Mastodon - Blood Mountain

MINE

No.

God, no.

But it made me wonder if guys like this lead singer will be due to lose their vocal cords in years to come.  Better lay in some serious medical insurance - don't you think?

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

YOURZ

I'm not a big metal fan.  Generally, I like my music to be more fun and less serious than a lot of metal takes itself to be.  But in a few instances, a band jumps out, grabs me by my skinny neck and shakes me like a motherfucker.  Mastodon is one such band. 

It is a combination of the blisteringly fast riffs, the rapid time changes and the seemingly higher intellect of their lyrics that does it for me.  The double pronged attack of twin guitars, riffing over the top of a machine-gun-fire snare and fat-as bass are like aural sculptures.  Sure, not everyone appreciates such sculpture, but thankfully, I get this.

The other thing I like about it is they don't mess about with over-long lead guitar breaks, eschewing these for smart, whip-crack riffs that leave the listener breathless.  I fucking love it!  And it seems I'm not the only one, with the band gaining some big names fans in people like QOTSA front man Josh Homme, Cedric from At The Drive In and Neil Fallon from Clutch.  They've toured with Metallica, Slayer and Slipknot and have garnered accolades from the metal and wider music-loving community right around the world.  As they should.  Blood Mountain is a metal fan's wet dream come true.

Mine, however, is probably bleeding from the ears right now...

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.mastodonrocks.com/

March - Wrapup

YOURZ

I can't believe we've got this far without a major disagreement occurring between Mine and YourZ (truly). Oh there have been plenty of heated discussions but this is to be expected.  You can't put two spirited, opinionated and intelligent people together on a project like this and not expect some heated debate. Add to the mix we're married and it really is a surprise we haven't resorted to base urges and tried to strangle each other in our sleep.

I think we've mentioned in previous wrapups how much we're enjoying this.  To reiterate, it has invigorated our collective love of music, has us actively talking about and seeking out new artists and opened our eyes to just how fucking awesome our collection is (even if I do say so myself).

This month, I was stoked to be able to review a few of my all time favourite bands (Led Zeppelin, Queens Of The Stoneage and Gomez) as well as one of my new favourite bands (Clutch) who I also got to see perform a blistering live set.  They kicked serious arse!

We also had the chance, as Mine mentions below, to see Rockwiz, where we stood out by being loud, boisterous know alls.  We spent half the night laughing and the other half rocking out.  We would gladly do it all again tomorrow and the day after too.

Our giveaway, after much deliberation, is to one of our regular(ish) respondents but also the author of some of the funniest, most astute music writing we've read.  We're going to send one of our favourite CDs, The Sleepy Jackson's Lover (review here) to Seano from Circle Of Fits (see this blog here), because we think he'd enjoy it as much as we do.  Seano, if you read this, send us an email with your address and we'll send you some padded baggy goodness.

Finally, another word about our Freebies.  This is the list in our sidebar of CDs we are GIVING AWAY. We're not asking for anything of you other than an email stating what you'd like, why you'd like it and an address where we can send it.  You don't even have to worry about postage.  If there is nothing on the list that interests you, tell your friends to check it out.  Our only motivation is we'd rather see these CDs go to a good home than become landfill.  Let me say it again - FREE CDS!

MINE

We're a quarter of the way through this journey and I'm still getting a thrill from all the music I'm listening to and talking about.  Plus each time we get the pointy stick and the blindfold out (that's how we pick the CDs to review, dear reader) we always have another conversation - about how close we came to almost picking more favourite albums.

And this month we both established ourselves as true music nerds, by going to see RocKwiz being filmed at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney.  Neither of us had the opportunity to  show our mean music skillz, but we sure had fun yelling out the answers and waving our hands in the air.

So at the three-month-mark, I guess I'm just getting more and more enthused about the wide range of music we enjoy.  Onward!

Clutch - Strange Cousins From The West

MINE

Oh there's some heavy-duty boy music bands coming our way this month, I can tell you.  And this is certainly one of them.  I tried to listen to all the songs, but I really couldn't.

My major problem with bands like these is they take themselves so seriously.  I mean, Clutch aren't as bad as that shouty band with the Armenians in it (YourZ sez: that would be System Of A Down, dear) - because who could be?  I don't think those guys even know how to spell irony.  Unless they're being supremely ironic.  Nah, you don't walk around with haircuts like that unless you mean it.  Makes me wonder how they ever get laid.

