One Stupid Mop

We like music. You should too.

Obits - I Want Results

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The first album from Obits, a band that includes members of Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes, two longtime rock favorites of pretty much everybody who's watching the great indie rock underground, met high expectations because of the teaser 7-inch, "I Blame You"/"Get It In Writing." No shock, but it delivered. Hard.

So with the mix of surf and garage rock set for a sequel, Obits decided to deliver again, this time harder, with Moody, Standard And Poor. 

This is the album you'll want to be dancing to. There's just no way around it. I mean, sure, the lyrics are a little bitter, what with the regrets and the giving up on dreams and begging for a break but hot damn are these some bad ass rock and roll songs from some bad ass rock and roll men.

"No Fly List," "Killer", and "You Gotta Lose" stand out for their shimmying in your face on an album full of such tracks. Even when Obits goes instrumental "I Blame Myself" or nearly instrumental on "Spot The Pikey" (which, for my money, is a surf-y "Bankshot"), Moody, Standard and Poor is the right album for the end of a long week.

Yes, it's still Thursday. Which means you've got time to make this the Friday soundtrack. See that, I've got your back. Or at least your ears.

Buy Moody, Standard and Poor on mp3, CD or the all glorious vinyl from Sub Pop Records.

Death From Above 1979 - Blood On Our Hands

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For the last 24 hours, my Windows laptop has been uploading about 760 mp3s (about 4.2 gigabytes) to my Amazon Cloud Locker. Since I've been playing around with it, and did a very fast review of what was actually hitting the cloud, I ended up listening to very little new music today. 

(OK, the truth is I've been listening to the new TV On The Radio album all day, but I'm not ready to write anything about it yet, so just go with me on this. The album is stunningly mind blowing and on level with much of their greatest efforts. But really, I need to listen to it more before I pontificate.)

The one full length Death From Above 1979 put out, You're A Woman, I'm A Machine, is a mind bender, and an automatic add to any iPod, cell phone or cloud service that I'm filling with music.

So what has me posting about DFA1979 is that while I thoroughly enjoyed that album while working on community news about traffic calming devices and city bus routes was the riot that happened outside their set at South-By-Southwest, wherein the band played and people freaked the hell out. After the earth-shattering news that they were getting back together for a few big shows though, who could be surprised?

Enjoy the rock and roll. Buy this album is you don't already have it. For real, you need it. Now. Then you'll understand why, like me, you'd riot for these Sebastien and Jesse too.

Buy You're a Woman, I'm a Machine from Shockhound.

Wagon Christ - Manalyze This!

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Luke Vibert has two speeds: super fast jungle, which was mostly done under the name Plug, and which he really hasn’t done since the mid-90s; and everything else, which is just slower, and usually comes close to hip hop and techno, though often abstract and sometimes very danceable.

Wagon Christ, a great moniker if ever one has been created, has been home to abstract hip hop and sometimes ambient efforts for the full length of Vibert’s career. On Toomorrow, the first WC full length in seven years, it sounds like Vibert could bust out with Plug-style drum ‘n’ bass at any second. This album veers back and forth between dancey and laid back, but is never confusing and flows unshockingly well.

Vibert is an evil genius, somewhere between Richard D. James and Tom Jenkinson for actually portraying evil, but all three are equally responsible with a few others, for creating the mind-bending and stupidly-named but none the less obsessive attraction of Intelligent Dance Music.

While recording Wagon Christ, Plug and a few other names, Vibert explored rhythms and sampling in ways that require the listener to want to be there, much like his contemporaries. Put on any of his albums and watch the room clear, leaving only those aurally adventurous enough to nod their heads and wonder how long that beat can continue for.

“Manalyze This,” the third track on Toomorrow, is almost a pure techno track, and wouldn’t sound out of place in the 90s. This new album deserves to sit comfortably on the shelf with Musipal and Tally Ho!. It’s refreshing. Now if only Vibert would really drive us nuts with a new album from Plug, it would really feel like 1996.

Buy Toomorrow from Shockhound.
Buy other Wagon Christ albums from Shockhound.
Blow your mind with the classic Plug track “DBC.”

Folk Implosion - Nothing Gonna Stop

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My children like to go through my CD racks and pull out the albums that interest them. By interest, I mean whatever album art catches their eye. The four faces on the soundtrack to the 1995 movie "Kids" gets them every time. This time, I didn't put it away though and instead threw the disc in the stereo.

Since Netflix doesn't even have "Kids" to rent on DVD, let alone stream, which is really piss poor, I couldn't immediately meet the urge to watch what is easily a favorite movie. And no, it's not a favorite simply because it offended and scared the hell out of so many parents and downright old people. "Kids" is entertaining. Though it was nothing like my real life at any point, I find it at least a little believable that it's a little like somebody's life.

The soundtrack, like so many others of the mid and late 90s, is exquisite. Two tracks from Daniel Johnston, two slow-burning and understated but no less significant ones from Sebadoh and Slint, and the handful of tracks from a then-unknown Folk Implosion, Lou Barlow's not really post-Sebadoh until it was post-Sebadoh groove-heavy hip hop influenced not-a-rock band.

