The Beat Generation Box Set (Rhino, 1992)

I discovered this 18 years ago at 18 years old. The timing couldn't have been better as I was in that phase of all things / words Kerouac, Ginsburg and Burroughs; spending much of my time attempting to memorize long poems and grasping the concept of be bop and cool jazz. If you were ever that silly kid, this comp is for you, a real treasure chest.

"The stars--Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs--are here, of course. But so are the players (Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan), the architects (Kenneth Patchen, Kenneth Rexroth), the cutups (Lenny Bruce, Lord Buckley), the pretenders (Rod McKuen, Edd Byrnes), the critics (Carl Sandburg, Howard K. Smith), and the heirs (Tom Waits)." --Michael Ruby

The accompanying book is just lovely. If you want to sit back, relax and kill some time ,this is a fun way to do it, ya dig?

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Vestibule - Waning Crescent...14% of Full (Mixtape, 2011)

I made a mix. A bit of light spring weather fare for your ears. Enjoy.

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La Dusseldorf - Viva (Radar, 1978)

O.K, I really love the post WW2 rock that came out of Germany. I mean these kids had to reinvent their image to the world after the Nazis tainted the national identity of the German people. Think about it, the older generation was wiped out from war and the kids had very little musical role models outside of the U.K and the states. They knew they wanted to sound distinct from other cultural movements in the late sixties, not just the folk based psych rock that was on the rise. So these young cabbage heads looked to themselves and in the industrial remains of their home, they formed what would later be known as KrautRock.

“Viva” by La Dusseldorf is classic kraut in it's true nature. La Dusseldorf carries a steady punk rhythm that has the likeness of Neu! Primarily because both bands had the privilege of sharing vocalist/guitarist Klaus Dinger. Although Neu! called it quits in 75', Klaus carried on to form La Dusseldorf. “Viva” was their most popular album with key tracks such as “Rheinita” and “Cha Cha 2000”. Both tracks were singles from the album. With the punk pulse synthesized into a dream chant, “Viva” is continuously being played on my stereo. This album carries a sense of hope throughout it, by yelling positive anthem lines about how people need to pick themselves up and create a healthier world rather than constantly poisoning it. Besides, any album that blurs sounds to point were it is hard to tell if what you are hearing is guitar fuzz, screaming or some kind of early synth pad, it will always be inviting the listener to engage themselves as to what is really going on. Auf Weidersehen

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Sean Dail came to the world first as a thought and then in the flesh. He enjoys music and other creations of humanity that display the spectrum of emotion and thought. With an understanding of the dichotomy of reality, Dail is willing and able to convey works that share both the world of idea's and the struggle to survive. He also enjoys waking up in the mornings and thinking about how he should eat more oat meal.

The Bonzo Dog Band - Urban Spaceman / The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse (UK release title) (1968, Parlophone)

The Bonzo Dog Band's album “Urban Spaceman” explores human absurdity with a humorous cacophony of spits and spurts that screams “am I different or what?”.

This British group of the 1960's helped push the buttons of the general public as most artists or musicians have done throughout the ages. Yet, “Urban Spaceman” delivers the off paced wit that resembles the flow of the strangest Monty Python episode and many of their songs parody the narrow mindedness of British attitude.

The Beatles were big fans of the group too and so much so, that Sir Paul McCartney produced the album, can you believe it? Well it's true. In the same course that the magical mystery form took place, they combine formal jazz with gay rock licks and psychedelic fuzzed out reverberations from all angles.

Two of my favorite tracks are “Rhinocratic Oaths” and “Trouser Press”. Like other songs on the album they display a sense of uncertainty to their point, but these two songs in my opinion really have no point, other than demonstrating the idea of how a healthy dose of uncomfortable oddness can be necessary in order to put up with the massive amounts of bullshit that is brought about from everyday life. These are professional musicians showing the world their collective ass. This album makes you wonder how the golden turd came out of it and with melodic frills it sends psychedelic chills as you laugh with a sober and motionless expression; thus causing your nose hairs to wiggle about ferociously. You'll see.

