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Last Active 07-15-08 2:53 pm
Joined 07-29-07
Review Comments 41
| Buster (drummer) from Kidcrash's 10 Records / August
word. up. | | 1 |  | Immortal Technique
The 3rd World
If you've never seen Immortal Technique, or somehow slept on Revolutionary Vol. 1 and 2, you need to
get on it. This shit should only speak for itself. | | 2 |  | Dillinger Four
Midwestern Songs of the Americas
I put this record, 'Situationist Comedy', and 'This Shit is Genius" on my iPhone, nothing else. Just
Dillinger
Four for a week +. The whole time I was annoyed that I was missing 'Versus God', and I don't know if I
would put this album or 'Versus God' down as my favorite. If you haven't listened to Dillinger Four this
is a
great album to start with, the songwriting is ridiculously mature compared to anything I would call (for
convenience) Punk or more specifically Punk-Pop (not Pop-Punk). If you lumped this in with everything
considered Pop-Punk I think it would be fair to call it blueprint material (structurally, melodically,
rhythmically, content wise...) for the entire classification. The song titles/lyrics make up some of the
only
musical writing that I have actually found myself reading thoroughly in a long time, makes me believe
in
an idea of punk that isn't dead but at least in a cycle of death, ripe with re-birth and new life amongst
the
decay. Both vocalists really do it for me, but that goes back like a decade to my infatuation with
Hopeless
Records. The drummer isn't a technical showman, but rather holds it down, and writes parts that
compliment the songs to a point that is more impressive than anything flashy that could have been
written, and in the end the consistency and phrasing makes this drummer one of my favorite drummers
I
never consciously think about when I listen to. The bass player really plays to my heart strings. Riffs,
nothing to complex, but everything in it's right place. This is a band to listen to if you are thinking
about
song composition and what the ingredients are that you find common across music that could be
labeled
'timeless', punk, and pop. For the record I tend to immediately right off anything that has any
relationship
with Fat Wreck Chords, this is a serious exception. One of the guitarists in our band absolutely hates
this
band, and hates that I always try to force him to listen to it. I completely respect why this wouldn't be
the
cup of tea for plenty of people who's taste is similar to mine and who's musical opinion I hold with a
high
regard; but I'm convinced they just don't get it, and i'm pretty sure this is not a band that anyone will
end
up liking if they go into listening to it with expectations or with the idea in their head that it isn't good.
Oh
well, that said, good luck if you've never heard this, I might have just ruined it for you. | | 3 | | Veil of Maya
The Common Man's Collapse
This record makes me feel insane; It gives me an appreciation for death metal (?), double bass drum
work,
and chugs after having generally written all of them off as things that I was generally not that excited
about. This record gives me no choice but to dive into the deep end and embrace any nu-metal
implications that some parts as well as the production have. Clearly I can't help but feel like being into
this
record requires being moderately into nu-metal, not that it's nu-metal at all, there is just a certain
quotation throughout the record where it's easy to see how nu-metal ideas played a roll in the
composition
of the record. The double bass drum work is outrageous, I've been relatively unimpressed my whole life
by
most double bass work (sans don cab - american don): all of my favorite drummers have always pulled
off
ridiculous feats with a single bass drum pedal, and i've always felt like most double bass work just
comes
off as to predictable, not to mention that most drummers fail to establish any sort of a groove (
everything
gets stripped down in this very mechanical, triggered, manner wear time is approached in a far too
linear
way. I have always dug drummers who could make a double bass set up groove, but there is something
about hearing that open hi-hat, bass roll, break down, -beat that makes me think about how the
drummer has given up control of the hi-hat and it's dynamic textures (it doesn't have to be this way,
but
i've never heard or seen a drummer play with their toes on the hi-hat pedal and their heel on the
second
bass pedal, but it's totally possible to choke and open the hi-hat and shred double bass at the same
time, i
was set on developing this kind of coordination myself but committed to only use the pedal to practice
and
not play or record with it until I had mastery over it enough to only use it in creative ways, and I just
stopped setting it up. any drummer should know why the entire feel of a rock drummer is blown by
the
extra inches everything has to move awkwardly over to accommodate the pedal. drummers who play
with
two rack toms, crash cymbals, those cymbal bells, piccolo snare drums, 7a sticks, low hi-hats, or a
ride
cymbal tilted at a huge angle off to the side of the kit... might not understand what i'm talking about,
those all tend to be signs of a rock drummer who is not playing by feel, the more mechanical kind of
players who make rhythm tired and bland. don't get me wrong, there are tons of rock drummers who
use
various combinations of accessories who are killer, obviously there are exceptions: but over the years I
have played with every one of those accessories at one point or another, but I grew out of each of them
as
I found other ways to get the sound I was seeking from them out of other tools that I have found to be
more naturally predisposed to supporting feel based drumming. Just listen to this record. It all comes
down
to this drummer.)
