Showing posts with label Pennsylvania. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pennsylvania. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Review #189: DOUBLE FEATURE!! (Executed 7" by Government Warning + Throbbing Organ 7" by Pissed Jeans)

LEGIT MUSIC REVIEWS DOUBLE FEATURE:

1. EXECUTED (Single)


Year: 2009
Genre: Hardcore Punk
Label: No Way Records

Tracks:
3
Length:
4 Minutes
Style:
Political/Angry
My Rating:
5/8

HELLOOOOOOO, KIDZ, it is getting closer and closer to CHRISTMAS TIME, in which people get presents and worship JAEEEUEUEUEUEUZOUUUS, and even if you don't worship him (for which you will suffer a fate of BURNING IN HELL FOREVER), you can still enjoy sitting around a tree with a bunch of shiny things stapled to it and listening to cheesy songs about Santa Claus (Satan Claws?) and getting free stuff from other people. Anyways, it's time for the special magical LEGIT SANTA CLAWS TO GIVE YOU A MAGICAL SPECIAL LEGIT GIFT, AND THIS IZ CALLED THE LEGIT MUSIC REVIEWS DOUBLE FEATURE... I AM GOING TO REVIEW TWO RECORDS IN ONE SUPER-REVIEW! SO, LET'S BEGIN, SHALL WE?

"Executed" is the newest release from the band Government Warning, and it's a 3-song 7" single.

1. Executed
This song starts out considerably slower than the usual Government Warning stuff... more Sex Pistols-speed in the beginning. After the first part of the song, which has a pretty cool guitar riff, the song speeds up by a large amount and ascends into the brand of hyper-thrash that the band is known for. Later on in the song, things slow down a bit once more and Brandon, the drummer, puts on some pretty neat-sounding drumming for the outro of the song.

2. Shirked Obligations
This song is very fast. Pure hardcore thrash, chord changes going mile-a-minute, yadda yadda...

3. Modern Day Heroes
This is a cover of the song by the band Battalion of Saints. Cool guitar riff in the verse section. Probably the best tune on this record, though "Executed" is a little more interesting musically. The lyrics of this song describe how even though the murderers and molesters of the world have always been able to somehow find joy in taking lives with no remorse or shame, there's a group of people today who kill so much more than any serial killer; they do it legally... in fact, they're hailed as "MODERN DAY HEROES": THE FUCKING MILITARY!!

Well, that's my review of EXERCUTED BY GUB'MENT WARMIN'. It was a pretty decent listen. The Battalion of Saints cover is pretty neat. The title track is good also, though "Shirked Obligations" didn't really interest me that much. But that's all I've gotta say for right NOW, so let's JUMP over to the MAGIICAL RAILROAD AND CHUG ALONG TO THE NEXT RECORD REVIEW, shall we?

... BOINGABOINGABOINGABOING...

2. THROBBING ORGAN (Single)

Year: 2004
Genre: Hardcore Punk
Label: Parts Unknown Records

Tracks:
2
Length:
6 Minutes
Style:
Angry
My Rating:
6/8

THROBBIN' SEXUAL ORGAN iz ther first-ever official release from their Pennsylvania rock n' roll band, PISSED JEANS!!!!! So lettuce get around to seeing what magical animal could possibly unleashed out of our own THROBBING ORGANS when I put on this little song...

1. Throbbing Organ
The vocal style of Mister Bradley Fry here sounds a little less defined here, which is a good thing because he actually sings cooler here than he does on the newer records! Awesome tempo, super pissed-off-sounding sludgy guitar riffs, the singing is really off-time. The drumming is great, and the vocals sound so insanely brutal in a non-generic way! I coulda sworn I heard him barking like a doggy in one part! I don't even know what this song is supposed to be about but it's probably about a THROBBING ORGAN and it's still cool.

2. Night Minutes
Now, fer the other side of the PISSED JEAN WEEN HOT NEW (in 2004, it was) SINGLE! Actually, in some parts the singer kinda sounds like Iggy Pop with downs syndrome. Man, I'm gonna have a field day imagining that one. Similar-sounding to the other song... just simple angry dumb drunken punk music! I like the chorus riff. Actually, in the later parts of this song, they throw in some lead guitar stuff as well into the mix. The song ends in a few seconds of chaotic guitar noize. The end.

The insanity in Brad's singing and the hard thickness of the rhythm guitar make these songs sound tough-as-nails, and not the kind of nails you just hammer down into the wood either, 'cuz they're moving all over the place! It is a pretty good record and I wish Bradley still sing like he does on this record... it's not like he sounds TERRIBLY different now, but this sounds better to me for some reason. Actually, the band just released another new 7" this year, so maybe I'll have to review that sometime as well. Seen their new music video yet? It's for the song "False Jesii Part 2" and you should check it out or something. But that's all I've gotta say for now. I hope you enjoyed reading the DOUBLE FEATURE...



Friday, September 10, 2010

Review #154: Ween - Axis: Bold As Boognish (1987)


WEEN II - AXIS: BOLD AS BOOGNISH

Year: 1987
Genre: Rock, Punk Rock, Experimental
Sub-Genres: Hardcore
Label: Bird O' Pray Records
Tracks: 17
Length: 42 Minutes
Style: Funny/Weird/Happy
My Rating: 7/8

Last time I reviewed a Ween album, it was "Crucial Squeegie Lip"... when Ween were still in high school and just starting out, they were able to have tapes of their early albums released through Bird O'Pray Records. So, CSL was the first Ween album... they released another album in 1987 called "Erica Peterson's Flaming Crib Death", but this was just a more condensed version of the first album with a couple out-takes. The "true" second Ween album is this one. AXIS... BOLD AS BOOGNISH.

Musically, it's a huge step up from the first one... in 'Crucial Squeegie Lip', the songs were mostly just noise or one-chorders with a few exceptions, and the songs weren't very long either. In just one year, their skills at playing their instruments really improved. However, it's all still hilarious, so don't worry! Time to cut to the chase and give All the Right Reasons (tm) why...

1. I'm Killing It (Kill Everything)
The title sounds like something that GG Allin would write! The song opens with various screams from Deaner n' Gener, and the song has a pretty cool beat and rather than guitars playing the melody like you'd expect, it's tubas instead! Gene rants about "killing it".

2. Tweet Tweet
Begins all cut-n'-spliced, and then the song becomes more linear and tells a story about accidentally wrecking someone's car, and the pressure just builds up until Gene screams "TWEET TWEET!" repeatedly, and the beat gets really fast n' stuff. More tubas. Gene re-enacts the pissed off man whose car has been wrecked, complaining about how he's going to have to WORK, AND WORK, AND WORK, AND PAY, AND PAY, ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! .

3. On the Beach
A neat song with a really cool riff singing about surfing and hanging out at the beach. Very catchy. Oh, and there's a guitar solo also. A little Beach Boys-inspired, it feels like.

