Dr. Dooom- Dr. Dooom 2

OK, so Kool Keith isn't the most consistent rapper out there, and why should he be? The man has been doing whatever the fuck he wants since the bizzarely stunning Dr. Octagonecolygest came out 12 years ago. And I'm sure people kept expecting him to put out Doc Oc 2, but he didn't care. Still staying close to the genre he supposedly created (acid rap, horrorcore, pornocore, but hey, what do labels mean anyway?), he released albums under a slew of alter-egos including Black Elvis, Mr. Nogatco (whose album Nogatco Rd. is Dr. Octagon spelled backwards), the Diesel Truckers (with Kut Master Kurt), just Kool Keith, and Dr. Dooom (not to be confused with MF Doom).

Dr. Dooom supposedly killed off Dr. Octagon in his first album First Come First Served, but Kool Keith "brought him back" for a second record in 2006. Produced by One Watt Sun, this album wasn't even supposed to be officially realeased. It is for all practical purposes old vocals of Kool Keith slapped together with some half-assed beats. On Dr. Dooom 2, Keith as Dr. Dooom kills off Dr. Octagon for good on "RIP Dr. Octagon."

First Come First Served, while not following a particular theme, was a dark album filled with science fiction, eeire acid bumps, and Keith's perverted goofy lyrics. But forget all that. On "Mopped Up," Keith spits, "The first thing you gonna do as a journalist is compare this to the 1st Dr. Dooom, fuck you." If anything, stylistically it's closer to something like Sex Style, with plenty of hooks, but this isn't your average rap album. Keith stills jacks off all over your face with plenty of monster movie imagery with his distinctive quirky and offputting flow. Name checking everything from Jason and Michael Myers to the Indiana Pacers, it's still the same Keith that you either love or hate. And Kut Master Kurt is back with his icy, haunting beats that just add to the perverted vibe of the album.

Kool Keith's attitude about people liking this album can be summed up on "Always Talkin' Out Your Ass," where he states, "Yo everybody always wanna talk shit, when you make a new album, it's not good as the last one, how many are sold?" He also attacks fanzines, people with ipods, the Village Voice, and bitches that won't fuck him.

This is Kool Keith's best work since Nogatco Rd., and just goes to show you that he still has it, and never lost it. Fuck that fake ass Dr. Octagon sequel, Dr. Oc is fucking dead, and Dr. Dooom is the new sinister villian.

An Albatross- The An Albatross Family Album

Philly's An Albatross have sort of followed in the footsteps of The Locust, but they sound like an entirely different drug. Sort of an East Coast v. West Coast battle for electronic spazzed-out grindcore punk mayhem kings.

Their previous album BOTPBFATBWK (look it up for the full title) sounded like a Fear and Loathing circus acid trip complete with grinding organs, a demented horn section and vomiting on the carousel. Their move to Eyeball Records sees the band exploring more psychedelic landscapes while keeping intact their full-on hard-on of speeding start-stop punk rock mixed with that sinister organ and bastard brass. Tribal drumming, haunting flute, and primal shrieking vocals push this record to the brink of insanity.

Things spiral into a cosmic state of spiritual healing on "The Hymn of the Angel People" as a bizzare monologue of science fiction and fantasy explains the tale of pilgrims, lovebeasts, and the cosmos, something right out of a Manowar record. But as you start to lose yourself you are awaken from your dream and brought back into the nitemare. The room starts spinning around in slow motion on "Starving on Rabbit Meat." Ride the groove on "Floodgates Released," and trip back into a mournful state as the album closes with weeping violins that melt into a calming aura only to be destroyed by the chaos once more as you crash to your majestic, apocalyptic death.

An Albatross myspace

AIDS Wolf- Cities of Glass

AIDS Wolf ain't pretty. No hooks, no choruses, no singalongs. Filthy out of tune guitars in the vein of Arab on Radar. Vocals sound like Yoko Ono in a bathtub full of electronic appliances. Discordant Canadian punk rock avant-garde improv fucking cataclysm. The soundtrack to intravenous needles being shoved in and out of raw flesh. You'll leave feeling dirty, uncomfortable, and violated.

