Napalm Death - Scum

In case you haven't noticed, there is now this Google banner at the top of the page. If you want to show some appreciation for all this fine music I'm bringing you, click on it. I'd at least like to make the costs of running this blog and it's Google, not some scary advantage taking company with money as its sole purpose. So be nice boys and girls, kay?

If I was helping some evil, capitalist organization out then I'd have no right to put up this next band. Yeah, the bands name might give it away, I've posted some more bone crushingly heavy shit. I've said it before but loud violent music really has to do something to make me give two shits, so much dull, cloned bullshit around nowadays y'see. Well this band got the formula right, making more powerful grind-core than you or your mates could handle. Stuffing as many riffs in to as little time as possible whilst still maintaining a fierce political out look was their game and Napalm Death were so refreshing for doing so. Don't listen to it if you've got a bad ass headache.

Instinct Of Survival
Siege Of Power

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Fugazi - Repeater + 3 Songs

It's always fantastic to discover a band with a sound that is in every way their own but with a powerful social and political message behind it. Formed from members of Minor Threat and Rites Of Spring, Fugazi busted out of DC with a style now known as post-hardcore (a progression from hardcore's basic sound). They were disjointed and aggressive whilst singer Ian MacKaye preached a truly fresh and powerful political idea. "You are not what you own", a simple yet inspired thought is used in "Merchandise" and with it a number of listeners getting a new out look on life.

Mackaye's record label "Dischord" would go on to prove they practiced what they preached with it's contempt of and disregard for any greed and power lust that could be found n the music industry. Truly an inspiration for any aspiring underground, "in it for the music" types.

Merchandise
Blueprint

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Kyuss - Welcome To Sky Valley

This music is best enjoyed when you're nicely toasted. Big relaxing riffs covered with a smooth yet horse voice. You'll all know the guitarist, Josh Homme from the decent but inferior Queens Of The Stone Age as well as Nick Olivieri on bass. This stuff is called stoner rock and that name is pretty appropriate. When someone is out of it at my house and I put this on, every time it's "dude, this shit is like, beautiful". It's great when you're sober too so give the track below a whirl.

Gardenia

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Icarus Line - Mono

I don't know how often I'm going to be posting for a while. That "I'm going to cram loads of stuff on here as often as possible" phase is coming to an end. It looks like it's going to be that twice a week concept I proposed a while back but even then I'm not sure, maybe more, maybe less, whatever.

The Icarus Line caught my attention a while ago with the "Red And Black Attack" ep. Since that encounter I've been somewhat hooked. You might know this band as the guys who torture Fred Durst and spray painted The Strokes tour bus. Frankly that is of no importance in comparison to their music. This, their debut full length is shit hot. An impressive stand against mediocrity through the medium of Stooges and Drive Like Jehu influenced violent as hell punk.

They would go on to release another LP of drone rock infused head fuckery and it also slayed. However, early this year, key member, guitarist Aaron North left to play with Nine Inch Nails and frankly I have no idea what's going on with this band since then. Whether they have decided to carry on without him or have just decided to throw in the towel is unknown to me right now, either way it's a damn shame.

Love Is Happiness
Enemies In High Places

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Funkadelic - Maggot Brain

Firstly I'd just like to say: I can't dance, seriously, I am an absolutely horrid dancer in every possible way. When people ask me to dance, I say: no fucking way, because I will end up making a prat of myself. So why am I posting one of the worlds most funky and danceable bands on here? Because they make me dream, they make me dream of being able to dance my little shoes off and win all variety of dance contests.

Anyway, here's a few tracks from the seminal "Maggot Brain" record. Debatabley one of the ultimate funk records. Funkadelic formed from the ashes of parliament who, due to legal problems, decided to start over with a new name. They would go on to make a number of fantastic records through out the 70s and carve themselves the name "the kings of funk". "Maggot Brain" begins with a ten minute guitar solo, possibly the finest solo ever played, it's way too long to post here so you'll have to buy this to hear it. Then would come a number of tracks of pure funky goodness, each track gives the listener the incredible urge to get out of their chair and dance like your drunken uncle.