4. I Like You
This one was also on their live album that I reviewed in February, but the vocals on here sound a lot more 'psycho', and I like the chorus a lot. The guitar on that part sounds awesome. As you might be able to guess, the lyrics describe liking this one person named "You", and flying through the night together on their bikes... kind of like E.T., I guess. The little riff they play at the very end of the song was neat.

5. Bumblebee
AHHH! FUCK! A BUMBLEBEE! A lot of people might know about this song from the album "God Ween Satan". The early version is not any less funny. Gener screams about a BUMBLE BEE that has stung him and caused his sanity to go in shambles. There are even weird little (obviously fake) bumble-bee sounds in the background. Ha ha ha ha heeeeeeeeeee! Poor Gene Ween.

6. Emily
I like this one a lot, too! It's just Gene and Dean singing to an extremely cool guitar melody. I fucking love this song. It just feels great to listen to, man (or wo-man). E-M-ILY! E-M-I-L-Y! E-M-I-L-Y! In the last verse, Gene sings in falsetto.

7. David the Negro
This song is fucking hilarious, but not necessarily because of the usage of the word "negro". Y'see, the Weeners realized that it would be fucking funny as shit if they altered their voices to make it sound like they were constantly changing speeds... ah, I can't think of a good way to put it, but the way they do it sounds REALLY funny. Here they show off how much better they've become at playing guitar (lead guitar, at that) since the last album. David's a good boy.

8. The Iron Whore
This song's sort of a piss-take on heavy metal, with Gene singing like Bon Scott from AC/DC or some other guy like that. The riff, while sounding like a lot of 70's metal songs in itself, is still pretty nice. Then there's a pretty awesome yet generic-sounding solo at the end of the song.

9. Sitting On My Ass (Wanton Nougat)
A song with a bluesy a capella melody, and a weird-ass falsetto sex scene being acted out by Gene & Dean in the background.

10. Smoke In My Brain
Cool beat, cool riff, and lots of screamed vocals! Pretty good, but also pretty short.

11. Anne
The original version of this song was on "Erica Peterson's Flaming Crib Death"... this version is about twenty seconds shorter. Very fast, with lots of goofball screaming! Shortest song on the album (48 sex).

12. Aqua-Ween
Man, the Weeners sure can scream! The chorus part is really cool. The song sings about doing all sorts of cool stuff in the park and at home.

13. She Said, She Said
"She said... I know what it's like to be dead...". This song has a pretty cool catchy melody, and the singers harmonize the vocals on thees song. They sample their own vocals and start placing them around randomly in the second half of the song. Kind of like a New Wave version of the Butthole Surfers.

14. The Journey Into Dinh
The song opens with a fragment of the hilarious final track of the band's first album (the one where they scream for two minutes straight). Then the "song" begins, with lots of fucking around with the tape, as a lot of lead guitar can be heard playing inbetween. It's a pretty scary and weird piece. I'd imagine it'd make good theme music for some weird psychedelic claymation horror film. That I should make. Soon.

15. Gene's Lament (Tree Love Theme)
A slow, droning ballad by Gene Ween himself! It's pretty calm, and it's packed with excellent guitar-playing and melodies.

16. Opus 51 Fugue Trilogy in A (Take Me To the Tree)
This song iz made up of many different parts, so I'll review this one piece by piece.

A. Yurtle Swimming
I'm guessing they're referring to "Yurtle the Turtle", because if they are, then I can see why, 'cause the main thing I think of when I hear this is Yurtle the Turtle swimming a pond made of yellow water. Excellent observation, Weenerz! It starts off with bass, a marching sort of beat, and a lead guitar melody, before transforming into an epic chord-laden trudge, with Gene screaming pure poetry on his way through! The guitar sounds really cool. Then there's a lot more of guitar noodling and needling until transforming into the next song.

B. The Tree
This one's faster and more upbeat. This song's about wanting to go on magical journeys to a TREE. What fun!!!!! The riff is awesome, every part of this part of this part of this album rules.

C. Bertha Gets the Mooshy-Mooshy
This part's just funny. It has a weird, creepy sort of melody, and a slower pace. The chorus goes, well, see the title. As a wonderfully retarded lead-guitar melody plays, the two scream "BERTHA GETS THE MOOSHY MOOSHY" faster and faster until they have no choice but to go back to the other section.

D. The Kitty and the Squirrel
This is a section featuring one G-chord and harmonizing lead melodies, and Gene screaming over this tune (in rhyme, of course). This part takes up the rest of the song until...

E. The Departure
Just a couple seconds of noise at the very end of the song.

So, in total, the entire track is over 13 minutes long. And it's a very legit 13 minutes!

17. One Love For Boognish
An instrumental, psychedelic song. A soft, serene echoey feel to it. I love it. It cuts off at the end.

SOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOoooOoOoOoO, there we have it... this album is as Bold As a Boognish! Definitely a step up from the first album, possibly even better than "God Ween Satan", though nowhere near as good as the three albums that followed God Ween Satan. So, if you're a Ween fan and haven't heard their really early stuff, I strongly recommend checking out this album. It's very cool. Just be prepared to hear Dean and Gene scream a lot! The End.

Top 3 Favorites:
1. Opus 51 Fugue Trilogy in A (Take Me to the Tree)
2. Emily
3. One Love for Boognish



Sunday, June 27, 2010

Review #133: Ween - The Crucial Squeegie Lip (1986)


THE CRUCIAL SQUEEGIE LIP

Year: 1986
Genre: Experimental Rock, Punk Rock
Sub-Genres: Noise, Hardcore
Label: Bird O' Pray Records
Tracks: 40
Length: 46 Minutes
Style: Funny/Weird
My Rating: 6/8

Ween is one of my favorite bands of all time, and they formed in 1984. The band originally formed as a duo, with the permanent members, Gene Ween and Dean Ween (Aaron Freeman & Michael Melchiondo Jr. at this point) and a drum machine supplying the beats. The two were only 14 years old and not even in high school yet when the band was formed. While many believe "God Ween Satan" to be the band's first album, they really released their first album as a tape independently called "The Crucial Squeegie Lip" on Bird O' Pray Records (who would put out all of their other albums pre-God Ween Satan throughout the mid to late 1980s). The two were 16 years old by this point, and even though they are young and the quality is murky, the great things about Ween are pretty much already here... many of the songs on this tape were later re-done and put on "God Ween Satan". There is a lot of diversity album, with everything from sloppy hardcore punk, to tongue-in-cheek soft pop songs, bizarre spoken word bits, and other oddities. But yes, this tape marks the true beginning of Ween, and there's a whole bunch of songs (and non-songs) on here, so let's listen, shall we?

