Five & Five on Friday 10/6/2023
Happy Friday! Congratulations on making it to the end of the week. As you head into your weekend, here are five recommendations and then five micro reviews of albums from my high school CD collection. Maybe you’ll find something new to read, listen to, or do this weekend. See you next week!
I owe a a sizeable chunk of this Substack’s readership to a piece I wrote back in 2020 called “Brewer Metal”, which was inspired by a tweet from music writer Patrick Lyons. Patrick shared the piece, which led Ian Cohen (another music writer) to share it, which led a bunch of you to read it. Thanks Patrick! Now, I’d like to return the favor by recommending Patrick’s brand new newsletter Inbox Infinity. Patrick’s one of the brightest names in music writing these days and I’m psyched to have more of his work in my inbox every week.
Well, well, well… if it isn’t ~Bandcamp Friday~ again! Today would be a lovely day to pick up some new music and merch on Bandcamp, perhaps even the Lamniformes Bandcamp page. Enjoy the hi-fi electronica of You Can’t Do This Alone, the existential despair of Sisyphean, and the charming punk rawness of Trials. Or, look toward the future and grab my latest single “Prayer of the Open Plain”, a psychedelic road trip across the vast American west. Heck, you can even buy a t-shirt that will entice and confuse your friends and family. Better act now because, uh, I’m not sure there will be many more Bandcamp Friday’s in the near future…
…because Epic Games sold Bandcamp to Songtradr, a music licensing company, only 18 months after they bought the site. It’s still too early to say exactly what this means for the future of Bandcamp, but if you want a sense of how the industry is reacting to the news, check out this article from Music Business Worldwide. My key takeaway from their takeaways is that Bandcamp as a platform is less valuable to the music industry big leagues than Bandcamp as a hub of consumer data. Creepy!
So, if you’re a musician, music fan, or habitual rooter for the underdog, consider signing this petition from Bandcamp United urging Songtradr to recognize their union!
Last weekend I flew out to Monterey, California to attend a wedding with ~*my girlfriend*~. Beautiful town, lots of pelicans and sea lions. Lovely wedding. Great to see so many West coast friends. The only downside of the whole experience was spending a full day on planes to get back home, which meant that I had to sit next to and behind people watching hours of TV and movies on their phones on high brightness. I’m sorry if this makes me sound old as hell, but people, on your next flight please bring a book. The constant onslaught of visual information makes an already uncomfortable situation way worse. I didn’t buy a plane ticket to watch five hours straight of Demon Slayer intercut with Winning Time in the next row. I’m not even asking you to read anything good, feel free to burn through your Dan Brown collection for all I care. Just for the sake of your eyes and the eyes of your neighbors please ditch the screens for a few hours. There will be screens where you’re going.
Now, onto the five micro reviews. Long time Lamniformes Instagram followers will recognize these from my stories back in late 2020, however they’ve been re-edited and spruced up with links so that you can actually hear the music instead of just taking my word for it.
New Distances by Narrows (2009) - Metalcore
This band has members of Northwest hardcore royalty, so I viewed this as my big pick up from the Deathwish Inc sale. Some strange pacing decisions make this feel much longer than 30 minutes. The mix of mathy post-hardcore and slow indie rock is interesting, but the balance isn’t quite right.
Bitches Brew by Miles Davis (1970) - Jazz Fusion
One of my first forays into jazz outside of the Ken Burns approved stuff that my folks listened to. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it as a teen, but I was fascinated enough to periodically return and try to figure it out. I’d like to make a distinction between bad trip fusion and mullet fusion. This belongs to the former category, which is my preferred form. Mullet fusion on the other hand is impressive but I rarely listen to it for pleasure.
F# A# Infinity by Godspeed You Black Emperor! (1997) - Post-rock
A trajectory altering record for me in more ways than one. Threw my notions of how rock instruments and recording technology were supposed to be used into the trash. No turning back after this one. It’s more of an abstract radio drama than a rock record. I think it’s easy to write this off as being too self-serious, and that’s fair. But I see that as an acceptable cost for its ambitions and the arresting power of what the band achieved here.
Mythmaker by Skinny Puppy (2007) - Industrial
I used to listen to Skinny Puppy all the time in high school but they fell off my radar completely once I moved to Chicago. This is not their best. Some interesting sound design, but the vocals often feel like they are working at cross purposes to the music. It does make me want to revisit their classic material, though.
Kill ‘Em All by Metallica (1983) - Thrash Metal
The Metallica origin story. I am as familiar with the tunes on this record as I am with “with great power comes great responsibility” or the Wayne’s getting shot in Crime Alley. Every riff is iconic not only on its own merits but for being the start of a legendary run. On the flip side, squeaky teen James Hatfield is adorable and these songs are dumb as rocks in the best way. Just some goons getting blasted and screaming about how cool it is to play heavy metal. A very fun listen.