DF the CH, Episode I

Welcome to the first part of DF the CH, where I'll be posting free tunes from a local band (most likely defunct) from or around Kitsap County, the area of Washington State I grew up in. I was no music scene figurehead-– just another stoked attendee. A lot of my favorite memories of senior year were at shows on Bainbridge or in Bremerton.

And at most of these was Valley of the Dinosaurs, truly a one-of-a-kind outfit. Four dudes from Bremerton who'd been in a plethora of bands before; their sound was the ultimate rarity: one that was simultaneously unique but wore its influences on its sleeves. Fugazi, Pink Floyd, the Allman Brothers, and At the Drive-In were only a few groups the band cites on their Myspace page.

Jason Clackley and Dustin "Mangina" Mangini were the only two members who stayed in Valley from start to finish. Jason's onstage conviction and hyperactive jumping reminded me of D. Boon, but his voice was 100% reminiscent of bluesy classic rock singers. Call it whatever, but I call it soul- and Jason had it in spades. Dustin was and is skinny as can be– but his boney form belied an incredible energy all his own.

The initial rhythym section was undoubtedly the most locked in– Gavin Temeyer on drums and Kevin Trent on bass. Gavin, in contrast with Dustin and Jason, seemed to have a very concentrated idea of power and focus. Kevin, meanwhile, was the master of melodic interplay. His lines would at the very least differ ever so slightly from whatever Dustin and Jason were playing and it would all just work.

This original lineup released a self-titled EP recorded with Tony Reed of famed locals Mos Generator in 2005.

Every track holds its own; the mix is warm and clear right from the howling feedback briefly preceding the album's opening. "Truffle Shuffle" shifts from a woah-ohhhh verse into a contemplative section about "truffle shuffl[ing] through the seasons" where Jason warns not to "stray from one emotion." "Hey Sonic! Lay Off the Lightspeed" hits you next like a one-two punch and was a catalyst for circle pits countless times. "Mind in An Icebox" is perhaps the one song of theirs I don't think I ever heard live, but that's a damn shame; its swaying, waning riffs pause to give a bluesy guitar harmony break. "March" packs an urgent verse and a guitar harmonics call-and-response in before Jason belts "I TRY MY BEST TO REALIZE!" prompting a frantic break only to slide into a bluesy soft section and then right back to a frantic peak and then back to the soft again. "Time Until Death" was a tremendous slow-burner
with an intense, instantly apparent melancholy never lost, no matter the dynamic shift. The Thin Lizzy part is fantastic.

But what brings me back to every great Valley set I ever saw is "Stop and Go Traffic," the penultimate Jason-ditching-the-mic-and-everyone-piles-up-to-get-it song. The chorus- consisting solely of the lyric "Where do I reside"- was a moment of mass catharsis every time. The speed-along verse was also a great circle pit. In February of senior year, Valley played the Bainbridge Teen Center and the tiny space couldn't contain the madness. Jason broke a string after a song or two, and the band soldered on as a one-guitar ensemble. Kids were zooming around the room, careening into chairs-- my friend Nick even crowd surfed despite the low ceiling. When the band– coaxed by an anxious crowd– played this tune (which at that point they were entirely tired of) at their final Bainbridge show at the Blood Barn in August 2007, Jason ended it collapsed in an exhausted heap on the floor.

You can and should buy the EP on the band's Myspace.

While Kevin Trent was definitely a bass player who knew his role, he eventually left due to a difference of direction. According to Dustin, he "he wanted a more striaghtforward vibe, and Jason and I were trying to be "weirder" and write darker, less catchy stuff." So they brought in Desi, Dustin's younger brother, who was a capable player in his own right but played in much more supportive style suited for the band's subsequent material. VotD Mark II released a sole song on what was initially going to be a split tour 7" but ended up being a 3" mini-CD with Bainbridge's Helen Killers. "Seas of Change was a midway point– a similar catchiness to the first EP's material, but raw and meandering enough to hint at what would come. It was limited to only 50 copies and screened by Nick and Peter from the Helen Killers.


Valley of the Dinosaurs- Seas of Change

Gavin eventually quit as well for reasons I can't recall. Eventually good friend Justin Gallego (simultaneously in The Helen Killers and eventually Degania) joined and brought a new energy to the drumkit. Gavin was clean and relatively smooth, but Justin was a fury all his own and he hit hard. Some drummers make funny faces when concentrated, but Justin was one of the few I've seen who look genuinely emotional when playing, showing either an open-mouthed daze or a stoked smile, he enjoyed every second of performing live music.

The addition of Justin made everything huge, dynamic and cathartic about the band that much more so on their second and final self-titled EP, released in the summer of 2007. I don't know how many copies were produced, but by August they were all gone-- Desi was nice enough to give me the digipak case, hand-stenciled by Tony Wolfe.


