ACID DAD was one of the standout bands the we came across during the filming of our live performance series OFF THE M at NYC independent venues MARKET HOTEL and TRANS-PECOS back in late 2018/early 2019.

their is a sense of deja-vu when listening to modern ROCK N ROLL bands in general, where you can identify immediately what era or vibe they are going after, which only contributes to the sense that you've heard all before probably better.

not with ACID DAD.  when i listen songs like "Child," "2ci" and "Marine" i am transported.  not really sure where, but it feels like when i first discovered films by DEREK JARMAN, GREGG ARAKI or PIER PAOLO PASOLINI  in high school.  its a world i want to return to as soon as i can.

they are an INDIE ROCK group with a definite sense of melody and song-craft while maintaining an edge.  like the first time i heard NIRVANA, i wasn't sure what the lyrics were about per se, but i knew they were genuine and authentic.  ACID DAD's 2018 self-titled release on GREENWAY RECORDS is one of my favorite records in recent years.

definitely can't wait to see what they produce next.

parody by nacrowe

i was thinking the other day about how music serves as a soundtrack to your life and how certain artists literally follow you around.

for me that band is MASTODON.

LEVIATHAN (RELAPSE, 2004)
i was first became aware of MASTODON in college when they were out touring their album LEVIATHAN.  the album was a loose reimagining of HERMAN MELVILLE's MOBY DICK along the lines of a touring band following their dream but wishing for the comforts of home.  as an ENGLISH major, how could i not love a band interested in literature?  i wrote term papers to that album.  

CRACK THE SKYE (REPRISE/SIRE/RELAPSE, 2009)
i remember listening to CRACK THE SKYE while going through the months-long  process of applying for PEACE CORPS when i was living and working as a long-term-substitute teacher at STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL in NYC.  when i learned that i was accepted and i had a departure date (country to specified later), i immediately thought i may be going to the UKRAINE.  so given this album's RUSSIAN monarchy theme, it was only too perfect as a soundtrack to my reading of  ROBERT K. MASSIE's epic NICHOLAS AND ALAEXANDRIA book centered around the doomed TSAR NICHOLAS II and his family.  the sound of it fit perfectly.  plus i got to see them tour this album at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN on their tour with ALICE IN CHAINS and DEFTONES.  i had floor tickets.  beyond sweet.

THE HUNTER (REPRISE, 2011)
turns out i was assigned ALBANIA, not UKRAINE, and I was in the remote mountainous northern region of KUKES on the border with KOSOVO when THE HUNTER came out.  for me this album recalls cold trips through serene mountain passages along dirt roads in the ALBANIAN ALPS where our ride would stop to allow wolf packs to cross the road.  just epic. i hear it and i can still smell that mountain air.

ONCE MORE AROUND THE SUN (REPRISE, 2014)
somewhere between LAKE TITICACA and the AREQUIPA DESERT in PERU i was able to obtain this album by dubious methods when it released.  before getting it i had just seen the SACRED VALLEY, MACHU PICCHU and COLCA CANYON with its centuries-old fields scalloped into the mountains with running streams below and hovering condors dotting the sky overhead.  when i heard the album the first time i was going through the AREQUIPA DESERT (driest in the world) with severely chapped lips counting the vicunas wandering afoot untouched in the distance.  the album fit the vibe of that country perfectly.

EMPEROR OF SAND (REPRISE, 2017)
i streamed this via youtube when it first released as i was en route to HA LONG BAY from HANOI during a trip through VIETNAM.  when i hear it i think of ungodly traffic and dusty BUDDHIST temples carved into rock on elevated vistas.  what a gorgeous country.