Sean Dail

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Mater Suspiria Vision - Zombie Rave Mixtape 5

Sometimes I get tired of music. Sometimes I feel like nothing is original anymore. Repetition, emulation, auto-tuning and flat out copy-catting are so discouraging as to make me ask "what's the point in even talking about it?"

Every time I'm exhausted with it all and completely fed up, the mysterious entity that is Mater Suspiria Vision has me turn away from the proverbial light and feeds me intravenously with a new drug: his reworking of material that is consistently original and thought-provoking. A simultaneous aural dilaudid and MDMA that rejuvenates and insures hope for tomorrow.

Sit back, chillax and enjoy the disturbing, exciting, uplifting and purple drank sounds of Zombie Rave Mixtape 5.

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Slowdive - Souvlaki (Creation, 1993)

Now that Kevin Shields has seen god-like revival status and most music fans are tossing the term "shoegaze" around for any old indie rock band that uses reverb or delay, let's talk about the band that slipped through the cracks.

In May 1993, Reading, UK's own teenage band, Slowdive released their sophomore effort Souvlaki just a few months after Suede dropped their debut and the britpop movement was born. Their sound was distinguished from contemporaries in that they were sweetly and delicately melodic and densely layered. Slowdive didn't rely on any sense of noise. Sure, there was feedback but always controlled and focused. Sometimes the feeling of 60's pop folk even comes to mind. The dual vocals of Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell remain an eternally mesmerizing pair. With brilliant guitar work from Christian Savill, solid bass from Nick Chaplin and immensely tasteful yet powerful drumming from Ian McCutcheon and Simon Scott and the production of one Brian Eno, Slowdive crafted the cornerstone of the shoegaze / dream pop movement.

Rest easy, those of you who don't like your musicians to come across too seriously. Slowdive weren't pretentious. According to interviews with the band, the album was titled after an explicit skit on the first album by telephone pranksters The Jerky Boys, containing the line: "My wife loves that Greek shit. She'll suck your cock like souvlaki."

This is a must have. Falls somewhere in my top ten albums...ever.


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"Welrd Al" Yankovic - Even Worse (Scotti Brothers, 1988)

When masturbating with your own tears was an up and coming thing, this record spun continually on my turntable. Id listen intently, trying to figure out if the lyrics were ironic with a splash of cynicism, or if they were heartfelt, like being around family and shit. I shudder to think if anyone walked in on me, alone, playing this record. My nude body writhing around, clueless as to what these new words truly did spell out to me.

The album opens up, as most do, with an overwhelming sense to continue to understand where and what it is exactly our storyteller wants us to take from our experience. Most journeys start with an urge to find a new place in your own mind, and this record is no exception. I’ve seen the darkest parts of my psyche, and I've spent cold nights alone. My eyes water when I fully accept the emotions of what this record has given me, and the important fact still remains: is there a better record? I try to think of one and I cannot.

Open your heart, and let that shit bleed out. When I listen to this record, I am constantly reminded of the yin and yangs of life, the constant struggle to find oneself in a digital world. I mean, trees and plants don’t deliberately cool you out and get all heavy and beep in your ear. Let us live in the trees, eat the fruits of our labors, and turn this record up to a reasonable listening volume and sew some fucking seeds.

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Tony Plichta is a microwaveable nutrition enthusiast, has a masters in bullshit, his relationship with his moms aint so great these days, he exhales into his bass drum, and thinks that these banana nut bread scented candles are off the chain!

Muslimgauze - Hamas Arc (Staalplaat, 1993)

A crisp zill announces the arrival of an electronic force to be reckoned with. Muslimgauze, aka Bryn Jones was as subversive politically as he was musically. Each track on Hamas Arc lies in wait like a snake in the grass; A snake with the patience of a sloth, the resolution of a sniper and the delicacy of an aesthete.

