Back, Circling Back.
January 12th, 2024
Well, something I didn’t anticipate this year was that I would fall off my new music routine once I finished my year-end list. Sure, I usually wait a week before diving back in but I have fully fallen off the Friday new-music train since late-December.
Instead I’ve been down a few different rabbit holes that I’ll get into in today’s dispatch. Since there’s no the latest section today, I’ll break up my writing into some sub-categories of circling back. Let’s get at it.
As always, view on the web to avoid the email cutting off some of this longer-than-usual dispatch. And let me know what you’re listening to over on the hellsite.
Revisiting Personal Favourites
Crying - Beyond the Fleeting Gales (2016)
Hard to describe how much I care about this album! There have been a few albums in recent years that I would point to as masterpieces for me personally (and particularly emotionally), and this is one of them (alongside Kicking Every Day.)
The mix of AOR influences here is just perfection; prog-pop song epics, soaring guitar lines, gorgeous lyrics from Elaiza Santos. I love when a band takes something deemed un-cool and makes it new again, and Ryan Galloway has always been open about their love of AOR/progressive/etc. stuff like Toto, Rush etc. and you hear it in these compositions and guitar riffs. I love that they mix that stuff with indie / power pop / etc. so well.
All of this culminates on “There Was a Door,” which was released on National Coming Out day and is a soaring, chill-inducing piece of pop-songwriting. When Crying kick into overdrive and sing “All I’ve wanted for the place I live / is respect for this vessel I’m in / A body of water, wild, immense, untamed” it sends shivers down my spine.
I know that Galloway has been busy with other projects (BUMPER, working with Long Beard, etc.) but if Crying dropped this album and never release anything else that's gotta be one of the biggest power moves in modern indie-rock haha. That said, I crave more from them because I also really love Get Olde / Second Wind.
The Red Light Sting - Hands Up, Tiger! (2004)
The Red Light Sting existed from around 2000 to 2004 and featured member Andy Dixon (before they went on to focus mostly on their glitch act Secret Mommy and after they were a member of Canadian punk band d.b.s.).
Their earlier EPs (including the Hot Hot Heat / The Red Light Sting split) fit into that synthy "sasscore" thing that was going on in the early 00s. Chaotic angular guitar riffs and gurgly synth lines. Some of their stuff immediately recalled The Blood Brothers and other songs were less intense and a lot more melodic which I think suited them best.
Hands Up, Tiger! was their swansong; it saw Dixon bringing in electronic elements that they would expand on as Secret Mommy, it dialed up the art-punk melody and post-hardcore riffing, and generally just felt like the band finally making one big attempt to get all their sounds down on one record (including a piano ballad.) They'd break up a month or so after release.
This is another situation where I can't tell if the album is criminally underrated or I just have a real fondness for the place and time in which it crossed my path. It does feel like they were a bit ahead of their time on some elements here and that this album didn't get a whole lot of credit... particularly when it comes to the guitar riffs, there's a ton of really cool work on here.
Teenage Cool Kids - Queer Salutations (2007)
Another "blog album" for me that I came across somewhere online circa 2008. Before A. Savage started Parquet Courts they were tossing off slackery emo indie rock equally indebted to Built to Spill than the emo/punk house show scene they were born of.
Even by the time Teenage Cool Kids followed this record up with Foreign Lands they were already leaning away from the sloppy and raw poppy indie rock and further into the Built to Spill worship. Which I didn't mind! It's just that there is something charming about this album they never captured again.
I will fully admit that when Parquet Courts came out, I held some kind of weird grudge about how people involved with this album seemingly never looked back (the only Teenage Cool Kids album I've ever seen on streaming services was the now fully straight faced Denton After Sunset. [which I also thought was really good for the record.]) It was just one of those moments... "Oh I guess the guy from Teenage Cool Kids is in a COOL and HIP band now that PITCHFORK likes HUH, well WHATEVER!" kind of thing. Eventually I came around on them with Human Performance, so ah well.
