LISTENING TO MY ALBUMS FROM 1994

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

Hate Your Friends No. 12

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 BoysLight 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

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. 7

Once again it’s been a while. Another attempt to keep a regular cadence for posting here. We’ll see if it sticks.

Every week Apple Music makes a Friends Mix. Each week I will make off the cuff “reviews” of the songs in this list.

Spiritualized “Lay Back In the Sun” A broken record, I should like Spiritualized. I don’t, although this song is really good and probably why I keep trying. Listened to it all.

The New Pornographers “Myriad Harbour” I pretty much am done with them after the first three. This confirms my position. Listened to 10 seconds

Pavement “Stop Breathing” I have a great dislike for them, this doesn’t help. Made it through 25 seconds as I wasn’t paying attention.

Fugazi “Life and Limb” Recently I found all the Fugazi CDs I didn’t have and bought them. This is ok. Listened to all of it.

Frank Black “Don’t Ya Rile ‘Em” I like the first two Frank Black solo albums. This is like if The Beach Boys covered Pixies songs. Listened to all of it.

The Breeders “Opened” I like the Breeders way more than Frank Black solo stuff. Listened to all of it.

Deerhunter “Neither of Us, Uncertainly” Here is a band I actively avoid for no reason. This was pretty good, I guess I should explore. Listened to it all.

Swervedriver “Something Out of Nothing” Somewhere along the line Swervedriver became a favorite band. This is not one of their best. Listened to it all.

Husker Du “Dead Set On Destruction” Fucking great. Really have been into the the last two albums recently. Listened to it all.

Smoking Popes “Gotta Know Right Now” Here’s a band that fell off my listening radar. Still like them but don’t get the urge to listen much. Again not one of their better songs. Listened to it all.

Soul Asylum “Something Out of Nothing” Last good album, yeah they were great before “Run Away Train”. This album was a bit of disappointment after “Hang Time” and this song is one of the lesser efforts. Listened to it all.

Killing Joke “Primitive” Will we get to something I don’t know this week? This is great, the current bands obsessed with “post-punk” have nothing on this. Listened to it all.

The Vibrators “Whips and Furs” More power-pop than punk. Regardless good stuff. Listened to it all.

Protomartyr “Elimination Dance” Another band I should like but it just doesn’t click. Goth-ish (in the classic sense) post-punk. Listened to it all.

Squid “Pearl to Stone” Finally, something I don’t know. Very serious indie rock/post-punk. Pretty bland and nondescript Listened to it all.

Public Body “Break from Life” New Wave disguising itself as post-punk. Sounds like the singer from the previous band. Doesn’t move the needle. Listened to 32 seconds.

The Lemon Twigs “Every Day is the Worst Day of My Life” I really want to like this band. Super 1970’s throw back pop rock. I probably just need to sit down and take a good listen. Listened to it all.

Damien Jurado “James Hoskins” Never cared for his stuff, but this is intriguing but the song goes nowhere. Listened to it all.

Wire “Madman’s Honey” The missing piece of Wire in my collection. I don’t like this electronic period as much as everything else but it’s still good. Listened to all of it.

Sinead O’Connor “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” I never listened to a whole album of her’s before she passed. Guess I’ve been missing out. Listened to it all.

Burn “Last Great Sea” Youth Crew mosh core goes alt-metal garbage. Maybe listened to 10 seconds.

Drug Church “Foam Pit” Shouty, kind of hardcore indie rock thing that’s popular. It’s ok. Listened to it all.

The Charlatans “Heaven” 1990’s hippy Manchester junk. All I can think of is that dumb white guy dance the singer would do. 30 seconds to write this.

Ozzy Osbourne “One Up the B Side” There’s a reason this didn’t make an album. 30 seconds.

Lungfish “Creation Story” Discord repetition kings. Sounds like Slint, it’s fine. Listened to it all.

Hate Your Friends No. 7