Jones homes in on our meditative sensibilities with the combination of Islamic salat (prayers) and dogmatic manipulation through heavily phased ambient drones that clash with subtle yet aggressive middle eastern percussion tracks. This is a thematically violent and confusing militant music teeming with the discomfiture of the Palestinian / Israeli relationship that seems eternally doomed, a relationship that Jones felt was far too important not to "speak" about. His point (that the Israeli occupation of Gaza should cease immediately) was clear and simple and he was passionate about implying this as the theme to all of his music.

Jones had many stages to his 20 albums in 12 years: minimal and ambient dub techno, dry and gated instrumental hip hop style beats, abrasive, noisy and inaccessible tomes and this; a convincing and intelligent trance-inducing whirling dervish dance that saturates the senses. This is a vehicle that soothes and delicately massages your mind until you let go of any hesitation. I heard Mulimgauze at an early age, had no resistance and quickly bought what he was selling.

Jones is one of my favorite electronic musicians, second only to Coil. His catalog is vast and unfortunately, his contribution to the history of modern music is far too underground.

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Further Reading on Muslimgauze Here

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (Creation, 1991)

When I first moved to the mountains of North Carolina, I lived in Chimney Rock. It was a rough time for me, cause you see...i had been smoking a pack and a half of Tahoe 100 reds a day, and I wasn't used to the curvy mountain roads. The beach I was accustomed to was long and straight. There were no sharp curves, so moving out here was a bit of a motion sickness nightmare for ole Tonester. And on top of that, the move to a higher elevation was giving me inner ear infections for about the first 8 months of living here. Or that's at least what the doctor told me.

So here I was, driving to Hendersonville on Dramamine so I wouldn't throw up on my lap on the way to work at Camelot Music. There were times that I'd be so drowsy from the Dramamine that I would still have to pull over and throw up. I'd get to work and they'd send me straight back home cause I was pale from the drive. Double fail.

Something about this record reminds me of those times. I mean try putting yourself in my shoes. Driving a half an hour, not trying to puke but trying to listen to this swirling, droned out, amazing record that you should really just be lying on the ground and listening to. It spins circles in my mind to this day, and now I just wonder why I even tried making the trek and trying to jam this record. But I ain’t mad.

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Tony Plichta is a microwaveable nutrition enthusiast, has a masters in bullshit, his relationship with his moms aint so great these days, he exhales into his bass drum, and thinks that these banana nut bread scented candles are off the chain!

Murder City Devils - In Name and In Blood (Sub Pop, 2000)

Once in a while there is a girl. One that IS the record that you've listened to for years, the kind that the songs are singing about. That what this record is for me. Loose and kind. Drunk and fun. Untrustworthy and worth every minute of it. Taking up all of your time, but always alone. So good and so bad.

You want shittier tattoos.

You want shittier drugs.

You want expensive scotch and cheap beer.

You do lude things to each other in busy parking lots in the daytime.

The decisions you make are fucking terrible, and she's at the top of the list. And you'll listen to this record as long as you can to justify those actions, and you can tell yourself its ok for quite some time. The baggage carried is a heavy load, and the pharmaceutical speed balls she has you on are only as good as they last. It could be heartbreak, it could be withdrawal. But the time spent together will last forever. Endless night after endless night. No responsibility. No commitment. Fucking Babylon.

You'll always remember her no matter what happens in life. You wont hear from her ever again after a few years, but every time you play this record, shes the first crazy thing that pops up in your mind. She left an imprint, almost a lesson learned. As godless as you are, you thank the heavens that it is truly over and the time spent was brief. You miss her always and love her never.

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Tony Plichta is a microwaveable nutrition enthusiast, has a masters in bullshit, his relationship with his moms aint so great these days, he exhales into his bass drum, and thinks that these banana nut bread scented candles are off the chain!

