Kids Bop: Child Abuse Master Mix

the topic of child abuse hits a lot of nerves. it's a source for incalculable despair as well as insult comedy. i've taken the liberty to collect 16 (the age of consent in many parts of the country) songs about the topic, taking great care to avoid obvious power electronic arch types (Nicole 12) or groups who are known for their confrontational shock tactics (Brainbombs, GG Allin, etc) and instead chose to zero in on pop and more accessible strains of rock. the vague teen angst of nu-metal and rap rock was also left alone in favor of songs that have more of a narrative or a commentary beyond pouty mad-at-my-parents tirades. some of them are sad ("In Your Care" by Tasmin Archer), some of them are sinister ("A Question of Time" by Depeche Mode), some of them are funny ("Everyone's Gone to the Movies" by Steely Dan), but they're interesting when you consider the focuses of the mainstream; young bodies, naive minds, children in every way but their technical age, while at the same time raging with murderous vitriol at stories of child abuse, as if subconsciously they were trying to make up for the permissive codification. but i digress.

KIDS BOP: CHILD ABUSE MASTER MIX  

1. SUZANNE VEGA - Luka
2. FAITH NO MORE - Edge of the World
3. SIOUXIE AND THE BANSHEES - Candyman
4. TASMIN ARCHER - In Your Care
5. AMY GRANT - Ask Me
6. DE LA SOUL - Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa
7. MARTINA MCBRIDE - Concrete Angel
8. NOMEANSNO - Dad
9. MOTORHEAD - Don't Let Daddy Kiss Me
10. MADONNA - Oh, Father
11. STEELY DAN - Everyone's Gone to the Movies
12. THE DRESDEN DOLLS - Slide
13. DEPECHE MODE - A Question of Time
14. THE SMITHS - Reel Around the Fountain
15. 10000 MANIACS - What's the Matter Here?
16. MANIC STREET PREACHERS - Little Baby Nothing

Cut Out Bin Concsious ch. 11

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THE BLACK HEART PROCESSION – The Spell

I love this band more than I actually love this band. Beautiful music for manic depressive stalkers. Every now and then I try to write a BHP style song, but eventually it degenerates into power electronic misanthropy and schitzorealism. I think I made that word up. I used to be really into Death Cab for Cutie. Then I discovered BHP and realized that they were the band I wanted DCFC to be. That and there was only like 1 DCFC song I could stand to listen to anymore (“Tiny Vessels”). There’s this other band called the Paper Chase that’s a bit in this ballpark, but the vocals can get a little grating after a while, and the singer dude has a tendency to regurgitate the same metaphors. I reactivated my BOKCuspid brofile for like the 5^th time. It’s just sad at this point… being a 30 old male trying to impress 22 year old girls with my weird tastes in everything in a time when having any kind of taste or knowledge in anything beyond obvious trends in politics and pop culture means you’re a weirdo with no real friends. This song “the Letter”… one of the greatest songs of the last decade. One of those songs you discover at the perfect time (which is ironically the imperfect time. *eeyore*). Great use of the violin. As long as Michael Gira insists on booking apocalyptic folk artists and crypto-homo indie groups to open for Swans, why not get BHP on the bill?

Favorite tracks: “Tangled”, “the Letter”, “the Waiter #5”, “Places”

