straf's (Totally awesomer than G's) Review Thread

[Suicide Club]

But yuu can't forget a BOTDF song..
They haunt yuu foar deh rest of yurr laife.
Wants me ta posts a sample? :3 //

[straf]

Uhh...?

[Suicide Club]

HMMMMMMMMMM?.. //

[straf]

._.

[Suicide Club]

That's a yesh. :333

//

[straf]

0_o

Also, the dood on the right looks like Prince.

[Suicide Club]

This one has better pictures of them.
And this is off of their album, OMFG, when the dude on the right.. wasn't in..
2008. //

[straf]

Cpt Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica

Released in 1969
Track Listing
Frownland
The Dust Blows Forward 'n the Dust Blows Back
Dachau Blues
Ella Guru
Hair Pie: Bake 1
Moonlight on Vermont
Pachuco Cadaver
Bills Corpse
Sweet Sweet Bulbs
Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish
China Pig
My Human Gets Me Blues
Dali's Car
Hair Pie: Bake 2
Pena
Well
When Big Joan Sets Up
Fallin' Ditch
Sugar 'n Spikes
Ant Man Bee
Orange Claw Hammer
Wild Life
She's Too Much for My Mirror
Hobo Chang Ba
The Blimp (mousetrapreplica)
Steal Softly thru Snow
Old Fart at Play
Veteran's Day Poppy

When you first listen to this album, you may notice two things. One: The fish on the cover is staring into your soul and Two: The "music" on this album is really straddling that fine line between "music" and "noise". The reason that both words are in qoutations is because that some people would argue that all "noise" -- if put together "artistically" -- could be considered "music", but dammit, if it sounds like a bowling pin in a washing machine, I'd much rather stamp it with the "noise" label than I would trying to justify the "music" in the record. Unfortunately for me, the "music" in Trout Mask Replica is undeniably there, and -- unlike Third Reich 'N Roll -- actually has some substance to it. And sadly, trying to describe the Captain's music to you would be like trying to describe color to a blind man -- it ain't happenin'. That being said, if you like blues and don't mind a totally shit-blowin', 7-th dimension, drugged-out exploitation of patience that is barely legal, then go for this, by God. Sure, it may get tedious after the first disc(Yeah! There's close to an hour and twenty minutes of this insanity!), it's still rather interesting. Good? Hell-to-the-no. Historcal? Hell-to-the-maybe.

C-

[straf]

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Grow Fins

Released in 1999
Track Listing
Obeah Man
Just Got Back from the City
I'm Glad
Triple Combination
Here I Am I Always Am
Here I Am I Always Am
Somebody in My Home
Tupelo
Evil
Old Folks Boogie
Call On Me
Sure 'Nuff 'n Yes I Do
Yellow Brick Road
Plastic Factory
Electricity2
Sure Nuff
Rollin n Tumblin
Electricity
You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond
Kandy Korn3
Korn Ring Finger
"Hobo Chang Ba" and "Dachau Blues" tuning up9
bush recording
Hair Pie: Bake 1
Hair Pie: Bake 2
noodling
Hobo Chang Ba
"Hobo" practice
Hobo Chang Ba
Dachau Blues
Old Fart at Play
noodling
Pachuco Cadaver
Sugar 'n Spikes
noodling
Sweet Sweet Bulbs
Frownland
Frownland
noodling
Ella Guru
silence
She's Too Much for My Mirror
noodling
Steal Softly thru Snow
noodling
My Human Gets Me Blues
noodling
When Big Joan Sets Up
silence
Candy Man
China Pig
"Blimp" playback
Herb Alpert
Septic tank
We'll overdub it 3 times
My Human Gets Me Blues
When Big Joan Sets Up
Woe Is Uh Me Bop
Bellerin Plain
Black Snake Moan I
Grow Fins
Black Snake Moan II
Spitball Scalped Uh Baby
Harp Boogie I
One Red Rose That I Mean
Harp Boogie II
Natchez Burning
Harp Boogie III
Click Clack
Orange Claw Hammer
Odd Jobs
Odd Jobs
Vampire Suite
Mellotron Improv
Evening Bell
Evening Bell
Mellotron Improv
Flavor Bud Living

What we have here, kiddies, is a box set. Not just any box set, though. No, it's a 5 disc, 4-hour-long(the fourth disc is only twelve minutes long >__>) box set of unreleased recordings, spanning their entire career! Yes, a band that was never popular in the first place somehow scrounged up enough money(and fans) to shit out an uber-expensive rarities release. That's mind blowing. If you have a few hours to burn, you should listen to this. The first two discs are from the Captain's blues period(as in, he plays actual music! :O) The next two discs are actually the sessions for that weird Trout Mask Replica(Yeah! A full hour and a half of that crazy-arse music, but without the vocals!). I'd stay away from that one unless you really, really like TMR. The final disc is a bunch of live recordings up until '82, when the Captain retired from the music business. It's just as weird as TMR, but a whole lot better. I don't really wanna go in-depth on this review. I mean, it's all outtakes and live stuff anyway. But in any case, it's an interesting look into the mind of the Captain, and this is a definitely high-priority album if you want to get into him(bar discs three and four).

