Hard Rock

LISTENING TO MY ALBUMS FROM 1994

fistfulofdave, , , , , , , ,

I’ve been listening to all the albums that I own. I am currently making my way through years ending in 4.

These were originally posted on Mastodon, so one big post. I’ll post when I listen from now on.

August 12

Pale Saints – Slow Buildings
Their last album and without Ian Masters so a kind of different band. All being said may be my favorite or theirs.

Page & Plant – No Quarter
The second best MTV Unplugged (UnLedded) album. A fun surprise at the time.

Nova Mob – Nova Mob
Second album by the Grant Hart lead band. Not as good as The Last Days of Pompeii, but worth your time.

Nirvana – MTV Unplugged In New York
The best MTV Unplugged album.

NineI nch Nails – The Downward Spiral
Everything NIN is about is in the first three releases. They get repetitious for me after this.

New Raidant Storm King – August Revital
Sonic Youth worship, it’s OK. The next album “Hurricane Necklace” is the one you want to check out.

New Order – (The Best of) New Order
I’m more a Joy Division guy. Thus the best of.

Mercyland – Spillage
David Barbe better know as the basist for Sugar. A few stand out tracks.

August 11

Polvo – Celebrate the New Dark Age
Warped, psychedelic noise rock from Chapel Hill, NC.

Pitchblende – Au Jus
If a Discord band turned into a noise band. Yes they are from Washington DC. No they’re not on Discord.

Penance – Parallel Corners
The lone outlier. Traditional doom from former Dream Death members.

Panel Donor – s/t
Lawrence KS has their own special kind of noise. I put out a split with this band. Another band from Lawrence to check out is Zoom.

August 10

Queensryche – Promise Land
Their last good album. Less of a clinical production here.

Pure Joy – Unsung
Rusty Willoughby of Flop, Fastback, Llama. This is more straightforward 90s power-pop.

Punchdrunk – From Dad
Milwaukee ex-pats. Melodic angular indie rock. The Replacements meet Jawbox?

Portishead – Dummy
Sour Times is an all time favorite. Friends at the time gave me the business for liking this. Not sure what their problem was.

August 9

Sebadoh – Bakesale
Easily their best, rivals Dino Jr. None of that fucking around noise crap and ditched the lo-fi.

Samiam – Clumsy
Melodic Post-Hardcore? I won’t call them the e-word. Their best.

Rodan – Rusty
Slint meets Shellac. Prime Touch & Go.

REM – Monster
Peter Buck overdosing on a tremolo pedal. This is a boring album. The most popular R.E.M. is the worst.

August 5

Solitude Aeturnus – Through the Darkest Hour
Doom in the Dio Sabbath fashion.

Smashing Pumpkins – Pisces Iscariot
Odds and Ends. I only need their first two.

Silkworm – Libertine
Noisy 90s Guitar indie rock. The smarmy, slacker kind. I want to like it. I don’t.

Shudder To Think – Pony Express Record
The question is can you deal with the vocals? When I’m in the mood. Outside the first album this may be their best.

AUGUST 4

Versus – The Stars are Insane
I keep this for the song Blade of Grass, the rest isn’t so good. Quieter end of the loud quiet indie rock of the time kind of like a twee Seam or Codeine.

The Veldt – Afrodisiac
What if you crossed Shoegaze with R&B?

Various Artist – Working Holiday
Simple Machines Comp of singles and live tracks.

Various Artists – If I Were a Carpenter
The 90s loved its tribute albums. Saved by Sonic Youth’s “Superstar” which is one of my favorite covers ever.

Thirty Ought Six – Bosozoku
Cross between Fugazi and Tad, throw in a little Sunny Day Real Estate.

Superchunk – Foolish
Breakup Superchunk isn’t for me. They righted the ship on “Here’s Where the Strings Come In”.

Sunny Day Real Estate – Diary
Say what you’d like it’s not emo. Grunge arena rock? Sure.

Sugar – File Under Easy Listening
The least of the Sugar releases. No one wanted to hear anyone but Bob sing.

Steel Pole Bath Tub – Some Cocktail Suggestions
Albini recording doesn’t do it, go listen to the Miracle of Sound in Motion instead.

Soundgarden – Superunknown
This album is way too long and way too normal, all the edges are buffed off. 4th of July is great though.