KHANATE – Clean Hands Go Foul

I can already tell this will be the weakest chapter of this series. Maybe I’m burned out. Haven’t bought much since that boom last month. Just been lazy and depressed… par for the course this time of year. Might as well close it out with the pained shrieking that is Khanate. I’ve sort of rediscovered this band as of late. I picked up the s/t when It was first released cause it was ex-Burning Witch, but sort of lost interest when O’Malley seemed to be all over the place with Sunn0))) and other projects. But to me, Alan Dubin is what makes Khanate interesting. in college when I would attempt to write, I used to listen to “Skin Coat” on repeat and just let stuff flow out. His current band Gnaw is really awesome. They only have one album out, but I think they’ve got a new one coming out this year. Anyway I lost interest in Khanate after the first record because it seemed like they were turning into Sunn0))) with vocals, but then I realized I really really like the vocals (and the lyrics… total creepy goodness), so I stopped being a dingus and got back on the trolley. The Communion just wrote our first all-slow super long song. I think it clocks in at about 13 minutes. It’s called “Graphorrea”.  Definition of “graphorrea”; 1. writing in excessive amounts, sometimes incoherently. 2. extreme wordiness in writing. Sounds pretty apt. the lyrics themselves are about being ripped in half by a giant turd from the inside out. It started out as a metaphor for bouts writer’s block occurring when you have something that really needs to get out, to the point that it destroys you from the inside… but as I was writing it the lyrics became more literal. I’m nervous that it’s a little too cartoonish, but the words are sufficiently disgusting enough to keep it from being considered slapstick. This song has been a long time coming for us. Lee used to talk about writing a half-hour doom track dating as far back as 2007. I even had lyrics for it. The song was to be called “Larval Stage Rapist”. It never materialized, but it’s something we always wanted to try, if only once. We’re all really big into super-slow doom and sludge groups like Fistula, Coffinworm, Oak, Sea of Bones, Batillus, Unearthly Trance, and industrial dirge metal like Godflesh, Skin Chamber, etc. my goal has always been to be a grindcore band with doom/sludge metal sound/production and noise/power electronic themes and attitudes in the song titles/lyrics/artwork. Who am I talking to? I love the guitars on “Wings from Spine”. I love the everything on “Wings from Spine”. “In That Corner” is fucking madness too.

Favorite Tracks: “Wings from Spine”, “In That Corner”

Cut Out Bin Conscious ch. 10

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MILHOUSE – Modern Problems, Old Fashioned Solutions, & Classic Mistakes

I love this sort of psychotically caustic 90s hardcore…. Where the guitars sound like someone strumming rusty razors and the vocals sound like someone whose been set on fire. Great drum sound, too. Punchy and warm. Artie’s doing the vocals for the Sheltering Sky, which has Eddie Ortiz from Cattlepress. It’s like an awesome 90s metal/hardcore supergroup. I can really see a lot of this in the new Buckshot Facelift release, only fused with a subterranean death metal edge. The new My Bloody Valentine album kinda sucks, huh? I’ll stick with Glider and Loveless. Damn these drums are something else… good basslines, too. Have Milhouse done the reunion thing, yet? A lot of LI hardcore bands from the 90s seem to have reactivated. None of the ones I dig. Well Mind Over Matter did one or two shows… they were pretty sweet. But I’d totally go for a Sons of Abraham reunion or Milhouse or Neglect. Not Glassjaw. Fuck those guys… overproduced version of Sons of Abraham and Milhouse, only with whinier vocals and transparent “sensitive” lyrics.

Favorite tracks: “Piss Artist”, “the True Meaning of Christmas”, “Detox”, “Sacramento”.

BRIGHTER DEATH NOW – Kamikaze Kabaret

Album title courtesy of Krusty the Klown. But seriously, I love this album. Had a burn of it forever. one of the first Industrial Death bands I ever got into (thanks to the Gummo soundtrack). Massive influence on the first Tunnel Nun release. You know, as much as I love this sort of monolithic, pulsating form of PE, I fear it’s starting to become a bit stale. I mean… I still dig the style very much, but too many bands are veering into almost doom metal or ambient drone territory, with meandering album-length songs that are all valley and no peaks. Maybe I’m just not looking hard enough. The next TN songs are gonna hopefully be more along the lines of Bloodyminded’s seminal Trophy record; half-minute blasts of piercing noise and intimidating shouts. I also want the lyrics to have some more dimensions. They’ll still be steeped in sexual violence / violent sexuality, but I wanna try and look at it from a more alien perspective, not just a feeble attempt at being Peter Sotos. A more perplexing, maybe “funnier” or drier sensibility? I don’t know. I have a bunch of short songs written lyrically that are like one-two lines long. But we’ll see. I don’t want to over think the project, but I want to at least attempt to do something different, not just another Nicole 12/BDN worship album. As I listen to this album (and the early Nicole 12 stuff), I really see how much I stole from it for New Talent Always Welcome. I’m actually quite embarrassed by it. I guess ripping off others is unavoidable on your first time out.