1. Introview
The tape starts off with an interview, complete with hilarious weird effects added to Dean and Gene's voices, as the interviewer asks himself about the "Satanic influences" that the holy god of Ween, the Boognish has on their music (it also likes to kill small animals). Ween explains the beginnings of Deaner and Gener's friendship in a school typing class and how this album is the result of their learnings from the Boognish recorded onto a tape. Let's observe what this divine inspiration brought them...

2. Talk To Me About Ericka Glabb
An extremely loud -- ear-shatteringly-loud -- piece featuring one of the Ween brothers screaming so loud that it drowns out all other sounds and emits creepy bass noises from the speakers. There is a little drumming in this track, but for the most part it is drowned out by the intense screaming.

3. Nippy Wiffle
The first musical-sounding track on the album. It's a one-chord mid-tempo tune with unintelligible monster-gibberish instead of lyrics. There's a guitar solo that resembles the tune to "Mary Had a Little Lamb" in the middle of the song.

4. Jelly (Part I)
A slower, blues-y song with Gene singing about putting jelly on toast.

5. Boobtalk
Another hilarious spoken bit. Dean and Gene talk in super-funny voices about the role that boobs (probably female ones at that) have in society. This bit serves as an intro to the next song.

6. Boobs (Part I)
A soft, tender song in which Gene gently sings about his love of boobs. The guitar quietly plays a beautiful melody in the background.

7. Boobs (Part II)
This is the second part of the "Boobs" song... Deaner (I think) sings this part in a screamy voice about... also loving boobs.

8. Go!
A very fast song in which Dean screams "GO!" to one chord acompanied by a single hit of a snare which repeats faster and faster until it just sounds like he's going "Guhuhguguggughgugugggghuhughggghuhugggghgugugugugugggggggoo!".

9. Stresstabs
A sloppy, messed up song where Gene goes off on a rant about being stressed out and "needing stresstabs" while a inconsistent beat and guitar riff are played.

10. Drinktalk
One of my personal favorite moments of the album. It's the intro for "I Drink A Lot". Deaner talks in another weird voice (it sounds like he's underwater or something like that) about a time that Gene (Aaron) got caught drinking by his dad one time. He goes on to admit that Ween "encourages kids to smoke crack and drink... a lot."

11. I Drink A Lot
A more straight-forward punk rock song about an apathetic person who gets drunk a lot and doesn't give a shit about much else.

12. Jessica
Deaner yells "JESSICA!" repeatedly to a rumbling beat and ominous humming noises made in the background. This one sounds like it was recorded in a cave during a cave-in or something.

13. Red As Satan
One of the few songs on the album that's over a minute and a half long! Begins with a fucked-up mish-mash of VOIP and WOIEERP noises. However, this is an acoustic love-ballad. It has a very nice melody, and Dean sings "nicely" here. Dean expresses his wish that his heart could be "as red as Satan" for the love of a girl. It's one of the more serious-sounding songs on the album, and it's a nice change from hearing the Weeners scream over a one-chord riff (not that that's not awesome either). This song is over four minutes long.

14. Murphy Flattens His Frustrations
Reminds me of Pissed Jeans. Mainly because of the voice. Noisy guitar noises and beat. More screaming and yelling.

15. Cowbell
A person imitating a cow mooing can be heard in the background. A wispy voice chants about a cowbell, crushed organs, and splattering blood in the wind.

16. Ingrown Mayo
An ultra-fast song with Gene screaming a bunch of gibberish.

17. Duke of Denim
A slower song. Dean sings about "the Duke of Denim", a loser-ish fellow who threw a Halloween party that nobody went to!

18. Blow It Out Your Ass
More thrash and random guitar-playing. Screaming and fart noises. YAY!

19. You Fucked Up
The earliest incarnation of this classic anthem. It eventually even was recorded for "God Ween Satan". The line "YOU FUCKING NAZI WHORE" still kills me to this day. Gene screams his anger at some random bitch who "FUCKED UP", evidently. Guitar solo about 2/3 through the song! Fast verse and slow chorus. Great riff.

20. Talkthing
Another mock-interview. I can't really make out what they're saying at some points. At one part, Dean is asked what his favorite food is. The echoes made by the wisping voices float around like dust in a spotlight in the dark if you pay enough attention.

21. I Drink A Lot (Nice Version)
A soft, "nice" version of I Drink A Lot. No guitar chords used here, just one-string notes.

22. Hey Bullfrog
A slow, heavy-metal type song. Gene sings in an southern accent. It's pretty groovy, I'd say.

23. Smash My Head
This one sounds like it was recorded live and improvised. It's pretty horrible, but in a good way. You can hear some guy screaming in the background at one part of the song. Whether it's Gener or an audience member, I'm not sure.

24. (You) Piss Me Off
A fast song. Deaner sings really fast about a guy who pissed him off that he wants to kill.

25. Justalking
A stoned Dean and Gene Ween talk in weird voices about shit that I can't even understand due to the effects they used for this bit. It sounds funny and slightly creepy simultaneously.

26. Blue Hair
There's a little tape-manipulation done at the beginning. A slow song with no guitar and Deaner quietly moping about how everything has blue hair. The song fades out.

27. Sweetness
The first part is made up of fast acoustic guitar-playing and some wild harmonica and fast gibberish-speaking. In the middle, everything slows down and gets more quiet. Then the third part is more like the first part. Very weird.

28. The Refrigerator That Wouldn't Close
This song was also recorded live. "Lean Cusine Ween", heh heh. Dean refers to this song as a "sixteenth century ballad", despite that there were no refrigerators in the 16th century (pretty sure, at least). Gene sings in a funny accent. Before Ween get to play the theme song from "Fat Albert", the song fades out.

29. Mindfuck
The Ween bros. mumble and groan, and then scream along with a wild-ass random thrash through the guitar. MINDFUCK!

30. Livetalk
HAHAHAH! MORE FUNNY VOICES! In this part, Ween advertises the splendor and excitement of their live shows, recommending that people come to their concerts to see them dress up in funny outfits, imitate 1970s rock bands, and have a fun time (and talk too much). However, they also claim that they "make everybody go home with a headache". Very funny. If you talk in this voice about wearing a chef's hat on stage, you have just said something very funny.

31. Boognish
A more "normal" song that sings praises to the Boognish. Once again, the riff uses only one chord, but you don't really notice due to Ween's sheer genius.

32. Boobs (Part III)
Return of the Boob Songs! A slow metal song with Gene sings about wanting to suck, fondle, and touch boobs. Excellent noisy bit at the very end.

33. Yolk
A loud, noisy song with more screaming.

34. Shnagenhausen
A very fast song recorded live featuring Ween and various audience members screaming "SHNAGENHAUSEN!" and speaking in gibberish. This sounds like it would have been a fun show to be at.

35. We See Ween Bean
Another live song. Very loud, fast, and noisy. "We See Ween Bean" is the sole lyric of this track. It actually goes on for quite a bit, though. An energetic and fun song.

