Very cool…an all-female power trio. I hear an interesting mix of influences that I can’t pin down yet, but they have a great rock n’roll ethos. Will be checking out more…
This now defunct band from the '90s definitely deserved more exposure/fame while they still were trying. Some of their tunes don’t quite have it, but lots are right on the mark. Started in DC, then moved to Philly…wished I would have caught them live.
Nothing wrong with the song, apart from feeling like a kinda generic radio tune with no surprises to it… the kind of thing you’d hear a lot in '94 if a record label thought they had the next Black Crowes on their hands. Not bad though. Liked the bridge part the best.
I’m going to throw out my own pick for an underrated band in the hard rock vein, Y & T. I think they just made their best albums a little too early to capitalize on the whole MTV hair metal thing. From 1983 this is Y & T - Lonely Side of Town.
Ah yeah… 1983… 
Y&T, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Accept, Blue Öyster Cult, Def Leppard, Dio, Ozzy, Savatage, Lita Ford, Iron Maiden, KISS, Krokus, Manowar, Mercyful Fate, Zebra, Gary Moore, Mötley Crüe… that was a pretty fucking good metal year.
Y&T were never my thing; they were a little too much like Journey in their metalocity for me. But I had friends who loved them and they don’t suck, so I heard them (and this song) plenty. I thought this sounded good today, too. The vocal parts seem slightly dated (he always reminds me of Steve Perry for some reason), but it’s a very minor taint to an otherwise serviceably good melodic/power metal/heavy metal song.
I really admire the commitment that the guys in Foxy Shazam showed. They clearly love the style of music they are playing, even as they recognize that it’s way overblown and even narcissisticly bombastic. I think they have a lot of potential to produce truly memorable songs, even if I didn’t think this one was particularly noteworthy. It wasn’t bad at all, it just never rose above what it was aping for me. Thanks for bringing them to my attention, Feint.
I really liked the Ex-Hex song, Hodge. I heard Ramones, Bush Tetras, Cramps, Bangles, Go-Gos, and especially I heard Pylon in their sound. Excellent song, great musicianship, nice tight arrangement; this was terrific.
Go To Blazes wasn’t bad at all, but as JS noted, it didn’t stand out much either. My thought is that the band fukt up by moving to Philly; they should have moved to Austin.
In 2012, this band’s debut album knocked my fucking socks off. 2 of the 8 songs are instant classics, monster riffs pounded into songs that I have never been able to get out of my head since the first time I heard them. In total they are more than 25% of the album by time elapsed and they are AWESOME. That’s an astounding achievement from any band, let alone from a first effort by mates from tiny Didcot (population 27,000). I’m sure I’ll revisit them in a later post; that’s how good their riffs are! This is groovy stoner rock in the tradition of Acrimony and Slo Burn and Dozer and Sixty Watt Shaman and… well, y’all get the idea; here’s Mother Corona - Nuclear Winter.
…and Kyuss… can’t forget Kyuss…
As a slight aside, this long-running website makes non-intrusive music rec’s based upon bands you like. Not perfect, but good for lots of obscure bands you may not have found otherwise.
Gnod also has similar book/movie/art recommendations too.
You’re welcome Bo, I love Foxy, puts me in such a happy mood.
Mother Corona, cool guitar sounds, love the jam through the middle 3 mins! So good. Remindes me a lot of Queens of the Stone Age. Who I ma have to spend the afternoon listening to now, haha. Good choice, these guys are some great psych/chill/jam rock.
First of all, I’m glad you guys liked Ex Hex. I love their Ramones meets the Go-Gos vibe. The whole album is worth picking up.
Fascinating neo-prog rock. Complex and operatic (bordering on bombastic) with some lovely vocal harmonies. I’m hearing all sorts of influences ranging from Faith no More to Iron Maiden to The Beach Boys. I’ve never heard of these guys before but I’m not surprised to read that this is one of a series of concept albums. I’m definitely motivated to listen to more of their stuff to put it all into context.
Okay, let’s move from prog to hardcore, what to you guys think of “Queen of Hearts” by Fucked Up
I thought this one started off all wrong. I was really thrown by the punk rock vocals over the new wave guitar and rhythm, but the song actually got better as it went along, adding elements that, for me, served well to tie it all together and make the whole thing greater than just the sum of it’s parts. But then, Fucked Up are pretty good at that, aren’t they? If there’s a punk band around today that can give The Bronx a run for their money, Fucked Up is it.
I hear a lot of talent in The Dear Hunter, but I also hear a lot of melody, and I’m not a big fan of melody. I also hear a lot of influence from Coheed & Cambria, and I’m not a fan of theirs. While I recognize the talent and hard work that went into the writing and recording, this isn’t my cuppa.
My pick is a little less, ah, subtle in their approach; this is an example of what is becoming known as Neo-Monlithic Rock. Basically, what the moniker means is that this music is going to be typified by a hugely heavy sound (very bass-oriented, if you will) and utilize repetition to pound each song’s limited number of awesome riffs into our thick skulls. Imagine if 1980s Jesus Lizard and Helmet decided to team up and form a supergroup and then Rick Rubin produced them and worked on a really stripped down sound for them and you might hear something like Whores - Tell Me Something Scientific.