Favorite Tracks: “Crimescene Nostalgia”, “Destroy”, “Washing Day”, “While You Sleep”

Cut Out Bin Conscious ch. 9

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SMASHING PUMPKINS – Zero

This is basically disc 3 of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, with “Zero” thrown on it for some reason. The extra tracks are pretty cool. Lately I’ve been loving this era of the band. it’s not as “iconic” as Siamese Dream, but Corgan said that Dream was the aspiration of the band, where as Mellon Collie was the actuality of the band. this CD has some of their darkest, heaviest (well for them) material. Self loathing bitterness in a power-pop package. This is one of the fist bands I remember really being into, but i lost interest because people who made my life miserable listened to them all the time, talked about them all the time, and were real assholes about it. They’re out of my life now, so I can enjoy the tunes again. The new Joy Formidable album kinda blows. I really loved Big Roar, but so far everything I’ve heard from the follow-up is very underwhelming. Her voice is still great, and they energy is there… but the songs aren’t. I’m also over Florence and the Machine. She’s undeniably talented, but there’s way too much of the “WUHAAAAAAA OH AAAAAAAAHHHHH OOOOOOHHHHHHHHH OOHHH AHH OOHHHHHHHHHHHH” in almost every song. A little restraint would be nice.

Favorite tracks: “God”, “Mouths of Babes”, “Marquis in Spades”, Pennies”

AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED – Honky Reduction

Relapse in the late 90s = foreverection. I never get tired of early ANb. I’m an asshole for never having a hard copy of this. this and Bestial Machinery are such fucking cool ass albums. the murderously sardonic attitude coupled with the tones and textures of classic Earache releases is too awesome. Also love how their drum machine sounded more like real drums being sped up rather than a literal machine. So few bands really have the attitude ANb has in the lyrics and such. There are plenty of gore bands and porn bands and insult comedy bands, but ANb has a voice that’s pretty unique among the innumerable AxCx/Mentors wannabes they unfairly get lumped in with. I’m also giddy because Jay Randall has the Communion / Winters in Osaka split up on his Grindcore Karaoke page. Seems like it’s the “in” thing to hate on GK… or maybe it isn’t and I just need to get off the goddamn internet.

Favorite tracks: “the Withering of Skin”, “the House of Feasting”, “Vexed”, “Lives Ruined through Sex”, “Her Despair Reeks of Alcohol”, “Pagan Territories”, Bones in One Bag (Organs in Another)”,

Cut Out Bin Conscious ch. 8

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AKITSA – Sang Nordique

This was from when Hospital Productions was on their Black Metal kick in the late 00s. i dig a lot of that stuff (Diapsiquir’s Pacta Daemoniarium / Crasse is a particular favorite. so vicious and demented). I love the so-raw-it’s-almost-punk black metal groups (Bone Awl, Sexdrome). I’m always attracted to deconstructionists of particular art forms, but I think it’s because these bands remind me of what attracted me to black metal in the first place while not being revivalists about it. Since these dudes are from Quebec, I guess they could qualify as French Black Metal (lyrics are in French). Ho ho. Holy shit @ The screams at the end of “Frontiere”. There’s a little of a “black n’ roll” vibe to this material, but it’s so fuzzed out and lo-fi that it retains “credibility”, whatever that means anymore. The best Black Metal is music for well-read barbarians (or genocidal librarians?). stop trying to “intellectualize” what should be instinctual… a aural manifestation of unchecked ID. Not that there aren’t good progressive black metal bands, but most of them are bland kettleheads. I like the trade-offs that have been happening between the noise and black metal scenes. A lot of interesting stuff emerging from both sides of the crossover. It’s just what each genre needed.

