Tim Hecker’s discography is a patchwork of ambient treasures, as rewarding to the deepest pursuits of one’s navel as it is deceptively tourist-friendly. As such, in honour of his latest album, No Highs, the Staff team has undertaken to give it the Treatment. Here are our picks! Patience goes a long way with Mr. Hecker, and so we have taken a generous length of time to absorb No Highs and reflect on the rest of his corpus. We hope the wait has been worth it.
Tim Hecker’s music feels natural and synthetic at the same time; it’s therefore no wonder that he’s been drafted mercilessly into the ranks of Forward-Thinking Electronic Artists in the early part of the 21st century, with its various temporally specific concerns about the divisions between the kinds of artistic “decisions” made by a computer program and those made by those with eyes to see cathedrals everywhere.…
Hello again! I’m back to break up the monotony of CD artwork/packaging with my band apparel. It’s not as diverse band-wise as I remembered, and it turns out I’ve only really bothered to buy (or, at least keep) apparel merch from four bands: Yellowcard, Brand New, mewithoutYou, and Manchester Orchestra. In a way this makes sense, as they represent favorite bands of mine at different junctures within my lifetime.
Disclaimer: I did not, nor would I ever have the desire to, iron or even dry all this stuff just to make a blog post, so please excuse the massive wrinkle epidemic as well as any dog/cat hairs that appear. They know not what they do. If you missed the previous installments in this series, you can check out Vol. 1 and Vol.2 by clicking the links.
Yellowcard
Of the bands in this post, Yellowcard was my first love. Nothing makes me feel more ready for summer than sporting a shirt featuring this band’s name or logo, although sometimes I do feel a little self-conscious being a 30-something dude wearing stuff promoting a pop-punk band that peaked 20 years ago. But, as they say, you gotta do you.
Ocean Avenue era T-shirt. Can’t remember when I bought this but I’m fairly sure it was long after OA was released.
Hello readers of Sputnik! Those who’ve been following along are aware that I’m in the midst of a deep dive into all things physically related to music – from CDs to apparel and random memorabilia – and right now I’m here to deliver the second installment within the CD category. If you missed it, Vol. 1 can be read here.
I’ve been trying to limit this series to CDs that (A) have a great deal of personal meaning to me, (B) have particularly alluring packaging/art, or both A & B. A lot of these check both boxes, so without any additional pointless stalling, here is the next batch of CDs that I view as treasure.
(1) David Bowie – Blackstar
The CD release for the legendary David Bowie’s final album does the music, and him, justice. There’s a dark/shadowy/reflective theme and color scheme that really sells the whole “black star” concept. This is one of my all-time favorite CDs to hold in-hand as I reflect upon his legacy. It’s a thick booklet, full of mysterious images with lots of layers to the art/conceptual meaning.
The man, the myth, the legend.
Ground control to Major Tom…
Notice the reflective quality of the images and words
Look up here, I’m in heaven…I’ve got scars that can’t be seen
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of June 23rd, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: June 23, 2023 –
Albert Hammond Jr.: Melodies On Hiatus
Genre: Indie Pop Label: Red Bull
Coi Leray: Coi
Genre: Hip Hop Label: Republic / Uptown
DeathCollector: Death’s Toll
Genre: Death Metal Label: Prosthetic
Degrees of Truth: Alchemists
Genre: Progressive Metal Label: Scarlet
Fear Factory: Re-Industrialized
Genre: Industrial Metal Label: Nuclear Blast
The Heist Revenge: Scorched Earth Amusement Park [EP]
Genre: Indie rock / Emo / Post-hardcore Label: Self-released
High Priest: Invocation
Genre: Stoner Doom Label: Magnetic Eye
Infernal Curse: Revelations Beyond Insanity
Genre: Blackened Death Metal Label: Iron Bonehead Productions
Jag Panzer: The Hallowed
Genre: Heavy Metal Label: Atomic Fire
Jason Mraz: Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride
Hype is deadly. From experience, when it comes to entertainment at least, I try and live my life with having very little expectations for things and events. It was only last year I had seen Tool for the first time; despite the band being incredibly important to me, my apprehension for seeing them was palpable. To be blunt, I wasn’t really looking forward to it in a lot of ways, but then when I went, the band blew it out of the water. It was one of the best events I’d ever been to. Fast-forward to this year and I’ve been to two events this year – both of which I uncharacteristically had no filter over my excitement for seeing them. One was Darren Hayes – a bitter disappointment that has tarnished his legacy in my eyes – the other was legendary composer Hans Zimmer. While the gig wasn’t the unmitigated disaster of the former, it brought enough frustrations to the table to warrant it being a disappointment of sorts. For context, I relish in most of Zimmer’s extensive catalogue of movie scores; I listen to them as much as I listen to albums from my favourite bands and artists. His ability to keep with the times and reinvent himself with every passing decade is very impressive to behold. Coupled with the fact I’d never seen a live orchestra and the ingredients created something I couldn’t hold back – this was…
Preface: So much of listening to music in 2023 feels…impersonal. We consume and discard songs/albums/entire artists at an unprecedented rate, and thus lose out on a lot of what, at least in my experience, makes music special. At the risk of divulging my approximate age, CDs were the most popular means of listening to music for the majority of my life-to-date. I’d save up whatever money I could from my minimum wage job(s) as a kid and go buy my favorite artists’ albums from places like FYE, Walmart, Target, Sam Goody, or my local record store. There’s something about holding a CD (or, for those into it, Vinyl) in your hands that increases your connection to the music, and I think it goes beyond the mere financial investment. There’s a sense of pride in ownership, and with that comes a sense of duty to give the music the time and attention it deserves. This is far from a preaching moment – I’m now an avid streamer of music – but when it comes to the artists that I care about the most (especially those who have had some sort of nostalgic hold or notable impact on my life), there’s no substitute for having that music on me and being able to look through the pictures and/or display them.
