THE SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST
I went back to the early 2000s for this one, and while it may be 20+ years old, the 2002 mini-album Whip It On by The Raveonettes still gets my eardrums bleeding and my flat white man’s ass shaking like an aging satanic go-go dancer listening to The Jesus and Mary Chain while watching a David Lynch movie.
Clocking in at just 21 minutes, this album packs a lot in your ear holes in so few minutes. The above track, Cops on Our Tail, is one of my favorite songs from the EP and never fails to get the 2014 Ford Escapes driving a bit faster and my aging body moving in ways that everyone on the planet would find mildly to very disturbing.
The Raveonettes continue to tour and make distorted, noisy, melodic indie rock music, with the only real blight on their long recording career having recorded a couple of holiday-themed tracks over the years and at times getting a little too “60s girl-pop” for my tastes. They are one of those bands that slip my mind every so often, but when they pop in, shit happens.
Note to Self: Make a new playlist with all their noisy bangers.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK VIDEO OF THE POST: 12.1.2022
I could talk all day about The Cure, the times I’ve seen them live, their incredible career, or that time in 1989 when I listened to Disintegration on repeat whilst lamenting a high school crush that would never be due to my size and weight at the time. I could talk about it, but I will spare you that for now and just say that nothing gets me going like The Cure’s early shit.
A Forest, from the album Seventeen Seconds, is always a live fave, and Robert Smith always finds a way to extend or alter the song to make it even better. Hard to believe that this performance above was from 1979; I was 8 years old, and I wouldn’t really start listening to The Cure for almost another decade.
I’ve spent so many years listening to The Cure as part of playlists or live compilations that I forgot how many stellar tracks are on Seventeen Seconds; what a fucking unbelievable album! It’s like “best of” for brooding teens turned brooding adults, with Play for Today, M, At Night, and Seventeen Seconds all stellar tracks.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 11.26.2022
This EP is so fresh in my earholes that I don’t have much to say about this duo other than I love their name, and this track is my favorite from their 2021 Smoked EP. However, I think one review I read summed Teen Mortgage up best by saying they sound like “a car crash of Ty Segall’s FUZZ, Metz, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Mud Honey pulverized and spit out into something else. That something else being like Teen Mortgage except 100% its own thing.” Well said.
I seriously think I’ve listened to this song about 100 times in the past week or so. As many of you might remember, I have limited hearing in my left ear, and if my right ear goes too, it will be because of this track!
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 11.22.2022
I just discovered Hot Garbage a week ago when a song of theirs came on Spotify randomly. However, since then, they’ve found their way into my ear holes on a daily basis.
The mix of droning organs, slack hypnotic beats, dark surf, and trippy shoegaze makes their debut LP, Ride, a perfect album to put on the Hi-Fi and listen to loudly and is bound to make any evening getting black-out drunk and avoiding the coming holidays better. I jest.
See, I don’t just listen to old shit that no one ever liked; I’m listening to new shit no one will ever like, too!
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 11.16.2022
Most people know that I have a music loving history that started with my older brother’s metal collection (Maiden, Judas Priest, Rush), then morphed into my own metal collection (Metallica, Anthrax, etc.), and then onto 80s alternative, new wave, post-punk, punk, garage rock, glam, Brit pop, and indie. What can I say? I listen to a lot of music.
So today, I want to give a special long howling scream into the mic for stoner metal band, The Sword, who, after nearly 20 years, have apparently called it quits. Also, the first snows of the season always remind me of their album, Age of Winters, and my favorite song from that LP, Winter’s Wolves.
The Sword is/was one of those bands that metalheads, potheads, and indie music snobs can nearly all agree on, and I kick myself for not finding them until roughly 2011-ish and for never seeing them live.
The Sword’s music is wonderfully heavy, and their lyrics are grandiose sci-fi meets Tolkien with a twist of Philip K. Dick. In other words, you can easily find yourself happily singing, or at least nodding along to, lyrics like,
“I would mount your heads on the bloody spears
Outside your palace gates
And watch as crows peck out your eyes
And your cities are laid to waste” — Winter’s Wolves, The Sword
I have to admit that I experience much joy pulling into our neighborhood with The Sword booming from my car as I give out neighborly waves while simultaneously fantasizing about lopping heads off with a well-honed battle axe [Relax, I don’t own a battle-axe]. Hearing B pull into the driveway with 21 Savage bumping from the 2008 Subaru Forester brings me a similar joy. What can I say? I listen to a lot of music AND enjoy disturbing middle-class shit.
The Sword is no more. Long live The Sword!!
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 11.14.2022
Today I go back in time yet again with The Libertines and the 2002-ish track, I Get Along.
Thankfully I was wrong (well, mostly) about their demise, and now here we are 20 years later, and I’m still listening to them; they are also still touring, making excellent music, and Pete traded his love of heroine for French cheese and wine.
