Vic Stevens' Mistaken Identities - No Curb Ahead (1997)

Dark-tinted jazz-rock/fusion led by drummer Vic Stevens. Discordant guitars, fretless bass courtesy of Percy Jones -- for about half the album, anyway -- some saxophone here and there, surprisingly (given that the groups's formed around a drummer) restrained drumming, and a whole lotta tasty, dated keyboard voices.

Track listing:

1. Useless Humans

2. The Sun Rises in the East

3. No Curb Ahead

4. Do the Do That You Do

5. I Travel Alone

6. Would You Like to Dance

7. Answers

8. A Party of Five

9. Buy the Weigh

Peaceful anxiety

If you like this, try:

Nicky Skopelitis - Ekstasis (1993)

Scott McGill - The Hand Farm (1997)

Loren Mazzacane-Connors & Alan Licht - Hoffman Estates (1998)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Loren Mazzacane & Kath Bloom - Sing the Children Over (1982)

By request, here's this excellent collection of woozy, avant-jazz-psych-etc. In addition to the two musicians listed on the tin, you get contributions from a bunch of great Chicago musicians, not the least of which are from Jim O'Rourke, who played on the initial sessions, then edited them down and added overdubs.

Track listing:

1. Slowly, Slowly, Slowly

2. Block That Nixon

3. Sad at Times

4. Wisdom Day

5. Peace Scare

6. Turner's Murder

7. And Everyone 'Neath Their Vine and Fig Tree Shall Live in Peace

Moonlight walk of the soothsayer

You should also listen to:

Savant - The Neo-Realist (At Risk) (1983)

Anthony Pateras - Chasms (2007)

Dragon - Universal Radio (1974)

After a little over a week spent either poolside or oceanside in a small Mexican tourist town, life has called me back to rainy, chilly Portland, OR, where I am currently intermittently working on a team accounting project for my capstone course. That's fun, right? Here's a great, pretty chill prog rock record that I put on late one night last week while we were sitting out on our back patio overlooking the ocean, because everyone likes old-school prog when they're drunk on vacation somewhere warm.

The tiny bit I know about this band: They were originally from New Zealand, which is where they were located when they released their first two records, this and the also-great Scented Gardens for the Blind. They then moved to Australia, where they were based from then on, and became a more straightforward pop/hard rock band.

Track listing:

1. Universal Radio

2. Going Slow

3. Patina

4. Weetbix

5. Graves

6. Avalanche

Made my entrance through the darkened door

Smoke and vapor round my head

Standing on the cliff, the bell struck four

All the clouds were black and red

If you like this, you should hear:

Jane - Fire, Water, Earth, & Air (1975)

Streetmark - Eileen (1977)

DEAR_SPIRIT Tells You About 5 New Records That He Likes

I'm getting ready to flee to a Real Housewives-style house in Mexico with a bunch of friends, and between sunbathing, floating in a pool, swimming in the ocean, eating fresh-caught grouper, and taking tequila shots, I don't expect to have much time for nerdy music blogging. However, I do know that legions of rabid fans are hanging on to my every word, unsure what to listen to, when to listen to it, and generally how to live without my impeccable taste, acerbic wit, and timeless wisdom to guide them. So to tide you over, here, in no particular order, are 5 of my favorite records of 2023 so far. Go support some artists who are trying to make it work in the here and now.

Hamish Hawk - Angel Numbers

I'm not wasting time. This is my current AOTY. Arch, clever songwriting with a wide emotional breadth that both celebrates and takes the piss out of our dumb human endeavors. It's sarcastic and cutting, but warm and sweet at its core -- check out the mid-paced, "Dead Flowers"-esque "Rest and Veneers" for a taste of that sweetness. Fills the Morrissey- and Pulp-sized holes in my heart.

Listen/buy.

Exhibition - The Last Laugh

NYC hardcore/crossover of the highest caliber. My current favorite of an already extremely strong crop of hardcore records to be released this year. If you're not crowd-killing, head-banging, or crushing your PRs: I'm sorry but you're a lost soul and I can't save you.