Favorite tracks – “Frontiere”, “Sang Nordique”, “Au Combat”, “La Nature De Mon Pays”

JAWBREAKER – Dear You

This was an album I’ve been meaning to check out, but always forgot to check out. Better late than never. Definitely one of those “album everyone should have” albums. Says so many things better than I ever could. I haven’t been this jealous of an album since the first time I heard Holy Bible by Manic Street Preachers. They both have the exact sort of lyrics I aspire to write; honest without being confessional… introspective without being affected… poetic without being pretentious. Hopefully I’m almost there. too bad I can’t even hope to dream of coming up with the hooks and melodies that would get people to listen to what I’m saying, or even give what I write the time of day. But I’m starting to depress myself here. This is a 2003 reissue. In another time, this is the sort of album I would have playing if I was on a first date with a girl. But now? I have no clue what I could have playing. Nothing impresses or moves anyone anymore. I don’t know if it’s a pose or genuine…. Rehearsed or inherent…. Reaction or pre-emptive strike. I’ve quit OK Cupid like 5 times in the last 4 years. since we broke up, my ex has been with more women than I have, which makes me want to masturbate with a hand around my throat. “if you could hear the dreams I have my dear, they would give you nightmares for a week” – from “Fireman”. The bass line in “Accident Prone” is making it okay right now. Sorry this is stho emo right now. I used to be like this all the time… hypersensitive whiny sad guy bearing his sthoul within five seconds of the first “I’m not sure”… before I just embraced what I imagined women’s views of me might be and turned that image into an absurdly perverse torture comedy blow-up of itself.  They don’t want that either, but at least it feels right for me…. or at least more accurate. I’m trying to be less informed by others viewpoints when it comes to who I am, but I don’t always succeed. Can’t help but feel harshly judged at almost all times. I know they forgot about me before they hit the “you” in “I don’t see you that way”, so I should just stop letting it effect me in such a socially crippling manner. i think I have… but maybe I’m just used to it. God damn this is a perfect album. It’s the kind of record everyone who aspires to be “the voice of a generation” writes in their head, but when they pick up the guitar all that comes out is a Staind album, because they try too fucking hard to be liked, when what you need to stop doing is being “alienated” and start being “alienating”. Be an asshole. Be a wounded animal. Make your subject hate you. Don’t worry about coming off as “misogynistic”, cause the women you’ve never met are keen enough to know you’re not talking about them, and typically the ones who are labeling you as such are humorless “liberal” males who play the “masculine feminist” card in an attempt to get laid ( as a recovering MxFx, trust me when I say this). most of all, speak for no one. Sorry this post was so fucking drippy. I’ll try to make the next few more fun.

Favorite tracks: “I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both”, “Fireman”, “Sluttering (May 4^th)”, “ Shirt” 

