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

Beck- Modern Guilt

Beck is god. He can do no wrong. His fourth album in six years stands the test of his creativity by sounding completely different from anything he has put out. His first four albums were sub-par demos of goofy folk to say the least. Mellow Gold was slacker- friendly weirdness; while Odelay was a fucking brilliant display of songwriting/production (the Dust Brother’s at their best). Mutations was somber folk, country, and blues, while Midnight Vultures was tongue-in-cheek “Purple Rain”-esque, shake your ghetto ass sex dance. Beck went all emotional on us with his powerfully personal Sea Change; then went back to his roots with Guero, bringing back the Dust Brothers and his funky ass ways. The Information, recorded essentially at the same time as Guero (but came out a year later), was a brilliant oeuvre combining elements of everything he has ever done.

Two years later Beck is back, and does not disappoint. Teaming up with production extraordinaire Danger Mouse, Modern Guilt is a chilled-out album chock-full of folk, 1960s pop (the title track sounds like a modern day Turtles single), Nintendo beeps and boops, orchestral ambience, dirty bass lines, and airy guest vocals by Cat Power.

Danger Mouse shines, contributing a very vintage sound that doesn’t overpower Beck’s breathy voice. This is a very short album with no b-sides showing up at this time, leaving you wanting more of that Dangerbeck sound.

Beck myspace

One Day as a Lion- One Day as a Lion

This EP is long overdue. It’s been 8 years since Zach de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine. Audioslave didn’t do it for me. Rumors of a de la Rocha solo album have been circulating for years. He scrapped a project with DJ Shadow, Company Flow, and ?uestlove to record an album with Trent Reznor that never saw the day of light (sans one track released on the internet in 2004). What the hell has this man been doing all these years? Well, finally the word is out, and this release has kind of been lurking in the shadows. There hasn’t been a lot of press preceding its release; it just kind of popped up one day. Regardless, it’s finally here.

One Day as a Lion (the name taken from a black and white graffiti photograph taken by Chicano photographer George Rodriguez in 1970) consists of de la Rocha rapping and playing keyboards, and none other than former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore on the skins. The results are a sound that combines the political spitting of Rage and the psychedelic leanings of the Mars Volta, with a bit of a rasta undertone. There are some really sick electronics here and de la Rocha flows like he was always born to do. Tight fucking drumming and great production here by the always fly Mario C. (of Beastie Boys fame). This is the dopest shit I’ve heard this year besides the new Immortal Technique joint.

A very pleasant surprise. But it just makes me long for a new Rage album that much more. Hey, anything’s possible.

One Day as a Lion myspace