Five & Five On Friday 6/30/2023

Your reading and listening list for the weekend

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!

1. The Human Instrumentality Podcast, which I host along with Joseph Schafer¹, continues its exploration of Shusuke Kaneko’s Gamera trilogy with an episode about Gamera II: Attack of Legion. This movie lit my brain on fire. It might be my favorite Kaiju movie after the OG Gojira. Along with Joseph’s insight into the movie’s production and place in the Kaiju canon, I talked at great lengths about evil bugs as a metaphor for collectivism and how Attack of Legion stomps all over the eco-pessimism of most post-apocalyptic fiction on the market these days. Check it out!

2. I loved this recent short piece by Jeremy Gordon about getting into heated arguments with friends. I’m still very close with people I’ve known since childhood and many of them are as loudly opinionated and argumentative as I am if you can believe it, so much of this piece rings true to me. Getting into a fist fight over the definition of “sublime” is absolutely some dumb shit that I’d have gotten up to in my early 20s. Needless to say, I am psyched for Gordon’s book.

3. Leave it to Molly Soda to introduce me to a corner of the social internet that I’ve never heard of before. Her recent letter about Smule, a karaoke duet app, reminded me of the wild west of chat roulette and the pre-TikTok era of amateur singing on the internet. Cool that stuff this janky and low stakes still exists!

4. As I have only a passing familiarity with the work of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann (literally, *listens to Machine Gun once*), I appreciated this brief remembrance and career overview from Burning Ambulance.

5. While I haven’t listened to the new Killer Mike record yet, I’m still three months behind on new releases, I enjoyed reading this interview conducted by Justin Charity for The Ringer, especially the parts about the influence of gospel music on hip-hop.

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.

B-Sides and Rarities by Deftones (2005) - Nü Metal

The first CD that I bought from Music Matters in Brooklyn, which then became my go-to spot until I moved to Chicago. This collection introduced me to Helmet, Cocteau Twins, Sade, and Duran Duran. More established bands with young audiences should do cover albums for educational purposes.

Mesmerize/Hypnotize by System of a Down (2005) - Nü Metal

These two albums were sold as separate digipaks that could then be combined into a single album, so I think it’s fair to consider them together. System of a Down were one of my first favorite bands in middle and high school, but I thought this duo was a huge let down when they were released. Too many melodramatic choruses, and too much of Daron Malakian’s voice in general. You could, and I have, cut together a single, much better, album from this collection. Few bands can pull off the double disc format, and System of a Down were not one of those bands.

Damnation and a Day by Cradle of Filth (2003) - Black Metal

Certainly not the only metal adaptation of Paradise Lost, but probably the most expensive to produce. This was Cradle of Filth’s major label debut and they really went all out with orchestras, choirs, and fancy mixing effects. The result is too long and definitely overstuffed, but as far as Cradle of Filth albums go this one ain’t bad. Some extremely campy heavy metal, perfect for Halloween season.

Axis of Eden by Today is the Day (2007) - Grindcore? idk but it’s real mad

I bought this album in a mall in the suburbs of Chicago because Derek Roddy, whose forum I used to frequent in high school, played drums on it. I think I listened to it like, twice, and then shelved it. The short and heavy tracks are a blast, but the slow stuff is pretty bland. I’m not surprised that this one didn’t connect with me then, and it doesn’t quite connect with me now.

My Iron Lung by Radiohead (1994) - Alternative Rock

I was insatiable for new Radiohead while waiting for In Rainbows. Not even inessential EPs could escape me. This one is a cool look at the cutting room floor for The Bends, when Radiohead were still working squarely in the rock band idiom.

1. Joseph sings in the thrash metal band Colony Drop, who just announced their debut album with a nasty new single. You should definitely check it out, especially if you like anime influenced heavy music.