Episode 31: “For the Dogshit days of spring”

Welcome, one and most!

Thanks to Dan, we have an absolutely stellar topic for this show! Relatable in all the ways, to be sure! We’re confident you will enjoy it! And we will be absolutely unputout (sic) if you don’t!

And of course there’s a lit playlist!

All things considered, it’s pretty handsome here in the bog! #bogmonstermusic

It’s the stir of echoes… what, indeed, lurks in the bog? #bogmonstermusic

Dan’s Notes

Dogshit days of spring

Mclusky – people person

One of the big parts of the energy of this time of year is that anticipation of what is just around the corner, whether it’s warmer weather, summer adventures, or just a few great upcoming records. One of the albums I am most looking forward to coming out a little later this spring is the return album from Cardiff Wales’ snotty post hard core indie noise merchants mclusky who have a new one titled The World Is Still Here And So Are We coming out on Ipecac Records in May. I was big fan of their original run of albums in the early 00’s as well as vocalist/guitarist Andy Falkous’ follow up band Future Of The Left (with some of the other former members of Frank Turner’s old band Milliondead), and the band has always been great at channeling a kind of snotty frustration that explodes into genuine rage at times while still through it in plenty of great little melodic hooks, even if it sounds like Falkous wants to start pounding his head into the wall in frustration for these fucked up times at the same time. One of the advance singles for the album, people person, captures this perfectly while accompanied by a great music video of an office gone feral, featuring cameos by the members of the band, their friends, and a few UK indie wrestling scene vets like Big Wavy Roy Johnson, while leaning a little closer to FotL’s more noise-rock riffage than some of their more melodic early stuff. I am trying to mentally manifest some kind of tour with these guys and Chat Pile with a date near me as I think that is one of the newer bands that would compliment them well ( even if Chat Pile are more on the sludgy metallic end of things compared to them). But either way, I am stoked for their new record and had to throw this track on my spring list for some hope beyond the dogshit.

Kneecap – Fine Art

These Northern Irish hip hop rabble rousers not only managed to produce one of the more enjoyable and anarchic albums of 2024, FINE ART, but they also managed to get their self-mythologizing eponymous biopic, where the band members play themselves in a raucous reenactment of the band’s inception while also drawing attention to the band’s proud Irish Republican politics and anti-colonial sentiments, while not glossing over their love of sketchy party drugs and other wild antics. Oh yeah, this is all delivered over grimy upbeat techno-influenced rap beats with lyrics that shift from English to Irish Gaelic, which is done so seamlessly that both my girlfriend and I thought we were having strokes when we heard their single “Better Way To Live” and suddenly realized they had switched to the latter mid-bar. Did I mention that their movie is also super funny as well? I love a good music-focussed comedy and the boys deliver, whether mouthing off to the local cops in Gaelic, to ketamine-fueled misadventures rendered in wacky claymation stop motion. I don’t know if the Kneecap boys have considered pursuing a career on the big screen on top of their musical pursuits but from their eponymous film I would not be surprised if that became a thing. I would also strongly encourage seeking out their sophomore album from year Fine Art, whose title track I have included on this here list as an example of their infectious club beats and smooth bilingual Gaelic to English lyrical transitions.

Bad Bunny – La Mudanza

My first favorite album of 2025, Bad Bunny’s latest Debi Tirar Mas Fotos was released just a couple of days into this fucked up year, and serves as an interesting evolution of his sound while also paying tribute to his home island of Puerto Rico while lamenting the changes there after years of US occupation and Shock Doctrine-style disaster capitalist gentrification taking over in the wake of 2010s climate disaster. The album’s title translates to “Should have taken more pictures” and he accompanied its release with a 12 minute short film mixing documentary and animated segments and featuring long-revered nonagenarian Puerto Rican playwright and filmmaker Jacobo Morales that explains the album’s themes. Oh yeah, and on top of that Bad Bunny incorporates a whole new sonic palate of salsa, Latin jazz and other traditional Puerto Rican musical styles witlh a lot of big band accompaniment and traditional instrumentation, while still mixing in his usual Spanish language rap and reggaeton sounds. Bad Bunny hasgenerally been an artist I have respected quite a bit for his artistic vision and extracurricular activities like his dalliances with wrestling in the WWE and acting in things like the upcoming Happy Gilmore sequel, but up until now a lot of his music just pursued certain subgenre lanes that were just not my favorite but this new expanded sound and conceptual force of DTMF has really had me listening and has become one of favorite albums of the year so far.

