Oh Hell Yeah! [fist pump, fist pump, belly flop on bed]

I just bought my first concert ticket in a year - Rayon at the Fixin To. Can't wait to check out their new hybrid concert space. Paul and I are to going to have beer, listen to music, stare down at our phones in public places, and NOT BE IN MY HOUSE. All the things we used to do, just with masks.

Looks like a cool set up. See you there? 

"LONG STORY SHORT: Bands will perform safely in the venue facing out to the crowd on the patio. Patio will (SOON!) be covered from the rain. Sound will run from the venue into new burly outdoor speakers. The crowd of between 30-40 will wear masks and socially distance and have a killer time! Shows are selling out quickly, so act fast. Concerts will be announced here and on Facebook and Instagram. Can't wait to begin this adventure with ya'll!"

Looking forward to seeing Rayon on Sunday, April 11th.

Also, might have to check out No Year's album release show on Sunday, April 18th. 

Paul R's Top 12 Albums from 2018

 1. Clutch - Book of Bad Decisions             

Erstwhile Baltimore hard rockers add a little more swagger and soul to their proven formula.

2. TesseracT - Sonder    

TesseracT are clearly raised on Tool and progressive metal, turning out a smooth and groovy combination that is complex under the surface, like Steely Dan if they were millennial metal heads.

3. Ghost - Prequelle       

Ghost are the Def Leppard of satanic metal, and Prequelle has big choruses that aren't about sugar, photographs or untag glieben glauten globen.

4. John Escreet - Learn to Live   

Jazz pianist updates the best of 70s fusion, while still sounding 21st century.

5. Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Is there such a thing as Gospel Metal? Now there is.

6. Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want  

This is what industrial noise rock should be right now.

7. Laibach - The Sound of Music

It's Laibach, doing the Sound of Music. Only their cover of "Let It Be" is better.

8. Tõnu Naissoo Trio  

    

Re-release of a long-forgotten Estonian free jazz trio from the early 70s. Who knew the Estonians could swing like that?

9. Neneh Cherry - Broken Politics  

          

Decades after "Buffalo Stance" Neneh Cherry remains at the edge of new sounds.

10. Yob - Our Raw Heart            

Can stoner metal be heartbreaking?

11. Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love          

12. Devin Townsend Project - Ocean Machine Live at the Ancient Roman Theatre Plovdiv              

Paul D's Top 5 Albums from 2018

1. The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships   

2018 was a societal shit show. In response, I spent all year searching for albums that picked me up and tried to convince me that everything would be okay. The downside was that fewer albums connected with me, but the few that did hit hard. A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is the medicine that hits just before flu season. It’s the shot of whiskey that gets you through the uncomfortable family gathering. It wants you to remember that life is beautiful even when it’s full of pain, you’re not alone when you’re overwhelmed, and vulnerability can lead to revelation and connection. Musically, it’s a little more disjointed than their previous release and it’s a little more prone to moments of musical indulgence, but the lyrics keep hitting home. Life is worth living. Share your pain with others and let them carry some of the load. Just get out there. Yeesh, where was this album at the BEGINNING of the year??

2. Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch   

How’s this for an album sales pitch? The world is terrible. Everything we worked for as a society has been torn away and replaced with selfishness, elitism, and oppression. We’ve made bad decisions and now we’re paying for them. The wicked have won. … Sound like the album for you? Pick up Bad Witch! Nine Inch Nails produced an album that starts like a sequel to Broken, pushes the disgust and anger to eleven, and then falls into a Bowie-influenced depression. Ugly and beautiful.

3. Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour          

The liner notes say it all… “This is a time to be present, to witness the beauty of this incredible world you are lucky to be alive in, despite it being more complicated than ever and being filled with so much darkness.”   Come for Kacey’s voice and clever lyrics, stay for the warmth and beauty that you can’t help but feel in every track.

4. Chvrches - Love is Dead          

You already know if Chvrches is a band for you. Chrvches fans want beautifully produced electronic pop with lyrics that, even at their most defeated, are tinged with hope. If that’s something you seek then rush out and pick up...“The Bones of What You Believe”, their first album! Then after you’ve exhausted it, pick up Love is Dead! Every secret optimist needs variety!

