Industrial

Electroclature Volume Thirteen: 13

April 17, 2024

Part thirteen of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

I know this is a CGA-ish eyesore. (CGA? An old-school limited computer display spectrum.) I got way too carried away but I think it has a certain charm, even if it gives me a bit of a migraine.

Included is the back and front and an alternate cover — which is even more of a visual headache! — because that’s a thing I used to do for some reason. Also, the initial template, which is far friendlier to one’s senses.

…or not.

There’s a lot of repetition here. A lot of the same tracks from a few prior volumes. I’m gonna chalk that up to a bipolar manic episode because that tracks.

(And yes, I still have a few ‘tape suitcases’ exactly like this, full of second or third or fifth-generation ripped audio works.)

Highlights! EXOCET’s South End [Colombian Connection] is powernoise perfection, all gristle and meaty beats. THE BPA and Toe Jam is so exuberant and ebullient, although 80% of that is instilled solely by David Byrne’s lilt. THE LONG BLONDES’ I’m Going to Hell from their under-heard album ‘Couples’ which features the following:

I didn’t want to risk the chance of someone finding out /

Now I’m going to hell, so I may as well make it worth my while

Yeah, that’s my lifelong anthem.

Yes, I spent a stupid amount of time on all of these works, and that time is not reflected in the end-product!

(Artist / Album / Song):

  • SALLY SHAPIRO / Remix Romance Vol. 1 / Jackie Junior [Junior Boys]
  • TILLY & THE WALL / That Remix Sucks / Bad Education [No Context]
  • EVIL NINE / They Live! / They Live! [Felix Cartal]
  • EXOCET / Violation / South End [Colombian Connection]
  • LOS CAMPESINOS! / We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed / Miserabilia
  • TITUS ANDRONICUS / The Airing of Grievances / Titus Andronicus
  • THE OOLAHS / Chinchilla / Lemmings Anthem
  • BE YOUR OWN PET / Get Damaged / Becky
  • LOVE IS ALL / A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At / Wishing Well
  • CALL ME POUPÉE / Western Shanghai / Le Paradis Des Fous
  • KATZENJAMMER / Le Pop / A Bar In Amsterdam
  • ELASTICA / The Radio One Sessions / I Want You [Evening Session]
  • THE BPA / Toe Jam / The Jam
  • PARENTHETICAL GIRLS / Entanglements / This Regrettable End
  • TIMBER TIMBRE / Timber Timbre / Trouble Comes Knocking
  • THE LONG BLONDES / Couples / I’m Going to Hell [Abridged]

Electroclature Volume Twelve: 12

April 10, 2024

Part twelve of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

I grabbed this photo while walking around Chicago’s Lincoln Square which …isn’t my favorite neighborhood. I know the term ‘yuppie’ doesn’t carry the same cultural weight it used to, but uh, yeah. It’s a straight-laced yuppie neighborhood with a lot of strollers, smug and self-righteous and self-entitled folks, and littered with antiseptic and bland local businesses.

It used to be predominantly a German neighborhood, as Chicago’s stupidly segregated and that’s where a lot of German immigrants moved to and set up shop. Sadly, almost all of the German restaurants and shops are no longer. The cultural flavor of Lincoln Square simply doesn’t exist any more.

There is the Davis Theater, which used to be a charming and cheap shithole, but they remodeled and cleaned it up. However, it remains one of my go-tos for more mainstream films because it is indie and the employees and clientele are awesome. One helped me out with a very difficult situation when someone got way too handsy with me.

Anyway! I couldn’t resist two clouds sucking face and merging with each other.

That rather sums up the entire cover. I am not proud of it. The numerical styling is weak and indistinct and — apart from the building in the corner — it looks pretty fucking boring. However, it is a thing that exists and something I willed into the world, for better or for worse.

Highlights? CALL ME POUPÉE’s svelte Montreal pop of Rumba Maniak! 90s throwback ELASTICA’s radio session of Hold Me Now! The social anxiety of LOVE IS ALL’s 19 Floors! However, my personal favorite? SHRAG’s Talk to the Left [DJ Downfall Entente Cordiale] which is 100% about handjobs and so catchy.