The big hit was, and is, "Natural One," which is simple and sneaky and undeniable in bassline and beat. Barlow is calm, or stoned, in his delivery. Like a teenager about smack to the shit out of somebody with the wrong side of a skateboard. Or at least like a different teenager carelessly spreading his AIDS throughout his filth-mongering drunken hoard.

"Nothing Gonna Stop," the third track on the album, is no less steady or hauntingly perfect than "Natural One." The Folk Implosion, as good as they were on the albums after the "Kids" soundtrack, were never as good as on these two tracks. Forgive me for basking in the 90s, but you're not gonna try to tell me this song doesn't feel like perfect teenaged bliss, are you?

The soundtrack to "Kids" is out of print, but you can buy it from Amazon, as well as lots of other Folk Implosion stuff. Do that here.

Screeching Weasel - What We Hate

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Ben Weasel's whole gig has been hating on everything. Last weekend at South by Southwest, he took it to a new level by punching two girls in the face after getting heckled, and the second one he hit more than once. As a result, his band has quit and pretty much nobody is accepting the apology. Look, that bitch who threw ice at him and then spit beer deserved to be escorted out, but Weasel should be able to be a professional.

I've loved Screeching Weasel (and the Riverdales, and the solo stuff) since the first time I heard Boogada Boogada Boogada sometime in 8th grade. It's still one of my favorite records, and that and both My Brain Hurts and How To Make Enemies And Irritate People have never been off any iPod I owned because I crave them. I listen to their records all the time. I even follow Weasel on Twitter, despite the fact that he comes off like a douche bag most of the time - which has always been his deal. I don't agree with a lot of what he thinks, especially when it comes to politics and usually when it comes to music, but his music has always been pretty good. New Times summed up just what he's known for pretty well. Check it.

There's a good chance I'll keep listening to those old records. There's also a good chance I'll talk a bunch of shit about Weasel while listening to them. What an asshole.

Don't buy anything from Screeching Weasel. Steal it if you can find, but don't give that dickhead a penny.

Less Than Jake - Magnetic North

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I like to skank and drive, and with the discography of Less Than Jake taking up something like two-thirds of a gig on my cell phone right now, there's a good chance that I'm going to get some kind of ska-core thundering through the speakers of my unassuming Saturn and out the open windows into the world. Which means I'm gonna get some strange looks at red lights while bouncing around behind the wheel like a fool.

LTJ formed and built their legend in Gainesville, Florida, the sprawling college town that is home to the greatest university on the face of the planet. (Full disclosure: I'm a Gator - Class of 2003. Deal with it.) Studio output notwithstanding, it's the live show that gets people coming back to the band over and over, even if they don't own a single, physical record. Every show is a party, as I'm sure the one I missed last weekend in Fort Lauderdale was, and once you've been to one, you NEED to go back.

"Magnetic North" comes from the band's Fat Wreck Chords debut Borders and Boundaries. In the best way I could possibly put this, it's another hard-charging pop-punk horn-filled effort from the band. There are a lot of songs on B&B about getting out of whatever town you're in or doing some vague something, and this is one of them.

Partially, I'm posting this song because I think it applies to everybody who lives in Florida, myself included, who complains about this ridiculous state. That said, I'm not gonna go too deep on the lyrical content though because, while they cover some stuff, I'm really posting this because I think the world could use a good skank to blow off steam. Watch the news for a second and you'll know why. For the record, I mean the dance, not the woman. Though I can think of a few people that could use that kind of skank too. Again, watch the news, you'll see a few of the people I refer to. Awesome.

Buy Borders and Boundaries from Shockhound.
Buy other Less Than Jake albums from Shockhound.

Pinhead Gunpowder - Kathleen

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Green Day put out a live album and DVD called Awesome As Fuck today. The album includes songs from every one of the band's albums, played faster and louder than any of the studio versions, with screaming fans shouting every word at them. I opted not to post a track from it because, aside from the videos they posted, it seemed like overkill. Also, I've already made my case for them.

Instead, here's a track from Pinhead Gunpowder, a band made up of Aaron Cometbus, Bill Schneider, Jason White and, obviously, Billie Joe Armstrong. They formed a few years after Green Day, in 1990, though they've obviously taken a back seat to Armstrong's day job.

Pretty straightforward, melodic pop punk, PG is probably a nice break for Armstrong because he's not the center of attention. Then again, Schneider and White both work with him in Green Day (Schneider is their tour manager and White is the "other guitarist" that tours with them), so it's not totally different from what he's usually doing.

Though they have put out albums sporadically in their 20 years of existence, Pinhead Gunpowder got a little mass attention in 2008 with the release of the Kick Over The Traces collection while the world waited for Green Day's follow-up to American Idiot, 21st Century Breakdown.