Bo, your tastes are typically heavier than I prefer, but I often find your picks somewhat artful within their genre. I always listen to them a couple of times, though I frequently move on after that. This one; I was not familiar with (these particular) Whores. I dug the relative silence and melodic guitar overlaid with the grind there in the middle of the tune. Then the metal and (eventually) the distorted vocals come back to remind us that we’re still in heavy-land. Thumbs up from me.
I was pulling out of the work parking lot on Friday evening as this came on the radio. It’s Tahiti 80 with Call Up. Tahiti 80 doesn’t, generally, have much to offer but this song is fun. I like the little bits of “screaming” guitar they throw in here, and the pause before the second helping is like the barb on the hook.
Link says “video not available” but I found the song streaming elsewhere.
Tahiti 80 sounded pretty close to the way I’d hoped based on their name. I feel like I should have heard of this band before as it turns out they’ve been around for a while, but I’ve missed them until now. I liked the song. A nice summer cruising tune even though it’s not exactly breezy in the sense of happy. That road/squashed toads rhyme though, I’m not sure about that, but whatever.
Sticking with French artists because why not, here’s Madeon feat. Passion Pit - Pay No Mind. This electronic DJ stuff isn’t a genre of music I know a ton about, but this one stayed with me. The video looks like it cost a fortune too, I thought at first it was a fan edit set to a bunch of scenes from one of those movie adaptations of YA novels, but it isn’t.
Hmmm, I have heard of Madeon before. Quite like this song, will certainly have to add to my “listen again” list.
My song: Lost Frequencies - Are You With Me. Link to it is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjHMDlAPMUw
It’s only been released recently but it’s got a really nice vibe to it, and I’ve been listening to it a lot, so I posted it here for you all.
I didn’t care for the song but I loved the video! The song was, to me, tepid. I thought it was timeless, in the sense that it could have been recorded in 1983 or 1993 or 2003 or 2013; this sounds like a textbook example of “pop music” in the post-guitar age. It’s not bad, it’s just unremarkable, IMO.
But that video was the fucking BOMB!
I was surprised by how much I liked Tahiti 80. Then I figured out why I liked them and it made sense: they sound like a 1970s pop-rock oriented version of TV On The Radio, but with even madder songwriting skills. Excellent dynamics, cool retro vocals that didn’t annoy me and a kicking bass line. Nice pocket drummer there, too. Thanks for posting this one; I actually like it more and more. I think I’ve listened to it like 6 times now.
Aye, my tastes are heavy. Very heavy. And aggressive. I like loud, aggressive, harsh, bass heavy music. And I know that is, oh, most people’s least favorite kind of music, so I do try and moderate myself and not only post fairly agro stuff.
In light of that, I’m gonna go ahead and give y’all something to listen to that isn’t as aggressive as the last track. I first heard of these guys when they played the Doom In June fest here in Las Vegas last year. This song, although not necessarily any of their other songs, reminds me a lot of Sister Double Happiness and just Gary Floyd in general. Each of the songs on this album is unique, tho. No song sounds like any other, genre wise, and that makes the album a fun listen that encourages repetition. Anyway, I’m gonna stick with a theme too. No, not that French theme; well, not directly anyway. I’m gonna stick with my own theme of posting songs by bands with the word "whore in their name: Whores Of Tijuana - Pig Country.
Okay, I’ll admit that upon first reading that you were sticking w/ the “theme”, I sorta rolled my eyes (tongue-in-cheek, that is) and thought, “uh-oh” But wow, that was great! I dug the smoky, smooth feel coming off that cut. It was almost bluesy. I listened to more Whores’ tracks and they consumed a large part of my morning. I like that some of their tunes are heavy without being superfluous, while others mix in a solid dose of jam… good stuff.
The Madeon song was fun. I didn’t have any part of it really jump out and grab me but it did keep me engaged. The video was interesting, though I found it to be a strange marriage between the video and the tune.
I’ll keep up my trend of posting tunes from bands that don’t have a lot to offer (for me), but manage to hit the nail on the head a time or two. This has been one of my earworms for the last week or so. I appreciate the quick, subtle bass line but, even more so, I like the way the sounds are arranged in this one; most-notably the vocal track. Little Dragon – Ritual Union.
This song annoys me because I know the bassline and the melody are from at least one other song, but I can’t remember which song(s)… something from a musical like One Night In Bangkok or something… really annoying because I hear it as an undercurrent while I’m listening to Ritual Union, but it’s never loud enough for me to hear distinctly.
Getting past that, this is a decent enough little song. Well-produced with a nice arrangement; a little flat on dynamics but the genre isn’t exactly known for setting the world on fire, causing tears to fall or anything like that.
If it wasn’t for me hearing at least one other song in there, I’d enjoy this quite a lot.
Well, I’m sorry to see that this thread has turned into a duet (duel? ;)), but as long as we’re both still here, lemme try and ply you with this little gem from an unlikely source: Insane Clown Posse’s fellow Juggalos Twiztid - Stardust.
