Indie Rock

LISTENING TO MY ALBUMS FROM 1994

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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

ALBUM ANNIVERSARIES FOR AUGUST 13TH

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Albums released on August 13th that are in my collection.

The Beatles – Help! (1965)
Sometime my favorite, usually the best pre-Rubber Soul album.

Flo & Eddie – Moving Targets (1976)
A bit fun, a bit schmaltzy. These guys probably sang on a record you own. They were also in the Turtles

The Cure – Head on the Door (1985)
When you want a far less drab Cure.

Twisted Sister – Love is for Suckers (1987)
Actually a Dee Schneider solo album. Pop metal. Meh.

The Pixies – Bossonova (1990)
If you ask what my favorite Pixies album is this will most likely be the answer.

Low – The Curtain Hits the Cast (1996)
The slowest and quietest of the slow core. Fragile and pretty. I fell asleep at not one but two different shows of theirs.

ALBUM ANNIVERSARIES FOR AUGUST 13TH

My Favorite Music of 2025

fistfulofdave,

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

Man vs Machine No. 2

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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