Sonic Youth – Experimental Jetset and No Star
Good not great.

AUGUST 1

Wool – Box Set
This is pretty much Scream doing grunge/stoner rock)

Weezer – Blue Album
Guessing you know this one.

Wannadies – Be a Girl
Swedish Weezer?

VerucaSalt – American Thighs
Chicago Weezer?

LISTENING TO MY ALBUMS FROM 1994

Thursday Five List – Shadows and Light 2026/08/13

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On Mastodon people post a theme for the week of a five song playlist on Thursdays.
I did two for this week as too many songs to whittle down.

Shadow

1. You Cast Long Shadows – Arabrot
2. Peter Pan’s Shadow – Compound Red
3. Shadow of a Fool – D.I.
4. Shadow From Mordor – Sacrilege
5. I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart – A Place to Bury Strangers

Listen Brainz – Makes a playlist of YouTube Videos

Apple Music

Last FM – I think you can only listen if you have an account.

Light

1. The Light Pours Out of Me – Magazine
2. Lights Out – Angry Samoans
3. Artificial Light – Comet Control
4. Light Fuse – Flux
5. Lights Out – UFO

Listen Brainz

Apple Music

Last FM

Thursday Five List – Shadows and Light 2026/08/13

Man vs Machine No. 2

fistfulofdave, , , , ,

Still looking for an image. Better first half of the list this week.

Every week Apple Music makes a New Music Mix for users. Each week I will make off the cuff “reviews” of the songs the algorithm “thinks” I will like. I can manipulate this list much easier than the friends list by what I listen to. That being said it loves feeding me Black and Death Metal which for the most part isn’t my thing.

Jack White “What’s the Rumpus?” While not a pastiche of himself it’s close. It’s listenable but unremarkable. Listened to it all.

Dinosaur Jr “Whenever Your Ready” The AC/DC or Slayer of 80s indie rock? Quality reproductions of past glory that don’t get near the heights of the classics. Listened to all of it.

Guided By Voices “Serine King” I wish Apple Music would stop feeding me GBV. This song is pretty good but I have all I need. Listened to all of it.

Loma “Pink Sky” Slinky slightly creepy and laid back. Kind of like Blonde Redhead with more 60s French pop thrown in. Listened to and bought the album, more of a US Broadcast. Listened to all of it.

Water From Your Eyes “Tired of Being Alone” First clunker of the week, modern indie rock aping the 70s California thing fronted by a woman that can’t sing. 36 seconds.

J.R.C.G. “Dogear” Beak> meets Girls Against Boys. Not sure what I think, need to revisit. Listened to the entire album and bought it. Great stuff, unique. Listened to it all.

1349 “The God Devourer” Long time traditional Black Metal vets, it’s fine but not good enough to buy. Listened to it all.

Ripped to Shreds “Perverting the Funeral Rights…” Things I hate about modern metal is that it’s so mechanical and artificial sounding. Death/Grind Grind/Death. 44 seconds.

Nachtmystium “Predator Phoenix” Dull black n roll. 42 seconds.

Loudblast “From Beyond II (The Return)” The music I like, kind of a melodic metallic hardcore, the vocals are that over the top how low can I go growling crap. Listened to it all.

Fulci “Human Scalp” More of the low growling vocals, this time over paint by numbers death metal. 32 seconds.

Mayhemic “Triumph Portrit” Sometime I think metal has completely run out of ideas. 50 seconds.

Dark Angel “The Shadows” The electronic music taking a known band name to cash in. Apple needs to fix this. 22 seconds.

Ceremony of Silence “King of the Mountain” A rip off of early Mastodon but a bit more Death Metal. 55 seconds.

Aeternus “Fire Pendulum” This seems to be a former metal band doing awful EDM. 26 seconds.

Holocausto “Seres Inertes” Kind of entertaining retro thrash. Listened to all of it.

Black Lava “Colour of Death” It’s got to be a drum machine Black metal. Listened to 2 minutes and three seconds.

Swervedriver “Butterfly” Left overs from 99th Dream, probably better than anything that made the record. Listened to all of it.

Swami John Reis “Ketchup, Mustard, and Relish” I want to love this, but I heard this hundreds of times from John Reis. Well done but not needed. Listened to all of it.

