i don't need any more rules that keep me tied up.

i heard this for the first time in fall of 1994. a friend's older sister was a "punk" & played this along with a few other classics. at that time i was listening to a lot of nirvana & PiL, but black flag just struck me as this completely alien thing. & it was amazing to me that these guys were making this not too far from me. i knew right then & there that everything else paled in comparison & that punk was really invented in southern california in the late seventies. i always skipped ahead to the dez cadena tracks, but wished they had the raw lo-fi quality of the keith morris ones. anyway, enough rambling. put this on & smash a cop in the fucking face with a brick.

freedom club.

some paisley jangle pop from the eighties for you to fight the cloudy day doldrums. the rain parade is pretty stellar, & this is their best lp. byrdsy harmonies collide with some c86 pop for the right amount of sunny fun. i could see this influencing bjm fer shure. one of the dudes went onto be in mazzy star if that's a selling point for anyone.

cool, cool water.

lo-fi kosmische kraut noise recorded live back in the golden days of san diego past. beautiful hypnotic synth jammers... if yr into emeralds or any of the modern shit, then you'll really dig physics. put out on gsl a long long time ago, i haven't seen this around very much, but everyone should know this gem.

don't even sing about it.

bloodshed will always hold a really special place for me. they were the first hardcore band i ever saw when i was twelve at some church show. they weren't much older than i was... they were talking about how they couldn't tour outside of california because their drummer was in eighth grade. i think the oldest guy might have been sixteen maybe? it was really inspirational to think of kids not much older than me getting up on stage & creating this visceral art. i saw them as often as i could, which was maybe another eight or nine times until they broke up. definitely d.c. & ebullition inspired, this still really holds up for me after 17 years.

i just wasn't made for these times.

brian wilson is the greatest songwriter of all time. he was also the best producer of all time. i think a lot of people forget about that aspect of his earlier career. this is a collection of projects he worked on. dig the honeys which was brian's wife at the time & how much they sound like a mix between the beach boys & the ronettes. if brian hadn't been derailed by mike love, he could have single handedly changed the face of modern humanity. or at least produced some really amazing albums. anyway, you should grab this & throw it on now that the weather is warming up for y'all.

driving down pch.

chris rouse has been a friend of mine for more than half my life. he is one of the most genuine & caring & passionate human beings i have ever known. his lyrics in this band is what really makes this record special. extremely political from a humanist position, brimming with righteous anger... haha. sorry if you ever read this chris. i have always felt he was a special guy, & this was just the right band for him. the perfect mix of chokehold, trial, & unbroken, some of our favorite bands growing up. it's weird to be posting this because i remember when we were young brahs, & now he has been in this really popular band & toured the world & turned down doing vocals for outspoken. & everytime i come into town he's always the same guy who has time to get coffee & talk poetry with me. anyway, this record is for those times when a molotov cocktail through a window is the only option.

scenes in the city.

this is absolutely one of my favorite post rock records ever. i bought this right when it came out because it had members of crimson curse & guyver one, two of my favorite bands at the time. i loved the artwork for the cover, & i stared at the record sleeve (this was '99 after all & i was one of those vinyl nerds) everytime i would put it on. the first song golden hill made it onto every single mixtape i made for anyone when this came out. tristeza used clean guitars in this amazingly propulsive ways to build stunning dynamics without falling into the cliched tropes of soft loud soft that many bands like this do. really emotionally gripping, i think the closest might be the mercury program or six parts seven. this soundtracked many hot hazy summertime afternoon naps after i spent all day at the beach.

arrow heads.

some forgotten band from mid seventies los angeles that only put out one album & never played outside of california & sounds like sparks & isn't posted everywhere? how is this possible? this is going to be one of my summer albums ya dig?

goodbye surfing, hello god.

the beach boys are tied with the smiths as my favorite band of all time. i feel they are put down by snobby condescending people as that kokomo band, or even worse people only remember them as that kokomo band. i think the greatest travesty of it all though is when those pitchfork hipster assholes who name drop the beach boys are asked what their favorite song or album is, & it's always pet sounds. don't get me wrong, pet sounds is one of the most creative & beautful albums ever put to tape, but they have such a wide career! granted, i don't listen to anything after friends, but brian wilson is the reason i listen to the beach boys. he is single handedly the greatest songwriter of all time. anyway, this is my mix of pre-pet sounds material, picking all of my favorite tunes from them. ps mike love is a motherfucker who deserved to die 45 years ago, & still deserves to die now. don't besmirch the good name of brian wilson for a few bucks you money hungry no talent ass clown.