Anyway, this record... I love it. Catchy, buzzed out indie-pop with an emo edge. I love the drum performance on this album, with its tossed off and constant snare fills on "Reasons Why". Something about it just kills me, they're tight and loose at the same time. Hooky but not sugary. They have the grey-day midwestern indie thing going on at times, but they're not depressing. Their songs are infectious but they're not silly. They lean into fun instrumental passages, but they're not noodling around needlessly. Something about the balance struck on this album just hits me every time I revisit it.
Very, very underrated!
Strawberry Switchblade - Strawberry Switchblade (1985)
While I think this album has a number of really high highs that people latch onto - "Since Yesterday," "Let Her Go," "Go Away" - as a whole I just love everything about the tone and vibe going on. It's synth pop, it's got gothic undertones, dream pop elements, and a whole lot of other textures at play (even some pastoral elements on closer "Being Cold.")
This works so well for me because you really can't put your finger on any given song and know exactly what to expect. Maybe to some people it'll sound uneven, they'll wish it would pick a tone maybe. I think it's a really special pop record and whenever I come back to it, I wonder why outside of certain circles on the internet that it's not more heralded.
XTC - Mummer (1983)
No idea why people consider this to be a lesser XTC record because ever since I first heard it, I've absolutely loved it. I guess it's just one of those things where conventional wisdom has decided that English Settlement and Skylarking are "the" pastoral/studio-era XTC albums and that anything else is a let down?
Mummer is weird, sure, but still compared to the other two aforementioned albums it's not as wild a swing as people make it out to me. I dunno, I love the textures and the vague aquatic vibe and it really doesn't matter to me that there aren't a lot of songs that dip into their angular guitar-pop like they do on closer "Funk Pop a Roll"? That's not what I'm here for?
This album is wonderful and a masterpiece to me. Would I rank it as their best? Maybe!?!? But tough to say when they also made 4 other albums that I could pick as their best on any given day.
Punk & Pop-Punk etc.
I’ve been doing some mini-projects over on my Rate Your Music page, and one of them involves browsing through the genre-tag for pop-punk and listening to whatever catches my eye. Some of these are from that project and others just fit alongside one another. For more you can check out my list called 🍬 Listening to Records Labeled Pop-Punk on RYM That I've Never Heard.
Nils - Sell Out Young (1985)
Really cool EP from this seemingly underrated Canadian band. They have the ability to jump from poppier/alt-rock stuff like on the opening track "In Betweens" and faster, more expected punk/power-pop-punk songs like highlight "Fountains" or "Daylight". They've got a bit of that The Replacements / Husker Du 80s indie rock sound in here as well. A nice li'l surprise.
My Pal Trigger - There’s No Hope in Tomorrow (1996)
Scrappy and noisy emo-influenced pop-punk. sometimes it sounds like early Jawbreaker (the label credited on Spotify is called "Ashtray Monument") and sometimes it sounds like Buddah/Cheshire-era Blink-182 ("The Sometimes Slave").
These songs are pretty all over the map in terms of quality but there's a youthful ambition to it that makes me forgive its lesser songs with weaker hooks.
Making Friends - Fine Dying (2023)
Not sure why it surprised me (seeing that they're named after a Lagwagon song) but this is the most EpiFat sounding modern skate-punk band I have heard in a very long time. They're very fast, very hooky and they pepper in those slightly thrashy/heavier moments of palm muting and chugga-chuggas just like all the technical skate punk bands did in the 90s. They might not have super memorable hooks, but I was happy hearing a sound I have spent a lot of time listening to done properly by a modern band without sounding pandering or overly cheeseball.
RIYL: Belvedere, Lagwagon, Strung Out, NOFX, etc.
