Seventh Post: Five Singles (7/27)

This is a new segment I'm thinking about doing every once and a while, especially if there's a shit ton of new releases coming up like there are right now. Below I'll list five singles I've been really enjoying recently, and if it's a teaser track, where to pre-order the project it's from.

AJJ - "Goodbye, Oh Goodbye"
Folk-punk legends AJJ (formerly known as Andrew Jackson Jihad) return after their name change with a poppier sound, continuing in the direction started on "Christmas Island". This new track (produced by John Congleton, I believe) features Sean Bonnette's typically droll, unique lyrics and delivery while distorted bass and cello saw away. AJJ have altered their sound to match their new style very well, making a unique and exciting new sound. The band has seen success with this song mainly due to their music video accompaniment, parodying OK Go's intricate videos. This is the lead single to "The Bible 2", out August 19th on Side One Dummy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDVCpm10SQI
www.thebible2.buzz

Clipping. - "Baby Don't Sleep"
This alternative hip-hop trio, fronted by Grammy-winner and star of "Hamilton" Daveed Diggs (who went to my middle school!), released this song around three hours ago. This song takes a step back from the style of their last album, "CLPPNG", stripping away most of the layers of samples and melodic moments to make a dark, sparse, noisy track more reminiscent of their first release, "Midcity". The lyrics are typically dark and heady, referencing time passing and the nature of human existence. The production is very basic but still textured, featuring long stretches of a rumbling low end and sudden bursts of shrill feedback. This song is the teaser track for their new release, "Splendor and Misery", an apparent concept album about a post-apocalyptic Earth and a spaceship containing the last human piecing together what happened. The computer aboard the ship falls in love with the main character, and he discovers music to understand how humans view each other. Hopefully the concept comes across throughout the album, as this lead single is fantastic in its dark simplicity. "Splendor and Misery" comes out September 9th on Sub Pop and Deathbomb Arc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkVIRXPG7oY
http://deathbombarc.bigcartel.com/product/clipping-splendor-and-misery-cd-vinyl-cassette
https://megamart.subpop.com/releases/clipping/splendor_and_misery

Jeff Rosenstock - "Festival Song"
Former frontman of Bomb the Music Industry! Jeff Rosenstock has had a fairly successful solo career with the albums "I Look Like Shit" and "We Cool?". He brings a bright, fun, pop-punk style together with depressing, often hilariously wry lyrics about growing old, the world around him, friendship, drug and alcohol abuse, and music itself. He turns his eye on societal shifts and feeling useless in the face of endless change, forcing himself to believe that he is worth something. It's uplifting and depressing all at the same time. As a side note, I got to sing gang vocals on this track! It's currently pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp.
https://jeffrosenstock.bandcamp.com/track/festival-song

Death Grips - "More Than the Fairy (feat. Les Claypool)"
Following their excellent album "Bottomless Pit" comes this track from the experimental hip-hop group consisting of Stefan Burnett, Zach Hill and Andy Morin. This song features none other than Primus bassist extraordinaire Les Claypool as well! His contributions are fairly subtle, but the skittering, noisy bass line really make this song unique in Death Grips' catalog. It's fast-paced, propelled by Hill's trademark hit-everything-as-hard-and-as-fast-as-you-can approach to drums and Morin's freight train synth lines. The song is practically nonsensical lyrically, but the song sounds so great that its easy to let that fall by the wayside. There's no formal release for the track yet aside from a YouTube link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWkJghqMSpo

Russian Circles - "Mota"
Russian Circles tread a careful line between genres, landing somewhere between post-rock and hard rock, occasionally incorporating metal elements but all the while keeping their instrumental approach epic-sounding and expansive. Their latest single is a fantastic exercise in tension building and release - it's a great post-rock song, and one of the best songs the band has put out. It's easy to forget you're listening to three people. The multiple parts of this song all work together to create a simultaneously brooding and uplifting mood. "Mota" is the lead single off of "Guidance", coming out August 5th on Sargent House.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWoJs4QkvwE
https://www.hellomerch.com/collections/russian-circles

Sixth Post: Nails, "You Will Never Be One of Us" (2016)

Nails is the latest band to be branded "one of the heaviest in the world", but there's some basis to it with this group. Fronted by guitarist Todd Jones (formerly of Carry On and Betrayed), the band devotes itself to channeling one emotion: anger. One of my favorite sayings about the band is that they cut the "boring" parts of beloved hardcore genres, leaving short, violent and crazy intense combinations of metal and punk.

