Lode/Load: January 11, 2009

In it to win it. Welcome to the new year.


EP's:

Blank Dogs | Doorbell Fire | Sweet Rot | Black | Blank Box 32/50
Blank Dogs | In a Web | Daggerman | Black | Blank Box 32/50
Blank Dogs | Two Months | Florida's Dying | Black | Blank Box 32/50
Blank Dogs | Yellow Mice Sleep | Hozac | Black | Blank Box 32/50
France has the Bomb | Invisible Angle b/w Grim Trigger | Hozac | Gold | /200
Grimple | Get Me Out of My Van I Have No Key | Prank | Clear
Hostage Calm | Demo | Headcount | Sky Blue Swirl
Libyans | Crash Course | Headcount/Too Circle/Shock to the System | White
Nice Face | Fubar Over You b/w Eterminator | Hozac | Gold | /200
Nice Face | Thing in My Head b/w Hidden Automatic | Sacred Bones | Black
Nobunny | Give It to Me b/w Motorhead With Me | Hozac | Gold | /200
Positive Noise | No Hardcore | Headcount/Sock/Punks Before Profits | Black
Video Disease | S/T | Square Wave | Black
Vivian Girls | Surf's Up | Wild World | Black
Witches | S/T | Salinas/Mandible | Black
Off With Their Heads/Dukes of Hillsborough | Split | ADD | Black

LP's:

Acursed | Tunneln i Ljusets Slut | Prank | Milky Clear
Animal Collective | Merriweather Post Pavilion | Domino | Black 2xLP
Avskum | Punkista | Prank | Translucent Purple
Avskum | Uppror Underifran | Prank | Translucent Purple
Blank Dogs | Diana (The Herald) | Sacred Bones | Black | Blank Box 32/50
Blank Dogs | The First Two Weeks | Freedom School | Black | 456/490, Blank Box 32/50
Browns | Family History | 1928 | Black
Christ on Parade | Loud and Live | Prank | Translucent Green
Deerhoof | Offend Maggie | Kill Rock Stars | Black
Der Teenage Panzerkorps | Games for Slaves | Siltbreeze | Black
Gauze | Binbou Yusuri No Rizumu Ni Notte | Prank | Black
Gowns | Red State | Kill Shaman | Black
Jerusalem, Yussuf | A Heart Full of Sorrow | Florida's Dying | Black
Love is So Fast | S/T | Siltbreeze | Black
Paintbox | Singing Shouting Crying | Prank | Black
Stern, Marnie | This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That | Kill Rock Stars | Black
Submarine Races | S/T | In the Red | Black
Total Abuse | S/T | Deranged | Black
West, Kanye | 808's and Heartbreaks | Roc-A-Fella | Black 2xLP
World Burns to Death | The Graveyard of Utopia | Prank | Black
Pink Reason/Hue Blanc's Joyless Ones | Split | Florida's Dying | Black
V/A | Life is a Problem | Mississippi | Black

Getting back on board...

Vacation, holidays, negligence, and now technical difficulties have caused some temporary setbacks. Anticipate on being back in the saddle by this weekend, barring any further technological and/or social collapse.

Happy 2009!

YOU'RE irrelevant!

Soundcheck asks the loaded question, staging the next round in the "everyone's a critic" vs. "no one's a critic" neverending title bout. Irrelevant, irreplaceable, both, none of the above, I don't know. I'm not sure it's really worth that much sweat, either, not in the way the question is currently being framed. I think the job, role, hobby, fetish, whatever it is has shifted. It's less gatekeeper, more curator. There's just too much, both in breadth and depth. I'd say what the grassroots armchair off-the-shelfers do is absolutely necessary for the salaried wordsmiths. Rolling Stone can do the Dylan worship without any support, but who's going to make sure Bon Iver goes from self-released to #29 in less than a year?

Lode/Load: December 15, 2008

The whole "holiday shopping for myself" excuse is wearing pretty thin...

Also, I've reevaluated: I think Sound Fix is a pretty good record store. And Academy, too, I guess.

Anduin | Forever Waiting | Smtg Ltd | Purple Swirl
Animal Collective | Feels | Fat Cat | Black 2xLP
Bush, Kate | Hounds of Love | EMI | Black
Cold Cave | The Trees Grew Emotions and Died | Dais | Black | 427/500
Der Teenage Panzerkorps | Harmful Emotions | Siltbreeze | Black | Cut & Paste Artwork
Fennesz | Black Sea | Touch | Black
Fleet Foxes | S/T | Sub Pop | Black 2xLP
Hercules and Love Affair | S/T | DFA/EMI | Black 2xLP
Sic Alps | U.S. EZ | Siltbreeze | Black

Lode/Load: December 13, 2008

Positives: Putz and K-Rod make things look goooood in the late innings come April.
Negatives: Madoff, give Wilpon his fucking money back.

Real victory for the week: finding that Pink Reason EP, dick-swastika edition (it's a real charmer). Didn't think that would happen for a while.
Real bust for the week: Why didn't I pick up that Cold Cave?

EP's:

Blank Dogs | Stuck Inside the World | Daggerman | Black
Condominium | Pupils | Self-Released | Black
Dead Luke | Record One | Sacred Bones | Black
Dead Luke | Record Two | Sacred Bones | Black
Dead Luke | Running Scared | Sweet Rot | Black
Drunken Barn Dance | A Winter's Tale b/w Evelyn Wears a Tiara| Leroy St. | White
Men's Recovery Project | Normal Man | Gravity | Black
Pink Reason | Throw It Away | Criminal IQ | Black
Pretty & Nice | Tora, Tora, Tora | Leroy St. | Black | 2nd Test Press, 4/10

LP's:

Animals & Men | Never Bought, Never Sold | Mississippi | Black
Drunkdriver | Born Pregnant | Parts Unknown | Black
Invasion | S/T | La Vida Es Un Mus | Black
Los Llamarada | Take the Sky | S-S | Black
Los Llamarada | The Exploding Now | S-S | Black
Pretty & Nice | Pink & Blue | Leroy St. | Translucent Blue
Sex Vid | Communal Living | Dom America | Black
Sods | Recordings 78-79 | Kong Paere | Yellow Marble

Lode/Load: December 7, 2008

I have more things to say later in the week when my muscles reform.


EP's:

Francis Harold and the Holograms | Nowhere b/w Pick Me Up | Punk Music | Black | /100
King Khan/Jacuzzi Boys | Split | Florida's Dying | Black

LP's:

Blank Dogs | The Fields | Woodsist | Black
Chronic Seizure | Ancient Wound | Fashionable Idiots/No Way | Black
Mutators | Secret Life | Nominal | Translucent Red
Wavves | S/T | Woodsist | Black

I don't understand numbers with that many commas.

Time for some more motherfucking basement art/rage.