Anyway, I have always loved I Get Along, and if you can get through it without singing “get along, get along, get along, get along” during the chorus, well, then that is yet another example of you being a better person than me. Note that Pete is not in the video which means he was either in jail, strung out in an alley, or robbing Carl’s apartment again.
Also worth checking out are Pete’s side project, Babyshambles, and Carl Barât’s band, Dirty Pretty Things.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 11.9.2022
Today’s track is What a Time to Be Alive from Superchunk’s 2018 record of the same name. It’s another track from another one of those albums that I really gravitated to during the doom-scrolling Trump and COVID years and I will always look back at fondly. (The album, not the Fuckface and COVID years)
Superchunk is one of the greatest indie bands of all time, as well as one of the tightest live acts you’ll ever see. On top of that, Mac and Laura are the faces behind the legendary indie record label, Merge.
I could literally post tracks from every one of Superchunk’s albums, especially the album Indoor Living and the song Martinis on The Roof, which I remember listening to extensively during many a road trip out west in the early 2000s.
Go forth, listen to Superchunk, and see them live. Also, follow Jon and Mac on Instagram.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 11.4.2022
Moaning’s self-titled debut album came out in 2014 and was a stunning mix of post-punk and hook-filled shoegaze-influenced indie, and their 2020 release Uneasy Laughter continued on with that sound, all the while sounding tighter and more mature.
Uneasy Laughter is another one of those records like the previously discussed Rozwell Kid/Sleeping Bag collab that was released at the start of the pandemic, and I listened to repeatedly as I tried to forget about real life while vibing on the back porch with beers and a Bluetooth speaker.
Today’s track is one of my favorite Moaning songs, Ego. This song oozes post-punk and combines hints of New Order-ish bass lines, Cure-like synth, and Ian Curtis-like brooding to make me giddy in the stomach like a late-teenage me with a fresh copy of Nowhere in my Chevy Cavalier’s broken tape deck.
It’s been a couple years; I sure hope they release another album soon. I’m always in need of fresh indie to fill my ear holes and help me forget who I am, what I am, what I’m not, and modern life. Or just to make vibing on the deck (0r in front of the fire place) better.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 11.1.2022
The track Cassius comes from Foals and their 2008 album, Antidotes.
The first time I heard this album, it blew me away, and 14 years later, I still find myself drawn to it. I really think any track on this album could be a single, but I always find myself digging Cassius.
Foals have released several albums since 2008, and each has some stand-out tracks, but no subsequent release does it for me like Antidotes.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK VIDEO OF THE POST: 10.28.2022
Little too busy today to wax poetic about some random song that I am surely the only fan of, so here is a video of the same ilk by a band I recently posted about, Spiritual Cramp. I mentioned the video in the post, but with the powers vested in me by blowing dog knows how many thousands of dollars on music in my lifetime, I deem it worthy of its own post. And I got nothing else.
The energy in this performance never fails to get me up skanking around the living room like no 51-year-old man should, terrorizing the hell out of the dogs with my one-man mosh pit.
Which being a morbidly obese kid starving for attention whilst flunking every class but art, I would surely oblige and skank my chubby ass down the hall, bringing much joy to Scott and assuring that I wouldn’t have a girlfriend for a few more years. It was WORTH it!
Speaking of kids, the kid on the side of the stage dancing in the vid is fucking legendary!! Cheers kid! And cheers, Scott; I think he’s out in the Denver area these days doing art shit these days.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 10.24.2002
Today’s track of the post entitled Absolutely is from the second Dreamboats collab that one of my favorite indie bands, Rozwell Kid (Morgantown represent!), did with Sleeping Bag called Dreamboats 2: A Real Chill Sequel.
This album was released in 2020 and went straight into my Pandemic Summer 2020 rotation of songs and albums scientifically proven to help me forget Anti-Vaxers, Maskholes, COVID deniers, religious bigots, and soon-to-be election denying fuck faced assholes when added to summer sun, slack, and the refreshment of choice based on taste, state laws, and availability.
Rozwell Kid and Sleeping Bag are two great indie bands in their own right and both should be checked out, but put ’em together, and you got yourself a big ol’ indie sandwich of hooks and melodies to nod along to as you enjoy the aforementioned refreshments of choice and forget about the world. Even if it’s not Pandemic Summer 2020.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 10.20.2022
Log into Spotify in your browser, click here, or visit YouTube to listen to the complete track.
Today’s track of the post is an “oldie.” No, it’s not a song from my dad’s long-dormant vinyl collection of the absolute worst music of the 1960s and 70s1; it’s from the legendary post-punk/funk band Gang of Four, it’s called Damaged Goods, and it was released in 19-fucking-78!! When I was 7 years old! Can I get a gahdamn? GAHDAMN!! Thank you!!
I still remember being in my teens and twenties, skulking around the mall record shops of western Pennsylvania looking for Gang of Four albums, eager to buy, even though I had NEVER even heard a Gang of Four song. I know that sounds crazy, but that’s just the way it was back then for a small-town music nerd like me in the late 80s and early 90s.
