Gwar, Drive-By Truckers, & C-Tec
The week in new music & Dig Me Out podcasts
1 Minute Reviews
New Releases
Gwar - The New Dark Ages
📦 Vinyl & CD | 🎧 Apple Music • Spotify
The album concept is tied to a companion graphic novel "GWAR In The Duoverse of Absurdity", in which the band are sucked off into an alternate universe to do battle with their evil twins and the specter of rogue technology.
Drive-By Truckers - Welcome 2 Club XIII
📦 Vinyl & CD | 🗳 Bandcamp | 🎧 Apple Music • Spotify
Produced by longtime Drive-By Truckers collaborator David Barbe, featuring background vocals from Margo Price, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, and Mississippi-bred singer/songwriter Schaefer Llana.
Andrew Bird - Inside Problems
📦 Vinyl & CD | 🗳 Bandcamp | 🎧 Apple Music
The album was recorded live with Bird's four-piece band and includes vocals from Madison Cunningham.
New 90s Podcast
C-Tec - Darker
Industrial supergroup C-Tec filled their debut album Darker with a variety of textures and sounds that criss-cross the industrial genre
Composed of Jean-Luc De Meyer of Front 242, Mark Heal of Cubanate, and Ged Denton of Crisis n.T.i., along with special appearances by members of Front Line Assembly and Haujobb, C-Tec is something of a 1990s industrial supergroup. What that allows is the members to experiment on their debut Darker with a broader range of sounds away from their regular bands, like including breakbeats on "Being Nothing," going 80s on "The Lost," or punishing noise on "Shift IV." Of course, there are some four-one-the-floor thumpers made for the 12" remix, like the Rammstein-esque "Foetal" and driving "Stateless." A few of the tracks take a little more time than necessary to get going, and De Meyer's vocal approach won't be for everyone, but Darker is a worthwhile album to add to your industrial collection. Special guest: Ian McIvor - DMO UNION
Coming Soon
June album review tournament - Group 1 of 3
Which album should we feature in a future episode of Dig Me Out?
Here's how it works. We'll post a group of nine suggested albums from the hopper weekly. Cast your vote to decide the albums to move forward. The top two winners from each group face off in a final poll at the end of the month.
Richard Waterman: Nuno Bettencourt-Schizophonic
Slightly Experimental solo album from Nuno but melodic too. Has some grungy moments and some pop and electronica too.
Kyle Bittner: The Watchmen - McLaren Furnace Room
This debut from the Canadian band has strong similarities to the roots-rock side of The Tragically Hip and late 80's/early 90's R.E.M. Lots of big hooks and melodies. Lead singer Daniel Grieves provides some pretty interesting vocals.
Willie Dillon: Heatmiser - Cop and Speeder
Eric Peterson: Various - Nothing Beats A Royal Flush
Bands from Western Canada seem to be missing from the conversation and this comp might be a good place to start exploring the scene from that time and place... also it has some killer tracks and bands.
Darren Leeman: The Matthew Good Band - Beautiful Midnight
Beautiful Midnight is somewhat of a concept record, with the first track, the pounding rocker "Giant," starting at 5 P.M. and the gorgeous, somber, sad ballad "Running For Home" chiming it around sun-up. The whole record is pretty depressing as Good sings about a boy in a mental institution ("A Boy And His Machine Gun"), the homeless ("Strange Days"), suicide ("Going All The Way"), and even psychopathic killers ("Born To Kill"). The eeriness of it all is what really strikes through. Good's voice trembles, quakes, and shivers while the band runs circles around his lyrics with pounding rhythms and melodic guitar parts.
Adam Smith: The Darling Buds - Erotica
Maxwell: Medicine - The Buried Life
One of their albums has already been covered on the podcast but this album, in particular, pushes the band’s sound to greater heights. one of the songs on it “she knows everything” was even remixed by Billy Corgan with jimmy chamberlain playing drums on it during the time medicine went on a UK tour with the pumpkins during the siamese dream era.
Eric: I Mother Earth - Scenery and Fish
Just a great 90s Canadian rock album. The album produced some huge singles in Canada. Would love to hear your thoughts on how the band evolved from their first album. Thanks!
Keith A. Badje: Morel - Peterbilt Angel
Morel worked with Bob Mould, on the 2006 Blowoff Record and on their gay club dance party of the same name during the 2000s and early 2010s. He's done a lot of dance-oriented remixes for major artists, but his own records are much more rock. This is his first, from 1993-1995 depending on where you look. Kind of a Madchester, Primal Scream feel, but with some gritty vocals and overtly homosexual themes. It did NOT age well (the production is really thin and 80s), but it's a pretty solid record front to back if you can get used to it.
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