Zond - s/t (R.I.P. Society, 2010)

Zond was the name of a Soviet space exploration program in the 1960's. Unmanned capsules were rocket-launched for the purpose of investigating nearby planets in our solar system. Unfortunately for the Russians, none of the probes achieved much more than a lunar fly-by.

Half a century later, a band by the same name is taking its listeners on a musical journey light years further into the cold dark vastness of deep space. Zond is an Australian quintet that easily surpasses any other heavy shoegaze band in the universe for originality, substance and style. This is the dark side of shoegaze. Its dark, furious, isolated, claustrophobic and drenched with LSD. Casual listening will call to mind the heaviest psych cuts on the Loveless album; but don't stop there. I don't know if Kevin Shields has heard this but if he has, he must be impressed. Zond is not emulating Shields, as is often the case with shoegaze. The beauty here is that the psychedelic and schizophrenic roller coaster is ordered. This is very controlled chaos. Nothing by accident. Every guitar and synth seems to be moving in different directions and the free jazz-like drums are scattering, like a spacecraft being pulled apart by the earth's heat upon re-entry; but when you awake, it was all a dream, a trick. Everything is fine. You're safe...for the moment.

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Deicide - Serpents of the Light (Roadrunner, 1997)

I always feel that there should be kale in the steamer while listening to this record. Lots of sesame oil to be had, a dash of balsamic. Then chilled, to be served with a medium rare salmon. Serve around 7pm, weather permitting. Should weather steal the moment, make it inside towards the left corner of the restaurant. There's a large pane of glass, that when it rains, streams downward in an almost marbling fashion. This spot is somewhat cool, and a light overcoat for her is recommended. A bottle of pinot grigio will have you smiling at each other in no time. Then this record comes on...

Its the perfect moment. Your eyes meet, glassy and sensitive. Life's little frustrations leave you and everything is exactly where it needs to be. The alcohol swimming in your mind, fearing you might make a wrong move, you nervously pay the bill and then your song comes on. Confidence swells up inside of you. You are no longer blushing, but sturdy in your movements, and she sees it. You both want each other, and this could be love.

It feels so right, so true.

Meant to be.

You sign the bill. On the way to the car, you can see that by the way she is walking she is trying to turn you on. On the ride home she whispers “I really wish you had some of that music that was playing in the restaurant”. You tell her “Well it just so happens....”. You put your song on. She starts to nibble on your earlobe, and you can feel the hairs on your neck stand up. Electric, your legs tense up, and you step on the gas a little more than you should. She gets nervous, and you grab her inner thigh and tell her everything is going to be ok. You can see that her faith is in you.

Need less to say, your night goes well. The guys at work can tell that something happened good. You are in a far better mood than you usually are. You don’t indulge too much information. Some things are best left to the imagination. This is the best Monday you've ever had. And its all thanks to one little record that made the moment that something special...

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Tony Plichta is a microwaveable nutrition enthusiast, has a masters in bullshit, his relationship with his moms aint so great these days, he exhales into his bass drum, and thinks that these banana nut bread scented candles are off the chain!

Minus - The Great Northern Whalekill (One Little Indian, 2008)

You will not like this record at all. This town (Asheville, NC) will hate this and everything it stands for. Its over the top in all the wrong ways and you will probably get pissed when you listen to the first 10 seconds of any track on the record. The production is over the top, the guitar solos will make you wince, and the fact that these guys live in a place where they have a month and a half of darkness a year will make you understand why their taste in the music they play is so shitty. And dear god the lyrics suck.

I listen to this record at least once a week.

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Tony Plichta is a microwaveable nutrition enthusiast, has a masters in bullshit, his relationship with his moms aint so great these days, he exhales into his bass drum, and thinks that these banana nut bread scented candles are off the chain!

