Totally the Sonic Youth seed, right there.

this album

Bass tone fucking rools. Also, is this in odd time? Interesting how dissonant of a player Mr. Cantrell has become over the years. He always had an element of that, but it's rather prominent on the new rekkid. Sludgy, slow, narsty, weird. Production is shinyshiny, but over-compressed with obvious distortion in parts.

It's basically a Jerry solo rekkid with AIC's rhythm section (who are fucking good, I might add) and the dude from his solo touring band backing him. I am okay with this. Gotta call it something.

As far as '90s reunions go, it's better than the new Soundgarden by a good amount. (I preferred Audioslave, frankly.) I am looking forward to the new NIN, because Adrian Belew All Over The Place. But the AIC folk have been at this for a while and I thought the last record held up, too.

Grace Potter And The Nocturnals, for reasons completely unbeknownst to me. She can certainly sing, though, and I liek girlsingers, perhaps because I wish I was one.

Production on the music (minus the vox) sounds weirdly like Unsanes Visqueen to me. Guitar/Bass especially, and kind of the drums too, though these ones are a bit more verby/prorock.

Not my favorite drumsound ever, but I never really liked the sound of the drums on their records- though I always liked the playing. Too '80s on the early stuff in a not-so-cool way, and the two comeback records, the snare is smashed. And they always had a bit much 'verb. I like drier, more crack-y naturalistic sounds on rockdrums, snares especially. I do like the fact the dynamics of his playing are obvious and that these are obviously real drums. Mr. Kinney is a fucking good-ass drummer. For shiny-sounding rock, this is pretty unusual. Fuck, I think his drums sound more real here than they did on Dirt, by a good margin.

Also, I like hearing feedback. Especially on a heavier track. I like the sound of things in a room vs. sterile sounding crap. Mainstream-ish hardrock has sounded shitty for years. Also, too: these guys are allowed to still sound like this. Because this is their noise.

I've heard bits and pieces of that Unsane record but have never listened to it the whole way through I don't think; I should czech it out.

Re: the vocals, I like that there's no attempt to find a replacement for Layne. The oddball harmonies are part of the writing style.

These guys, I think, returned from the dead with their dignity intact. Yeah, they'll never top Dirt- it's only one of the best heavy rock records of the '90s- but you only do that once anyhow. They can keep going without looking like shitheads.

The video itself of the song posted is pretty effin' cool looking, too. Especially for a "performance" video, and a thing that's done with a literal interpretation of the lyrics for the artbits.

That guitar toan is tits. When they hit the big open low chord, it has that elusive 'raging' sound that I love. Snare is a bit too smashed, yeah, but I dig it.

Their/his guitar tone always rules. Even Carcass used it as a reference.

Re: snares, yeah, it's a bit much, but only asswholes like us would notice- and what really stands out is that it's a real dude playing, and with some subtlety, at that. We're commenting on the fact someone pushed up the compressor slightly more than we would... Like on every other record these guys have done since like what, 1989 or some shit? Credit where it's due.

Was Raleigh the first time you heard them foos?

More or less, dawg. Chris posted up The Purple Bottle off of Feels one time after he said that it sounded like I had been listening to them a lot and it did not click that first time, fo sho. I probably required the slightly more palatable semi-more-poppiness of Merriweather Post Pavillion to get it. I imagine dem drugs didn't hurt either. So I do indeed have you to thank in addition to Chris, as it would probably have taken a lot longer for it to hit me.

Shit is like, basically my largest influence now. It is just a shame, that their discography is not more consistent. Strawberry Jam, Sung Tongs, Feels and Spirit are all pretty consistent from song to song, but some of their other stuff really falls off, IMO. Too much experimental noise stuff for me.

I can't find the good ones on Yout00b, so here's a badly encoded clip. Shit is insane.

Whoa, that is some Nile shit right there.

Those are some seriously low notes. And these muffhuggers sound like they're shaking the room. My lowest notes are quieter at full force than my speaking voice, which is rather soft to begin with. These guys are in the octave below that.

A real bass is an impressive thing. My low C is barely anything while my middle C two octaves above can be heard above a drummer without amplification even if it gets pretty violent sounding. No way I could compete with a motherfucker who can do it for real.

There is some shit on that record where those guys are nailing G or F like it's nothing. And I am talking really low Gs and Fs.

Sucks being a skinny baritone with an effeminate speaking voice, but this is why BELT created Shure Beta 58As.

Yes, I know it's the Linkin Park d00d, but I liked the video.

You're the only other person I know who listens to Unkle.

DJ Shadow is one of the finest electrodrummers available, and this recoard in particular was bigmassive for me when it came out. I always liked the smooveness of their weldingtogether the rock and the 'lectronic, especially on this disc, asif they were never two different things to begin with.

PS, Dev, has anyone on the street accused you of being the NSA leaker yet? At least in thumbnail form, the pictures of that guy seemed somewhat familiar to me, but i couldn't quite place it at first...