36. Everyone's a Lesbian
Gene and Ween sing about how everybody's a lesbian, and how they enjoy watching lesbians have sex.

37. Yeah, Sure
Wait a second... that "girl in the audience" isn't a girl... that's Dean Ween before his voice changed! Some of these cuts extend back into when Deaner's voice didn't even change yet. That's just weird, now. Probably one of the first bands I've heard that started so young that their first recordings feature a member before his voice even changed! "YEAH, SURE". Rolling drums.

38. Oik
A song about a person named "oik" with a slow beat.

39. Jelly (Part II)
The other part of Jelly. Slow. The guitar is sloppy and improvised.

40. Outroview
This is the "outro". Dean talks in a funny voice like a mental retard and basically just goofs off. It's actually really funny in some parts. He screams so loud his voice cracks. Dean continues to thank the listener for listening to the album. The band just sort of hangs around there, and eventually Deaner SCREAMS HIS FUCKING HEAD OFF repeatedly and makes funny breathing-in noises, in an amusing attempt to get the listener to turn off the tape already! No thanks, Ween. I'm too busy listening to DEAN SCREAM!! How can these screamo pussies think they're badasses when Ween clearly outdoes them in every way?

So, that's the end of the first musical output of Ween. However, at this point they were far from greatness. Many of the songs use only one chord, and only a few use song structures that go beyond that ("Red As Satan", "I Drink A Lot"...). Most of the songs are a minute long or less. Some of them are just simple drumbeats and screaming. However, the funny jokes and gags make it all worthwhile. To be completely honest, some of the songs here seem to have required little to no thought to write. ANY teenage kid with a microphone, a guitar, some pot, and an hour to record an album would probably come up with something like this. But it works. This album is mediocre and the Ween bros. know it, so it presents itself as an enormous toilet joke, representing everything we high school kids find hilarious, whether we admit it or not. Funny voices, spontaneous screaming, complete improvisation, mediocre songwriting... it's all good in its own way. Of course, by the early '90s, Ween would become a band that was actually extremely talented at writing great songs, but the spirit of the incarnation of Ween in this album never quite left them.

Top 3 Favorites:
1. Red As Satan
2. Outroview
3. We Seen Ween Bean



Thursday, March 4, 2010

Review #78: Pissed Jeans - Shallow (2005)


SHALLOW

Year: 2005
Genre: Punk Rock
Sub-Genres:
Hardcore, Noise
Label:
Parts Unknown Records
Tracks:
8
Length:
32 Minutes (Medium-Length)
Style:
Weird/Funny/Emotional
My Rating:
6/8

From Allentown, Pennsylvania, Pissed Jeans is the most well-known noize-punk rock n' roll band of today! Now releasing albums on Sub-Pop, the band is well-known to the hipster crowd, which is reluctantly now part of the mainstream. So along with No Age, Pissed Jeans are the only two noise bands right now that scrape the barrier that divides the mainstream and the underground. But while No Age's melodies are essentially innocent-sounding and poppy, Pissed Jeans's musical heritage can be traced more back to '80s hardcore and noise rock such as Flipper, Black Flag, and Stickmen with Rayguns. The lyrics are usually brash, pessimistic interpretations of mundane activities and aspects of life that most people would not wince at -- masturbation, boring girls, horses, and the depressing acts of self-courting and self-rejection. But while they have a bit of "indie-kred" now for being on Sub-Pop (and they're probably one of the only good new bands on that label nowadays -- it's weird listening to "Sub-Pop 300" and having these stupid boring "indie" bands lumped in with the likes of L7, Mudhoney, and the Afghan Whigs. The Pissed Jeans and No Age tracks were the only good new ones), they did have to earn that level of respect, first. They did release a 7" single sometime before this album, but they REALLY took off startin' here. So let's talk about summa them Pissed Jeans songs now!

1. I'm Sick
Brad gets REALLY fuckin' sick in this song! He's got EVERYTHING. A headache, a fever, a runny nose, he can't sleep, and he's even got diarrhea!! I'm surprised there's not a healthy dose of AIDS there to top it off as well. Having been sick a few weeks ago, I understand the true soul-stinging pain associated with these lyrics. Being sick fucking sucks. The musical aspect of the song starts out with some schizophrenic punk-jazz pounding and a fast tempo in the verse. The chorus is slower, resembling grunge to some degree. Poor guy.

2. Boring Girls
Now I totally don't relate to this one. This one's pretty much the opposite of how I feel. Like, I can un-relate to it. See, it's about wanting to see more BORING GIRLS in life! And I'm trying to GET AWAY from BORING GIRLS (double-song reference!!) , ya see? So you catch my drift... ironically, it's my favorite song on the album. It's a one-chord near-classic punk anthem about what the title is called. Seriously, it just sounds great. Brad's voice is accompanied by a very high-pitched version of his own voice in some parts. Maybe it's Alvin. Or Simon. OR Theodore... Whatever, I really like this song!

3. Ugly Twin
Begins with a quiet bass intro which abruptly turns into something more heavy and monstrous. It's much slower than the two songs before it. It's about Bradley Fry's alleged "ugly twin", who looks just like him and rides the same bike -- but BRAD'S the one who gets arrested when his twin gets caught with pot! Oh, what a shame! Things really are lookin' down for Brad. They sure are. Basically like a song from My War if there was a comedy element injected. That seems to be the basic premise of Pissed Jeans, anyways. This iz the longest song on the album (7 minutes long).

4. Ashamed of My Cum
Really cool riff in the verses. Sounds like something Greg Ginn could dream up. The lyrics seem to describe an emotion and situation I felt plenty when I was 13 to 14 years old... y'know, your hormones are just raging so much you can't seem to resist the urge to whack off, but in the end you feel "dirty" for doing it... the lyrics also even moreso describe the feeling I feel now -- I whack off, but it's never quite satisfying enough. That's the end of Side 1.

5. Closet Marine
One of the first Pissed Jeans songs I heard. Some parents end up raising kids are secretly gay and they feel the need to hide it from their parents or else they might be persecuted. The protagonist of this song is in a situation that is very similar, yet very different at the same time. You see, this kid's MARINE. Like, from the Army. He was born that way. He can't help it. That's who he is. But he's afraid. He doesn't want his parents to know. There could be dire consequences if they knew...

6. I Broke My Own Heart
This one sounds like a Flipper song. It's hilarious, but a bit sad at the same time. It's basically a song telling the story of a man who fell in love with himself and tried to gain the love and affection of himself, and has a successful relationship, but ends up being rejected and dumped by his own self, resulting in probably decades of depressions which would eventually lead to a suicide not even fucking mentioned in the song because if you heard that part you would probably get so sad that you'd kill your ownself, and thus, the entire Pissed Jeans fanbase would become extinct, including the band itself (unless they hate their own music or something -- probably kill themselves due to the utter shame of it all in that case).

