Doc Shoe's Music Blog

The members of Eddy Current Suppression Ring worked in a record-pressing plant and had never played a note before they decided to form a band.  DIY, folks: Sometimes a little creativity and a lotta nerve are all it takes.

If Thee Oh Sees have ever put out a disappointing record, I haven’t heard it yet.  My copy of Floating Coffin finally arrived in the mail the other day, and I fucking love it.  It’s catchy, it’s trippy, it’s melodic and wild, it’ll make you feel stoned even when you’ve run out of weed (which I have, unfortunately).

This may be the coolest idea for a compilation album EVER.

Last year, John Dwyer’s label Castle Face Records released “The Velvet Underground & Nico” by Castle Face and Friends, which covers the entirety of The Velvet Underground’s debut album, in sequence, with a different band covering each song.  Which may sound like a stunt—hell, it is a stunt—but it works.  There isn’t a soggy patch to be found on this record (except maybe “Run Run Run” covered by White Fence).  Great bands covering great songs, and their interpretations are brilliant enough they’ve made me listen to the original Banana Album again, hearing innovations and possibilities I hadn’t noticed before. 

Here’s Ty Segall’s take on “Femme Fatale.”

I’m still waiting for my vinyl copy of Floating Coffin to arrive in the mail—in the meantime, I refuse to spoil my listening experience by just ripping or streaming a digital version of the new Thee Oh Sees record.  Am I weird for doing this?  Fuck it, what do I care?  I’m already weird in so many other ways…

Anyhow: For the time being I’m listening to The Hounds of Foggy Notion, the album for a live DVD I never saw.  This one caught me by surprise: It’s melodic & subdued.  I knew John Dwyer’s speakers go all the way up to eleven, but I didn’t know he could turn it down and still keep me interested.

From the Go Home record by Hank Wood & The Hammerheads.  I think it was rawpowerwritings who recommended this album to me.  It’s loud.  It’s crude.  It’s fucking perfect.

“Psychotic Reaction” by Count Five

I just read Lester Bangs’ essay “Psychotic Reactions and Curburetor Dung: A Tale of These Times,” and this seemed appropriate.

Plenty of those early ’60s Garage & Psychedelic bands were amateurish, unoriginal, sloppy, crude, and “aggressively mediocre”—but bracing and vital in ways that more refined, critically vaunted artists just can’t imitate. 

Listening to Rock & Roll should be like getting ripped to the tits on cheap beer. Sure, there are more sophisticated ways to spend your time, but few that are more fun.

Here’s Thee Mighty Caesars, featuring wild Billy Childish.  ‘Nuff said.

The Black Lips.  This band makes me want to fuck on the floor.  And conveniently enough, my girlfriend just got home.  Soooooo, we may have to table this discussion for the moment…

Doc Shoe’s Musical Quality Test #7: If you’re the kinda guy who can’t dance without looking silly, the best songs are also the most likely to embarrass you after you’ve had a couple drinks.  The trick is to keep drinking until you don’t care.

“Reality Is a Grape” by Cheater Slicks

The mighty Cheater Slicks of Boston have been cranking out rude Garage Rock for more than twenty years.  Here’s a taste of their latest album, Reality Is a Grape.

“Can You See” by Thee Oh Sees

Like I need a reason to post Thee Oh Sees. 

“Chatterbox” covered by The 5.6.7.8’s

I’ll never not love these girls.

Also: How cool is it that this record even exists?  I’m talking about Valley of the Tokyo Dolls: A Tribute to Johnny Thunders, a tribute album by Japanese artists covering an American original most Americans have forgotten about. 

“Would You Be My Love” by Ty Segall

When Ty Segall put out Goodbye Bread, the critics were relieved that he’d finally grown up.

But when Ty put out Twins, the rest of us were insanely grateful he’d done no such thing.