You'll see what I'm getting at when I say it redefines the chug. | | 4 | | Perth Express
Discography
This is actually about drinking too much free beer, tour, and germany. Only the last two sentences are
mildly related to this band, the rest of this is just absurdity (that I didn't proof read, and most likely is
made up sentences that go on too long, and awkward accidental grammatical errors) (enjoy).
When we got into Germany at the start of our european tour a few months ago, we were hanging out at
an anarcho/punk/diy/bar/venue called AK 44. It's one of the coolest places I've ever been, definitely my
favorite bar in the world... Anyway, everyone was jet lagged and passed out throughout the day but I
couldn't sleep. I had the longest flight of anyone, was the only one who had to fly alone (25hours), and I
was up for a couple days before we left trying to get ready for the month. So, while I had slept on one
of
the flights, I was in a pretty hellish state. I discovered the beer based hospitality of europe, one that
puts
the u.s. to an embarrassing shame, that night. We had a bar that served like 2 or 3 great bottled beers
and nothing else, all to ourselves, all to myself, and were told to just mark any drinks we had so they
could
keep track for restocking. When we first got there we learned that a. all of the u.s. $ we had saved for
tour
were worthless in comparison the strength of the euro, and b. picking up beer bottles in germany, is
like
picking up quarters in the u.s., only they are everywhere, there was a shopping cart full of bottles
tipped
over in front of the bar that we discussed taking to the grocery store for the deposits. We picked up
bottles
off the street whenever we'd see them; but wait, we drank an absurd amount the 2 days we were there
(which ended up looking like child's play when compared to the other 28 days of free beer that
followed)
and never actually took any of the bottles we collected in, but just left them in in crates amongst 1000s
of
empty bottles the bar had waiting to be returned.
So back to the first night, when everyone else was asleep, and I discovered the horrific reality of serious
jet
lag and a child like excitement and eagerness to indulge in a bounty of beer never before imagined...
I started drinking and listened to a room full of german kids having what seemed to be intense and
complex conversations, i drank a lot as I tried to make out the similarity of the sound of a single word
to
english, french, or spanish which I could possibly understand, but I came up with nothing. I eventually
did
catch 'fashista', 'anti-fashista', and it was around that point, a few hours deep, that someone explained
to
me that they were having an anti-fa(cist) meeting/discussion. Suddenly all of the body language started
to
add up, and I began to recognize a few other words I hadn't caught on to that they had been saying.
Then
I realized they all were wearing black, I suddenly realized what kind of an environment I was obviously
in,
and I ended up speaking french with a guy everyone told me they called frenchy, who was from
germany
and spoke german, but also spoke french rather fluently, but he was trashed, and it was a front that I
could speak french at all at this point, I hadn't for 7 years, and I was terrible then. I ended up drinking
what tallied to be 13 beers at the bar, and went with a couple of the guys who later woke up to a bar
with
frenchy, drank a huge disgusting beer that smelled like meat, drank 2 or 3 redbulls when I started to
think
I couldn't even make the 5 minute walk back to the house, let alone stay for the next hour that I clearly
was going to be pressured into. Eventually I had to put my foot down and just try to walk back by
myself.
The dudes weren't going to let me get lost/die on the very first night (i could have made it, but i
understood that they couldn't stay knowing that I was stumbling back alone), and after a few minutes
of
me having to physically have to make it clear that I wasn't going to make it by just starting to walk off,
in
a cycle of 'okay were going buster' to 'oh hey its you (dudes we just met)'. i felt terrible having to leave
the
wonder we had just discovered, beautiful friendly german women in overwhelming numbers, but I was
done for.
That night I woke up just about every hour, this was of course after trying to fall asleep for like 4 hours,
convinced I was dying, not because I was being a pussy, but because I was being a pussy AND I could
feel
the veins all over my upper body trying to circulate blood that felt like it had turned to jelly. At one
point I
called out for our friend Paul who was passed out on the couch, half sat up and crawled a few feet over
to
him, and was like 'dude, i'm sorry but can you please get me some water (water was in the same room,
like 10 feet away)'. before I was done saying dude, he let out this murderous yell/you just half woke me
up and scared the shit out of me but i'm still drunk and actually asleep, that was the most fucked up
sound I've ever heard. I left him alone, as he was immediately back in a beer/jet lag coma. I kept losing
my breath etc. etc. It was the most miserable beer related experience I can recall. The jet lag caught up
in
a way that I was worried about before I was drunk, and that I just didn't think about when I actually was
drunk and kept drinking free beer not remembering this important reality.
