#readandplay #MusicChallenge #MusicSky “No rules. The only limit is our imagination.” Read 📚 & Play 🎶 open.spotify.com/track/1EaPLe...

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Blake Babies 🇺🇸 Sunburn (1989) I didn’t have this LP in 89. Thus it’s the sound of the early 90s for me. Juliana Hatfield at full force. John Strohm is one of my favorite guitarists. One of the reasons I bought a Strat. I couldn’t afford a Princeton amp.

#MusicSky get 2 know me thru my fav records Black Sabbath - Mob Rules (1982) With due respect to the extended Black Sabbath universe, Dio is the only person (excepting perhaps Rob Halford, who was not featured on any LP) who could follow Ozzy. Tighter, NWOBHM influenced, Dio’s vocals are perfect.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Black Sabbath - Paranoid (1970) Paranoid, Ramones, Nevermind hold a special place for me. I admire bands who make masterpieces outta easy riffs/chord progressions. A kid learning guitar can play the songs easily. Geezer’s lyrics inspire creative writing

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records Black Lips 🇺🇸 Arabia Mountain (2011) The band’s early LPs were raw & feral, then they got a producer capable of wrangling them (Mark Ronson, of Amy Winehouse fame). The result is the first truly coherent Black Lips LP. Less puke, more garage pop.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Black Angels 🇺🇸 Phosphene Dream (2010) Phosphene Dream seems like the moment Black Angels matured. A feast for the ears: Rickenbacker jangle thru stereo tremolo and spring reverb. Unusual beat pairings. Shorter songs. A throwback to 13th Floor Elevators.

#MusicChallenge #WrongAnswersOnly Clever Primitives 🇬🇧 “Really Stupid” (demo) 1985 open.spotify.com/track/69SpUQ...

#MusicSky get to know me through my favorite records Björk - Post (1995) A sillier me, a week ago, said that, in middle-age, Debut is the one I most often reach for. I’ve been listening to Post daily since then, and I feel the need to correct past me. This is the best one. Duh.

Happy Birthday to Budgie (Siouxsie & The Banshees).

In other #MetalSky news, I recently finished a survey on recent (2022-2024) UK black metal (and adjacent metal). open.spotify.com/playlist/1lF...

#MetalSky Pthumulhu 🇮🇸 Tungumál Svarthola (Language of the Black Hole) Another record from last year I missed. Spooky, doomy sludge and heavy as hell. I assume the songs explore eldritch horror and the void of space, but Icelandic is hard and I have no idea other than my instinct on this. Recommend!

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Björk - Debut (1993) For most of my life, Post has been my favorite. In middle-age, it’s totally Debut. If I have one gripe, it’s that it echoes late Sugarcubes but loses the Einar rapping magic.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Bishop Allen 🇺🇸 Charm School (2003) DIY bedroom pop, recorded one track at a time with a lot of clever tricks to conceal limited instrumental prowess & because they only had one mic. Some bands work best with inept drumming (see also, early Cub).

#FilmSky I made the tragicomic mistake of watching Kairo (The Pulse) 🇯🇵 (2001) last night. I am a vivid dreamer and dreaded the dreams that would come. Thankfully, I made it through the night without nightmares. This is the second scariest movie in the world to me.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Big Star 🇺🇸 Radio City (1974) The only argument needed for Radio City: Christgau gave it an A (for “Alex,” I presume). As the dean points out, Chris Bell “just couldn’t take it any more.” (Alex Chilton had that effect on people.) Chilton noisy AND poppy.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Belly 🇺🇸 Star (1993) I prefer not to understand Belly. Star made my brain go boink because I got something, but knew that what I was getting probably wasn’t the intended point. It’s an example of an album that sounds precisely like it’s cover art.

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records Beatles - s/t (1968) My 2025 take on the White Album: insight into the collapse of a once unassailable unit. Beatles were a tight gang of outrageously fun boys. By White Album, it’s more like Nabokov’s Pale Fire - splintered, wasting, but still great.

Beatles - Revolver (1966) In true #MusicSky spirit, I spent days contemplating where to start talking about Beatles. I could’ve begun with Help & Rubber Soul, but Beatles weren’t Beatles before LSD, Indophilia & the decision to stop playing live to all the screaming kids. Maybe the best record ever

#MusicSky my favorite records Beat Happening 🇺🇸 You Turn Me On (1992) C Johnson added S Moxham (Young Marble Giants) to production, bringing minimalism (& not mere simplicity) to the fore. BH was freeing pop from consumer expectations, not bottling 60s fantasy, which critics used to like saying.

dramatic B&W

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records (English) Beat 🇬🇧 Special Beat Service (1982) Progressing from the rude boy sound to a more New Pop/High Street sound, this is clearly Wakeling’s LP. One that predicted John Hughes films by a couple of years. Crack for Anglophiles, what IRS was for.

Drop something CELEBRATORY

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records Beach Fossils 🇺🇸 Somersault (2017) Brilliant maturation from early 00s Brooklyn Pitchfork core to sunkissed indie pop with baroque nods to Pet Sounds, Odessey & Oracle, Love. I dunno about you, but the way to my heart is opened by a hot flute.

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records Bauhaus 🇬🇧 In the Flat Field (1980) CAD 13 (4AD’s 1st full-length). Glam was always a little dangerous, but usually practiced & palatable. Bauhaus was glam’s feral, runaway children, raised by raucous birds, who never saw the sun, just strobe lights.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Barenaked Ladies 🇨🇦 Gordon (1992) Seymour Stein saw that Barenaked Ladies were more than a joke & gave Gordon to the world. Yes, I said “more than a joke,” but the original artwork is a must for ambiance. Quintessential early 90s smarty pants dork pop.