- Read about a band in a British music magazine you paid too much for.
- Search high and low for their albums.
- Buy the album, and HOPE you like it. If not, you’re out cash.
Sadly, I never did find any Gang of Four albums in those now long-defunct mall record stores. But, as Napster, YouTube, online record shops, and other bandwidth-straining apps started (for better or worse) infiltrating society in the late 90s, I finally tracked down Gang of Four. They were worth the wait, and this track has always been, and still is, a staple in my rotation of “oldies.”
Note: If you’re a soccer fan, you may or may not have watched the 2019 Amazon documentary Take Us Home about now Premiere League team Leeds United, to which the song Damaged Goods was the theme song.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 10.17.2022
A Giant Dog are an amazing mix of punk, indie, glam, and sleazy art-house turned barroom rock and roll. I discovered them about five years ago, and their tracks have found their way onto my playlists and into my earholes ever since.
I love it when a band or a track can make an old-head like me feel like I’m a teenager again; stoked to find new music to play loud, sing along with and drive my parents crazy with. And A Giant Dog does just that.
Today’s track is from their 2012 album, Fight, which apparently was recently reissued in 2022.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 10.14.2022
The album is filled with literate semi-spoken word Fall-like vocals that alternate between dark humor, mockery, and sadness at modern British life.
Admittedly, outside of a couple tracks, this album took me a few listens, but now there are a handful of songs that I have returned to over and over in recent months, with Dead Horse being one of them. And while most of the song is taking aim at post-Brexit Britain, so much can sadly be sympathized with by people like me who are at odds with and stuck in a QAnon/Trumpian wasteland full of Republican “Christian,” racists, misogynists, and bigots.
Note: I had to go with a YouTube version of this track for now. Sorry if that shit doesn’t show up in your browser.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 10.10.2022
I wanted to keep going with the indie vibe, but I really need to give a shout-out to one of the best sludge/metal/doom/stoner bands in the world: Red Fang.
Red Fang has been on almost constant rotation in the Cul De Sac Shack for a few years now (much to Wifey’s chagrin), and if you dig any of the genres mentioned above, I highly recommend them. I also recommend checking some of their live sets and official videos. The live shows are loud and tight, and the music videos are some best funniest you will see.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 10.7.2022
The band Do Nothing has been on my radar for a couple of years now and recently found their way back into my earholes. I am sharing because they are a stellar band and should be in everybody’s earholes (or orifice of your choosing). I love this track; it goes back and forth with Lebron James as my favorite Do Nothing track.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 10.4.2022
Wanted to mix things up and move back to some more traditional indie-type stuff from Dry Cleaning. The above track, Scratchcard Lanyard, from the album New Long Leg has me smitten, as does their latest single, Gary Ashby. from the forthcoming album, Stumpwork, releasing later this month.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 9.27.2022
Hands down, T.O.T.P. has got to go to the band Spiritual Cramp and their 2021 EP Here Comes More Bad News (as well as the 2018 album Television, which combines their first two EPs).
For the sake of keeping it to one track, check out the song Earth to Mike, a raucous mix of punk, post-punk, hardcore, and amazing hooks. I also urge you to peep the video for Earth to Mike on YouTube, which features vocalist Michael Bingham cruising the streets on a sweet Vespa and performance footage.
And for a great live performance, check out their live performance in Philly from April 2022. I watched this again while at the gym this morning and was uncontrollably skanking on the treadmill! Who knew that was even possible?? It is.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 9.25.2022
I’m really digging the first Album by Zig-Zags. It has a great mix of punk, trashy metal, seedy glam, and garage rock. Subsequent lineup changes on future albums have them sounding a bit different for my tastes, but their self-titled debut album from 2014 is perfect for drinking shit beer and smoking cigarettes as you drive your shitty-ass van through town, egging houses, and wreaking havoc. Or, in my case, sitting in my comfy chair in a middle-class neighborhood watching soccer on T.V. and drinking a Founder’s Juicy IPA.
SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST: 9.4.2022
American Sharks are so amazing! Imagine combining the best of The Sword, Red Fang, Danzig, The Stooges, and Motörhead and putting it in a sub-3-minute song that will make you want to drive your car into a field of Satanic beef cattle while under the influence of alcohol and other substances of varying legality based on your state of residence.
- Outside of some Jonny Cash, my dad has possibly the worst taste in music ever, and most of the albums that sit warping in his basement are from shit artists no one has ever heard of, and for good reasons. Sadly, my dad’s musical tastes have always been tainted by racism, fucked up Catholicism (is there any kind?), and a distaste for “dopers” and hippies. I say “were” because my dad is at the age now (80) where he doesn’t leave the house, listen to music, or watch anything other than Alex Jones-level right-wing “news” or YouTube videos about “extreme grass cutting,” how to perform an exorcism on yourself, and why Satan hates Latin (I’m not making ANY of this shit up!). I’m not sure where I got my love of music, but I assure you it was not from him.