Do Make Say Think - You, You're A History In Rust

Being an elitist music snob, I was able to snag a leak of Do Make Say Think's 2007 album You, You're A History In Rust back last year. It's been sitting in my "new music" shuffle mix for over a month now, and every time a song from it comes up I perk up and think to myself, "Damn, that's good."

It should come as no surprise. In 2000 DMST released what I think is one of the best post-rock albums ever created; in fact, the vinyl version of Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead is hanging on the wall behind me right now. It's one of only two albums that I've ever framed, if that says anything.

But once again, I digress.

This album is brilliant. In many ways it's really the culmination of what they've been building toward up until this point. While Goodbye Enemy Airship was brilliant, it was also a bit of a downer. Their next two records were much more upbeat, but they each lacked the same immediacy as Airship. & Yet & Yet felt like a misstep to me and still does (I don't really think any of the songs are memorable), and while Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn opened and closed with two of my favorite DMST songs ever (the absolutely timeless 'Fredericia' and 'Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!'), the middle of the album was entirely forgettable.

Not so with Rust. Do Make's latest album is the total package, all things considered. It has the upbeat, everything's-gonna-be-okay tone of their last few releases, yet it retains the loose performance and live tone of their earlier work. This feels like a group of happy people playing the music of their hearts one night at a friend's 200-year-old creaking wooden house. This record is just. Freaking. Good. It's got a consistency they haven't had since Airship, as every single song is a winner. You could put this album on at any occasion and be happy with your choice.

The only thing I can knock it for is that DMST's trademark production does detract from one of the album's best songs, the energetic 'The Universe!'. I saw them perform this song live a few months back, and it was absolutely monstrous (in the good way). They set it up as a dynamite closer and delivered on everything they'd promised, but on the album it just doesn't have the same punch. It feels like they're just going through the motions, which no doubt they aren't, but you can't change what's laid down on tape.

Anyway, that's basically my only complaint. This is a ridiculously good album. It makes me happy just listening to it and writing about it. God bless these people for creating it.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Buy It!

2006 - All Together Now!

Ever since 2001 I've finished the year by making a mix CD containing all of my favorite songs from that year. While most of the music on these mixes was released the same year as the mix, I've never been shy about putting on bands from previous years that I'd just gotten into; my 2002 rock mix (one of my favorite mixes ever) had some songs by bands that had broken up half a decade prior. This year is no different, as about 1/6 of the songs were released before 2006.

But I digress....

....here's my 2006 mix!

For the first year ever I've completely skipped the CD stage and have done it all in mp3, though 1) all but one of the songs were personally ripped by me from CDs that I own 2) I trimmed and edited the tracks to get the transitions nice (especially if you have a gapless mp3 program) and 3) I encoded the mp3's at a ridiculously-slow-to-process uber-HQ 320 kbps setting.

Another departure for this year's mix is putting all of the genres together in one tracklist. In past years I'd do different CDs for different genres, but this year I decided to put it all together (hence the name of the mix). I did that for a few reasons. For one, when listening to big playlists on shuffle I noticed that it's entirely possible to transition in a cool way between screamy hardcore and, say, Daedelus.

Secondly, and even more pretentiously, I got sick of worrying about genre lines. I give out my mixes to my friends each year, and on a certain level I split out the metal from the rest to "protect" their tender sensibilities. But this year was quite a watershed for good heavy music, as bands like Mastodon, Converge and Intronaut released staggeringly good albums that a ton of my previously metal-hating friends really enjoy; I was glad to see so many converts embrace the glory of "the screamy screamy," as I call it from time to time.

Thus, I figured I'd take on the challenge of doing a mix that contains everything from face-melting hardcore to progressive hip-hop to IDM to almost-ambient. I'm really happy with how it all turned out, despite the hair I pulled out trying to wrestle the track listing and whittle the number down, and I hope you'll enjoy it too.

Download It!

Track Listing:

1. Mogwai - Glasgow Mega-Snake
2. Mastodon - The Wolf Is Loose
3. These Arms Are Snakes - Horse Girl
4. Intronaut - Gleamer
5. Daedelus - Our Last Stand
6. Converge - Versus
7. Buck 65 - Le 65isme
8. Intronaut - Fragments Of Character
9. Cyne - Running Water
10. Mastodon - Circle Of Cysquatch
11. Beck - We Dance Alone
12. Gnarls Barkley - Transformer
13. The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza - Daddy's Coming Up
14. Mastodon - Capillarian Crest
15. Loka - Beginningless
16. Jega - Geometry
17. Converge - Bare My Teeth
18. mewithoutYou - Wolf Am I! (And Shadow)
19. Intronaut - Sores Will Weep
20. Deftones - Rapture
21. zero dB - Conga Madness
22. Mastodon - Blood And Thunder
23. The Roots - Take It There
24. Norma Jean - A Grand Scene For A Color Film
25. Buck 65 - Blood Of A Young Wolf
26. Bonobo - If You Stayed Over
27. Converge - No Heroes
28. Mastodon - Island
29. DJ Krush - Duality (2006K Mix)
30. Intronaut - Fault Lines
31. Thom Yorke - Black Swan
32. Beck - New Round
33. Helios - Paper Tiger
34. DJ Krush - Day's End (After-Dusk Mix)
35. Converge - Grim Heart / Black Rose

Rating: 5/5 Stars