7. Little Sorrell
Little Sorrell is a horse who lives in a glass cage and "never got to die", won a medal, but is a very mean horse. This is one of the faster songs on the album, like "Boring Girls" before it.

8. Wachovia
This is a slow, very noisy song. The song's lyrics seem to describe the streets of a boring, generally lame town. "At Wachovia the lights never go out!", the final lyrics proclaim.

After establishing their "evidence" of legitimacy as a good rock band, they were eventually signed by Sub-Pop who noticed their weirdness and talent, yadda yadda yadda... if FLIPPER was called "loser rock" back in their day, it would clearly be an overstatement compared the tragically familiar poetry written by the band which has a name which is referred to as being known by the moniker, "Pissed Jeans". The lyrics are so deep they don't need any bullshit symbolism to be credible. The truth is that if your life at the moment is anything short of "exciting", you are living these songs. Probably, at least. But I shore doo like that one song called "Boring Girls". It kicks ass, y'know? Well, I'm off. That's my Legit Music Review for today. Hope you liked it!

A LIVE PERFORMANCE OF "BORING GIRLS"

Friday, February 26, 2010

Review #73: Ween - The Live Brain Wedgie/WAD Excerpts (1988)


THE LIVE BRAIN WEDGIE/WAD EXCERPTS

Year: 1988
Genre: Punk Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Sub-Genres:
Hardcore
Label:
Bird O' Pray Records
Tracks:
11
Length:
19 Minutes (Medium-Length)
Style:
Funny/Weird
My Rating:
6/8

I discovered and fell in love with Ween nearly two years ago, now. One hot summer night, while taking a short break from roaming the redneck infested street shirtless on the hunt for stray beer to steal, I was on his laptop watching videos from one of my favorite YouTube channels, CringeVision. The channel posts up all of the horrible things that have come out of Texas public access television. Mostly 4th-rate children's educational programs, drunken baptist sermons, horrible Christian shows, really bad "talent" programs, racist commercials, and a demonic straight-to-video show from the '80s called "Peppermint Park". However, on this night I saw they posted up a whole bunch of videos of a lil' band called "Ween". They said "if you don't own a Ween album, you are missing out" -- with a name like 'Ween' and a music video called "Push th' Little Daisies", how could I go wrong with this? Well, I watched it and got something even greater than I expected. Stupid-as-hell lyrics, a squeaky sped-up voice, two guys with guitars making weird faces, and a fucking catchy but weird riff. I laughed my ass off the first time, but while I thought it was hilarious, I also actually liked the song a lot. I tried showing it to my friend (who was an emo at the time), and he wrote it off as stupid. It took a few more listens, but it grew on him and for the rest of the year we would regularly sing the lyrics because we loved it so much. At the time, I didn't know what to think. I was so amazed. It didn't sound like anything else I'd ever heard before -- at the time, my musical diet mainly consisted of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sonic Youth, and the Smashing Pumpkins. Y'know, music that was pretty serious and angsty and sung about heroin a lot. But because of my alternative tastes, I was pretty open to weirder music. I listened to the song all morning the next day after our all-night adventure (which also included listening to my friend watch "Deliverance" while trying to sleep and forking some fucker's yard at 4:45 AM). But I STILL hadn't truly known of Ween's potential. I seriously at first thought this was just some stoned high-school kids with a camcorder and some chick decided it would be funny to make a music video and put it on local public access or something. I was wrong. Turns out the band still plays today. I tried listening to some of the immediate links in the 'related videos' section. Wasn't too interested. I didn't make a real effort to check out Ween's other music for awhile, but "Push the Little Daisies" was something I listened to OVER AND OVER. Around December of that year, me and my friend Joseph (same kid as I mentioned earlier) decided to look up some more Ween. I was hearing other songs from "Pure Guava" -- "Sarah", "Little Birdy", "Pumpin' 4 the Man", among basically every other song on the album... I had found my niche. These songs were hilarious, druggy, bizarre, but also with an innocent charm to it... perhaps it's just because Gene Ween sounds 12 years old on half of that album. Whatever the case, though, I realized that this was not just the work of a bunch of high school stoners doing it for a laugh which accidentally turned out to be something brilliant. This was the work of GENIUSES.

However, at one point, they actually WERE high school stoners doing it for a laugh. Back when Ween formed in 1984, they were two 14-year-old punks that met at a typing class. They initially hated eachother but soon became friends. They played and recorded music all of the time, releasing a series of relatively unknown albums on the now defunct Bird O' Pray Records. These tapes are now out-of-print. However, by the late '80s, Ween was touching upon a new wave of brilliance. A lot of people consider "God Ween Satan", the album that came after this to be Ween's first album, but that is not true. This album sort of bridges the two eras along with that album, because it has songs from older albums AND God Ween Satan, and it's their first ever vinyl release, moving past mere cassette tapes. It's actually a double-album of sorts, not because it uses two discs, but because the two sides are different "albums" in their own right. Side 1 in a live record. Side 2 is a studio record. Actually, to make it even weirder, both sides apparently are supposed to be played at different speeds... weird, huh? Well, let's talk about the album. I don't have all day...

1. You Fucked Up (Live)
Originally from the Crucial Squeegee Lip. Begins with Gener cackling and laughing like a maniac. Suddenly, the main riff can be heard and the song pretty much goes into its thing. My favorite line is "YOU FUCKING NAZI WHORE". It alternates between more speedy parts and slightly slower parts. It's a violent, screamin'-like-a-demon anthem to fucking up.

2. Jelly (Live)
A song about jelly and putting it on your toast. It's a little slower than the song before it. Sometimes the vocals are screamed, sometimes they're roared.

3. The Refrigerator that Wouldn't Close (Live)
Similar tempo to the previous song. It's very short. It's a song about a refrigerator that wouldn't close and Deaner starts going on about South Africa before the song begins. "Open my ears, and open my nose..."

4. I Like You (Live)
At the beginning of the song, Gener encourages everyone in the audience to hold hands. It's a song about being friends with someone and liking them and playing in the park. More psycho-goofball vocals. Hee hee hee.

5. I Drink A Lot (Live)
Another one taken from the first album. Gener gets the title wrong and Deaner tries to explain to the audience that Gene "hasn't learned to read, yet". It's a more straightforward punk song about an apathetic trainwreck of a man who just doesn't care about anything, listens to jazz-fusion, and of course, drinks a lot. His wife is fat and his brother is thin. The song ends with some weird noize and more screaming, to which Gene explains "that's how it ends."

6. Nippy Wiffle (Live)
The last live song. As Gene introduces the next song, Deaner sings his praises to the almighty Boognish in the background. Also the longest song on the Live Brain Wedgie half of the album. Mainly a mid-tempo beat, a one-chord riff and some screamed gibberish vocals. There's a bridge section with a solo in it, too. Dean and Gene scream on as the song fades out after it's all over. And that's the end of the Live Brain Wedgie.