Their newest album finds Nails at their most focused and mature. Following the fantastic albums "Unsilent Death" (2010) and "Abandon All Life" (2013), Nails returned to record the album with producer extraordinaire Kurt Ballou, best known as the guitarist for Converge. The production on this album is reason enough to listen to it: it's one of the most intense recordings of the year. Everything seems turned up to its limit. The band focused on the mid-range this time around, ditching some of the higher end of "Abandon All Life" to favor a pummeling, feel-it-in-your-gut approach. Guitars sound violent in an almost Entombed sort of sense, the bass and drums are destructive and varied throughout the album. It's so expertly played and seamlessly linked together that its easy to fall into the rhythm of the album.

But the songs are so catchy and memorable that they'll stick with you after the fairly short runtime is up. "Life Is a Death Sentence" features a blistering opening section, replete with blast beats and quickly strummed guitar passages until the song slows down to incorporate a really memorable, noisy guitar riff. The dichotomy of speeds on "Parasite" is excellent, and it features one of Jones' most impassioned performances. The speedy guitar solos of "Violence Is Forever" are a personal highlight as well. The eight-minute closing track is fantastic, incorporating more metal subgenres to create a caustic, double-bass driven extended breakdown. The title track is one of the best songs Nails has ever written.

I was lucky enough to catch Nails live on their tour up the West Coast in support of this album, and their live show is pretty fucking nuts. If you get the chance, go see them. If you're a fan of, or simply interested in "heavier" music, this is a great album.

Excellent, badass, and pummeling metal record. Link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGGGh03jN4w ("You Will Never Be One of Us" video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJIT8mX2w-U ("Life Is a Death Sentence")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gkN8aH1G1I ("God's Cold Hands" live)

http://tinyurl.com/hjqfbah (MEGA)
http://tinyurl.com/jbusscj (FileFactory)

Fifth Post: The Dan Friel Megapost, Part One (2008-2015)

Dan Friel made it big as a key member of Parts & Labor, a fantastic, now defunct, Williamsburg-based art-pop and noise-rock band. He played keyboards and guitar while lending his voice as well, creating monstrous and yet joyous walls of sound, invigorating the DIY scene in the early aughts. 

Years after the amicable dissolution of P&L in 2012, Dan Friel is still creating fantastically abrasive and fun songs under his own name. Since 2001, he's been making music using his trusty 1984 Yamaha PortaSound (a Christmas present) among a slew of bass overdrive and delay pedals to make demented part-Nintendo part-Prurient pop songs. He created a trilogy of albums spanning seven years that not only provide milestones in Friel's musical career but his life as well. 

"Ghost Town" lands in the same year as P&L's "Receivers" (2008), but provides a nice parallel with spaced out, methodical, and gorgeous tracks. It's not easy listening by any means (the album starts with a long peal of distorted feedback), but if you give the album a shot, it's likely to surprise you. Friel occasionally calls his style "folk electronics", and this album displays that best of all. The melodies take center stage, from the calm, atmospheric beauty of "Horse Heaven" to the straightforward, rock-inspired riffs of "Buzzards". This album balances beauty and noise incredibly well. 