Uplift Spice - オメガリズム (2009)
This mixes different strains of pop-punk with massive J-rock effectively. Opens with a really huge, strong crunchy pop tune with massive guitars. The second track brings in some slight easycore vibes with the big, chugging riffs that circle around one another before hitting you with a big emotive chorus. They touch on speedy skate-punk drum beats and emo-rock here and there, but never so much that it distracts from the main attraction which are big melodies and riffs on riffs. really effective all around. Some of the dance-rock elements on songs like "クラインの心臓" weren't totally doing it for me, but the band rarely stays in one mode through an entire song so it is usually a momentary distraction. It's hard to deny the energy here.
The Thrash Metal Addiction
I can’t even remember what exactly spurred this on, but one day in early January my brain clicked and said “You need to listen to a shitload of obscure thrash metal all day every day for a week” and that’s exactly what I did. As usual, this sent me down more rabbit holes - Canadian thrash metal… Technical thrash metal… - but here’s a selection of my reviews from that whole debacle.
Target - Master Project Genesis (1988)
My thrash taste in life so far has generally been around loving the combination of "sick metal riffs plus punk/hardcore tempos" so I haven't strayed too far into technical thrash metal that often. I do love music that inches into that territory though - like when punk bands played with thrashy riffs and became technical skate punk, etc. - so it makes sense that when I found Master Project Genesis by Target at #1 on the Esoteric Thrash Metal albums of the 1980s list that it struck a chord with me.
Just oodles of dope ass riffs, lots of technical stop-start tempos and progressive-ish asides, and then a general air of thrash metal vocals and intensity. Also dug that they will pull back and play slower heavy shit like parts of "Absolution by Termination". It's really fun! A bunch of stuff I like put together well, played excellently, sounds great. Nice.
Razor - Violent Restitution (1988)
OK… this is some SHIT HOT thrash!!!! Has a chainsaw solo on "Taste the Floor". I can see why this has a thrashcore sub-genre because there's times where they kinda dip into hardcore breakdown riff territory (i.e. 1:28 into "Below the Belt.") Maybe that's why - despite being 14 or 15 songs long it still hit me right in the gut. Then they'll open "I'll Only Say it Once" with some classic cheese ass metal riffs before diving headfirst back into speedy thrash. Loved it. This right here is just a ton of fun. Highly enjoyable.
DBC - Dead Brain Cells (1987)
Was there something in the water here in Canada in the 80s? A lot of what has been catching my ear the most as I dive into some more obscure thrash records has been Canadian (see also: Razor.) Think I might have to do a deep dive into Top thrash albums of the 1980s from Canada.
BDC play a good mix of headbanging crossover thrash metal with a good bit of technical thrash thrown in for good measure and a nice amount of variety. "Tempest" is one of those showy instrumentals where they prove they've got some jazzy, punky chops (almost reminds me of a Descendents song like “Van” to some degree? weird.) I know there's always some expected level of punk rock and hardcore elements in thrash metal since that's part of the genre's foundation but there's a nice amount of that here and it all blends together nicely.
I spun most of their 1989 album Universe as well but the slightly more raw texture to this album hit me harder, though I'll have to try Universe again since it's generally regarded as better I think.
Aggression - The Full Treatment (1987)
You really need to adjust to the production on this thing, it sounds like it was recorded in a cave at a live performance or something. Very raw, filthy wall of noise sound for a band that is playing material considerably more interesting than your average blast of fast noise. I particularly like when the bassist takes off and does their own little melodic thing here and there.
Again, something going on in Canada in the 80s I guess because this is really intriguing stuff. They have the texture to get sludgy too, like they do very briefly when they slow down "Frozen Aggressor" for a second before launching into a speed metal solo. Some death-y moments here and there as well. "Green Goblin" is a sick highlight too, god damn. If you like your thrash metal nasty, this is a good ticket.
PileDriver - Metal Inquisition (1985)
One of a few "metalploitation" bands that followed the exploitation movie concept that you could sell enough copies of anything with a certain type of cover and make some money as long as you keep costs low. Cobra and Pentagram Records in particular did this, as I found out after seeing this record on the Top thrash albums of the 1980s from Canada list.
