Man vs Machine No. 1

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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

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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

Hate Your Friends No. 7

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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

Holy NWOBHM, a New Metallica Song.

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Metallica Lux Aeterna

I have a love/like/hate relationship with Metallica. Love the first four albums, the last two are good and everything in-between is an abomination.

This is a surprisingly good song that seems to be a love letter to the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. If you told me this was a long lost Savage song that they were covering I’d believe you.

On one hand I’d like them to break new ground but when they have done that it’s been a disaster. They are best when they stick to what they are good at. Aping the NWOBHM is something they are great at.

At at about 3 1/2 minutes it’s a good omen. Digging a little deeper the album is 12 songs in 77 minutes, so an average of 6 minutes 40ish seconds which is not good. One of Metallica’s issues is their inability to edit themselves.

Here’s hoping for the best.

Holy NWOBHM, a New Metallica Song.

Hate Your Friends No. 6

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I’m back, it’s been a while. I haven’t been able to get into the blog to edit it. I figured it out. This is from last week so there will be another for tomorrow’s play list. Enjoy.

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

Fugazi “Give Me the Cure” My favorite Fugazi is the first two EPs. Sometimes “End Hits” comes close. Listened to it all.

Hüsker Dü “It’s Not Funny Anymore” Some of the first signs of the pop leaning Hüskers, essential. Listened to it all.

Maritime “Light You Up” Adult contemporary indie-rock. Made it through 1:19.

Guided By Voices “Striped White Jets” As I said before give me the big rock production GBV with complete songs. Listened to it all as it’s short.

Pavement “Stop Breathing” Still don’t like this band, aping a Velvets sound here. No thanks. 34 seconds.

Dinosaur Jr. “Don’t” While I usually say “just listen to ‘Bug'” but this one is not one I need to hear. Stoped at 1:01.

Superchunk “On the Mouth” This is a good one. Fast, raw, when they were fun. Listened to it all.

Minutmen “Take Our Test” Not well versed in the Minutmen, I’ve tried. I liked this one. Listened to it all.

Sammy “Possibly Peking” Finally something I don’t know. This is alright, slink, raw indie rock. I’ll give these guys another listen despite the name. Listened to it all.

Turnstile “BLACKOUT“ Keep hearing how these guys sound like 80’s hardcore, they dont. It’s not bad, the hype doesn’t help it. Listened to it all.

Soundgarden “Full On (Reprise)” Throw away from a great album. Listened to it all.

Black Flag “Black Coffee” I’ve warmed up to Rollins Black Flag recently, Still think “Everything Went Black” is my go to but I’ve been going back to the Rollins stuff. Listened to it all.

Dr. Know “Watch it Burn” Fucking this is the shit. Raw 80’s hardcore. Listened to it all.

Government Issue “Caring Line” The last two GI albums are classics. Psychedelic, Punk, Rock and some great songs. Listened to it all.

Soul Side “Pearl to Stone” The early hardcore Soul Side, love it. Just keep that new stuff the hell away from me. Listened to it all.

Rocket From the Crypt “Sturdy Wrists” When RFTC wrote a catch anthem it stuck in your head. Great stuff. Listened to it all.

Void “Who are You?” From when DC hardcore was far less sophisticated. Raging. Listened to it all.

Gang Green “Alcohol” Their signature song. Good stuff from before they became a novelty band. I’d rather fuck than drink though. Listened to it all.

Spiritualized “Come Together” I’ve tried multiple times to get into this band. Still not there. Listened to all of it to see if it changed my mind. It didn’t.

Lush “Stray” Love me some original wave shoegaze. Listened to it all.

Low “Light You Up” This makes me sad. RIP Mimi. Listened to it all.

Sunny Day Real Estate “Seven” Not sure how this ever got labeled emo. It’s arena rock, Listened to it all.

The Cure “Just Like Heaven” What the hell do you say about this. Listened to it all.

Unsane “East Broadway” Not my thing. I like noise but there needs to be something to hook me in. 10 seconds.

Ted Nugent “Queen of the Forest” Fuck this. I burned all my Nugent albums. Didn’t even start it.

Hate Your Friends No. 6