This EP was undoubtedly in my top records of 2007 and as such I wrote a review of it for my college's newspaper-- only to have it cut at the last minute before publishing by the copy editor. But here tis:

Few songs released in 2007 were more raw, passionate and genuine at once than this Bremerton, WA-based quartet’s final release. Jason Clackley's voice– whether embodying aggravated rasp, classic rock soul or a melodic croon– soars above careening guitars and powerhouse drumming. Opening with a quiet minute of humming amps and softly picked guitars, the EP quickly erupts with “Sun is Dying.” “You wake up in the morning, with the sunshine and deaths/ a hollow absence in a dream.” belts Clackley, “A selfish hopefulness and a mindset/An argument transparent at the seam.” Cathartic in nature and breathtaking in execution, his lyrics’ heartbreaking sincerity clash with the upbeat tones of the instruments beneath, ramming themselves further into your ears without ever even touching contrived depression or the pigeonholing “emo” term so much music gets labeled as in this day and age. When the finale of “How to Die Completely” hits its last minute, the band climbs a mountainous crescendo only to switch to a slow trudge. Emoting every word, Clackley wails “And I woke up/In my heart of despair,” and there’s no doubt he’s telling the truth.

No other band sounds like Valley. Since they support their music being spread, and are unfortunately broken up, I've posted the EP in its entirety online. So long as you have enough of a connection speed, there's quite literally no excuse to avoid downloading it. Record labels today are so prone to putting out a record and proudly stating, "FOR FANS OF" and naming Pantera or some equivalently broadly influential group that gives no indication of how said record will sound. Valley of the Dinosaurs are simply for fans of music.





Valley of the Dinosaurs- 2007 s/t EP



Where'd they go to?
Jason has a fantastic solo project and his music is worth your ears and dinero. He also drums in the folkier Like Claws! and sings in The Flex.
Dustin is never in just one band. He plays guitar for Sunset Riders (hardcore punk) and fronts President Kennedy is Assassinated (sludgy and heavy).
Justin plays in both Degania and Kalakala when the other members are home from school on break. He also runs Young Summer Records (also see the blog on my bloglist) and is doing great things releasing DIY records for friends' bands.
I don't know what the hell Desi, Kevin or Gavin are up to.

Vinyl Treasures

As the title suggests, what follows are some of my more valuable favorites I've picked out from my LPs. I don't have the most massive collection, but I'm really excited about what I do have. I collect records, but I wouldn't really call myself a "collector" per se because I don't spend massive amounts of money on a single record. As such most of the prized gems from my collection aren't the rarest things out there.

Here are some that have a special place in my heart and/or ears.

My Coroner Collection

A fantastic Swiss technical/progressive thrash metal trio that will surely merit a post of their own on the Squidlair someday. The so-so Noise Records mixing sounds better on these than the remaster CDs I have...Ron Royce's fantastic bass playing comes through quite clearly. I managed to score these from eBay at solid prices; aside from Grin, none ran over 18 bucks.

Top row: 1987's R.I.P.; 1988's Punishment for Decadence (European version with original cover); 1988's Punishment for Decadence (American version with the cover the label put on it...which is cool nonetheless. Skeleton playing a bone with a violin bow! Jimmy Page would be proud.)
Middle row: 1989's No More Color; 1989 maxi-single clear vinyl 12" of "Die By My Hand"/"Tunnel of Pain," both from No More Color; and 1993's Grin, which is the most I've ever spent on a record at $40. I would've never had a chance had I not mentioned on the Atheist forum that I'd give my pinky for it. A few days later, a French guy emailed me about his auctioning off his copy and I pounced. Thanks, Adbhuta.
Bottom row: 1991 "Divine Step (Conspectu Mortis)"/"I Want You" 7" from Mental Vortex; 1988 "Purple Haze"/"Masked Jackal" 7" from the Punishment for Decadence era. Their Beatles cover is monstrous, but their Hendrix cover sucks.

Anyone have a copy of Mental Vortex with the original inners (including the poster) intact? Sell it to me.

My Bloody Valentine- Loveless (2008 Aural Exploits Repress)

As previously established, I love MBV. I also love the color red, and and colored vinyl. This is contains all of the above and is number 390 out of 1000. Sounds gorgeous and looks it, too.

Heresy- Face Up to It! (First Canadian pressing)

Heresy are another band I have Tony Pence to thank for getting me interested in. The band were a bunch of Birmingham lads who, along with Napalm Death, ushered in a new era of speed in extreme music. I bought this after buying the reissue of it. Despite the sound differences (the reissue sounds as good as they could make this lo-fi album), this was a fantasic investment. The original pressing contains a little folded sheet not only containing lyrics but also singer/lyricist John's explanations of his songs. He's quite articulate; grindcore, while a genre I often dig, isn't really known for profound thought, but he has a lot of good things to say about a lot of different issues.

According to bassist Kalv, they licensed this record to be pressed in Canada at the same time they pressed it in the UK– and the guy heading up the operation never got back to the band after going ahead with the whole shebang and only sent them a few copies.

