Mixtape Monday: Week of December 4th

Weekly Mixtapes Based Off the Albums I Listened to in the Previous Week!

This has to be one of the heftiest mixtape weeks I’ve ever had. As December hit, the end of the year was seen over the horizon and my goal to listen to 1000 albums in the year was soon to be met. I hit album 900 just shy of the beginning of the month and realised I would have to up my listening game if I wanted to meet that goal successfully, which wasn’t aided by my low numbers through November. This week I just kicked into full gear and listened to way more than I ever did. Where I usually average about 26 albums a week, I hit 32 this one, which I couldn’t believe! Almost like I was trying to overcompensate for my low numbers in November. I’m fairly confident that I will achieve my goal before the year ends, but for now, let’s enjoy this week’s playlist that has a variety of some old favourites of mine, some new favourites, new wave, post-punk, classic rock, synths, disco, pop, celtic, metal, art rock, dance and some familiar favourites that rocked the charts.

1. Slint – Spiderland
   Not sure what compelled me to revisit this album. I own it on vinyl and have listened to it maybe twice, not because I don’t enjoy it but mainly because I just have so many albums and so much music that I listen to that I just never got around to listening to this one again. That’s really it. It’s funny because some music communities I am a part of seem to consider this album a masterpiece of sorts and it often gets cited as a great one. I guess I can sort of see where they’re coming from but it might take me a few more listens to potentially be on the same page as these Slint lovers. Either way, still one I enjoy, so good enough, right?
2. The Slits – Cut
   Speaking of albums I personally think are masterpieces. Cut is a solid 10/10 album for me and has always been since the first time I listened to it. There’s an alluring quality to this album that keeps calling me back to it and I often find myself craving a listen. A craving that gets so strong I always have to put it on immediately with no question. Unsure where this craving comes from, but that’s just the power this album has over me and I will never fight it, only ever listen to it.
3. Le Tigre – Le Tigre
   This is becoming my newest album obsession, I cannot get enough of it (which you all know since it keeps appearing on these lists). Since hearing it a few months ago, I’ve become addicted to it. Its music keeps entering my brain and sucking my energy like a parasite… a very cool parasite that I love and have named Bob. It’s quickly rising the ranks as one of my favourites of all time and there’s no doubt I’ll probably listen to it a ton of more times within the next few months. I’m sorry but I just can’t help it.
4. Magazine – The Correct Use of Soap
   Spotify’s wrapped just came around and without fail, Because You’re Frightened (the opening song on this album) was my most listened to song for the fourth year in a row. There was only one thing I could really do to celebrate that and that was to listen to the album.
5. The Damned – Damned Damned Damned
   I got a new rose! I got her good! Guess I knew that I always would!
6. KISS – Rock and Roll Over
   Continuing my discography listen of KISS which had me question, why KISS, why now? So many bands I could do a discography listen to and for whatever reason I’m doing KISS? Why? Because I just felt like it, that’s why. That’s the best answer you’ll get.
7. Meco – Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk
   This album at some point came up in conversation. I hadn’t thought about it in probably over a year or so, and just hearing it had me inspired to give it a listen. I’m always down for some goofy disco music, why not have it be Star Wars disco? Funny little thing I discovered, on Spotify, is that the listening bar is actually a lightsaber! Was a fun little thing to discover as I listened!
8. The Cars – Shake It Up
   I find myself thinking of The Cars sometimes, but never really ever going back to any of their albums, even though I basically own all of them on vinyl. I definitely think of them more than I listen to them so I felt it made sense to go back and listen to one of their albums. Their debut felt like it made sense, but it’s the one I’ve heard the most, so I diverted my course to Shake it Up, just to… shake things up a bit… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… ha.
9. Crispy Ambulance – The Plateau Phase
   Never heard of this band but it was suggested to me by Spotify. With a name like Crispy Ambulance, seemed like a sure-fire winner for a person like me. And I can say, I was not disappointed. Thank you, Spotufy, you really seem to understand my music tastes as a whole. I appreciate it.
10. Soft Cell – Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
    A personal favourite I wanted to revisit. Nothing much to say about that. I love this album. I wanted to listen to this album. I listened to it. There. That’s all. It’s a great album. Go listen to it yourself. Do it. I dare you. Now. GO!
11. Bratmobile – Pottymouth
    Poopy, caca, doodoo, peepee.
12. Duran Duran – Rio
    As I prepare for my next improv show where I use my albums as inspiration for improv sets, I felt I needed to actually listen to those albums again in order to A) figure out what to say about them and B) find which 30-second clip I’d go with for the show. Rio had so many great songs to choose from, but I ultimately went with the title song, although Hungry Like the Wolf almost won, Rio just had that extra edge.
13. Van Halen – 1984
    This was the second album I was listening to for my show. I’ve always loved Van Halen and since this album was referenced at last month’s show, it only made sense to include it in the next. Another album where the selection of songs is so great that choosing a specific one was hard, but Panama has always been my favourite, so why not just go with what I love, right?
14. This Heat – Deceit
    My parents were on the way to my place and since listening to certain kinds of music would be difficult to listen to while they’re around (mainly because they hate it), I took the opportunity to revisit this one while I still had the chance. I had only listened to it once before, so my memory of it was pretty low so it needed another listen so I could at least have a mild remembrance of it as a whole other than just I remember enjoying it. 
15. Justice – Cross
    It plays, I dance, dance is good exercise, I like to dance, this album makes you dance, it plays, I dance. 
16. Michael Jackson – Thriller
    This is a classic and basically is the proof as to why Michael Jackson is the king of pop. There’s just so many hits on this album, it’s unbelievable. This was the next album I had chosen for my show and the one I had the hardest time picking a song from because of just how many hits there are on it that people would recognise. It was a struggle but I think I made the right choice… I think… it could change… damn…
17. Supertramp – Breakfast in America
    Final album I listened to for my show and I waited until my dad was over to listen to it since Supertramp is his favourite band and I believe this is his favourite album by them. Any time I can have those bonding moments with my parents, I will take them.
18. The Teardrop Explodes – Kilimanjaro
    This is another album I love that I hadn’t listened to in a while and wanted to listen to again. Nothing more to that. I wanted to listen to it and so I did and now here it is. I love this album, I listen to it frequently. Thank you. *bows*
19. Ian Dury – New Boots and Panties!!
    This reminds me… I need to buy boots for winter.
20. Blondie – Parallel Lines
    I had the thought of how great One Way or Another would be for a villain song in a show and found myself playing that over and over in my head. Although, I was specifically thinking of the version from Hocus Pocus 2, it just meant I would come back to this album at some point from singing it so much to myself.
21. The Jam – All Mod Cons
    I love The Jam and I feel they don’t get as much attention as they rightfully deserve. All Mod Cons was one of their critically acclaimed albums that I was the least familiar with, having spent my time listening to Sound Affects and Setting Sons way more often. Was time to give this one some love.
22. Frank Zappa – Ahead of Their Time
    Can you believe I’m finally reaching the end of my Frank Zappa discography listen? Every year I say I’ll do it and every year I inevitably lose track of which album I left off of… not this year. I tracked them and after this one… there is only one Frank Zappa album to listen to (that is part of his discography before he died, because there’s a lot of posthumous releases). I did it… I finally did it!
23. Cardiacs – Sing To God
    I had time at work where I could listen to an album and seeing how Cardiacs albums are not available in convenient ways for me to listen to, this was the perfect time to pop open Youtube and listen to this behemoth of an album. Any chance I get to listen to Cardiacs I will. 
24. XTC – Black Sea
    Here’s an album that is in my top 10 favourites that I rarely get to listen to mainly due to how hard it is to come by. It isn’t on Spotify sadly and seeing as I either would listen to it on Vinyl or Youtube, it doesn’t get the amount of rotations it deserves and I, disappointingly, often forget about it, despite its place as one of my top 10 favourites. Regardless, that just means when I do finally come around to listening to it again it still packs that punch that I always got from it. This album never fails to disappoint.
25. Adam Ant – Friend or Foe
    There’s an ongoing trend with these albums this week, where I just listened to them because I was in the mood to. It’s an album i enjoy and just at that particular moment really wanted to listen to it. So I did. I listened to this album. This one right here. Adam Ant’s Friend or Foe. I almost got to see the tour where he performed it in its entirety. He was playing at a venue right across the street from where I was doing a show that I thought would run at the same time as the concert but ended up finishing before it even started… I was not happy that day. So sad.
26. Dexys Midnight Runners – Too Rye Ay
    Come on eileen, you know what I mean, you say you dono, andyouwaaayiiionnaa. Or whatever it is he’s saying through the song… I don’t know, but damn are these tunes great.
27. Japan – Obscure Alternatives
    Never have I ever seen a white man trying so hard to become a Japanese man than with David Sylvain. It’s that hair, dude’s tyring real hard to seem like he’s straight out of an anime and I don’t even think anime existed in the way we know it now back then… or did it? My history on anime is basically non-existent.
28. The Clash – The Clash
    I kept telling myself I was going to listen to this album for a while, but every time I finished an album and went on to the next, I completely forgot that I told myself I was going to listen to this one next. I finally remembered and got to revisit my love for this wonderful debut album by one of the most influential punk bands of all time. Wowzeroony.
29. Fleetwood Mac – Tusk
    I was listening to the song Tusk, which is a song I love dearly and listen to quite a lot, and just thought to myself “hmm, why don’t I just listen to the album, why not?”. There’s incredible strength in that one simple question, Why Not? The power of Why Not? Is so strong that it can get anyone to do basically anything. If faced with any situation, all you have to do is go Why Not? And it will propel you into it, hands-free, head first, without a parachute.  TUSK!
30. They Might Be Giants – The Else
    I took a break from my They Might Be Giants discography listen but this week seemed like THE week to just tackle every music listening mood I was in. I already did KISS and Frank Zappa, so why not also do They Might Be Giants (there’s that why not again!). I’m super close to getting to the end of this one, with two bands done, it will give me so much more space for other discographies to listen to! Who will it be? Who Knows! The anticipation is killing me! (but not really).
31. Mighty Mighty Bosstones – Let’s Face It
    I didn’t know what album to listen to next, so reached out to Cristina to give me one. After she so hilariously declared the vague idea of CHRISTMAS, she eventually suggested this one after I turned it down saying I was saving Christmas albums for closer to actual Christmas (yes they are indeed coming). She had The Impression I Get stuck in her head for a bit after hearing it at her job and from there thought it’d be a good recommendation for me. Seeing as I love Ska music, yes, this was indeed a great recommendation and to this day I’m shocked I hadn’t heard it during my big Ska phase in my early 20s.
32. Tonio K. – Life in the Foodchain
    I don’t know anyone who knows Tonio K. or has even heard of him. One guy I do know is a fan, though, is Weird Al Yankovic, who did not one but TWO style parodies of the man (his songs “Happy Birthday” and “I Was Only Kidding” are in the style of Tonio K.). That’s how I discovered this gem of an album, being a huge lover of Weird Al and his song Happy Birthday (which still gets heavy rotation on my speakers) I just had to check out the original artist, which led me to this album. It’s one of those albums I own that feel like a little treasure that I pull out to show to people and has been for the last ten years or so. Always feels like a nice treat to revisit it.
33. Gang of Four – Entertainment!
    What better way to end the week than with the jerky aggression and leftist politics of the post-punk band Gang of Four. 

