Record of the Month Club – January 2014

The Fraternal Auditory Illumination Society convened for what would be our inaugural coterie in January at Maier’s Laier. We toasted frosted brews and played many tunes.

Brother Muu brought two tasty growlers from local hops specialists, Societe Brewery.

On glass that night was Harlot and another, mystery brew.

Brother Dan offered his audiophile rig (Music Hall mmf 7, Outlaw RR2150 and Ascend Acoustics Sierra 1s) and it sounded in-crediballs!

We recorded audio for a potential future Podcast but need to work through some kinks before we unleash it on an unsuspecting public who probably don’t want another (or care for) podcast about music from music nerds.

(Spitballing in the digital void here) It’d be pretty rad to do something similar at the Whistle Stop once a month and have it curated by folks like JP, Tim Mays, M Theory, Off the Record, folks from Casbah, Soda Bar and Tin Can. It’d be like a Vinyl Social.

The only rule would be “vinyl only.”

No genre limitations. The more eclectic the better.

I gave Brother Dan the download from my vinyl edition of Women’s Public Strain.

Happy to report he loves it nearly as much as I do.

(RIP Christopher Reimer, you were gone too soon but what you left was magical. Friends/readers you can donate to the CR Fund at http://christopherjohnjosephreimer.com/)

Check out Women “Eyesore” live. Wish I could have seen them live.

Here are the tracks we played:

Seaweed “Service Deck”
Savages “City’s Full” and “She Will”
Chelsea Wolfe “Pale on Pale”
Fear “New York’s Alright”
Buy Contortions “Designed to Kill”
Women “China steps” “Venice Lockjaw”
Jawbox “reel”
Beefeater “Trash Funk” and “Reagonomix”
Bl’ast “Only Time Will Tell”
Abused “Drug Free Youth”
Mose Allison “New Parchman”
Hailu Mergia “Anchin Alay Alegn”
Pharaoh Sanders “Karma” b side
Goat “Run to Your Mama”
Peter Tosh “Get up Stand up” “Stepping Razor”
Polica “Very Cruel”
Wrestling worms “Intaglio”

Cloud Nothings “I’m Not Part of Me” – New Single

2012’s Attack on Memory by Cloud Nothings was and remains one of my most visited records. The fucking breakdown in “Wasted Days” is one of the most intense and inspiring I’d heard in years. How these guys could remind me of the best parts of Fugazi and Sonic Youth and make it their own still astounds.

I caught them live in Austin with UME and Portugal the Man. Cloud Nothings have this lightning in a bottle approach to guitar music that grabs me by the throat and dares me to live better, try harder and quit fucking around. It’s likely reverse psychology at work on Attack on Memory. By contrast, the material and lyrical content are dark and filled with rage, longing and melodic guitar lines. When Baldi sings, “I thought I would be more than this,” you exchange the “I” for yourself and can’t help but wonder similar things. Is this all I am capable of? How can I not trip on my own two feet walking down the street?

I mean, everyone wonders the same thing. Right?

It doesn’t matter. Because as soon as that noise-drenched interlude gets 2/3’s of the way through and the drums are pounding you forget what it was you were asking in the first place.

Their forthcoming album Here and Nowhere Else (out 3/26 on Carpark/Mom + Pop (Mom + Pop put out last year’s AMAZEBALLZ record Shulamath by Poliça)) promises much earned levity and based on the recently released single, “I’m Not Part of Me,” we can expect a bend in the elbow to the mouth of Baldi’s Fuck It All approach from the previous record. Layered production. More refined song writing. Great guitar playing. Stellar arrangements. How can he not be stoked with the critical acclaim of the past album?

Maybe a smile?

See these guys live.

STREAM: “I’m Not Part Of Me” – https://soundcloud.com/cloudnothings/im-not-part-of-me