Iron Maiden- Live After Death

Iron Maiden need no introduction. This was the first album I ever bought on vinyl, and is basically the best live metal album ever. It has some great tour photos in the inner sleeves, and seeing Derek Riggs art in LP format is like watching your favorite epic movie in IMAX. I'm seeing Maiden this Monday night, and they'll be playing a setlist very similar to this one. Can't wait.

Smashing Pumpkins- Siamese Dream (First pressing)

Tied with Coroner's Grin for the most I've ever spent on a record at forty bucks, also from Tony at Celebrated Summer Records. The current reissues are on orange as well, but not marble orange as both LPs here are. So delicious is the shade of orange that I think of it as something more along the lines of "Siamese Dreamsicle."

Ali Akbar Khan- Ragas of India
I don't know if this is rare or not, but I have an unconditional love of Indian classical music. This was found and bought along with a whole bunch of other stuff for very little at a Rotary auction last year. Khan is/was a very accomplished sarod player and this one-raga-per-side record is very soothing.

Oh, and it has bewbs on the cover. Bonus.

The Doughboys- Home Again
I have also established my love for the Doughboys. The LP of Home Again unfortunately doesn't feature a lyrics sleeve, but the mix sounds much less cramped than the CD version while retaining the sloppy charm.

Nektar
L to R: 1976's Recycled, 1973's Remember the Future, and 1972's A Tab in the Ocean.

Nektar are a fantastically funky prog band with all my favorite textures from that time period- Mellotron, Rickenbacker bass, crooned vocals....I need to throw these on again. My favorite is probably Remember, which is about a blind boy meeting an alien.

Comus- First Utterance (2002 Earmark Records Reissue)
Yes, a repress. This alone was thirty dollars well spent, as it goes for more on eBay and the original will set you back 200, easy.

Comus are a band that will mess with your head, to understate the matter entirely. When I first checked out this album art, my first thought was something along the lines of, wow...will I end up like the guy on the cover?

Then I listened and the answer was a resounding "YES." Let's put on our imagination helms and envision the following: it's 1969. The Moody Blues and Jethro Tull are somehow touring together and, while in transit over a large body of water, crash land on a deserted island in the middle of the open ocean. Scrounging what basic acoustic instruments they could find from the wreckage (the Mellotron is gone, man), they quickly go insane from the solitude and manage to record the results.

That's what First Utterance is like.

Kaveret- Poogy Tales
Last summer, my good friend Alex and I dug through my parents' box of records, which had until that time resided in our garage. Among the mass of LPs we pulled was this- a thinly-packaged white sleeve with a hobo playing hacky sack and a lot of Hebrew letters on it. Alex insisted we play it, and while initially reluctant I finally put it on the turntable. As the music seeped out of the speakers, we were astonished. This wasn't good. It was great. Joyous, wonderfully psychedelic sounds familiar to us from the other '60s and '70s rock we listened to...only this was in Hebrew! It was beautiful and exotic and genuinely happy music.

Turns out my mother had bought the album some thirty plus years ago, when she had worked on a Kibbutz in Israel. Kaveret were huge at the time and she even saw them live.

Apparently this has been reissued on CD. I can't recommend it enough.

EXCLUSIVE Interview with Adam Franklin of SWERVEDRIVER

If you haven't heard of Swervedriver but dig bands like Dinosaur Jr, Soundgarden, and pre-suckage Smashing Pumpkins, you're entirely missing out. The band has returned from indefinite hiatus after some ten years.

I was lucky enough to get in touch with singer/guitarist Adam Franklin and even luckier when said he was down with answering a few questions.

-When I listen to Raise, I hear a lot of Dinosaur Jr worship going on. You guys really work the guitar effects (wah pedals especially) and your vocals are buried. Any accuracy to this perception? And why is your singing so low in the mix?

Dinosaur were a big influence around the time of You're Living All Over Me and Bug, for sure. I don't really know why the vocals were so low but I certainly wasn't that confident with the vocals at the time plus it was also perhaps a prevailing stylistic trend at the time.

-Did you receive any vocal training between Raise and Mezcal Head? The production mixes your voice much better and it carries a lot of melody as well.

Actually I did have one singing lesson that may have been around that time. She was an opera singer and she had a picture of her with Pavarotti on her piano and she had at one time given lessons to Johnny Rotten. At the start of the lesson she got me to reach for my lowest and highest notes and then said "right. I guarantee that in an hour you will be singing 2 notes higher and 3 lower - and she was right.

-What role did effects play in songwriting? Were any riffs written with a given effect in mind, or were they added as an afterthought?

I think it's true to say that sometimes you find a sound and base a song around that sound but you of course have to find a killer melody to use it with.

-For that matter, let's say you're exiled to a desert isle with just your Jazzmaster, your amp and your choice of ONE effect. Which do you choose and why?

Vox Cry Baby wah wah pedal to express my blues at being exiled on a desert island.

-Do you consider Swervedriver a shoegaze band? You guys hailed from the same area, if I recall, and were on Creation and had a lot of influences different from that of, say, Curve or Slowdive.