Cut Out Bin Concious ch. 7

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JOHN ZORN – Spillane

This really should’ve been the Naked Lunch soundtrack. There were some Mickey Spillane comics that came out in the 90s that my dad collected. This was when there were like 5-6 comic shops in driving distance. That’s how my dad, my brother, and I spent our Saturdays (and Fridays in the summer) until 1998 after the comic bubble burst and there was only one store left. My favorite comic was Spawn. It wasn’t until many years later that I realized Spawn was little more than a more toy-friendly version of Tim Vigil and David Quinn’s Faust, which was a book that was often whispered about, but not found very often unless you were in Manhattan or something. I got the first issue at Goodwill of all places, and the rest (almost) at St. Marks comics. This is a beautiful record. It’s almost like 3 albums on one disc. I credit Zorn (specifically his Naked City project) for opening my eyes to the art of Maruo Suehiro and George Bataille’s fantastic book Tears of Eros. Except for the essential Story of the Eye, I find most of Bataille’s work too academic… like there’s too much of a comfortable distance he placed between himself and his subject matter…. But it works in Tears of Eros because while retaining his scholarly manner, he lets his guard down and lets the accompanying images envelope him. Not to the level of someone like De Sade or Artaud, but enough to reveal that there was some modicum of genuine prurience amidst the bland curiosity to merely catalog various atrocities. I love how Naked City (wordlessly so, mind you) connected to that kind of artistic expression. That why so many of the bands that fall into that category of “spazz-core” or whatever fall so short; they only go so far as to emulate the surface level of Naked City’s sound, completely overlooking the psychological, emotional, and aesthetic intents of the band. There was always more to Zorn’s music that just being a rubber-necking hybrid of styles that don’t usually co-exist, it was about using the right sounds to establish an atmosphere and a mood that accurately represented the contents of the subject. You think cutesy cutesy assholes like Iwrestledabearonce know dick about Hans Belmer or the hermetic nature of bondage in Japan? the closest thing bands like them get to surrealism is fucking Nicktoons… maybe ONE David Lynch film if you’re lucky.

Favorite tracks: “Spillane” , “Two-Lane Highway: Hico Killer – Long Mile to Houston”, “Forbidden Fruit”

HELLCHILD – Bareskin

Huhwhaaaa… a SECOND Hellchild cd in the used bin?????? I wanna thank whoever sold off these CDs… thank them with murder, for treating these awesome albums like prom night dumpster babies. I pulled a sword out of a girl’s mouth last night. It was this Coney Island freakshow deal. She was one of those super hot “psychobilly” chicks ( To paraphrase Seth Rogen from Freaks and Geeks; “Psychobilly. Music sucks. The girls… are HOT”). Anyway she deep throated a katana blade and pointed at me to pull it out. A lot of really bad “pull out” jokes were made, but I was kinda drunk so I’m sure I came off as a humorless sociopath. This suspicion was confirmed when the MC told me not to kill the girl. So I pulled it out, she thanks me for not killing her and gives me a hug. Every interaction I have with a female should end in this way. I would’ve been more self conscious if I wasn’t sure that everyone was looking at the half-naked woman with the sword in her throat and not the dude with a 1990s curtains haircut and a Dean Ambrose jacket. Oh right… this whole thing was part of an acquaintance’s art show, which was at a strip club. Some of the dancers were pretty hot I guess, but for the most part I think strip clubs are gross. Not so much the strippers themselves, but the vibe and the clientele just make me want to submerge myself in a Jacuzzi of Purell and kerosene until the bubbles stop. I also hate that ass-jiggling thing that every dancer (exotic or otherwise) does now. I call it “Butt Derping”. Now I am an ass connoisseur, but (tee) all you need to do is present, maybe a little sway, look over your shoulder, and cement the void in your self esteem with the vapors of the desperate’s arousal, no jiggling required. Fuck, Hellchild is so damn heavy. This one has a bit of a Crowbar influence to it, but done in a fashion that adds to the intellect and personality of the band. It’s the total opposite of how Hatebreed utilizes its Crowbar influence; taking Crowbar esque riffs and vocal melodies and making them more middle of the road and jock-friendly. I love the vibe of this album. The harmonies and heaviness are perfect counterpoints to each other. It’s not something that I usually notice (most of the time because it’s not really necessary in my enjoyment of a brutal metal record), but it hard to ignore here because it’s done so well. Hellchild rules, is what I’m getting at here.