Now, I'm already a huge exploitation cinema guy so this concept is very appealing to me. Piledriver - from what I can tell - was built by some guys who played together in bar bands previously (Gord Kirchin, Leslie Howe, Louise Reny). I also read in another review on Rate Your Music that the drums on the album were entirely programmed vs. performed live and you can definitely hear it once you know that. Two of the aforementioned "members" would go on to work with Alanis Morisette.
But basically, this is over the top Satan loving metal that feels most like NWOBHM mixed with elements of Speed and Thrash (very vaguely on the latter.) It's incredibly silly with songs about how if you aren't a metal head you're gonna get your head cut off, or about having sex with Satan. The cover art says it all and it's honestly really fun and ridiculous.
If you take it at face value - a bunch of people got together and made a ridiculous B-movie version of a metal album - it's very entertaining. The riffs and soloing are across the board pretty solid and Gord Kirchin as the titular Piledriver has a lot of personality.
ZnoWhite - Act of God (1988)
Thrash metal with a female vocalist that manages to maintain the thrashy speed with relatively melodic hooks to these songs. I honestly wasn't so sure about this for the first song or two but it really grew on me and the use of more hooky vocal elements helped seal the deal. Another one that might not stick around in my memory for too long but while it was on I was enjoying myself. Something like "Rest in Peace" really balances the thrashy riffing and almost arena rock-level of theatrical melody well in a way that doesn't sacrifice it's authenticity as metal. Not bad at all.
Dark Angel - Time Does Not Heal (1991)
I think I must just gravitate towards technical thrash because of the constant starts, stops, change-ups and piling of riffs on top of riffs on top of more riffs... this fucking shreds. It was actually released with a sticker on the front that proclaimed: 9 songs, 67 minutes, 246 riffs!
Yeah, the songs are really long (maybe too long for their own good!) but surprisingly this hour long slab of technical thrash metal didn't wear me down until really close to the end.
Probably blasphemy for me to rate this higher than Darkness Descends, and maybe I was just paying closer attention to the riffing on this one, but the early 90s crisp production and massive riffs just hit today in the best possible way. I love some crusty shit too but this just hits what can I say!?
Absolutely enormous record right here, will be returning to this for sure.
Forced Entry - As Above, So Below (1991)
With a track one song title like "Bone Crackin' Fever" I thought I might be in for a kinda bluesy thrash metal song but imagine my surprise when a wildly technical and aggressive thrash song blew me away like that dude in the maxwell tape commercial. Again, technical thrash must just be right up my alley after years of listening to metalcore or mathcore where it's all about stuffing a hundred different sections and movements into songs to create something distinct as a whole.
They toss some groove and hardcore punk ("We're Dicks") elements in for good measure and when they slow down they remain nice and heavy with their riffage. I even didn't mind when they get wanky in a pseudo-Zappa-esque near-funky way like in the second half of "Macrocosm, Microcosm." Lots of sick start-stop riffs with harmonics and squeals.
They inch towards a sound I'm not as enamored with on the ballad-y "Never a Know, But the No" with its acoustic adorned verses. That's where they most sound like they're trying to get into Metallica's soup to me and they move in that direction here and there throughout the album.
At 45 minutes it's probably a bit overlong and the overstuffed nature of the songs probably adds to that. This element of the album and a few of the other things mentioned here are probably the only reason this didn't get past 3.5 territory.
🧷 #06 Punk Planet (1995 Mar-Apr)
I’m still slowly working my way through making Rate Your Music lists and playlists for issues of Punk Planet. Here’s the latest and you can read all the reviews here.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.
Whew this will send me down a lot of rabbit holes this weekend, thanks Dan!
Canadian metal is so massive that Darkthrone wrote a song about it. That's the final word, really. Has produced and is still producing some of the best heavy metal of all types in the world. Per capita, no other country besides Sweden and Norway has put out more incredible metal.