77 Wars

    seven and a half hours into an all-night IT shift and it is 630 in the morning. i am waiting for a few gigs of data to migrate to their new server. i’ve been listening to my bloody valentine’s “loveless” and mono’s “gone”. i suppose they are post-punk and post-rock respectively, but i often have a hard time pigeon-holing a group into one kind of convenient genre. besides, almost any music worth listening to is comprised of many elements from outside of whatever category they end up being filed under. also, i learned some basic permissions settings in unix tonight and i like how part of this command looks…  -R 777 . it’s cool because it is used to change permissions to allow full access by everyone.

these two records seemed incredibly well suited to play through the very early, dark morning hours. if you are reading this, most likely i know you and probably have no need at all to say anything much about my bloody valentine. if you haven’t heard “loveless”, go buy it, it is incredible and it’s one of those records that i wish i had been given in 1991 (slint’s spiderland is another one i’d go back in time and hand to my 14 year old self, not to mention i would also have to kick my own ass, while of course violating some sort of time-space law). it is kind of a beautiful wall of white noise and melodies, it is melancholy and hopeful and there is no fucking around. the album just starts off with energy and when you turn it over, the b-side gets right to work as well.

   mono is undoubtedly always going to be compared to explosions in the sky, but they just keep getting better. a bunch of japanese dudes from japan. if you know explosions in the sky and have seen friday night lights then perhaps you see how explosions is a great soundtrack for what actually turned out to be a pretty darned good movie even though it’s about high school football in texas. mono is better suited for a well made war film not directed by some scum sucking shit like michael bay. of course it works pretty well to just put the records on and listen to them. “gone” is a five-sider and pressed on some extremely beautiful, heavy vinyl with a really cool etching on side six. all of the songs were recorded between 2000-2007 and only one of them was not recorded by steve albini, so the engineering is damned sharp. these guys churn out a lot of guitar, but they use a wider array of instruments than explosions, who stick to drums/guitar/bass, though both bands use a lot of effects. mono also stays darker than explosions, who tend to not only have that quiet/loud dynamic throughout everything they write, but there is everything from bliss to oblivion present… and since i keep mentioning them, i’d advise you to take a listen to explosions in the sky’s “the earth is not a cold dead place”. both mono and explosions put on great live shows.

hey look at me! i have a website. i don’t even know what the fuck i’m talkng about. i can even mispell shit and totally ignore it.

the explosions site has one free mp3 when you go to the album.

on temporary residence limited

on creation records

also on temporary residence