sir mix-a-lot
11-02-2006, 07:23 PM
You've stumbled upon the wonderful world of Decoy Music's weekly Listening Station. So plug in your iPods or whatever you use and get ready to fill it with items selected by staff, readers, and bands you know and love. You could also buy an album, even. I know, far-fetched.
Allen Sxips To His Loo: Sxip Shirey - Sombule
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/sxipshirey.jpg
Website: (http://www.sxipshirey.com) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/sxipshirey)
I’m sorry, you gotta give credit to a guy who can get a good couple hundred people dancing at a concert with nothing but two bells, a harmonica, a bowl and marble, and three flutes which he duct-taped together to create danceable circus music. This dude comes marching out on stage looking like Pan about to play on his flutes, tells a couple jokes, introduces the Dresden Dolls and himself as the lead-in act…and proceeds to make everybody dance. Some of the tracks on this aren’t as great as the ones he played at the show, but it's still worth people taking notice of this dude.
Chris Pandolfo Attempts To Add A Word To The Lexicon: With Blood Comes Cleansing - Golgotha
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/withbloodcomescleansing.jpg
Website: (http://www.withbloodcomescleansing.com) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/withbloodcomescleansing)
Deathcore - The perfect music to set the Halloween mood. I honestly can't wait 'till years from now when kids are skipping up to my lawn to get candy from my house....the one where deathcore is blasting from the windows, blacklights and flickering strobe lights blinding the kiddies, and my friends and I sprawled around the lawn pretending to be dead only to grab their legs and scream along with them and laugh as they run away. What about the candy? Oh, that's for me and my friends.
So yeah, I love Halloween. I'm a Halloween baby, born two days before the Devil's special night. Although With Blood Comes Cleansing is a Christian deathcore band, I don't think they'd mind that I was blasting GOLGOTHA all night. I type their album name in caps because...well, have you listened to this album before? It's extremely heavy. Repetitive, but heavy as HELL! Sure, every song sounds the same, but it's heavy as HELL! Yeah, they really do those death metal parts all too much, but it's still so damn heavy!...Yes, it seems every song begins with a blast beat and then a breakdown...but guess what?...it's HEAVY AS HELL! We could just say "GOLGOTHA" too: the new adjective for something being really heavy. Like, "That fat GOLGOTHA bitch over there needs to do something about it" - but in a nicer sense, and something I'd actually say rather than my friends saying it, such as "This bookbag is fucking GOLGOTHA, man!
So, do you get my point? Sure, it's a little repetitive! But guess what, it's heavy as HELL, and fun to listen to as well. You should check them out.
Rick Does Not Condone Driving While Intoxicated. Get A Designated Driver. PSA Provided By Decoy Music Free Of Charge: The Bloody Irish Boys - Drunk Rock
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/thebloodyirishboys.jpg
Website: (http://www.thebloodyirishboys.com) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/thebloodyirishboys)
There’s just something fun about combining punk rock, Irish drinking songs, and Celtic elements. Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, The Tossers… every CD by each one of those bands is fun as hell. So you can probably guess why Drunk Rock has been in my CD player this week – I needed another Irish punk drinking band to listen to! The Bloody Irish Boys turn the trick much better than some other recent entries into the genre (see The Welch Boys and Lost City Angels). Almost every song is about drinking. The vibe is that of drinking at a punk show. The album is named after drinking. Fuck, I’m just gonna go get a drink. Get plowed y’all! Drunk Rock is the shit.
Jordan Will Recommend This But Won't Even Bring Up Salty The Pocketknife? Something Is Wrong With The World: Danava - Danava
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/danava.jpg
Website: (http://www.myspace.com/danava) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/danava)
Read about these guys in the "LA Weekly" two weeks ago. Checked them out and was very surprised. They have an old school 70's psychedelic rock sort of vibe - but there's something strangely modern about the sound as well. Musically, I hear influences ranging all over the stoner metal map: Zeppelin, Sabbath, Deep Purple, even Mars Volta. Shit, and with a singer named Dusty Sparkles, you can't really go wrong. Nuff said.
Armand Upsets Me Because I Was Listening To The Cure's Cover Of Depeche Mode's "World In My Eyes" While Editing His Selection: Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/talktalk.jpg
Website: (http://users.cybercity.dk/~bcc11425/) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/talktalklaughingstock)
If you feel like listening to a band that forever changed the landscape of music, then turn off what you are listening to right now and put on Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock, which is arguably one of the greatest records of all time and without a doubt in my mind, the most beautiful. Laughing Stock is a record that makes its own environment and whose sum is greater than its parts. It is an unbelievable blend of organs, violas, blues guitars, harmonicas, trumpets, indecipherable vocals, and what have you. The music is quiet and sparse, yet abrupt and jarring. It is simply jaw-dropping and astounding that four people can start a new-wave band and end up being the greatest post-rock band of all time. If you like Explosions in the Sky, Yndi Halda, or any post-rock band of today, go and pay homage to their father, Talk Talk, by listening to this record, but prepare to be amazed.