Hit It And Quit It
Super Stupid

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Tom Waits - Bone Machine

A lot of people would yell at you for calling "Bone Machine" Tom Waits' best album. They'd probably be at it for days telling you how "Rain Dogs" or his pre "Swordfishtrombone" records were infinitely more influential and therefore more valid. Well Fuck 'em, I like "Bone Machine" and you're not changing my opinion. It has some ridiculously good music on it, like the two tracks below and I enjoy it, I enjoy it a lot. So here you have it, two amazing tracks from the genius, eccentric composer and they both give a fantastic display of why I love this record so much. Infinite imagination, bleak yet heart warming imagery, all topped off with Waits' whiskey and smokes covered vocals. A real classic in every sense of the word.

The Earth Died Screaming
I Don't Wanna Grow Up

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Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back

I have no idea why it took me so long to post this. Public Enemy could well be the pinnacle of all that is good within hip-hop. Intellectual lyrics, spot on beats and a truck load of charisma. They blended Malcolm X styled race politics with the newly created craftsmanship of rapping and decks to put across a powerful message and some fantastic music. This, their critically acclaimed second LP was also their finest. You can just feel the anger and sense of injustice that bottled up inside these men through their music and even today they show up most hip-hop as the shallow, materialistic bullshit that it is.

Louder Than A Bomb
She Watch Channel Zero
Prophets Of Rage

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Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas

Here's part two of the Mclusky trilogy. This is the one, the album all members of this band will spend the rest of their creative lives trying to better, and you know, It's doubtable that they ever will. Raw, loud, violent and incredibly funny, this record is fucking amazing. Take The Pixies, put them in a blender and sprinkle some Bill Hicks laugh-out-loud humor in, replace Kim Deal with another screaming nut bar and you have this record. If I had to choose a favorite LP, this one would be way up the list, possibly the only album in the past ten years to inspire that feeling in me. After listening to the mp3s you'll understand, go out and get it kids.

What We've Learned
Dethink To Survive
Gareth Brown Says

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Lightning Bolt - Ride The Skies

Hey kids, do you like your music fast and brutal? How about unpredictable? Scary and disjointed? Well you better do because Lightning Bolt is all of that stuff. Two guys, one plays bass and one plays drums and together they have whipped up one hell of a headfuck. If you think they're going to sound like Death From Above 1979, then you're ever so wrong. I don't know how many of you are going to be with me on this band, a lot of you might just pan it as noise, well I beg to differ you closed minded fools. This shit is tight and you should love it.

Forcefield
13 Monsters

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Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I See A Darkness

I did my first piece of homework in nearly two years today, I'm actually putting some effort in to this whole college thing. Things are looking up at CC now In case you were wondering. My classes actually look kind of fun, that concept blows my mind: fun classes, whatever next.

The new update comes from possibly the most bleak record ever made. Billy manages to bum out everyone who hears him in a completely epic way. Take the second mp3 for example. It's him describing how the knowledge that we're all going to die makes sex more fun. But you should know that I wouldn't put something up here just because it's depressing, this is up here because Billy is an amazing song writer. All the tracks on this record are crafted with a somber grace that really helps get across just how miserable the good Prince wanted to make this music. Also Pete Townsend plays on this record and we all know Townsend is THE man.

I See A Darkness
Death To Everyone

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Robert Johnson

I really can't give you much of a history lesson on this one. If I'm completely honest, I know fuck all about blues music. I'm in the process of learning but I don't want to start talking complete shit. However I can say that this guy was amazing. A skilled guitarist and the writer of some really soulful and sometimes mournful songs. Oh and if anyone confuses this with Jack Johnson, you deserve to have your head cut off. Feel the blues kids, you'll thank me later

Kindhearted Woman Blues
Ramblin' On My Mind
Malted Milk

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DJ Format - Music For The Mature B-Boy

The first day of college was pretty terrible. About six hours of sitting in a class room with twenty people you've never met before and filling in a stupid number of forms. Add the worst headache you've ever had and realizing that maybe you've made a mistake, and you have my day. Still when they took me for a taster of my Literature course things started looking up, that is until we had to play the "say everyone in the rooms name" game and everyone managed to get every name right bar me who said "phht" every few people. Still, when this week is over things will pick up.

