version of the song that i knew i had to share. Queen's got a big ol' box set containing all of their BBC sessions coming out right around the same time as the PAC, and this promo video was released ahead of that. I am a little worried about the audio quality, as i did rip it from YouTube, but it's not completely horrible. I think i can live with it.
Strangely, it knocked a Beatles song off of the compilation. It's...been a weird year.
For fuck's sake, i didn't even know they were back together until this exact moment! That's probably going to impact how i write this. Damn.
This is another song that's been up for PAC inclusion a couple of times, but keeps getting cut at the last minute. When i realized that it's the only song on my iTunes Top 25 Most Played that hasn't been on a PAC and isn't on Metric's album Synthetica, i knew there was something wrong. It got on that first PAC playlist because it was something i'd unearthed that i remembered fondly from years ago, and it got cut because i decided that wasn't enough. But i keep coming back to 7 Year Bitch, particularly the Gato Negro album, and fuck it, this band is important to me. I know this is their most recognizable song slash biggest hit, i think, but there's a good reason for that. It's so good.
There are two huge compilations that have consisted of a lot of my listening this year. One of them i mentioned last year: the four-disc classic punk boxed set No Thanks!: The 70s Punk Rebellion. The other one my friend Nate (of Sir!NoSir!) posted a download link to earlier this year: the behemoth, 12-disc A Reference of Female-Fronted Punk Rock 1977-89. This is a truly incredible offering, if the title catches your interest. A lot of it is lo-fi and/or foreign, so i would not recommend it for the casual listener. But if classic punk and feminism are things you're into, there's a lot to love here. I only wish i could get my hands on that package...
#Feminachos
16. Scarehead - Ha Ha
Those aren't the only two sources of classic punk i've been listening to, though. This one comes to us from the Broken Britain compilation, a single disc of British punk rock. This song kept getting stuck in my head, and i was positively convinced that it was L7, but i kept listening to all of my L7 albums and not hearing it. After a few months i put on Broken Britain again, and lo and behold.
I can't really find much in the way of information about this band, though, but here's this music video.
Also note: "classic" in this instance i guess means 90s. Yeah.
I came up with not one but two pre-fame Gossip CDs in the bargain bin this year, and i tell you what, they made me want to write music again. I'm not kidding; i've been in such a rut for songwriting for about three years now, and the early works of The Gossip just really kicked me in the face and said, "FORM A TWO PERSON BAND WITH DRUMS AND BASS AND WRITE SOME SOULFUL PUNK ROCK." Not that that's necessarily an apt description of The Gossip, but it's where they make me want to go.
I haven't done it yet, but i've given it considerable thought.
#Feminachos 18. He Shufeng - Dance of the Yi People (Sleeping Dogs remix)
I'm going to be honest. I really have no idea whether this song is credited properly. This is one of the main menu themes from the video game Sleeping Dogs, which i played obsessively for a few months early in the year. I managed to find a web site which offers downloads of video game soundtracks, and grabbed Sleeping Dogs. It's all credited to Jeff Tymoschuk, with this song being called "Sleeping Dogs Theme D," but his web site only shows his involvement in the gameplay tracks, not the title themes. I've found the song in multiple youtube videos credited as Dance of the Yi People by He Shufeng, but no one seems to know who did the remix. I want to assume it was Tymoschuk, but i can't verify that.
This one is tough for me. Metric's newest album, last year's Pagans in Vegas, didn't really do it for me on release. It's actually the first album i've preordered since i think Vapor Transmission by Orgy (figure that one out). As alluded to above, their previous effort, Synthetica, is, as a whole, the most listened-to album in my Digital Mobyfort. I was very disappointed with how poppy this album is. I mean, Metric's always been a pop band, sure, but Pagans in Vegas pushed it so far in that direction that i just couldn't get on the bandwagon. I left it in the car for a very long time, listening to it again and again on every single drive, just to be sure. Never really clicked.
I finally attended a Metric concert earlier this year. I say "concert" instead of "show" because i had an assigned seat, and i sat in it. I guess that's how i define words. I'm as surprised as you. Anyway. Seeing Metric live is practically a religious experience, and when they play Gold Guns Girls it's communion. I was so overwhelmed by being fully enveloped in their music that i just can't put it in better words. Hearing the new material live definitely made me look at it in a more favorable light, and i've gotten some enjoyment out of the album since. However, this is still one of the very few songs on the album i can truly say i like.
Going back to Melomaniac, way back on track 5, Hired Rivals were the third band on that bill, with Cats on Leashes. It was a good night. These dudes are Madison locals, so i'm looking forward to seeing them again whenever i want. At the time, i didn't have any money to buy their CD, on account of having given the touring band from Chicago all of my cash, but they handed me a copy anyway. Their guitarist said i'd earned it, what with all the pantsless stage-thrashing and all.
Holy balls, Oasis's web site still opens up with a link to preorder Be Here Now. God damn, somebody fix that.
I have a problem. I can't stop listening to goddamn Oasis, particularly Be Here Now. This is probably diagnosable, there might even be a treatment. I should probably look into it. 22. David Bowie - I Can't Give Everything Away davidbowie.com
Okay.