-Bosco

Mixtape Monday: Week of November 13th

Weekly Mixtapes Based Off the Albums I Listened to in the Previous Week!

It’s been a hot second since I posted a new mixtape Monday, my main reason for this was my album listening was pretty low the last two weeks and I also didn’t feel I was providing enough variety in terms of the music found on it, that wouldn’t have been fair for all of you or the most enjoyable listening experience I think. But this week, I was back in action and felt that urge to get back and share the music I listened to with everyone once again! This week we have a nice variety of music I rediscovered, revisited and was just plain new for me, with a variety of genres from electronic, folk, baroque pop, punk, world music, classic rock, electroclash and an entire album of just Theremin music. Enjoy!

1. P-Model – In A Model Room
   This is probably the third or fourth time a song from this album has appeared on one of these playlist, and can you really blame me? It’s been years of not being able to listen to it in a convenient way and now I finally have that convenience at my fingertips. That’s a lot of years of lost time that could have been spent listening to this album, it’s all happening now.
2. Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell
   I realised I hadn’t heard this one in ages. I have it in my record collection just sitting there, untouched for years. I can’t even remember the last time I listened to it. I had recently been talking about it a lot because it came up as a possible choice for my improv show next month (where improvisers do sets based off records in my collection). Next month I’m doing “Popular” albums and Bat Out Of Hell is one of the well-known albums of all time, how could I not choose it. All that talk had me revisit it, which I’m happy I did because it wasn’t as I had remembered and ended up being better than I did.
3. Frank Zappa – Playground Psychotics
   When I have long periods at work where I’m just working in silence, it always makes sense to me to listen to incredibly long albums. I have the time right there to be able to listen to them from start to finish and since I’ve been going through Frank Zappa’s entire discography, that long period of silence at work was the perfect opportunity to listen to the next album on the list.
4. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
   I had never listened to a Sufjan Stevens album. It wasn’t because I had no interest, or like I was actively avoiding it or anything. I feel like it was one of those that was always in my peripherals in some way but I just wasn’t turning my attention towards it, that is until a friend of mine recently posted about a Sufjan Stevens album he was listening to and I mentioned I never heard one, where should i begin? He suggested this one, so here I am, a person that has now heard it. I have to say I absolutely love how long and ridiculous some of the song titles are, tickled me in the right way.
5. Bad Brains – I Against I
   Should reggae and punk mix? That shouldn’t even be a question. Both are rooted in revolution in some way, it only made sense the two would eventually blend together with a certain band. That band was the Bad Brains, and although I’ve never really been into reggae music as a whole, the Bad Brains incorporate it in such a way that makes me love it, but that could also just be more because I love punk music as a whole. Which one is it? I might never know.
6. Circle Jerks – Group Sex
   Nothing like some group sex and a good old fashioned circle jerk to get the heart pumping.
7. Devo – Oh No! It’s Devo!
   I’ve talked about this album many times, mentioned it’s my favourite of all time and that it would probably appear again… so are you really that’s surprised that it’s here once again? Really? REALLY?!
8. Skunk Anansie – Post Orgasmic Chill
   I had heard this album once a long time ago and had zero memory of it. Absolutely zero. Like you couldn’t ask me to tell you what happened on it because I would have been incapable to tell you. I wouldn’t have even been able to tell you what genre it was or how it even sounded, that’s how much my brain had removed it from my memory. When your memory forgets something that strongly, it’s usually a good sign that maybe, just maybe, you should revisit it, the bonus is it’s like listening to it as if it were the first time again!
9. Sparks – Propaganda
   Hello soldier boy, it’s Propaganda by Sparks! An album that could be listened to At Home, At Work, At Play, no time is a bad time. No Reinforcements required as you can listen to it alone, whether it be 2023 AD or 2023 B.C. it’s always a good time. If someone says to listen to something else, you tell them Thanks, But No Thanks and turn to your other friend and say Don’t Leave Me Alone With Her, because someone who suggests something other than Sparks is not a person to be trusted. Be careful because you should Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth and find SOmething For the Girl With Everything. ACHOO! Bless you, sorry had to sneeze. I sometimes ask myself Who DOn’t Like Kids, but to those who don’t like kids or Sparks I say Bon Voyage, see you later.
10. The Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs
    Talking about long albums earlier, holy shit is this album fucking long. The name of the album is no joke because this is indeed 69 Love Songs, you couldn’t get a more straight-forward album title. Can’t complain about it’s length because the album literally tells you exactly what you’re gonna get. 3 hours of 69 love songs… that number must have been chosen deliberately. Reserve an afternoon, heck a whole day, because you’ve got one album to listen to the whole way through.
11. Beth Orton – Central Reservation
    This album has always been on my radar, something about the album cover has always been alluring to me. Maybe it’s the smirk Beth Orton has on the cover, or the simplicity of it as a whole, there was always something that had me interested in checking it out. I didn’t for the longest time for no other reason than it’s on the 1001 Albums list and I figured I’d save my first listen for when I get to it. At the rate I’m going though that might be a few years before I do. I figured, fuck it, that’s too long, I’ll finally give it a listen and check it out and it was worth the wait, I have to say.
12. Le Tigre – Le Tigre
    Heard this album for the first time about two months ago, fell in love with it, wanted to listen to it again and loved it even more the second time around. It’s a true love story in the making, my love affair with this album and I feel that love will just keep on growing. I can see this one quickly becoming a top 20 favourite… all those albums on my top list better watch out… a new album is in town to knock them down. 
13. Les Rythmes Digitales – Darkdancer
    This is another case of an album that had a cover that intrigued me. The cartoon drawing just caught my eye and I was always curious as to what this album would be. After reading it was some dance electronic album that tried to capture the spirit of 80s dance music but updated with modern equipment, I knew I had to listen to it immediately. I was not disappointed in the slightest. I found myself dancing and bopping and swishing and swooshing all throughout the album. Any album that makes me dance in that way is an album that will be on rotation for sure.
14. Electrocute – Troublesome Bubblegum
    The short lived genre of Electroclash offered quite an electrifying array of albums and Troublesome Bubblegum was always one of my favourites of the genre. It’s like a sugar coated dance party wrapped in tutti frutti bubblegum. What’s not to love when you’re bombarded with that amount of sweetness.
15. The Undertones – The Undertones
    No band captured what it was like to be a teen in the late 70s as well as The Undertones did. They oozed a youthfulness unlike any other and expressed their woes, angst, pleasures and highs with the energy of a typhoon. We’ve all been 16 at some point (unless you’re younger than 16 than obviously you haven’t) and all their music is at once relatable and just a ton of fun. Being a teen never felt so great with The Undertones.
16. Joanna Newsom – Ys
    Another case of an album being nowhere to be found on Spotify, which is a shame because I’d love to be able to revisit it more often but can’t since it’s not the most convenient one to listen to. Thankfully, it is on youtube and surprisingly, despite being a style of music I usually never listen to, I find myself completely endeared to the vocal charm of Joanna Newsom. Listening to her, it’s hard to believe she’s married to Andy Smaberg, whose music could not be any more different than hers. While his is as immature as it gets, she exudes a maturity that is rarely seen in music with a poetic flare that could equally work in written form as it does musically. I’d buy this if I could.
17. Clara Rockmore – Art of the Theremin
    An album filled with only Theremin music? Is that an album I’d really listen to? You’d better believe your sweet bippy it is.
18. Talk Talk – The Colour of Spring
    All I do is Talk Talk, why can’t I just listen to music and shut up once in a while?
19. Electronic – Electronic
    The title of the band and album give away exactly what you’re in for, electronic music and very dancey electronic music. I feel like this is the 200th time I’m talking about this style in this post. What can I say, I love synthesizers and I love to dance. The combination of the two hit my sweet spot in a way that no other music can (OK maybe some other music can but hey I gotta say something hyperbolic here). 
20. The Strokes – Angles
    Weeks ago, someone had suggested I check out this album because it was their favourite. I assured and promised them that I would… weeks later, I still hadn’t checked it out. Well, I finally remembered about it and had promised them I would. So I did. And here it is. Enjoy.
21. Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of Bewilderbeast
    The main reason I had decided to check out this album was because I had read somewhere that there was a song on it that seemed to be heavily influenced by the Banana Splits Theme Song. Hearing that I felt I had to listen to this album because what would an album inspired by a childrens theme tune sound like? This album was completely different than I expected and it took me more than halfway through the album to hear the one song that sounded like the Banana Splits Theme Song. I was so crushed it was only that one song and not the whole album. I wish I was joking about this… I’m not.
22. Arcade Fire – Funeral
    Let me tell you something about my experience with Arcade Fire. They’re originally from my home town, so there should be some pride there when it comes to them… there isn’t. In my hometown, I saw them perform a free live show for the Jazz festival. I figured why not go see them, it is free after all. Even free felt like I paid too much because holy crap was the show boring as all hell. This band has absolutely zero stage presence. I was so bored I just left and that experience really painted my feelings towards Arcade Fire. Fast forward to modern day and I found myself enjoying one of their songs quite a lot. It was strange because I found myself thinking “this isn’t the same band I remember seeing live all those years ago”. After years of avoiding them, I finally listened to one of their albums and absolutely loved it. I would never see them live but at least I know they sound great in the studio. 