Here's the first hip-hop blog and it comes from the always enjoyable DJ Format with his trusty MC's Abdominal and Aspects in tow. Format hates modern day hip-hop and frankly who can blame him. The likes of 50 Cent and Jay-Z making the whole genre one big boast about how they've got fifty fur coats and a huge dick always leaves a stale taste in peoples mouth. Format is taking it back to the old school, the days when hip-hop was about expressing yourself not going on about how great you are. Elements of De La Soul, Public Enemy and such can be felt in here, really giving it an eighties feel. Next to Blackalicious, Format comes out top as one of the best twenty first century hip-hop artists.

The Hit Song (Feat Abdominal)
Charity Shop Soundclash (Feat Aspects)

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Slint - Spiderland

Ok, I'll admit the lack of diversity in this blog is getting silly. So here's the last rock based post for a little while. Stay tuned for some hip-hop, jazz, blues and country.

Spiderland could be considered a fluke. Slint's other offering "Tweez" was so amazingly turgid that it came to the point of unlistenable. That's why such a surprise came from Spiderland, a good solid fifty minutes of haunting guitars and whisper like vocals. This record is debatable the creator of the shoe gazer movement as well as having untold influences on post rock and other such ambient music. Here is my favourite track, chances are you'll find it a mixture of creepy yet moving and if you flat out don't like it then you're tasteless and there is no known cure for you.

Washer

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Dinosaur Jr - You're Living All Over Me

I figured some Dinosaur Jr was obligatory for me and this reissue of their sophomore album is hot shit. Get your wallet and buy this record and "Bug", then give the rest to the homeless. I'll give you that Jr aren't upto scratch nowadays, I saw them at Reading a few weeks back and they broke my heart. J Mascis so clearly didn't want to be there and left all the crowd interaction and energy to Lou Barlow. Lou tried his hardest but it wasn't easy, talk about soul destroying.

In there prime this band of three with there effect infused guitar, efficient bass and ability to hold a good tune together were incredibly fresh. They would go on to be one of the most influential bands of their decade. Would there have been a grunge era without Dinosaur Jr? The answer is pretty obvious.

Little Fury Things
Raisans

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Mclusky - My Pain And Sadness Is More Sad And Painful Than Yours

This is the beginning of a trilogy to one of the best bands of recent years. Like Star Wars only we know when enough is enough. Here we have Mclusky's first and weakest album although weak doesn't really describe this record well at all. By any other bands standards it's pretty fucking good. This record gives us insight to Mclusky's humble pub rock beginnings, before everyone caught on if you will. The white hot wit and black humor is present, the melodic yet insane screaming is there too but the songs simply aren't as good as what was still to come. Oh and this could win an award for best album title ever.

Whiteliberalonwhiteliberalaction
Rock Vs Single Parents

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Venom - Welcome To Hell

Jesus people, this blog has been up for a day and a half and already I'm being bombarded with requests. Most of them go the same way: "Hey Eugene, where's the metal?" Or "Dude, this blog is good an all but it needs some metal". Well I'm a man of the people so I'm giving you what you want, I'll probably put some Slayer and Burzum up at some point so just cool out. Although all feedback is appreciated and I'm thankful to everyone who gave this blog a try.

Ok kids, it's time for a history lesson. Venom managed to completely lay the blueprint for black and death metal as early as the 70s. Three Jordies with a new idea, a love of Sabbath and some hilarious theatrics, what metal is all about really. Their debut "Black Metal" was the album acclaimed to be the farther of much modern metal but with the follow up "Welcome To Hell" they managed to better their past efforts considerably. They were widely panned by Christian organizations who had clearly yet to understand what tongue in cheek meant. It is strongly doubtable that the members of Venom could give less of a shit about Satan which is ironic as the black metal scene in the 90s was heavily structured around a real belief in Satan, one they got from Venom amongst other things.

Welcome To Hell
Witching Hour
Angel Dust

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Pixies - Doolittle

There are few groups of musicians that I would put anywhere near the title of "my favorite band". However in a gun to my head style situation it would probably come down to Dinosaur Jr and Pixies. Me writing about how great The Pixies are is somewhat of a task. I feel that maybe I don't have the writing skills to really get across just how fantastic and influential they are. But here's to trying.