It dawned on me that so much of my experience with music is centered around things that I physically own – from CDs to apparel – so I…
There’s a ferociousness again to Jeromes Dream, a hunger that, while scattered into tiny doses throughout 2019’s LP, is now unhinged and unleashed on The Gray InBetween. The Gray In Between goes for the throat. Between Jeff Smith screaming again, Sean Leary’s pummeling riffs, and Erik Ratensperger’s phenomenal and frantic drumming. Jeromes Dream has written an album that very much serves as the spiritual successor to 2000’s landmark Seeing Means More Than Safety. Simply put, Jeromes Dream has roared back, and let’s hope there’s no slowing down anytime soon.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of June 16th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: June 16th, 2023 –
Arkona: Kob’
Genre: Melodic Black Metal Label: Napalm Records
AVKRVST: The Approbation
Genre: Progressive Metal Label: Century Media
Ben Howard: Is It?
Genre: Indie Folk Label: Island Records
Chocolate Hills: Yarns from the Chocolate Triangle
Genre: Ambient / Electronic Label: Cooking Vinyl
Creeping Death: Boundless Domain
Genre: Death Metal / Thrash Label: Megaforce Elektra
Deer Tick: Emotional Contracts
Genre: Alternative Rock / Americana Label: ATO Records
Fifth Angel: When Angels Kill
Genre: Power Metal Label: Nuclear Blast
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: PetroDragonic Apocolypse
Genre: Psychedelic / Progressive Rock Label: KGLW
Killer Mike: Michael
Genre: Hip Hop Label: Bertelsmann Music Group
Kool Keith: Black Elvis 2
Genre: Hip Hop / Experimental Label: Mello Music Group
Maisie Peters: The Good Witch
Genre: Pop Label: New Elektra
Motorpsycho: Yay!
Genre: Psychedelic / Progressive Rock Label: Stickman Records
Queens of the Stone Age: In Times New Roman
Genre: Stoner Rock Label: Matador Records
Sigur Ros: Atta
Genre: Post Rock / Experimental / Dream Pop Label: Krunk
Thy Catafalque: Alfold
Genre: Black Metal / Experimental Label: Season of Mist
Another year, another grid! Yes, yes, half a year late, but I couldn’t live with myself if there was a gap year, and I couldn’t risk letting such beautiful (or decidedly not beautiful) album covers go unnoticed. As always, this list is neither ranked nor listed in any logical order, but rather ordered through an aesthetic progression of color, framing, and connective imagery. This is by no means an exhaustive (though it was exhausting) list of 2022’s best album artwork, but I did do my best to provide covers of varied styles, genres, and backgrounds. I’m sure some will let me know if I didn’t succeed! For now, I’ll let the artworks speak for themselves.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of June 9th, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: June 9, 2023 –
The Bleeding: Monokrator
Genre: Death/Thrash Label: Redefining Darkness Records
The Boo Radleys: Eight
Genre: Britpop/Shoegaze Label: Boostr
Christine and the Queens: Paranoia, Angels, True Love
Genre: Trip Hop / Pop Label: Because Music
Claustrum: Claustrum
Genre: Death Metal Label: Avantgarde Music
Cynic: ReFocus
Genre: Progressive/Death Metal Label: Cynical Sphere, LLC
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of June 2nd, 2023. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff and/or contributors.