Bill Pyle Finds The Shape Of Punk To Come, Part II: Folk Punk Residue: Defiance, Ohio - The Great Depression
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/defianceohio.jpg
Website: (http://defianceohio.terrorware.com/) :: Listen: (http://defianceohio.terrorware.com/audio.php)
An anarchist folk punk band that features a cello, a violin, has everyone sing, and they let you download all their records for free from their website. What more do I need to say?
Tom Butcher Butchers His Attempt At Being Snooty And Condescending: Pink Floyd - Animals
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/pinkfloyd.jpg
Website: (http://www.pinkfloyd.com) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/pinkfloyd)
I'm not quite sure why, but sometime around Sunday I got the biggest urge to listen to this record. It's hardly their best (that would go to Wish You Were Here, quite easily), but it is an absolute staple in any Floyd fanatic's library. For those of you who have it, give it a spin. For those of you who don't, here's what it amounts to: Roger Waters telling the entire world which of three stereotypes from Orwell's Animal Farm they fit into. Sound pretentious? Well, it is, but then again Pink Floyd was never a band to put on false airs. Anyway, it's got some solid lyrics, and some groovin' tunes, so pop it into the Stereophonic and see what happens. In any case, it's much better than the clusterfuck that was their next album...
Alex Davies Sounds Like Joe Pesci, Which Is Why He Loves Pop Music: Cassino - Demos
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/cassino.jpg
Website: (http://www.cassinoband.com) :: Listen: (http://www.purevolume.com/cassinoband)
When Northstar broke up, I was pretty sad. And whilst there were a good few other bands I could turn to for a similar fix, there was always an underlying yearning for the Alabama boys. So when I heard that a couple of those very same boys had taken up a new project, needless to say I was pretty happy. And when I heard said project, combining the stunning lyrics, gorgeous acoustic balladry and pop sensibilities that made me love Northstar so, happy didn't even cover it. The few demos floating around aren't nearly enough to satiate me, but until they get around to releasing a full length, I'll spin these a whole lot more.
Chris Conlan Reminds Me Of How Great Eyeball Records (And Dan Mirabelli) Is: My Epiphany - Miribilia
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/myepiphany.jpg
Website: (http://www.myspace.com/myepiphany) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/myepiphany)
Before I go into the CD, anyone have any idea what this band is up to? I haven't heard anything about them since the release of Miribilia, which was back in May 2005.
Well, I have to say that My Epiphany is probably the best unheard band. There was never much promotion for their album, which is a crying shame because Miribilia was easily a contender for album of the year in 2005. The one thing My Epiphany was great at creating was diverse songs. Track after track you are taken from an almost straight-up rock song to an experimental track.
I wish the guys come back strong here soon. I'm aching to hear some new material.
Daniel Alcinii Told His Liberal-Arts-College-Attending Hippie Of A Sister To Buy Him Elf On DVD Last Christmas, But Because Of The Tremendous Amount Of Illegal Substances In Her System, She Bought Him This Instead: Ef - Give Me Beauty…Or Give Me Death!
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/ef.jpg
Website: (http://www.efmusic.nu) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/ef)
If you don't know about Ef, you're missing out. These Swedes are phenomenal.
Ben Revisits His Pre-Music Days: For The Masses - A Tribute To Depeche Mode
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/forthemasses.jpg
Website: (http://www.depechemode.com) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/meatbeatmanifesto)
I bought this album when I was a sophomore in high school because the only two bands I listened to in those days were Ben Folds Five and Rammstein (they cover "Stripped" on this record). I bought anything and everything I could by the two. They would go on to shape my awesome vocal range, which I would waste by never singing after graduating high school. Anyway, this album's not only one of the best tribute albums I've ever heard (even though I still skip a ton of tracks), but it also introduced me to a lot of bands that would later shape the way I look at music. And the ones I'd heard before were ones I wasn't that interested in, but later became interested in because of their contributions to this. Here is a short list of bands I came to know because of this record: God Lives Underwater, Meat Beat Manifesto, Hooverphonic, Self, Apollo Four Forty, and Gus Gus, many of which you can find in my collection still today and some of which I just never got around to buying. Not enough for you? Too electronic? How about the ones I'd heard, but finally decided to give a very solid listen to? Smashing Pumpkins, Failure, The Cure, Deftones. Tell me that isn't impressive.
