The Chesterfield Kings

I've always had a bit of a problem with a great deal of the music coming from the tail-end of the '70s, all the way through the '80s. For some reason, someone decided that over-producing a record was cool. Well, it aint. Due to my inability to look past the crappy production values, and appreciate the songs for themselves, I kind of missed the boat on a lot of the seminal 80s bands. For some reason, I had always kind of lumped The Chesterfield Kings in with a group of bands that had badly produced records, rendering them unenjoyable to me. Boy was I wrong, The Chesterfield Kings were one of only a handful of bands that really seemed to get it from this era. Forming in the late '70s in Rochester, NY, these guys were wearing much different influences on their sleeves from their pop contemporaries. Instead of looking to the future with bullshit synthesizers and awful dance music, the Kings looked back to the glory days of teenage garage bands - the mid '60s. Check out their website if you want a full history, basically, these guys have been the real deal for a long time.
Their new album, Psychedelic Sunrise, on Little Steven's Wicked Cool Records doesn't skip a beat. The album's opener, Sunrise (Turn On) is another one of my favorite songs of the past few months, but the whole album is pretty killer. The album is another entry into the ever expanding Thumbs Up '07 list.

Check it out:
Sunrise (Turn On)

The Warlocks

I just saw The Warlocks at the Knitting Factory last week. I picked up a copy of their album Phoenix when it came out several years ago. I dug it then, but for some reason, it never really sunk in with me at the time. This past summer, I kind of rediscovered them, and was listening to them a lot more, especially that album. The song "Shake The Dope Out" is in my top 5 songs of the past 6 months (for me that is, not new releases).
Live, they were mind blowing. With the stage lights turned off except for some low red and blue lights coming from behind them, Bobby Hecksher and co. were just oozing VU cool. They made a huge racket too, with 2 drummers, a bassist, and two guitars layering fuzz on top of fuzz.
The new album on Tee Pee Records, Heavy Deavy Skull Lover is another great notch on their belt. With their past few releases, they've slowly moved away from the more 3 minute psych/rock song format and into more extended fuzzed out jams if you will. The droney repetitiveness works really well for them. Except for one song around 3 minutes, most on this album are at least 5 minutes in length, and somewhat mid-tempo or slower.

Here's a tune:
So Paranoid

It's worth noting that the openers for The Warlocks that evening, Darker My Love, also completely blew me away. More on them later, but check out the video on the post below this, and you'll see what i mean

Darker My Love

Darker My Love - "Summer is Here"

The Sadies

Fresh off the heels of last year's Double Live Album and Rat Fink Soundtrack, The Sadies have returned with their first new studio album in a few years, New Seasons. When it comes to cosmic americana music, The Sadies deliver the goods better than anyone else out there. They effortlessly pull off that Meat Puppets/Byrds style of country rock, and then can easily switch gears and lay into some Morricone-worthy spaghetti western. These boys from Canada can really do it all. I also just came across a live bootleg where they are the backing band for Andre Williams, which is also amazing. Pick up the album when you get a chance, thank you.

Here's a tune:
Never Again

Metalocalypse

Last night I picked up the Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse on DVD, and it rocks. "Throw it at that guy!...". I really don't like or care that much about Metal, especially Death Metal, but Dethklok kicks ass.
Seriously, check it out.

Top 10 pickups from the WFMU Record Fair

Me and no name hit up the most overhwelming record fair I've ever seen. Granted, that's not really saying much for me, but it was still an amazing amount of records. WFMU knows how to throw a party. For instance, at the Norton Records Table, I easily could have spent upwards of $500, no problem.

Here are my top 10 pickups from this afternoon thus far, and I haven't even been able to listen to everything else yet.
1. The New Chesterfield Kings CD from the Wicked Cool table
2. Les Sexareenos "Do The Nose Mustache" 7"
3. Roky Erickson "Don't Knock The Rok"
4. various CPC Gangbangs 7"s
5. James Blackshaw "The Cloud of Unknowing" - cool 12 string guitar shit in the Fahey vein - a style I've recently been digging
6. Knights of Fuzz DVD and interactive CDrom
7. Back issues of Big Takeover for $1
8. Dan Melcior's Broke Revue - Heavy Dirt
9. Mighty Hannibal - Hannibalism!
10. that sausage place with all the mustards......

Wooden Shjips

The Wooden Shjips new album has helped make my commute to work a little easier the last few weeks. I had always avoided bringing my iPod along for the ride, but I figured I'd give it a try recently, and I've listened to their album a handful of times on the commute. With headphones on, its been really easy to lose your train of thought, and let the mountains of fuzz wash over you. The guitars and organ are turned up to 10, and the delay and reverb-heavy vocals add to the psych feel. The songs are relatively simple and repetitive, and they've definitely listened to their fair share of Spacemen 3. I gotta say I've been digging the drone aspect of these guys along with a handful of other artists recently. Unfortunately, I missed their set during CMJ a few weeks ago, I'm sure they would be a cool band to see live. Add it to the thumbs up list for '07.
Here's a tune:
Losin' Time