-Bosco

Mixtape Monday: Week of October 23rd

Weekly Mixtapes Based Off the Albums I Listened to in the Previous Week!

With Halloween right around the corner, it only made sense that I listened to a bunch of albums that fit right in with the Halloween spirit. I absolutely adore Halloween, it’s probably my favourite holiday of the year. The spooky season just hits me differently than all the others, something about the aesthetic of it all just excites me. Dressing up in costumes, having an excuse to be ridiculous, and all the blacks, reds and oranges that decorate your home just work for me. This year for the first time I hosted my own Murder Mystery Party and it was a great success! Probably will make it a yearly thing! Here’s to a week of songs that fit the Halloween vibe!

1. Au Pairs – Sense and Sensuality
   Not immediately though, I started the week not full thinking of Halloween quite yet. The Murder Mystery was on my mind, of course, because there was a lot to prep, but in terms of music, I was still thinking of whatever album popped out at me first. Au Pairs album appeared in my recommends and since I only ever heard one of their albums, I liked it, figured it’d be fun to check out another by them. It’s just that simple. Sometimes the best things are simple. And simplicity makes life easier that’s for sure.
2. Shania Twain – Come On Over
   This has to be one of the scariest albums I have ever listened to in my life.
3. The Cramps – Songs The Lord Taught Us
   Here’s where the Halloween vibes officially started. The Cramps managed to combine a wonderful blend of garage rock, rockabilly and gothic imagery, referencing b-movie horrors through the wails and warbles of Lux Interior. There’s a dirtiness and campiness to it all that just screams Halloween with an edge and is one I never fail to play around the spooky holiday.
4. Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells
   I found myself wanting to listen to Tubular Bells and since the song takes up the entirety of Side A of the album, I figured I’d just listen to the entire thing. Even though the first five minutes of the song are most well known due to being the theme song to the Exorcist, the rest of the song still fits in very nicely with horror movies and spooky vibes, yes even when they decide to just list off instruments near the end of part 1, it still manages to work as a whole.
5. Brian David Gilbert – AAAH!BBA
   This has to be one of the greatest discoveries I have ever made. While doing research to find albums that fit the Halloween vibes, I stumbled upon this one. The title alone grabbed my attention because it made me think of another band I love called ABBA. I wondered if the name of the album had anything to do with ABBA in anyway and boy was I pleasantly surprised to find that it was just a handful of ABBA covers but sung from the perspective of various Halloween creatures, with highlights being Lay All Your Love sung by a vampire, Gimme Gimme Gimme sung by Victor Frankenstein and SOS sung by Captain Hook. It’s silly, it’s ridiculous and I love it.
6. Rocky Horror Picture Show OST
   LET’S DO THE TIME WARP, AGAIIIIIIIIIIIIN!
7. Tom Waits – Blood Money
   I almost listened to Swordfishtrombones, which would have fit in perfectly, however, I wanted to take this opportunity to listen to a Tom Waits album I never heard before. I went with this one because the opener was a song I was incredibly familiar with from having had to do a dance number to it for a play I did n High School that used an entire Tom Waits soundtrack, all about Edward Gorey’s stories… it was indeed a very grim play. Blood Money ended up being more Halloween than any other Tom Waits album I’ve heard.
8. Bauhaus – Mask
   How can you go wrong this Halloween season with some good old fashioned Goth Rock (and actual goth rock, none of that The Cure bullshit). It’s morbid, it’s dark, it’s melancholic and it rocks with noisy aggression and some fuzz guitar. How could you possibly go wrong with this album around Halloween? HOW!?
9. Frank Zappa – You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 6
   I had a long night ahead of me at work and so it was a perfect moment to go back to my Frank Zappa discography listen and listen to another one of his incredibly long albums. I thought it was going to be Playground Psychotics, which the name itself fit nicely with Halloween, but I was sadly mistaken. Thankfully for me, some songs on this album had Halloween like titles to them, so in a strange way, it worked out nicely.
10. Oingo Boingo – Dead Man’s Party
    This is an album I rotate on my turn table every single Halloween. How can I not, it was practically made for Halloween, supported by the fact that Oingo Boingo would have an annual Halloween concert. Everything Danny Elfman does just exudes Halloween, I mean, there’s a reason he made music for all of Tim Burton’s films, he had that spooky style down to a Tee. It’s hard not to listen to anything by Oingo Boingo and not think Halloween. No Halloween playlist would be complete without Dead Man’s Party.
11. Siouxsie and the Banshees – Juju
    With Siouxsie Sioux fronting the band, sporting crazy black hair and gothic make-up, Juju evokes vibes of witchcraft and voodoo that can add the right amount of spookiness to any Halloween party, especially if you’re a coven of witches.
12. Depeche Mode – Black Celebration
    Depeche Mode managed to create some dark synthwave stuff, and a title like Black Celebration fits right in to the whole thing. I would have never even thought of listening to this one but it was recommended in a list for Halloween albums and I was like “yeah that seems like it would be abut right”. I hadn’t heard this one in forever, so a newfound appreciation for Depeche Mode seems to have been slowly creeping up on me this year.
13. Roky Erickson – The Evil One
    Last time I heard of Roky Erickson, he was making psychedelic music with the 13th Floor Elevators, incorporating an electronic jug as part of their music. He was also spending time in a mental asylum for a bit. Glad to see he got better and was able to make a rocking Halloween album for all of us to enjoy.
14. Goblin – Suspiria
    I watched Suspiria for the first time during the Pandemic. I had so many opportunities to watch it in the last decade, but never did for whatever reason even though it was always at the top of my list of must-see horror movies. I’d love to watch more Giallo films as this is the only one I’ve ever seen and stylistically, I really enjoyed it. Although I am worried because I feel Suspiria is probably the best of the Giallo movies, so I only have down to go from here. Regardless, one of the most striking parts of the film is its score, so visiting the soundtrack was bound to happen eventually for me.
15. Fishbone – Truth and Soul
    I took a break from Halloween albums because I really, really, really, really, really wanted to listen to Truth and Soul. I think Truth and Soul might have become my obsession of the year because I keep wanting to listen to it again and again. To my luck, there was a song called Bonin in the Boneyard, which fits in to my Halloween playlist quite nicely. Any reference to graveyards is good enough for me.
16. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
    This was the first album I put on my list of Halloween albums to listen to and for some reason every time I ended an album, I kept pushing this one. I’ll listen to it later… nah not now, later… nah now not, maybe after… a different one, not now… No idea why I kept avoiding it, especially when I know I enjoy it. I mean, I enjoy Paranoid more, but still Black Sabbath is sludgy and murky and perfect for this…. so why avoid it? That’s what I told myself right before I decided to finally put it on.
17. The Misfits – Walk Among Us
    Were The Misfits the first Horror Punk band out there? I’m not too sure, but they were definitely one of the first to merge the two genres together and make some damn fun music with it. It just felt like a no brainer to listen to them and I felt if I didn’t then someone out there would get really angry that I didn’t go for this incredibly obvious band. Well, here it is, just for you.
18. David Bowie – Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
    Does Halloween and Glam rock mix well? I don’t think that’s a question that was ever asked but David Bowie answers this unasked question with a resounding yes.
19. Nightmare Before Christmas OST
    I started playing this album on a whim. I wanted to listen to This is Halloween because… well, this is Halloween, and it’s right at the start of the album, so I started with the overture and kept it going… and didn’t stop it as it went into the next song and then the next song and the next. Without trying, I just listened to the entire thing. No complaints, but now I just want to watch the movie.
20. Alice Cooper – Welcome To My Nightmare
    The first shock rocker to hit the scene, I would be remiss if I didn’t include him in this wonderful halloweeny playlist. I had debated between the two popular albums of School’s Out and Billion Dollar Babies, and although they are both equally theatrical, didn’t fully embody what I was looking for. SO I went for the album I hadn’t heard yet, which honestly felt like the better choice within this context. Every piece of theatricality we have known from Alice Cooper is there and still delivers on his shock value.
21. Slasher Dave – Tomb Of Horror
    Never heard this before, but the small description I read was enough for me to check it out. Instrumental synth songs that are spooky and creepy and all Halloween themed? Sign me the fuck up!
22. Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast
    666 is the number of the beast, how’s that for summoning Satan on the last song. Happy Halloween, ya spooky kooks.