That tune was cool. I dug the refrain about “It only costs what you’re spending on it”. A fun song and I’ve enjoyed listening to more of their stuff than just what you linked.
I, too, am disappointed that this thread has been given-up to just the two of us. I’ve heard a lot of cool stuff through this portal and I wish more folks would participate. You think it’s the requirement to post a “comment” that’s got folks looking (hearing) the other way? Maybe it’s all the crappy music you’re posting, ha. 
I’m just fuckin’ with ya, Bo. Though it could be all the crappy music that I’m posting.
I find a lot of my stuff on Austin City Limits and these guys shared an episode with Spoon. I’ll tell ya, if you watch that one you can fast forward through the Spoon, b/c White Denim swept the floor up with those guys. I find their tunes well-written and artfully arranged, and their live performances eclipse the studio efforts that I’ve heard. I like this song and even though I find a bit “poppy” *, it does well to reveal some of their talent. White Denim with “Pretty Green”.
My first reaction was that it’s cool to see that Al Madrigal sings in a band when he’s not on the Daily Show.
Kidding aside, I dug it. It sounded kind of like “That’s Alright Mama” as performed by a jammy '70s Southern rock band, which is A-OK by me.
Here’s Roman à Clef, a new band (though it has members who have been in other things) from Brooklyn mining that '80s English synth pop sound. See what you think of PSBTV.
Howdy, journeyman! Great to see you back in this thread with shunpiker and I!
You pretty much nailed the description of this band. They clearly are channeling Haircut 100, ABC, Bucks Fizz, etc. and they do it pretty damn well. This song was light and fluffy and relentlessly upbeat; the video pretty much matched that with all the bright colors and happy dancing. The only fault the song has is a lack of a big hook to make me want to listen to it again and again and again. Since they are prolly a serious niche band, tho, I doubt that will work against them; the fan base they are seeking will love this song and their oeuvre, I’m sure.
Excellent guitar work by the singer; I wish I could play finger-picking like that. His vocals were very good, too. He knows how to play the mic and knows how to growl a bit, which as y’all know I like a lot. The bass and the rhythm guitar were solid, and the rhythm guitar player’s solo at the end was polished and suited the material well enough. The drummer, tho… that guy is fantastic. There’s no doubt in my mind that he and the singer are the heart of the band.
Overall, I thought the song was fine but I noticed that I liked all the non-singing parts best. The singer was really able to lay down some nice textural melodic accompaniment and the piece really seemed about to go from shining brightly to burning during those parts. Every time the drew it back I kinda went “awwwwwww, that’s a shame.”
A note on a previous post by you, shunpiker: I have about 10 years of CMJ CDs and I was going thru them a couple of weeks ago. The July 2000 CD’s track #7 is Tahiti 80 - I.S.A.A.C.! I didn’t mark it as one of my favorite songs (songs I liked have a dot next to them), but I thought it was cool that I had heard them before your post, I just didn’t remember them. Small world and that, eh? I popped the CD in and while I still didn’t think I.S.A.A.C. was nearly as good as Call Up, I found it a passably pleasant song nonetheless.
So let’s take things in a different direction.
Lately, I’ve been indulging my love for jazz more and more. Many of you prolly don’t know that one of the best, liveliest, most exciting jazz scenes in the world is in Japan. It’s true! There are a number of excellent bands and artists, but since we only do this one song at a time, please allow me to introduce you to Sleep Walker - Eclipse.
When Heart of Dorkness started this thread, he laid down some excellent ground rules: 4 "do"s and 3 "don’t"s. The second “don’t” rule (so rule #6) is:
I’m going to make a motion, 2nd it and then call the vote in favor for adding [ul]Rule #6a: If no one has posted in more than 2 weeks, the previous poster can and should go ahead and post a new song; the next poster may comment on any of the prior songs to which no one has yet replied.[/ul]
Hopefully we won’t have too much getting lost in the shuffle this way, but I know I always think it’s a shame to have to wait weeks and weeks for someone to reply to my post. I can never be sure if it’s just because the thread fell off the main Cafe Society page or because the song I posted repulses people or what. At least this way people will have a choice of what to reply to and it will keep the thread bumped a bit more often than we’ve been seeing.
Fair enough.
Okay, I dug that Roman a’ Clef, “PSBTV”… what a great, energetic tune. I didn’t read Bo’s review until after I’d listened a couple of times, & I think he had a point about the hook. But the head-bobbin’ beat with the various tempo switches has me wanting to hear it more. I really dug it. I also like how the female vocals lay just under the main’s at times; accenting those little parts.
Japanese Jazz… I’ve not thought/listened to that in a while. Cool tune, though. Nothing here really grabbed me with the exception of that thumping’ bass line. I also enjoyed the song that youtube kept rolling-on to when Eclipse finished (“Brotherhood”).
Bo, that’s a fair call. That’ll keep the thread moving, at least. Would like to have more participants, still. I also think it’d be okay to comment w/o posting a tune. But if ya want to post, you have to comment.
CMJ, ha! I enjoyed a few years of those. Good source of good tunes, I always thought. I used the dot identifier, too. I agree with your words on ISAAC, and thanks for sharing. July 2000… those guys must be 40 year-olds these days!