REPOST: Slowdive - Souvlaki Demos & Outtakes

Several people have requested I repost this so here it is.

Slowdive - Souvlaki Demos & Outtakes

Casual - Fear Itself

Most of my friends started skating around the time we were in middle school. This was when Green Day, The Offspring and Rancid started breaking on a very mainstream level and as such, my eyes were opened to punk rock. My friend Nick's sister was a few years older than us and would always play records we'd never heard in her car and give him new stuff to listen to thus giving our whole group of friends an 'in' to more under the radar stuff. A lot of her friends were skaters too so there would always be skate videos floating around for us to check out. The video that made the biggest impact on me was Plan B's "Virtual Reality." I was never able to skate because of my physical condition, but that video kind of set the bar in my mind. And as cool as I thought skating was, I was much more into digging for new music through those videos than trying to get inspiration for new moves. In "Virtual Reality" the songs that stood out to me the most were the Casual tracks in the background of Sean Sheffey and Mike Carroll's segments. I drifted away from listening to hip-hop a few years before this because punk was consuming all of my musical interest, but also because I didn't know where to find more of the laid back, jazz influenced stuff like De La Soul and Tribe I was into as a kid. Hearing Casual and others made me realize that if this stuff was out there, there had to be more.

While Casual isn't the most widely known of the Hiero crew, Fear Itself is definitely one of the best albums to come from their clique. His voice is bassy and his flow is excited, but still sounds smooth against the sped up horn samples and electric piano beats Domino is known for. Fear Itself will forever remind me of summers staying out drinking, getting into trouble and wishing I could skate in the best way. Definitely an essential 90's West Coast Hip-Hop record.

Casual - Fear Itself

Split Lip - Fate's Got a Driver

Though I'm into early Split Lip recordings for what they are, it's not unfair to say the band would have ended up a lost relic of early 90's hardcore had it not been for their decidedly un-hardcore final LP, Fate's Got a Driver. For me, this is one of the cornerstone records of mid-90's emo-core - intricate riffs that are powerful without being heavy, catchy choruses, vocals that are distinct and emotional without being whiny and of course a layout full of obscure photos of old clocks, gumball machines, steps and old 45's.

Shortly after its release, Split Lip changed their name to Chamberlain, rerecorded the vocals and rereleased Fate's Got a Driver under the new name. Vocalist David Moore's vocals are a bit stronger on this version, but aside from that, the name change and the layout are the only recognizable differences. Fate's Got a Driver is definitely a precursor for the direction Chamberlain would take as they progressed. It has always felt distinctly Midwestern in this lonely, small town way not even their Midwestern contemporaries shared and that vibe only increased as they continued to release records as Chamberlain.

Split Lip - Fate's Got a Driver

Mobb Deep - Hell on Earth

For some reason, it seems like all the best rappers from the post-Golden Age era of Hip-Hop only had one classic album worth of tracks and rode that out until they hung it up or continued coasting off past glory. Some people throw Mobb Deep into this category too, but I might argue that the follow-up to their classic 2nd recordThe Infamous is nearly on par with its predecessor. Regardless if Havoc and Prodigy attended art school, there's no denying they have a knack for penning gritty narratives of criminal life, drugs and hustling. On Hell on Earth they didn't tamper with the original formula that made them great, but merely elevated the strengths and downplayed the throwaway aspects of their first two albums. The beats are grimy and hard and the rhymes are urgent, clever and seemingly effortless. From the opening of "Animal Instinct," Hell on Earth is a beast that slays and makes me feel like a bystander to situations I've never faced in places I've never been.

Having heard Hell on Earth before any other Mobb Deep records probably has something to do with my affinity for this record, but whenever I listen to it, I think of being 16 and listening to it in my room thinking it was the hardest record ever. Someone on a messageboard I read referred to Mobb Deep as the Cro-Mags of hip-hop and while the obvious differences are apparent, there is a fair amount of truth in that statement. Both recorded two landmark LP's that helped define genres that set the standard for others to follow before falling by the wayside. Regardless of what they are doing now, this record is essential.


Mobb Deep - Hell on Earth

Mix - 4/15/08

My good friend Nyree recently asked me to recommend some music for her to check out. Since she moved to New York a few months ago I can't simply have her come over or burn her records, so I figured I'd use this forum to post mixes that she and anyone else can download. Most of this stuff is not new, but I rarely ever make mixes for people anymore so I went with a bunch of songs I've thought about putting on mixes for people. Enjoy.