MASTODON is an epic group and i feel fortunate that I got to experience their past few albums while in some pretty incredible places that more than lived up to the scale and scope of their music.  i am definitely looking forward to their new release (whenever that is) which will most likely take place from an equally compelling locale: my car while driving down the GARDEN STATE PARKWAY.

enjoy this DEER GOD RADIO episode on MAKERPARKRADIO.NYC from a few months back pre-PANDEMIC dedicated to MASTODON.

when i discovered the band FAILURE in the 2000s when i was in college, years after their demise, i could not believe that i completely missed out on such a great band during their heyday.  it made me reconsider my MOUNT RUSHMORE of great bands from that ALTERNATIVE ROCK era (JANE'S ADDICTION, FAITH NO MORE, TOOL, ALICE IN CHAINS, NIRVANA, SOUNDGARDEN, etc) to include one more.  specifically the sounds found on their respective second and third releases, MAGNIFIED (SLASH, 1994) and FANTASTIC PLANET (SLASH, 1996) are HUUUUUUGGGGEEE.

almost PINK FLOYD-ish without the literary pretensions.  just huge rock riffs with lots of space.  in fact whenever i listen to their records now, even the releases post-reunion, i just feel like i am experiencing a defined space with lots of DEPTH and WEIGHT.  its amazing that FAILURE mastermind KEN ANDREWS produced and mixed those records back in the 1990s.  since their demise he has been an in-demand mixer that has worked with NINE INCH NAILS, PARAMORE, A DAY TO REMEMBER, TENACIOUS D, THE ICARUS LINE, JIMMY EAT WORLD, and M83 among others.

started before the quarantine, he created a YOUTUBE channel where he goes over his mixing techniques and utilizes the FAILURE back catalogue as examples.  even if you are not a musician or studio rat, just a fan of his band then this is a real treat.  its next level that a dude that went the DIY route (even with regard to their stylized, futuristic music videos) was able to track and mix content that held up to professional standards of the time.  its also cool to get a sense of his writing process, which is layered and methodical.

if you haven't heard MAGNIFIED or FANTASTIC PLANET, please stop reading this and just go find a comfortable place and zone out on SPOTIFY for the next two hours.  you can thank me later.

KILL YOUR IDOLS (HUNGER ARTIST, 2004) examines the NO WAVE scene in the late 1970s in the lower east side and is largely a return to the more sonically experimental and lyrically ambitious origins of the PUNK movement (think PATTI SMITH and RICHARD HELL-era TELEVISION).  almost ironically given that last statement is the fact that what largely unifies all these bands was their capacity to scrape away and put aside all their influences and create something wholly original. no recycled BLUES riffs, no clever allusions.  this was direct, visceral, confrontational music that was meant to alienate the listener and make them uncomfortable.  

essentially NO WAVE served as a new cultural year zero.

the music is described by some of the participants as being a byproduct of a deep need to emotional purge themselves.  it transmitted a basic consciousness through music that embraced the moment and extreme dissonance of what is essentially ANTI-MUSIC.

this documentary interviews both those initially associated with the scene such as as SUICIDE, THEORETICAL GIRLS, TEENAGE JESUS & THE JERKS, THE CONTORTIONS and DNA and those who formed bands in its wake like SWANS and FOETUS as well as musicians that were informed by the scene down the line when this documentary was being recorded in the early 2000s; bands like A.R.E. WEAPONS, GOGOL BORDELLO and the YEAH YEAH YEAHS.

whats interesting about this documentary is not the actual music itself, which i find unlistenable by design; it is literally music not meant to be listened to.  what interests me is how this brief moment in time freed future musicians to attempt unconventional techniques that embrace dissonance and disharmony into a sound that is wholly listenable and enjoyable to an audience.  much like the beats with the cut-out method added the chaos of random chance into their writings to create meaning, this new generation was using the most confrontational of scenes to model their ideas of what was possible in creating harmonious music by nontraditional means.  anti-music beget music.  they created "new traditions" in DEVO terms.  its an interesting idea.

