Let's rock!

Hmm, for some reason I have felt the desire to reacquaint myself with guitar music. It started last year when I finally got around to listening to the Pixies (and seeing them live on their reunion tour at Alexandria Palace) and wondering why I didn't get into them the first time around. And then I heard some Pavement, remembered that they were supposedly a big influence on the US indie rock scene of the 1990s, bought Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Wowee Zowee (the sexy Special Edition reissues with sackfuls of extra bonus tracks) and decided that they were bloomin' marvellous.

I've also been listening to quite a bit of Faith No More again for the first time in years. They were one of my favourite bands during my late teens and I'd forgotten how much I like them. Angel Dust was and still is my favourite FNM album, heavy yet experimental. I then started thinking about Mike Patton and his many side projects that I've been meaning to catch up on. I already owned Mr. Bungle's eponymous debut album which is fantastically barmy, a disjointed mess of funk, metal, scary fairground music and scatological humour. Not an easy listen but I love it. I never managed to get into their second album Disco Volante - that was too fucked up even for me - but their third and final release, California, is brilliant. The fragmented song structures remain but it is a more laid back, surf guitar inspired album.

I then got the two albums Patton released under the Tomahawk moniker - good old fashioned punky metal - which then led me onto the Melvins (I decided to start with their most accessible offering, Houdini, and I'll then move onto the more 'difficult' stuff).

Whilst still in a Patton mood, I got the Peeping Tom album, a bunch of collaborations between Patton and the likes of Massive Attack, Amon Tobin, Dan The Automator and... er... Norah Jones. Yes, Norah Jones. Mike 'n' Norah duet on a track called Sucker and you'll never see her in the same light again once you've heard her sing the words, "The truth kinda' hurts, don't it, motherfucker?" The novelty value of hearing the purveyor of sweet, folksy pop music cussing like a navvy notwithstanding, Peeping Tom is a superb album. It is apparently what Patton would like pop music to sound like if he listened to pop music and, frankly, I agree with him.

I don't really know why I've suddenly started hankering after big, crunchy, raucous guitar stuff again after many years of immersion in electronica. I guess that sometimes I need some harsh aggressive noise in my ears. Having said that, I have spent today listening to Wagon Christ and Authechre, so go figure.