– List of Releases: June 2, 2023 –
The Aces: I’ve Loved You For So Long
Genre: Indie Rock Label: Red Bull
The Anix: Nightvision
Genre: Alt Rock / Electronic Label: FIXT
Avenged Sevenfold: Life Is But A Dream…
Genre: Metalcore Label: Warner
Beach Fossils: Bunny
Genre: Indie Rock / lo-fi Label: Bayonet
Ben Folds: What Matters Most
Genre: Indie Pop Label: New West
Ben Harper: Wide Open Light
Genre: Singer Songwriter / Pop Rock Label: Chrysalis
Welcome back to Sputnikmusic’s maybe possibly most helpful segment where we discuss the ins and outs of reviewing music and all its glory! Maybe you’re a budding reviewer, on the cusp of greatness, searching for that piece of the puzzle lost on the floor or maybe your mum just logged you on to the household’s singular trusty laptop and you don’t know what to do with your fifteen-minute screen allowance before the older sibling demands the computer for…research? Either way, you’ve come to the right place!
First off. How did you get in here? What are you? This place doesn’t seem to have doors.
I’m just a mysterious lad with a Trailer Park Boys-derived moniker whose late-blooming interest in music quickly turned to obsession, which led me inevitably down into the dingy corridors of Sputnik. I don’t remember the first thing I read on Sput, but it was probably some review for Bob Dylan or Led Zeppelin or Tom Petty or the like. Now, some twelve years or so later, here I am. For the vast majority of my tenure on Sput, I never had any thought of being a contrib, let alone staff, but the ways of life are mysterious, I guess.
Milo would like to know who your musician union representative is. I would like to know why.
I’m gonna go with Mark Knopfler, probably my favorite guitarist, and I think his “chill but emotional” style of playing resonates with how I try to review: laid-back but letting…
It is 2023, and SputStaff is back. The time is right now and the occasion is (checks notes) the release of the latest Metallica album-that-now-exists 72 Seasons! We did our best to get inspired from that record’s impetus and momentum and, uh, given that it’s now been out for over a month, we’ll leave it up to you to decide how easy a feat this was! In all sincerity, though, practically all of us jive with ‘tallica to some degree or another and in terms of ballots alone, this might have been the most full-handed collaboration of the lot. Please enjoy probably the least controversial selection of Metallica classics of all time (and righteously so!), freshly critiqued for your consumption.
In an alternate universe, “Blackened” is the kickoff to an imperial second era of classic thrash; in ours, it’s the last time Metallica ever managed to out-Metallica themselves. …And Justice for All needed to instantly satiate the ravenous appetite of a metal world…
So it’s been *checks notes* a hot minute since we’ve done this but in case it’s your first day here or the first sober moment since those mushrooms turned on you this is where we vaguely cover “how to review an album”. That is to say in this segment we’ll be cross checking different staffers’ approaches to putting words together. Maybe you’re a budding reviewer, on the cusp of greatness, searching for that piece of the puzzle lost on the floor or maybe your mum just logged you on to the household’s singular trusty laptop and you don’t know what to do with your fifteen minute screen allowance before the older sibling demands the computer for…research? Either way, you’ve come to the right place!
First off. Who are you and how did you get here?
I’m Kompy I got here cuz I got locked out of my Webkinz account and figured this was the next best thing.
But you are the show-poni of the hour. The creme della creme. How has your reviewing got you to this perceivable reception point? What makes Kompys so chompy?
Weed brownies and poor sleep health
Weed, brownies or weed brownies? Remind me to compare recipe cards later.
Ooh, got anything with walnuts?
A couple of salads, nothing of note. Maybe some caramalised beetroot?
You always know how to make a mouth water, chef!
And how does that cream turn to butter? Hard work? Dedication?…
Welcome to the second edition of Sputnikmusic’s very special round table interview featuring the site’s Contributors! In this multi-participant discussion, the team shall face several serious and humorous questions to give them the opportunity to let them shine and introduce themselves. However, instead of throwing questions towards each other this time around, garas volunteered to be the host of this interview. We hope you’ll enjoy it!
garas:Hello everyone, it’s garas here! In the latest promotion event several new people were blessed with the opportunity to become members of the Contributor team. So, let’s start with the most important question you all are probably wondering about:
1a) What is your favourite caffeine source (if there is any), and 1b) also, who the hell are you?
Just to give an example:I love espresso con panna the most. Also, I’m garas, AKA Gary the Grumpy, the local dungeon synth/black metal enthusiast in the team. Otherwise, just a regular metalhead from Hungary who loves cats and fantasy books and games a lot.
The MoC looking sufficiently grumpy.
fogza: I’m currently in love with milk replacements, so my go-to is the coconut milk latte, or as they call it at Pret: the coco latte. I’m fogza, your regular indie fan and traditional song format enthusiast, originally from South Africa but now residing in the UK.