His next album, "Total Folklore" (2013), was inspired by walking. Simply walking around New York provided the inspiration for the record, which came out almost exactly one year after P&L's final show. The first track, "Ulysses", is evidence enough of Friel's growth. There's a monstrous beat to provide a steady "walking" pace, while buzz saw synths mix with the chiming of bells and a brooding low end. The album takes off after the monolithic first track, providing one high-energy noise/dance track after another. This album is different than "Ghost Town" in that it is faster, noisier, and more dance-inspired. Friel is also much more open to experimentation with his equipment; for example, there's a fucked-up, frantic drum beat in the middle of "Thumper", suddenly dropping off into a spacious, distorted kick-drum-led bridge. "Total Folklore" expands on the faster elements of earlier work while maintaining a focus on melody.

"Life", Friel's newest release, is maybe the most straightforward, but Friel's singular approach to pop songwriter comes through very well. While tracks like "Cirrus" and "Rattler" sound like insane club songs from the future, "Sleep Deprivation" is one of the heaviest and most distorted tracks in his entire discography. While "Total Folklore" had an impenetrable, heavy feel to it, "Life" is much happier in nature, especially on the two-part title track, which is one of my personal favorite Dan Friel songs. It's outwardly joyous and remarkably adventurous, taking the limitations of his setup and proving he is one of the most interesting songwriters around today.

This post is only covering Friel's solo album work - the second part (which will come out at some point) will have a ton of stuff from Parts & Labor, and maybe some early EPs from Friel.

Unorthodox, unique and really fun. Videos and download link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCQAYw-OqJw ("Ghost Town")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID61WQd8XTw ("Thumper" video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKwtovYaHmM ("Life Pt. 2" live w/ horns!)

http://tinyurl.com/jfvhge3 (MEGA)

Fourth Post: Wavves, "King of the Beach" (2010)

The blog definitely did not change names. The blog was definitely not called "A Wet Goldfish" and is now called "Tom Posts Music Here". That did not happen. There is definitely not a new rule of posting a YouTube link so readers can check out the music before downloading it. That is not new, it has always been the case. I totally had this all figured out from the very start. If you need links, still email me at awetgoldfish@gmail.com, but other than that, same shit, new name.

This wouldn't be an indie blog without a post jerking off over Nathan Williams. Mastermind of San Diego-based surf rock and pop-punk band Wavves, Williams has been a real success story in the indie rock blog scene of the late aughts and early '10s.

Beginning in 2008, Wavves (named after Williams' fear of the ocean) took bedroom pop and rock and fused it with a California surf rock and punk vibe. This caught the attention of a few burgeoning websites hitting their stride such as Pitchfork, and the combination of surf rock revival and internet attention thrust Wavves into a sudden spotlight. After a few missteps (including insulting an entire crowd at Primavera Sound, being pelted with bottles onstage, and admitting an alcohol addiction), Wavves truly hit their musical apex in 2010.

Before delving into this album, I should note that Wavves' output post-2010 is definitely worthwhile. Albums following "King of the Beach" are great in their own right, with "Afraid of Heights" incorporating more elements of late 90s indie rock and "V" moving towards an impeccably tight, pop and pop-punk focus. But thinking back to 2010, Wavves seemed to be stuck; drummer Zach Hill (of Hella and Death Grips fame) had left the group and Williams was seemingly adrift, and "King of the Beach" was the completely unexpected and important step forward.

"King of the Beach" finds Wavves ditching the gritty, lo-fi recording style found on the self-titled in favor of a bright, loud, sun-bleached recording from Dennis Herring, a great producer behind Modest Mouse and Counting Crows records. The album is really well-played. The guitar lines are fuzzed out and distorted but have a great clarity to them. The synth lines are subtle and textured. And the rhythm section is fantastic, made up of Stephen Pope and Billy Hayes, Jay Reatard's old rhythm section before his untimely death. The genius in this album lies in its willingness to bend genre rules to fuse Adolescents-style punk with old-school surf rock while incorporating some great lyrics and excellent, singular production.

