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Patty

@scuutes.bsky.social

Civilization 6 and sometimes 7 but mostly 6. Contemporary music. Weird fiction.

884 Posts407 Follower298 Folgt
Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Blake Babies 🇺🇸 Sunburn (1989) I didn’t have this LP in 89. Thus it’s the sound of the early 90s for me. Juliana Hatfield at full force. John Strohm is one of my favorite guitarists. One of the reasons I bought a Strat. I couldn’t afford a Princeton amp.

Which member(s) did you have a crush on?
Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

#MusicSky get 2 know me thru my fav records Black Sabbath - Mob Rules (1982) With due respect to the extended Black Sabbath universe, Dio is the only person (excepting perhaps Rob Halford, who was not featured on any LP) who could follow Ozzy. Tighter, NWOBHM influenced, Dio’s vocals are perfect.

The revolving door would turn again, as Dio being given a solo contract on the strength of Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules sowed discord in the band. I don’t think it was Ronnie James’s fault. I imagine that, in hindsight, none of the others would have wanted to deprive the world of Holy Diver. Or the others. Keeping Ronnie James to themselves would have been like caging a majestic animal.
Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Black Sabbath - Paranoid (1970) Paranoid, Ramones, Nevermind hold a special place for me. I admire bands who make masterpieces outta easy riffs/chord progressions. A kid learning guitar can play the songs easily. Geezer’s lyrics inspire creative writing

Hopefully, that kid learning guitar will take away the idea that they should write simple parts themselves. Iommi is considered capable, but not a top-tier shredder. Music shouldn’t be a competition or power trip; music should be democratic and communal. Early Sabbath’s ensemble dynamic is a case study in how to do it.
Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records Black Lips 🇺🇸 Arabia Mountain (2011) The band’s early LPs were raw & feral, then they got a producer capable of wrangling them (Mark Ronson, of Amy Winehouse fame). The result is the first truly coherent Black Lips LP. Less puke, more garage pop.

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Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Black Angels 🇺🇸 Phosphene Dream (2010) Phosphene Dream seems like the moment Black Angels matured. A feast for the ears: Rickenbacker jangle thru stereo tremolo and spring reverb. Unusual beat pairings. Shorter songs. A throwback to 13th Floor Elevators.

And though the last sentence reads like it was written by ChatGPT, Pop Matters’s 2010 review is on point: “The first step is admitting there’s never been anything particularly revelatory about the Black Angels. Even their name is a nod to rock’s dark history, a nod to the Velvet Underground’s “The Black Angel’s Death Song”, a grim little number even by Lou Reed’s decayed standards. . . Even Alex Maas’ vocals sound like Grace Slick doing a Jim Morrison impression. “But even if the Black Angels don’t necessarily cover any new territory, they lay it to waste with brain-scrambling guitars that come off like the lost soundtrack to a drive-in double feature of biker and slasher flicks. Dirty shit goes down to the music of the Black Angels. The music doesn’t embrace you as much as it props you up while the world spins into oblivion.”
Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

#MusicSky get to know me through my favorite records Björk - Post (1995) A sillier me, a week ago, said that, in middle-age, Debut is the one I most often reach for. I’ve been listening to Post daily since then, and I feel the need to correct past me. This is the best one. Duh.

I guess what I was thinking before is that Debut has more manic pixie energy, where Post is somewhat overwrought. Overwrought can be good when done correctly (late Beatles, Radiohead, etc.). Wall-to-wall bangers on this.
Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

#MetalSky Pthumulhu 🇮🇸 Tungumál Svarthola (Language of the Black Hole) Another record from last year I missed. Spooky, doomy sludge and heavy as hell. I assume the songs explore eldritch horror and the void of space, but Icelandic is hard and I have no idea other than my instinct on this. Recommend!

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Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Björk - Debut (1993) For most of my life, Post has been my favorite. In middle-age, it’s totally Debut. If I have one gripe, it’s that it echoes late Sugarcubes but loses the Einar rapping magic.

I really like the way Björk pronounces “ghetto blaster.”
Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Bishop Allen 🇺🇸 Charm School (2003) DIY bedroom pop, recorded one track at a time with a lot of clever tricks to conceal limited instrumental prowess & because they only had one mic. Some bands work best with inept drumming (see also, early Cub).

I really like the way they took standards (“Little Black Egg” and “Eve of Destruction”), but not quite as covers. Lyrics were changed to “Little Black Ache” and “Eve of Destruction” refers to a social scene instead of social upheaval. The album is loaded with these kinds of tricks.
Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

#FilmSky I made the tragicomic mistake of watching Kairo (The Pulse) 🇯🇵 (2001) last night. I am a vivid dreamer and dreaded the dreams that would come. Thankfully, I made it through the night without nightmares. This is the second scariest movie in the world to me.

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Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Big Star 🇺🇸 Radio City (1974) The only argument needed for Radio City: Christgau gave it an A (for “Alex,” I presume). As the dean points out, Chris Bell “just couldn’t take it any more.” (Alex Chilton had that effect on people.) Chilton noisy AND poppy.

I actually need to know a little more about this album. Someone should write a book. Oh, there is one. Well, I haven’t read it, so I interpret it thusly: I imagine Chris Bell desperately trying to focus Alex Chilton, going crazy, and finally saying to hell with it. Alex Chilton, perhaps energized by the chaos, moves in and starts the work. The other two members hesitantly trickle back. Not quite the Alex Chilton crazy show yet, but you can hear that coming. Not that the world needs any more opinions on guitar players, but Alex Chilton may be my favorite guitar player.
Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

#MusicSky get to know me thru my fav records Belly 🇺🇸 Star (1993) I prefer not to understand Belly. Star made my brain go boink because I got something, but knew that what I was getting probably wasn’t the intended point. It’s an example of an album that sounds precisely like it’s cover art.

My original, high school copy of Star was scratched and “Low Red Moon” skipped in a way that made it glitchy and better than it actually sounds on the recording. I think that explains what I mean too. Star is an album I imagine sounds totally different to each fan. How does one make art like this?
Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

#MusicSky Get to know me thru my fav records Beatles - s/t (1968) My 2025 take on the White Album: insight into the collapse of a once unassailable unit. Beatles were a tight gang of outrageously fun boys. By White Album, it’s more like Nabokov’s Pale Fire - splintered, wasting, but still great.

I blame Yoko for nothing. John should have renegotiated the band’s no wives and girlfriends policy, but the Beatles were already five (John, Paul, George 1, George 2 (Martin), and Ringo). Expanding the roster, or making it elastic, was not unlike what acts like Zappa, Talking Heads, and PiL would do.
Patty@scuutes.bsky.social · last yr.

Beatles - Revolver (1966) In true #MusicSky spirit, I spent days contemplating where to start talking about Beatles. I could’ve begun with Help & Rubber Soul, but Beatles weren’t Beatles before LSD, Indophilia & the decision to stop playing live to all the screaming kids. Maybe the best record ever

Ok, Help has tremendous merit. But the complicated US release format is bananas, and historicity matters. The fixed relationship the soundtrack has to a fair-to-middlin’ motion picture further muddies matters. Rubber Soul is perhaps the moment the Beatles fully mature, but the song about “if I can’t have you no one will” is a bad look at a time when they began questioning patriarchal ideas. I think the Beatles themselves would agree. Finally, Ringo had a contractual guarantee of lead vocal on one track per album, and “Yellow Submarine” is leaning hard into the character. It remains fascinating fodder, and foreshadows Sgt Pepper fanfare and white album excess. As the world’s stupidest song, it is the perfect dichotomy. It is also possibly genius.