Evil Madness - Super Great Love (Editions Mego, 2011)

To be honest, I'm kind of frustrated with Editions Mego at this point. How can a label only put out top notch material? I read about this act and thought this would definitely be the one to show that no label is perfect. Wrong. They got me again. This time its with something completely different. Brace yourself for an unusual record from some unusual guys who are ordinarily very cerebral. This is a super-group made up of BJ Nilsen (Swedish experimental sound artist and composer), Johann Johannsson (Icelandic musician who's written and produced for Marc Almond, The Hafler Trio, Pan Sonic and Barry Adamson) and members of Stilluppsteypa (Icelandic abstract / experimental electronic band).

Apparently, these very serious composers needed an outlet. What we have here is an album ready for the European dancefloor circuit. In fact, if you didn't know better, you'd assume this was another unknown early 80's act unearthed by Veronica and crew for the Minimal Wave comp. Not to limit the record to that sound, there's also a solid EBM representation here, along with industrial, coldwave and chillwave. This is tribute music for the most part with a dash of over the top modern trance and techno. Its very reminiscent of some of those later Kraftwerk tracks that were a bit silly but you loved them anyway.

I highly recommend this.

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Old Man Gloom - Meditations In B (Tortuga, 1999)

Sometimes I get high and listen to this record, and sometimes I get high and listen to this record. When this record came out, I didn't get high. I was fresh out of high school, all my dreams could become realities, and my heart was as big as the melon that sits on these shoulders. Then, a month later, I moved into a trailer in Grandy, NC. Game over.

Needless to say, I couldn't get any higher. While this record sat on my dresser having only been listened to with sober ears, I didn't get it until I was stoned to the bone on a mattress on the floor. My skin had broken out with some weird trailer fungus, the water in the shower smelt like an ashtray, and the only thing I was into was my new found affliction for getting high and laying on that mattress between my shifts at a future-less job as a surf shop tool. Life sucked, but this record ruled.

I would lay my head at the foot of the bed, center the subwolfer, and place one speaker to each side of my head. Fucking begging for my ears to explode. Id turn up the volume as needed to drown out the cowling fishermen and their wenches as they fade into the shit night that is Currituck County.

For real though, this record needs lithium. It ranges from total abuse of the D chord and ride cymbals, to almost meditative, eerie drones with samples and bloops and beeps and bubbles and bursts and shit. Its like listening to your crazy ex, but in a good way.

This band has six members these days, but this record only contains two, being the first release they did. On this record its only Aaron Turner from Hydrahead and Isis fame, and some dude named Santos on drums. Apparently Santos is in the know. Dude treats his drums so well.

Anyways, get this record if you are into pop punk, alt-country, or free jazz. Its right up your alley asshole.

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Tony Plichta is a microwaveable nutrition enthusiast, has a masters in bullshit, his relationship with his moms aint so great these days, he exhales into his bass drum, and thinks that these banana nut bread scented candles are off the chain!

Amebix - Arise (Alternative Tentacles, 1985)

The Band with No Name; that was the original moniker for this incredibly significant English band formed in 1978.

They were the first to merge anarcho-punk and heavy metal music in a creative and interesting way and are often cited as one of the key bands to trigger the crust punk movement. Many prominent musicians in the punk scene aided their career as well; Their first album was released due to vocalist Rob Miller getting their demo tape into the hands of Crass who later included the Amebix track 'Universally Challenged' on their Crass Records: Bullshit Detector comp in 1980. Later in 1984, they met Jello Biafra, who signed them as the first UK band to appear on Alternative Tentacles, which is how we know the album Arise.

This record is seminal in the truest sense of the word. Hard hitting, agressive, thought-provoking and cultured (the first track 'The Moor' is based on the Gyorgy Ligeti piece 'Requiem', made famous by the monolith scene in the film 2001.

"Arise you fucking assholes. Speak now or forever hold your peace."

Props long overdue to HPC for the recommendation.

Get this shit if you don't already have it