The Summer Place
April 7th, 2024
Hey, hi, hello, it’s me again. Here’s some thoughts on music that I’ve been listening to, both new and old and of varying genres.
What’s new with me? Wow thanks for asking. Not a lot! We’re going to try lawn bowling this week (should the weather hold out) so that will mark a milestone in my life where I officially become an old ass man who does exclusively old ass man stuff.
I need a bike. There’s a co-op in town where you can pick up affordable bikes in varying degrees of disrepair - from “needs a lot of work” to “good to go” - that I need to go to. Definitely need to become a bike guy now that I live somewhere quieter and where the roads don’t feel like everyone is actively trying to murder bike riders.
That’s it, have a good week!
Icon legend:
⛏️ denotes picks of the week.
🌱 seedling denotes albums I liked, but may grow on me.
As always, please reach out on the hellsite if you’d like or better yet join the Rosy Overdrive Discord server where I can be found now and again. You can also find me in the corners of Rate Your Music scrounging for obscure emo, hardcore, indie-rock and pop-punk.
Don’t forget: if you’re reading this in your email it will be cut off. Read on the web for the full list of reviews!
🌱 Vacation - Rare Earth (2024)
Genre: Garage Punk, Punk Rock, Indie Rock, Garage Rock
Existential Risks and Returns landed on my 2021 year-end list, so this was one of 2024s more anticipated releases for me. Vacation are a bit of a tough act to pin down, as they are a real "not quite" band. Not quite a garage rock band, not quite a indie rock band, not quite a punk band, not quite a pop band. Kind of all of them and none at once.
This is another solid album from them, but I feel like it's a bit less muscular an album. Maybe I need to crank this one in the car some time though to really get the vibe right. There's some nice expansions of their palette through janglier or lightly psych-pop textures on songs like "Mobility" for sure.
Maybe their melodies aren't as sharp this time, maybe I prefer a slightly higher energy level. Maybe your mileage will vary on this. I liked it well enough but have some conflicting feelings. I know that I'm always ending middle of the road reviews on "will have to circle back on this album" but I really will need to do that.
Mammoth Penguins - Here (2024)
Genre: Indie Rock
Very nice, cromulent indie rock slash indie pop from this UK act. They cycle through some good energy levels but never get too snoozy or too overwrought or over-arranged. Simple stuff, but effective and breezy.
🌱 Terminal Nation - Echoes of the Devil's Den (2024)
Genre: Death Metal, Beatdown Hardcore
I listened to Holocene Extinction enough in 2020 that today I was surprised to realize that it wasn't included on my year-end list. Terminal Nation play the kind of death-influenced metal that I can vibe with, probably because as Rate Your Music user jp4761 points out, it's "death metal for hardcore kids." This stuff is heavy enough with enough meathead chugga chugga riffing to get the mosh retirement part of my lizard brain's synapses firing. To be honest I'm kind of surprised that this band gets labeled exclusively as Death Metal, but again I'm no expert.
Some of this is very "what you see is what you get," for sure. "Written by the Victor" just kind of hits you over the head with its riffing and then peaces out. I don't mind that, though over the course of 40 minutes? It can be tiring. Worst sin of this album would just be its sameness. They've stretched their style a little to its breaking point on some of these songs, as I look at Holocene Extinction and remember that they had more peppering of sub 2 minute songs on there for quicker blasts of intensity. Probably also don't need a 3 minute instrumental smack dab in the middle of the album. I can overlook some sameness and pacing issues for a good breakdown that screams "fuck every cop that has ever fucking lived", so there's that. Their overall attitude and brutish heaviness really carries a lot of this.
I feel like some editing on this album (didn't love the second half of that song with Jesse Leach either) would have done wonders and pushed it a bit over the top for me, score wise. Cut a couple tracks, replace them with a few short and grindy blasters, keep it around 30 minutes and I'd probably be rating this higher. The stuff that works here really hits hard, but the stuff that doesn't is disappointing.
The more time I spend with this though, the more I can feel softening up on the issues I have. This will be one to watch for me, as I could easily see it ending up on my year-end list but honestly, the jury’s out for now.
⛏️ The Mice - For Almost Ever / Scooter (2004)
Genre: Indie Rock, Power Pop, Jangle Pop, Pop Punk
One of those sorta-obscure power-pop/rock bands that when you hear them for the first time, you realize the deep shadow they have cast over so many bands you love.
