PLAYLIST: Plaguelist #18: It Has Been One Year Since I Have Seen Live Music

1. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and The Picket Line – Death To Everyone – Funtown Comedown (2009) (0:00)
March 11, 2020 marks the last time I was at a live music event.  I am someone who went to see some type of music on a nearly weekly basis, so it has been a pretty different year for me.  That’s why I started doing these playlist things in the first place.  But that final show was Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and things were already pretty weird at the time.  Unbeknownst to us, the shutdown was mere days away, but there was already a strangeness in the air.  The show was poorly attended and awkwardly quiet, with the artists addressing the uncertainty of the rest of their tour dates.  I can’t remember if they played this song or not, but it’s one of my favorites.  The original version comes from the essential Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy album, I See A Darkness, but here we have a reimagined version played live with a bluegrass band backing him.

2. Pinkish Black – Burn My Body – Bottom Of The Morning (2015) (03:38)
Do you like creepy synth driven music that is made by the likes of Goblin and Zombi?  Well then, Pinkish Black may be for you.  The group is a two-piece, keyboard oriented experimental band that formed after the third member of their previous band, The Great Tyrant, committed suicide.  There’s a deep darkness to their sound that borders on being gothic.  A song like “Burn My Body” would be great background music to one of those old Italian horror movies.  The second half of the track shifts into a slow burn of a synth lead that will have you shivering.

3. Witch – Rip Van Winkle – Invaders (Compilation) (2006) (09:09)
In 2006 Kemado Records released this interesting compilation of mostly stoner rock bands ranging from The Fucking Champs to High On Fire.  One of the standouts was this demo version of Witch’s “Rip Van Winkle,” which received a proper studio version on their eponymous debut.  With J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr on the drums, the band played an extra hazy take on fuzzed out Black Sabbath worship.  This demo version is a lot rawer sounding, particularly on the lead guitar tone, which is at times overbearing - in the best way possible.  With a creepy, whiny vocal and densely smoky aesthetic, this song lives up to the bands name.

4. Charlie Sexton – Marie – Blaze (Soundtrack) (2018) (14:21)
When I heard a biopic of country anti-star Blaze Foley was in the works, I was both excited and concerned.  Could they actually tell the incredibly sad, yet oddly humorous story of the man Lucinda Williams wrote the song “Drunken Angel” about?  Blaze was a victim of his own asinine behavior and never achieved fame because of it, even if Merle and Willie sang his songs.  But, with Ethan Hawke directing and Ben Dickey playing the lead (and doing a great job singing his songs too), the movie actually turned out to be fantastic.  Charlie Sexton plays Townes Van Zandt, Blaze’s more successful drinking buddy, and in a wonderful scene lays out a heart-wrenching version of one of Townes’ darkest songs, “Marie.”  If you haven’t seen it, go watch it right now.

5. Eartheater – Below The Clavicle – Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin (2020) (19:38)
This was on my list of top albums from 2020 if anyone is paying attention.  I’m assuming not, so let me rephrase what I said it about then.  Based out of New York via Pennsylvania, Alexandra Drewchin, also known as Eartheater, makes terrifyingly beautiful music, seductive and creepy all at the same time.  Part Bjork, part howling banshee, her latest, Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin, is one of the most refreshing albums I have heard in a long time.  Serene acoustic guitars and string arrangements collide with wooshing electronics to create a hauntingly pleasant soundscape.  It’s disturbing and infectious all at the same time.

6. B. Dolan – The Hunter – Fallen House, Sunken City (2010) (22:38)
It must be noted that Fallen House, Sunken City was produced entirely by the late Alias, who was one of the most interesting and creative producers out there.  His music bed gives B. Dolan’s second full-length album a dark eerie undertone, perfect for the emcee’s intelligent lyrics.  “The Hunter” tells the story of a vampire-hunter who gets, perhaps, a little to close to his work.  The song is tied in with the real-life story of Mercy Brown, whose body, presumed undead, was exhumed in the late 1800’s, and also features a badass Twin Peaks sample at the end.  How could you go wrong?

7. Sunday Flood – A Deaf Purple – Advisory (2000) (27:42)
I don’t know much about Sunday Flood except that they are from Wisconsin.  My older brother burned me this CD around 2000 or 2001 and it was in regular rotation in my car back then.  They sound almost like a heavy version of Sunny Day Real Estate.  The guitars sound huge, and I am assuming the band played at an obnoxious volume when they played live.  Wish I could have seen it.

8. Circle – Odultept – Andexelt (1999) (32:07)
This is the album from Finnish weirdo rockers Circle that I always return to.  The songs are long instrumentals, which build up around simple ideas.  Based on 70’s German progressive rock, the group find themselves locked into a groove, which expands outward into different sonic textures.  Flutes and heavy delay effects pop in and out all the while rhythm section drives away.  This is quintessential New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal.

9. Casper Clausen – Used To Think – Better Way (2021) (41:07)
Efterklang’s lead singer goes full on Kraftwerk on his first solo album.  Clausen, one-third of the Danish indie group, has actually stepped outside of his bands footprint, but maintains all the right things that we love about him.  The krautrock influence is big, but the vocalist has a penchant for catchy melodies.  On “Used To Think,” he comes in with a strong pop hook after a long electronic-driven intro section that sounds straight off Kraftwerk’s Autobahn.  It’s not that he’s copying the material, though; it’s more that he is using it as a reference point to jump off.  This will probably be in my top albums of this year, so you may have to read about it again later.

10. Codeseven – The Camel City – The Rescue (2002) (49:50)
Looking forward to hopefully seeing shows in 2021, I am planning to take a trip down to Birmingham, AL for the resurrection of Furnace Fest.  Stacked with a lineup that includes Cave In, As Friends, Mineral, The Appleseed Cast and a ton more, it should be a great way to get back into the live music setting.  Codeseven will be there, too, which is exciting because I have never seen them before.  Starting out as a sort of hardcore take on rap-metal, the band shifted into metalcore for their 1999 classic Division Of Labor.  But, like Cave In, the group abandoned the sound as quickly as they helped to define it and moved towards a more space-rock feel.  The Rescue was the first step in that direction, which would be fully realized with their final album Dancing Echoes/Dead Sounds, released in 2004.   I don’t know what era of music they’ll be playing at Furnace Fest, but I’ll take any at this point.