Pretty on the Inside

Two Hundred Sixty-Six

Artist - A Place To Bury Strangers
Album - Exploding Head
Released - 2009
Label - Mute
Genre - Shoegazing/Noise Rock

Tracks:
It Is Nothing
In Your Heart
Lost Feeling
Dead Beat
Keep Slipping Away
Ego Death
Smile When You Smile
Everything Always Goes Wrong
Exploding Head
I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart

I remember hearing this band for the first time.  I honestly thought I was going to go deaf and that's when I realized, for the first time every, I should consider wearing earplugs at shows, especially seeing A Place To Bury Strangers.  The second album by the New York based rock band, Exploding Head will literally make your head explode, with all the good intentions that you can take.  This is, I believe, the first album I head by the trio and since then, I've seen them a few times and just recently at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2013.  Definitely worth seeing live, but make sure to bring your earplugs!!

Enjoy!

One Hundred Seventy-First

Artist - My Bloody Valentine
Album - Isn't Anything
Released - 1988
Label - Creation
Genre - Alternative-Rock/Shoegazing

Tracks:
Side One
Soft As Snow (But Warm Inside)
Lose My Breath
Cupid Come
(When  You Wake) You're Still In A Dream
No More Sorry
All I Need
Side Two
Feed Me With Your Kiss
Sueisfine
Several Girls Galore
You Never Should
Nothing Much To Lose
I Can't See It (But I Can't Feel It)

Listening to this record made me think to myself, "My Bloody Valentine is a band  you either love or hate."  When I expressed those words to my roommate, he said, "Isn't it like that with every band?"  You do have those thoughts when you are first listening to music and within the first few minutes of a song you can determine that, but my point with My Bloody Valentine is that their sound is so unique,  one could come across them as a band being very annoying.  Of course, that is my opinion, but I do believe they are a band that has to grow on you and they definitely grown on me.    After listening to them for a few years, I heard experiencing their live performance can be a bit piercing.  With regards to this record, being My Bloody Valentine's full-length debut album.  Isn't Anything really put things on the map for My Bloody Valentine, especially with Kevin Shields impeccable skills.  I always accepted and love Kevin Shields and I think that is why I've always liked My Bloody Valentine.  The band describes this albums sound as "dry ice-piercingly intense guitar drones and hefty nods to miasmic hardcore soup, oozing a contrary trance-spun drone. Noise becomes beauty as feedback is layered over vocals over feedback ad infinitum" (taken from Wikipedia).

If you don't know much about My Bloody Valentine, this is, indeed, a great album to start with.

Enjoy!

All Things Come to an End

Indeed the truth is to be told.  All things come to an end, either good or bad, but eventually nothing lasts forever.  Here's to great music and my fifty-third pick:

Artist - My Bloody Valentine
Album - Loveless
Released - 1991
Label - Creation
Genre - Alternative Rock, Shoegazing, Noise Pop, Dream Pop, Indie Pop


Tracks:
a Side
only shallow
loomer
touched
to here knows when
when you sleep
i only said
b side
come in alone
sometimes
blown a wish
what you want
soon

Loveless is My Bloody Valentine's second album and by the looks of it, Kevin Shields wrote and co-produced this record.  For those of you who do not know Kevin Shields, I suggest you become familiar with him because he is magnificent and therefore this record deserves that much more credit.  Come in Alone is such an epic song, the vocals, the guitar, the sound is just amazing.  It almost puts you in a trance.  Also, another great song is Sometimes, which happens to be on the soundtrack of one of my favorite movies Lost in Translation.  To be quite honest, I think Kevin Shields had a part in the music for the soundtrack.  Just amazing, simply amazing is how I sum up this album.  Such a great band that I never had the pleasure of seeing live but I heard their live sound is quite piercing.  So piercing that a lot of people wear earplugs.

Enjoy!