Favorite tracks: “the Answer”, “Wings of Hope”, “In this Freezing Night”, “Single Color of Myself”

Cut Out Bin Concious ch. 6

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UNIVERS ZERO – Uzed

More brainy smarty music. Makes me wanna listen to Dirty Three. Don’t know what to put here today. I don’t want to regurgitate UZ Wikipedia page or anything piss-headed like that. It’s good “you woke up 4 hours ago so stop being groggy” music. I like how parts of “Presage” sound like Goblin. I hate being nostalgic, but those spidery art rock scores need to return to horror films. They just add so much more to the upper-echelon sleeze of Italian gore films. But no, instead we get generic Christopher Young apings and that’s at best. At worst, it’s a bunch of Mudvayne knock-offs. The other night I was watching the Muisc Choice ch on Free-On-Demand. Saw a new video from Trapt. You remember, the “BAHK AHHHF I’LL TAKE YEW AHHHHN” band? That shit was like the Nu-Metal “Eye of the Tiger”. They’re new single is in the same vein… it’s called “Bring It” I think. They look like guys who cover their eyes while watching UFC. Also watched a Seether video. They’re the band with the little fat guy who pretends to be Kurt Cobain. Now a lot of people have been trying to be little Cobain clones for the last 18 years, but I think this guy takes the cake (all of it… he’s fat, you see). He’s sort of like the Elvis Impersonator from Dread Zeppelin, except that guy can sing. Holy shit this track “Celesta” is fucking boss. This is the kind of stuff Sleepytime Gorilla Museum should be writing. Back to Seether. Anyway, this guy is the king shit of awful Cobain wannabes. He’s got it all down (except for the “writing songs I would enjoy” part); the stringy hair in his face, the same scraggly facial hair, the same ironic monster faces… you’d think with all this effort being put into this “I WANNA BE KURT” pose, that some modicum of Cobain’s taste and song writing would’ve crept in, but nope… it’s still just limp stadium grunge. You really think this Seether clown has ever listened to Scratch Acid or “Raping a Slave” by Swans like Cobain did? I love that while I’m listening to the mindbending awesomeness of Univers Zero I’m bitching about 4^th generation grunge bands from the early 2000s. next I’ll tell you the sagas of Three Days Grace and  Smile Empty Soul while listening to Ascension by Coltrane. Cause despite my pretensions, I’m still a cynical teenager who hates anything more popular than me.

Favorite Tracks: “Presage” “Celesta (for Chantai)” , “Emanations”

7000 DYING RATS – Fanning the Flames of Fire

I sort of remember this band. I love that they have an album called Good Luck’s a Comin’. I still quote that Married… With Children joke all the time (“oh well that’s a different. does it say ‘the wife is a leavin’”, “pumpkin that can’t be. the horror with the scope just told me ‘Good Luck’s a Comin’”). Oh Al Bundy… teaching me that sex with your wife is gross and fat women are wrong for existing. I only like jokey bands when they’re bizarre grind like this. Has that awesome blown-out AxCx production, but with all these weird Naked City/Mr. Bungle elements being tossed about. Some of it is pretty dumb I guess, but I’m discovering I don’t know funny. People tell me that show Girls on Actch Bea Oh is funny, but all it does is give me a loath-boner. It’s a hatred that’s almost necessary.. .. purifying in a way. I’m not gonna make fun of Lena Dunham (that her name?) for not looking like Kate Upton, as most people are want to do, but I will say if she’s even 1/100^th of the character she portrays on that show in real life, I’d suggest that the events of a Heather Lewis novel happen to her very soon. Thing I like about 7000 Dying Rats is that while they have silly stuff, there’s still enough vicious grooves and polyp-eroding screams to offset the goofiness. Holy shit @ “Resentment of the Indians”. Don’t feel like writing anymore. Gotta get ready for my real job. I love all these Radio Ads spliced into the record. I would blow-off Lolapalooza for Crowbar, Morbid Angel, and 7000 Dying Rats in 1997.

Favorite Tracks: “and then the Girl Said ‘Why Would You Want to be in a Band That Didn’t Have a Message?’”, “Weapons of Fiji”, “the Clenched Fist of White Oppression”, “Resentment of the Indians”.