5. Lily Allen - No Shame

No Shame flips between being Lily Allen with her fists up fighting every nasty thing that’s been said about her and Lily Allen laying her vulnerability on the table for everyone to see. I don’t know if it all works but when the relaxed beat of Trigger Bang hits you can count me in until the end of the track.

Paul's Favorite Albums from 2016

1. The 1975 - I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it     

     

Of all the albums released in 2016, this was the one that caught me off guard. It's 80s synth-pop-influenced but it combines that sound with an alternating mix of mean-spirited cynicism and beautiful bare sincerity. Whatever it was about this album, it got its hooks in me and stayed on repeat for at least a month... and now I'm listening to it again. I regret nothing. 

2. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool      

The relentless driving strings on Burn The Witch may make for the best opening to an album in 2016, but get past that and you'll find a quieter album that is content to lurk in the background without overwhelming the listener. The quiet allows the impassioned singing of Thom Yorke to shine in a way that somehow gets lost on more complex Radiohead albums. This is truly one of their best.    

3. Beyonce - Lemonade

All hail Queen Bey! A surprise album drop full of deeply personal but instantly catchy songs? Yeah, that was pretty damn cool, but did you see that video??? That thing is stop-you-in-your-tracks beautiful. Oh, and Jay-Z, you better watch yourself or you're going to end up with a six-inch heel stuck in your back. 

4. Tegan and Sara- Love You To Death   

Check your cynicism at the door for this one. Love You To Death is an album full of songs about the best parts of love, told through synthesizers with a distinctly 80s Madonna vibe. If listening this album doesn't give you that new-relationship feeling, you may be broken inside. 

5. Frank Ocean - Blonde              

It's quiet. It's experimental in the way the best Kanye West albums can be. It's beautiful. I'm not sure anything could have ever topped Channel Orange but this comes damn close. Of everything that came out in 2016, this is the album I feel like I'll get the most out of by listening to it again.    

6. Radiation City - Synesthetica

Oh, Radiation City, you've gone and made an amazing album! Beautifully paced; it holds back just enough to allow those moments when it lets loose with the soaring vocals to truly stand out. How will you ever top this? Oh, you're going to breakup and never make another album together? Yeah, seems reasonable.      

7. Frightened Rabbit - Painting of a Panic Attack   

           

No one sells depression and pain better than Scott Hutchinson. If you need richly toned songs about lives half-lived, crumbling relationships, and regrets, this album should be your first stop.  

           

8. Candace - New Future             

The perfect amount of reverb. Crunchy and droning guitars. Vocals that almost fade into the background. This is shoegaze at its best.      

9. Summer Cannibals - Full Of It

Fast, fierce, and over in 33 minutes.       

10. Tove Lo - Lady Wood             

This is dark pop that hits hard. If I went out to a club and True Disaster or Cool Girl, I'd wonder what the hell was wrong with DJ.

11. Kanye West - The Life of Pablo          

Kanye West, I'm mad at you. You put out an amazing album and then did everything you possibly could do to 1) not let me hear it (I'm not signing up for your streaming service) and 2) make me never want to hear you speak again. You get relegated to the overflow list. Please be a better person next year.                    

Paul’s Favorite Albums from 2015

Divers - Hello Hello

Both epic and earthy.

Kamasi Washington - The Epic

Los Angeles is the unlikely home to some of the most interesting and boundary pushing jazz today.

Ghost Towns - Trick of the Light

They put on the 2nd best performance I saw in Portland this year, at a house show. They put together guitar, drums, brass, violin and accordion in a way that is dynamic, rocks when it needs to, without ever becoming twee or cliche.

HEALTH - DEATH MAGIC

Stomping metal, shoegaze, NIN-style industrial torn apart and electronically recombined.

Promotmartyr - The Agent Intellect

The Future of the Left travels through the early 80s and ends up in the 2010s.

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

At the vanguard of doom metal's new golden age.

High on Fire - Luminiferous

Charging and heavy, High on Fire fail to disappoint.

Algiers - Algiers

Heavy, soulful and immediate.

King Crimson - Live at the Orpheum

A new decade means a new Crimson that refuses to relent.