No. There are certainly some stylistic similarities with those bands, no denying, and particularly on that first album, with the vocals down in the mix etc as you mentioned before, but really Swervedriver has always been more of a rock band.

-Most shoegaze music is often characterized as “druggy.” Would you say Swervedriver’s music qualifies as such? Did drugs play any role in songwriting?

I always say that you probably ought to 'road test' your music to see if it sounds cool on drugs (always better if it does!) and Jimmy was always on 'headphone duty' making sure that the stoners minds' would be blown the requisite amount by some apocalyptic panning.

-What do you think of the influx of new, younger bands labeling themselves shoegaze?

To be honest it puts me off if a MySpace band has 'shogaze' listed as its genre but I suppose it's a valid description at this stage. I think there are cool bands from all ends of the spectrum that take elements of said genre, whether it's Lali Puna or Dead Meadow. The band Film School seem to be doing the right kind of thing - taking the influence and leading it somewhere new.

-What was your lyrical approach? Many of the tunes seem to be about relationships. Any truth to this, or am I completely off-base?

They possibly are - even some of the songs that sound like they're about driving are about pining for something else, like a new place to live or a new person to hang out with. "She's Beside Herself" and "Out" are undeniably about relationships and "For Seeking Heat" is probably the only song purely about speed on the road.

-Were you genuinely feeling murderous in the events inspiring "Last Train to Satansville," or is that just artistic license?

Artistic license - better to write about it than carry out the act! Besides I don't and will probably never own a gun.
-For the love of all things decent, will you PLEASE include "Never Lose That Feeling" in the tour setlist?

Maybe.

-Tomas Lindberg of seminal Swedish melodic death metal band At the Gates has gone on record saying he adores you guys, especially the Raise album. Are you a closet At the Gates fan? Would you ever consider letting Tomas get up onstage and bark over "Son of Mustang Ford" if you guys played Gothenburg?

I must admit I wasn't aware of At the Gates until you mentioned them but I just checked their MySpace page and Tomas is welcome anytime. I think.

-What’s your favorite song you wrote for Swervedriver, and what is one you have an affinity for that no fan ever gushes over?

"Maelstrom" is a song that I love but no-one else in the band is crazy about ...but that's okay because I guess I can play it with my Bolts of Melody [Adam's solo album] band! I also like "93 Million Miles From The Sun," which is a re-write of "Harry & Maggie."

-Whatever happened to the studio you guys won after the Geffen lawsuit fiasco?

You mean the studio that we built from Geffen advance money? I wish we really had won it! The band Ash nearly bought it but in the end we closed it down.

-What inspired the band's reunion?

The time was simply right.

-What are the top 5 records you're listening to right now?

Serge Gainsborg - Les Annee Psychedeliques
Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue
Scott Walker - Boy Child 67-70
The Still Out - Crystallised
The Darjeeling Limited - OST

-Anything you’d like to say in closing?

Support your local indie record store!

Official Swervedriver Website

Asa is a Shitty Musician

It's true, but that won't stop me from doing a post about the song I did for my Computer Music class this semester. If it sounds rushed, it is. I was asked to write program notes for when it was played live at the culmination concert, and they are as follows:

“You Have Only Now” was composed during the late winter/early spring months of 2008 by Asa E. While he considers himself a bassist before a guitarist, he had a few riffs kicking around that were written on the latter instrument and attempted to assemble them in a cohesive, song-like manner, adding in odds and ends where necessary. While he attempts to not to rip off his direct influences, he’s quite open about the fact that My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, Jesu’s Silver, Opeth’s Still Life and Dinosaur Jr’s You’re Living All Over Me albums were all in rather heavy rotation at the time of writing, and hopes that some of the elements come through.

If my underconfident guitar solo (the only time I feel like I've played EXACTLY what I wanted to) doesn't SCREAM J Mascis worship, I don't know what will. Aside from dyeing my hair silver, of course. And yes, the rhythm's off at points and the opening Opethy strum part is totally tempoless. I never said I was good. But as simple and/or lackluster as the piece is, it's the first song I "composed" on my own–guitar, bass, and even that minimal drum loop.

I didn't really say what the song was about because I don't really know. I wanted the wall-of-sound guitar stuff to emote a hazey, euphoric sort of feeling. Don't know if that came through.

For those who haven't stopped reading and/or care about technical crap, the song is in D standard tuning. I ran a Fender Mexi-Strat through my Sansamp Para Driver DI preamp pedal for the initial distortion sound, then added amp simulation, reverb, and some chorus in Logic 7. The bass tracks were written and cut entirely in one night on a borrowed Ibanez SRX300 4-string run straight into the board and EQ'd in postproduction. The drum loop was an impatiently-produced thing based on a pattern from Logic 7's built-in Ultrabeat drum machine. Finally, the glassy synth string melody over the intro was added at the last minute via a Logic Softsynth MIDI patch triggered by a two-octave MIDI controller the studio had by the board.

And with all this said, I give you the mediocrely-titled "You Have Only Now."

Pumping ze Iron und Pumping ze Muzik

Perhaps one of the only times I've made any sort huge resolution in my life was this past winter break. I realized that my class schedule had very open mid-days and I would use the time to hit the gym five days a week and put the days of inconsistent exercise behind me.

And somehow, I've been doing great with it. It's a great rush and clears my head after a long day. With that said, I would never be able to keep it all going without the continuous soundtrack of tunes running in my iPod. What follows is what I listen to to get my heart rate up and ze muscles flexing.

The Elliptical Conundrum

The cardio portion of my workout routine is the elliptical, which is a real convenience for people like me who want to run comfortably instead of actually doing the real thing. What's necessary for me personally, soundtrack-wise, is a set of songs nice and fast but not outrageously so. Slayer's "Angel of Death" still winds me every time I try it. In addition, because I do cardio all five days of the week, I usually want to do a different album day-to-day to break things up.

Quo Vadis- Defiant Imagination
Canadian tech-death metal? Hells yes! Also features the tasteful-but-talented basslines of one Mr. Steve Digiorgio, fretless metal bass master. It's as if they sat him down and said "Okay dude, you know what we're aboot...play some stuff like you did on Individual Thought Patterns." This record never truly lets up from start to finish, right from the locked-in military march of "Silence Calls the Storm."

Quo Vadis- Silence Calls The Storm

Morbid Angel- Covenant
The opening of this record, "Rapture," will have you thinking two things. One, Pete Sandoval is a blast beat machine. Two, I can't believe something this heavy was released by a subsidiary of Sony. This record kills me every time I run...but in a sort of good way. Also, punk kids would hate death metal a lot less if they threw on "Angel of Poison," which basically sounds like downtuned oldschool hardcore with David Vincent's usual rasp.

Morbid Angel- Rapture

Watchtower- Control and Resistance
Forget Dream Theater, forget Queensryche...these dudes are the quintessential progressive metal band. They very audibly sound about ten times as technically accomplished as both the aforementioned groups and with only a fraction of the inevitable '80s cheese factor. Imagine a band with throatshredding falsetto frontman, a bassplayer who was genetically engineered from the DNA of Geddy Lee and Steve Harris, a guitarist who sounds like a cyborg Eddie Van Halen and a drummer who keeps it all together, that would be these guys. Alan Tecchio replaced Jason McMaster on vocals on this album and while more palatable, they still might be a turn0ff to some. Famous shredder Ron Jarzombek (recently seen in instrumental tech trio Blotted Science) has some weird guitar tones on here but also some reallllly strange scales. And Doug effin' Keyser? The most jaw-dropping bass player ever. I've heard plenty of ridiculous metal bassists –take Rainer from Pavor for example– but I've never heard anyone pull off lines, fills, and solos like Keyser does with the power he has. Not only are his fingers plucking at lightspeed, but they're plucking hard. Anyways, this record is full of over-the-top, frenetic, technical greatness and is simultaneously painful to run to because the riffs are usually dependent on individual melodies as opposed to chords, ultimately giving your ears a lot less to "lock in" to and forcing you to listen to every last note. If you like it, then BUY IT.

Stratovarius- Infinite
Power metal is a picky genre for me. What sets Strato apart is the cheesy and fun songwriting and life-affirming lyrics on this record. Throw on "Hunting High and Low" and get past the tongue-in-cheek factor and get pumped when Timo Kotipelto belts "There is no one that I can't outrun." That sums it up.

Stratovarius- Hunting High and Low

Strength Training Tunes
I usually go for stuff that has great heaviness but doesn't get too fast-- midtempo is preferable.

And as such it's only appropriate that I begin with Only Living Witness' Prone Mortal Form album. I've switched my routine up a bit, but I used to do the entirety of my strength training to this. There's nothing like a nice set on the leg press to the steady chug of the title track. Jonah Jenkins' voice alone will motivate you. It also helps that he's a fantastic lyricist. "Slug" is great to do bicep curls to, and "Root" is ideal for the bench press. While the follow up-record, Innocents, doesn't have the same darkness nor lyrical verbosity, there's some great and accesible tracks that also deliver a driving energy: "No Eden," "Deed's Pride," "Strata," and "Downpour" among others. Century Media released a two-disc set of both albums, remastered with additional material. It can be had for about 14 bucks and is more than worth your time and coinage.

Only Living Witness- Downpour

Quicksand- Slip
Quicksand are like Tool minus the pretension and mixed heavily with Fugazi and Helmet. A seminal post-hardcore record full of stomping rhythms and melodic bass breaks and vocals that nicely toe the line of aggressive and catchy. I seem to find myself throwing this one on when I'm doing bent-over rows.

Quicksand- Fazer

That, or
Soundgarden- Badmotorfinger
Overshadowed by the overrated phenomenon that is Nevermind (and I say this as a Seattlite), Badmotorfinger is simply the best "mainstream" rock record to come out of 1990s Seattle. It also proves, along with Alice In Chains' greatest moments, that grunge is a bullshit term. When did Pearl Jam ever sound anything like these guys? When did Kurt and company, for that matter? The lyrics are often absurd, there's out-of-nowhere sax usage, there's a love song, and there's some downright bizarre riffs. Hardly your standard 1990s hard rock fare.

I digress. This record is loud, metallic, and positively balls-out. Try doing a nice, long set of slow ab crunches to "Jesus Christ Pose." Burns, don't it? Yessir, just like Chris Cornell's vocals do in your ears. In a good way.

Soundgarden- Room A Thousand Years Wide

You Don't Know Them

But they still rule.

This post is about the Doughboys.

Before I delve into sentimental "what the record means to me" waxing and a summary of their career, I want to give a shoutout to mah boy Tony Pence at Celebrated Summer Records. His recommendations never disappoint.

A few months ago I had a jonesin' in me. I'd been playing Husker Du's Warehouse: Songs and Stories record now and again ever since I'd found it on cassette last summer, and couldn't get enough of the Descendents' classic Milo Goes to College. Something inside me was thirsty for punk-based music imbued with melody–and not in the manner of Green Day-Blink-182 crap I'd been subjected to all of middle school.

So I walk into Celebrated Summer one fine Friday and try to explain to Tony the sort of sound I'm looking for. He hardly hesitated before whipping out the Doughboys' second record, 1988's Home Again, on CD and popped it in. It wasn't as intense as the sound I'd wanted to hear, but the conglomeration of the music and the imagery in the jacket completely sold me. In the former department, the lo-fi production grabbed me immediately (in a good way) and everything about the tunes seemed to simply sound honest. In the latter, I opened the sleeve to see pictures of guitarist/lead singer John Kastner doing an insane jump with his Les Paul outstretched. Other guitarist/singer John Cummins was in mid-headbang. Brock Pytel was sweating his ass off on the drums and John Bondhead, crouched with his bass, almost looked like Mike from COC did in the mid-80s. I couldn't help but feel the hair length kinship, even though the dudes' dos were in crusty dreads. To top it all off, they all sang lead in every damn song. Sweet.

I bought Home Again on the spot and I'm still listening to it all the way through these days. Right from the disc's opening seconds, "Buying Time" has you jumping stokedly up and down. There is a whimsical, nonchalant youth about the album that seems to revel in its state of semi-slackerdom. "I don't care/if I never sleep again," sings Kastner on "Never Sleep." "I don't care/if this highway never ends." The record closes with the sole tune Bondhead penned, the ballad "She Doesn't Live There Anymore," a downright charming jam with soft acoustic plucking underneath the usual wash of flanged-as-hell distorted electric guitars. It also features a fantastic simile in the description of the girl Bondhead focuses on: "She had hair just like the wheat in Colorado/and every time we pass those fields I have to wonder/because they're waving there just for me/I can't wait to get back home again and leave."

After purchasing the previous album Whatever (1987) on vinyl and having it mailed home to Seattle (I have no turntable out here at school), I downloaded the album digitally for further investigation. A solid batch of tunes, to be sure. There's certainly more intensity as most of the
record melds a blazing hardcore punk sound with the pop that would eventually become more prominent down the line. Amusingly, the video for "You're Related" reminds me of '90s Nickelodeon. Pssst...click here to check the record out.


As of today, I've got their third record, 1990's Happy Accidents, headed my way on purple vinyl. I'm substantially stoked but haven't been able to find it online yet. With that said, if the songs are a tenth as awesome as they are in this live footage from what I believe to be the tour for the same album in Florida circa 1991, color me excited.





Their next full-length, 1993's Crush, marked a change to a predominantly powerpop sound. "Shine" was evidently a Top 40 hit while I was still in preschool. After this record, Cummins was the latest casualty of the band's semi-frequent lineup changes (the rhythm section from Home Again was long gone) and was replaced by Mega City Four's Darren "Wiz" Brown, who unfortunately passed away due to a blood clot in his brain on December 6th, 2006. According to Tony, the record is still good–better, even– than the band's early material. It can be found for a dollar darn near everywhere...so don't be a moron like yours truly and pay $5.50 for it.

At this time the band was signed to A&M. They put out Turn Me On in 1996 and broke up after touring as the opening act for the Offspring. Their La Muejere demo was reissued in 2003, and I've seen a rare live German tour 7" from the Home Again days on eBay. This band is worth your money.

And now, the band/their crew talk about their cocks backstage.

Top Five Records

In no order.

The Who- Who's Next

The rock record I was raised on. Can't say I've heard too many of their other records front-to-back, but I can say with full confidence Who's Next never loses its powerful stride. Everyone knows the so-often-mistitled opener "Baba O'Reilly," and the delightful commentary of "Won't Get Fooled Again," but there's hardly a subpar cut here. "Love Ain't for Keepin'"? "Going Mobile"? "My Wife"? I can't really articulate the sentimentality I feel listening to this album, remembering a time when (if you can imagine) I wasn't really into music and the Who's rock and roll swagger just seemed to reach out and grab me. As an aside, how amazing a bass player is John Entwhistle?

My father was fortunate enough to see the Who many times (including once with me in 2002) over the years and, if I recall correctly, saw them on the tour for this very record at Anaheim Stadium in 1971. So many audience members were jumping that the foundations of the stadium were shaking– and the promoter had to stop the show and tell everyone to knock it off. A pretty awesome experience, I'm sure, but nothing to the time where Dad saw Cream for three dollars...



Third Eye Blind- Third Eye Blind

A confession: When in elementary school, the only music I really followed was Radio Disney and its respective catalog of teenybopper bullshit. But the summer following fifth grade brought a drastic change in my radio dial. It was now set to Star 101.5, home to much more 'adult' pop.

Perhaps it was the melodies or the catchy lyrics, but Third Eye Blind intrigued me. This was way back in 1999, where despite being out for a whole two years their self-titled album's holy triumvirate of singles–"Semi-Charmed Life," "Jumper," and "How's It Going to Be"–were still in HUGE rotation on commercial radio. I didn't have much of an allowance at the time but I bought the album rather quickly.

My attention span had some troubles in my youth and it was no different in regard to music or academia. As such, I would put the CD in my lil' stereo/alarm clock combo and only listen to the singles. It seems entirely stupid now, but in those days of prepubescent anxiousness all of the songs sandwiched in between just seemed like fluff.

Fast forward to 2003. I was a freshman in high school and my copy of 3EB's album was gone somehow. My newfound friend and I somehow got to talking about how we both had a soft spot for it and after he hooked up a burned copy I listened to it all the way through and was blown away.

Simply put, 3EB may be pop...but it's pop of a different caliber entirely. The musicianship is top-notch; Stephan Jenkins may be sporadic in his live vocal capacity but there are some truly special moments on this record. The one that really comes to mind is the chorus in "God of Wine." "A sadness I can't erase," he sings, and then, going to vulnerable higher pitch that sounds more wounded than like a castrata, "all alone/on your face." Chills, man. Arreon Salazar is one hell of a bass player too, lurking subtley beneath the surface for those not too keen on keeping an ear out for low-end dynamism. Listen to "Narcolepsy"- in addition to having some pretty odd lyrics, the bass is practically spastic countermelody is astounding given the musical genre.

Perhaps it was my relative innocence at the time, but the adult world of relationship Stephan's lyrics discussed made me desperate to grow up and date women. "I Want You" was his rather intimate (to say the least) solo piece, a tale of honest-to-God lust that somehow didn't seem to objectify like, say, a mainstream hip-hop song might. "An open invitation to the dance/Happenstance from the vibe that we're in/No apology because my oath is genuine/And the mystery of your rhythm is so feminine." BAM! SEXY!

I hadn't even had a girlfriend yet at the time (and wouldn't for a while...) but wanted to feel these feelings somehow. The lust of "I Want You," the melancholy of "How's It Gonna Be," the rivalry of "London," the alcoholic wreckage of "God of Wine." To this day, however, what really stands out to me is "Motorcycle Drive-By," with its gently-plucked acoustic intro (and liberal bass melodies, holy wow). Lyrically, it's also fantastic. I crushed pretty to hard to the following verse once: "Visions of you on a motorcycle drive-by/The cigarette ash flies in your eyes and you don't mind/You smile/And say the world it doesn't fit with you, I don't believe you/You're so serene." BAM! SEXY!




My Bloody Valentine- Loveless
At the risk of sounding like a Pitchfork reviewer, I'll still maintain that the first time you hear Loveless is an experience in and of itself. Maybe you're curious; maybe you hate it; but ultimately your ears get stretched in one way or another.

I'd only heard their name tossed around until freshman year of college, where a friend did a presentation on the song "Sometimes," which was also featured on the Lost in Translation OST. I was enveloped from the moment he hit play. The guitar sounds weren't so different from parts of the Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream album, but drew me even more into the aural world contained within the song (and when I later bought it, the record).

So I went right out and bought Loveless. I then went months during which hardly a day passed where it wasn't listened to in its entirety.

As the band never once printed lyrics and used the oft-buried-in-the-mix vocals as more of a melody instrument, personal meaning plays a serious role in how these songs are interpreted by the listener. I was in love for the first time when I first bought this, and it became a somewhat distant soundtrack to that time of my life.

Loveless manages to balance a consistent but varying set of tunes. Perhaps “When You Sleep” could be considered the song on the record to touch straightforward pop structure, but was offset by the whalesong of “Touched” and the strange dreampop/noise/dancehall combo of “Soon.” The entire record (save for “Touched”) was the brainchild of guitarist/vocalist/band leader Kevin Shields, who toiled for endless sleep-deprived nights to coax enveloping, swooping distortion from his Fender Jazzmaster by recording through multiple overdriven amplifiers simultaneously and carefully bending the guitar’s tremolo arm down in pitch as he strummed chords in various open tunings. Second guitarist/vocalist Bilinda Butcher played no instruments on Loveless, but her soothing, cooing whisper-singing is the sonic equivalent of kiss on the cheek. Her modest beauty and simple-yet-beyond-attractive dancing in the video for “Soon” only cements her sheer natural beauty...what a fox. The proof is in the Youtube link below.



Smashing Pumpkins- Siamese Dream

In the aforementioned "judging-by-singles-only" phase, I always overlooked Siamese Dream because I thought Mellon Collie was going to be better. But then it was always too expensive and I always passed on buying it.

While on a family trip to Arizona, my cousin Chad, a substantial musical authority himself, mentioned that not only was Siamese Dream fantastic, but that it also featured "Mayonaise," which was "the best song they ever wrote." This is absolute truth. After purchasing Siamese Dream in the 10th grade, that song was an anthem for rainy days and not wanting to wake up– although my teenage life was not one tenth as miserable as the song is lyrically.

"Mayonaise" simply has all of the Pumpkins' strongest elements in one composition. The intro and outro are beautiful, acoustic guitar duets. Billy's vocals alter from his audience-dividing nasal tone to his gentle, whispery voice at the bridge. The solo rips too. A non-single track that's better than any single.

But the singles were good, too. "Today," is perhaps the best-disguised suicide song of the past few decades. "Cherub Rock," with its commentary on the rock business, is a bit interesting to look in retrospect given the Pumpkins' present state. "Rocket" always reminds me of a beautiful summer day. I think it's the guitar tone.

"Disarm" is kinda lame when compared to the others, really. Not the best but also not the worst song they ever did.

Like Loveless, this is an album of amazing texture. What continually fascinates me is that Billy Corgan and Kevin Shields had completely different ways of getting similarly emotive guitar atmospheres. Shields claims there are never more than three guitar tracks in his songs, but it's well-known that Billy went into an overdub frenzy on Siamese Dream- "Soma" alone has over sixty guitar tracks.

"Soma" also heads off three straight songs of awesome. It builds from a tranquilly picked fade-in intro as Billy narrates a tale of a relationship disintegrating (from both sides!), then builds into the huge, wailing crescendo with that nasal shout of his (which somehow completely works on this record). Then it's right into the cathartic, slash-and-burn "Geek U.S.A." which rips off some of the best solos ever put to tape, as well as some of Billy's best and most emotionally-charged-yet-quite-poetic lyrics. Finally, its explosive end leads us right into the acoustic dawning of "Mayonaise"'s intro. Three brilliant works all in a row. Even the songs afterward are good; "Spaceboy" is about Billy's brother and "Luna" is a cute love ditty.

Siamese Dream is quintessential rock 'n' roll for my generation, and moreso than anything that Cobain guy ever cut in the studio. It's also the most I've ever spent on a record- forty bucks for the first-pressing, second-run orange marble vinyl 2XLP.



Iron Maiden- Powerslave
How can words describe the first time you hear Powerslave? Especially when it's your first metal record ever? Here goes.

I was a on a bus on the way to Ashland, Oregon, for a school trip. I was twelve. Sitting next to me was Ben, a newfound friend a year younger. His older brother had gotten him into old punk and metal and he was wearing a denim jacket covered in patches and pins.

We both had cassette players– him for his homemade mixtapes, and me for my Bar Mitzvah reading I should've been listening to. Ben handed me a tape marked with our destination.
"What is it?"
"Iron Maiden."

I'd only heard the name before and had no clue what to expect. So I popped it in. Then "Aces High" happened. A catchy little guitar harmony riff hinted at something better coming...and it did! This band seemed to amplify everything I loved about the little classic rock I listened to before then– melodic guitar parts, huge vocals and an overall sense that the musicians were over the top. It was a such a rush that I had no idea how to react save for smile with eyes bugged out in amazement.

Once I scrounged up the money and did some research, I bought Powerslave, which "Aces High" opens. Frankly, it's surprising the CD still works for how many times it's been played. While some of the record could be considered "filler," it's still great metal songcraft and musicianship nonetheless. "Flash of the Blade" and "The Duellists" may lack the lyrical grandiosity of the album's better-known tracks, but they certainly make up for it in riffage. Steve Harris was my first hero as a bass player, and I still can't get enough of how Dave Murray and Adrian Smith harmonize and trade off. Fuck that Janick guy...Maiden never needed three guitars.

But what really makes Powerslave is the sheer epic might contained within the speed rush of "Aces High," the doomsday-invoking "Two Minutes to Midnight" (possibly one of the worst music videos ever), the Egyptian groove and orgasmic instrumental section of the title track and the towering poetic might of the fifteen-minute closer "Rime of the Ancient Mariner."

The fact that Maiden is doing a "retro" setlist consisting mostly of Powerslave material on their summer 2008 tour is fantastic...even for a 77-dollar ticket.

Most folks start metal with Paranoid. That ended up being my second record. I'd still heartily recommend this to anyone just getting into the genre.