These are the few sentences where i'm actually going to write about this band: Right when I started
getting drunk, I was talking to three kids from Gissen, where we were, Frenchy, Hannas, and ...(man, he
was my favorite dude too). Hannas asked if we wanted some tapes to listen to while we were hanging
out,
killing time on our travel/off day, and we happily took them. One was an awesome mix, one side of one
tape was a Lemuria album (strangely out of place), and one tape had Dear You on one side, and Perth
Express on the other side. He had put on Perth Express a little earlier and I noticed that whatever we
were
listening was sick, and our friend Paul really took notice. He put on Perth Express, and kept putting it
on,
over the next 24 hours. Paul had planned on taking the tape with him, and obviously had already gone
through a moral inventory about if it was okay for him to take the tape (that was just a copy), obviously
not willing to ask knowing that the answer no wasn't something he could accept. Hannas mentioned the
tape and Paul retrieved it from his bag, but being awesome, like everyone at AK 44, he just told Paul to
actually keep it if he really liked it.
POINT: This is the best band ever. Don't drink irresponsibly. Sometimes it's much better to let music do
the talking (if need be you can always just share an anecdote that is mildly related the music,
entertaining
or not, it's better than turning anyone off from a band that shouldn't be ignored or be able to be
written off
by any genrefication or comparison. | | 5 | | Mihai Edrisch
Un Jour Sans Lendemein
The second of their two records. This is by far my favorite screamo/hardcore/mislabeled european-ish
band,
well, other than daitro, and actually... aussitot mort, sed non satiata, dominic, raein, celeste, yage,
envy...
I did spend about 5 minutes telling their drummer, who came to a show we played in france, that his
words were very kind but that I had been teaching his drum parts to my 7-15 year old drum students
in
workshops, and that he had actually been one of the most influential drummers I have listened to over
the
last years of my life. | | 6 | | Bun B
II Trill
Secretly, My #1. The production of this is painfully good. Every guest appearance you could ever want to
be surprised and stoked by happens on this record. You can't be into rap, really even 'hip hop', and not
respect where this record sets the bar for mainstream/dirty south artists, it reaches a height of
cohesiveness and consistency somewhat unprecedented, where no track is weak. RIP Pimp C. UGK 4
Life,
not that that's anything new, always been down. | | 7 | | Three Mile Pilot
Another Day, Another Sea
Come on, can you hear this record whispering 'rediscover me. remember way of the ocean? i know you
do.' play, repeat. | | 8 |  | Malady
Malady
Did you miss this record, this band. If you haven't heard it/aren't familiar... don't waste any time. Shit
runs deep, there is still sonically devastating music that rocks in a way that is driving and pushes with a
distinct magic that nothing else can. | | 9 |  | Knapsack
This Conversation is Ending Starting Right Now
Not the most talked about band of the last decade. If you liked the Jealous Sound (who's e.p. is worth a
dedicated listen if you have a taste for intelligent, verging on overly hooky, post-punk...(well, rock,
that
followed and grew out of early 90s emo, alternative/indie regard for a certain idea of rock guitars, well,
this
is actually early/mid 90s emo).
The Singer/Guitarist of the Jealous Sound was in this band before forming the Jealous Sound. It's
awesome. | | 10 | | Jet Black Summer
The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Hands down the best record to ever be put out by a band from New Mexico, whatever The Shins...
There are definitely a few stand out songs on this record, that are some of my favorite songs.
Compositionally dynamic and intelligent, i'm confident to bet that no one has heard of this record. It
came
out on lakeshore records, and I think it was distributed pretty well, but it would be a fluke for you to
have
this record if you're not from New Mexico, unless you have an interesting story of how you came to
have
it. They haven't been a band for years. I learned a bulk of what I rely on most for drumming in Kidcrash
from watching this drummer play live, in this band, and his older band Knowital. There is still a
myspace up
somewhere for this band where you can hear like half of the record. I'll send it you if you want it, email
me.
busterross@gmail.com | |
honourosis
08.07.08 | props for #4 | VicariousIntent
08.07.08 | This is a pretty damn good list...love the long descriptions man, you seem like my kind of guy. A lot of these I haven't heard of, but your descriptions made me want to check em out. Good list man. | 204409
08.17.08 | pretty sick list. that perth express album rules hard | PurpleDrank
09.10.10 | lol awesome | liledman
09.10.10 | well you certainly explain your picks well haha geez | DoubtGin
09.10.10 | pretty awesome of him to be here |
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