7. In the Node of Golgothia
Now we're on to the WAD Excerpts. Starts with a weird voice (it could be either one of them) talking in an echoey/metallic voice saying something weird. After some more weird noises, the next song begins. It's extremely fast accompanied by fuzzed-screams and other garbled vocals. The in-between parts are slower. The vocals here are just fucking HILARIOUS.

8. I Gots a Weasel
This one got on "God Ween Satan" later on. Deaner sings in a low-pitched gravelly-soundin' voice, as a nice little beat plays and there's no rhythm guitar here, just bass guitar. Gene supplies the frantic background vocals. It's pretty laid-back. At the very end, Gene asks "you got a weasel?"

9. Hippie Smell
A song making fun of modern-day hippies, asking questions of why anybody would want to live in the '60s when "a lot of shit happened in the sixties", and "your hippie little ass would've probably gotten killed" -- also calling modern hippies "not real" and "not surreal". Ends with a lot of screams. This song sounds a lot more like the kind of stuff that would be on the albums after this ('The Pod', for example). It's a happy-sounding psychedelic-rock song. Longest song on its half of the album.

10. Stacey
A song about having a crush on a girl named "Stacey". Great solo. In the final verse, the vocals are screamed like a maniac.

11. Gladolia Heartbreaker
A '70s rock-sounding song. You can actually hear the background instruments and vocals walk from the left to the right speaker. Adds a nice touch. It sadly ends here, though.

Must say, it was a pretty neat-o album. After this they released an album called "Prime 5", a "best of" compilation which contained their personal picks from this album and all of the ones before it. After this one, they were finally signed to a higher-profile label, Twin/Tone Records. On that label they released their first "real" album called God Ween Satan. It had a lot of re-recordings of songs from the older era as well as forays into a new direction for Ween. Starting with that album, the band would begin to move past their initial punk phase to a more psychedelic, weirder one. This is epitomized on "The Pod" and "Pure Guava" -- eventually they just started doing everything, including a country album at one point. But this is a good listen, and it gives a coherent look into the days of Ween that you likely missed out on. Side one is an early live show, and side two sounds like they just did some new songs in their room. Recommended for all true Ween fans, who would call this record "brown". Oh, and it's my birthday today. Yay...

VIDEO OF WEEN PERFORMING "I GOTS A WEASEL"

Monday, February 8, 2010

Review #60: Pissed Jeans - Hope For Men (2007)


HOPE FOR MEN

Year: 2007
Genre: Punk Rock
Sub-Genres:
Noise, Hardcore, Grunge
Label:
Sub-Pop Records
Tracks:
10
Length:
41 Minutes (Long)
Style:
Weird/Funny/Emotional
My Rating:
6/8

Pissed Jeans is a rock band from Allentown, Pennsylvania. This is their second album, and it was their first release on Sub-Pop Records. This album is of a similar style to their album before it, "Shallow", but with even more interesting song lyrics.

1. People Person
Starts with the shrieks and roars of the noisy guitars. Turns out that they are here to stay. This song is kind of fast. The song describes a "People Person" (a successful social-butterfly-type) from the protagonist's point of view and the slight feelings of hatred and jealousy for him.

2. Secret Admirer
A slow, grunge-type song. It tells the story of a guy telling a woman that she has a "secret admirer", giving her not-so-subtle hints that the secret admirer is HIM -- describing things he does, like trying to figure out what car she drives, but "not trying to be a creep". A song the lonelier of us can all relate to.

3. A Bad Wind
Medium tempo. Towards the end, you can hear quiet whispering behind the screamed chorus. Interesting drumming.

4. Scrapbooking
A song about... scrapbooking!! Soft, sad music with bass guitar and piano plays in the background, as Brad moans and groans through the motions of making his very own scrapbook while looking at the pictures he uses for it. A seriously emotional, realistic track. This is how people THINK.

5. I've Still Got You (Ice Cream)
This one sounds like a Flipper song. It's a song about when your friends leave you, and everything feels like shit, you've still got yer ice cream to be your friend. Kinda catchy, actually. There's even a music video for this one! End o' Side 1.

6. Fantasy World
Sounds like '80s Seattle grunge. But this one's about a guy creating his own fantasy world, just playin' with his toys and eating pizza and drinking soda on a Friday night. I remember the days of making my own fantasy worlds... but I think Bradley still does this, actually. More people should, really... like the rest of the songs, there's a sort of comedically depressing undertone to this one; the line, "I am a special guy in my fantasy world"...

7. I'm Turning Now
Another fasty song. It's a song about when you're at a stop-light, and the light just seems to stay red FOREVER, until you get so frustrated that you just go and make a fucking right-turn outta frustration! The second half of the song is sorta relaxed-paced and bass-driven.

8. Caught Licking Leather
A story about a guy with a leather-fetish who had a crush on a girl and dreamt of licking her boots, and must've written her a letter, and then she lost interest in him. The second verse goes on to a describe a girl who enjoyed getting tickled by feathers. Very cool beat.

9. The Jogger
A creepy spoken-word piece about the security-net lifestyle of a yuppie jogger. Really interesting one to listen to, simply for its emotion and effectiveness it has to it.

10. My Bed
It's a long song about just laying in your bed, trying to sleep, and just thinking about everything in your final hour of the day. After about a minute, the percussion starts to kick in. Two-thirds through the song, it gets much more energetic and fast! The last two minutes of thing is a total feedback-fest of crashing noise and false stops. The End.

Besides being a very good noisy album, it seems to very well describe the more mundane aspects of working-class life and the many social disadvantages they have to the popular wealthy wine-drinker people around them. This album has a great sense of drama to it -- making ordinary things in life seem like a big deal: Ice Cream is one's only true friend in life, scrapbooking is an emotionally tormenting activity, a red light is a torture device, an imaginary "Fantasy World" is a safe haven from all that is wrong in the real world, and the Jogger is a force of Satan. This album is abrasive, funny, and realistic as well. Recommended for fans of Flipper, Black Flag, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and the Melvins.

MUSIC VIDEO FOR "I'VE STILL GOT YOU (ICE CREAM)"

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Review #39: Ween - The Pod (1991)


THE POD

Year: 1991
Genre: Psychedelic Rock
Label: Shimmy-Disc Records
Tracks: 23
Length: 76 Minutes (Very Long)
Style: Weird/Happy/Sad/Funny/Mysterious
My Rating: 8/8

Ween is an alternative rock band from New Hope, Pennsylvania that formed in 1984. Ween released a series of underground, little-known albums throughout the '80s, but Ween eventually left their first label, "Bird O'Prey Records", to sign to Twin-Tone Records, and released their first record, "God Ween Satan" in 1990. After that, they signed to Shimmy-Disc Records, the label that they would release "The Pod" on. The Pod is said to be their most "challenging" work, and it might be for some, but I think any true Ween fan will love this. While Ween's music was mostly punk rock, as well as experimenting with other sorts of genres, this album marks their shift to the bizarre psychedelic rock, the style they are mostly known for playing.