NY Dolls – Personality Crisis

RIP David Johansen aka Buster Poindexter, iconic frontman for the glammy protopunkers who would later score a novelty solo hit with his cover of calypso standard “Hot Hot Hot”, as well as make some great cinematic turns in movies of the late 80’s/early 90’s like Scrooge’s (where he played one of the. Christmas ghosts who visit Bill Murray’s protagonist) and Tales From The Dark Side The Movie (an underrated horror anthology where he plays a contract killer hired to dispatch a murderous cat in a memorable Stephen King penned segment). The New York Dolls were one of those original bands that put Maxs Kansas City and CBGB on the map in the mid 70’s, and I was wq2 shocked as a youth to find out their singer was none other than the taxi driving spirit of Xmas past in one of my favorite holiday comedies. Of course after that I did go back and do my homework in regards to the Dolls’ sonic output and grew to love it as well as appreciate their rockin jams so I had to bring up this very notable passing. That being said, he’ll still just as much be that horror movie hit man chasing that little black cat around or the ironic crooner belting out fake patois in his later years in my childhood memories alongside his pioneering rock and roll hedonism. So for my mini playlist for these dogshit days, here is a rippin live version of the Dolls’ “Personality Crisis” from the TV series Midnight Special for your enjoyment

Model/Actriz – Cinderella

Speaking of New York City and glammy sonic hedonism, one of the newer artists that I have been getting excited about a new album from is Brooklyn’s Model/Actriz. I enjoyed their debut from 2023, Dogsbody, and am really looking forward to their follow up Pirouette coming out in May of this year, especially after hearing the first single Cinderella that came out around the end of February. I was around for a lot of the nascent dance punk scene in the late 90’s and early 00’s and managed to catch bands like The Rapture and !!! (Chk chk chk) in their early years so I was excited to hear M/A’s industrial-tinged no wave take on the subgenre 20+ years later. If a band’s onstage refreshment of choice is any sort of indicator of their general vibe, you would not find it surprising that in a live video of one of their recent festival appearances, vocalist Cole Hayden was brandishing an extra large bottle of red wine by the neck the whole time while swigging from it throughout the performance. Cinderella uses driving bass and up tempo techno-influenced drumming alongside tense skittering no wave guitar and Hayden’s breathy anxious crooning overtop, with the video as serving a campy queer punk club kid take on the titular fairy tale, with Cole as a moustachioed princess with a retinue of friendly but gnarly taxidermied squirrels to complete the Disney vibes. If the rest of Pirouette is as good as this lead off single it may be a ready source for your summer dance party needs.

Miscellany

Matt’s Notes

In times such as these, what can a fella do? Besides play in a rock n’ roll band? Or go overseas to teach ESL?

I’m here to say that my passport has expired, and I see no reason anytime soon to renew! All these rad rock shows in the US, but…

As I told my pal GNA on Instagram… I’m 95% likely to end up in an ICE facility while the current regime is going. Too many Fuck MAGA’s in public places. Too much telling President Musk and other Nazis to eat shit. And yet… I’ve only scratched the surface of what I’m planning!

***Sudden clamor within the apartment.

What the fuck… who are you assholes… get out…

Shut the fuck up you fucking fairy!

Tttttzzzzzzzzz

Jesus! You fucking tasered me!

Ttttzzzzzzz

*Thump*

Propagandhi: At Peace

I’ve come to appreciate Propagandhi way more in recent years.

They don’t do LP’s, they do epics. There is deep lore out there. My pal David in Minneapolis called them “the only band that matters”, and back here in Alberta I was like fucking A right.

I’m glad these dudes are still going all these years in. I can’t think of a recent moment that needs these guys more than the one we’re in. Not even the post-911 period seemed as fucking nihilistic and devoid of hope compared to where we are now. We’re at peace for now. But for how much longer?

And it is fucking heavy as fucking fuck, so there’s that!