Few people have contributed to so may people’s musical DNA. 👑

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records Bananas 🇺🇸 Nautical Rock n Roll (2003) Cohesive/Sonic progression from early DIY recordings. Totes in the sweet spot. Later LPs (on Recess) had excess lustre. This’s the real pop. No words 4 how strongly I recommend this open.spotify.com/track/4MFU3L...

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records Bananas 🇺🇸 A Slippery Subject (2001) ⚠️Key Band Alert⚠️ Like Smiths, I never saw Bananas live. Like Smiths, their manic good-time front masks melancholy underpinnings, in exactly the same magical proportions. RECOMMEND!! open.spotify.com/album/4yFjid...

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records Bad Brains - i against i (1986) Discovered retroactively (I was 9 when it came out) by backtracking from Faith No More. Music could have ended at this point and God would have called it supremely good.

#FilmSky Flatbed Annie & Sweetiepie: Lady Truckers (1979) Damn-the-man trucker TV movie w/ chops worthy of atheatrical run. Harry Dean Stanton as Coen Bros nemesis & Billy Carter (whose brother was A-OK), but the sauce came from Annie Potts’s take on Deadwood’s Calamity Jane via Jane Weidlin.

If you see this, post with a video game that transports you back to your childhood!

#MusicSky Bad Moves 🇺🇸 Untenable (2020) With a foot in Merge’s power-poppier stuff & the good old days of Mutant Pop & 2000s Lookout! Less overwrought than last year’s Wearing Out the Refrain; more scrappy, aww-shucks charisma. Remember, pop is a co-ed sport & there’s never been a bad band from DC.

#FilmSky The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie) (1972) A little slow to start, but once it gets going is good and weird. A story about how hungry being rich makes you, told through brain-melting dream sequences involving doom and walking a pilgrimage to nothing.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Babies 🇺🇸 s/t (2011) Cassie Ramone (the caterwauling Vivian Girl) & a guy from Woods’s outsider pop side project. I’m a huge admirer of Ramone’s playing; she reminds me of young Joe Jack Talcum. So under appreciated. Listen to “Meet Me in the City.”

I dream about raccoons a lot. What is that about?

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records B-52s - Cosmic Thing (1989) I like the older ones too, but Cosmic Thing came around at the right time (I just turned 12), so it was the one that stuck. Now I appreciate the phoenix story behind the LP. Don Was’s production was what the doctor ordered.

#MetalSky I started a project on Inauguration Day surveying the living metal of the 21c, by country. Taking 2-5 year samples from each, I made 2hr playlists from the best material. I have a couple in the hopper & felt maybe I should share my Norway (2020-2024) mix. open.spotify.com/playlist/2tH...

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records Aimee Mann 🇺🇸 assorted works At one time, Whatever & I’m with Stupid would each count as favs. While not quite what they once were to me, I still can’t leave Ms Mann out. These four albums, collectively, are subtle, but significant, influences.

#FilmSky Just watched Prague Nights (Pražské noci) (1968) One of the last Czech New Wave films before Soviet crackdown on the arts in Czechoslovakia. Filmed during the 1968 invasion, which adds an extra layer of tingly. Would recommend. link.tubi.tv/Rm8btbtzYUb

What are 3 of your favourite songs by Elton John?

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records At the Drive-In 🇺🇸 In/Casino/Out (1998) Can’t not say it: At the Drive-In only worked as an all-ages act. Not that Relationship of Command was bad, but attention sapped the band’s joie de vivre & adulation led to them straight-up going nuts. This is it.

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records Army of Ponch 🇺🇸 So Many You Could Never Win (2002) Culmination of late 90s post-hardcore & emocore. Fin de siecle of Hot Water Music, Unwound, Drive Like Jehu, Nation of Ulysses before millennials went screamo. open.spotify.com/album/2OMjVE...

Alex Chilton - Like Flies on Sherbert (1979) In 1979 degenerate NYC/Memphis circles, the prize for scene’s most unwrangleable person went to Chilton. Inconceivable to think someone wrung Radio City from this man. Produced the Cramps, & made them look like Ozzie & Harriet. Truly inspirational mess.

Alvin Stardust - The Untouchable (1974) A ripper on its merits, but to get a complete picture, you have to dive BBC appearances on YubTub. Robbie Rotten played by John Cleese, a menacing T. Rex ‘68 Comeback Special. You don’t listen to Alvin Stardust so much as consent to let him happen to you.

Ass Pony’s 🇺🇸 Electric Rock Music (1994) Album that made my mind go boink. No stranger to weird lyrics, but liberated to find them in pseudo-southern gothic form I took as inspiration for my first band. Teenagers don’t write as well, of course, so that was short-lived. But a ball was set in motion

#MetalSky Yowzers, I slept on this: All that Heaven Allows 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. Lo-fi blackgaze channeling bedroom metal & shitting all over black metal orthodoxy (chords(!!), MicroKorg flange nebulae). Vocals that sound like something in the crypt is awake & howling down there. athametal.bandcamp.com/music

Archers of Loaf 🇺🇸 Vee Vee (1995) “And the people gathered all around the radio / To hear the transmission from the devil’s soul” “Underachievers, attack at your leisure” Bachmann’s turns of phrase helped many a ‘90s adolescent seem more intriguing just by slipping the right track onto a mixtape.

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies (1972) Zappa was an ankleweight to Coops. Breaking from the psych scene in favor the of EC gothic spectacle was the right move. Occasional brass does to me what Morticia speaking French does to Gomez (Addams 1964).