Tin Ear Tuesday – Holiday Cocktail Hour

Man, I love me some fucking Christmas. I do. It’s the season for pleasin’ and love and light and gifts and shit and if I wasn’t so burned out from 2011 being one of the most arduous years of my (not so very) young life this new apartment of mine would be a veritable friggin’ wonderland to have and behold for all customs and creeds but we just moved in last week and I have a funeral coming up so it looks like the only cheer I’m going to be spreading this year will have to come in my curiously time-honored tradition of making my loved ones a mix…or two. And, this year, I’ve decided to share this rock/odd love with you, my Tin Ear dears. Rest assured, nothing contained within these excursions has the least bit to do with jingles, bells or the sound of one horse clapping underneath the Rockefeller Tree. Its just music, kids. Old, new, occasionally offensive but otherwise much appreciated this year. So, from one chain-smoking fool to you…ROCK IT!

PJ Harvey – “Bitter Branches” from Let England Shake…I’m not gonna lie. I haven’t given two stinging beer shits about what Polly Jean’s done since she went public with her hatred of that one record she made where she sounded happy. Some people just hate joy. Too bad. So sad. On this record, though, she gets all WWI allegorical and delivers a decent amount of rock via strange falsettos and all the wonky crap she does to make the critics love her.

Husker Du – “Masochism World” from Zen Arcade…My friend Megan fucking LOVES this band and it’s pretty goddamn easy to see why. Their career was a perpetual zenith of creativity in the years between their stint as speed freaking Midwesterners and major label tear-jerkers but a lot of their songs leave me feeling a little “eh”. Still, you can’t fuck with punk rock’s first full-on concept album.

Eddy Current Suppression Ring – “Boy, Can I Dance Good” from So Many Things…The first of MANY cover songs that will appear on these mixes. This one’s from Pinpoint’s favorite Kiwi (Aussie? Lord of the Rings v. Poisonous Everything?) rockers and is a pretty faithful rendition of the Pagans creep sleaze classic. More people need to cover that band.

Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers – “Get Off the Phone” from L.A.M.F.…Shit yeah, Johnny.

Big Black – “Every Man for Himself” from God’s Favorite Dog…If Christmas needs one thing, it’s motherfucking Steve Albini. You’ll see him on the next mix as well. This is a long forgotten Big Black track off a comp found drunk in a flurry of proof that the kids don’t know a damn thing about bitterness these days.

The Dead Milkmen – “Takin’ Retards to the Zoo” from Big Lizard in My Backyard…Stupid. Awesome. Always.

Death Grips – “I Want It, I Need It (Death Heated)” from Exmilitary…This is one of those hip hop songs your parents were afraid you’d listen to. Not so much about killing everyone as understanding the suckable nature of your dick vis a vis a small mountain of cocaine, a filthy bathroom and the timeless animal cry “BEEEEYUHHTCH!”.

PAPA – “I Am the Lion King” from A Good Woman Is Hard to Find…This song is fun and jangly and pretty damn lovely in an AM prom way which is something I never really got to understand seeing as I went to an all-boy’s school and when I did go to the girl’s prom all dancing was overshadowed by cigarette breaks and furtive chatter about how that one girl brought her cousin as a date. Poor Katie.

Patrick Wolf – “The City” from Lupercalia…A loud, proud Irish/English singer/songwriter who writes big time 80s synth/drum/et al. passion plays about being in love. He once got beat down by cops at a Madonna concert for kissing his boyfriend which makes about as much sense as Madonna inevitable yoga GILF status. I think he also played fiddle for the Arcade Fire.

They Might Be Giants – “Can’t Keep Johnny Down” from Join Us…I know, right? Fucking They Might Be Giants? Seriously, though…they’re last record was pretty awesome in the classic quirk of TMBG before they decided to be…um…sexy? Yeah, that was weird. Let’s forget it happened. And the kids record. Let’s nerd rock forever.

Warrior Kids – “Adolescent” from Les Enfant De L’Espoir…VIVA LA FRANCE!

Yelawolf – “Slumerican Shitizen” from Radioactive…Arguably the most dipshitted title I’ve come across in YEARS but…yeah, I got nothing. I just wanted to try and include some more hip hop in my life and this is what happened.

Vektor – “Cosmic Cortex” from Outer Isolation…I have to give great thanks to Kaptain Carbon for introducing me to this band in my darkest hour of thrash withdrawal. This song is over ten minutes long.

The Birthday Party – “Pleasure Heads” from Drunk on the Pope’s Blood…I love screaming. You love Nick Cave. Bootlegs bring us together.

The Jesus Lizard – “Blockbuster” from Club…You want to shut your family up this holiday season? This song should do it. Dicks. Ranches. Blockbusters up the ass. HOW YOU LIKE THAT OLD MAN?!!

Cadillac Blindside – “Nothing Like the Real Thing” from Read the Book, Seen the Movie…I really don’t understand why more kids don’t namecheck this band. They were one of the great standouts of the first generation of Fueled By Ramen emo bands but had a whole lot more to do with the screeching nihilistics of geographical contemporaries Song of Zarathustra than anything that label’s done in ten years. Fucking Paramore.

Ceremony – “Holocaust” from 6 Cover Songs…Part art, part thug. Ceremony are getting better and better at just being punk as is evidenced by this recent covers EP. Here it’s Crisis. Yeah. I hadn’t heard them either. This song, this cover rules.

Hey Colossus – “Almeria, Spain” from RRR…I don’t know. Some albums just appear in my library. I guess this is stoner rock? Psychfryspacejams? Filler? The hell with it. Just sit back and let the dragon ride.

The Blood Brothers – “Boy Armageddon” from Rumors Laid Waste…If I’m not mistaken, the Blood Brothers were sixteen when they recorded this which means that I had already long graduated from college, lost my job and was sleeping in my mother’s expansive living room. How’s that for perspective? Sheeesh.

Build Us Airplanes – “Stand Alone” from At the End of the Day…I just got this record the other day thanks to the good people of Beartrap PR who always keep me in the music I need to find a feeling to go with my beer and frantic attempts to achieve the impossible. Good times. Thanks, guys.

Los Campesinos! – “Song About Your Girlfriend” from Hello Sadness…Man. What the fucking happened to this band? Even Foolish had a bunch of fun songs. This is, pretty much, the only sparkle of glee on this shockingly dour album sooooo…YAY!