So we recorded this one maybe six weeks ago? Maybe seven?

At the time we were all about certain acts and artists!

“Whatever’s getting you through it lately” is how Dan put it… or thereabouts!

To whit, there was a lot going on! And that’s probably how it ought to be! I mean, you could do worse… most of the time, and generally speaking!

Oh, and of course there is a playlist!

Video dispatches from parts undisclosed! #bogmonstermusic

If ever there were an hour to spend with a punk-themed podcast, we’d probably suggest this one! #bogmonstermusic

This gang of Oklahoma noise-sludge misanthropes’ sophomore effort draws influence from everything from Jesus Lizard and Big Black to Korn to Godflesh to Jawbox, while also being just so goddamn heavy in a way that a lot of bands just aren’t these days. A lot of bands try to accomplish”heaviness” with some chugged barre chords here, a blast beat or slowed down double kick part there, and one of two or three sorts of conventionally “harsh” vocal styling over top. Chat Pile crash their crappy beater car into the side of your house after one or two too many really bad days at their crappy jobs and kick in what is left of your door afterward to let you know how they feel about it all. Their vocalist Raygun sounds legit at the end of his rope whether shouting, mumbling or crooning, as the band expands their sound from Albini-inspired bass driven lurches to a wider sonic palate while staying just so fucking heavy through the album’s ten tracks. Like seriously heavy. Chat Pile’s heaviness feels like sheer anger and frustration and negativity turned into sound, but in the best way. I feel like a lot of the best heavy underground music comes from out of the way places, and this Oklahoma quartet is certainly one of the best and heaviest in their own way going today.

Latest full length from one of hip hops most exciting rapper/producers, capping off a bit of an informal thematic trilogy of albums that started with 2019’s IGOR, the story of a toxic love affair collapsing, and continuing through 2022’s Call Me If You Get Lost’s tale of an ill-advised friendship-destroying love triangle and accompanying tropicalia-soaked escapism (featuring 00’s mixtape king DJ Drama as the voice of his inner monologue of ego-assuagement). This time around Tyler is marching to the beat of his own drum (complete with military uniform-themed imagery and stomping footprints used as percussion on the album opener) removing metaphorical masks while contemplating aging and prospective parenthood while examining past and current relationships along the way. His mom even shows up to deliver some between song monologues and commentary after a few of the tracks. While the last album channeled pastel Wes Andersonian imagery and aforementioned tropicalia in its travelogues, this album feels like it draws more influence from the bouncing 00’s bops of The Neptunes and Timbaland while still sounding unmistakably Tyler. He is definitely an artist that has grown on me immensely after initial impressions of his early works but these more “mature” adult version of him and his work has blossomed into one of my favorite artists of the past few years, with this album definitely building on that. 

Maximalist hardcore owing heavy debts to Nation Of Ulysses and Guy Debord or the Swedish Rage Against The Machine? Either way this record is an iconic album of the late 90’s, and with the announcement that Refused will be playing their final shows ever in 2025 I’ve been revisiting this classic. I was actually supposed to see them live at a show that happened to be booked for about 72 hours after the band decided to call it quits for the first time during a US tour with DC’s Frodus (who still made it to the show in question and played a killer set). This album mixes hardcore, post punk, pop, jazz and electronica in an attempt to make the biggest most accessible and appealing album they could as a means of communicating the band’s political platform to as wide an audience as possible. The album borrows its title from Free Jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, and their “party program” draws ideas from the French Situationists and Nation Of Ulysses’ youth liberation rhetoric, over some of the late 1990’s most killer and catchy hardcore riffs. This year also saw the release of “The Shape Of Punk To Come Obliterated”, a tribute album to Refused with a lineup of new and older bands covering each track including Quicksand, Touché Amore, Snapcase, Zulu, Idles and others. I was a fan of this Umea Sweden based outfit from the first time that I heard the predecessor to this album, 1995’s Songs To Fan The Flames Of Discontent, but Shape Of Punk To Come really saw the band taking things to the next legal in all aspects, so it’s been great to revisit it again after being a fan of theirs for nearly three decades and knowing they will be calling it quits for once and all in a few months time. 