With that being said, this is probably their weirdest album they did. Legend has it that they were high on scotchgard glue during the recording of this album, though the band itself denies it. Still, I'll bet they were on SOMETHING. Most "normal" people could only dream of making music this awesome. The album itself will make you feel at least stoned. It's got a very funny, odd, fuzzy, murky, but endearing nature about it. And it's one of the best works of Ween ever.

1. Strap On the Jammypac
I dunno if this was the intent of the song, but this one is too funny. Basically the same riff combined with clattering cymbals and one of the funniest-sounding voices ever saying "Stwap on da jaimmypac...", or some other unintelligible phrase, followed by a single beat of a drum. This just repeats over and over for several minutes in a hilariously annoying manner. I love it.

2. Dr. Rock
One of the more normal songs on the album (still very weird, however). It's a psychedelic-punk-type song with phasered-vocals. The song seems to center around "Dr. Rock", some type of superhero/doctor type of guy who you can call whenever you need help.

3. Frank
A slow, acid-drenched song. First mentions of the elusive "Pork Roll, Egg, and Cheese" and "Mega-Weedge", two prominent items that are often mentioned throughout the album. The song is about a guy named Frank who is being asked by the song's protagonist for some food.

4. Sorry Charlie
This is a great one. It's a mellow, softer song with telephone-sounding vocals and a light stick-beat. It's half-sad, it's half-happy. The lyrics are about a guy named Charlie who's having a pretty shitty life and doesn't have enough money to support his girlfriend who's still in high school, and he has to resort to selling more pot. Nice to listen to when you're feelin' blue.

5. The Stallion, Pt. 1
"The Stallion" is a recurring character throughout the Ween universe. This is a really trippy song with bizarre vocals. It's actually somewhat scary. This song seems to actually be about some sort of tough-guy horse (the Stallion, of course!) who recons you not to fuck around with him.

6. Pollo Asado
This one is really funny. It's sort of another mellow, psychedelic song, but in the foreground is a hilarious skit about a guy trying to order mexican food. It's funnier than I'm making it sound. End of Side 1.

7. Right to the Ways and the Rules of the World
A song with some violin (or at least a synth) in it. Uses a lot of acoustic guitar, and vocals from both Gene Ween and Dean Ween. Not a ton of effects used on this one, but that's okay.

8. Captain Fantasy
A truly great song. It's a slow, hard, trippy song with sped-up vocals. It's just really good. What else can I say? This song is really legit.

9. Demon Sweat
A slow, soft song that makes use of synths. It's really relaxing to listen to. It's like a lullaby or something. I think they were really tripping out at this point. There's some vocal harmonies, as well. At two minutes and thirty seconds, the song suddenly gets louder with synth organs and a ridiculous guitar-solo. The song gets really off-tune during this point.

10. Molly
Sounds like a Butthole Surfers song. Really funky vocals combining a normal voice and a really high-pitched voice. And the quiet mumbling of "mollymollymollymollymollymollymolly...". Pretty slow and weird.

11. Can U Taste the Waste?
A short heavy-metal song whose only line is "Can U Taste the Waste?". EXTREMELY badass. Or "brown", as a lot of Ween fans prefer to say.

12. Don't Sweat It
A slow, gothic-sounding, dreamy song. There's a mid-section where the guitars get even more distorted and there's a beautiful little solo towards the end. End of Side 2.

13. Awesome Sound
A really weird funk song. Second mention of the "Pork Roll, Egg and Cheese". Actually somewhat similar to the Butthole Surfers. I even heard one of the vocalist use an exact same vocal effect involving taking a voice and slowly speeding it up as used in "Human Cannonball" by the Butthole Surfers. Towards the end, you can start to hear the two cracking up.

14. Laura
This is one of the best songs on the album, but I can't even understand what the fuck he's saying, here. The voice sounds extremely weird. Still, it has a very nice guitar-line. It all fits the mood of the song very well. Very slow. I really wish I came up with the riff for this song first.

15. Boing
The shortest song on the album (one minute and thirty-three seconds long). It's an extremely quiet, bassy song with extremely low-pitched vocals and mostly bass guitar (though a little rhythm guitar does try to creep out). Sounds like someone's fat grandpa snoring/talking in his sleep.

16. Mononucleosis
It's said that the group was down with Mononucleosis when they were recording this album. With that being said, it's a good song to listen to when you feel sick. It's a very echoey, depressing sort of song. "Now you're on the couch, you can't even move your fucking head... tell me that you wish that you was dead..." crap, if I listen to this song anymore, I might get sick myself!

17. Oh My Dear (Falling in Love)
A pop song. Probably the most normal-sounding song on the album. Really pretty guitar sounds. You just can't get a sound like this out of digital recording. Digital recordings hurt my ears, which is why a lot of new music (regardless of the actual song) sounds so unlistenable to me.

18. Sketches of Winkle
A punk song. My favorite part, however, is the chorus that goes "Sketches of Winkle, flying through the heavens in a fit of rage", followed by a great-sounding guitar lead. Another great song on the album. End of Side 3.

19. Alone
A very quiet, slow song. I read the lyrics, and I feel like I can relate. It's basically a song about those people who feel very alone, with few or no friends, as everyone else seems to move forward, and you're just stuck in the same shit forever.

20. Moving Away
A soft, reggae-sounding song. Similar to "Alone" in a lot of ways as far as the musical notes used and the riff, but it's more of a reggae riff. Gener and Deaner have never sounded more black. There's an R&B-sounding section at the end of the song, too. The song in general seems to be an impersonation of black music.

21. She Fucks Me
Another mellow song. It's a love song, the way Ween does it, anyways. Very calm and beautiful. Yet ANOTHER mention of the "Pork Roll, Egg, and Cheese". In fact, that line is just repeated in the background throughout the entire sound. Despite the fact that the vocals are very slowed-down, they still sound very good. Wonderful-sounding guitars. Another really good song.

22. Pork Roll, Egg, and Cheese
You saw this one coming. Or maybe you didn't. Anyways, this song is the culmination of all Pork Roll Egg and Cheeses that existed throughout the album. It's a very happy song with water-y sounding guitars. It's my favorite song on the album. There was a very rare music video for it with trash floating around the city streets and Dean Ween swimming at the beach shot with a Super-8 camera. It's really cool, and it was on YouTube for awhile, but it was taken down by Warner Bros., the corporate gluttons, even though they didn't even publish this album. I can't find it anywhere else, but I'm guessing it was on one of the Shimmy-Disc Video Compilations.