As usual, here’s the format. (Artist / Album / Song):

  • LENNI JABOUR & THE THIRD FLOOR / Les Dangereuses / Les Fleurs Mécontentes
  • PARENTHETICAL GIRLS / Entanglements / Windmills of Your Mind
  • KATZENJAMMER / Le Pop / Mother Superior
  • CALL ME POUPÉE / Western Shanghai / Rumba Maniak
  • FLOGGING MOLLY / Float / Float
  • TITUS ANDRONICUS / The Airing of Grievances / Fear and Loathing in MahWah, NJ
  • LOS CAMPESINOS! / We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed / Ways to Make It Through the Wall
  • ELASTICA / The Radio One Sessions / Hold Me Now [Peel]
  • LOVE IS ALL / A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At / 19 Floors
  • THE VIOLETS / The Lost Pages / Forget Me Not
  • BLOOD RED SHOES / Box of Secrets / It’s Getting Boring by the Sea
  • EVIL NINE / They Live! / They Live! [Felix Cartal]
  • SHRAG / Online / Talk To The Left [DJ Downfall Entente Cordiale]
  • JUSTICE / † (Cross) / Stress
  • ESSER / I Love You / I Love You
  • MUNLY / Munly & The Lee Lewis Harlots / River Fortine Tippecanoe
  • SPRENGJUHÖLLIN / SPRENGJUHÖLLIN / Sumar í Múla

Electroclature Volume Eleven: 11

April 8, 2024

Part eleven of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

This cover is a staged photo from an old home office. The chair was an old-as-fuck Herman Miller chair that I got from my job. Even though I did clean it for the photo, I’m surprised that it looks as pristine as it does in that photo because the chair was over a decade old and absolutely falling apart. (Note the missing armrest. Also, the backrest was absolutely deteriorating. Yeah, I worked endless hours and days and weeks and months and years sitting in that chair.)

Similarly, the space my wife and myself were renting was held together by spit and baling wire, but did have a very quaint rustic veneer.

If I had to do it over again, I’d tweak the 11 alignment and figure out something better for the longer song titles. Maybe give it a bit more breathing room. Otherwise? I am fucking pleased as punch with it.

And yeah, this is when I glommed onto serif-centric lettering, as evidenced by this site’s current visual theme.

Highlights? VON MAGNET’s ‘Mann Hinter Dem Vorgang’ is an interlaced masterpiece. DIFFERNET’s ‘Survival Kit’ is a gorgeously languid and melancholy five-and-a-half minutes that intentionally stumbles along until it pretends that it finds its confidence. The missed SHRAG’s ‘Forty-Five 45s’ is indie pop perfection, all heartfelt inflection with a steadfast guitarline, and then there’s the vastly underlooked BE YOUR OWN PET ‘Becky’ which is an exceptionally lurid and vibrant reflection of punk 80s verve.

It makes me happy. (Artist / Album / Song):

  • CAMILLE / Le Fil / Assise
  • VON MAGNET / Ni prédateur ni proie / Mann Hinter dem Vorhang
  • LARKIN GRIMM / Parplar / Ride that Cyclone
  • PALE YOUNG GENTLEMEN / Black Forest (Tra La La) / The Crook of My Good Arm
  • CROOKED FINGERS / Forfeit/Fortune / Let’s Not Pretend (To Be New Men)
  • ELBOW / The Seldom Seen Kid / Grounds for Divorce
  • GOGOL BORDELLO / Super Taranta! / Ultimate
  • MAMMUT / SXSW 2007 Showcasing Artists / Midnaeturmetall
  • KATZENJAMMER / Le Pop / Tea With Cinnamon
  • TILLY AND THE WALL / That Remix Sucks / The Freest Man [CSS]
  • DIFFERNET / Collapsing Universe / Survival Kit
  • THE RAVEONETTES / Lust Lust Lust / The Beat Dies
  • INKLEIN QUARTET / Brave New World / Lonely Whale Song
  • SLEATER-KINNEY / Dig Me Out / Jenny
  • SHRAG / Shrag / Forty Five 45s
  • THE LONG BLONDES / Giddy Stratospheres / Polly
  • BE YOUR OWN PET / Get Awkward / Becky
  • FINAL FANTASY / Spectrum, 14th Century / The Butcher

Electroclature Volume Ten: ETCHED SKIES

April 5, 2024

Part ten of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

I know I took this photo while traveling from Chicago to Ohio, as it’s exactly what I’ve seen so many times, but I do not recall doing so.

This cover is fine in print. Just fine. I like the amber tinge. I like the E & T merger, although I probably could have done more there. The digitally resized version? It is practically unreadable.

Godfuckingdamnit I never do myself any favors.

All of that aside, it features one of my motherfucking anthems: BLOOD RED SHOES’ ‘I Wish I was Someone Better’. Saw ’em at Chicago’s Subterranean years ago, a club that is two-tiered but still feels oddly intimate. They performed back-to-back. I don’t mean that in a lineup way — they literally didn’t look each other in the face and one performed facing the left and the other on the right, but it wasn’t hateful or antagonistic. I’ve never seen a performance like that, and the energy was off of the fucking charts.

THE LONG BLONDES’ ‘Big Infatuation’ is absolute pop perfection, all GREASE-influenced but far filthier:

“My back turned to him, showing the ladders of my thighs!

I watched girls within; soaked up the envy in their eyes!”

