Hey folks!

I ended up skipping a week due to the Great Wilco Decision of Late ’25, so here are the 2001 albums I’ve heard in the last two weeks. I didn’t take any notes, so these will likely be shorter entries than usual.

Stone Temple Pilots, SHANGRI-LA DEE DA (Spotify, YouTube)

In which Kent must reluctantly, but definitively, admit that STP were good. Their only real deficiency was the occasional really stupid lyric; otherwise, really miss what they were slingin’. Don’t know what you got etc. Rating: Like/Love.

DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist, PRODUCT PLACEMENT (YouTube)

Sounds like a “live” (as opposed to overdubbed) session with Chemist and Shadow dueling back and forth. Fun for what it is, but anyone expecting something on the level of ENDTRODUCING….. (i.e., me) will be disappointed. Inessential. (Also, Buttondown, ENDTRO has five periods after it, but you insist on turning the first three into an ellipsis. Stop that!) Rating: Interesting/Like.

Jan Jelinek, LOOP-FINDING-JAZZ-RECORDS (Spotify, YouTube)

Confession: I remember almost nothing about this, other than it’s pretty damn mellow, like listening to lo-fi study beats with a pillow over your head. My notes say “Like,” so Rating: Like.

American Head Charge, THE WAR OF ART (YouTube)

Best Album voter, commentator, and Best Album Metal Researcher OneTruePoster recommended this to me based on my Like/Love rating for Dope’s LIFE. Yeah, it’s kinda like that, except Dope has shorter songs and an overall shorter running time. Still, scratches that itch, so apply when necessary, for external use only. Rating: Like.

Tipsy, UH-OH! (Spotify, YouTube)

I’m a big, big fan of Tipsy’s 1996 album TRIP TEASE, a great electronica/exotica mashup, one of my all-time favorite albums to write to. This is… kind of the same thing? If I don’t like it as much, it’s only because I’ve only heard it once. Rating: Like/Love.

Robbie Fulks, COUPLES IN TROUBLE (Spotify, YouTube)

Don’t know anything about Fulks, except that his Wikipedia entry notes his sense of humor, and… this album seems more serious? Dramatic? I don’t know, I didn’t read along with the lyrics or anything. First song is like a traditional English folk song, but then goes in different directions, genre-wise. Catchy, though. You know what it reminded me of? Freedy Johnston. Do you like CAN YOU FLY? I do. Anyway, probably underrating this a bit, probably in need of further research. Rating: Like.

Thorns, THORNS (YouTube)

So Thorns are a Norwegian black metal band, who have been around since 1989, have only made one proper album, and hilariously, it’s not (imo) a black metal album, but a black metal-tinged industrial one. Not sure what they were thinking, but it’s good (bad) time anyway, especially once it reveals itself as cosmic horror-themed, which is usually the province of technical death metal. Rating: Like.

Windir, 1184 (Spotify, YouTube)

OH! HERE WE GO! THIS IS THE SHIT! I know the whole original point of black metal was to go hard as fuck and give no quarter, but goddamn, I love it when it goes melodic. I know I keep saying shit like this, but if you’ve never tried black metal, this is, along with Melechesh’s DJINN album, is about as welcoming an invitation you’ll get. This even adds some electronic/keyboardy stuff; by the last song, it almost sounds like Orbital doing a black metal remix. Rating: Love.

Wilco, YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT (Spotify, YouTube)

Yeah, you’ve probably never heard of this one. Some real underground shit for the heads. Rating: Like.

Abandoned Pools, HUMANISTIC (Spotify, YouTube)

OneTruePoster has this in his 2001 metal wrap-up, and admits up front it’s the least metal thing there, but I’m still not sure why it was included. It’s a pop-rock album, and it’s good, catchy, kind of slick, occasionally a bit electronicky, goes down smooth. I can imagine an alternate universe where this got big. Rating: Like.

Crowbar, SONIC EXCESS IN ITS PUREST FORM (Spotify, YouTube)

Mmmmm… I’ve heard more excessive. OneTruePoster threw all the sludge metal, doom metal, and stoner metal bands into the same category, which is understandable. Almost all these bands play all their songs the same loping bpm, or slower, and I’m usually good for about 10 minutes worth before I check out. Crowbar (a sludge band, ftr) manage to mix it up a bit, but I still need more in the way of dynamics. Kills me that this stuff tends to be the most popular form of extreme metal. Rating: Interesting/Like.

Ass Ponys, LOHIO (Spotify, YouTube)

Big fan of SOME STUPID WITH A FLARE GUN, and this is… very much like that? I think the songs are better on FLARE GUN, but I’ve also heard them a million times. If you’ve never heard the Ponys, this is a pretty good intro — a kind of backwoods-country sheen over something harder, rockier. Chuck Cleaver’s vocals might be a bit of stumbling block, but keep listening, they’ll become a feature not a bug. Rating: Like.

And there you go! If I were to pick three for you to hear, I’d go with Windir, Fulks, and Tipsy. (The STP is great, but I bet you already know what that sounds like and I bet you’ve already made up your mind.)

See you next week!

Kent