62314

Manic Compression
Show: 069
June 23rd, 2014

thanks to Chris for covering -- hopefully he'll do a set of his own in a couple of weeks -- and Aaron (my beloved brother) for helping me put together this incredibly last-minute set.

Mice in Cars - Death to False Maple // Burn the Reader (2011)
Maze - Questions // Maze (2013)
City of Caterpillar - When Was the Last Time We Painted Over the Blood on the Walls? // City of Caterpillar (2002)
Anwar Sadat - DOA // Gold (2013)
Anwar Sadat - Demarcation // Mutilation (2012)
Anwar Sadat - Dead Space // No Vacation (2011)
Tendril - Terminal Vibration // Smear (2012)

The Powder Room - Waltz Liquor // Curtains (2014)
Sleepytime Trio - Butter Scaryflies // Memory Minus (1998)
Guzzard - I'm a Pain, You're a Pain // Get a Witness (1995)
Crain - Proposed Production // Speed (1992)
Retox - Boredom is Counter-Revolutionary // Ugly Animals (2011)
Tar - Cross Offer // Jackson (1991)
The Austerity Program - Song 36 // Beyond Calculation (2014)

Snake Apartment - Paint the Walls // Paint the Walls (2007)
Zaleski - Red Walls // Split w/ Ugly Zoo (2014)
Ugly Zoo - Jawbreaker // Split w/ Zaleski (2014)
Ladder Devils - Limited Too // Nowhere Plans (2012)
Babes in Toyland - Swamp Pussy // Spanking Machine (1990)
Gray Matter - Give Me a Clue // Food for Thought (1985)
White Lung - Down With the Monster // Deep Fantasy (2014)
Bitch Magnet - Navajo Ace // Umber (1989)
Bazooka - Tingle // I Want to Fuck All the Girls in My School (2012)

Honor Role - Lives of the Saints #135 // Album (2001)
Liars - Grown Men Don't Fall in the River, Just Like That // They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top (2002)
Pissed Jeans - Human Upskirt // King of Jeans (2009)
Roomrunner - Upside Down // Roomrunner (2011)
U.S. Maple - The State Was Bad // Long Hair in Three Stages (1995)
Pterodactyl - Three Succeed // Pterodactyl (2007)
Arab on Radar - Rubber Robot // Queen Hygiene II (2003)

BUMP music: Abilene - Detroit Locker

live stuff

Manic Compression
Show: 068
June 16th, 2014

Big Ups - Wool // Eighteen Hours of Static (2014)
Buildings - Mishaped Head // Melt Cry Sleep (2012)
Hawks - Holy Day // Rub (2011)
Frodus - Wardialer // F-Letter (2003)
Glazed Baby - First Face Floor Waxer // Squeeze the Tail, Suck the Head (1993) (REQUEST)
Table - Vacuum // Table (1995)
Ed Hall - White House Girls // Motherscratcher (1993)
Pixies - Break My Body // Surfer Rosa (1988) **
Young Widows - The Wanderer // Young Widows/Helms Alee (2014)
Shellac - The End of Radio // Excellent Italian Greyhound (2007) ** (REQUEST)

June of 44 - ??? (recorded at 485 Robinson in July '97)
Seam - The Wild Cat (40 Watt on November 19, 1993)
Shipping News - Louven (The Earl on February 8, 2003) **
Shipping News - Paper Lanterns (Zero Return) (The Earl on February 8, 2003)
Shipping News - Nine Bodies, Nine States (Under the Couch on October 30, 1997)

Brainiac - Draag (Midtown Music Hall on April 14, 1994)
Brainiac - ??? (Midtown Music Hall on April 14, 1994)
Hot Snakes - I Hate the Kids (40 Watt on August 12, 2002)
Hot Snakes - Salton City (40 Watt on August 12, 2002)
Pylon - Gravity (Memorial Hall Jan 20, 1982 - in Athens)
Pylon - Cool (Memorial Hall Jan 20, 1982 - in Athens)
Survival Knife - Heaven Has No Eyes // Loose Power (2014)

BUMP music: Hella - Biblical Violence

** got a call

6914

Manic Compression
Show: 067
June 9th, 2014

Big Black - Passing Complexion // Atomizer (1986)
Cop Shoot Cop - Swimming in Circles // Release (1994)
Antelope - Justin Jesus // Reflector (2007)
Girls Against Boys - 60 Is Greater than 15 // The Ghost List (2013)
Wire - Reuters // Pink Flag (1977)
Coaltar of the Deepers - Unlimber // Come Over to the Deepend (2010)
Swans - I Am the Sun // Swans Are Dead

No Trend - Blow Dry // Too Many Humans (1984)
Stick Men with Ray Guns - Grave City // Some People Deserve to Suffer (officially released in 2000/2002, but recorded in early '80s)
Zulus - Kisses // Zulus (2012)
Upsidedown Cross - Upsidedown Cross // Upsidedown Cross (1991)
Today Is the Day - In the Eyes of God // In the Eyes of God (1999)
Brainbombs - Maybe // Urge to Kill (1999)

Butthole Surfers - Whirling Hall of Knives // Rembrandt Pussyhorse (1986)
Lungfish - Time Is a Weapon of Time // Feral Hymns (2005)
Lowercase - The Open Sea // The Going Away Present (1999)
Laddio Bolocko - Goat Lips // The Life and Times of Laddio Bolocko (2003)
Abilene - Fellini // Two Guns, Twin Arrows (2002)

