Record #991: Converge – Jane Doe (2001)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

As compulsively as I buy records, if vinyl copies of an album are prohibitively expensive, it’s often easier to pretend it just doesn’t exist. But when you’re dealing with a record as monumental as Converge’s Jane Doe, that ignorance is pretty hard to feign. It is a singular masterpiece in the world of heavy music, offering up a record that is superlative in every aspect—including asking price.

But my wife and I have been working our asses off lately, and we decided we deserved to give ourselves a bonus. The first thing I did was head to Discogs to see what legendary and outrageously priced record I might finally be able to afford. It wasn’t a hard decision to make. And even as much as I paid for it (not quite a hundred, but close enough to sting), it’s worth every penny.

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Record #990: John McLaughlin – Devotion (1970)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

A lot happened in the year between John McLaughlin’s first album as band leader and his second. Extrapolation was recorded in the UK right before moving to the States to join Tony Williams’ Lifetime. By the time Devotion was recorded, he had also recorded three groundbreaking records with Miles Davis, served as a sideman for Larry Coryell, and had a single all-night jam session with Jimi Hendrix.

That’s a lot to fit in a calendar year, and this disc carries the full weight of it.

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Record #989: Do Make Say Think – You, You’re a History In Rust (2007)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

I have spoken at length about the opposing camps within the history of post rock: Team Mogwai and Team Tortoise. It seems that by and large, Team Mogwai has been the victors. These days, the term generally refers to the dramatic, climax-chasing narratives of bands like Explosions in the Sky, This Will Destroy You, and MONO.

But across the pond from the Glaswegians, you have Tortoise, whose compositions are more groove oriented, taking nods from jazz, Krautrock, and dub. Bands like Collections of Colonies of Bees, Bark Psychosis, and Do Make Say Think.

As much as I love the emotionality and bombast of the climaxcore side of post rock, I often find myself being drawn to the more cerebral side. So when I found this copy of DMST’s celebrated You, You’re a History In Rust in a used bin, I snagged it without a thought.

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Record #988: blink-182 – Cheshire Cat (1995)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

I’m not sure how it’s taken me this long to add this record to my collection. Back when Enema of the State shockingly wound up on the Top 40, I was a blossoming punk who was a firm adherent that any band’s earlier stuff was always better.

While I’ve since learned I was wrong about that, you can probably understand why Cheshire Cat would have solidified that idea for me. While its decidedly less mature than their pop breakthrough and lacks the technical drumming prowess of Travis Barker, this record nails blink’s juvenile humor, teenage angst, and raw energy in a way that they never quite topped.

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Record #987: 84 Tigers – Time in the Lighthouse (2022)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

I’m not reviewing records for other sites quite as much these days, but when I did, it was often a huge exercise in self control to not buy ever record I listened to. It’s still a mystery to me how I would decide to buy some records but not others, but it was not a foolproof system, and sometimes I erred.

One of the more grievous errors was to not buy Time in the Lighthouse, the debut of Michigan post-hardcore 84 Tigers, an act whose members’ resumes include Small Brown Bike and Swellers. In fact, I bought this record only after re-reading my own glowing review.

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Record #986: DVNE – Voidkind (2024)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

One of the biggest misconceptions is that metalheads aren’t completely huge nerds. Take for instance the UK outfit DVNE, who offer up a powerful blend of progressive metal, sludge, and psychedelia that is largely based on the writings of Frank Herbert. Their Bandcamp URL is even Songs From Arrakis.

But however nerdy they may be, there’s nothing wimpy or asthmatic about them. Voidkind, their third full-length, is a display of power worthy of Shai Hulud himself.

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Record #985: Benton Falls – Guilt Beats Hate (2003)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Very few releases had as profound an impact on my teenaged music tastes than Deep Elm Records’ Emo Is Awesome, Emo is Evil, Vol 1. And few tracks on that compilation had the impact of Benton Falls “Angel on Hiatus,” a shapeshifting track that traverses the full spectrum of emo’s moods and dynamics with a powerful climax.

But like many of the bands discovered through that comp (see also: The Appleseed Cast), I didn’t dive too deeply into the records that provided those tracks. While many of the songs from Guilt Beats Hate ended up on various emo mix CD-Rs, it’s taken me until just now to buy a proper copy. The record has lost none of its potency though.

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Record #984: As We Draw – Lines Breaking Circles (2010)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

I usually try to be pretty discerning with my record purchases. My wantlist always exceeds my budget, so I try to make sure that I’m completely sold on what I’m buying.

But every once in a while, I’ll come upon something like a $10 vinyl sale and just become a madman. I’ll spend an hour or more frantically scrolling, streaming the first few minutes of a record for a sample before making a gut decision.

And thus is how I ended up with Lines Breaking Circles, the debut record from As We Draw, a killer blend of screamo, black metal, hardcore, and sludge.

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Record #983: Narrow/Arrow – Asbestos Weak Hood (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

Gimmicks are a tricky thing to do right. Most of the time, when a band has A Thing™, eventually their music starts serving the gimmick rather than the other way around (ex., Billy Joel, whose late-80s output was a pursuit for what would make the best music video). And honestly, it would be really easy to categorize Narrow/Arrow as a gimmick band and move on. Guitarist/vocalist Cody Nicolas usually plays two guitars simultaneously and every single one of their song titles is a pun.

And yet, they manage to escape all the trappings of their own gimmicks by offering earnestly moving songs and musicianship that’s impressive without ever being flashy. While Narrow/Arrow has been offering up a satisfying mixture of math rock and Midwest emo since their inception, they’ve never sounded more impressive—or more at ease—than on Asbestos Weak Hood.

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Record #982: Blushing – Sugarcoat (2024)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

The last two times I’ve reviewed a Blushing record, I talked a lot about the tightrope that shoegaze acts have to walk between capturing the archetypal early 90s sounds of the genre and finding their own voice. By their third full length, Blushing walks this balance so deftly that mentioning it would be a moot point.

Sugarcoat offers up the same sweet, dreamy songcraft that the group has made their career on, but there’s a palpable confidence here. They’re even more fluent, and the vocabulary sounds more comfortable in their mouths.

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