Every year from late December on through January I realize just how much good music I missed during the preceding twelve months. In just the last two weeks I've discovered a collaboration by two my favorite emcees (Lateef the Truth Seeker and Gift of Gab's The Mighty Underdogs), the resurrection of Charlie Louvin on his record Charlie Louvin Sings Murder Ballads, and a wonderful record by a band/collective calling itself Forest Fire.

It's Forest Fire's Survival that's free and legal. It was released by Catbird Records, which from what I can tell is the record label started by the guy who writes the blog Catbirdseat. You can download it for free and if you like it you can pay. The record is quite good, made up of mostly pretty classic New York rock music a la Lou Reed. But it also features near dirges that would make Low proud (Sunshine City is quickly becoming one of my favorite tracks from last year this year). The song writing is very strong and it strikes just the right balance of nostalgia for Loaded era Velvet Underground forward-looking chanty/choral rock and feedback. And don't forget to pay attention to the stellar quality of these recordings. Lots of one-mic takes with perfect overdubbing. You can get it for free here.

Well, I guess "now" implies current and Moving Units Dangerous Dreams" came out in 2004, so this isn't especially current. Whatever. "Birds of Prey" is an amazing song that stays true to the band's dance obsession, in the vein of Q and not U, but has nice rock elements that, now that I think about it, do sound very 2004. Wasn't that around the time that everyone thought the Hives were about to be the biggest deal ever? Sounds about right.

Anyway, "Birds of Prey" doesn't beat you over the head with a hi-hat shuffle and a kick/snare march. I'm sure it was refreshing at the time and it certainly was when I first heard it. It's worth checking out.

Moving Units = "Birds of Prey"

So my Fest 7 comp is pretty much forgotten. It was a nice introduction to a lot of bands playing that weekend, many of which I didn't get to see. But, now that we are several months after the fact and the excitement of my first Fest road-trip has worn off, I can't say I'm playing those songs nearly as much. Here's the part where I tell you that this was a mistake, because it was.

The problem with all comps is that the CDs lack continuity. Songs are kind of like food in that the last thing you heard still lingers in your head when you put on the next song or when you hear the next riff. Sometimes the most explosive build-ups fall flat when we skip the track's lead-in and go right to the payoff. It can be quite disappointing, but also quite telling. Unfortunately, bad, boring, or just conflicting styles have the ability to make us less interested or engaged in a great song. This is perhaps why bands often put their best songs at the beginning of their albums. However, a comp is trying to appeal to a broad base of people by spraying them with a broad selection of music. Best is a subjective term and often the "best" songs don't keep great company.

Cheap Tragedies' company is beside the point because I listened to the comp on shuffle (for some complicated reason) and I can't remember when I heard them, but since I listened to the disc in its entirety at least once, I definitely heard them. And I forgot. It took the magic of iTunes' shuffle feature to bring them to my attention, again.

Cheap Tragedies' "Dallas Confidential" is a crusty punk song that just barely breaks the three minute mark and doesn't lose an ounce of intensity along the way. It's relatively by-the-books, but that is somewhat typical of the genre. Again, it is about execution. Also, the chorus is kind of catchy in a crusty punk sort of way. Sort of.

Cheap Tragedies - "Dallas Confidential"

The Blue Meanies are definitely not a band I thought I'd be writing about and especially not after I've left my teens. They play progressive but spastic ska and their infectiously high energy music is perfect for an explosive live show, but it doesn't always translate into good iTunes fodder. "Knighting Gale" breaks the mold. The verse has this nice Bond-theme-y groove to it and the horns run through a minor progression as they accent the chorus and play off the distorted harmonies. I mean, these are accessible, familiar melodies and in these situations I think the concern is largely with execution rather than breaking new ground. "Knighting Gale" is an enjoyable, catchy mid-tempo rock song by a band that's probably also way too mature for spastic ska. I'm OK with that.

The Blue Meanies - "Knighting Gale"

I don't listen to a lot of Samhain, largely because I'm pretty content with the Misfits and it sometimes feels like Samhain was Danzig's warm up for his solo career - kind of like Julie Ruin was Kathleen Hannah's warm up for Le Tigre. I guess that is to say that I don't know the catalogue as well as I'd like and I'm kind of in the process of remedying that situation.

"Let The Day Begin" is a broody song about absolutely nothing from the band's third album, November-Coming-Fire. The lyrics read like a list of short and evil sentences Danzig thought up while watching horror movies in his mom's basement. They're tough lyrics to take seriously, but that could be said about most things Danzig pens. His celebration of macabre made the Misfits famous: an intimidating crooner singing songs about death over three chord melodic punk rock. It's that aesthetic, more or less, that has carried him through most of his career. So I can't really act surprised when he says things like "let the skies all cry."

But "Let The Day Begin" is a good song, even if it falls short of its mark. Danzig stands amidst a flurry of toms and a muddy recording and sings with conviction. The chorus is forgetable, save for his fantastic vocals. I don't even know if I can remember a single riff, but I can hum the vocal melody for the verse. It's understandable why he went solo and maybe this song highlights a lot of the shortcomings of his intermediate project. All in, it's not bad for a warm up lap.

Samhain - "Let The Day Begin"

While we were all sitting around drunk on New Year's, Hour of the Wolf was playing Andrew W.K.'s I Get Wet album all the way through at a house party in Arizona. Here's the start of the album and the set.

Question: why are there mattresses on the wall and why does one say "Gwar" on it?

rtsp://archive.wfmu.org/archive/MU/mu021125.rm?start=0:11:8