Monthly Archives: February 2012

Andrew Vs. “Julius Caesar” by Smog

TAG: Standard
Period: 1993, First Studio Recorded, Self Produced

I was born the year Julius Caesar released. I find this appropriate because this is where you can see him evolve. That probably means nothing, but it makes it easy to remember when the album came out. Anyway, it’s 1993, his Smog project has made it to the big-time. He has a studio now, more instruments and recording devices that aren’t consumer-grade 80s tape recorders. He must have changed everything! No. He actually still goes out of his way for experimentalism. Bill even made sure he was the one touching the boards and the album still has a fucking chair on it. Julius Caesar is very much his album. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Andrew

Andrew Vs. “Visions” by Grimes

It turns out there are plenty of people who believe strongly in their voice, maybe too many, but they stem off into several varieties: protesters, politicians, auctioneers, your boss, disk jockeys, dentists while your mouth is occupied by the awful thing that scrapes particles between the gums and teeth, and the teacher in fifth grade that you believed treated you differently because they were sexist. These roles are infinite. With the present opportunities given to us to use our voices positively or for gain of a cause, movement, or ourselves, we must take advantage of the multiple mirrors to express it and not easily become these completely monotonous roosters. Claire Boucher may know what I am talking about. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Andrew

Haven’t The Word

When I first started writing music reviews for FOWR, I had basically no idea what I was doing. I was only listening to quality stuff every now and then so I saw it as my opportunity to broaden my sensibilities as both a writer and a music enthusiast. Through the first couple months, I was quick to judge and made verdicts based on immediate impressions. My perspective of The Suburbs was misguided, looking back, and my sentences were short, poorly vocalized, and overly concise, but around August of 2010, that began to change. The way I received this wind was an average “here you go” recommendation from John. These recommendations have gone back and forth ever since, but this one was special. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Andrew

Only Salt Remains

Since January, we were toying with an idea. Andrew and I listen to Public Strain frequently, to a point where we were coming around to having something else to say about that record. The idea we had was that everyone on the site would write something about the album. Andrew would’ve covered his attatchment to the record. I would’ve written about the lyric decoding process (you can see the results of that here). Matt hasn’t heard the record since we called it the 2010 Album of the Year. Metal Dan hadn’t heard it at all.

The deadline we set for all of this was last week. No one wrote anything (me included), and it seemed like that’s the end for that idea. At the same time, I’ve still felt urgency behind writing something about Women, as it’s been over a year since their meltdown. The sadness from reading that turned to jealousy at a certain point- what an amazing thing to just throw away. At the same time, I’ve got no right to say something like that, since I wasn’t someone that actually dealt with the people in the band. All I have is my perspective. Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under John

John Vs. “The Malkin Jewel” by The Mars Volta

WINNER: “The Malkin Jewel” by The Mars Volta

WHY: It’s always the punch you don’t see coming that gets you.

Leave a comment

Filed under John

Metal Dan Vs. “Global Flatline” by Aborted

In terms of released material it has been almost 10 years since i’ve listened to Belgium’s Aborted with any earnest.

“Engineering the dead” and “Goremageddon: the saw and the damage done” offered a brutal and satisfying taste of the bands earlier work that was quickly tarnished with the release of 2005’s “The Archaic Abattoir”. 2007’s “Slaughter & Apparatus: A Methodical Overture” had me initially excited after hearing that Aussie drummer Dave Haley (Psycroptic) had played session drums on it, but any hopes were quickly sent packing before even half of the album had been heard in its duration. Disappointed, I gave their next effort “Strychnine.213” a wide berth.

Continue reading

Leave a comment

Filed under Metal Dan