Unfinished Projects

I didn’t really plan on writing two posts about this topic (plus we’re getting into mid-February already, so January is pretty old news), but I ended up writing too much about the Monorchid. I’m going to try to get a bit more brief here now.

Now You Are This by Numbers came out last August and I think that makes it the most current item in my ‘music of january’. I had been interested in checking this album out ever since I heard and saw the video for ‘Mind Hole’ (video is up above). I saw Numbers play with the Mae Shi in San Francisco, back in 2005, and I wasn’t really crazy about them then. In this album, they still sound loud and skronky (they were extremely loud and skronky before) but the whole thing gets a little slowed down, stretched out, and especially fuzzed over into a big thick distorted soup. ‘Mind Hole’ is still the standout song, but everything else is really solid (and there’s a song called ‘Kosmos Love’!).

I don’t have a picture for it, but I got an excellent Red Monkey 7″ for free when I ordered the Numbers cd and a Deerhoof picture disc (it always pays to include some vinyl in any purchase from Kill Rock Stars because then they will toss in a free 7″). Before hearing this disc, I had sort-of liked the idea of Red Monkey more than I actually liked any of their stuff. I mean, they are from England and write Fugazi-ish songs with feminist themes, so that’s pretty cool. The problem is that most of the songs that I’ve heard just weren’t that good. However, the A-side of this single (which was released as part of Kill Rock Stars’ 1998 singles club) is called ‘(Ain’t Nothing But An) Incendiary Device’ and it is awesome. Sure, they still sound like Fugazi but with a worse rhythm section, but I’ll take that any day.

The next thing that I’m excited about musically is Monitor Mix, which is a blog written for NPR by Carrie Brownstein. Carrie, of course, was a member of my number one crush band, Sleater-Kinney. She writes well about music, in such a way that you can really get a good idea of her specific musical tastes (and she does seem to be quite particular about what she likes). The only other musician in my RSS reader is John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats and my interest in his ravings about grindcore has waned. So yeah, check out Monitor Mix. And here’s a S-K video just for fun.

Ok, that more or less covers January. I have some honorable mentions, though. There’s the Deerhoof picture disc that I mentioned above. That one was disappointing (I don’t love the Deerhoof slow songs), but it is a 7″ picture disc, which is pretty much the coolest record format ever. I also enjoyed the extremely slick poppiness of ‘Rip It Up’ by Orange Juice. Finally, I think I got it December, so maybe it doesn’t count, but Jenn got me a perfect Christmas present: the ‘Astral Glamour’ 3xCD set which includes almost everything ever recorded by the Homosexuals.

I’ve been starting to keep some notes about new music that I’m listening to. But by ‘new music’, I don’t really mean new releases so much as I mean stuff that’s new to me. And I’m pretty damn far behind the times. However, since I have all these notes nicely compiled, I figure that I might as well hype the stuff that’s been suiting me well over the past month.

First up, we have ‘Let Them Eat the Monorchid’, which is by the Monorchid, naturally. This album is tragically hard to find (the cd was put out by the label Simple Machines, they went out of business in 1998 but Dischord still distributes a lot of their records, just not this one), so I ended up purchasing a copy off eBay. I generally try hard not to start bidding for records because I see how it could be a very slippery slope. In this case, though, I’m not disappointed that I did. Seeing as they are a DC punk band, the Monorchid naturally played an aggressive and angular (ok, is there any other adjective to describe sharp and trebly staccato guitar playing à la Gang of Four other than ‘angular’?) style, using all the gaps between the notes. However, one element that, in my personal tastes, puts the Monorchid above otherwise similar bands like the Warmers (I should emphasize that I really like the Warmers too) is Andy Coronado’s guitar playing, which can take the obtuse melodies and just play them really fast, with notes crammed into every crevice. While this might take out some of the rhythmic suspense, there is more than enough pure exhilaration to go around on songs like Controversial Trousers. I first got into Coronado a few years ago when I saw him play with Wrangler Brutes and he would be Exhibit A for my case against those people who disparage punk guitarists.

The Monorchid even reunited to play two summers ago at the Touch and Go 25th Anniversary in Chicago. Sadly, I missed out on that show. At the time, I was more unhappy about missing the Ex, but that was eventually remedied. I’m afraid that I’ll probably never get another chance to see a Monorchid show.

Hot damn, I just saw that ‘Let Them Eat…’ made the Alternative Press 90 Greatest Albums of the 90′s list, albeit squeaking in at number 89.