Albums released on July 8th that are in my collection.
The Go-Gos – Beauty and the Beat (1981) Seems they get taxed with being a novelty. As good as any of the boy groups at power-pop, actually better than most
Exodus – Another Lesson in Violence (1997) Picked this up due to the track “Impaler” that hadn’t been released, at least officially. Also the return of Paul Baloff singing tracks from the “Pleasures of the Flesh” album. The obviously fake crowd noise is a detriment but not as much as the banter. It should have been edited out. Juvenile “kill the posers” crap, that may fly when you’re 18 but at 30+? A side note, sometime after this I heard the demos with Baloff singing the “Pleasures of the Flesh” tracks no wonder he got the boot.
Albums released on July 7 that are in my collection.
The Stooges – Fun House (1970) Runs out of gas at the end, hey let’s just do a noise freak out.
Rainbow – On Stage (1977) A nicely edited single album that saves you from the bloat and Dio’s scatting on the unedited live albums like “Live in Munich”
Styx – Grand Illusion (1977) I still enjoy this but not as much as I did in 1977. It’s a lot. What the Brits call “pomp rock”.
David Lee Roth – Eat Em and Smile (1986) The only Van Halen related album post 1984 that’s worth my/your time. Even if it’s an approximation of Van Halen’s Roth years. There’s a version in Spanish that’s worth tracking down.
Faster Pussycat – Faster Pussycat (1987) Ridiculous sleaze metal/rock. Very over the top and very enjoyable if you partake.
Every week Apple Music makes a New Music Mix for users. I will make off the cuff “reviews” of the songs the algorithm “thinks” I will like. I can manipulate this list much easier than the friends list by what I listen to. That being said it loves feeding me Black and Death Metal which for the most part isn’t my thing.
The Damned “Making Time” if I didn’t know this was the Damned I’d never guess. Listened to 1 minute and 8 seconds.
Civic “Cosmic Astronaut “ Not the Aussie punk band. Apple you need to fix the multiple bands with the same name problem. Listened 8 seconds.
Landowner “Slippery Abyss” Jangly guitars with talk singing, a painful combo when the song is so bad. Listened to 31 seconds.
Hey Colossus “Runaway Heart” I think this is supposed to be weird, it’s boring. Listened to all of it waiting for something to happen.
A Place to Bury Strangers “Acid Rain” Ultra distorted guitars almost to being painful. Ethereal vocals. Not sure what I think. Listened to all of it.
Megadeth “Another Bad Day” Lifeless. Listened to 1 minute.
Lubomyr Melnyk “Windmills, Pt. 1” Dark, creepy almost ambient piano. Eventually gets into his more Philip Glass type music. Listened to it all.
Black Swan “When the Cold Wind Blow” Starts off and I’m excited for some noisy rock, then it becomes dull power metal. Listened to 1 minute 18 seconds.
Joe Hoekstra’s 13 “Lifeline” Wow sterile unimaginative pop metal in 2026. This is paste. Listened to 50 seconds.
Necofier “Servents of Darkness, Guide My Way III” You know you’re in trouble when you’re on the second sequel of a song. Generic Black Metal. Listened 1 minute and 31 seconds.
Possession “The Black Chappel” Out of all the music I play, I listen to Immortal once and it’s like here’s a lot boring of Black Metal . 1 minute 2 seconds.
Final Gasp “No Hand to Lead” Someone likes Lane Staley. 34 seconds.
Psycroptic “Failing” Music is as bad as the band name. Enough with the metal. 22 seconds.
The Silver “Memorias” Melodeath Black metal. Kinda prog. It’s shit. 53 seconds.
At the Gates “The Fever Mask” It’s good but do you really need more than Slaughter of the Soul? Listened to all of it.
Harrowed “The Haunter” Maybe there should be some kind of license needed to have a metal band. 1 minute 10 seconds.
Suplecs “Pentacle Star” i think this is supposed to be Stoner Rock, whatever it is it’s bad. Listened to 1 minute and 12 seconds.
Chuck Treese Rachel Anne “Our Town (Eye Can Tell)” How this was recommend to me and what did I listen to trigger it is a mystery. Listened to all of it to see if it was anything but vocals and breathing, it wasn’t.
Good Riddence “There’s Still Tonight” Great I listen to hardcore punk and it thinks I want this crap. 58 seconds.
Social Distortion “Born to Kill” Still mining the “I work on my car/motorcycle 50+ punks”. 33 seconds.
Stereolab “Cloud Land” never been much for them. A bit too twee. I kind of like this. Listened to it all.
ADULT. “No One is Coming” Shit, two in a row I enjoy. Noisy Electronic/Industrial with Lene Lovich like vocals. Listened to it all.
Nick Plunti “Bruises and Bandages” The dreaded singer songwriter, who is good at neither. 12 seconds.
Dada Laida “The Beyond” Because you can play guitar technically doesn’t mean you play it well. 44 seconds.
Angel Du$t “Downfall” What did I do to deserve this? 37 seconds.
