Record #708: Blushing – Blushing (2019)

Last year, I caught the crest of the hype-wave for Blushing as it was cresting. I listened to it on Spotify, fell in love, and upon finding that the vinyl was way out of my budget, I put them away, trying to forget about them. That is until this week, when my friend Rob included it in an order of cassette tapes from his label, Friend Club Records. So now, I get to fall in love with this record all over again.

I know what you might be thinking—does this guy really need another shoegaze record? And it’s true that for many of the trend-chasing bands in the so-called shoegaze revival scene, the most important part of the genre is the aesthetic. Sometimes, it seems like these bands would rather have an excuse for guitar fuzz or reverb pedals than offer songs with any real compositional fiber.

And truth be told, I love a lot of those bands. I will gladly sit through forty-five minutes of pedalboard demonstrations put to wax, and then I’ll buy it on vinyl. I’m easy to please.

But while Blushing might often get mentioned in the same breath as a lot of the say-nothing revivalists, they don’t just hit the aesthetic of shoegaze. They have the songs to back it up.

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Record #710: Man Mountain – Infinity Mirror (2018)

One of the things I love about vinyl is that the medium allows additional space for creativity. I don’t often talk about packaging on this blog, preferring instead to talk about the music itself, but it’s one of my favorite things about records.

In fact, it’s one of the reasons I started collecting vinyl in the first place—even before I was convinced of the sonic superiority. There are things that a packaging job can do to enhance the aesthetic of an album that a digital copy of the artwork simply can’t. Die cut sleeves, spot gloss, colored vinyl, post cards, etc.

But Infinity Mirror has one of the more interesting packaging jobs I’ve seen in a long time. This pressing is released on a picture disc that, when spun on a turntable, creates an animation.

And even though I haven’t been able to experience it with the same success as that video (I still haven’t figured out the optimal frame rate), it’s not a complete loss, as the music is really enjoyable anyway.

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Record #707: Cloakroom – Further Out (2015)

Speaking of Bobby Markos

Despite the fact that Cloakroom are the standard bearers for the amp-blowing, doom tinged slacker shoegaze that I love so much (see also: Lume, Greet Death, True Widow), I don’t listen to them too often. Yes, I’ve seen them live. Yes, I already owned two of their albums. But I didn’t seek those out as much as I happened upon them.

But recently I realized how dumb this was. I’ve loved every Cloakroom song I’ve ever heard. I know they’re great…why do I always forget that when I go to choose a record?

Upon that realization, I intentionally sought out Further Out, their genre defining 2015 full-length. Five years without this disc was too long.

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Record #706: Baroness – Blue Record (2009)

My love affair with Baroness wasn’t an immediate one. Even after becoming a fan, it took me a while to be fully convinced.

But delving into their back catalogue the last few months, I have realized that they are one of the best bands around. Despite the diversity of their sonic palette, everything they do is absolutely untouchable.

This realization has bid me to systematically buy my way through all of their albums, which brings me to The Blue Record, their wonderful second record.

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Record #705: Native – Orthodox (2013)

The Northern Indiana/Southwestern Michigan music scene is an interesting beast. While my hometown of South Bend is the de facto center of it, we’re close enough to other cities that bands that are born out of towns within an hour drive from us end up cutting their teeth in Chicago or Indianapolis or Grand Rapids instead.

Sometimes, this leads me to discoveries of local(ish) bands that I didn’t even realize were somewhat local to me (see also: Lume, Locktender, Cloakroom).

Earlier this year, I had the similar realization (or reminder, rather) that the mathy, heavy post-hardcore outfit Native were also localish (from Michigan City, but played mostly in Chicagoland).

It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise—after all, Native is fronted by Bobby Markos, the bassist of the aforementioned Cloakroom. And while his rumbling, heavy bass strings are a through line between the two bands, that’s about where the comparison ends.

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Record #704: Dashboard Confessional – The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most (2001)

Now this is more like it.

No more weird live versions or late-career tracks from a compilation that is clearly a cash grab.

This here is the real deal: the long-awaiting vinyl pressing of the seminal emo classic The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most, an album that has been equally revered and reviled—usually by the same people at different periods in their life.

But having long since past the point of shame, I can now embrace this album as wholly as I did when I was a shaggy haired, ripped-jean, cardigan-clad, square-frame-bespectacled emo kid.

Wait…I guess things haven’t changed that much…

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Record #703: Nazareth – Expect No Mercy (1977)

If you thought that I would have learned my lesson from the bait and switch of Hair of the Dog, you might be wrong.

Expect No Mercy features an even more badass cover than its predecessor: a shining knight and a scimitar-wielding demon are engaged in an epic battle of good and evil. What are they fighting for? What are the stakes?

Apparently, the real battle is between heavy metal and blues rock: and blues rock is winning.

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Record #702: Nazareth – Hair of the Dog (1975)

Never judge a book by its cover.

Because if you were to look at the epic, Tolkien-esque painting of wolves and bat wings that adorn this record sleeve and imagine that you were in for some epic, fantasy-inspired heavy metal, you’d be disappointed.

…just like I was, when I first got this record because of the cover, and expected some epic, fantasy-inspired heavy metal.

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Record #701: The Moody Blues – In Search of the Lost Chord (1968)

I discovered all too recently that the Moody Blues weren’t the sort of schlocky, soulless dad rock that I had expected them to be.

Instead, they were charming pioneers that guided much of psychedelic pop’s shift to progressive rock—much closer to The Zombies and Pink Floyd than the Allman Brothers.

After being captured by the incredible Days of Future Passed and the otherworldly On the Threshold of a Dream, I had been searching for the album between them. Having now acquired it, it’s everything I had hoped for.

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