23. The Stallion, Pt. 2
The final song on the long, long album. A slow, groovy piece with weird vocals with the recurring line, "I am the Stallion, Mang." Hilarious yelled vocals at a part towards the end. Unfortunately, that's the end of ze record.

Wow... what a trip. This is pretty much one of the greatest Ween albums of all time. It was also their last on an independent label for awhile. After this, they were invited to become artists on Elektra Records, a label owned by Warner Music Group. They released "Pure Guava", which was of a similar style to this album to some extent, but still not nearly as weird as this one. Still, I like "Pure Guava" slightly more. But this album is just as good. Many would consider it better. They are probably right. But what the fuck? Ween is great. Listen to this album if you like weird music. It's very un-mainstream but it's almost pop. It's happy but it's sad. It can make you laugh and cry simultaneously. Like, if you laughed so hard that you started crying. Or if you cried so hard that you started laughing. Drugs will only enhance the experience. This album is great to listen to even sober. Fuck anyone who says otherwise. Ween is one of the greatest bands ever.

(There were actually three music videos made for "Pollo Asado", "Captain Fantasy", and "Pork Roll, Egg, and Cheese" created for the Shimmy-Disc Video Compilations, but they are extremely rare on the internet and I cannot find a single copy, so I can't show you any of the videos for it. But they're pretty cool. They look like the album sounds.)

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Review #4: Pissed Jeans - King of Jeans (2009)

KING OF JEANS

Year: 2009
Genre: Punk Rock
Sub-Genres: Noise, Hardcore
Label: Sub-Pop Records
Tracks: 12
Length: 39 Minutes (Long)
Style: Angry/Weird/Bleak
My Rating: 5/8

In the age where edgy, weird rock music has been largely supplanted by the nonthreatening, the pretentious, and the plastic. However, Pissed Jeans is one of the few new bands that has what all of these other new groups are lacking, and one of the most well-known of these superior bands. Pissed Jeans is a noise-rock band from Pennsylvania that formed in the earlier part of this decade, has released two singles and three albums (the other two will be reviewed in not too long). The band plays aggressive, sludgy (but sometimes fast) noise-punk that sings about the woes of mundane activies such as scrap-booking, as well as things a lot of us can relate to, like being unable to get laid. However, the seemingly stupid lyrics are less important than the awesome music that accompanies it.

"King of Jeans" is the newest Pissed Jeans album, and its music has elements of hardcore, noise, and grunge, but it is not just another rip-off, which is a very good thing. Well, I should probably get on with the review, so I'm not holding you off too much. Here goes...

1. False Jesii, Part 2
In case you're wondering where the hell "False Jesii Part 1" is, it was actually a song by the 1980s band, Teenage Depression. But now, Pissed Jeans has made its own "sequel" to the song, which is a mid-tempo, relatively linear punk song. The chorus, however, seems to simply just be Bradley Fry making the sound "aaauauagajauauajgauauagjhhh", which actually sounds pretty cool, to be honest. He also says "hello", a lot. Maybe he keeps forgetting that we're already aware that he is singing the song!

2. Half Idiot
This is a song with a less conventional beat, and it has a sort of ominous-sounding bassline, as well as little squigglets of guitar noise in the verses. I guess Bradley thinks that his I.Q. is 60, because that would be halfway to "idiot" on the old-fashioned mental deficiency scale.

3. Dream Smotherer
In this song, Bradley sings about not needing a dream smotherer, and generally not caring about miniscule issues. You ever hear him attempt to SING! There is also a pretty neat bridge, with a solo in this song.

4. Pleasure Race
Begins with a legit yelled part (without any percussion or bass), and it's generally a slow song. I get the impression that it is about the male obsession with sex, and how it is one of our main drives, even when only SOMETIMES it ends really great.

5. She is Science Ficition
This one has a sweet riff that reminds me of some sort punk-rock dinosaur with sharp teeth that eats pterodactyls or something. There's even weird little "weo-weo-weo-weo" effects in it. There are parts of the song that remind me of an Melvins song from the late '80s. I think this song is about the singer wanting a chick to hold his hand and do a bunch of science-fictiony stuff with him.

6. Request for Masseuese
SLUDGE!! The song starts with a very slow bassline that makes you feel like you're slowly drowning in that one poisonous lake that's in Africa that actually emits deadly fumes, it's so poisonous. It's just like drowning in sludge. The song is actually just about what Bradley wants to a masseuese to do to him, 'cause, like, he probably has a really achy, tense back and stuff like that. The song gets louder about 2/3 through. You can hear him moan in pleasure from the massage. Hell, he was probably actually getting massaged when they recorded this song.

7. Human Upskirt
This is another fast one! I dunno what this one's about, but it's probably about the fact that a lot of humans (a.k.a. homo-sapiens) wear skirts, and that it is actually possible to look up them. But yeah, this song is pretty badass, and recommended for fast-dancing.

8. Lip-Ring
I can relate to this one. This is because I too find it very attractive when a girl is wearing a lip ring. I have a thing for a lip ring. I think he said that the chick also had a spiked bracelet. But this song is a little slower, but not too slow. You could probably still slam to it if ya really wanted to. The verses are more bass-driven, but the chorus is driven by a really cool riff.

9. Spent
This one sorta reminds me of Black Flag or the Melvins. Just something about it, I suppose. Starts sorta mellow, with just a fuzzed-out guitar, but after over a minute of just that, the drums and bass kick in, and then it's all good... until the guitarist shoots out a sonic blast of guitar-noise-rays, and then Bradley Fry starts singing about the fact that he just doesn't feel motivated to do anything, anymore. It's extremely slow, but then towards the end of the song, it gets a tiny bit faster. Then he starts saying "spent" a lot. Longest song on the album.

10. R-Rated Movie
After that really slow one, this is a faster one. It's about going to an R-rated movie out of boredom and enjoying it for the violence and sex.

11. Dominate Yourself
Now HERE is a concept that I have never tried before... dominating YOURSELF!! Well, here, Bradley gives instructions on how to do this to some hardcore-soundin' background music. You should try listening to this while actually dominating yourself! Get back to me on that one, and tell me how eet goes!

12. Goodbye (Hair)
A sad, slow song about sadly saying goodbye to your hair when you start getting bald and stuff. Actually pretty depressing to think about. This whole album has a lot of depressing stuff in it. But, it's true. The typical person's life just isn't that exciting.

It's a solid effort from Pissed Jeans. Not as great as their first album, but it's still worth listening to; it's got its equal share of fast, angry stuff, and slow stuff that both reflect the somewhat hopeless nature of life for people who aren't exactly living high on the hog and such. It's just too bad they didn't make a music video for a song off of this one. The one they did for their last album was pretty funny!
Adios, amigoeeeesssadfsafsdfsdfsdfgfsdgdfgdflkgdfl;gk;lKLSDKFGSL;DKFSD'GL;FD
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