From the first time I heard it on its original release on the Shoot The Moon EP, "Kathleen" caught my ear because of a well-used harmonica - which to me gives it a bit of Springsteen. Where the Boss comparison drops is that the song is supposedly about Kathleen Hannah, the original riot grrrl and frontwoman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, wife of Ad-Rock (yes, that Ad-Rock) and the person who inadvertently named Nirvana's biggest song when she wrote "Kurt smells like teen spirit" on Kurt Cobain's wall. She's a big fucking deal, and yes, I love her too.

The song is about a lesbian who saves the singer's life and how he'd like to love her but can't because he's a dude. It's weirdly romantic in an empty-headed teen punk way, and the harmonica kills. It's some next level shit as far as I'm concerned. And it's almost as good as "Christie Road."

Buy Pinhead Gunpowder's Shoot The Moon EP or their other albums from Amazon.
Buy Green Day's Awesome As Fuck from Shockhound. 

The Hold Steady - Your Little Hoodrat Friend

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I spent much of my 5-day vacation on Long Island last week trying to figure out the right song to link to the trip. The problem, for my college-damaged memory, is that the year I spent there was the beginning of a stretch of pseudo-laziness, mostly in tracking and obsessing over my listening habits. I was head-long into turning myself into a community reporter. What the hell did I need to waste time on anything beyond just listening to great records?

Regrets aside, what I remember is "With Teeth," "American Idiot," "The Empire Strikes First," "To The Five Boroughs," and an endless stream of burned mix CDs, though what, exactly, was on them is long gone. Until, that is, one of my absolute favorite tracks from The Hold Steady hit my iPod yesterday while running errands yesterday and it hit me: Two tracks from The Hold Steady, ripped from magazine samplers, spent a lot of time on repeat in my car while driving up and down the North Fork and around Riverhead during those 12 months.

As I've written previously, I hold Separation Sunday up as the high water mark for The Hold Steady, despite how good an album Boys and Girls In America turned out to be. I'm hopeful that these guys can turn out another album that lives up to either. Maybe they should record it somewhere other than Brooklyn, just like those two classics. Not that I would blame them if they ignore the suggestion.

Buy Separation Sunday at Shockhound.

The Strokes - Taken For A Fool

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I was on Long Island visiting family when Angles, the new album from The Strokes finally leaked. It was another 12 hours before I filled my ears with NYC's favorite sons on the plane back to Fort Lauderdale. What I got, from the first track to the last, is the best album the band has released since Is This It, and I loved Room On Fire. A lot.

What I've seen in the last several days though, with the exception of a really strange review from Rolling Stone's David Fricke, is a bunch of overly bitter hipster critics telling the world that The Strokes sound bored and the album is mediocre at best. Are you guys for real? It's one thing when fans, who have been trained to expect the Is This It until they're told not to, express disappointment. In another week, when they're still listening to it, something will hit them in the face. That's fine. But critics, have you lost your damn minds?

Unless you hate The Strokes, and if you do then you likely haven't read this far anyway, Is This It was probably the first perfect record of the new decade and century when it came out. All 10 songs are flawless and, for the time, sounded like nobody else getting mass market attention. The follow-up, Room On Fire, was a progression, though slight, from its predecessor, and was referred to as a copycat album. The great irony is that on the third album, First Impressions of Earth, The Strokes tried to completely remake things and, though they were commended for the effort, the album tanked and the band took a much needed break.

Around the point that people started wondering if they'd ever be back together, because nearly all the members had been putting out solo albums and apparently not talking, word came that the band had started to slowly work on new stuff. Based on the interviews that have come out in the last several weeks, leading up to next week's actual release, Angles was not an easy album to write and record.

The big difference this time around is that rather than the other four Strokes building on top of frontman Julian Casablancas song ideas, everybody contributed and sort of worked together. What we've got, really, is an album that brings in all sorts of stuff from the first three albums - most notably that classic Strokes sound of the first two albums - that meshes with influences as disparate as reggae, 70s AOR and all sorts of 80s stuff. Like any great record, the more you listen, the more you get. And boy, is there a lot here.

On Is This It, there's a part of the band that sounds unsure of itself. On Room On Fire, they new exactly what they were doing and had the world in their palm of their hands. With Angles, it's almost like they're starting over, but they know that each of the band members has pushed each other to the limit and now its time to get down to business. Why else would we be "singing the same song for the last 10 years?" "Last Nite" wasn't that good of a song. Well, yes it was, but still, you see where I'm coming from.

I've been through this album at least twice a day since Monday. Every song sticks out, and the band doesn't sound bored. They sound just like they did on Is This It - flipping the bird to the world, effortlessly and with fake disinterest. What a great damn band.

Buy Angles from Shockhound.

Reaganomics - Chireland

(download)

I haven't posted anything from the new Reaganomics album, Lower The Bar, just yet but St. Patrick's Day seems as good a time as any because of this very song, which nails the fake Irish who think they've got a good reason to get wasted once a year.

Aside from that, Lower The Bar is more of what Reaganomics has set themselves out as, snotty skate punk that's just a good listen. Yeah, I'm keeping it simple. Enjoy that green beer, posers. (I certainly will.)

Buy Lower The Bar from Shockhound.