Listen/buy.

ICECOLD BISHOP - Generational Curse

A heartbreaking exploration of generational trauma and institutional inequity that goes hard as fuck. ICECOLD BISHOP has an extremely versatile voice that effortlessly jumps from a B-Real-sounding yelp to a smooth sing-flow to a distorted scream, and he's fond of running it through filters and effects, so he ends up sounding like he's single-handedly embodying an entire, multi-generational community of voices.

Listen.

Lisa O'Neill - All of This Is Chance

All of This Is Chance starts off on an almost aggressively Irish note: first, we hear O'Neill's thick Irish accent, then she's mentioning potatoes in the second line. But All of This Is Chance quickly reveals itself as a deeply engrossing album full of droning, earthy instrumentation and haunting songs of love, famine, and resurrection. And birds.

Listen/buy.

Hammock - Love in the Void

My favorite pretty-sad post-rock album I've heard in years. It's hard to quantify what makes Hammock and Love in the Void stand out among the countless hordes of bands who move in the same lane, so I'll just say that, from its huge, immersive atmosphere to its patient, breathtakingly beautiful songs, Love in the Void is the most perfect version of itself imaginable.

Listen/buy.

Proem - Negativ (2001)

I'm up too early on a Wednesday morning, felt like a perfect time for some IDM. If you've listened to a lot of IDM, you kinda know the drill here -- gauzy, melancholic synths vs. static-y, glitchy beats -- but Negativ is an excellent distillation of this style.

Track listing:

1. Below Me Reds

2. Cold Water (Flat)

3. Running with Scissors

4. Long Distance Tiara

5. Protobella

6. Pretty Song for Alyssa

7. Take Your Pants Off

8. Bolt Action Aardvark

9. Pears in Evening Wearz

10. Access Mike (Failure to Connect)

11. Negativ Reinforcements

12. Skylup

13. Bolt Action Aardvark (Brothomstates Remix)

Go to sleep you little creeps

If you like this, you'd like:

Arovane - Atol Scrap (2000)

Funckarama - Solid State (2001)

Gluecifer - Ridin' the Tiger (1997)

Absurd, debaucherous, full-tilt Norwegian punk rock and roll. As far as I'm concerned, they never made a better record. Pure, raw, coked-up chaotic energy to fuel your next bender. 

Track listing:

1. Leather Chair

2. Rock'n'Roll Asshole

3. Bounced Checks

4. Evil Matcher

5. Rockthrone

6. Burnin' White

7. Titanium Sunset

8. We're Out Loud

9. Obi Damned Kenobi

10. Under My Hood

11. Prime Mover

I'm the eye of the oily hurricane, baby

I'm the slayer of the dorks

Also listen to:

Rocky & the Sweden - Total Hard Core (1998)

Barebones - Ground (2001)

Prolapse - Ghosts of Dead Aeroplanes (1999)

Psychedelic, abstract indie drawing from post-punk, post-rock, shoegaze, and Sonic Youth-ish noise rock. Easily the most experimental and my favorite of what I've heard of this band’s catalogue. One of this band's defining characteristics is the push-and-pull between their two vastly different vocalists; on one hand, Linda Steelyard has the kind of angelic, weightless voice that makes you think 4AD or Slowdive or something, while Mick Derrick pretty much just shouts in a thick Scottish accent. On previous Prolapse records, I've honestly found it kinda off-putting -- to be fair, it's probably supposed to be -- whereas here, both vocalists take on a more dreamlike, atmospheric quality.

Track listing:

1. Essence of Cessna

2. Fob.com

3. Adiabatic

4. Cylinders V12 Beats Cylinders 8

5. One Illness

6. After After

7. Government of Spain

8. Planned Obsolescence

What did the letter say?

You should also listen to:

Paradise Motel - Left Over Life to Kill (1996)

dEUS - The Ideal Crash (1999)