If not for this record, I would have continued to live my life thinking Fantastic Planet sucked. But after hearing their cover of "Enjoy the Silence," I stole my sister's copy of that and the rest is history. She never got it back.
Allen Sxips To His Loo: Sxip Shirey - Sombule
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/sxipshirey.jpg
Website: (http://www.sxipshirey.com) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/sxipshirey)
I’m sorry, you gotta give credit to a guy who can get a good couple hundred people dancing at a concert with nothing but two bells, a harmonica, a bowl and marble, and three flutes which he duct-taped together to create danceable circus music. This dude comes marching out on stage looking like Pan about to play on his flutes, tells a couple jokes, introduces the Dresden Dolls and himself as the lead-in act…and proceeds to make everybody dance. Some of the tracks on this aren’t as great as the ones he played at the show, but it's still worth people taking notice of this dude.
Chris Pandolfo Attempts To Add A Word To The Lexicon: With Blood Comes Cleansing - Golgotha
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/withbloodcomescleansing.jpg
Website: (http://www.withbloodcomescleansing.com) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/withbloodcomescleansing)
Deathcore - The perfect music to set the Halloween mood. I honestly can't wait 'till years from now when kids are skipping up to my lawn to get candy from my house....the one where deathcore is blasting from the windows, blacklights and flickering strobe lights blinding the kiddies, and my friends and I sprawled around the lawn pretending to be dead only to grab their legs and scream along with them and laugh as they run away. What about the candy? Oh, that's for me and my friends.
So yeah, I love Halloween. I'm a Halloween baby, born two days before the Devil's special night. Although With Blood Comes Cleansing is a Christian deathcore band, I don't think they'd mind that I was blasting GOLGOTHA all night. I type their album name in caps because...well, have you listened to this album before? It's extremely heavy. Repetitive, but heavy as HELL! Sure, every song sounds the same, but it's heavy as HELL! Yeah, they really do those death metal parts all too much, but it's still so damn heavy!...Yes, it seems every song begins with a blast beat and then a breakdown...but guess what?...it's HEAVY AS HELL! We could just say "GOLGOTHA" too: the new adjective for something being really heavy. Like, "That fat GOLGOTHA bitch over there needs to do something about it" - but in a nicer sense, and something I'd actually say rather than my friends saying it, such as "This bookbag is fucking GOLGOTHA, man!
So, do you get my point? Sure, it's a little repetitive! But guess what, it's heavy as HELL, and fun to listen to as well. You should check them out.
Rick Does Not Condone Driving While Intoxicated. Get A Designated Driver. PSA Provided By Decoy Music Free Of Charge: The Bloody Irish Boys - Drunk Rock
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/thebloodyirishboys.jpg
Website: (http://www.thebloodyirishboys.com) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/thebloodyirishboys)
There’s just something fun about combining punk rock, Irish drinking songs, and Celtic elements. Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, The Tossers… every CD by each one of those bands is fun as hell. So you can probably guess why Drunk Rock has been in my CD player this week – I needed another Irish punk drinking band to listen to! The Bloody Irish Boys turn the trick much better than some other recent entries into the genre (see The Welch Boys and Lost City Angels). Almost every song is about drinking. The vibe is that of drinking at a punk show. The album is named after drinking. Fuck, I’m just gonna go get a drink. Get plowed y’all! Drunk Rock is the shit.
Jordan Will Recommend This But Won't Even Bring Up Salty The Pocketknife? Something Is Wrong With The World: Danava - Danava
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/danava.jpg
Website: (http://www.myspace.com/danava) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/danava)
Read about these guys in the "LA Weekly" two weeks ago. Checked them out and was very surprised. They have an old school 70's psychedelic rock sort of vibe - but there's something strangely modern about the sound as well. Musically, I hear influences ranging all over the stoner metal map: Zeppelin, Sabbath, Deep Purple, even Mars Volta. Shit, and with a singer named Dusty Sparkles, you can't really go wrong. Nuff said.
Armand Upsets Me Because I Was Listening To The Cure's Cover Of Depeche Mode's "World In My Eyes" While Editing His Selection: Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/talktalk.jpg
Website: (http://users.cybercity.dk/~bcc11425/) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/talktalklaughingstock)
If you feel like listening to a band that forever changed the landscape of music, then turn off what you are listening to right now and put on Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock, which is arguably one of the greatest records of all time and without a doubt in my mind, the most beautiful. Laughing Stock is a record that makes its own environment and whose sum is greater than its parts. It is an unbelievable blend of organs, violas, blues guitars, harmonicas, trumpets, indecipherable vocals, and what have you. The music is quiet and sparse, yet abrupt and jarring. It is simply jaw-dropping and astounding that four people can start a new-wave band and end up being the greatest post-rock band of all time. If you like Explosions in the Sky, Yndi Halda, or any post-rock band of today, go and pay homage to their father, Talk Talk, by listening to this record, but prepare to be amazed.