Whores - Baby Bird // Clean *request* (2013)
Killdozer - Turkey Shoot // Uncompromising War on Art under the Dictatorship of Proletariat (1994)
Bastro - Tobacco in the Sink // Sing the Troubled Beast (1990)
Raein - Parte 2 // The Harsh Words As the Sun (2004)
Owls - It Collects Itself... // Two (2014)
Giraffes? Giraffes! - DRGNFKR // Pink Magick (2011)

*bump music: Abilene - Detroit Locker

6214

Manic Compression
Show: 066
June 2nd, 2014

Rapeman - Steak and Black Onions -- Two Nuns and a Pack Mule (1989)
Live Skull - Sparky -- Bringing Home the Bait (1985)
Mutton - Bladder -- Mutton (2013)
Sandrider - Tides -- Godhead (2013)
Slint - Cortez the Killer (originally played/recorded in 1989, released on this year's Spiderland reissue)

Watery Love - Only Love -- Decorative Feeding (2014)
Jack Buck - Proud Mary -- Soft (2013)
The Devil - Michael and Jean -- The Devil (2013)
Moss Icon - Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly -- Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly (1993)

The Liverhearts - Of Doctors and Daggers -- Ornament (2008)
Shiner - Surgery -- The Egg (2001)
Q and Not U - No Damage Nocturne -- Different Damage (2002)
Hot Cross - Figure Eight -- Cryonics (2003)
Navio Forge - Manufactured Images of Jesus Christ -- As We Quietly Burn a Hole Into... (1993)
Foxing - Bit By a Dead Bee pt. II - The Albatross (2013) **
Rodan - Jungle Jim -- Rusty (1994)

Cutthroats 9 - Dissension -- Dissent (2014)
Drive Like Jehu - Caress -- Drive Like Jehu (1991)
Bitch Magnet - Punch and Judy -- Umber (1989)
These Arms Are Snakes - Drinking From the Necks of the Ones You Love -- This is Meant to Hurt You (2003)
Unwound - What Went Wrong -- Challenge for a Civilized Society (1998)


BUMP music: Don Caballero - Puddin in My Eye

Show Review: Whores./MTN ISL

Whores/MTN ISL @ The Earl

I walked in during what I'm guessing was MTN ISL'S second or third song. Recently (and by this I mean over a year), my hearing's been... dysfunctional. You'd think that with the amount of loud shows I've been to over the years, I'd be telling to people to "turn it up!"... much the opposite, actually. Loud noises are uncomfortably loud. It's almost not even worth watching The Wire if I have to have it the lowest volume possible and subtitles. So it came as a pleasant surprise when I found that I was able to put my earplugs all the way in and they still sounded amazing. Seriously, I've been disappointed with The Earl in the past, but tonight the sound was completely on point. (Singer/guitarist Gene Leath mentioned someone called "Wiggins," who Creative Loafing describes as "Atlanta's version of Steve Albini." Now I'm embarrassed I did not know his name before.) I was ecstatic about the performance afterwards, even asking Lauryn "Who do they even sound like?" and she agreed that these guys have really got a unique sound going. With a lot of the types of music I listen to, the band members are all early-mid 20's, but I have to remember that the heyday of this music was two decades ago; I was barely crawling then. The members of MTN ISL clearly grew up with the likes of Failure, Quicksand, and Shellac, and it shows not just in their age, but their awesomely innovative sound. We both agreed that they were very "space-y," and indeed, they had me slowly rocking back and forth at the front, eyes closed. Go see MTN ISL.

The good thing about wearing earplugs, I think, is that it blocks out much of the excess reverb; although they turn down the volume, I find that bands typically sound better with earplugs all the way in. But with Whores., this was not so much the case. Not that it was a problem by any means. If there's one band I'll gladly burn my hair fibers to, it's Whores. You know that awesome feeling you get when you discover an awesome band, and then you find out they're playing in your town a couple days later? Well, how about when you find out they're a local band? I admit this isn't the exact timeline -- when I first downloaded Ruiner last summer, I was aware that they were local, but I had never seen them on any shows or anything -- but it's close enough. It would be a disservice to merely call Whores. my favorite local band, because they are truly one of my favorite current bands. As singer/guitarist Christian Lembach said, "Didn't you guys hear? We're rich and famous now." (Being chosen to open for Floor on not only the Atlanta show, but several regional shows must be a honor, really.)

Bands since the beginning of whenever musicians started recording music and playing live must have grappled with the question of whether to focus more on the actual recorded music or the live experience. Though I'm not a musician myself, I've found that as with most things, the middle ground is truly the best way to go: I've heard bands that shine on album, but are not fitted for the live stage, and vice-versa. Some bands make music just to play it live, and some bands make music with no intention of even doing a show. I still recall a particular interview where Lembach basically said "We will take parts out of songs if they're not fun to play live." I think that I slightly recoiled when I first read this (this was before I had seen them for the first time), but now I understand why he said this. Watch a video (or, hell, see them live!) and you'll see that these three guys truly live for the live show. They jump around, sure, but what really struck me was the the way they were constantly grinning at each other. Fuck all the 9-5 bullshit, the mortgage, the taxes; when these guys get on stage, they are so utterly engaged in the present moment and stoked about it that I can't help but gape at them with admiration, envy, and pure reverence. (And you know a band is heavy when I deliberately take off my glasses just so I can go apeshit.) At the same time, though, their music is just so damn good that I'd be fooling myself if I said their only worth is as a live band. They may not be the most unique band, but everything about them is just so perfectly executed. Go see Whores.