The Pixies were first introduced to the world in there debut EP "C'mon Pilgrim", no one had heard anything like it before, no one had screamed like Frank Black, no one had played bass with the style that Kim Deal did, they were on many levels original and a welcomed change from the hair metal fad that was in place at the time. They would then release two fantastic full lengths, Surfer Rosa and Doolittle. However after the success of Doolittle things started to go sour between the band. Most notably Deal & Black, they split up after Deal finally decided she couldn't stand Black anymore. Move forward an era and The Pixies have reformed, after all these years they still blow away every other bad live and with the promise of new material we can rest assured that maybe the greatest band of all time are back and getting on just fine.

Tame
Wave Of Mutilation
Gouge Away

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Bucket Full Of Teeth - IV

When it comes to heavy music, a band really has to open their record with enough power and talent to grab my attention and make me give a shit. Converge managed it with their “Jane Doe” records opener “Concubine” as did Slayer with “Angel Of Death” and 400 Blows did with “The root Of Our Nature”, if violent heavy bands can completely catch me by surprise and then maintain my interest throughout a forty minute record then they have my respect. Well being added to the list of heavy music worth your attention is harsh as hell screamo act Bucket Full Of Teeth.

For this records entire duration I was gripped, the technicality of their music shows talent without being pretentious. The more melody based moments are slightly generic but are usually made up for by the huge power based moments that follow. The vocals are entirely screamed out with little to no singing at all but the bands screamer is more than cut out for the job and manages to maintain a sense of control and formula through his throaty yelps. His screams seem to ground the guitars and prevent them from becoming too indulgent and over the top. All in all each element of Bucket Full Of Teeth seems to control the others and make for a well composed and interesting screamo record.

Capital Distracts And Imprisons
A Morbid Gathering

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Bad Brains - Rock For Light

If you were to ask me who my all time favorite hardcore band was, the Bad Brains would probably come to mind first. A set of four Rastafari coming out of Washington DC in the early 80s, making some of the fastest yet melodic punk ever heard. They were debatable the first hardcore punk band ever to be conceived, or at least to be widely recognized.

Rock For Light is for the better part break neck speeded punk with the occasional dub reggae track to interlude the insanity of the rest of the album and to softly give us the message of their political insight. Things would eventually go stale for the Brains, band members fighting, a number of shoddy records and some very questionable tales did slightly smear their reputation as loving men trying to promote unity. However, no matter who created this record, it can speak for itself.

Big Takeover
Right Brigade
At The Movies

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Elliott Smith

As weird as this may sound, I always find a degree of humor in people finding Smith's death to be a big surprise. You have to wonder if these people had ever actually listened to any of his work. Personally I was amazed he waited so long, obviously I'm thankful. Those last ten or so years of his life were when he crafted some solidmusic. But in that music, behind the simple yet well crafted guitar work you could hear a man that was miserable about his own existence. His death was, in the dictionary definition of the word, a tragedy. He was creating something that really tugged at the heart strings but we all knew what was coming was inevitable.

He started out in a somewhat dull rock band called Heatmiser, they put out a few records, no one cared and Elliott quickly realized he was wasting his time. He then went solo and managed to craft five amazing solo records before his demise. What then came was his label publishing an album that he was making before he finally gave up on life. Bar a few moments of hope the record was next to a suicide note. Even though it was clearly not finished it still sounded amazing. Even more bleak than his previous records but still crafted with real heart.

Here are a few of my favorite Elliott tracks. There are a fair few more that deserve your admiration but after a lengthily process these four came out top.

The Biggest Lie - S/T
Speed Trials - Either/Or
Everything Means Nothing To Me - Figure 8
A Fond Farewell - From A Basement On The Hill

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F-Minus - S/T

Nowadays I find it incredibly hard to get excited about any modern punk music. There seems to be a bombardment of NO-FX styled goofy, trying too hard to be funny bullshit and Crass wannabe acts. None of it makes me care, some of it even royally pisses me off. That's why F-Minus are so refreshing. This self titled LP is eighteen minutes long and twenty tracks in size. Fast, pissed off punk, the way it's supposed to be. Obviously they hold elements of some bands of yore but when this came out there was no one playing this fast and with this much soul.

They would later go on to release "Wake Up Screaming", a darker, much slower paced record produced by Steve Albini for that extra evil touch. The record sucked. I believe in bands progressing but this new incarnation completely ruined the spirit and sound of the band. Four minute sludge-punk tracks by a band that were fantastic due to their speed among other things does not cut it with me. Still, we have this self titled LP another full length and a few splits so at least we have the memories.