SLEATER-KINNEY’s The Woods is my absolute favorite album of theirs, all indulgent and resonant hard-rock, and ‘Entertain’ endlessly delights me.

There’s a quote from SNOG/BLACK LUNG’s David Thrussel where he stated (and I can’t find the exact quote so I will paraphrase):

“With BLACK LUNG, I stack the tracks until the computer crashes and then I know I’m done.”

The results speak for themselves.

(Artist / Album / Song):

  • GAMEPLAY / Beirut Disco / Beirut Disco
  • LADYTRON / Velocifero / The Lovers
  • RA RA RIOT / The Rhumb Line / Dying is Fine
  • THE LONG BLONDES / Separated By Motorways [Single] / Big Infatuation
  • BLOOD RED SHOES / I Wish I Was Someone Better / I Wish I Was Someone Better
  • TILLY AND THE WALL / o / Pot Kettle Black
  • SLEATER-KINNEY / The Woods / Entertain
  • THE KNIFE / Marble House / Marble House [Rex The Dog]
  • BOOKA SHADE / n/a / Outskirts [Trentemøller]
  • XENIA BELIAYEVA / DTP27 / Music [Kiko]
  • BLACK LUNG / Concrete Octopus / Concrete Octopus
  • DIRTY THREE / Cinder / Doris
  • B. FLEISCHMANN / The Humbucking Coil / Aldebaran Waltz
  • VON MAGNET / Ni Prédateur Ni Proie / Growing Vs Fading
  • HOLY FUCK / LP / Safari

Electroclature Volume Nine: TAKING CHANCES

April 3, 2024

Part nine of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

Fuck. I know what I was going for with this cover: I wanted to recreate old-school medicinal notations and receipts, mostly because I loved this set that we — again — found garagesaling and — again — probably should have purchased. (This will be revisited soon, sadly.)

I absolutely fucked this one up. This is all wrong. It is mostly illegible, even with the drop shadow. It is a misfire; a mess on every level, and I apologize for putting it in front of your eyes.

That said? I’ll remind you? This was only intended for my wife, and I meant it with the best wishes.

It does looks better in-print than on-screen, though.

That aside. This has to be the most exuberant mix I sent along. FIREWATER? THE POLYPHONIC SPREE? ESSER?! PATRICK WOLF and “the major key!!”

This also has one my absolute favorites: THE TING TINGS ‘That’s Not My Name’. I thought everyone except myself forgot about this song until I heard it pop up in the NIMONA trailer which is amazingly appropriate to the point where one might say it’s too on-the-nose because it’s a perfect marriage. I. Fucking. Love. This. Song.

Fuck. Transcribing this playlist is going to ruin my eyes even more than they’re already fucked. (Artist / Album / Song):

  • RATATAT / LP3 / Shiller
  • AU / Verbs / RR vs. D
  • FIREWATER / The Golden Hour / Hey Clown
  • THE POLYPHONIC SPREE / Adidas / HOOPS Yes! (FC Dallas)
  • ESSER / I Love You / I Love You
  • Patrick Wolf / The Magic Position / The Magic Position
  • T.Raumschmiere / E / E
  • PORTISHEAD / Third / Machine Gun
  • DAS KABINETTE / Spy Thriller / The Cabinet
  • DETEKTIVBYRÅN / E18 / Laka-koffa
  • CLOUD CULT / The Meaning of 8 / Pretty Voice
  • THE MOUNTAIN GOATS / Heretic Pride / In The Craters On The Moon
  • ROSTAM BATMANGLI / Campus / Campus
  • THE SECTION QUARTET / Fuxxbox / Phenomena
  • LADYTRON / Velocifero / Ghosts
  • SERVICES / SXSW 2018 / Presenter
  • GLUKOZA / GTA4 OST / Schweine
  • THE TING TINGS / We Started Nothing / That’s Not My Name

Electroclature Volume Eight: x8

April 1, 2024

Part eight of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

We used to live near this intersection and, while I love the angles and blue, the cover feels lackluster to me despite the ND filter effect (look it up!) and nothing about the typography works.

While I may not love the cover, I do love the mix.

MY ROBOT FRIEND’s ‘Robot High School’ is so fucking catchy.

If you’ve ever heard CLOUD CULT? Their songs? 100% trauma and devastation. Their songs will. Make. You. Weep. Saw them at Chicago’s Metro with a live painter interpreting their sound on-stage which? Yeah, that sounds pretentious, but it was so fucking messy and vulnerable, like we shouldn’t have been able to watch it unfurl.

SHOUT OUT OUT OUT’s ‘Forever Indebted’ is so hooky while also so absolutely crushing and escalates wildly while being brutal about finances, which … resonates even harder now.

I vividly remember playing SONS & DAUGHTERS’ ‘Guilt Complex’ to my wife shortly after a New Years countdown clicked down. For some drunken reason I couldn’t help but flail my arms about and sing along with it. Will she know why? Will you? Nope!

