Man vs Machine No. 3

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Still looking for an image.

Every week Apple Music makes a New Music Mix for users. 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.

The Damned “Making Time” if I didn’t know this was the Damned I’d never guess. Listened to 1 minute and 8 seconds.

Civic “Cosmic Astronaut “ Not the Aussie punk band. Apple you need to fix the multiple bands with the same name problem. Listened 8 seconds.

Landowner “Slippery Abyss” Jangly guitars with talk singing, a painful combo when the song is so bad. Listened to 31 seconds.

Hey Colossus “Runaway Heart” I think this is supposed to be weird, it’s boring. Listened to all of it waiting for something to happen.

A Place to Bury Strangers “Acid Rain” Ultra distorted guitars almost to being painful. Ethereal vocals. Not sure what I think. Listened to all of it.

Megadeth “Another Bad Day” Lifeless. Listened to 1 minute.

Lubomyr Melnyk “Windmills, Pt. 1” Dark, creepy almost ambient piano. Eventually gets into his more Philip Glass type music. Listened to it all.

Black Swan “When the Cold Wind Blow” Starts off and I’m excited for some noisy rock, then it becomes dull power metal. Listened to 1 minute 18 seconds.

Joe Hoekstra’s 13 “Lifeline” Wow sterile unimaginative pop metal in 2026. This is paste. Listened to 50 seconds.

Necofier “Servents of Darkness, Guide My Way III” You know you’re in trouble when you’re on the second sequel of a song. Generic Black Metal. Listened 1 minute and 31 seconds.

Possession “The Black Chappel” Out of all the music I play, I listen to Immortal once and it’s like here’s a lot boring of Black Metal . 1 minute 2 seconds.

Final Gasp “No Hand to Lead” Someone likes Lane Staley. 34 seconds.

Psycroptic “Failing” Music is as bad as the band name. Enough with the metal. 22 seconds.

The Silver “Memorias” Melodeath Black metal. Kinda prog. It’s shit. 53 seconds.

At the Gates “The Fever Mask” It’s good but do you really need more than Slaughter of the Soul? Listened to all of it.

Harrowed “The Haunter” Maybe there should be some kind of license needed to have a metal band. 1 minute 10 seconds.

Suplecs “Pentacle Star” i think this is supposed to be Stoner Rock, whatever it is it’s bad. Listened to 1 minute and 12 seconds.

Chuck Treese Rachel Anne “Our Town (Eye Can Tell)” How this was recommend to me and what did I listen to trigger it is a mystery. Listened to all of it to see if it was anything but vocals and breathing, it wasn’t.

Good Riddence “There’s Still Tonight” Great I listen to hardcore punk and it thinks I want this crap. 58 seconds.

Social Distortion “Born to Kill” Still mining the “I work on my car/motorcycle 50+ punks”. 33 seconds.

Stereolab “Cloud Land” never been much for them. A bit too twee. I kind of like this. Listened to it all.

ADULT. “No One is Coming” Shit, two in a row I enjoy. Noisy Electronic/Industrial with Lene Lovich like vocals. Listened to it all.

Nick Plunti “Bruises and Bandages” The dreaded singer songwriter, who is good at neither. 12 seconds.

Dada Laida “The Beyond” Because you can play guitar technically doesn’t mean you play it well. 44 seconds.

Angel Du$t “Downfall” What did I do to deserve this? 37 seconds.

Man vs Machine No. 3

Hate Your Friends No. 12

fistfulofdave
Fistful of Dave Hate Your Friends

A belated return

Every week Apple Music makes a Friends Mix. 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.

Rat Boys “Light Night Mountains All That” Spinanes or Julianna Hatfield like indie rock thats as boring as either of them. Listened to a minute and 23 seconds.

Mission of Burma “Progress” Uh oh is this going to be a week where I like more than I hate. Listened to all of it.

Come “In / Out” Another quality 90’s indie rock jam. Some nice guitar work here. Listened to all of it.

Grifters “Re-Entry Blues” Never cared for the sleepy bluesy indie rock of the Grifters. Listened 1 minute.

Heroic Doses “Crystals” Weird I don’t remember liking this. Some cool guitar bits. Probably, like most instrumental bands, could use a singer. Gets a bit repetitive as it goes along. Listened to it all.

Cows “A Gift Called Life” Chaotic noise rock. Leaves me wanting some kind of hook, Listened to 56 seconds.

Moving Targets “Faith” Husker Du, well Bob Mould at least, clone. I dig it. Listened to all of it.

Versus “8-9” “Blade of Grass” is their best song, go listen to that. Listened to 34 seconds.

The Replacements “Go” The first two Replacements releases are the best. Yeah, they are. Listened to all of it.

The Judybats “Saturday” Harmless indie pop. Boring. 30 seconds.

Smoking Popes “Just Broke Up” Top notch pop-punk, not your jock/frat boy pop-punk. Listened to it all.

Loop “Afterglow” Noisy, Shoegazey, Spacey genius. Listened to it all.

Abrasive Wheels “Danger, Danger” Luckily not about the shitty pop-metal band. Punk, its ok. Listened to all of it.

