CHIXDIGGIT!- S/T

This cover says everything there is to be said about this record. Carefree pop-punk with no bells or whistles. Simple songs, repetitive use of melodies, the occasional solo of no more than 10 seconds and an all around good time. If you remember when it was cool to have dyed hair, sport a huge wallet chain and the Blue Jays were the best baseball team in the world then this is the shit.

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ERIC'S TRIP- PURPLE BLUE

Some good old mid-90's lo-fi for you on christmas! Nothing I can say about Eric's Trip hasn't already been said but this is the album I started with so maybe it'll work for you too! Lots of variety, equal parts lo and mid-fi and more Julie Doiron than other albums. Good to listen to if you didn't have the happiest christmas.

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MINUTEMEN- WHAT MAKES A MAN START FIRES?

D. Boon died in a tragic car accident on this day in 1985. The Minutemen and Boon will always be remembered for their incredible heart and dedication to their craft. Why else would a band who's favourite influence was CCR, played a lot of funky seventh-chords and featured extensive live jams be so loved and revered by the hardcore community? Do that nowadays and you'll be judged out of punk so hard, dude.

Anyhoo, This is their second full length and to most, it's simply just the record that came before Double Nickels, but I honestly like this just as much as that LP. A bit faster, a bit angrier and slightly less-varied (It's also not a double-album so duh!) but still hits all the sweet spots. It also has 'Anchor,' which Watt refers to as their epic! Good music to beat the winter blues

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MALLRATS- OST

Ah Mallrats. An innocent 90's teen flick if there ever was one. The soundtrack fits the bill perfectly being almost entirely pop-punk and mopey indie. If you're into any of that then go for it. Also some dialogue for fans

Snoochie-Boochies! 

GUIDED BY VOICES- PROPELLER

This is a special album if there ever was one. Recently I've been considering this to be the band's best album second only to Bee Thousand but at only 16 tracks, this could be even better due to it's focus. Focus and GBV? not something we associate with Pollard and co. when it comes to consistent song selection and such, but this album cuts the crap... save for track 3. The focus is not some magical stroke-of-luck, as people would have you consider everything GBV ever did, but Pollard making the very calculated decision to give up on music and make one final LP as a grand finale to years of focusing all of his time, money and being on music that no one cared about. Of course this album was so fucking good that it brought the band into the limelight and jump-started their best period of writing/releases that would yield six studio LPs, nine EPs, splits with Superchunk and the Grifters AND four live LP's... all from 92-96

This album covers everything the band does so well. Drunk as fuck rockers, bliss'd-out power pop, heroic anthems, stoned introspection and the indescribable weight of 'Weed King', the only song with that kind of building tension that Pollard ever wrote. If you want to get into GBV and the 20+ track listings of other offerings seem a bit too daunting, start here, the very place where it was all supposed to end. Also, for fun, here's a website that has images of nearly all 500 individual covers that were handmade for the original release. 

Long Live Rock-a-Thon

THE WEDDING PRESENT- GEORGE BEST

A definite love 'em or hate 'em band. I've never really understood the amount of hatred/indifference towards this band since their biggest fan was none other than legendary taste-maker and all around A+ music fan John Peel. Lover of snob-boner bands such as The Fall, Pavement, Joy Division, etc. I mean, come on! it's just indie pop. Blindingly fast, pounding drums, constantly strummed guitars and Dave Gedge singing as best as his awful voice will allow!

On paper that sure doesn't sound all that compelling... but it is! It ends up sounding like some weird collision of C-86 and what would become pop-punk... Doesn't seem to matter to anyone though. This band will always be 'boring' or 'overrated' and I guess I'm OK with that. Maybe they're too British? Maybe the songs sound are all the same, but not like The Ramones so it's not cool? I guess I just think this band is a lot more deserving of the status bestowed upon some of the more overrated bands of this era (looking at you Jesus and Mary Chain). This has been a shitty post

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PARASITES- PUNCH LINES

Just waiting around for a special lady to take me to a museum. In the meantime, here's one of the best POP-punk albums I've ever heard. This band has hooks so big they will literally dig into you but what makes it so good is the constant speed, intensity and layer of distortion over top of everything. I haven't listened to this album more than a few times yet but definitely one of the best I've heard this year... yes I know it's from 94. I rarely enjoy music made by new bands, save for hardcore. sue me!

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EXIT STANCE- WHILE BACKS ARE TURNED

Just some good, kind of gothy anarcho-punk for you to enjoy. It's got throbbing bass, really weird guitar playing and reverberated-to-shit drumming... the vocals are cool too. I don't hear this band mentioned very often, especially over lesser anarcho bands like Poison Girls, Anthrax(UK!) or Zounds... shame because this record is really cool and more than just some tinny guitar playing a 1-3-5 progression and some dude with charged-hair yelling about rich people. Did I mention it was kind of gothy?

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BLACK FLAG- 82 DEMOS

Procrastination. Definitely supposed to be studying for an art history exam right now but the idea that some people may not have heard this popped into my head and became infinitely more important.

After the release of Damaged, the flag got wrapped up in a legal dispute with their distributor and sadly, weren't allowed to release any material from 81-83. Oddly, this seemed to fuel Ginn to write his best batch of songs ever, in my opinion. The songs on these demo recordings would go on to make up My War, Slip It In and Loose Nut but the versions here, with the almighty Chuck Biscuits on the kit, are so much better than their official counterparts. Pounding bass, manic drumming with oh-so crisp snare fills and the cherry on top: two guitars! Dez hadn't yet left the band so we get a second guitar that allows Ginn to get a bit more comfortable within the songs and really go crazy. If you ask me, this was their peak. Listen to this version of 'Slip it In'... chills every time

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CULPEPER'S ORCHARD- S/T

This is something of a lost-classic. Unfortunately it's really great heavy-psych with elements of prog and folk... Not exactly a style that hipster music-nerds are currently enamored with so I imagine this will stay in the lost-classic section for at least a few more years. According to Wikipedia they weren't even a big deal in their homeland of Denmark... shitty because this is better than a lot of supposedly 'classic' music from the era. You may want some chemical-aid before taking in this one

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BOSTON

It's saturday night.

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