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KMNR Show Featured In The Miner

The Missouri Miner is featuring various KMNR radio shows in their paper. This week was the Toolbox:

What do you get when you put two music loving, gym going, and bro talking guys on the radio? You get the Toolbox radio show on KMNR from 3-5 on Thursday afternoons. Toolbox is filled with your entire tool needs for the week.

Toolbox is not your average radio show; it strives to go above and beyond. They actually admit that they like Nickleback. Then again, they will say anything to get your blood pumping. Ryan Foshage and Scott Hacker, seniors in Engineering Management, are the bros that take you on your weekly trip down tool lane.

Check out the full article over at the Miner’s website. Checkout Toolbox on Thursdays from 3-5.

New Music Reviews! (Hardcore Edition)

Touche Amore - Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me

Just like last week, I was drawn to this record by the influences. This time, comparisons were drawn to Revolution Summer bands like Rites of Spring. Plus, I’d heard good things about this band, so I decided to check it out. My first impressions before even playing the music were good; the album has 13 songs, but is less than 21 minutes long. The opening song, Tilde, starts off gentle, before launching into an all-out audio assault. The rest of the album is similar, with loud guitar, crashing drums and cymbals, and the lead singer howling like an unholy mixture of Steve Albini (Big Black, Shellac) and Guy Picciotto (Rites of Spring, Fugazi). There’s almost no silence on the album. The only breaks for the listener are when the band plays quieter bits, like the mostly piano Condolences, hearkening back to At the Drive-In’s Non-Zero Possibility. A great listen for anyone seeking high energy music.

Recommended Tracks: Tilde, Uppers/Downers, Method Act, Amends

Misfits - The Devil’s Rain

I’ve only listened to the Misfits’ first album, Walk Among Us, so I decided to listen to their newest album. The album starts off alright, although it’s severely lacking in the speed and energy that helped make the Misfits the punk legends they are today. This is one of the problems that pervades the album. For a hardcore punk band, they aren’t too fast. This is most likely due to the age of the members. It’s been almost 30 years since Jerry Only first played bass on Walk Among Us, and the years (and lineup changes) have taken a toll on the band. In all, the album’s 16 songs take 50 minutes to play out. Most of the songs lack any definitive hooks and don’t have any sort of real energy. And by the end of the album, I started to lose interest. Overly long and without too much energy, The Devil’s Rain is disappointing, even if there are a couple good songs.

Recommended Tracks: Land of the Dead, Cold In Hell, Jack The Ripper, Ghost of Frankenstein

-Lebowski

Oh my!

So the next couple of months are going to be crazy good for new music. 

We just got the new Opeth and Misfits album into the station. Look for those to be on the new rack soon. 

Also, we will be getting the New Bjork album in mid-October and an album by Brite Futures (formerly known as Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head) in mid-November.

Lastly I’ll be trying to acquire the new Mastodon Album which comes out soon.

and don’t forget about the New Primus album on the new rack NOW. 

There is probably more, honestly, but I can’t seem to remember. Keep your eye out for whats coming into the station!

More 90's Influenced Rock!

Sainthood Reps - Monoculture

Initially, I was drawn into this album by the impressive list of influences on the CD sleeve: Fugazi, The Jesus Lizard, Built to Spill, and more. So I sat down, and gave this album a listen. The first song gave me good faith in the rest of the album, with a very Jesus Lizard-like rhythm section of destruction, heavy bass and drums in front of scratching guitar lines. Exactly what I needed on a dark rainy day like this. As the record went on, though, its true nature was revealed; midtempo, slightly ambient indie rock. Even though it maintains strong drum and bass sounds throughout, it doesn’t regain the momentous energy of the first track, although track 6 gets close. Still, it’s an album worth checking out if you want a good dose of 90’s style indie rock.

Recommended Tracks: Mono, No/Survival

-Lebowski

New Music For This Week

The new music blog has gone silent for the last month or so, but it’s back with a simple list of some of the great music that has come in at the station for this week.

Primus - Naugahyde

VHS or Beta - Diamonds or Death

JJ Grey and Mofro - Brighter Days

American Goldwing- Blitzen Trapper

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Hysterical

Big Harps - White Hat

Waters - Out In The Light

Gabriel Miller Phillips - One Forth The Crow

Friska Viljor- The Beginning of the Beginning of The End

The Holy Goat - Next Round

Lotus - Lotus

Wild Flag - Wild Flag

Jeff Root- Fossil Rock

Enjoy and I’ll try to get some reviews up for you soon!

New (Old) Vinyl

Otis Redding / The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Historic Performances Recorded At The Monterey International Pop Festival, 1967

   Sometimes I sit in my room and cry a tear for the deaths of Joe Strummer of The Clash and three of the four original Ramones and the overwhelming feeling of emptiness I get when I realize that I’ll never get to see these bands live. So I end up throwing on Rocket to Russia or London Calling and go back to doing whatever it was I was doing. So many sweaty punks witnessing the creation of alternative music as it’s known today without even realizing it. The difference between those shows and the one recorded on this LP are that the hippies definitely knew what they were hearing. How could they not? In It’s Kind of a Funny Story one of the mental patients had super-hearing from taking something like 100 tablets of LSD. I’m going to guess one or two were probably enough for these concert-goers to be completely floored by Otis Redding’s voice and Hendrix’s guitar.  So many sweaty punks, so many dirty hippies. About 50,000 of them actually. Ok, so a lot of them probably bathed regularly, and maybe there weren’t that many people on illicit substances. Someone was sober enough to record this show. And it’s a good thing they did.

    Hendrix was virtually unknown in the US beore this performance- only two years before he headlined at Woodstock. The album only features one Hendrix original, “Can You See Me” from the 1967 album Are You Experienced. Also included are two amazing performances of Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone,” followed by B.B. King’s “Rock Me, Baby.” Finally, in one of the coolest stunts of the time, Hendrix covered his guitar in lighter fluid, lit it on fire, and smashed it into pieces during “Wild Thing.”

If you’re not an Otis Redding fan, you’re missing out. This was one of his last big concerts before his death at age 26. Performing Sam Cook’s “Shake” and his own “Respect” the same year it was made famous by Aretha Franklin. “(I Can’t Get no) Satisfaction” puts Mick Jagger to shame. The concert ends with the 1930’s classic “Try A Little Tenderness,” turned one of the best songs of all time by Redding.

Also new to the library:

Bunny Walier- In I Father’s House. Solomonic Records. Kingston, Jamaica.1979

Original member of the Wailers (Bob Marley) and named one of the three most important musicians of all time. His fifth album released in 1979.

Windy City Blues: The Transition - 1935-1953. Nighthawk Records, St. Louis.

A compilation of obscure southern-born bluesmen who immigrated to Chicago before the Second World War. Featuring Robert Lockwood, Guitar Pete Franklin, Pinetop, State Street Boys, and Washboard Sam (among others).

-chris