Izzy Stradlin: Memphis / Needles

Somewhere during the Use Your Illusion recording sessions, Izzy Stradlin quit Guns n’ Roses. It’s easy to forget that in the late 80’s guitar-based music still sold many millions of physical units. Guns n’ Farking Roses were huge as fuck. I was all over both UYI’s, and from there Appetite and Lies. Once Izzy left, Guns n’ Roses stopped being a writer’s band. Which is fine. Because who has any use for Chinese Democracy, outside of being a historical oddity?

ANYWHO

I’m a writer, of sorts. I’ve always been this way. And Izzy fucking hits it out of the park on at least his first three LP’s. These, plus a whole pile of other recordings are just sitting there waiting for the attention they deserve.

I’ve listened to Memphis and Needles for dozens and dozens of hours in the past week.

Facts!

Never Bet the Devil Your Head / The GC5

This is my current de facto going out and about tuneage.

This is a case where I know nothing about the band or the individuals, except that they’re from Ohio and that this LP is circa 2006 and that they played Fredericton, most likely Bugaboo Creek. I ended up with a poster for this release somehow, that I still have.

This is all to say that it fucking slays to fuck. It’s streetpunk of the best kind: sharp, witty, incisive, and uptempo as a motherfucker. It reminds me of all the things I like about Rancid, but with way less budget and time in the recording. One of the cool things about getting older is seeing connections between things over decades. Being able to revisit things from when you were younger with the benefit of more life experience and perspective is a gift.

There was a time when all I wanted to do after work was get wasted, write, and go to shows. This LP brings me right back there in all the good ways.

Plus, it’s named after a short story by Edgar Allen Poe… which I just discovered yesterday! Highly lit as a motherfuck.

Colin Brooks / The NewSame / Samiam / LAPÊCHE

As I write this, just a couple of hours have passed since I had my second interview with Colin!

The Internet is a funny thing, obviously… this is something where reaching out to people who look like they do cool art has benefited me immensely.

Colin is punk drummer since he was a child. But he’s been writing songs and putting out the results through Bandcamp for many years as well. His latest release as The NewSame is another example of a thoughtful, endlessly creative person putting out the kind of music he thinks should be in the world.

I’m proud of both interviews with Colin. I’m also grateful to call him a friend! And in times such as these, friendship is indeed punk as fuck!

Fuckhawk / EI / The Westerberg Suicides

I’d be remiss on the subject of friendship to leave out a mention of my pals Matt Gay, Jon Bowie, Matt Bowie, and all other members of these bands.

What can I say? I love these dudes.

If you look at guitar-based music in Atlantic Canada in the late 90’s and early-to-mid-00’s, you would have to include any and all bands who played at Bugaboo Creek and, to a lesser extent, O’Malley’s in Fredericton. Some of the most intense, grimy shows I’ve ever attended were at the Creek. The best times… I can’t remember!

Last summer, I told Matt Gay that I’d stop hyping the Fuckhawk, as this musical chapter has largely closed. Fair enough, I say. But it’s still on Bandcamp! And thank fuck that it is!

Roach Squad (Sunderland/Montreal)

I feel conflicted about this.

First of all, let me say: I fucking love all music Frankie Stubbs has ever touched. It’s him and Paul Westerberg and the Lawrence Arms for me, as far as writers.

And so, I was thrilled when Frankie followed me on IG. And then I sent him a shitload of posts via DM. And then he blocked me. In so doing, he joined Hot Water Music, Jennifer Finch, Northcote, and one of the dudes from Samiam (not Colin!). It’s caused me to reevaluate, somewhat, my whole outreach approach for interviews and the like.

Like, I don’t want to fucking bug the people who give me inspiration with their music.

I’ve yet to check out any of the songs here except for the two (?) singles that preceded the release of the full LP last week. Like I said, I love Frankie Stubbs… and I’m also big on the Sainte Catherines… and all associated acts. At one point last year, the drummer and owner of Little Rocket Records was going to talk to me… and then I was ghosted!

So… as a fan, I guess I’m considered an irritant?

ANYWAY!

These songs are lit. They’re all in my 2025 playlist for easy reference. I guess I don’t see myself engaging with it more than that! But, you know, it’s definitely worth checking out!