-Bosco

Mixtape Monday: Week of October 16th

Weekly Mixtapes Based Off the Albums I Listened to in the Previous Week!

I’m about a week late with this one, but that’s ok, sometimes life just gets in the way. I had been incredibly occupied with rehearsals and planning a murder mystery party that all my writing took a backseat for a bit, but better late than never! At least the week of October 16th’s playlist will see the light of day with my little quips and blurbs because we all know everyone was just yearning for that so badly. I’m sure people were rioting in the streets and screaming bloody murder because I had missed a week and they couldn’t get their weekly dose of my playlists. I’m sure. Regardless, here we go!

This week was a funny one because I started a little endeavour I like to call “Bump Down the Beatles”. You see, when I checked my most listened to artists, The Beatles for some strange reason were very high on the list, which is funny because I don’t really like The Beatles and I barely ever listen to them. I haven’t listened to one Beatles song at all this year. So I decided to listen to albums that would boost the listen counts of other bands and put them above The Beatles on my list. It’s not that I hate The Beatles, I don’t, it’s more having them that high in the listen counts is not representative of my actual music listening and I just wanted it to be more reflective of what I do listen to… that’s all.

1. The Nails – Mood Swing
   Before I started project “Bump Down The Beatles” I revisited this little album that I found running through my head quite a bit during this time. It’s an album I enjoy and love but for some reason haven’t listened to in a long time, despite the main singer’s vocal stylings being quite influential on me in many ways. When you have an album ruminating in your head for that amount of time, it’s clear that the only way to get it out is to actually listen to it and that’s what I did and it was finally out of my head. Not that having it in my head was a bad thing in the first place.
2. Jorge Ben – Africa Brasil
   This was just next in my 1001 albums list and since I had never heard it before and it was a Brazilian album, I was eager to get to it. I already posted my thoughts in my post about it, but I was happy I finally got to listen to it because it was everything I had hoped for but also managed to give me multiple surprises I didn’t expect. That’s the wonderful joy of discovering music.
3. The Gun Club – Fire of Love
   This was the first album I listened to as part of my “Bump Down the Beatles” project. The Gun Club seemed to only be a few listen counts away from edging over them (and if I’m honest, this band only got such a high listen count thanks to the strength of their one song Sex Beat, that I had listened to on repeat for a long period of time in the last few years). That being said, it’s still an album I love and it was great to listen to it again. Despite that though, I have to say this album has one of the worst album covers I have ever seen in my life. It’s like a cheap photoshop done by a child for an elementary school presentation. God awful.
4. The Jam – Setting Sons
   Next up on “Bump Down The Beatles” was The Jam. I always loved The Jam but never listened to them as much as I’d like to. Setting Sons was always my favourite album by them, so it was a no-brainer to listen to it when I had the chance. I feel like The Jam always suffered the same fate as The Kinks, where they were great enough to be super successful but too British to be that successful in North America. I mean songs like Eton Rifles are such specific commentary about British culture that there’s no way we could even understand it over here. Regardless, this album is a banger.
5. X-Ray Spex – Conscious Consumer
   I love, love, love this band and their debut Germfree Adolescents sits as my 11th favourite album of all time. I can listen to that album on repeat easily. That being said, this entire time, despite loving them so much, I had absolutely no idea that they had even released a second album. I always thought they were a one and done type band, but nope here was their second album I had never heard about. That’s fine because it just meant I had new music to listen to by a band I adored. It never quite hit the heights of their debut, but I still loved it.
6. Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense
   When you’re trying to boost the listen counts of a band, I feel it makes sense to listen to one of their live albums that has way more songs than any of their studio albums (with exceptions and we’ll get to that). I was beating myself up that I was too late to grab tickets for the 4K theatre release of Stop Making Sense here in Toronto. I wanted to go see it so badly, but I waited too long to get thse tickets and so it was sold out. Real shame, but I got the next best thing and that was just listening to the album. I honestly feel this is their songs at their best and even without the visuals of the concert, it still manages to tell the story they wanted to tell visually. It’s quite the spectacle.
7. Joan Armatrading – Joan Armatrading
   Another 1001 Album that I listened to since it was next on the list. Haven’t written a post on it just yet, but when I do you’ll be able to hear all the wonderful thoughts I have on this album. This was new to me, so as usual, it was fun to get to discover something new. Won’t go into anymore more details but spoiler alert: I really enjoyed it.
8. The Adverts – Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts
   A lesser known punk band that managed to perfectly capture the so called blank generation’s feelings of boredom, isolation and aimlessness in a perfectly packaged album that races through these songs with energy and anger with a tinny yet purposeful garage band sound that’s just wonderful. I can’t seem to find this album on vinyl anywhere, but when I do you better believe I’m grabbing it immediately.
9. The Associates – Sulk
   Don’t bother trying to decipher the lyrics of this album because they make absolutely no sense. This is music written to evoke specific emotions and the lyrics are cryptic and poetic in that sense to express those emotions in a more abstract way than in a story telling way. But even if you don’t listen to the lyrics, it don’t matter because the synth wave sounds of this album do a perfect job of expressing all that and more. At times melancholic, at times paranoid and others bleak in an upbeat way, never will you ever have this much fun feeling this miserable.
10. Andrew WK – God is Partying
    Andrew WK is a fascinating artist. If you ever have the time, read up about him because he’s so interesting as a person and his rise to his success is a great story, especially when it came to the creation of his debut album, I Get Wet (which I consider a perfect 10/10 album and is in my top 10 favourite albums). However, I find he was never able to capture the magic of his debut and also why I never really dived into his other albums. I tried, believe me I did, but they just never hit those highs as well as that debut and this, his most recent, is another example of that. I don’t know why he couldn’t capture it again, could have just been lightning in a bottle and this isn’t a case of him experimenting with new sounds… it’s just the energy and heart behind that debut seemed to all be drained right into it and he just couldn’t sustain it throughout. Nothing bad, just never reach those highs anymore.
11. The Clash – Sandinista
    As I tried to boost the listen counts of The Clash, it only made sense to listen to their 3-lp, over 2 hour long album, Sandinista. Remember when I mentioned a live album is usually the way to go for listen counts with exceptions? Yeah, this album is one of those exceptions because there is so many songs on here. It’s so over-bloated with music. Did they really need to make it this long? When I was younger I found it to be a mess, that could have easily cut down a lot. I get it, the band was in a period of pure creativity and had a million ideas and wanted to do it all, I get it… but Jesus… 3 lps? Listening to it now, though, I did find myself appreciating what they did much more. I still find it too long, but at least I can see why they did it a little more than I did before. That’s something.
12. Cardiacs – Heaven Born and Ever Bright
    One of my favourite bands that I have talked about a few times over these playlists. I’ve only ever listened to this album once and had zero memory of what was on it. So, I HAD to listen to it to fully contain the Cardiacs’ music in my head. How can I call it one of my favourite bands if I don’t even remember an entire album?? It’ll take a few more listens until it all becomes incredibly familiar, but it’s totally worth it.
13. The Stranglers – Live X-Cert
    I remember the day I entered a record store and over the speakers I heard what distinctly sounded like The Stranglers playing. I recognised the song easily, being a fan of their first three albums, and saw that they were playing this album on the store’s record player. For the first time ever, I asked if that particular record was for sale and if I could buy it. Thankfully it was and I did because this acts as a great collection of their first three albums and played live, which means they have much more energy to them and attack their sound more aggressively, which is how I love my music.
14. The Human League – Romantic?
    I had listened to The Human League’s entire discography when I was n my early 20s. I completely forgot this was even an album. Other than one song off the album that had me go “oh yeah, that song!” I had zero memory of ever listening to it. Of course, that just meant I should listen to it and listen to it I did. I have to give credit to Human League that they somehow managed to keep their sound as the decades went by and never adjusted. It’s good to keep artistic integrity, but was it worth not trying to evolve with the sounds happening around them? I have no idea, just listen to the music and shut up.
15. The B-52’s – Good Stuff
    After listening to that Human League album, it made me think of other albums I barely remember from bands I like. I was in the mood to listen to the B-52’s and found that Good Stuff was THAT album. I hadn’t even thought about it since I was about 19 or so and I can understand why because this is definitely at the bottom of their albums in terms of quality. That being said, it still has the same party energy that they are known for, so even if it’s not the best, it’s still a lot of fun, and isn’t that what really matters at the end of the day? I have no idea, just listen to the music and shut up.
16. The Kinks – Arthur (Or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
    Remember when I referenced the Kinks up there when talking about The Jam? Well here they are in all their englishness. Other than their album “The Village Green Preservation Society”, this is probably one of the most British albums to ever exist. It’s no wonder The Kinks struggled to get any international success when they focused so heavily on things that only British listeners would truly understand. Not to say that foreign albums can’t make it over seas, but let’s be honest, most Americans don’t want to take the time to even understand or research anything about other cultures, so unless there’s space for your piece of media to allow Americans to project their own American perspectives onto it, chances are it won’t make it. Shame because The Kinks were probably one of the best bands to come out of the 60s.
17. Kraftwerk – Maximum-Minimum
    I saw Kraftwerk live in concert back when I was about 21. To this day it’s one of the best concert experiences I have ever had. It’s kind of shocking when you think about the fact that it’s just four guys behind keyboards, barely moving to fit their whole man-robots aesthetic, and it’s somehow an incredibly compelling, hypnotising and mesmerising concert experience. It helps that they had a video projection playing behind them and you wore 3D glasses while watching, but really it’s the type of concert where you just allow yourself to feel the music and vibe to it the whole time. I wanted to revisit that experience by listening to one of their live albums. It was like I was brought back to that great concert.
18. The Cramps – Psychedelic Jungle
    The Cramps debut, Songs the Lord Taught Us, is an album I absolutely love and once again, found myself realising I barely know any of their other albums (a theme that seems to be reoccurring here). This was what I think was their second album and like previous bands on this list, it just doesn’t capture the energy and magic of their debut. Don’t know why this is such a common thing, I guess it’s the famous sophomore slump, but it’s kind of funny how it seems to be a reoccurring thing this week. But it genuinely felt like they tried to make their debut album but cranked the energy down to a 5. It was like a sedated version of it, which was kind of disappointing. That damn sophomore slump.
19. XTC – English Settlement
    For some reason I actively avoided re-listening to this album for the longest time. No idea why. I always felt XTC peaked with Black Sea to me, with the excetion being Skylarking, and I just never felt the desire to listen to anything after Black Sea (with the exception of Skylarking). That was such a dumb thing to think. I remember being disappointed when I was younger, but now where I’m at in life, I ended up loving it way more and can even put it close to being as good as Black Sea. I think it’s officially time I ignore how young me felt when he first heard a lot of these albums.
20. The Soft Boys – Underwater Moonlight
    I hit album 800 of the year and chose to listen to an old familiar favourite. This is another album on my list of albums I want to own on vinyl and can’t seem to find anywhere for whatever reason. One day, I will and when that day comes this album will finally be mine. MINE!!!!!