This record is labeled For Almost Ever on streaming services, but it's actually For Almost Ever Scooter which is a compilation of their For Almost Ever EP and Scooter LP.
Realized after the fact that Boilerman covered "Not Proud of the U.S.A." on their 2016 album Feel Ways About Stuff. Great tune!
RIYL: The Fastbacks, The dB's, Superchunk, Guided by Voices.
⛏️ The Monkees - Good Times! (2016)
Genre: Sunshine Pop, Pop Rock, Power Pop
I don't think we talk enough about how good this is for an album released by The Monkees in the year 2016.
The fact that it works as well as it does having been made up of previously discarded or written material (Neil Diamond's "Love to Love" was put aside when the band went to work on Headquarters plus there's cuts by Harry Nilsson, Carole King and more) alongside new work from contemporary writers (Adam Schlesinger, Rivers Cuomo, Ben Gibbard, Noel Gallagher etc.) is a marvel.
I love how you can hear the influence of these writers in each song while still feeling utterly and completely Monkees-esque. Without knowing Andy Partridge of XTC wrote "You Bring The Summer," the sound is still unmistakable and there's more than a little Fountains of Wayne in "Our Own World," but it also can't be confused for anything but a classic Monkees tune. I'm not totally in love with Gibbard's "Me & Magdalena" but it sits nicely in the middle of the record as a kind of duet between Nesmith and Dolenz.
I think the worst thing you could say about this is that it's just a little shy of feeling cohesive; there's a bit of an all-over-the-map feel to the album, but hey it's a 50th anniversary celebration record so its bound to feel a little "greatest hits-y."
⛏️ Fountains of Wayne - Sky Full of Holes (2011)
Genre: Power Pop, Jangle Pop, Folk Rock, Indie Pop, Alt-Country
When this album dropped I didn't really think much of it, but over the years I have returned to it again and again. It's wonderful. Easily one of their most accomplished and addictive albums. To be honest, I don't think Fountains of Wayne were an "album" band outside of a few exceptions. Their debut is near-perfect stack of alt-rock power-pop songs. This record is similarly a near-perfect stack of jangly pop songs that seem to callback to shimmering 70s radio rock.
Between these two albums are three albums of varying cohesiveness but with a handful of choruses that are able to justify their existence with absolute ease. I'm not reaching for Traffic & Weather often, but it has 3 - 4 songs on it that I come back to again and again and again, and will continue to do so. Ditto for Utopia Parkway and Welcome Interstate Managers. But those songs that do hit? Some of the best pop songs you will ever hear, period.
It’s been 4 years now, and I'm still reeling about the passing of Adam Schlesinger... such an immense talent... gone. I've been quietly pained that there is no more Fountains of Wayne albums coming after this one, but in some ways Sky Full of Holes is a fitting bookend to their career and the flip-side to their self-titled debut - older, wiser, subtler, but still catchy as hell.
Chopper One - Now Playing (1997)
Genre: Power Pop, Pop Punk, Alternative Rock
Jason Cropper was a founding member of Weezer who was kicked out of the band while they were finishing up the recording of the Blue Album. They went on to record this album of fuzzy power-pop alt-rock with their wife Amy Cropper and drummer Tyrone Rio.
You can certainly hear elements of Weezer's knack for melodies here (Cropper is credited with the opening riff of "My Name Is Jonas" after all) and there's even a few songs that sound like direct references to Weezer. Unfortunately, this makes the cardinal sin of being a 45 minute (!!!) long power-pop album with few highlights and a lot of mid-lights.
If this was an EP it'd be an easy 3 or 3.5 stars maybe but it's just too long with far too much weak material.
Stairwell - Pacific Standard Time (2000)
Genre: Emo-Pop
Decent crunchy emo-pop / pop-punk with some satisfying hooks here and there. Shades of Hot Rod Circuit but they're a lot geekier in sound overall with a power-pop tinge. Didn't hold my attention all the way through, but it also isn't longer than 35 minutes which is good. Another "this could have been an EP" band though, for sure.
Audio Karate - Space Camp (2002)
Genre: Pop Punk, Emo-Pop, Skate Punk
It's interesting because when this came out in 2002 I distinctly remember watching the (probably postage stamp sized) "Nintendo 89" video online somewhere and my memory of it was always that they were a whinier/softer brand of emo/pop-punk.