I was pleasantly surprised recently to find out that a foundational alternative band for me had just released a new album. The Cure were one of those bands who were just weird enough to appeal to someone like me who was just dipping their toes into weird, but just popular enough to get occasional plays on MuchMusic and for their albums to be available to borrow from the local public library during those pre-internet, pre-volunteering with campus radio years when that was how I accessed music without having to spend money on it (being a youth on a limited budget and all). Disintegration was always the high water mark of their sound for me, all sad and lush and dark and expansive. Also “Lullaby” may have one of my favorite bass riffs of all time. I feel like there was a point where The Cure and their frontman Robert Smith were considered the epitome of Goth as a subculture , until a little later in the 90’s when folks like Marilyn Manson became more the poster children for that moody mopey subculture at least as far as non goths were concerned. I was never a goth per se but I loved The Cure from the first time I caught one of their videos during a weekend afternoon re-airing of MuchMusic’s old “alternative” showcase City Limits as a youth, and their music was a formative stepping stone for me. Disintegration is the ultimate Cure album for me, and I was glad to see that Robert and co are still at it making music today, 

So I thought I would take a minute to recommend an underground music-adjacent movie I saw recently that I really enjoyed during a time when a lot of folks like myself have been wanting for a laugh and a bit of distraction. “Heavy Trip” is a 2018 comedy film from Finland directed by Jukka Vidgren and Juuso Laatio about a small town metal band with dreams of taking the stage at a big festival in Norway and their misadventures along the way. They practice in a reindeer slaughterhouse, their singer gets violently nauseous at the thought of getting onstage, and their drummer keeps needing to be resuscitated due to various misadventures. Along the way they find a name (Impaled Rektum!) invent a subgenre (Symphonic post-apocalyptic reindeer-grinding Christ-abusing extreme war pagan Fennoscandian metal) and land their dream gig, all while finding romance, breaking a violent patient out of a mental hospital, and robbing a grave/illegally transporting a corpse across an international border along the way. If I had to compare Vidgren and Laatio’s directing to anyone, I’d say it reminds me a lot of the way Bruce MacDonald captured the lives of small town oddballs and rock and roll weirdos in his early movies like “RoadKill” and “Hard Core Logo”. This Finnish comedy is very much by fans of metal for fans of metal but Heavy Trip’s goofball charm stands on its own beyond just subcultural references. There is even a sequel from this year titled Heavier Trip that I am planning on watching as soon as I can as well. It’s even available free to watch (with ads) on YouTube so if you are looking for some laughs with a side of reindeer blood soaked blast beats you should check it out!

This where I’m going to go full hack and speak to the current listenings, above and beyond what we were on about in the podcast, which was recorded six weeks ago or something…

Lots has happened! Lotsa happenstance afoot!

Academically, I’ll allow for some overlap… but in the interests of authenticity and expediency we’re gonna go back to what I’ve most recently been sharing via (very, very) unsolicited DM’s as music recommendations to various persons and/or entities!

This will be the holiday that I got through nearly every morning listening to “She Found You” from You are Freaking Me Out on repeat! Every Samiam album has at least two or three songs which utterly turn pop music inside out and that I can listen to for hours and for actual days and weeks at a time on repeat. Plus, meeting drummer Colin for one of the TNB interviews was a personal highlight for the year! How this band isn’t as popular as Green Day is anybody’s guess! They have been together for 36 years, and their Stowaway from last year is one of the best things they’ve put out! Jason Beebout is one of the most literary punk singers out there! His lyrics are like really thoughtful, well-composed short stories rendered with conviction on the level of Frankie Stubbs or Chris Wollard! Samiam are always on my playlist, and the holiday period this year has been even moreso for a whole bunch of reasons! They are playing Pouzza fest in May, and boy would I enjoy going to see them play in that particular setting!

This is one of my favorite things from 2024, so you can be sure we spend time talking about it on our forthcoming best of ’24 episode that we recorded not too long ago!

I’ve had this on repeat since it came out! Serious, daily repeat!

One of the things: these bands have been touring around the world together all year! And they sound it!

The Hot Water songs are as good as anything they’ve released since Feel the Void in 2022! The Wollard track is exceptionally lit; Wollard is a generational singer and songwriter for me! He’s among the best ever to take it up in his lyrics, singing, and guitar playing! For people like me, it’s as good as it gets!

Quicksand’s version of Radio Free Gainsville is something I’ve spent hours with, in and of itself. I’ve named an episode of the education podcast after their original from this split, Supercollider.