you can see the legacy of this era not just in looped, feed-backed curations of  INDIE ROCK bands like SONIC YOUTH and THE BOREDOMS, but also proto-INDUSTRIAL groups like EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN.  like all experimental music or scenes based on such they are short-lived by necessity.  experimentation calcifies into patterns which turns into modes of expression and techniques that further get introduced as new orthodoxies.  thats why bands that truly take on the mantle of the spirit of this scene sound nothing like it.

kill these idols as well no doubt.​

LIFE (LITTLE BROWN & CO, 2010), written by the iconic ROLLING STONES guitarist / songwriter KEITH RICHARDS is one of the most expansive memoirs by a  musician i have come across in recent years.  it is exceptionally well written and conceived and was an enthralling read mostly due to the scope of its narrative.

following his early life you really get a feel for how early ROCK & ROLL was transmitted abroad and reintroduced by a bevy of talented BRITISH musicians who were steeped and obsessed with forgotten and dismissed stateside BLUES traditions.  in a very real sense, these BRITISH INVASION bands reintroduced AMERICA to her own musical traditions.

for me that early period is the most interesting section of the book.  you get a sense for how hostile the club scene in LONDON was initially to bands exploring the BLUES in the early 60s, instead focused at the time on ROCKABILLY and early ROCK AND ROLL.  THE ROLLING STONES initially were just a group of CHICAGO BLUES obsessives (i.e. the roster of CHESS RECORDS) that aspired to be the best cover band of that music in town.  songwriting wasn't even in the picture for them.  one interesting tidbit during this period was the fact that there was a loose underground collective of record collectors that would play newly imported hard to find vinyl singles at house gatherings.  these obsessives would argue about the authenticity of the artists while RICHARDS and MICK JAGGER were there only to glean off ideas about how to deconstruct the actual compositions themselves.  its hilarious to think that these BRITISH obsessives thought they knew about the BLUES enough to judge them.  its sad that when these musicians (like MUDDY WATERS) came to play ENGLAND they were booed for not fitting the prescriptive view of what a BLUESMAN should look and sound like (i.e. ROBERT JOHNSON).  typical BRITISH snobbery.  but you get a sense of what RICHARDS was fighting against.

this book goes deep into various parts of his career and personal life, as well as his relationship with drugs.  its funny because RICHARDS has a public persona for being a modern-day PIRATE or DRACULA figure who, much like LEMMY KILMISTER, has consumed in inordinate amount of pharmaceuticals and yet somehow has carried on into his elder years.  in actual fact throughout his memoir RICHARDS makes repeated commentary about the mistakes made by others regarding drugs.   he speaks of using in moderation and consuming a base amount to maintain a steady level alertness, something he did to stay up for days on end recording albums in the late 60s and early 70s.  he never upped the dosage in search of a higher plateau.  it was all about stability.

this concept regarding stability also seems to be how he navigates relationships both personal and business alike.  despite his bacchanalian reputation for debauched depravity, i mean he is practically the poster child for ROCK AND ROLL excess, he speaks about things like groupie-culture as less about sex and more about companionship while on the road for years on end, especially in the earlier years.  its counter-intuitive from your expectations going in, but THE DIRT this is not.  he comes off practically like an ENGLISH gentleman.

but again, for me this book is less about the extracurriculars and more about his appreciation for music and the art of collaboration.  in many ways his strength as a musician, aside from his songwriting prowess, is to seamlessly integrate himself into a rhythm section, maintaining the groove without showboating or drawing attention to himself.  they had JAGGER for that, the ultimate peacock.  JAGGER for himself is given praise throughout but also consternation for his betrayal of the band in the 1980s when seeking a solo deal with the same company on the back of a recently signed multi-album deal for the band.  JAGGER collaborates when necessary but ultimately is made to look like a selfish opportunist of the first order, seeking glory for himself which very much goes against the ethos of the band.

i could go because this book is beyond expansive and well-worth the time of anyone interested in ROCK AND ROLL, BLUES, COUNTRY MUSIC or the historical progression of popular music in the 20th century.  can't wait to read JAGGER's perspective if such ever comes out.