A number of years back I tried some of their albums and was surprised to find they had a bit more of a muscular dual-guitar punk edge to their emo-rock than I remembered. I keep coming back to this album, hoping that one day it will click as being a really great emo-pop/pop punk album but I keep landing smack in the middle of it just being pretty decent. They've got some decent riffs, some almost sing-a-long-able hooks on songs like "Nintendo 89", "Halfway Decent" and "Hello St. Louis". When they keep the tempos up, pretty much everything here has a floor of "passable" if not above average. They have a really good run of songs but the second half just isn't as memorable as the first.
I can see why they were signed by Kung Fu Records because the label was at a bit of a turning point and branching away from pop punk (see also: Ozma) and Audio Karate are a pretty good meeting point between punk and emo-rock that was getting more and more popular.
The Lousy - Another Lousy Tape (2023)
Genre: Crossover Thrash, Blackened Crust, Stenchcore, Technical Thrash Metal
This has a sub-tag of Technical Thrash Metal but if this came out in the late 80s or early 90s people would probably be stoked on how fast and technical "Breaking Wheel" is or how sick the bass is on "Dogs of War." This is the kind of shit that I love because it takes the strengths of a few genres - thrash, crust, punk and hardcore - and then shuffles the deck of elements so you never get too numbed by any one thing.
The cover of Amebix's "Arise" is fine but the other two songs smoke. Album when?
Yet Another Vintage Thrash Metal Diversion (Non-80s and 90s Thrash Fans Can Leave Now lol)
Hexx - Morbid Reality (1991)
Genre: Technical Thrash Metal
When I first was dabbling in more thrash and tech thrash I tried this album out and I think it was just a bit much for me that day. This does approach technical thrash overload with some of the out-there places it gets to, but they really pull back into a lot of sick, heavy places. The death metal sub genre tag makes sense, and there's even an almost grind-level intensity on songs like the title track. I also liked how they pulled back into melodic territories like on the opening of "Fire Mushrooms." There's some dope jazziness to the drumming too that I feel like I don't hear a lot when it comes to thrash or death. Great stuff, and for as much as I seemed to encounter this album and its art on various lists and how revered it seems to be, I feel like sub-300 ratings feels weird to me.
Overthrow - Within Suffering (1990)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Death Metal
More Canadian thrash, but further on the extreme side of things with some death influence. Most of the 80s and 90s Canadian thrash metal I've listened to either sits on the technical side of the fence, has that punk/crossover vibe going on, or sits somewhere in the middle with the aggression cranked up (i.e. Razor). But this feels more straight up death thrash (thrash death?) and maybe brings to mind Hell Awaits-era Slayer? I'm not an expert on Slayer but in my memory they had this kind of vibe, so feel free to tell me I'm an idiot if I am being one if this sounds nothing like them.
Really fast and sick without ever sitting still for too long in one place so the blast beats don't wear you down as much as they might on more outright derivative material than this. I can see why Rate Your Music user Grungethrash1991's review mentions Dark Angel because there's a certain level of riff-density here that makes me think of them too. In that way, it make sense that I'm into this.
Asphyxia - Exit: Reality (1991)
Genre: Technical Thrash Metal
Wildly underrated thrash from Belgium - only around 110 people have rated this on Rate Your Music???
In some ways this is meat and potatoes Bay Area style thrash metal that leans into technical thrash with how dynamic it is, but it's really, really satisfyingly executed. Just a lot of sick riffs, dope change ups, ferocious performances when everyone locks together perfectly.
This is the kind of album that I imagine I'll circle back on a bunch when I'm just in the mood for something that hauls hard and keeps you interested the whole way through.
⛏️ Entropy - Ashen Existence (1992)
Genre: Thrash Metal, Technical Thrash Metal, Death Metal
If an album gets compared to Time Does Not Heal, I'm running there. Comparison definitely makes sense, though this has a lot more guttoral death-like singing to me. But the riff density is high and they really just go all-in on long, riff-laden songs with a few little acoustic accoutrements (acousticrements?) and some vague progressive moments like on the beginning of "Traces of Time." Dope stuff, all around and really right up my alley.
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.