All Systems Go “Running Blind” Doughboys, Big Drill Car team up. It’s decent not close to either former bands best. Listened to it all.

SNFU “The Quest for Fun” While not their best its closest to top tier SNFU. Easily one of the greatest live bands. Listened to all of it.

Descendents “Hurtin’ Crue” An alright faux-metal song, they have much better. Listened it all.

Dag Nasty “One to Two” Essential melodic hardcore. Too much love flowing this week. Listened to it all.

All “Birds” If it’s not on Allroy Sez or Allroy for Prez… I don’t care. Listened to 54 seconds.

Alligator Gun “Evergreen Lawns” Milwaukee’s (Wisconsin’s) pop-punk kings. Do it. Listened to it all.

Spiritualized “Come Together” I really want to like them but it never clicks. The gospel-ish chorus, no thanks. Listened to a minute and 12 seconds.

XTC “Limelight” I should like them, they annoy the shit out of me. Listened to 27 seconds.

Bauhaus “Silent Hedges” Fucking great, the gloomy masters. Listened to it all.

Hum “Isle of the Cheetah” Yeah I call them metal but a mutation and combination that is dreamy and heavy. Deftones owe them some cash. Listened all of it.

Built to Spill “Happiness” This is way to hard when I like most of the songs. Not the best from this album, a bit too on the bluesy tip. Listened all of it.

Hate Your Friends No. 12

My Favorite Music of 2025

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More like every 2025 release I bought. Slim year for me.

Albums

FACS – Wish Defense

Angular, noise rock, neo-post punk. Unsettling, laid-back, yet aggressive. And yes it was the last album Steve Albini recorded.

Dax Riggs – 7 Songs for Spiders 

Blues metal? Shoegaze blues? I don’t know or care, I like it.

Civic – Chrome Dipped

Aussie punk in the vien of The Saints and Radio Birdman.

Årabrot – Rite of Dionysus

Former Black Metal, Noise Rock. Now weirdo noise pop? This is much quieter than their last release. Weird and haunting.

JG Thrilwell – Venture Brothers Vol 3

Spy movie jazz with some electronic bits?

Krokofant – 6

Hard jazz fusion. Maybe a bit prog. Harder Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Nine Inch Nails – Tron Ares

Love the instrumental songs, old school heavy synths. The songs with vocals are pretty typical NIN.

Anika – Abyss

Neo Post Punk with Nico type vocals.

Coroner – Dissonance Theory

The dreaded reunion album that turns out to be pretty good. Thrash metal with some proggish parts thrown in.

Carla Kihlstedt – 26 Little Deaths 

Violinist, vocalist from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Book of Knots, Tin Hat Trio interprets Edward Gorey stories/illustrations.

Jim Jarmush & Anika – Father Mother Sister Brother (soundtrack)

More like Anika doing a couple covers and Jarmush doing some western-ish texture guitar instrumentals.

EPs

Swervedriver – Worlds Fair 

Are they shoegaze? I guess much more guitar forward but they do have the dream like quality.

Reissues

Andy Summers and Robert Fripp box set

Frippatronics meets the Police world-ish music. Disc 1 and 3 are great. 2 a bit too world music. No links.

Watchtower – Energetic Disassembly Remix/Remaster

Yeah, an acquired taste. Extreme prog thrash. Extreme on the prog technical end. Love it. Links are only the remaster disc. apparently the remix disc is not available for streaming.

Sorrows – Such Sweet Sorrow

Power Pop.

Songs

  1. Crome Dipped – Civic
  2. Wish Defense – FACS
  3. Graveyard Soul – Dax Riggs
  4. Volume Control – Swervedriver
  5. The Satantango – Årobrot
  6. Abyss – Anika
  7. Scan Mode – JG Thirlwell
  8. In the Image of – Nine Inch Nails
  9. B Childhood Friends – Carla Kihlstedt
  10. Symmetry – Coroner

My Favorite Music of 2025

Hate Your Friends No. 11

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Fistful of Dave Hate Your Friends

I’m back. It’s a miracle.

Every week Apple Music makes a Friends Mix. 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.

The Wedding Present “I’m From Further North Than You?” I try and try, nope. Twee, bland and worst of all boring. Listened to a minute and 41 seconds.

The Damned “Strange in Town” This is more like it, Soul punk? whatever it’s killer go listen. Listened to all of it.

Paris Texas “Action Fans! Help Us!” Madison, WI power pop punk. Overlooked and better than most. I do know these guys but don’t think I’d lay off if it sucked. Listened to all of it.

Redd Kross “1976” No one is telling me that it’s not Paul Stanley on backing vocals. FUCKING GREAT. Listened to all of it.

Perfect “Think I call My Life” Decent Replacements like midwest rock, go figure Tommy Stinson is in it. Listened to it all.

The Replacements “Someone Take the Wheel” Go listen to the Perfect song above. Tim or before is all you need. Listened to 34 seconds.

The Posies “Who’s to Blame” This is alright, it’s no “Frosting on the Beater.” Listened to all of it.