-Bosco

Mixtape Monday: Week of October 2nd

Weekly Mixtapes Based Off the Albums I Listened to in the Previous Week!

Another week, another Mixtape Monday! This week I’m happy to say has a little more variety than the week before. You see all the usual favourites in the New Wave and Punk genres, but this week there’s also Country, 50s crooner, instrumental funk, Gangsta Rap and yes, even kids music. This is probably the most varied of genres I’ve had on one of these playlists, so you’ll either enjoy it or hate it, but at least you’re getting a taste of a variety of different things, like an international buffet of sorts (but not really).

1. Sparks – A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip
   I had gone to see Sparks in concert a few months ago and I had bought this album on vinyl at the concert from the merch stand. Months later, I still hadn’t opened it and physically listened to it. I’ve heard this album many times already but when you buy a physical copy, you, of course, still want to give it a spin. No idea why I waited so long to do it, part of me was waiting for the “right moment” I guess… whatever that was. Let’s be honest, there’s no real right moment for anything, so at some point you just have to go “fuck it” and give it a spin, which is exactly what happened in this particular moment.
2. Eiffel 65 – Europop
   I was a kid of the 90’s. Growing up as a young kid of the 90’s and listening to a lot of radio, I was constantly exposed to the Euro Dance hits of the time. That was the music of my childhood. So as an adult, I often revisit those Euro Dance tunes because, of course, there’s some sort of nostalgia attached to it but also, they’re just bangers and I absolutely adore Euro Dance music. These days I find myself checking out full albums by these groups. Yes, thee groups aren’t know for their albums and more their individual songs and hits, but hey, it’s always worth checking out more tunes, who knows what dance bangers you’ll discover!
3. Barney’s Favourites Volume 1
   I listened to this album completely out of spite. I wanted to prove to Cristina I listened to it after she jokingly said this album after I asked her to guess what I was listening to. So I did and now you have to too.
4. N.W.A. – Straight Outta Compton
   Now for something completely different. Talk about tonal whiplash going from Barney’s theme son to Fuck Da Police, but after listening to an entire kid’s album, I felt the need to listen to something entirely different from it. I hadn’t listened to this album in a really long time, Rap is not a genre I generally listen to often or… even sometimes, but is a genre I would like to get to know more of. But if there is any rap album I listen to, it’s always Straight Outta Compton. The brutal honesty of the music just makes it stand out from a lot of the rap music I had been subjected to in general and makes this one a classic that’s warranted every revisit.
5. The Teardrop Explodes – Kilimanjaro
   I wanted something familiar and this one was one I was craving for at the moment. There’s something quite eccentric about this music, even if it doesn’t sound eccentric (I’m not talking Zappa or Beefheart levels of eccentric). It’s kind of difficult to quite put my finger on what it is, but it’s there and I love it. I can never quite decipher what they’re talking about in these songs but then again as they say in their song “Poppies in the Field”: “Don’t ask me what that means” and that one line perfectly describes the content of the album.
6. The Go-Go’s – Beauty and the Beat
   I was listening to a podcast that was talking about this album. Hearing them highly praise this album that sits very nicely in my top ten favourites (It currently sits at the number 10 spot) made me want to listen to it again. The album never fails to make me happy and put a pep in my step. I always said if I was a young adult in the early 80s, I probably would have been a Go-Go’s groupie, but really, who wouldn’t be?
7. A-Ha – Hunting High and Low
   When I was listening to albums for my Album World Tour series, I found myself debating between two albums I really liked for the country of Norway. I eventually decided on the more rock heavy one, but Hunting High and Low was super close to being the chosen Norway album. But hey, just because it wasn’t chosen doesn’t mean I couldn’t listen to it. Here’s an album that isn’t well-received just because it has it’s huge hit one it (Take on Me), it’s legitimately a solid album and I often find myself enjoying a lot of the other songs on it over the big hit.
8. Willie Nelson – Red Headed Stranger
   Just like Rap music, country music was a genre that I don’t listen to very often and, especially when I was younger, I always had the immature attitude that all country music sucks. I’m happy I grew out of my shitty narrow-mindedness because I was able to discover so many great country artists that give the genre a great name. If anyone is saying how much country music sucks, tell them to listen to Red Headed Stranger, if they still think it sucks, never talk to them about music ever again because they’re clearly narrow-minded jerks who think their specific taste in music is the only good music.
9. Cardiacs – A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window
   Why, oh why, do people not talk about Cardiacs more?! When will they finally get their time to shine? When will Tim Smith finally receive the accolades he so obviously deserves? Why, oh why doesn’t everyone listen to the great band known as Cardiacs?!
10. The Shangri-La’s – Leader of the Pack
    This was single-handedly the most frustrating album listening experience I have ever had in my life. Not because of the album itself, no, no. I love the girl groups of the 50s and 60s. I wanted to listen to this album so badly, but I was never able to find a copy of it in it’s original form. Every version of it seemed to include a random array of songs that were never on the original. Where was the original version?? I found a version on Youtube but two songs were missing from it… so I decided, I’ll make a Spotify playlist of the album that will be the original version of the album with the correct running order of songs…. that would be easy right? Oh no, no, no, of course not, because why would it be? Some of the songs seemed to not exit on Spotify at all. But goddammit, I was determined to listen to this album. I listened to whatever was on Youtube and then switched over to Spotify for the missing songs, at least THAT worked out…. Jesus Christ.
11. X – Los Angeles
    You know when you’re hitting the gym, running on the treadmill, and you want to listen to music while you do it? Well, of course, you need music that will keep you going, pump you up and not get long and boring. You want to keep that momentum for when you’re running. I’m like that and since I’m a big album lover, I like to find albums that will hold that energy for the 15-30 minutes I might be running on the treadmill. Los Angeles is one of those albums that can do that perfectly. Except I wasn’t on the treadmill, I wasn’t even in the gym. I was driving home from work at 3 in the morning. Same idea though, right?
12. Black Flag – Damaged
    yyeaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
13. Ravi Shankar – The Sounds of India
    Picture this, or don’t, just read what I’m saying, or don’t do that either, do what you want, I don’t control you. But picture this, you’re chilling in bed late at night, have a massive headache and want to wind down with music… what kind of album would you seek out? Obviously something calming and chilled out, right? Why not the tingly-tangly sounds of Ravi Shankar and his sitar? No joke, this was exactly what I needed at that moment and it worked a charm. I once listened to this album while in the gym and that was the wrong place to listen to it, but winding down in bed? Perfect.
14. Supergrass – I Should Coco
    About two years ago I found myself being slightly obsessed with the Britpop genre and wanted to listen to as many albums as I could within the genre. It didn’t last very long but I came out of that phase with some new albums that I loved. I Should Coco was one of them. Don’t know how emblematic they were of the genre, I mean, they’re no Blur or Pulp or Oasis, but they’re still wonderful, if that means anything to you.
15. The Vapors – New Clear Days
    Another british band but a decade earlier from Supergrass, which is kind of funny because about a decade ago I was obsessed with this album. Turning Japanese was my only go-to karaoke song at the time and I found myself playing Bunkers, Trains and Spring Collection a little too much. That obsession quickly died away and hasn’t even been a thought in my head in almost ten years, but the album still holds a special place in my heart.
16. The Yardbirds – Roger the Engineer
    Step aside Led Zeppelin for the band you basically stole most of your music from. Why is it fair you get all the praise and The Yardbirds became a blip in musical history? Life isn’t fair I guess.
17. Arkells – Laundry Pile
    This is Cristina’s favourite band and they just released this album. You should of heard the pure excitement and glee in her voice when she found out and bought their album on vinyl months before it’s release, even though at the time, she didn’t even own a record player. That’s how excited she was, she bought a record player just for this album. When your partner is excited about things, by golly you get excited too, no matter what. This one is for her.
18. The Fall – Room to Live
    Once again, It was another case of wanting to listen to a certain band’s entire discography. However, with The Fall, it’s almost like I forgot I was doing it. Months ago, I basically listened t their first four albums in quick succession. Maybe that was an overdoes of The Fall because I essentially just didn’t revisit the discography listen…. until now!
19. Devo – New Traditionalists
    You never need an excuse to listen to your favourite band. You never need a reason to be in the mood to listen to your favourite band. If you want to listen to them, you listen to them. And that’s exactly what I did. Before Oh No! became my favourite Devo album, I often cited this one as my favourite, it’s definitely one of their darker albums, especially in contrast to Freedom of Choice, which came out the year before this one, but was eventually overtaken by Oh No! Regardless, it still stands as one I will never stop listening to.
20. Tangerine Dream – Phaedra
    I was saving this one to do the exact same thing that Ravi Shankar’s Sounds of India did for me a few nights before. An album that would help me wind down at night before bed. That didn’t happen, instead I found myself listening to it while cleaning my bathroom.
21. Frank Sinatra – In The Wee Small Hours
    My parents are over and when I want to listen to music I try to compromise and listen to something that I enjoy but also won’t annoy the hell out of them. So, of course, I chose Frank Sinatra’s most depressing album.
22. Booker T. and the M.G.’s – Green Onions
    To counteract the depressing tone I had set, I put on Green Onions to get things all funky. It didn’t really change anything as my parents didn’t listen to it, but it did something for me, that’s for sure.
23. The Human League – Dare!
    I recently was looking through my most listened to artists and was socked to see how low Human League ranked and with how low the amount of listens were. I was sure I had listened to them way more than that, so to help boost those listened to numbers, I listened to Dare which still stands as one of the greatest synth pop albums of all time. Why am I so concerned about how many listens Human League has? I don’t know but believe me I also feel this way for many, many other bands. This may become a reoccurring theme.
24. Frank Zappa – You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5
    What better way to soundtrack my cleaning of my place than with a 2-hour Zappa album. It’s getting harder to listen to them because of their lengths. It takes a lot to sit and listen to something that is over 2 hours long, so I have to pick and choose those moments very specifically. Doing a deep cleaning of those house seemed like a perfect moment to put it on, hopefully these opportunities come up more so I can finally get through Zappa’s extensive discography.