Bill Pyle Finds The Shape Of Punk To Come, Part II: Folk Punk Residue: Defiance, Ohio - The Great Depression
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/defianceohio.jpg
Website: (http://defianceohio.terrorware.com/) :: Listen: (http://defianceohio.terrorware.com/audio.php)
An anarchist folk punk band that features a cello, a violin, has everyone sing, and they let you download all their records for free from their website. What more do I need to say?
Tom Butcher Butchers His Attempt At Being Snooty And Condescending: Pink Floyd - Animals
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/pinkfloyd.jpg
Website: (http://www.pinkfloyd.com) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/pinkfloyd)
I'm not quite sure why, but sometime around Sunday I got the biggest urge to listen to this record. It's hardly their best (that would go to Wish You Were Here, quite easily), but it is an absolute staple in any Floyd fanatic's library. For those of you who have it, give it a spin. For those of you who don't, here's what it amounts to: Roger Waters telling the entire world which of three stereotypes from Orwell's Animal Farm they fit into. Sound pretentious? Well, it is, but then again Pink Floyd was never a band to put on false airs. Anyway, it's got some solid lyrics, and some groovin' tunes, so pop it into the Stereophonic and see what happens. In any case, it's much better than the clusterfuck that was their next album...
Alex Davies Sounds Like Joe Pesci, Which Is Why He Loves Pop Music: Cassino - Demos
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/cassino.jpg
Website: (http://www.cassinoband.com) :: Listen: (http://www.purevolume.com/cassinoband)
When Northstar broke up, I was pretty sad. And whilst there were a good few other bands I could turn to for a similar fix, there was always an underlying yearning for the Alabama boys. So when I heard that a couple of those very same boys had taken up a new project, needless to say I was pretty happy. And when I heard said project, combining the stunning lyrics, gorgeous acoustic balladry and pop sensibilities that made me love Northstar so, happy didn't even cover it. The few demos floating around aren't nearly enough to satiate me, but until they get around to releasing a full length, I'll spin these a whole lot more.
Chris Conlan Reminds Me Of How Great Eyeball Records (And Dan Mirabelli) Is: My Epiphany - Miribilia
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/myepiphany.jpg
Website: (http://www.myspace.com/myepiphany) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/myepiphany)
Before I go into the CD, anyone have any idea what this band is up to? I haven't heard anything about them since the release of Miribilia, which was back in May 2005.
Well, I have to say that My Epiphany is probably the best unheard band. There was never much promotion for their album, which is a crying shame because Miribilia was easily a contender for album of the year in 2005. The one thing My Epiphany was great at creating was diverse songs. Track after track you are taken from an almost straight-up rock song to an experimental track.
I wish the guys come back strong here soon. I'm aching to hear some new material.
Daniel Alcinii Told His Liberal-Arts-College-Attending Hippie Of A Sister To Buy Him Elf On DVD Last Christmas, But Because Of The Tremendous Amount Of Illegal Substances In Her System, She Bought Him This Instead: Ef - Give Me Beauty…Or Give Me Death!
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/ef.jpg
Website: (http://www.efmusic.nu) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/ef)
If you don't know about Ef, you're missing out. These Swedes are phenomenal.
Ben Revisits His Pre-Music Days: For The Masses - A Tribute To Depeche Mode
http://www.decoymusic.com/images/ListeningStation/forthemasses.jpg
Website: (http://www.depechemode.com) :: Listen: (http://www.myspace.com/meatbeatmanifesto)
I bought this album when I was a sophomore in high school because the only two bands I listened to in those days were Ben Folds Five and Rammstein (they cover "Stripped" on this record). I bought anything and everything I could by the two. They would go on to shape my awesome vocal range, which I would waste by never singing after graduating high school. Anyway, this album's not only one of the best tribute albums I've ever heard (even though I still skip a ton of tracks), but it also introduced me to a lot of bands that would later shape the way I look at music. And the ones I'd heard before were ones I wasn't that interested in, but later became interested in because of their contributions to this. Here is a short list of bands I came to know because of this record: God Lives Underwater, Meat Beat Manifesto, Hooverphonic, Self, Apollo Four Forty, and Gus Gus, many of which you can find in my collection still today and some of which I just never got around to buying. Not enough for you? Too electronic? How about the ones I'd heard, but finally decided to give a very solid listen to? Smashing Pumpkins, Failure, The Cure, Deftones. Tell me that isn't impressive.
If not for this record, I would have continued to live my life thinking Fantastic Planet sucked. But after hearing their cover of "Enjoy the Silence," I stole my sister's copy of that and the rest is history. She never got it back.