X “Ruby Church” X with all the edges sanded down. 1:00.

Ron Keel “Hollywood” Excruciating pop metal country cross over. 27 seconds.

Sacri Monti “Desirable Sequel” I was intrigued by the song, then it started for real. 1:09.

Stratovarious “Heroes” i was hopeing for a power metal cover of Bowie’s “Heroes” for a good laugh. No such luck. 1:32.

dirt “Wreckage” Metal is dead. 23 seconds.

Radon “Azufee” Not sure what this is supposed to be but it’s terrible. 46 seconds.

Man vs Machine No. 2

Man vs Machine No. 1

fistfulofdave, , , , , ,

A new take on my “Hate Your Friends” series. I’ve not found a suitable image.

Every week Apple Music makes a New Music Mix for users. Each week I will make off the cuff “reviews” of the songs the algorithm “thinks” I will like. I can manipulate this list much easier than the friends list by what I listen to. That being said it loves feeding me Black and Death Metal which for the most part isn’t my thing.

Deep Purple “Light it Up” Deep Purple’s expiration date was somewhere in 1984/85. 52 seconds.

UK “Light it Up” Not the prog band. Electronic music scammers love to use old band names to drum up cash. How Apple hasn’t fixed this is beyond me. 2 seconds.

Voxtrot “Esprit de Cœur” Usually my friends list and new music list don’t cross over. The is terrible, seems to be attempting to sound like poppy Eurythmics. 22 seconds

Redd Kross “I’ll Take Your Word for It” Why does Apple Music recommend albums that are already in my collection? It knows what’s in there. Anyway this is great, if you dig power-pop, punk, bubblegum. Great songs. Listened to all of it.

Fantasy of a broken heart “Loss” A nice updated 70s bubblegum track, then the lead vocals start. 52 seconds.

Sex Week “Kid Muscle” Sounds like a twee take on early Low, but not nearly as good. 54 seconds.

Kim Gordon “ECRP” Same problem as recent Low. Music is some kind of poor hip-hop backing track. 1:32.

Les Savy Fav “Mischief Night” another repeat from “Hate Your Friends”, still don’t like it. 57 seconds.

Karate “Mystery Man” i don’t remember Karate sounding like The Hold Steady. Unlistenable. 37 seconds.

Wormwitch “Inner War” Here comes the metal. Black Metal. Nothing you haven’t heard a billion times if you’ve heard Black Metal. Why has Metal got so boring. 53 seconds.

Tribulation “Tainted Skys” Tribulation went down the we’ll be the goth/black metal Ghost a while ago. It’s fine. Listened to all of it.

Extinction AD “Epidemic of Mutation” The most robotic shitty drums I’ve heard in a while. Sounds like a d level The Haunted. 41 seconds.

Scald “Ancient Doom Metal “ Bad Viking Candlemass like doom. 33 seconds after I skipped the intro.

Hyperdontia “irrevocable Disaster” Grind I guess. So boring. Metal is in a sorry state in 2024. 18 secondsl.

Jesters of Destiny “If You Want To” Goofball 80s weirdo crossover band but this is from 1988 and sounds like a shitty band trying to cop Blue Oyster Cult. Odd. 1:04.

True Black Dawn “Fish, Sin and Soma” At least the title is interesting. Listened to 5 seconds.

Baphomet “Crimson Abyss” starts with the guttural bleaaarrrrrrrrggggghh thing, pass. Listened to a minute and three seconds.

Wraith “Asylum” Ed Repka rip off cover, if you understand that you know what this sounds like. 30 seconds.

IRONFLAME “Blood and Honor” Starts with an AC/DC Thunderstruck thing then goes into boring power metal. A dime a dozen. 1:20.

The Hard-Ons “Buzz Buzz Buzz” I loved the Hard-Ons. No idea what the hell this is but it doesn’t sound like the Hard-Ons. 1:18.

The Effigies “Sortie” No clue if this has anything to do with the Chicago punk band, I can’t find any connection. Regardless it’s bad. 59 seconds.

Nap Eyes “Passageway” Ughh I’d rather have more shitty metal. Modern twee folk? 28 seconds.

The Shivas “Hellbound” I think, judging by the cover, that this is supposed to be psychedelic. Sounds like the Sundays without the songs. 1:21.

