Individual Thought Patterns

Chuck Schuldiner (May 13, 1967 – December 13, 2001)

RIP

Poison Idea - Feel the Darkness

Here's another one that helped cultivate the Swamp we lurk in: Feel the Darkness by Poison Idea.  One of the few hardcore to bands to be legitimately terrifying in their day, Poison Idea consistently put out the best and toughest records of any punk band for years, peaking with this one.  Lacing their sinister, complex hardcore with greasy blues and classic rock riffs, they practically kick their way into the room through your speakers, stomping all over your shitty record collection.  Singer Jerry A. tackles what seems to be the day-to-day grind for the band: drugs, crime, cops, and alienation, and behind the punk doggerel he sneaks in quite a bit of bleak poetry.  Literally, the heaviest band on the planet.

RIP Pig Champion

Scumdogs

RIP Flattus Maximus

Germ Free Adolescents

X-Ray Spex's neon dystopia of plastic airtight repression was flash-frozen in time on Germ Free Adolescents.  Notable right off the bat are the squealing, in-and-out of tune saxophone and the distinct wail of singer Poly Styrene. Poly's obsession with consumerism, disposable culture, and the air-conditioned nightmare informs her lyrics, but her soulful voice and sharp sense of humor keep it cheerfully surreal.  The band released one more album after this, but it was underwhelming and overshadowed by Styrene's growing mental illness, UFO sightings, and adoption of Hare Krishna.  Sadly, she died earlier this year after recording a fairly promising handful of new songs.  Still, this album stands as tribute to her Orwellian love and pessimism for the human race.  

I wanna be insta-matic

I wanna be a frozen pea

Hellride Jailbreak

Frankly, it's impossible for me to imagine a cross-section of Swamp readers. In my mind you're all a wonderful blob of indescribable stench and horror, but there must be somebody paying attention out there, yes? For those loyal seedlings that are fans of both Thin Lizzy and Wesley Willis, or those just toeing the waters of madness and hilarity, or those lamenting the state of humanity and curling up all fetal-like, take heart. Sometimes the stars shall align in your favour, even if it's only for four minutes and twenty seconds. Tonight there's going to be a jailbreak, probably at the jail.
Have it your own fucked up way.

Fex Urbis Lex Orbis

This is probably old news to many of you by now, but I just found out that Ludicra, one of the best and longest-running American black metal bands (and one of my favorites), has broken up. I haven't the energy to expound too much on this yet - it's already been a long day and I've just arrived back in the Swamp - but I wish the respective members the best in the future and hope to see more music from each of them. There is that Hammers of Misfortune album due this year...
Collapse

RIP Würzel Burston

Well, this is a few days late, but I couldn't stop listening to this, my favorite Motörhead album, so I figured I might as well post it. Arguably the last really crucial record they released, and the peak of the dual-guitar era, 1916 is partially a meditation on WWI, complete with the touching and delicate title cut, and also a celebration of unkillable rock n' roll. Lots to like on this one - Ramones tribute "R.A.M.O.N.E.S.," trippy experiment "Nightmare Dreamtime," seize-the-day anthem "No Voices in the Sky," and so on. Further proof that Motörhead was much more than a one-trick pony.
RIP

RIP Wild Man Fischer

The Monkey and the Donkey

RIP Jamie Toulon

No music today

Small Talk

Who'll pay reparations on my soul?

Be A Man

Well Shit.

Poly Styrene RIP

What a year already...RIP

RIP Scott Columbus

1956-2011

Rev. Gary Davis - Live at Newport

The Reverend Gary Davis was a legendary and long-lived performer who claimed to have written hundreds of public domain songs from "Baby Let Me Lay It on You" to "Cocaine Blues" to "Samson and Delilah." His cavernous barn of a voice and jaw-dropping guitar playing were compounded by a wry sense of mischief and ego and hubris to match his talent. He was a favorite of a late friend of mine taken from us far too young. This is for her.
JCA RIP

RIP

Gary Moore R.I.P.

Saint Vitus - Born Too Late

Armando Acosta R.I.P.

Ronnie and the Red Caps

Ronnie and the Red Caps "An Angel is Missing / What'd I Say"

Ronnie and the Red Caps "Lover / Conquest"

Ronnie and the Prophets LP

Dio and the Prophets

Ronnie Dio and the Prophets - Dio at Domino's LP

"Gonna Make it Alone / Swingin' Street"

Ronnie Dio and the Prophets

Ronnie and the Prophets - "The Ooh Pah Pah/ Love Pains" 1962

Ronnie and the Prophets - "Where You Gonna Run / Say You're Mine Again" 1965

Dust - Hard Attack

Well, my friends, this is perhaps a few days late, but I feel it still appropriate to post this Frazetta-painted album by classic New York rock band Dust. Perhaps most of you already own a copy, but poor health and cough-syrup induced visions are reducing the effectiveness of my imagination and candor. Notable factoids concerning this album, besides its sheer pounding awesomeness and its vast array of bizarre lyrical topics, include the presence of one Marc Bell, future Ramone and Voidoid behind the drumkit, and that there are (unlike their first, self-titled album) exactly zero songs about fucking a camel.
En garde!