The Faint “Glass Dance” Surprised it took this long for this band to show up. People loved this band but my thought is why not listen to Satisfact, they do the post-punk/Gary Numan thing way better. Listened to 28 seconds.

Superchunk “A Small Definition” The Superchunk I don’t like, break-up slow song Superchunk. Listened to 45 seconds.

Pavement “Stop Breathing” Fuck this slacker VU rip off shit. 17 seconds.

Dinosaur Jr. “Puke + Cry” A palate cleanse for that Pavement trash. This rules. Listened to it all.

The Lemonheads “The Door” Not the best song off of “Lovey” but it’s ok, go listen to “Stove” or “Ride With Me.” Listened to it all.

Deep Tunnel Project “When I Hit the Ground” Yup not for me, plodding, dull, unimaginative. Listened to a minute and 13 seconds.

FACS “North America Endless” Weirdo, minimal, angular glory. Go buy all their stuff. Listened to it all.

The Cure “Other Voice” Stop pretending the new Cure is this good. Listened to all of it.

Blur “Battle” On the right day I can do Blur, must be the right day, What is this “I Kinda Like My Friends?”. Listened it all.

Chemical People “All the Best Things” Haven’t heard this since the 80s. Porno-All/Descendents ripping off Husker Du here. Listened to it all.

Jawbreaker “Gutless” Arrggghhh, the voice. I like that album everyone hates. Listened to a minute and 21 seconds.

Hot Snakes “If Credit’s What Matters, I’ll Take Credit” Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, Rick Froberg, RIP go listen to any/all of it. Listened to it all.

Lung “Sick” US PJ Harvey with a cello? This is much easier when I don’t like something. Listened to it all.

Hum “Step Into It” Huge, heavy, dreamy. I used to say My Bloody Valentine playing Slayer songs. Few bands have made a reunion album this good. Listened to all of it.

Motorhead “The Chase is Better than the Catch” A favorite Motorhead song. Listened to it all.

Chappell Roan “Good Luck, Babe” I’d rather listen to her talk about artist rights. Is all of it a poor Kate Bush rip off? Listened a minute and 4 seconds.

Hate Your Friends No. 11

Hate Your Friends No. 10

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Fistful of Dave Hate Your Friends

Obviously every two weeks wasn’t happening but here’s a new one.

Every week Apple Music makes a Friends Mix. 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.

The Field Mice “Where’d You Learn to Kiss That Way?“ Do I like jangly twee guitar pop? No. Listened to 44 seconds.

Belle and Sebastian “The Fox in the Snow” Seriously this song is called “The Fox in the Snow.” What the hell did I play to get this crap, see The Field Mice. Listened to 10 seconds.

Yo La Tengo “Shadows” Off to a mellow start. I like some Yo La Tengo, this is boring. Listened to a minute and 4 seconds.

Mojave 3 “In Love With a View” Go listen to Slowdive instead. Listened to 10 seconds.

Westkust “Swebeach” Uptempo shoegaze starts off good but then good lord the vocals start. Listened to a minute and 13 seconds.

The Van Pelt “His Saxiphone is my Guitar” It’s no “The Guitar is my Sword” by Heavy Load. Gonna go listen to that. Listened to all of it.

The Jesus Lizard “Uncommonly Good” This is shit, was Albini the secret sauce? Listened to minute and 11 seconds.

Cows “A Oven” Yeah, gritty, belching horns, noise rock. Listened to a minute and 28 seconds?

Ducks Ltd “Get Bleak” Really? Ducks Ltd is your name. Knew this would be twee bullshit before I hit play. Listened to 20 seconds.

Scrawl “See” Bland as paste. 15 seconds.

The I Don’t Care’s “Need The Guys” Ugghh was no one looking that the needles were pinned to the right when recording. The shitty local band you have to sit through to see the band you want to see. Listened to 23 seconds.

The Cure “Pictures of You” Do I really need to tell you anything about this? Listened to it all.

Day Wave “Need The Guys” Take all indie pop from new wave to shoe gaze and put it in a blender and poor out this uninspired dreck. Listened to a minute and 13 seconds.

The War on Drugs “Red Eyes” The war on my ears. 32 seconds.

Maps & Atlases “Winter” What the fuck did I do to deserve this? Listened to 34 seconds.

Japandroids “Fires Highway” I always want them to sound like robot rock. Listened 53 seconds.

Fugazi “Waiting Room” If you wanted to see people loose their shit, watching the crowd when Fugazi started playing this. YouTube it. Listened to it all.

The Partisans “Blind Ambition” This started really interesting then the second guitar riff started. ah its back. Wants to be the Buzzcocks or the Damned, it’s not. Listened to a minute and 36 seconds.

The Hard Quartet “Rio’s Song” Not hard at all. I have a lot of 70s rock that I can listen to instead. Listened to 49 seconds.

Weak Signal “Wannabe” I’d prefer if it was the Spice Girls. Listened to 42 seconds.

Waxahatchee “Right Back to It” I didn’t even hit play.

Echo & The Bunnymen “Fuel” This kinds of leans toward Joy Division. Listened to it all.

Hate Your Friends No. 10