Revisiting these mixes, I am gobsmacked at how many of these bands I saw live, and how many memories I have from them. Hell, I remember leaning over the railing at Metro and singing along to THE KILLS. Make your own experiences, y’all.

Keep clapping. (Artist / Album / Song):

  • FAKE / You Are Not Dead: A Guide To Modern Living / Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results
  • THE KILLS / Midnight Bloom / Cheap and Cheerful
  • MY ROBOT FRIEND / Robot High School / Robot High School
  • aonami / SXSW 2008 Showcasing Artists / MISODISKO
  • JONATHAN COULTON / Portal OST / Still Alive
  • ASA-CHANG & JUNRAY / Jun Ray Song Chang / Hana
  • VAMPIRE WEEKEND / Stereogum Presents… OKX: A Tribute To OK Computer / Exit Music (For a Film)
  • CLOUD CULT / Feel Good Ghosts / When Water Comes to Life
  • MAN MAN / Live at 9:30 Club 6/30/06 / Spooky Jookie
  • SONS & DAUGHTERS / This Gift / Gift Complex
  • THE VIOLETS / The Lost Pages / In Your Statue
  • BODIES OF WATER / Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink / Doves Circled the Sky
  • MIDNIGHT MOVIES / Nights EP / Nights In White Satin
  • FEIST / Vanshe Technologic Remix / 1234
  • SHOUT OUT OUT OUT / Not Saying Just Saying / Forever Indebted
  • GOGOL BORDELLO / Super Taranta! / Wonderlust King
  • HOLY FUCK / Holy Fuck / Lovely Allen
  • THE HYLOZOISTS / La Fin Du Monde / The Man Who Almost Was

Electroclature Volume Seven: INTERRUPT PT. 2

March 29, 2024

A companion piece to INTERRUPT PT. 1, if you will. (Read more about the reasoning behind these mixes here!)

Pretty sure the photo came from a garagesaling expedition of ours and this wringer probably cost $5 and I regret not buying it. I’ll note? I do love the texture.

I also really love this mix. I will always go to bat for THE LONG BLONDES and ‘Big Infatuation’ is absolutely one of my favorites. BALKAN BEAT BOX? So energetic. (Not sure if they’re still around, but I loved seeing ’em live as goddamn did they pop and bop.) THE VIOLETS was a criminally underrated post-punk band that released one album and that was it and it was not enough, at least not for me.

Also, as someone who has seen SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB live? They really fucking know how to roll with flubs:

She’s a dancer!

She dances fine!

I don’t remember my next line!

So … uh, enjoy!

Track listing (Artist / Album / Song):

  • HENGAR-UNION SACRED HARP CONVENTION / Anthology of American Folk Music / Antioch 277
  • BALKAN BEAT BOX / Balkan Beat Box / Bulgarian Chicks
  • BEIRUT / Gulag Orkestar / Prenzlauerberg
  • SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB / Jesus Let Me Down / Unto the Day [LIVE]
  • SONS & DAUGHTERS / This Gift / Goodbye Service
  • THE LONG BLONDES / someone to drive you home / Lust in the Movies
  • TWO TON BOA / Parasiticide / Cash Machine
  • PEPINPO / 8bp050 / Faster Than Time
  • 65daysofstatic / Unreleased_Unreleasable Vol. 2 / aren’t we all running [feedle] (Yes, I know I typo’ed that in the art but too late now.)
  • YUKSEK / The Wax – EP / crosswords
  • BIT SHIFTER / Half-Life / Antenna
  • BEAK / amoral mayor earwig ep / i saw two of me
  • DETEKTIVBYRÅN / Hemvägen EP / E18
  • DIVISION DAY / Covers/Remixes / Enjoy the Silence
  • TALL DWARFS / That’s the Short and Long of It / Nothing’s Going to Happen
  • THE VIOLETS / The Lost Pages / Parting Glances
  • THE MAGNETIC FIELDS / Live on Fair Game with Faith Salie / The Nun’s Litany [acoustic radio]

FOTEUS – [INTR]

April 30, 2023

If you consume any modern media, you’ve probably heard Jim Thirlwell’s work, even if you don’t recognize the name. He does a litany of orchestrations, most notably for THE VENTURE BROS. [R.I.P.]

He’s best known for a cacophony of minor chords, idiosyncratic programming, brassy elements, and emotional lyricism.

He has an amazingly rich and inventive back-catalog that extends back several decades and has consistently impressed and influenced me over the years.

I could spend an entire year writing about his works, but instead I’m cherry-picking from a handful of select albums.

I’ll note that I’ll indulge Thirlwell’s love of four-character verbs, even if that means dropping a few vowels and swapping in nouns.

So, starting Monday, welcome to “FOETUS ‘WEEK’”!