This edition of ShaLaLa feels to me to be a bit lacking, and if you agree, I apologize for skimming, but that’s what happens when I wear the same grey sweatpants for three weeks. Even though the drastic changes brought about by trying to save each other have technically given me more time to write, the muse has been hiding somewhere back in that world where we had concerts to scream at, friends to clink glasses with, and we heard laughter that didn’t come out of a computer speaker. And can you blame her? But if I’ve learned one thing from a month of no shows or socializing, it’s that a good pair of headphones can save your mind. Most of the time. So here’s what we could muster about some distractions from the uncertainty.
Sonic Youth put 11 live albums on Bandcamp that span its 30-year career. Listen to drummer Steve Shelley just kick the shit out of “‘Cross the Breeze” from this gig in Berlin in ‘08, and then be happy if you have the time to hear it all.
V/A – Bow To Your Masters, Volume 1: Thin Lizzy
Glory or Death Records, 2018
This came out a couple of years ago, but we just learned of it, and it’s our favorite thing in years, so we had to share. Featuring bands that tend toward the stoner persuasion of metal, the whole compilation is full of big ol’ classic riffs that get shook heavy groovy, but minds are getting supernova exploded when High on Fire covers “Vagabond of the Western World.” This is exactly the right drug for this song to be on.
Not a bad jam is laid down over 18 tracks, and the song selection stays mostly away from Thin Lizzy’s ballads, which, though always of solid construction, could cringe up a record a bit.
The Howling Hex
Knuckleball Express
Fat Possum Records
Twisted guitar shards scrape across easy rhythms, on the new album from Denver-based The Howling Hex. Neil Michael Hagarty of Royal Trux indulgent infamies is the driving force behind the group and this is its second album. The leadoff track sounds like a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitar solo stretched into a 90s radio staple that would’ve been playing between a Cracker song and some alt country. Great catchy chorus of “If you wanna die/Believe in lies” should really be stuck in everyone’s head at a time like this, and it will be after a listen. But there’s no intended politics here, just characters and scenes in lo-fi bedroom rock style at different speeds of jittery freakiness. Nicole Lawrence‘s voice is a pillow for much of the twang and trip. She sings, “It’s just another addiction, uh, huh” on “City in the Country” with Velvet’s cool detachment, then instantly turns shut-your-mouth country, finishing the line “That’s why I won’t be seeing you no more.” Underground rock with big rock heroes; coolly crafted and compacted jamming.
Adult Swim did us the favor of putting every episode of the animated Metalocalypse on its streaming app. It’s the Spinal Tap of melodic death metal, complete with lots of bloody murders, a cocaine loving clown who can high kick like David Lee Roth, and The United States Pornography Awards. At around ten minutes apiece, you can sneak in an episode just about any time.
There’s a new documentary out about the comedian Eugene Mirman, called It Started as a Joke. Mirman’s best known as the voice of Gene on Bob’s Burgers. Some say his voice is funnier than his jokes, but the man works a lot, and he had a festival that ran for ten years in Brooklyn, and a slew of friends who became household names over the run of that festival (Wyatt Cenac, Kristin Schaal, and Reggie Watts, to name a few). We learn little bits about Mirman, like that he went through a phase of slapping people in bars, but what starts as a doc about jokes and the history of a comedy festival turns suddenly for the heart as we’re let in on the relationship between Mirman and his wife. She is dying from cancer. The couple have a young boy. Suddenly we’re watching something about accepting death with lucidity and what sure looks and sounds like deep peace. So yeah, it started as a joke, and ends up in some kind of sad tranquility. Check your local streaming services.
Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers wrote a book about a sci-fi dog. It’s called Me & Mr. Cigar, and it’s as wild as you might expect. Billed as a YA novel, this could get kids into reading as the teen who owns the dog throws big ol’ rave-like parties and indulges in all sorts of mind-altering drugs. There’s some government goons who want his dog, and a road trip with an invisible bank robbery, and some serious Dog-ex-machina at the climax. It’s a fast read and almost as weird as watching the news.
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