Metallica – Death Magnetic
First of all, Metallica has only earned itself any press lately by acting like retards.  Recall that Metallica was the band that brought down Napster; you may have also heard the story of how the band invited music critics and writes to screen the new album, then when those critics posted reactions and reviews, the band threatened and demanded they remove the reviews.  Metallica is the band that hates the internet.

Then they go and release a new album.  The thing about this album (and many before it) is that it comes with a cute anecdote and a pithy response and can thusly be summed up very quickly.  The word is the that the band’s producer went to Metallica and said, “Master of Puppets was your best work ever but pretend like it was only half of an album.  Now I want you to record the other half!”  Yeah!  Inspiring words!  Let’s thrash it up, guys! RRRAAAAWWWwwwwrrrr….

But recall that Master of Puppets was recorded in 1986.  It is no longer 1986.  Everything and everyone has changed a bit since then.  The original work is classic and it will remain as such but you cannot stand on the shoulders of success and beside it at the same time.  Thus the pthy response: They failed.

I do think my opinion is tarnished by the Pitchfork review.  They whine about the lyrics (I swear the chorus of one song is, “if it don’t kill you, it makes you more strong,” which sounds so grammatically incorrect I want to cry).  They do point out that there are parts where the music echoes faintly of Master of Puppets and so there are happy moments.  But alas…  it’s still not 1986.

The Chemical Brothers – Brotherhood
I am always weary of bands who try to extend their life expectancy by releasing multiple “best of” albums.  This is their second, with maybe one album after the previous “best of” to cut the monotony.  Don’t get me wrong, the music is still awesome but I still get frustrated with these grabs for my money.  Brotherhood features a second disc of “Electronic Battle Weapon” tracks which apparently the Pitchfork review claims is its one saving grace.  Again I find myself merely echoing the Pitchfork review.

I’ve been listening to new music lately even though I haven’t posted.  I’ve been busy with moving sale stuff and Netflix watching and omg new TV this fall.  I download the stuff overnight, load up my iPod and listen to it at work.  I want to keep my first impressions written down so the music doesn’t just wash over and through me and I forget about it.  So what I’ve been doing is scribbling little notes on post-its, not the regular square ones but the mini ones.  And I write tiny to get several albums’ worth of notes in.  Now comes an exercise in decoding what the heck i wrote down:

Digital Orgasm – Do It
Sounds sexy, right?  Sounds like someone kidnapped the singer from Lords of Acid and made her sing for their fan band.  Ok I guess…

Scientist – rids the world of the evil curse of the vampires
With a title like that, how can you go wrong?  Well, you could have an album full of reggae which seems totally incongruous with a band and album name like that.

Subtle – For Hero: For Fool
Recommendation from Matt.  A little too hip-hop for my tastes.  The music is good and the vocals are a bit more subdued than a full-fledged rap album, so not all bad.

The Dexorcist – Bad Robot
I admit, this album pulled me in only because of the title.  It’s not even an album, it’s like a three-track EP I think.  But it’s robot music for sure and I love it.

Stars – Heart
Light.  Airy.  ZZZzzz…

Villain Accelerate – Maid of Gold
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…

Asian Dub Foundation – Time Freeze
Hippity-hoppity.  Pass.

Girl Talk – Feed the Animals
HA.  This is a mash-up in every sense of the word.  There is actually a Wired article talking about all the samples that this guy crams into his album.  It’s fun because I actually can recognize some of the stuff, which is not typically used for sampling.  I’d like to share the article with you but apparently they took down the image.  Oh well.

Flying Lotus – Los Angeles
Sounds like an old record, which is why Pitchfork loved it.  I like it too, even though once again we’re airing on the side of hip-hop.

Unter Null – The Failure Epiphany
Face-crushing industrial bullshit.  Like Wumpscut Jr., complete with the distorted vocals and feedback drenched grinds.  I love it.

Times New Viking – Rip It Off
Clever name, sonic earfuck.  I didn’t make it very far.

Boris – Smile
Announced as one of the opening bands for Nine Inch Nails’ fall tour.  Pitchfork complimented Trent’s choice and Trent himself picked them out.  I however found this album to be a sonic deathwall that got blood stains on my nice white iPod earbuds.  However, their earlier album Pink has a little more melody and structure so I enjoyed it more.

Health – Disco
A remix album.  Health is another NIN opener.  These guys collaborated with Crystal Castles and I liked CC, so Health sort of got in on the ground floor.  Still good.

The Bug – London Zoo
The third NIN opener (keep in mind these are a single opening band for different shows, not 3 openers in a single night).  This is more reggae stuff on top of electronic beats.  Not bad but not really dance music either.

Justice – Planisphere
Omg omg omg I love these guys.  Pitchfork says it all.

In July of this year, French duo Justice presented a lengthy piece of music called “Planisphere” at the Dior Homme Summer 2009 Fashion Show. The piece, divided into four parts, with an addendum of some sort called “Planisphere Final”, is streaming now at their MySpace page. I hear some spacey, shredding guitar leads, spooky harpsichord, their distincitive churning beats, and a single riff that recurs and ties the whole thing together.

Go to their MySpace page and check it out.  Trust me, it’s worth braving the wastelands of MySpace for a listen.

Younger Brother – The Last Days of Gravity
A friend told me about a band called Infected Mushroom.  They’re good and a topic for a later post.  But while looking for more of Infected Mushroom’s style, we go to their genre which is “psytrance.”  And so far that “genre” has turned up pretty empty except for a band called Shpongle (who is also a topic for a later post).  And one of the guys in Shpongle did some other work under the name of Younger Brother.  Pretty lame as far as band names go but it’s good stuff!

Wolfmother – Wolfmother
The AllMusic description says it all: Truly a band out of time, Australian power trio Wolfmother were conceived in 2000 — about 30 years too late, considering that their psychedelic brand of proto-heavy metal sounds like a ringer for late-’60s/early-’70s bands such as Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath.  I don’t know Blue Cheer, but the description of old-school arena-rock really seems to fit.  It’s good stuff and you’ve probably played their song on Guitar Hero 2.