Sunflower Bean “Shake” Stoner grunge? Poop. 52 seconds.

Orden Ogan “Prince Of Sorrow” Why is most power metal not powerful? 18 seconds.

Man vs Machine No. 1

Hate Your Friends No. 8

fistfulofdave, , , ,
Fistful of Dave Hate Your Friends

Spurred to do this again. We’ll give it a try.

Every week Apple Music makes a Friends Mix. Each week I will make off the cuff “reviews” of the songs in this list. As Apple Music likes to put the same bands on the list often, so I will skip some of the tracks.

Les Savy Fav “Void Moon” I try liking this band every once in a while. Nothing once again. Like a pop-punk version of Fugazi. 40 seconds.

Alan Sparhawk “Can U Hear” All the bullshit vocoder electronic stuff that was on the recent Low albums. Sounds like a hip-hop backing track. 40 seconds.

Polvo “The Purple Bear” North Carolina’s Sonic Youth? Even more atonal. This is a wobbly one. Love it. Listened to it all.

Drive Like Jehu “Super Unison” You should own both Drive Like Jehu albums. Angular and powerful 90s DC like post-hardcore. Listened to it all.

Lungfish “Seek Sound Shelter” See previous Hate My Friends post. Skipped.

Soul Side “Pocket Hurts” Influenced slightly by Fugazi. They’ve got their own spin on it, so more than a clone. They turned into Girls Against Boys, well some of the members. Listened to it all.

Arcwelder “The Carpal Tunnel Song” I listened to them a ton in the 90s, still great. What if you took Husker Du “Flip Your Wig” and mixed in some Big Black, you get Arcwelder. Listened to it all.

Sebadoh “Mystery Man” Bakesale is the best Sebadoh record by a mile. Fully realized and nothing that seems like a joke song. Not the best song on the record. Listened to all of it.

The Breeders “Forced to Drive” As I just told someone all you need from The Breeders is “Safari” ep, “Pod”, and “Last Splash”. It’s fine. Listened to a a minute fourth-eight.

Husker Du “Don’t Want to Know if You’re Lonely” One of the greatest songs ever recorded. A Grant Hart jam. Listened to all of it.

Wipers “Someplace Else” Not familiar with later Wipers. Not as urgent but still sounds like the Wipers. Will have to investigate. Not as good as the early stuff, a little too alt-rock. Listened to it all.

Hum “Why I Like Robins” My Bloody Valentine playing Slayer? The other way around? Regardless, fucking great. How to be heavy without being heavy metal. Listened to all of it.

Unwound “Kantina” I try and I try. Nothing that makes it stick for me. They fit in that Fugazi / Drive Like Jehu sound. Listened to it all.

Crooked Fingers “Big Darkness” Archers of Loaf are one of my favorite bands. This is what Eric Bachman did after the band originally spit. I dig the first two albums but this ventures into Springsteen territory. Listened to it all.

Portastatic “Sour Shores” Mac from Superchunk. I’d rather listen to Superchunk. Listened to 59 seconds.

Voxtrot “Fast Asleep” Always thought this was post punk. guess not, jangly indie rock. Listened to a minute and five seconds.

Built to Spill “Hindsight” You don’t need any Built to Spill after “Ancient Melodies of the Future”. This is from after that. 30 seconds.

Versing “By Design” Decent 90s Sonic Youth worship. Listened to it all.

David Nance “Negative Boogie” New to me. I kind of like it and hate it at the same time. It wore out it’s welcome. Definitely unique. 1:25.

Guided by Voices “Romeo Surgen” Not sure who’s still buying GBV, but it sure seems to have run it course. 53 seconds.

Cocteau Twins “Garlands” One of the parents of shoegaze. Kind of like the dreamy Cure stuff but with a drum machine, Listened to it all.

Metallica “The Wait” From the last great thing Metallica did. A great cover of the Killing Joke song. Listened to it all.

7 Seconds “It All Makes Less Sense Now” When they decided to be U2. Kevin isn’t much of a singer, better as a shouter. 1:15.

Rolling Stones “Midnight Rambler” I’m a “greatest hits” Stones fan, This is a “greatest hit”. Listened to it all.

Hate Your Friends No. 8