We can't get through this without at least a cursory mention of how much of a god damn dick 2016, as a year, has been. There was a prelude between Christmas and New Year's 2015 when Lemmy died. Then, just ten days in, we lost David Bowie. Alan Rickman less than a week later, Abe Vigoda less than a week after that. And the hits just kept coming. We lost, like, all of our favorite famous people this year. Prince, Harper Lee, Merle Haggard, Muhammad Ali, fucking Gene Wilder...
David Bowie was the hardest one for me. I don't think i should have to explain this. I grew up with his music. You grew up with his music. Labyrinth was a huge part of my childhood. David Bowie has basically had his hand on the steering wheel of pop culture for five decades, and now he's gone.
He did leave us a damn fine eulogy, though, in the form of Blackstar, his twenty-fifth and final studio album, released just two days before his death. There are a lot of indications on the album and in the music video for Lazarus that he knew it would be the end, and this was how he would leave us, and i think he gave us exactly what he wanted us to remember him by.
This is the closing track from Blackstar, the final song on the playlist that is Bowie's career, and the final song on this year's Poor-Ass Christmas.
1. Huan-Hua Chye - It's Probably Fine
2. Damsel Trash - Booze Up and Riot
3. Sleigh Bells - A-B Machines
4. Savages - This Is What You Get
5. Melomaniac - The Devil of Bedford Street
6. Juliana Hatfield - So Alone
7. Placebo - One of a Kind
8. Komputer - Looking Down on London
9. bis - Eurodisco
10. Macadam Dive - Can You Make It
11. The Ting Tings - We Walk
12. Cold Black River - The Great Equalizer
13. Queen - We Will Rock You (BBC Radio Session)
14. 7 Year Bitch - 24,900 Miles Per Hour
15. The Avengers - We Are the One
16. Scarehead - Ha Ha
17. The Gossip - Bones
18. He Shufeng - Dance of the Yi People (Sleeping Dogs Remix)
19. Metric - The Governess
20. Hired Rivals - Rabies Babies
21. Oasis - My Big Mouth
22. David Bowie - I Can't Give Everything Away
Poor-Ass Christmas is coming a little early this year!
Since i'm leaving my current job to take a new position within the state lab, i'm going to push out the PAC two weeks earlier than normal so that my current coworkers can get copies. So, whoever needs Trevor's Poor-Ass Christmas 2016, let me know any time after October 28, and they'll be available!
Distribution is going to be kind of problematic this year, anyway, because i'm not having my traditional birthday party. But i'll find a way to get them into the hands that need them.
The track listing is basically finalized. I'm just beginning to master them, to the best of my limited ability to do so, right now. Depending on how that goes, i might need to knock one more track off, but hopefully it won't come to that (total time is very tight right now).
I'm so excited. This is, of course, the best one yet.
I say that every year.
If i ever don't then it'll probably be time to stop.
Holy mother of fuck. I didn't appreciate Oasis enough in the 90s.
I'm not sure how or why i got sucked into the Oasis fandom. I was definitely big on alternative rock toward the end of the 90s, once i finally started discovering music on my own and realized there was more out there than what my parents listened to. But while i was digging deep into acts like Third Eye Blind and Smash Mouth, which would not survive the test of time, as far as i ever got with Oasis was "Champagne Supernova is pretty cool i guess."
In college, we'd go to Half-Price Books on a more or less weekly basis, and once i found the clearance rack, i foolishly started loading up on anything that seemed familiar. It's why i've got 4,000 CDs today, really; a lot of that was misguided college purchases. During that time, i accumulated most of Oasis's discography, based on Wonderwall and the aforementioned Champagne Supernova. But what's criminal about this is that i never fucking listened to them. I mean, probably once, but that's about it.
Being American didn't really help anything, either. I mean this whole side of the ocean pretty much looked at Oasis and shrugged. About as much Oasis as i remember from my MTV-watching days was when they had the Gallagher brothers fight each other on Celebrity Deathmatch.
I'm not sure what happened, but a few years ago suddenly i had an Oasis phase. I mentioned it in that year's PAC liner notes. It might have been residual from actually being in England the previous year. It might just be because i was building a 90s nostalgia playlist and researching alternative bands' singles, and noting how heavy the Oasis portion of that sequence was. Who knows. But suddenly, in 2014, i became obsessed - obsessed! - with the song D'You Know What I Mean?, and for a few months in 2014, suddenly i was just letting iTunes play through the Brothers Gallagher's entire discography repeatedly.
Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped.
Then, as suddenly as it stopped, it began again.
And now i'm back to letting their discography play through for days on end. In particular, i'm still pretty hooked on Be Here Now, the album that D'You Know What I Mean? kicks off. So, while i'm 2,602 days too late to ever have a chance of being part of the Oasis mania (England essentially treated them as the second coming of The Beatles), or seeing them live, or having the joy of experiencing any newly-released Oasis material, i can still revel in what once was. I just wish i'd been paying more attention two decades ago.
So i was just listening to Geto Boys in the shower and thinking about how, as a kid, my parents, who believed everything they read in the newspaper, didn't want me listening to rap music because gang violence, or something. Keep in mind that i grew up in a farming community with less than 3000 people, 99% of whom were white. So that train of thought led me to remembering that, as a tween in the mid-90s, one of my parents definitely once said that i wasn't allowed to play Magic: The Gathering because street gangs used the game to plan their hits. And with 20 years of hindsight, i realize now that that's probably legitimately the most insane thing a person has ever said to me.