There are so many great moments on this album. The background vocals on "Idiot" against the hard-as-hell drum and guitar lines is a particularly weird and badass moment. "Post Acid" is a lighthearted and incredibly catchy single, managing to incorporate shout-along choruses with sharp, angular guitar riffs. "Green Eyes" is more somber in vocal delivery while the instrumentation, full of bells, electronic claps, and delay keep the song from being brooding. The last track, "Baby Say Goodbye", has one of the most memorable and fantastic melodies on the entire album before melting into a fuzzed-out, delay-ridden and beautiful cacophony by the end.

I found this album my freshman year of high school and I loved the hell out of it, and every time I listen to it I find something I missed; it keeps me coming back.

Great surf rock and pop punk album. Songs and download links below:

Try it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFuIEnMTiYg ("Post Acid" music video)
And: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsLvljKISz8 ("Super Soaker")

http://tinyurl.com/zucss3s (MEGA)
http://tinyurl.com/h4vq6zd (FileFactory)

Third Post: Iglooghost, Selected Discography (2014-2016)

After thinking about it, I realized the title of this blog is kind of lame. I'm keeping it, cuz I already made an email based around it and the whole aesthetic will be off. Shit, I have to stop using the word aesthetic if I want to keep an audience.

Iglooghost has a really fucking unique aesthetic. At just 19, he's not only the youngest (by far) on Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder label, he's one of the most forward-thinking. He takes a maximalist approach to producing beats, throwing every genre he can think of into his tracks; from pop, to breakcore, to R&B, to hip-hop and rap. He's been putting out music on labels like Activia Benz and Fly High Society since he was around 15. He's unabashedly blasphemous when it comes to most aspects of traditional electronic music, creating something unmistakably modern and exciting.

"Modern" might be a good word to describe this music, because nothing else really sounds like it. Then again, if one of your releases is based around the story of a gelatin worm bounding through universes (with each song acting as a portal into a universe), you might not sound much like anyone else. Iglooghost is tongue in cheek, but the passion here really shines through.With accompanying art made by the man himself, listening to Iglooghost is really like discovering an insanely chaotic, fully realized world.

From the more easy-to-digest beat tape "Treetunnels" to the grime-based track "Ell", I tried to make a greatest hits so far type deal here. If you're curious about Iglooghost and the rise of alternative electronic dance music, go support him! And others like him! Mr. Yote! Kai Whiston! Do it!

Absolutely nuts and fun as hell dance/electronic music. Link below.

http://tinyurl.com/h3chaqu (MEGA)

Second Post: Television, "Marquee Moon" (1977)

I wanted to start the blog’s “downloadable” posts off with an album I’ve been revisiting a lot recently - Television’s debut 1977 art punk record “Marquee Moon”. Coming out the same year as the Sex Pistols’ “Never Mind the Bollocks” and Wire’s “Pink Flag”, this album, in my mind, is the most subtle and heady.

There’s reason behind this: founding members Richard Hell (of the Voidoids) and Tom Verlaine met at Sanford School, a prep school in Delaware, and both aspired to be poets. They began playing shows at CBGB and found an audience there. After Richard Hell’s departure to form new groups (if you’re curious, Hell’s autobiography I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp delves more into detail), Verlaine and Television worked closely with Patti Smith, signed to Elektra, and put out “Marquee Moon”, a record that was critically acclaimed and sold well in the UK.

All this history seems kind of pointless, but the context is important here as this album was incredibly influential in not only the punk and rock scene at the time but today as well. Listen to “Venus” or “Elevation” and it sounds like it could’ve been recorded in the past few years. The ideas are still so fresh and present in the music here.

Of course, there are the unique quirks that make Television, well, Television. It’s all deceptively smart - there are hints of blues and jazz all over the record, like on songs like “See No Evil”, where the bluesy riff sounds like some sort of demented Rolling Stones parody. The guitar tone is a wonderful mix of gritty and polished, and almost all the solos on the album are amazing. The drum roll into the wonderfully melodramatic lead guitar and piano lines at the beginning of “Torn Curtain” is a personal highlight.

