Kerosene 454 "situation at hand"

One of the things they don't tell you about being a dad is the amount of poop that gets on your hands.  I woke up to the dog having an I door accident and the littlest guy had a brimming diaper bomb when he awoke.  I've washed my hands raw, wish I could wash my nostrils out too.
In 1996 I discovered #kerosene454 ,  at the time I was working at a chocolate factory on the east side of buffalo.  I used to ride my bicycle for the commute through some of Buffalo's roughest neighborhoods.  Like most of my life if I wasn't actually in a conversation I was wearing headphones.  I taped this cd and it was a pedaling soundtrack for a good chunk of that year.  I had an opportunity to go to NYC that winter with the plan of seeing this band play a show with Texas is the Reason and Bluetip. I made the show late and only caught the last two songs of Kerosene 454's set.  I was bummed and thrilled at the same time.  They were powerful and precise live and I ignored my company the minute we walked in. He handed me a beer and I nodded but never took my eyes off the band. I guess that was kind of a dick move but this show was kind of my Woodstock, especially at that time of my life. I was still reeling from a heart crushing breakup and back home I was shoplifting to eat because chocolate was barely covering the rent.   My friend had actually bought me the train ticket for the trip and had paid my cover and just bought me a beer.  I should have been groveling thanks but instead I stood there focused on the band and ignoring him.  My cheeks are flush with shame even now.
You can wash shit off your hands but you can't wash the dumb, ignorant shit you've done off your heart.

Quicksand "s/t"

In 1991 a group of my friends and I were going to see fugazi at buff state. We saw on the flyer that some band named #quicksand was opening we all thought the same thing: dumb name. We went in with pretty low expectations for the opener. The show was in this big cafeteria looking room near the schools courtyard "the quad" (a favorite skate spot of ours at the time).  I don't have a clear memory of what songs quicksand played that night, but from the opening few seconds of their set we were drawn to them like moths to a flame. My whole group of friends were just drawn towards the melee in front of the stage. We got separated in the ensuing crash of bodies. We didn't know the songs but they made us move, it really felt tribal in some way. When they had finished playing we began to recollect our throng each one of us with a sweaty estatic grin and all of us blabbering about how great the band was.
The very next day we were at Home of the Hits buying whatever we could find by the band. I picked up this ep, their sole release. I was immediately taken back to their set still fresh in my mind. Quicksand never failed to woo me live, I saw them quite a few times over the next few years, in fact I don't think I missed a single show they played in buffalo.  I still prefer the production on this ep over their debut full length "slip" and this release contains my favorite song of theirs "clean slate". I remember when I was docking around with his bass guitar my friend John taught me to play "hypno jam". One of my proudest achievements at the time.
It warms my old heart to know that there are still young dudes like @zachzahn that rock out quicksand records. Even if they do like the Murder City Devils. Fuck the Murder Shitty Devils.

Fugazi "13 songs"

It cannot be overstated how important this album is to me. I had it on cassette in 1989 and this is the same cd copy I bought in 1990.  During my divorce I conceded my house and my dogs but when we were dividing the cd collection I told my ex-wife "over my dead cold body will you get fugazi"

The Jesus Lizard "goat"

In 1991 I was attending community college in a small school located in a small town that was known for a different bigger college.  I was ripe with punk rock ideologies and Raymond Pettibone illustrations. I was studying art and at the time I figured I would get into political cartooning, I loved drawing shocking illustrations of political leaders in compromising situation. I quickly realized anger did not equate wit and would a couple years layer admit I had no future in that field. I had made art buddies with a like minded local who was also attending the school. We would gleefully render George Bush's head morphing into a penis, or a lovingly crafted image of Senator Jesse Helms submerged in urine. We would often spread out paper on his floor and have what we would call "jams" and just drift from sheet to sheet adding to the other persons sketches.
I had just discovered #thejesuslizard through the vocalists appearance on the first Pigface album. This album "goat" (the band's second) had just come out and I brought it with me to my co-conspirator's house. He was just as blown away as I was with it, it was like the disc possessed him. He stood up from one of the large half filled sheets and stood in the middle of the room and headbanged and stomped on our art to the entire "then comes dudley" song. It was awesome to witness someone else's cathartic release and not just my own sweaty bedroom air bands. He destroyed every fucking drawing on the floor. It was glorious.

Lantlos "melting sun"

In 2011 my friends Tommy and Beth got married in a cool wooden German lodge in the suburbs of Buffalo. The priesty/magic guy presiding over the ceremony spoke about how sophisticated the Greeks were about language and love. The Greeks have six different words for love: eros, philautia, pragma, phillia, ludus and agape. He focused on agape (a spiritual love for all) and that silly sounding word ("ah-gahp-pay") became the word of the night at my table of friends and future wife ("I agape this gin!")
Soon after the wedding I stumbled upon a German post-black metal band named #Lantlos and their album "agape". Too much of a coincidence to pass up. They do a shoe - gaze type black metal thing that I like so I picked up another one of their albums "neon" and I liked them both. In 2014 they released their third album "melting sun" and of course the obsessive collector in me bought it, I was expecting some more of the enjoyable same. This disc hit me like a bolt of lightning.  The band had distilled everything I loved about late nineties post-hardcore and Shoegaze into a gloriously produced masterpiece. It's as if Quicksand and My Bloody Valentine had a band baby. I immediately suggested Tommy pick it up and it made both our top pick of the year. We both anxiously await it's follow up. Love when this shit seems predestined. (Though I'm unaware if Beth likes the album at all).
Seriously though, pick this one up immediately.

Big Black "songs about fucking"

In 1991 I had a fling with industrial music, that summer I was into anything Wax Trax records put out. I spent a lot of time with nine inch nails, nitzer ebb, kmfdm, skinny puppy, my life with the thrill kill kult and Pigface.  I loved the song "the bushmaster" on Pigface's first album. I looked up David Yow's other band The Jesus Lizard (and fell in love with them bit that's another story) their ep "pure" used a drum machine which at the time really appealed to me. Someone much more "in the know" suggested I check out this #bigblack album.  It's an ugly listen. It's caustic and razor like guitar tones and dark lyrical content made me start searching the underground music circles for more of this ugly heady sound. Listened to it today after neglecting it for years and it shows some proto black metal tones, I had an "a ha!" moment as those dots connected in my own personal musical history.