Speaking of Wollard, every year at around this time… the holidays, that is… I’m pleased to rediscover the Ship Thieves’ cover of “Who Put the Gum in Santa’s Whiskers?”. Everything I like about Wollard and his playing can be found on this cover! My melodic hardcore cup runneth over! I am a serious man, and these are serious things!

Speaking of Chuck, I’m going to put this down as something I’ll speak to more fulsomely in my Best of ’24 notes! Cause that’s what this most assuredly is!

I’ve stated here, there, and everywhere that sad bastard Americana is one of my favorite areas of music… or of artistic endeavor, generally!

And while the “sad bastard” factor is dialed down a touch here, this LP is some affirmative PMA through a folk rock vernacular! It’s also a worthy continuation in the vein of Feast or Famine, Gold Country, Till Midnight, or The Flame in the Flood! Chuck is always all-in! I got to meet Chuck briefly at the meet and greet when The Revival Tour played Calgary in 2013 and he was just as nice and gracious and down to earth as you could hope for!

Three cheers for Chuck and positive acoustic punk!

Speaking of PMA:

All I can really say here is goddamn and-a-half!

Jesse has absolutely saved me this past November and December. But for Glitter in the Gutter and the Silver Patron Saints tribute LP, I might be in seriously dire emotional and mental states. It’s been a time among times!

Glitter in the Gutter has moved the needle for me! This is where I go: you’re as good as Paul Westerberg at the songwriting thing! For people like me, that’s massive!

It’s hard for me to describe to a non-lifer what it’s like, sometimes. As baffling as it may be, there are people out there who aren’t obsessed with music. I’m not being ironic. I really struggle sometimes when I try to imagine the interior life of somebody who just sort of accepts whatever music is sitting on the radio or on the top of their algorithm or whatever. Music has been formative, serious stuff for me giving meaning and context to my life since as long as I remember having consciousness. Music is life. That is a basic tenant of my existence. There is nothing remarkable about that. However when you recognize a fellow traveler, it’s like you immediately have many, many other things in common as well.

Jesse is a lifer in a way that belies his commercial imprint. Bruce Springsteen, Billie Joe from Green Day, Bleachers AKA Jack Antonoff AKA “that Taylor Swift and other pop superstars’ producer guy”, Tom Morello, Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello, Tommy Stinson, Ruby Stinson, Brother Wayne Kramer, Little Steven Van Zandt, Alison Mosshart, Mike Watt, Frank Turner, The Wallflowers, The Hold Steady, Rancid, Counting Crows, Dinosaur Jr, Agnostic Front… and many others!… all represent for Jesse on the Silver Patron Saints LP. It is a virtual yearbook of who’s currently doing vital things in contemporary rock music!

As my best friend Jon said when I shared the Springsteen cover with him: Who is this guy?

Look up his journey of recovery from a spinal stroke in Argentina to his recent benefit shows at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. Let me tell you, as a new and maxed out college teacher living in a small place away from his kids: this is exactly the PMA I’ve needed.

Positive Mental Attitude for life.

Everything I say about the Jesus Lizard sounds like everything else I ever say about the Jesus Lizard.

They’re back. They’re ferocious. They are old and gnarly as fuck. And they haven’t lost a step.

David Yow is one of the best front men ever. His closest real comparison that I can think of would be Iggy Pop in terms of physical weirdness and sheer endurance and longevity.

I’ll tell you what: as far as recordings go, the Jesus Lizard are better than almost anybody for consistency.

I’m thrilled they’re back. For people like me, they never went away.

Long live the fucking lizard!

<a href="https://thejesuslizard.bandcamp.com/track/cost-of-living">Cost Of Living by The Jesus Lizard</a>

This film is something I’ve been looking forward to since I first caught wind of it through Harley Flanagan’s Instagram! There are few people who embody NYC Hardcore in the ways Harley does. He is synonymous with an entire genre of punk music… and to that extent you have to give credit where it is due! He tours with Cro-Mags throughout the year, and has myriad creative outlets and endeavors related to music and outside. Notably, he holds a third-degree blackbelt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and has written a memoir about his life! This long-gestating film recently opened at DOC NYC where it was the most-streamed film at the festival!

As yet, we are awaiting news of a wider release and/or streaming!