Hostage
Dragons Teeth
Class Machine

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Aphex Twin - Drukqs

A little electronic music for you. In the realms of music to come from a computer and decks, there are few bigger ground breakers than Richard D James, the man behind the samples behemoth that is Aphex Twin. His use of real world noise recordings and disjointed beats have shown many people that electronic music doesn't have to be simple, straight forward or repetitive. "Drukqs" is probably my favorite of his records, two discs of experimental majesty. You wouldn't believe how much this blew my mind when I first heard it, I must have been about twelve and prior to hearing this I had just panned drum 'n' bass, techno and all electronic genres as wank for pilled up idiots in Ibiza to OD to. This opened my eyes and my mind.

Vordhosbn
54 Cymru Beats

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Million Dead - A Song To Ruin

At the moment I'm waiting until Tuesday for college to start, thus why I'm free to post so much on this blog, all my friends went to 6th form so I'm basically bumming around my house until then so I figured I might as well do something useful with my time. Come Tuesday I'm not going to have nearly as much time so this blog will probably be updated twice a week unless I find someone else who wants in and can do the job well.

Anyhow, the new update is for a fast rising British band that won my attention over two years ago. Million Dead have managed to carve themselves some well deserved respect in the British underground and are currently starting to make themselves known in the States as well. Boasting one of the most witty and intelligent lyricists to grace these isles since everyone thought Morrissey was a genius and not a pompous wind bag. The young Frank Turner launched his band in to the realms of respect through his political and social rants and stories, a maybe vain attempt to get our nations youth in to taking an interest in the world around us and look more closely at issues that would otherwise be ignored. I've put a bunch of tracks from their debut record "A Song To Ruin" up but I'll probably end up putting songs from their recent second album on here at some point.

Breaking The Back
Smiling At Strangers On Trains
Macqyver

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Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit

I figured it might be an idea to bring the whole "white guys playing guitars" trend that's developing in this blog to a halt. We have here another living legend, the essential African jazz man himself, Fela Kuti. Despite a very awkward life that involved having to create his own country, his mother being thrown out of a window by militants and an absurd number of children, Fela managed to make consistently fantastic records throughout his career. His songs tell us of the battles he has fought and his infusion of soul in to the music via his soft yet dry voice and saxophone playing is somewhat moving. His ability to put these horrible occurances in his life behind him and still make the powerful music he does is truly an inspiration. We have track here from his "Expensive Shit" lp and it easily worked it's way in to one of my all time favorite tracks.

Water No Get Enemy

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Shellac - At Action Park

Steve Albini is one scary little guy. I always considered him to be an Ian Mackaye for arse holes. Boundless respect, appreciated musician and a variety of fantastic musical projects. He's done production work for the likes of PJ Harvey, Slint, Nirvana and Mclusky and has written pieces warning us all of the dangers of signing to major labels. He is in all true meaning of the word, an underground hero. Well here we have my favorite of his musical projects, out doing his efforts with Rapeman and Big Black ever so slightly. "At Action Park" Was Albini's most twisted and entertaining record, with help from Bob Weston and Todd Trainer, let the black humor of it speak for itself.

My Black Ass

Dog And Pony Show

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FAQ

Answers to the questions I've become tired of giving generic responses to.

Who are the posters here?
There's me (Eugene), Kieran and Alice. We also used to have two writers called Androol (no idea what his real name is) and Marissa. They're both long gone.

How come none of you have posted something by (insert band here)?
Two possibilities. 1) None of us have heard of said band 2)We don't like the band.

Can I send you a CD/promo/mp3s?
Sure. Send an e-mail to jesus_sunbeam@hotmail.com and I'll give you the address of which ever poster you want to send something to.

You took down an mp3 that I want, can you send it to me?
No. All mp3s are taken down after two months and if you missed the chance, tough shit.

I own a music blog similar to yours, will you link to us?
Maybe. Send me the link and I will check your site out. Our links section is made from sites that I read or sites that have linked to us.

Why does you site look so crappy compared to others?
Because I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to HTML. If you know a good template generator that won't destroy all the existing posts and is easily implemented, please point it out to me.