Also, for outtakes, the quality is awesome.

Disc 1
Disc 2
Disc 3
Disc 4
Disc 5

B+

[straf]

Yay for low-quality reviews!

[straf]

Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde

Released in 1966
Track Listing
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Pledging My Time
Visions of Johanna
One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)
I Want You
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
Just Like a Woman
Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
Temporary Like Achilles
Absolutely Sweet Marie
4th Time Around
Obviously 5 Believers
Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

Back in the mid-sixties, Robby Z was really on a roll. It kind of makes you wonder how he completely destroyed his career later on in the seventies and the eighties. Anyway, as some of you probably know, Blonde on Blonde is Zimmers' most critically acclaimed. For a good reason, I guess, but it doesn't overtake Highway 61 Revisited in my books. But then again, Highway 61 is a bright album while BoB is a sleepy, hazy afternoon album, one you put on when the sun's going down. It's very crisp and very nostalgic.

Out of all of Zimmers' discography, this album is definitely the most "metaphorical". Right from the start, you get bombarded with a seemingly endless barrage of his surrealistic imagery full of jelly-faced women and dancing children in Chinese suits. Even if they don't mean anything, Zimmers' lyrics have an interesting way of creating that hazy afternoon atmosphere, especially when mixed with his wheezy voice and the laid-back instrumentation. In fact, this is a very laid-back album(a great soundtrack to a sleepy afternoon, as before mentioned), bar the electric blues numbers and their very caustic guitar playing. I don't think I've ever heard grittier guitar playing that what I've heard in "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" or "Obviously 5 Believers". I almost can't listen to them with headphones.

The only draw-back to BoB is the fact that Zimmers doesn't know when to quit. I think I may have mentioned that in another review, and this is very evident here. Several songs get to five minutes and beyond, one even cracking the ten-minute mark. Whether you want to call it filler or not is up to you("Temporary Like Achilles" seems to be the one that comes to mind for me), and that's really the only reason why I don't listen to this one much. It's too damn long. It's not longer than some other things, like... Sadinista!(which I've never even tried to finish in one sitting) or something, but the songs aren't that entertaining or that diverse that I'd sit through seven minutes of the same thing over and over again(*cough"MemphisBluesAgain"cough*). Take that as you will.

Nevertheless, it's still good, just not amazing like some people make it out to be.

A

[straf]

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot For New Zerø Kanada EP

Released in 1999
Track Listing
Moya
BBF3 OR Blaise Bailey Finnegan III

Slow Riot is an EP, yes, but seeing as it runs about the same length as their very first album(this is about 30 minutes long while F#A# clocks in at about 36), they might as well have released it as an album. But hey, no complaints here. Because it was an "EP", it was cheaper on the Constellation Records website, so I paid $12 for it as opposed to the usual $16/$14.

Anyway, this "EP" is depressingly beautiful, especially on the second track. "Moya" is much like F#A#, actually: Very dark, very deep, very slow. It crawls on at snail pace, somehow able to hit every nerve in your body with its sorrowfulness. It eventually picks up and crescendos with such power, that you have to wonder if humans made this kind of thing. "BBF3" is even better, being built around the semi-ecstatic ramblings about America by some crazy man. It climaxes soon after the man reads a "poem" that "he wrote", which it actually turns out to be a rip-off of some Iron Maiden song that my dad used to listen to all the time. Towards the end of the song(and the EP), it all wanders off and returns to the dark and slow-crawling pace that we found on "Moya". And that's how it all ends. Apparently, that dude being talked to on "BBF3" was also the dude that delivered the opening lines to "Dead Flag Blues" on F#A#. I find that interesting.

All in all, Slow Riot, much like the rest of Godspeed's work, isn't a release that you listen to, it's one that you experience. If you're going to listen to it, set about half an hour aside to do so. Do nothing while listen to it except focus on the music and you'll be highly rewarded. You have to open your mind to the purgatory that they're playing you, taking in every sound, change of key, change of pitch, change tempo... Everything. That's the magic of Godspeed.

BBF3

A-

[straf]

Lovin' the comments, guys. :D

[Zilla2112]

ballaz

[\m/(Dude)\m/]

Cool review dude.