01. AC/DC - If You Want Blood (You Got It)
02. The Lemonheads - Down About It
03. Duran Duran - Come Undone
04. Teenager - Alone Again
05. The Impressions - Can't Satisfy
06. Sparklehorse - Some Sweet Day
07. Beulah - All Points North
08. Leatherface - Not Superstitious
09. STAR - Exploding Order
10. Daniel Johnston - Mind Contorted
11. XTC - Ballad for a Rainy Day
12. George Harrison - Run of the Mill
13. Husker Du - Sorry Somehow
14. Iron Curtain - The Condos
15. M83 - Kim & Jessie
16. Nada Surf - No Quick Fix
17. Catherine Wheel - Black Metallic
18. Kings of Convenience - Gold in the Air of Summer

Mix 4/15/08

The Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray

The Lemonheads are one of those bands that made a seamless transition from my childhood into my adult life. If anything, I like It's a Shame About Ray more now than I did then. Perhaps, because I grasp the lyrics about drugs, loss, love and growing up with greater understanding now than at age 11 when I first heard it. Or maybe because I really respect how they grew from a messy punk band into this incredible straight-forward rock band without ever losing that edge or punk sensibility. Whatever the reason, this record has continued to resonate with me for 15 years while many others didn't make the grade. At just under a half hour, every song on It's a Shame About Ray is as vital as the next. From the lazy dope scoring haze of "My Drug Buddy" to the budding love story of "Kitchen" and the need to play even the smallest role in someone's life of "Bit Part," no adolescent emotion or theme goes unreferenced. The songs are concise and undeniably catchy, full of hooks and some of Evan Dando's best lyrics. While I don't think The Lemonheads ever put out a bad record, there is no denying It's a Shame About Ray is their finest hour. It's one of the few records I will listen to, then immediately press repeat and get psyched to hear a song I just heard all over again.

As a sidenote, I saw them with Karl Alverez and Bill Stevenson of the Descendents as Evan Dando's backing band the day before my birthday this past year and it made me feel like a kid again. I kept my composure and didn't turn into "that guy," but inside I was bubbling over with excitement as they played literally every song I wanted to hear. It was one of the best shows I've been to in years. So, if you get the chance to see them, definitely do so. Evan Dando is a bit faded, but in between songs he just starts riffing on "Nervous Breakdown" so it's win-win.

The Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray

American Nightmare - Live at CBGB - 1/22/02

I don't have a story to go along with this, but I wish I was at this show. I still feel American Nightmare were the best hardcore band of the 2000's and this set is another testament to that. The sound quality is board quality and their set is comprised mostly of songs offBackground Music.

American Nightmare - Live at CBGB - 1/22/02

Starflyer 59 - Leave Here a Stranger

I don't know why Starflyer 59 doesn't get more discussion, but for some reason they seem to have slipped under the radar. Perhaps people overlook them because the driving force behind the band, Jason Martin, is openly Christian or because they're on a label known for putting out abysmal Nu-Emo and bad metalcore, but whatever it is, they are certainly worthy of more attention than they seem to get. On their 6th record, Leave Here a Stranger, Starflyer 59 fully conceptualized their laid back, dreamy brand of pop music. They shed the dense noise and feedback of their first two records Silver and Gold and replaced it with much lighter, sunnier textures laid against Martin's airy, soothing vocals. Every song on here is essential to the whole of this underrated dream-pop record.

Starflyer 59 - Leave Here a Stranger

Down Like the Rest - The Barely Breathing EP

Before our year and a half hiatus, my band Down Like the Rest wrote a handful of songs that were originally going to be on a 12" our friend Dan was going to release. However, with everyone in the bands schedules being what they were, we opted not do the record and put the band on hold for a little while. In September of 2007 we decided to rerecord what we had and release it informally as an EP for those who might be interested. I'm pleased with how everything turned out and I'm glad we finally have quality versions of these songs. Musically, it's fast, dark hardcore along the lines of Cursed, Damnation ad, 108 and so on. Check it out.

Down Like the Rest - The Barely Breathing EP

Ink & Dagger - S/T

For all intents and purposes, I missed the boat on Ink & Dagger. Though I was around and actively attending shows during their existance, I didn't really "get" them until much later in my life. They were a little too weird, a little too chaotic, a little too 'dark.' I always listened to a broad range of music, but when I was 16 and it came to hardcore I either wanted Side By Side or All Out War and the theme of vampires, use of corpse paint, off-key singing and weird angular guitar riffs did not factor into either of those sub-categories. However, as I aged my appreciation for Ink & Dagger grew and I respect their honesty and creativity far more than what a lot of hardcore bands of that era did. They were vibrant and approached things with punk ideals, but took chances that most hardcore bands didn't for whatever reason.

On their final LP before vocalist Sean McCabe's untimely death, Ink & Dagger pushed themselves further away from their already untraditional take on hardcore into a blend of dream-pop, psych and noise only charted by San Diego experimentalists Antioch Arrow. The off-kilter riffs and McCabe's frantic singing style are still firmly intact, but much of what comprised their previous records is absent or subdued and replaced by waves of distortion and layers of delay, reverb and drum machine. It's a complex effort and though it was probably not widely heralded by those in the punk/hardcore community to begin with, I think it has aged quite well in the 8 years since it's release.

Ink & Dagger - s/t