Some music I’ve liked so far in 2020 Part One
Let’s share.
I have to admit that ever since I’ve been without a platform to share new music my discovery has significantly waned. That’s no excuse. It’s on me for not putting in the work and deciding after a few seconds of deliberation to just listen to Black Sabbath or Propagandhi again.
With the outbreak of COVID-19 keeping me at home though I suddenly have a lot of free time and nothing with which to fill my days. Nothing to do. Nothing to look forward to, really. I can feel my body adapting from an active lifestyle to a sedentary one and I don’t like it but I don’t know how to stop it. It’s a weird sensation, trying and failing to just create a new routine centered on forced reclusiveness from scratch. I went to bed depressed and woke up really depressed. Maybe today I will try yoga. I’ve been baking. The other day I made double chocolate cookies. Yesterday it was snickerdoodles. I am about as good at baking as I am at brain surgery so I’m sticking with simple things.
A long time ago I used to write about punk music like it was my full-time job, lol, imagine that, so let’s do some more of that for old time’s sake. Here’s what I love right now.
Dogleg just got BNM on Pitchfork the other day so I’m not sure they need the bump here but their new album Melee has been a daily listen this week. Their sound has a loud, unapologetic exuberance to it that’s really immediately appealing. “Kawasaki Backflip” reminds me of the way I felt when I first heard Japandroids’ “The Nights of Wine and Roses” even though Dogleg don’t really sound like Japandroids at all they share a sort of brash aesthetic that seems to be on the outs in most indie rock in favor of more pensive, reflective moods and textures. This ain’t bedroom pop. I love the guitars on this album too—jaggedly complex, but still loud, adding layers to a clearly defined sound that I notice more and more on successive listens. This may be a deep cut as far as references go but they remind me of ‘90s post-hardcore bands that only I and probably 17 other white guys remember: Seaweed, Errortype:11, Criteria, Hey Mercedes. Maybe even early Hot Water Music? Really great stuff regardless. (Triple Crown)
It’s been a long time since I’ve heard anything in heavy music as exciting as Ether Coven’s Everything Is Temporary Except Suffering. These songs are just completely uncompromising, a perfect marriage of hardcore, doom metal and progressive music, with thick, sludgy riffs saddled up against punishing percussion, long songs comprised of several different tones and movements, throaty screaming juxtaposed against cataclysmic singing. Converge is an easy comparison, but Ether Coven aren’t as caustic or noisy—what they’re doing is a little more austere for the most part, but no less emotionally apocalyptic. (Century Media)
Is two things enough for today? If I do more what will I write about tomorrow or the next day or the day after that?
Here’s another painting by Joan Miró that I love called The Farm. I saw this at the National Gallery Of Art in Washington DC a couple years ago and I’m pretty sure I stared at it for ten minutes. Talk to you tomorrow.