Mixtape Monday: Week of September 25th

Weekly Mixtapes Based Off the Albums I Listened to in the Previous Week!

This week was quite the week when it came to listening to music. At around Wednesday I had already hit about 25 albums and thought to myself I should slow down because then that will mean I will have way more albums to talk about then necessary. Is that a bad thing? No, but do you want to have a handful of blurbs that just go “well here’s another, there, listen!’? I don’t think so.

This was also definitely a heavily ME week as I listened to a bunch of old favourites and decided to just listen to albums I love. Sometimes you get tired of trying to discover new things and just want to listen to familiar favourites that get you up and moving. Is there a problem with that? No, but get ready to just have a playlist filled with my own personal taste rather than a little variety.

Playlist:

1. The Waitresses – Wasn’t Tomorrow Wonderful?
   This week felt so long that I completely forgot I even listened to this album this week. Being a fan of this style of New Wave type music, I wondered why I hadn’t listened to this album in years despite it having everything I love in music: Crunchy guitars, squealing sax and vocals that may or may not be out of tune. Wasn’t Tomorrow Wonderful? Well if I listened to this album tomorrow then that would be a resounding yes on my part.
2. Elvis Costello – Imperial Bedroom
   How can I call myself a fan of Elvis Costello when I barely know his discography outside of his three first albums? When people ask me to list my favourite bands and artists (which honestly doesn’t happen that often) I sometimes list Elvis Costello has being one of them. However, I had this moment, thinking about it, where I went… but his catalogue of music is so big and I barely know any of it. I’ve heard this album before but had zero memory of it. So here we are. One day I might go through his entire discography, but that day is not today.
3. Wall of Voodoo – Dark Continent
   I genuinely believe Wall of Voodoo doesn’t get the attention they deserve. They have such a unique sound which is helped by the distinctive singing voice of Stan Ridgway, which I love to emulate any chance I get, plus their blend of New Wave, Punk and Spaghetti Western stylings to make their music. Dark Continent seems to be a hard album to find a physical copy of on vinyl, but I swear it will enter my collection one day. ONE DAY!
4. REM – Murmur
   REM is an interesting band to me because I never quite know where I stand with them (and no that wasn’t a clever reference to their song Stand). I never quite know how I feel about them. At one moment I think they’re a brilliant band with great music and at another moment I feel absolutely nothing for their music. This album did not help as I found myself jumping back and forth between these emotions throughout, just leaving me in a confused mess of emotional turmoil. Will I ever find an answer? Probably not. My feelings for REM will forever remain ambivalent.
5. Soccer Mommy – Sometimes, Forever
   I just discovered Soccer Mommy this year and found myself really enjoying her music. I think her name is what intrigued me at first because what kind of music would an artist named Soccer Mommy make? Let’s just say her name has no relevance to her style at all. I had listened to two of her three albums and went, well why don’t I just listen to the other one to complete her discography? I did. I liked. Now you like too.
6. Los Microwaves – Life After Breakfast
   I never heard of this band before, but they popped up into my recommends list and I was incredibly intrigued. I’m happy I decided to take the risk of listening to something I had zero knowledge of because it was exactly the kind of music you would expect me to like. I even showed it to Cristina and she agreed immediately that it was. There’s just a particular style of music that is very Bosco and everyone who knows me seems to be able to identify that really easily. At one point they ask the question Is There Life After Breakfast? And I am happy that the album title answers it so succinctly. It kind of reminded me of the band Slow Children as I was listening to it, which, speaking of which…
7. Slow Children – Mad About Town
   How could I not after the last album reminded me so heavily of them? Their first album is a favourite and I had almost listened to that when I realized they had a second album I had never heard before. GASP! OH MY! Funnily enough, both their albums seems to suffer from the case of ever changing song lists. The song listing of the album I found doesn’t match the original listing and it doesn’t seem to exist anywhere which makes me question what version of the album I listened to??? It’s not the first time I have experienced this with albums and it just makes me question why they can’t just let albums exist in their original formatting. Oh well.
8. The Residents – The Commercial Album
   I guess that itch I had for The Residents last week was not sufficiently scratched because here I was again seeking out anti-music. Don’t let the album title fool you because this is not Commercial music in any way shape or form and something I loved about it was how a vast majority of the songs were basically all 1:07 long. One of the songs on here would even go on to influence one of my favourite songs by Cardiacs: RES, which basically did a sped up version of the riff from The Act of Being Polite. Is this foreshadowing for an album coming up later in the list? Maybe…
9. They Might Be Giants – The Spine
   They Might Be Giants is another one of those bands that I’m doing a full discography listen. I hadn’t visited the discography in awhile and this was next in line. So I listened to it. I enjoyed it. I like when They Might Be Giants do more adult style songs especially since they have now become pretty synonymous with kid’s music. Spindly Spoondly Spine.
10. The Aquabats – Kooky Spooky… In Stereo
    I unashamedly love The Aquabats. I saw them live in concert and it was an absolute blast, still remains a favourite concert going experience of mine. They’re a ton of fun and it’s one of those bands you just have to embrace the silliness. It’s somehow music for kids but for adults who are in on the joke, if that makes sense. Anyway, with October right around the corner, I wanted an early start to spooooooky season and music and this was a great place to start.
11. Devo – Oh No! It’s Devo!
    This is my favourite band. This is my favourite album. I can’t count how many times I’ve listened to this album and how much I listen to this album in general. The fact this album hasn’t popped up onto these playlists yet is astounding, but that’s because I’m really putting in an effort to make sure these playlists aren’t just filled with my favourites and have a variety of music. I even listen to this album on shuffle so it’s like I haven’t officially listened to it. But at some point, every song on this album will have appeared on these playlists, I guarantee it.
12. Cardiacs – The Seaside
    This is my third favourite band. This is my sixth favourite album. Remember a few blurbs ago when I mentioned how The residents influenced this band for one of their songs? That song is on this album. This is the one. Cardiacs are kind of like Oingo Boingo on crack but are so much more than that. Cardiacs are like if Frank Zappa was the lead man of Oingo Boingo, but they’re much more than that. Cardiacs are like if a bunch of clowns escaped the insane asylum and wrote music, but they’re much more than that. It’s kind of criminal how unheard of they are.