Aids Wolf myspace

Girl Talk- Feed the Animals

Mash-ups aren't anything new, DJs have been mixing up records for nearly three decades now. But as technology has advanced and music has become more digital, dance and electronic music is being spit out from computers like bilious fluids. If you have a computer and the internet you can download beats and become another shitty laptop DJ. But out of the sea of Macbooks comes a DJ who's less interested in rehashing beats and more interesting in rocking the party. Girl Talk is Gregg Gillis, the whitest DJ I've ever seen, but damn can he get you moving. This is his fourth release on Illegal Art records.

Instead of making his own music he's quite content with stealing some of the most popular hits from the last fifty or so years and crushing them up on the table and snorting them up his nose. Why make new music when people want to hear what's already popular?

Take all the most ridiculous mainstream rap songs ever made and insert subliminal hints of classic rock, electronica, soul, punk, old school hip-hop, and anything elese that may have made the pop charts. It's a mix-tape for the attention deficit. One second youre hearing Lil' Jon, which turns into BLACKstreet as electronics from Radiohead fizzle in the background and then BOOM!, you're listening to The Band. The first listen is great because you don't know what to expect, what embarrassing nostalgic moment will be conjured up from hearig a certain song? With repeated careful listens you can pick out subtle moments of songs, like the organ from Procol Harem's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" playing in the background of Kanye West and T-Pain.

I hate mainstream music, but presented in a fresh way like this, it's hard not to enjoy yourself. No matter how hard you think you are, I guarantee if you listen to this some song will pop up and you'll be like, "Hey, used to love that song in 4th grade!"

Girl Talk myspace

Lagwagon- I Think My Older Brother Used To Listen To Lagwagon

Fat Wreck Chord's first signed band is back with a brand new EP full of hard hitting heartfelt ballads, punk rock prowess, and genuine emotion.

Lagwagon seem to have reached a mature stage in their lives with this release and their last full length, Resolve, which paid tribute to their longtime drummer Derrick Plourde, who committed suicide in 2005. Gone are the quirky punk gems of Trashed and Duh (the only humor you'll find here is in the title of the record), the speedy punk anthems of Hoss and Double Plaidinum; you won't find any LL Cool J covers on this one. In the vein of singer Joey Cape's former electic side project Bad Astronaut, this EP is a little mellower than you Lagwagon heads may be used to. But speed and rockability have not been sacrificed my friends. Songs about surviving life, touring, memories, and falling flat on your face, Cape's lyrical wisdom shines as always.

Lagwagon may be becoming grandpas in the punk scene that they helped create, but they are still consistently putting out amazing records. With Cape so busy with the Gimme Gimmes and his solo shit, I hope to see another full length Lagwagon album soon.

Lagwagon myspace

DJ Scotch Egg- Drumized

Ever played Gameboy on an acid trip? You might get the same effect if you listen to Japan’s DJ Scotch Egg. One of the forefront DJs to popularize the bastard wedding of chiptune and breakcore, DJ Scotch Egg (who was convinced by popular breakcore artist Shitmat to start making gabber tracks with his Gameboy) has been fucking up eardrums since 2003 (although he has been a part of several noise projects predating the DJ Scotch Egg moniker). He has recently signed to Lightning Bolt’s Load Records.

Drumized is DJ Scotch Egg at his craziest. Bombs blast; beeps and boops pound in a violent fuck fest. Demented circus tunes explode into maniacal screams. Lazer beam beats spiral to their death. This is the soundtrack to the most fucked up Gameboy Game you’ve never played. Broken shards of Super Mario Bros., Barnum and Bailey’s circus, jazz, and Beethoven can be heard behind a rage of 8-bit bullets. Strangely poppy, incessantly warped.

DJ Scotch Egg myspace

Victims- Killer

The Swedes are coming, the Swede’s are coming! Goddamn right they are. Victims are Sweeden’s finest in crusty, sweaty, motherfucking punk rock mayhem. Their 4^th album, Killer, lives up to its name in every sense of the word. Try to make it out alive, you’ve got twenty three minutes to run like hell.

This is d-beat rock’n’roll that’s as tight as a virgin’s you know what. But get ready to get fucked. Hearkening back to classic bands like Tragedy and His Hero Is Gone, Victims don’t mess around. This is more melodic than some of their previous releases, but equally as punishing. Living proof that everyone’s favorite neutral country can be as pissed as the rest of the world.

Victims myspace