Clutch aren't as bad, but they still seem to lack any idea of how silly they can be.  I mean, who writes lyrics like "Anthrax, ham radio, and liquor" - and actually mean it?  Plus they love to mix the instruments up SO loud you can barely understand the singer, although he does mostly sing, not yell, which is a plus.

Not my kind of music at all - though they do get kudos for their environmentally-aware packaging.  Using cork as the holder for the CD?  Genius.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN (or play it when I'm out, hon, you know the drill)

YOURZ

I only discovered Clutch in the last 12 or so months.  I mean, I'd heard of them before, but had never listened to them.  I've asked myself why, believe me, and the only real answer I could come up with is the same excuse I've used before: so much music, so little time.  It fucks with my head, but at the same time does my heart good to know there are still bands out there I've yet to discover, bands who restore my faith in the mighty Temple of Rawk.

I now have a number of their albums and am planning on getting more.  I also saw them live when they toured recently for one of the myriad summer music festivals, SoundWave.  This was at a side show at a local venue and is, so far, my favourite live show of the year (admittedly this is the only one I've been to, so there's no competition at this stage).  Still, whoever else I see this year is going to have to put on one helluva kick arse, balls to wall rock show to beat Clutch.

Strange Cousins From The West is the first album released on Clutch's own label, Weathermaker Music, after the band had been put through the wringer with their previous labels.  Like their previous albums, they continue to develop their no bullshit hybrid of funk, blues and hard rock.  I have listened to this album many times now and still don't grow weary of it.  In fact, just writing this makes me want to listen to it again.  Don't fucking ask me to pick a favourite track either - it is just too hard.

I think the best way to put it is like this: Clutch is a band you either get or you don't.  I'm just stoked I do.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information:http://www.pro-rock.com/

In our collection we also have Robot Hive/Exodus and Pure Rock Fury (so far)

Asian Dub Foundation - Enemy Of The Enemy

MINE

Oooh, now I know what YourZ means when he bangs on about Forgotten Gems.  This cross-genre dancey, bangy, bhangra-reggae mix just got me itchin' to find a dance floor.  There's something so inspirational for the hips about the cut-through sound of a tabla combined with some really dubby bass.  I'm more familiar with their 2000 release, Community Music as I'd once had a copy of it (whatever happened to that?) but this is just as good.  Swinging between different paces, it's another one I want to select tracks from for my Shuffle's range of "gym-spirational" music.

Speaking of which, that's another area where YourZ and my good self couldn't be further apart.  When it comes to pumping iron, he's all about the shouty-boy music - Clutch, Karnivool, Queens of the Stone Age etc.  Whereas I like me some power-pop, big beat and dancefloor fillers - much like these dudes.

In case you're interested, the song 1000 Mirrors features Sinead O'Connor.  But that's one of the slower ones and I'm just looking around for a dance floor.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP (dance, dance, dance)

YOURZ

Mine and YourZ (truly) had a discussion last night about categories in music.  This stemmed from my idea that, as an exercise, it would be interesting to categorise each band we review and put together some sort of statistical analysis at the end of the year.  Mine disagreed for a number of reasons but primarily because she shares my dislike of categorisations.  I countered that I didn't like them either but that the music industry thrives on them as do a lot of the fans.

For the sake of the argument, we went through the selections we'd made so far and applied an arbitrary genre category to each.  The problem with this is the word 'arbitrary' because where I might see a particular act as one genre, Mine sees it as another.  Asian Dub Foundation was one such act.

To me, this is mainly a hip hop album.  It has more melody and rhythmic complexities than rap and while is uses electronica elements, could hardly be considered so because of its live instrumentation.  Yet we argued about it.  In reality, it has all the above elements without being any one of them in particular.  Heck, it could even be said to encompass world music elements as well.  The argument's still not resolved and probably won't ever be.

Why am I telling you this?  Mainly to give you an understanding of what Enemy Of The Enemy sounds like, without applying a particular genre category to it.  It's undoubtedly great music, full of clever beats consistently crossing cultural boundaries.  It's what I call intelligent dance music.  And this isn't a category, this is a reality.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information go to: http://www.asiandubfoundation.com/