#Tag
#Listening to Everywhen from the album Ad Astra, released under a CC BY-SA 4.0 in 2018, by Berlin-based electronica producer @sixumbrellas;
https://bandwagon.fm/6921beb056c2b1775bc0845a
Other than saying it's electronic and instrumental, it's hard to pigeonhole this album genre-wise. But it plays with some nice moody sounds, with a range of pace and busyness.
#Listening to the 2023 remaster of Cult of Personality by Living Color;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mssfWohiig
Originally released on Vivid in 1998, I can't think of a song more apt for the times;
"I sell the things you need to be
I'm the smiling face on your TV
Oh, I'm the cult of personality
I exploit you, still you love me
I tell you one and one makes three
Oh, I'm the cult of personality
Like Joseph Stalin and Gandhi
Oh, I'm the cult of personality"
#Listening to Spanish Goat Dancer by kiwi funk metal band Head Like a Hole, a single from the Flik Y'Self off Y'Self album released in 1994;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ7DRq69aL4
This whole album, like all of their records really, is big, dumb, noisy fun. HLAH played amazing live sets in the 90s, and their records do a great job of capturing that frenetic live energy.
#listening to Schwung! A 2025 album by Dutch rapper @Konstrukto (EDIT: and J. Duko, sorry JD!);
https://bandwagon.fm/68d9a487606bd9d1b25e69d7
At least, I presume he's Dutch, since it sounds like he's constantly clearing his throat ; ) Seriously though, even though I have almost no idea what the rappers are saying, this is a fun, laid back, album. Jazzy beats, heaps of character, love it.
Speaking of Tapdole, I just finshed #listening to their 2013 album E M;
https://tadpole.bandcamp.com/album/e-m
This album has no vocals, I'm not sure it even has any live instruments. It's like someone took an empty Jamiesons bottle, filled it with moonshine, and put it on the bottle store shelf. Even if the moonshine is fantastic - and E M is pretty good - it's not like Jamiesons.
It sounds more like Optimus Gryme than the Tadpole of The Buddhafinger or The Medusa.
Now I'm #listening to a 2022 album called Tadpole by a band of the same name. But not the kiwi Tadpole, a self-described "freak beat", "noise rock", and "psychedelic" music project from Oklahoma City, US;
https://tadpoleokc.bandcamp.com/album/tadpole
The first track is called Holy Shit, and boy does it deliver. There are only 4 tracks on this album, and it seems to be the only one they have on BC. More's the pity.
#Listening to Alright by Tadpole from the album Buddhafinger, released in 2000.
"I can see it in your face
Don't think that I don't recognize it
I was adored once too
Soon you'll be bitter and old, my dear
We'll see about these feelings you have
They'll be the death of you"
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOudgU99xC1ywAsYaGyEvmpWNpCd_ANTa
Tadpole are hard to pigeonhole genre-wise. Imagine Linkin Park but with powerful singing instead of angsty whinging (not yucking your yum if you like LP, but it's not my jam).
Speaking of Tapdole, I just finshed #listening to their 2013 album E M;
https://tadpole.bandcamp.com/album/e-m
This album has no vocals, I'm not sure it even has any live instruments. It's like someone took an empty Jamiesons bottle, filled it with moonshine, and put it on the bottle store shelf. Even if the moonshine is fantastic - and E M is pretty good - it's not like Jamiesons.
It sounds more like Optimus Gryme than the Tadpole of The Buddhafinger or The Medusa.
#Listening to Alright by Tadpole from the album Buddhafinger, released in 2000.
"I can see it in your face
Don't think that I don't recognize it
I was adored once too
Soon you'll be bitter and old, my dear
We'll see about these feelings you have
They'll be the death of you"
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOudgU99xC1ywAsYaGyEvmpWNpCd_ANTa
Tadpole are hard to pigeonhole genre-wise. Imagine Linkin Park but with powerful singing instead of angsty whinging (not yucking your yum if you like LP, but it's not my jam).
#Listening to Joel by britpop guitar band The Boo Radleys, from their 1995 album Wake Up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAZ1ai3-h9s
I had this album on cassette, and used to torture my poor flatmate when he had a hangover with the Beach Boys style opening track, Wake Up Boo! Joel, like the rest of the album is a fascinating mix of 1960s and 1990s influences.
#Listening to Junior Citizen by #PosterChildren;
"Tonight we launch the bird and start to spread the word
We punch through the atmosphere with a signal loud and clear
We're searching for the truth and some new recruits
To join us in the war against the empire of the bored
...
There are no leaders, there are no rules
This isn't TV, it's not high school
No more uniforms, we don't care
About the color of your shirt, shoes, skin or hair"
The Junior Citizen album by Poster Children was released 30 years ago last year;
https://www.popmatters.com/poster-children-junior-citizen-atr30
I was #listening to the whole thing the other day for the first time in ages. It's so relevant it could have been released yesterday! For example, King for a Day could have been written for the current US President;
#Listening to the 2011 album Further by veteran kiwi electronic producer Grouch, who these days releases and performs psydubby stuff like this as Grouch in Dub, to distinguish it from his psytrance albums;
https://grouchnz.bandcamp.com/album/further
I first met Grouch about 20 years ago in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, at a flow night, or maybe full moon drumming. Loved his first album The Moof is Rooving, released in 2006, and I've been enjoying his music ever since.