13. Sparks – Whomp That Sucker
    This is my second favourite band. This is my 35th favourite album. Sparks have often been called your favourite band’s favourite band and I feel that couldn’t be more accurate, with their documentary The Sparks Brothers basically proving that to be true. I saw them in concert about two months ago and it was the single greatest concert experience i have ever had. Nothing will ever beat it. Ever.
14. Oingo Boingo – Nothing To Fear
    This is my # favourite band. This is my 4th favourite album. A lot of people don’t seem to know that Danny Elfman had a band before he went on to make the music for every Tim Burton film. A sound you can already hear on these albums, but his blend of Punk, Ska and African percussion made for a unique sound. I even own the rare copy of this album on vinyl and is currently one of my most prized possessions (and only found it for 5 dollars!) Talk about sad on my part.
15. Dog Police – Dog Police
    I unironically love novelty music and this is probably the height of novelty music of the 80s. The music on here is ridiculously silly and not to be taken seriously whatsoever, but goddammit it is so much fun. The amount of times my friends and I would quote the title song was off the charts and there’s no way that I would never respond with dog barks if someone yelled DOG POLICE! at me. ARF! ARF! ARF! ARF!
16. Passengers – Original Soundtracks 1
    I listened to this album because it was suggested to me by my friend, Camila. She started her recommendation off with asking me “Do you like U2?”. The answer is no, I don’t, as a matter of fact, I hate them with an undying passion. She followed that up with telling me she also hates U2 and hates Bono, but I should check this album out. I was skeptical because anything involving U2 and Bono can’t be something I’d enjoy. So I listened to it despite my reservations. Somehow Bono managed to make Bono tolerable for a short period of time.
17. P-Model – In A Model Room
    This is my 25th favourite album. For the longest time the only way I could listen to it was on Youtube where it was constantly interrupted by ads. I’ve tried to find a physical copy of it on vinyl but that requires me importing it from Japan, which gets expensive. But recently, it popped up on Spotify, which got me so excited I had to listen to it non-stop. When you’ve been so deprived from listening to a favourite album for so long you basically explode when it’s finally easily accessible.
18. Men Without Hats – Pop Goes The World
    I originally wanted to listen to their debut which is my 44th favourite album, but decided on this concept album they released that was a hit in Canada and Canada alone, at least the title track was. Straight from my hometown of Montreal there is a sense of pride I have when it comes to Men Without Hats (A little misplaced when Leonard Cohen is literally right there). What does it say about me that out of all the great talent to come out of Montreal, THIS is the group I latch onto? I don’t know. Who cares?
19. Plastics – Welcome Plastics
    A Japanese band playing New Wave music in English, a language they can barely speak? What’s not to love! They were loved by Devo and David Byrne who tried to help them get some American distribution. Regardless, with their frenetic guitars, grooving bass and icy synths, it’s just a ton of fun. Hey, I want to be a plastic!
20. Crowded House – Woodface
    The playlist needed more variety and so I listened to this to change it up a bit so it wasn’t all New Wave synth heavy absurdities. I listened to it just for you! (and me because I love this album!)
21. Sisters of Mercy – Floodland
    I once read a funny thing that said that every time a goth dies their voice is added to the choir singing the opening of This Corrosion. I like to believe that is true.
22. Life Without Buildings – Any Other City
    During the pandemic I joined some monthly album club that sent me three records every month. I received a ton of new music I had never heard of before and also immediately forgot about after listening to it once. While going through my record collection recently in preparation for an improv show I’m producing, it made me want to relisten to all these albums. This was the first I revisited because it was the one that left the biggest impression on me. The sound reminded me heavily of The Slits and The raincoats (whose debut albums sit at 16 and 17 on my favourite albums). It was great to find another band that had that sound and it will always please me. I really am a simple man with simple needs sometimes.
23. Midnight Garden – Blue Tomorrows
    This was the second album I revisited from those monthly album club albums I received. It was really the album cover that wanted me to revisit it because I remembered nothing from this album. It was kind of nice. I find the name of the band and album to be aptly named because the music here felt like melancholic synth music you would hear at midnight while sitting in your garden. Somehow perfectly creating that aesthetic.
24. Husbands – After The Gold Rush Party
    This was the third album I revisited.
25. Air – Moon Safari
    I needed a break and wanted something chill nd cool. So who better than Air for that exact type of atmosphere. Moon Safari is such a wonderfully chill album and as I sat at my workstation just losing my mind, this album helped to ground me and relax me and get me through the rest of the work I had to complete. Any album that has that effect on me, is a good one in my books.
26. OMNI – Multi-Task
    This is the first album I received from the monthly album club and it was a good choice on their part because it immediately made me trust their choices of what they would send me. Some months were not as good as others, but this single initial moment kept me going with the club until I had to cancel my subscription due to financial reasons. With every month I was hoping to get that feeling I got with this first gift, and sometimes i did and sometimes i didn’t, but the chase for that high kept me going.
27. Joni Mitchell – Hejira
    I don’t want to say too much about this one because I listened to it as part of my 1001 albums series, which means a post about it will be coming soon. So I’ll save my thoughts on it for that. I’d also say enjoy the song on the playlist, but you can’t because Joni Mitchell removed all her music from Spotify so…. figure it out for yourself.

-Bosco

Mixtape Monday: Week of September 18th

Weekly Mixtapes based off the albums I listened to in the previous week!

For the last two months or so, I started creating weekly mixtape playlists based on the albums I listened to that week. Seeing as I listen to more than 20 albums a week, it made sense to start making playlists which would give way for a varied taste of music (depending on how my listening trends were that week of course). It started as a fun thing to share amongst good friends of mine, but recently my girlfriend, Cristina, told me I should start adding more variety to my blog and thought it’d be a good idea to share my playlists here as well. Seeing as she’s always full of great ideas when it comes to things like this (she does work as a producer afterall), I wasn’t one to doubt this and decided to go for it, why not share music with the world at large and not just my friends?

So here’s to the first one! With every playlist I share, I will also share a little blurb of the every album I listened to!

Playlist:

1. The Residents – Duck Stab / Buster and Glen
   This week I was very much in the mood to listen to music that was more unconventional and experimental in nature. At the beginning of the week, I just had this craving to listen to The Residents, and not being one to stop myself from listening to what I want to, that’s exactly what I did. It definitely scratched that itch I had because The Residents approach to music is incredibly unconventional and at times almost anti-music.
2. KISS – Dressed To Kill
   So the entire week wasn’t just experimental music, that would drive any person insane, but it’s funny how after having that itch for that kind of music scratched, I immediately followed it up with pretty standard rock music. Kiss always had this style and theatrics though to back that up (no matter how divisive they may be as a band). There’s a lot of bands that I have playlists of their discographies with the pan to just listen through them all, Kiss is one of them and just decided to listen to the next on the list. It’s nothing great but still a lot of fun.
3. The Kinks – Kinks
   I adore The Kinks and it was always surprising to me that I had never ventured into a lot of their albums outside of their run from Face to Face to Lola. Their debut includes their big hit “You Really Got Me” which has always been a favourite of mine, so I figured, why don’t I finally check out their debut once and for all. For some reason I was expecting more to sound like their hit, with that fuzz guitar sound, but they felt more like straight-forward 60s rock that was still hanging onto the sound of the 50s, pretty normal for all the British bands of the early 60s. That didn’t take away from my enjoyment of it though.
4. Killing Joke – Night Time
   Killing Joke is one of those bands I enjoy but often forget about, not because they’re forgetful as a band but they don’t cross my mind as much as I’d like them to. I was originally going to revisit their debut but was reminded of Night Time, an album I hadn’t heard in maybe years, even though it has my favourite Killing Joke song, The Eighties (a song I absolutely annihilate in Guitar Hero). I’m happy I did because not only did I get reminded of how much I enjoyed this album but I enjoyed it even more this time.
5. Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges – Clube Da Esquina
   In the last 7 years, I have fallen in love with Brazilian music. My journey through the 1001 Albums challenge has had me discover a large amount of Brazilian musicians and albums but also taught me a lot about their history and culture, which is equally as fascinating (It also helps that I have had quite a few Brazilian friends who have helped me discover a lot of it too). Two weeks ago, I had started a challenge to listen to one album from every country and started with Brazil. There were so many options and this album was right there at the top. I went with Os Mutantes instead, but when the week started I found myself still thinking about this album, so put it on. It’s quite a remarkable album.
6. Pere Ubu – The Modern Dance
   Pere Ubu is one of my favourite bands and The Modern Dance is in my top 50 favourite albums of all time. My itch for unconventional music was started to reappear again and I just had the sudden urge to listen to The Modern Dance because it had been quite awhile since I had last heard it. “Non-Alignment Pact” still stands as one of my favourite songs and I swear I will learn the bass line to it one day! They have such a unique voice and David Thomas’ vocals are incredibly fun to imitate!
7. Japan – Quiet Life
   The opening notes to Japan’s Quiet Life just do something very special for me. I can’t quite explain what it is but everytime I hear them it just hooks me in and I’m ready for the ride that is this album. It’s dreary, misty and melancholic and at times bitterweet, but always engaging. It’s another I hadn’t heard in a long time and felt I was due to hear it again.
8. Robert Wyatt – Rock Bottom
   In my 1001 Album post about Rock Bottom I mention how I find it incredibly difficult to categorize this album. Sure Art Rock might be suiting but it just feels undefinable as an album and hearing it again, my feelings have not changed. It really is a unique experience that cannot be described only heard. I always revisit this one every few months.
9. ·  Frank Zappa – Make a Jazz Noise Here
   Frank Zappa is one of my favourite musicians of all time. I love the unique approach he has to music, the wide experimentations he does, the explorations of genres and of course, his witty, dark and sardonic sense of humour. For years I kept trying to listen to his entire discography (which is vast) and kept failing because I would forget which album I had last listened to. This year, however, things have changed thanks to me finally starting to catalogue everything I listen to, I can never lose my spot and this is the farthest I’ve made it into his discography. The finish line is near!
10. ·  David Boring – Unnatural Objects and Their Humans
    In my new challenge of listening to an album from every country, I was doing research to find an album from China. Out of all the bands I was given, two had stood out to me, this being one of them. I went with the other but this band still remained on my radar and I decided, what the heck, let me check them out. I didn’t know what to expect going into it and I still don’t know how to feel about it coming out of it. It definitely fulfilled that desire to listen to more experimental and unconventional music but sometimes teetered on the edge of those styles that end up being more obnoxious in a bad way (And that’s saying something from me because I love a lot of obnoxious music and a lot of noise rock).
11. ·  The Only Ones – The Only Ones
    Another Girl, Another Planet is a wonderful song and is usually the main reason I come back to this album as a whole. If it wasn’t for that one song, I probably wouldn’t revisit it as much as I do. Not to say i don’t like the rest of the album because I do, but I often find myself just forgetting it pretty easily, which isn’t a reflection of the band and the album but more a reflection of my own personal experiences with it. I always find myself enjoying though, so that’s definitely something. At least I remember that.
12. ·  Kajagoogoo – White Feathers
    I was rewatching old episodes of this VH1 show called Bands reunited. A lot of bands from the 80s that I love are featured on this show and it’s always a fun watch to see these members get back together after not having seen each other sometimes in over ten years. One episode was on Kajagoogoo. After watching it I wanted to revisit their album White Feathers as I hadn’t heard it in over 8 years (which is funny seeing as I own it on vinyl). I’m happy I did because I always remembered the album being pretty corny 80s pop fluff, fun pop fluff though! But it wasn’t that at all, other than their song Too Shy, it was some delicious New Wave music with fun bass lines and great synths. I’m kind of shocked I left this one in the shadows as much as I did.
13. ·  Andrew WK – I Get Wet
    I reached album 700 of the year and I always love to celebrate those milestones by listening to something special. It only made sense to me to listen to the party rock anthems of the great I Get Wet, one of my top 10 favourite albums of all time. This is definitely one of my most listened to albums in the last few years and every time it just gets me going. It’s pure, raw, positive energy perfectly packaged into 30 minutes of pure adrenaline fuelled bliss. I will never get tired of this album.
14. ·  Brian Eno – Here Come the Warm Jets
    I found myself perusing through the recommended section of Spotify, looking for something new to listen to. What I always find funny is how it always recommends me albums I’ve already listened to, but that being said, if they didn’t do that, I’d probably forget about some albums I enjoyed and not have a chance to revisit them. This is a case of that. I don’t know how much I would have thought about this album on my own terms, but it’s a shame I don’t because I like Brian Eno and the music he produces, he really should be on my mind way more. I mean, he’s produced a lot of my favourite albums, but I’m always mainly thinking of the main band and he becomes an afterthought. This album is one of those that basically set the blueprint and foundation for the post-punk and new wave genres that I love so dearly. I’m sure Brian Eno will forgive me.
15. ·  Camel – Breathless
    My best friend, Vishesh, and I have this running inside joke about camels, which would be too long to explain here (but just know they are the most beautiful creatures to exist). So, of course, when I stumbled upon a band called Camel and their album cover showed a majestic camel smiling on the desert, I just had to check it out. What started off as a joke though turned into a fun experience as I was met with some wonderful Prog Rock music I did not expect! I feel bad I only listened to it due to a joke but then again sometimes those absurd things lead to fun discoveries.
16. ·  Adam and the Ants – Kings of the Wild Frontier
    Kings of the Wild Frontier is in my top 5 favourite albums of all time. This album holds a special place in my heart as 4 year old me had listened to it on repeat over and over and over again. It meant something profound to me in those days and it’s a feeling that has stuck with me up to today. In my pursuit to listen to new music and all the music, I realised I hadn’t heard this one in awhile and put it on. Those feelings haven’t changed, it still means a lot to me.
17. ·  John Martyn – Solid Air
    Sometimes I find myself listening to a lot in the same realm of music, which makes sense we all gravitate towards a specific flavour because that’s just what our tastes happen to be. When I catch myself doing this I try to find something that is different in style just to give for some variety in my listening but also to explore more outside of my tastes. Solid Air was a safe choice because I had already heard it before and knew I had loved it, so I wanted to listen to it again! It’s just such beautiful psychedelic folk that you don’t need any drugs to trip on.
18. ·  Pere Ubu – Dub Housing
    When I started doing these playlists I tried really hard not to listen to more than one album from the same band in the same week but this time, I just couldn’t resist. I listened to The Modern Dance and all it made me do was really want to listen to Dub Housing as well. Both a continuation and an evolution of their sound from their debut, Dub Housing just crashes and rages with industrialness and crunchy guitars. David Thomas wails and screams through these soundscapes and avant-garage has never been more satisfying than it is here.
19. ·  OMD – Architecture and Morality
    I was reading through one of those top album type lists and Architecture and Morality happened to be on it. I had remembered listening to it long time ago but never revisited it because it was a version of it disjointed on Youtube that would play with ads between each song, not the most pleasant experience. Recently though, Spotify had added a bunch of albums that were previously not on there, and this was one of them, so in my excitement I put it on! I always remembered it as being way more experimental in nature than it turned out to be but was pleasantly happy with how synth-poppy it was in the end!
20. ·  Yellow Magic Orchestra – Yellow Magic Orchestra
    18/19 year old me had his world turned upside down when he discovered the electronic genius of Yellow Magic Orchestra. That same kid would also be disappointed to see how much his older self has forgotten about them and not listened to them in ages.
21. ·  Yellow Magic Orchestra – Solid State Survivor
    To make up for this disappointment, his older self has listened to not one but two Yellow Magic Orchestra albums in a row to appease that young kid. I hope he is happy now.
22. ·  Depeche Mode – Violator
    I always wonder if Depeche Mode were theatrical in the perfect way or were too brooding and melodramatic for their own sake. Regardless what these dark synth goths in bondage clothing do for you there’s no denying Violator is a monster of an album for them. I’ve personally always preferred their earlier synth pop days over this but it fit nicely into y search for more experimental sounding music and Depeche Mode were definitely experimenting with darker synth sounds and vibes in this album. Ehhhhh… Whatever.
23. ·  Gigi D’Agostino – L’Amour Toujours
    This was a case of choosing an album based on one song I absolutely love. The Riddle has been in my rotation and favourites playlist since I was in High School and I never checked out anything else by the man known as Gigi. After listening to The Riddle for the trillionth time, I figured why don’t I check out the album it originally came from, not realising the album was also over 2 hours long. Nothing against long albums but over 2 hours feels excessive.
24. ·  Suicide – Suicide
    Now, this isn’t an album you would listen to everyday, and if you do then, well, good for you. But it is an album that sticks with you long after you’ve heard it and keeps drawing you back to experience it again. This album is hauntingly terrifying at times and is actively aggressive towards the listener, something the band aimed to do in their live shows and recreate on the album. I absolutely adore this album but it always takes some time before I find myself in the mood to listen to it, they happen though, and this was one of those times.
25. ·  Snakefinger – Chewing Hides the Sound
    My week was coming to an end and I felt I hadn’t sufficiently scratched that experimental itch I had so I went onto the profile of The Residents and clicked on similar artists to try and discover something new. Snakefinger immediately stood out to me and boy did it ever scratch that itch I had. It book-ended the week perfectly as well because not only was this guy good friends with The Residents but The Residents also played on this album, and it does sound like they did. This was definitely one of my favourite newest discoveries I made.
26. Tuxedomoon – Desire
    Tuxedomoon is an interesting case with me. They had been on my radar since I was 18/19 but for whatever reason I never actually sat down and listened to a full album by them. I had heard very few songs, songs I had enjoyed, but still never sat down to listen to an album. Which is odd because back in those days, when I was 18/19, I had downloaded a bunch of Tuxedomoon albums with the purpose of listening to them and… never did. It’s about fucking time.

-Bosco