GOPRO CHRONICLES: Nobody looks up into the sky. Lets admit it. We might glance up at the stars every once in awhile but during the day we either see clouds or blue skies. The reality is that this real-estate is managed by air traffic controllers, the Airforce and known flight patterns that we know of; but besides that we the people are not really aware of any thing else that goes on up there in our airspace. Who is doing things that affect our environment? Our necks work and we can see when the weather man confirms it’s going to rain or snow. But they say never anything. They just read what is in front of them. That is what “news” anchors do. This video was shot last week, february 20th & 19th 2014. There are a lot more questions than answers. Watch this video.
Background music by My Bloody Valentine “No More Sorry” from their album Isn’t Anything (1988)
Last winter we experience about 25″ of snow in the New York/New Jersey tri-state area. This year it’s double the amount of snow. The reality was though that it was very warm and we’ve had these crazy catastrophic and paralyzing storms like Sandy, etc and down in Atlanta that have never had snow. This year it’s dramatically different and I wonder who is driving the weather? And Why? What is in the stuff that is in the sky? What aren’t we being told? We hear about global warming and slowly people are starting to wake-up but is our “government” doing something the issue without causing wide spread panic and recognizing the facts. The technology has been there to create man made snow on sky slopes for decades but not at this scale.
It’s funny if you strictly go by what I’ve listened to the most this year The top 20 are mostly old bands that have been around for more than 10 plus years. My go to bands. Then again you have to consider on top of me living in a bubble there is a lot of crap out there that never get enough spins to show-up. We’ll try to give you play by play and list the top five here as scrobbled via desktop and now mobile. No Car plays or vinyl were accounted for Same old story but here are the release highlights of the best music of 2013.
THE REPLACEMENTS – SONGS FOR SLIM
01. I listened to The Replacements 178 times in the past 12 months. Obsessive maybe. Mostly probably due to the fact they played a couple shows over the summer. We’re always hopeful for a chance to see Paul and Tommy play together in New York but that is not happening yet. So we went back and listened to a bootleg Live at Maxwells that Captain’s Dead Posted. So for all intent and purposes this was our most popular band this year. In that mix was SLIM Benefit. Not sure it got as many plays but Westerberg can do no wrong. [BUY LP VERSION]
MY BLOODY VALENTINE – M V P
02. Next up with 168 plays is My Bloody Valentine. And you know what? We didn’t even get a chance to listen to their new one that much except for a few passes on the youtubes at first so these plays don’t even count that! it’s dreamy and Kevin Shields still makes music his band can barely perform live. Nice follow-up a couple eons later to loveless. You can’t go wrong with this album because he’s a master in the studio. Pricey though but kind of thing a audiophiles should invest in the vinyl version for bragging rights. [BUY MVP LP CD]
THE NIGHT MARCHERS – ALLEZ ALLEZ
03. On the other end of the rock guitar is old reliable JOhn Reis. He’s always going to use volume and atidude from the first note. If you love Hot Snakes and or Rocket From the Crypt. Then new Night Marchers album fits right in the middle of those two bands. Smack dab in fact. We’re leaning towards this over Obits because of his knack for a better hook in this round. This shit just rocks start with “Roll On”. [BUY NIGHT MARCHERS LP]
THE SADIES – INTERNAL SOUNDS
04. The brothers Dallas and Travis Good from The Sadies combine some of the best things from Country, Surf and Alternative jams. This is a super solid album. Earlier in the year we had a chance to catch them at Mercury Lounge when this record came out. They were amazing live band. Everything awesome you would expect from above genre influences. They are now influencers of taken something old and refashioning it into songs all their own.
[ BUY MUSIC BY THE SADIES]
05) CRIMINAL HYGENE – CRMNL HYGNE LP
Ok first off. This has gotten many more plays than Last.fm account would let you believe. Because we 1st streamed their shit on bandcamp.com. We dig this band’s style. We gushed when first listened back in January. So get with the program if you call yourself a indie rocker at all or forever please just kill the term. This is one of the genres only hopes. Because that keyboard and computer bullshit you listen to all the time sucks a big harry homeless person’s ass(no offense to homeless people). Anyway, if you ever heard the tune “go” by the replacements then you might dig the single of theirs called “rearrange me”. There is a feeling on every track for even the most jaded of mother fuckers. Sometimes a little out of tune but it’s ok this is only rock-n-roll.
[ BUY CRIMINAL HYGENE ]
Here’s a couple dope brothers from Indiana in a band they call Stagnant Pools making this shoegaze rock dark and dank like Pyscho Candy. Not sure I need to say much more except we’re looking forward to hearing more of these gritty space jams. If there is not a more desolate place in the middle of the night I’ve ever driven down this is what the road sounds like.
Download: Consistency MP3 single by Stagnant Pool
They also remind me of The Sleepover Disater Disaster from Central San Joaquin, California.
Funnel Cloud MP3 by The Sleepover Disaster from Hover (2009)
Monks & Melrose
This next thing is by 17 year old prodigy Seamus Patterson calling himself Monks & Melrose. I think he’s at least heard the Lost in Translation sound track which visceral soundscape is present in his debut record called Ottowa. Check this out then go and download his whole record for free. You’ll thank me.
Download: Birds & Wings MP3 by Monks & Melrose from Ottowa
I’m going to try and keep these documentary style installments coming. Part II is already done. Here’s Part 1 of the what will be a Über trailer from a truly american shoegaze treasure as Jack puts it – The Sleepover Disaster. Long story short this is part of larger “non-musical” documentary project I work on called create or else about inspiration or at least that is how this started – I ended up with a ton of footage. So these are the musical fruits of which I intend to share all the great moments with you rock fans. When it’s done it will be a nice short documentary on Jack Rabid’s Big Takeover fans, friends and bands he featured last summer at the Bell House in Brooklyn. So subscribe to the RS channel on the Utubes or RS in the twitterverse to be in the know. Lets see I can keep this up all summer long! Lord of the rock gods like Krokus only knows I have enough music to make it so. So your encouragement will be needed. I’m just psyched to watch my editing skills get better with each one. We’ll see.
Next week: A song by Jon Auer of The Possies.
The Sleepover Disaster at The Big Takeover's 30th anniversary show
Shoegaze fans: Dark Star MP3 by The Sleepover Disaster from their release called Hover. Somewhere between space walking and swimming in a clear ocean where you can breath the elements is where the beauty of this Fresno California band’s shoegazer music lives. Get Some »
More music like this: 100 Million MP3 by Sunny Day Real Estate from How It Feels to Be Something On Confess MP3 by Catherine Wheel from Chrome (1993) Only Shallow MP3 by My Bloody Valentine from Loveless (1991) Sci-Flyer MP3 by Swervedriver from their album Raise (1991)
Related Stories:
Create or Else: The Big Takeover by Jack Rabid – A Super Fan – see his mini documentary that I produced for Ogilvy & Mather.
Article: The Big Takeover Turns 30! – From one email a year ago from Jack telling me about his amazing 2 day line-up is what started this whole thing. Life is not a practice run.
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