#Listening to Junior Citizen by #PosterChildren;
"Tonight we launch the bird and start to spread the word
We punch through the atmosphere with a signal loud and clear
We're searching for the truth and some new recruits
To join us in the war against the empire of the bored
...
There are no leaders, there are no rules
This isn't TV, it's not high school
No more uniforms, we don't care
About the color of your shirt, shoes, skin or hair"
@andre
> Dynamic Ad Insertion is the keyword
Sounds suitably shady. Now I want to start a punk or industrial band called Dynamic Ad Insertion. Something along these lines ...
#Listening to Mandate by Australian industrial band Eye;
https://eyemusicgroup.bandcamp.com/track/mandate-with-the-prime-minister-on-guest-vocals
A protest song from the 1998 album Politics Can be Fun. I vaguely remember downloading this on Napster in 99(?). It's a fun bit of musical satire, that skewers the Westminster Parliamentary system with great use of samples, like;
"Under current constitutional arrangements, a government that is elected has virtually dictatorial power for the next 3 years."
EYE
#Listening to Out There, from the 1993 Dinosaur Jr album Where You Been;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGNHcctzKIY
Ultimately the baby of the only continuous member, J Mascis, Dinosaur Jr was, most active from the early 1980s to the late 90s. Which meant they got pigeonholed as 'grunge', like most indie guitar bands of the time. But they're more like Pavement than they are like Nirvana or Pearl Jam.
#Listening to a live performance of Feel The Pain by Dinosaur Jr;
"I feel the pain of everyone
Then I feel nothing"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfdgFcT6Lew
This is classic loud-quiet-loud nineties track, and I love the way this live rendition combines loud with fast, even more so than the album version. Taking the listener on a journey through the highs and lows of J Mascis' grieving process after the death of his father.
#Listening to Out There, from the 1993 Dinosaur Jr album Where You Been;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGNHcctzKIY
Ultimately the baby of the only continuous member, J Mascis, Dinosaur Jr was, most active from the early 1980s to the late 90s. Which meant they got pigeonholed as 'grunge', like most indie guitar bands of the time. But they're more like Pavement than they are like Nirvana or Pearl Jam.
#Listening to a short track called Shin-Okubo by Bob Gnarley, a self-described "Island Goth" from Guam;
https://bobgnarly.bandcamp.com/track/shin-okubo
Also listened to his 4 song EP Trip;
https://bobgnarly.bandcamp.com/album/trip-ep
The tracks are short, mellow instrumentals, with a vaguely melancholic vibe. It's kind of dubby, kind of jazzy, kind of hip-hoppy. Hard to pigeonhole, which is maybe why I'm enjoying it.
Bob Gnarly
#Listening to...
"Annihilation/Billionaire Death Drive is a second volume of anarcho-industrial punk from Te Whanganui-a-Tara’s Displeasure, the digital subsidiary of Unsanitary Napkin. The album expresses an even greater sense of urgency about the fragile state of our planet, and a greater sense of fury towards the depraved hypercapitalist sadists ruling over us"
https://mirlo.space/displeasure/release/annihilationbillionaire-death-drrive
#HatTip to unstream.stream for making this more discoverable!
#Listening to a podcast edition of the recent KEXP live-to-air by progressive metal band Agriculture;
https://www.kexp.org/podcasts/live-on-kexp/2026/1/21/agriculture/
This is not for the fainthearted, it can be as loud and intense as you might expect. But it is unusual, atmospheric music, riding the knife edge between raucous and ambient, between expansive space and overwhelming volume.
#podcasts #Kexp #KEXPLive #music #metal #progressive #Agriculture
#Listening to Spiderland, a 1991 album by US mathrock pioneers Slint;
https://slint.bandcamp.com/album/spiderland-remastered
Reminds me somewhat of King Missile's Happy Hour, released a year later, which is one of my all-time favourite albums. Infamous for the single Detachable Penis. Also to some degree The Jesus Lizard, particularly the vocal style and some of the guitar tones.
I can't believe I never discovered Slint during the 90s, or even the noughties. Great stuff.
#Listening to @kidlightbulbs' 2025 album INFINITE NORMAL;
https://music.kidlightbulbs.com/infinite-normal/
An intriguing singer-songwriter album reminiscent of Sparklehorse, Badly Drawn Boy or SJD. Melancholic and frustrated melodies, and lush instrumentation, especially for a solo act (plus a few friends).
Great to see professional sounding artists making use of non-corporate music hosting tools like FairCamp (see link) and @bandwagon (click on the Kid's @handle to see his BW profile).
#Listening to Sweet Candy Power
by Shonen Knife, released in 2025;
https://shonenknife.bandcamp.com/album/sweet-candy-power-2
I first heard this Japanese punk band in the late 1990s, care of a friend who was obsessed with all things Japan. But BC tells me they've been a band since 1981. They still got it.
