Album Of The Week: January 27th-February 2nd, 2014

My Album Of The Week for the week off January 27th-February 2nd, 2014:

Marijuana Deathsquads - Oh My Sexy Lord

If you've been following this blog or the podcast you already know that I've become a huge fan of Marijuana Deathsquads.

When they first rose from the ashes of Building Better Bombs I didn't quite get it.  They built a reputation on their noisy, improvised live shows, which is all well and good, but that lead to two things:

1)  I'm old and I don't really go to shows very often (let alone late night, improvisational, percussion-heavy shows).

2)  Initially they weren't quite able to translate the sound & fury of those shows to an album.

Well, since that false start of a debut album (2011's Crazy Master), they've put out an excellent hip-hop-based mixtape (the excellent Tamper Disable Destroy) and finally harnessing their live show by simply recording a few and then touching them up in post-production (the brilliant Music Rocks I & II).  Both of those records were previous AOTW's and they only got better.  With Oh My Sexy Lord, MDS is trying their hand again at maximizing the studio.  I'm sure it'll take at least a week for me to digest this one, but these guys have been building towards a straight "classic" album for a few years.  Maybe this is it.

If you'd like to have your day ruined, check out the video for "Ewok Sadness," the opening track from Oh My Sexy Lord.  That is just about the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen. It just destroys me. Poor lil' dude.

Album Of The Week: January 6-12, 2014

My Album Of The Week for the week of January 6th-12th, 2014:

The Cloak Ox - Shoot The Dog

It sounds strange, but I'm a little disappointed that I'm making this my first AOTW of the new year.  Shoot The Dog came out in 2013 and, had I taken the time to pick it up then, I'm almost sure it would have been one of my favorites of the year.

For those who don't know, The Cloak Ox is a group consisting of longtime Twin Cities musicians Andrew Broder, Martin Dosh, Mark Erickson, & Jeremy Ylvisaker.  Shoot The Dog is their first full-length LP, but it could hardly be considered a "debut."  If you're a fan of any of the musicians above, you probably have some sort of idea what you're getting into.

What makes this album intriguing to me is the fact that, while Andrew Broder & Martin Dosh have built their careers around music that could be deemed "difficult" or "inaccessible," The Cloak Ox finds these guys indulging in hooks & accessibility (by their standards, at least.  I mean, the album does open with the 9:00 "Yesterday's Me" and ends with 6:17 of a title track).  Regardless, the album sounds like Ted Leo trying to write a Radiohead record (which I mean as a huge compliment). 

If you follow my music writing/podcasts at all, you're probably already familiar with The Cloak Ox.  MinneSarah & I reviewed their song "King Rope" in Songs Of The Week #57.  I also opened Flatbasset Radio: Episode #23 with their track "Josephine."

Flatbasset Radio: Episode #23 by Tcdroogsma on Mixcloud

While I don't agree with their dog shooting policy (or, theoretically, their ox cloaking policy), I'm genuinely excited to spend the week with this one.  Considering the weather outside, Shoot The Dog seems like the type of album I could spend a week getting lost in while hunkering down at Planet New Basset.