By Jimmy “Explosive Diarrhea” B
When it is time to put together my end of the year music list, I consider a few different things. My list consists of 85 percent musical obsessions. The remainder of the list, the missing 15 percent, is records that surprised me or records I liked, did not obsess over, but think others need to know about.
I will start with items that surprised me. First, and most significantly, I like some polka. I grew up listening to polka music. My father listened to it constantly, and I had a rough-neck Uncle who played accordion in a polka band. There was also the forced weekly watching of the Lawrence Welk show. As a rebellious teenager, I went as far away from polka as possible, and towards Satan and heavy metal music. A couple of years ago, I found a banjo player named Leroy Larson with polka leanings. In 2021, I stumbled across Les Schult, who is backed up by the Country Dutchmen. The Dutchmen on It’s Gasohol Polka Time play an unpolished and fun-as-fuck brand of polka. There are waltzes galore with obligatory drinking songs and some half-assed political songs about gasohol, also known as ethanol. Back in the late 1970s and early 80s people were somewhat excited about that carburetor-fouling shit known as gasohol.
The other item that surprised me was how much I enjoyed revisiting Black Sabbath’s Technical Ecstasy (1976). I hated this album when I first heard it in the 1980s. I thought it was Sabbath’s sell-out album. For thirty years, I deprived myself of this fine record. My younger self was an idiot.
The Obsessions:
Biblical.
Sometime early in 2021, I found the band Biblical. Within a couple weeks of hearing their album The City That Always Sleeps (2017), I had purchased everything they had available, which was an additional EP and single. With a name like Biblical, you would expect them to be a metal band. There are some metal aspects, but there are many more psychedelic and rock elements, and even a touch of shoegaze.
Buck Owens.
I listened to around fifteen Buck Owens records in 2021. Prior to the past few years, I foolishly thought country music was defined by Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Waylon Jennings. I was aware of other artists, but I didn’t understand their place in the genre. Buck Owens is now the king of country to this writer. Following close behind Owens is the guy you can read about in the next paragraph.
George Jones.
Holy shit, Jones had a great voice. I spun more than twenty George Jones albums last year, and none of them suck. Few artists are capable of this kind of output without a few stinkers. There are many more Jones records that are not in my collection, and some of them might be weak. I will find out because I am going to keep looking for Jones material.
Fast and Bulbous, Pork Chop Blue Around the Rind (2005).
Within the first minute of listening to this album, my reaction was “what the fuck am I listening to?” These people are all over the place. They mix many different styles, for example marching band music with traditional jazz. There are many other odd flavors. This blending of styles can occur minutes apart, seconds apart, or all at once. The first song on the record has blues guitar licks playing across jazzy horns. There is another song that has a quick metal chugga chugga guitar riff thrown in. It’s weird stuff, but only if you listen close, because the oddness works to create a very pleasant and listenable whole.
Ether Feather, Devil-Shadowless-Hand (2019).
Ether Feather’s (EF) drummer, Dylan Sand, is in another band I enjoy. I was curious what else Dylan had recorded, and I found EF. This is a bluesy metal album. EF plays a style of metal that has a slight nod to Black Sabbath, but they are not cloning the mighty Sabbath. While listening to the album, I hear some Ghost like melodies—before they turned to shit—a bit of Sabbath, and a definite Rush vibe.
Super Sister, Present from Nancy (1970) and Pudding and Gisteren (1972).
I found a wonderful record seller named Doug Larsen of Doug Larsen Imports. Doug chases down and stocks hard-to-find lost classics, mostly psychedelic and progressive rock albums. I purchased several boxsets from Doug in 2021. One of them was by a prog band called Super Sister. I could be wrong, I frequently am, but I believe this boxset contains Sister’s only recordings. If you are one of those people who doesn’t like prog, because Yes is boring, then you might want to listen to this band. I don’t mean to hint that they are nothing like Yes. They are. I also don’t mean to hint that they are superior to Yes. They are not. But, Super Sister has a flare and a sense of humor about their art that is missing from a lot of prog music.
Buon Vecchio Charlie, Buon Vecchio Charlie (1971).
If you look hard enough, you can find lists of great prog music from music magazines around the globe. I spent an evening looking at these lists. One European magazine listed BVC’s self-titled record as the greatest prog album ever released. Another had it in the top ten. It’s a great record, but the best ever? Nope. It’s not even the best prog album on this writer’s list. Jazz Q and Super Sister supersede it in the prog genre. But, no other band on my 2021 list has the musicianship of BVC. It’s a great album, but some of the songs are much too slow moving. Fortunately, there are plenty of fast parts that make it a worthwhile record.
Anthony Pirog, Pocket Poem (2020).
Fuck me! I just started settling into some dreamy Eric Johnson-type guitar virtuosity, and some metal riffs erupt to knock me out of my Lazyboy. The jazz drumming sets a mood along with some more Eric Johnson guitars, but there is a menacing bass tone, that won’t quite let me relax. Ah, now there is some nice solo acoustic picking, when will the torrent begin? It might be a song or two away, but eventually there will be another build-up of tension, a crescendo, and a release.
Jazz Q, Martin Kratochvil & Jazz Q (2007).
I raved about Jazz Q on a past year-end list, so I won’t go into great detail. I will reiterate what I think I said before, Jazz Q is the greatest progressive rock band ever to exist anywhere and at any time. This is another box set purchased from Doug Larsen. It contains eight CDs of pure genius.
Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, Way Out West (2017).
Every now and then a country artist will grab me by the balls and hang on for months or years. The last time a modern country artist grabbed my droopy middle-age balls like this was when I was introduced to Jimmy Dale Gilmore more than a decade ago. Stuart is a master musician and a genius songwriter. I love that he shows his musicianship in some songs and gives us that very satisfying Johnny Cash rawness and simplicity in other songs. Great stuff!
Exodus, Persona Non Grata (2021).
I love Exodus. I frequently brag about meeting the band and hanging out with them on their tour bus. If you have heard this story already, skip ahead a few lines. Jack Gibson is in a country band called Coffin Hunter. A friend’s spouse is Coffin Hunter’s tour manager. When Exodus played Portland, she scored us three backstage passes. I passed a very pleasant hour joking around with Rob Dukes, Gary Holt, and Jack Gibson. So I not only love Exodus for their music and the part they played in helping me find an identity back in the 1980s, but I love them because they are wonderful people. I was excited to see the album arrive. I was even more excited to hear Holt’s solos on the record. He keeps getting better and better. Persona Non Grata is a great album. For me it is second only to 1987’s Pleasures of the Flesh in the Exodus catalog.
Unleashed, No Sign of Life (2021).
Rounding out my list for 2021 is an album I received in the mail a few days before writing this list. I debated leaving it off since I haven’t spent much time with it yet. But it is so good, that it has to be included. Unleashed has been around for a long time, but they are new to me. Anyone who knows me knows that I am two things when it comes to music. First, I am open to nearly all genres and bands. Second, and contrary to the first point, I can’t stomach sell-out metal. You hear me Baroness? I am talking about you Mastodon. Mind you, I understand the necessity of these wankers moving toward pop, but fuck them. From this rant, you should gather that Unleashed is not metal for people who don’t like metal. Fuck no! Unleashed thrash. Fans of 1980s thrash and bands like Melechesh and Evile might want to give Unleashed a listen. If you fucking hate what Mastodon has become, don’t worry, there are still bands out there that play metal, bands like Unleashed.
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