Every week Apple Music makes a Friends Mix. I will make off the cuff “reviews” of the songs in this list. As Apple Music likes to put the same bands on the list often, so I will skip some of the tracks.
Rat Boys “Light Night Mountains All That” Spinanes or Julianna Hatfield like indie rock thats as boring as either of them. Listened to a minute and 23 seconds.
Mission of Burma “Progress” Uh oh is this going to be a week where I like more than I hate. Listened to all of it.
Come “In / Out” Another quality 90’s indie rock jam. Some nice guitar work here. Listened to all of it.
Grifters “Re-Entry Blues” Never cared for the sleepy bluesy indie rock of the Grifters. Listened 1 minute.
Heroic Doses “Crystals” Weird I don’t remember liking this. Some cool guitar bits. Probably, like most instrumental bands, could use a singer. Gets a bit repetitive as it goes along. Listened to it all.
Cows “A Gift Called Life” Chaotic noise rock. Leaves me wanting some kind of hook, Listened to 56 seconds.
Moving Targets “Faith” Husker Du, well Bob Mould at least, clone. I dig it. Listened to all of it.
Versus “8-9” “Blade of Grass” is their best song, go listen to that. Listened to 34 seconds.
The Replacements “Go” The first two Replacements releases are the best. Yeah, they are. Listened to all of it.
The Judybats “Saturday” Harmless indie pop. Boring. 30 seconds.
Smoking Popes “Just Broke Up” Top notch pop-punk, not your jock/frat boy pop-punk. Listened to it all.
Loop “Afterglow” Noisy, Shoegazey, Spacey genius. Listened to it all.
Abrasive Wheels “Danger, Danger” Luckily not about the shitty pop-metal band. Punk, its ok. Listened to all of it.
All Systems Go “Running Blind” Doughboys, Big Drill Car team up. It’s decent not close to either former bands best. Listened to it all.
SNFU “The Quest for Fun” While not their best its closest to top tier SNFU. Easily one of the greatest live bands. Listened to all of it.
Descendents “Hurtin’ Crue” An alright faux-metal song, they have much better. Listened it all.
Dag Nasty “One to Two” Essential melodic hardcore. Too much love flowing this week. Listened to it all.
All “Birds” If it’s not on Allroy Sez or Allroy for Prez… I don’t care. Listened to 54 seconds.
Alligator Gun “Evergreen Lawns” Milwaukee’s (Wisconsin’s) pop-punk kings. Do it. Listened to it all.
Spiritualized “Come Together” I really want to like them but it never clicks. The gospel-ish chorus, no thanks. Listened to a minute and 12 seconds.
XTC “Limelight” I should like them, they annoy the shit out of me. Listened to 27 seconds.
Bauhaus “Silent Hedges” Fucking great, the gloomy masters. Listened to it all.
Hum “Isle of the Cheetah” Yeah I call them metal but a mutation and combination that is dreamy and heavy. Deftones owe them some cash. Listened all of it.
Built to Spill “Happiness” This is way to hard when I like most of the songs. Not the best from this album, a bit too on the bluesy tip. Listened all of it.
More like every 2025 release I bought. Slim year for me.
Albums
FACS – Wish Defense
Angular, noise rock, neo-post punk. Unsettling, laid-back, yet aggressive. And yes it was the last album Steve Albini recorded.
Dax Riggs – 7 Songs for Spiders
Blues metal? Shoegaze blues? I don’t know or care, I like it.
Civic – Chrome Dipped
Aussie punk in the vien of The Saints and Radio Birdman.
Årabrot – Rite of Dionysus
Former Black Metal, Noise Rock. Now weirdo noise pop? This is much quieter than their last release. Weird and haunting.
JG Thrilwell – Venture Brothers Vol 3
Spy movie jazz with some electronic bits?
Krokofant – 6
Hard jazz fusion. Maybe a bit prog. Harder Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Nine Inch Nails – Tron Ares
Love the instrumental songs, old school heavy synths. The songs with vocals are pretty typical NIN.
Anika – Abyss
Neo Post Punk with Nico type vocals.
Coroner – Dissonance Theory
The dreaded reunion album that turns out to be pretty good. Thrash metal with some proggish parts thrown in.
Carla Kihlstedt – 26 Little Deaths
Violinist, vocalist from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Book of Knots, Tin Hat Trio interprets Edward Gorey stories/illustrations.
Jim Jarmush & Anika – Father Mother Sister Brother (soundtrack)
More like Anika doing a couple covers and Jarmush doing some western-ish texture guitar instrumentals.
EPs
Swervedriver – Worlds Fair
Are they shoegaze? I guess much more guitar forward but they do have the dream like quality.
Reissues
Andy Summers and Robert Fripp box set
Frippatronics meets the Police world-ish music. Disc 1 and 3 are great. 2 a bit too world music. No links.
Watchtower – Energetic Disassembly Remix/Remaster
Yeah, an acquired taste. Extreme prog thrash. Extreme on the prog technical end. Love it. Links are only the remaster disc. apparently the remix disc is not available for streaming.
