Hardcore will never die, but you will.

Mogwai has a new album out called Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. It's different. Dynamic shifts and repetitive song structure have always been a sure sign of a Mogwai record. These characteristics are still here, but the classic Mogwai sound isn't really what defines this record. Songs are still based on a recurring theme; but instead of suspending you in calculated drum lines until Braithwaite's Telecaster strings that theme together, Hardcore Will Never Die just kind of bombards you with it (see "Rano Pano"). This is also the most optimistic Mogwai album I've ever heard. And there are lyrics. I like it though. Hell, it's not like Mogwai has anything to prove.

Here are a couple tracks from Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will. If you don't make it to 4 minutes in "You're Lionel Richie", you are doing yourself a disservice. It is brutal.

Mogwai - "White Noise"
Mogwai - "Rano Pano"
Mogwai - "You're Lionel Richie"

Now run along to your local record store and buy it.

U.K. Post-Rock of the Day

Here is a track from a band called Butterfly Child that I know very little about. Information on the world wide interweb about them is sparse at best, and there aren't a lot of downloadable releases. I do know that they were born out of the post-rock movement in Belfast in the early 1990s. This track really is a gem. That swirling synth melody is the wind that just stripped all the trees of their leaves--it's always late autumn when you listen to this song.

Butterfly Child - Lunar Eclipse

Wish List: Slint's Spiderland by Scott Tennent

33 1/3 is a series of books about famous albums, usually seminal works in their respective genres. Albums that the book series has covered range from Radiohead's OK Computer to Reign in Blood by Slayer. Slint's Spiderland is the latest addition to the 33 1/3 books, "A thorough history of Slint, and the Louisville scene that surrounded the band, leading up to and focusing on the creation of their masterpiece, Spiderland."

Yes.

Spiderland is one of those rare records that just stops you in your tracks after your first listen, and you know life is going to be just a little different thereafter. I remember the first time I listened to it a couple of years ago it just kind of froze me...What the hell is this? Spiny, skeletal guitars teeter around the bleak, dry drum lines, sucking you in only to spit you back out in an uproar of pawnshop distortion pedals howling. Scary. Spiderland changed my notion of what an album could be, challenged my understanding of rock composition, and completely transformed my understanding of how to use a guitar in that composition. Equally compelling is the lore surrounding the album--not duly appreciated (or even noticed) until 15-20 years after it was released, there is much legend surrounding the making of Spiderland. Slint's members came from various niches in the gritty Louisville punk scene at the time. It is said that some of them were institutionalized during different stages of the making of Spiderland. The black and white photo of four kids' heads hovering above a lake was taken by none other than Will Oldham. Anyway, Scott Tennent did the research and he knows a lot more than I about it all. Get the book, I know I'm going to.

Here is the last track (probably one of my favorite songs of all time), "Good Morning Captain." Never heard a guitar sound like that...It will give you chills.