One of the best art punk and alternative rock albums ever. Two download links of the 2003 remaster below.

http://tinyurl.com/zjcs6o8 (Zippy)

http://tinyurl.com/zwaspoa (MEGA)

First Post: Favorites of 2016 (So Far)

I wanted to start the blog off with a favorite albums of the year list, for some reason. If there’s something you think I missed or would really like, let me know in the comments. No links in this post, but a lot of these albums will be discussed or shared in a later post. I’ll post my favorite albums of 2015 list below, in case you’re curious.

Favorite albums of 2016 - so far:

Honorable mentions: Brood Ma, “Daze”; CHIPPENDALE GUSTAFSSON PUPILLO, “Melt”; Florist, “The Birds Outside Sang”; The Body , “No One Deserves Happiness”; Matmos, “Ultimate Care II”; J Dilla, “The Diary”; ANOHNI, “HOPELESSNESS”; Cliff Martinez, “The Neon Demon OST”.

25) The Body & Full of Hell - “One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache”

24) Animal Collective - “Painting With”

23) Roly Porter - “Third Law”

22) Andy Shauf - “The Party”

21) Open Mike Eagle & Paul White - “Hella Personal Film Festival”

20) DEAKIN - “SLEEP CYCLE”

19) Teen Suicide - “It’s the Big Joyous Celebration, Let’s Stir the Honeypot”

18) Lemon Demon - “Spirit Phone”

17) Nails - “You Will Never Be One of Us”

16) Parquet Courts - “Human Performance”

15) Beyonce - “Lemonade”

14) Tim Hecker - “Love Streams”

13) Bent Knee - “Say So”

12) Big Ups - “Before a Million Universes”

11) Elucid - “Save Yourself”

10) Vektor - “Terminal Redux”

9) Kendrick Lamar - “untitled unmastered.”

8) PUP - “The Dream is Over”

7) David Bowie - “Blackstar”

6) Swans - “The Glowing Man”

5) Xiu Xiu - “Plays the Music of Twin Peaks”

4) Death Grips - “Bottomless Pit”

3) The Drones - “Feelin Kinda Free”

2) Aesop Rock - “The Impossible Kid”

1) Car Seat Headrest - “Teens of Denial”

2015’s end of year list:

50) Sannhet - Revisionist

49) Krallice - Ygg Huur

48) Sunn O))) - Kannon

47) Pile - You’re Better Than This

46) Algiers - Algiers

45) Busdriver - Thumbs

44) And So I Watch You From Afar - Heirs

43) Bosse-De-Nage - All Fours

42) Dan Friel - Life

41) Ash Koosha - GUUD

40) Wavves - V

39) Roomful of Teeth - Render

38) Lightning Bolt - Fantasy Empire

37) Deafheaven - New Bermuda

36) Billy Woods - Today, I Wrote Nothing

35) Everything Everything - Get to Heaven

34) LIL UGLY MANE - THIRD SIDE OF TAPE

33) Liturgy - The Ark Work

32) Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Multi-Love

31) Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress

30) Tame Impala - Currents

29) Mylets - Arizona

28) Prurient - Frozen Niagara Falls

27) Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Style

26) Earl Sweatshirt - I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside

25) Colin Stetson and Sara Neufeld - Never were the way she was

24) Battles - La Di Da Di

23) Cavanaugh - Time & Materials

22) Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness

21) LEVIATHAN - Scar Sighted

20) ZS - Xe

19) Loma Prieta - Self-Portrait

18) Destroyer - Poison Season

17) Hop Along - Painted Shut

16) Power Monster - White Single Female

15) Young Fathers - White Men Are Black Men Too

14) Ought - Sun Coming Down

13) Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell

12) NAH - LIGHT AS FUCK

11) Gostu-Totsu-Kotsu - Retributive Justice

10) Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

9) Black Wing - ...Is Doomed

8) Kamasi Washington - The Epic

7) Milo - So the Flies Don’t Come

6) Jeff Rosenstock - We Cool?

5) Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden of Delete

4) Clarence Clarity - No Now

3) Death Grips - The Powers That B

2) LIL UGLY MANE - Oblivion Access

1) Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear