Sunday, November 9, 2008

ALBUM OF THE WEEK


Boris 'Amplifier Worship' 1998,Southern Lord Recordings

So this week's album for review is Boris' Amplifier Worship. Now say what you will about the Japanese sludge/psych band, their body of work is huge, some of it being pretty crucial and alot more of it is not so memorable. I mean many of their records destroy but in lots of different ways, I'm way into some of them but definitely not all of them. Nonetheless i have listened to pretty much all that shit and I feel that this record right here is among their best, rather it is their best. I guess when you have like a zillion albums then its kind of hard to pull individual ones out and be like 'this one is the most whatever' but for real this record is their most banging and ripping one to date. Nothing pretentious here, just straight up Melvins worship done correctly. Theres more to it than that, but this is an early album of theirs and it when it was recorded in 1998, it was still in the shadow of good 90's Melvins records- actually Boris is named of a Melvins track off of Bullhead (1991,Boner Records), so how could you say it is not Melvins worship. This is Boris' second album and on it, the riffs are enormous and the drums bash the shit out of them, the shit drones out super hard for a long time then comes back in and gets real loose. There are five songs on this record and it is easy to get lost up in it, for the feedback drenched acid moans and the whole slithering of a million distortions straight melt your head. And it trips out all weird a couple of times. And it was made ten years ago by a three piece in Japan, and thats fucking rad. Southern Lord put it out on CD in 2003, I got it then up here at Tower Records(remember them?)and didn't really know too much about Boris but I was persuaded by the gummi worm that was in the spine of the jewel case. At that time I wasn't really into it- I would rather listen to the Melvins, and plus I was just trying to listen to fast bands anyway. But something clicked like a year or two later and by now, almost six years since I first heard it, I can fully appreciate how ill this record is. In fact it is one CD that I keep up with (obviously CDs are for fucking weiners) because there has been no vinyl release yet... you know they'll probably drop a super fancy and expensive release when it happens because everyone knows that this album is and has been a pretty big deal. And oh my I just learned, "that at time of release, there were rumors that said (gummi) worm had hallucinogic properties akin to those of LSD when eaten; these rumors have been denied by Southern Lord, the band, and people who actually ate their worm "(wiki). Whoa dudes anyways I strongly recommend this journey to the East, where their tones are thunderous and vicious and shit. Irete kudesai, kuruimizu-san.

And yo, with today a new feature begins, i'ma include a top ten list from somebody in the crue. It will probably be rad because you know, lists are rad and plus it will make our commentary here more of a dialogue you know? <3

The Spza's
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1. Julian Cope's 'japrocksampler'. this shit is packed so full of musical knowledge you will feel like a real fucking japanese rocker and have long hair and a mustache before you even know it (even you chicks!). This book can be credited for all the insane music and new musical projects ive been working on. This dude had done a ton of shit including jam with sunn and write another book called Krautrocksampler. check him out.

2. Flower travellin band/yuya uchida and the flowers (credit said book in #1 slot). Flower travellin band pretty much ran the show back in the day and if it wasnt for them you wouldnt have the die hard rock and roll fuck the world attitude that you still see today in a lot of japanese music. in between inventing doom (some say), causing all kinds of trouble in tokyo (including uchida's hiroshima festival 2 consecutive years), and flipping the whole scene in japanese music from some beatles shit to balls to the wall rock n roll they found a chance to ride motorcycles around naked. supremely badass.

3. Fallout 3/Fable 2. There comes a time in any videogame systems history that the best games come out that will probably ever come out for it. thankfully this season is the golden era for xbox (and everyone else but i aint got that shit so i dont give a fuck) and every game that everyones been waiting on for years is finally coming out. I mean, these two alone (tip of the iceberg) will keep me entertained for months and are probably up there among the best games ive ever played.

4. PickettStreetDeathSquad. PSDS is the roughest toughest biker gang of badd assessss that will ever tear it up on atlantas streets. you ever played that game road rash? yea, thats what mackie looks like out there, hes even got a chain. Na, for real though, riding motorcycles is awesome, but riding with your friends (even the ones with mopeds) is amazing. i suggest it to anyone.

5. Neon Apocalypse. Eyedrum, next saturday. its on the top ten list cause i cant stop thinking about how fucking bad ass that shit is going to be.

6. 66 Fender Mustangs. For real dudes, joe's childhood dream was realized recently and gary talsma represented super hard by getting this ole girl back in to (probably) better condition than it even came from the factory. this thing wails like no other (no stairway)

7. Yuengling. Its god damn delicious. Im glad its here now and im glad that we finally have a different tasting alternative for cheap beer. It tastes different than everything else and thats amazing.

8. Pink Floyd's live a pompeii. For real, if you like floyd this shit is (in my opinion) them at the top of their game. right between saucer full of secrets and dark side of the moon. Do yourself a favor and make sure you download the original cut though, because they apparently added a bunch of extra shit later on that was way whack.

9. Demon Fuzz, Afreka! Demon fuzz is the shit. they only put out one album and its a must have on permanent rotation. that shit will get your hips movin for real. in their own words " We thought we would say it was fresh, but thats obvious, we though we would say it is 'one hell of a progression' for an english coloured group, but thats obvious, we even thought of not putting the album out and keeping it for ourselves, but thats selfish. so we finally settled on giving up, knowing that the definition you write will be far more interesting and important than anything we write".

10. Mi Barrio. Ive been trying my whole life to go into a place and become 'a regular'. That shit is fucking hard dude. But mi barrio kicks it old school, remembers your name, remembers what you always get, changes the fucking channel to soccer for you (unless doce corazones is on) and is the best fucking food anywhere in easily a 8 mile radius. love these guys.

5 comments:

Destructo said...

hell yea

rena mcmullan said...

top ten rulez!!

kegbenk said...

Demon Fuzz removes the hairs from my balls with lasers. out of sight.

Anonymous said...

yeah doce corazones is pretty much crucial to la raza.

massive cosign on mi barrio, 66 mustangs, and live at pompeii. the new joint isnt worth watching it has all this lame shit breaking up the music. og edition plus a square of hash will change your life.

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Freak! said...

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND

“We are here”

at Knitting Factory New York

Halleluwah, a Festival of Enthused Arts III

Nov, 22 2008