TOMAS ANDERSSON "Asthma (Magas Remix)" (FUNK NOIR)
MAGAS "Whiskey Nights" (PUNCH)
KRAFTWERK Computerwelt (KLING KLANG)
BULBOUS CREATION (ROCKADELIC reissue)
MOON DUO Killing Time EP (SACRED BONES)
BOB DYLAN World Gone Wrong (COLUMBIA)
DEEPCHORD PRESENTS ECHOSPACE The Coldest Season (MODERN LOVE)
DEERHUNTER Weird Era Cont. (KRANKY)
DAVE E & THE COOL MARRIAGE COUNSELORS Searching Through Sears 7" (CHRISTMAS PETS)
LOCRIAN Private Series 7" (BLOODLUST!)

I played the Magas remix of the Tomas Andersson tune and the kids perked up at the robot voices ("is that a boy or a girl?") and the driving low-end rhythm. There was some dancing going on. When it was over I said "Well that was a good rock'n'roll song." Claire said "That wasn't rock'n'roll!" and I said "What was it, electronic music?" and she said "Yeah!" and then Phil went ahead and put it out there: "It wasn't rock'n'roll because it didn't have any guitars in it!" Kids say the darnedest things... I thought I'd respond by following up with Magas's new solo hit "Whiskey Nights" (from the Violent Arp 12"), a song that asks the musical question "Who sez an electronic one-man band can't play rock?" Halfway through Claire said, "Actually this one IS rock'n'roll!"

Next I put on album shuffle and it brought up Kraftwerk. The kids didn't comment at all on its rockness or non-rockness as they were too busy singing along (even though they were hearing it for the first time) and having their minds blown by robot voices counting 1 through 4 in Spanish.

After that the shuffle finally got to some actual Phil-certifiable rock music with guitar in it, but it was a downer anyway as the band was Bulbous Creation, heavy doomy hard blues rock, apparently from Kansas City and self-released in 1970. I downloaded it a good year ago off of some retro/obscuro blog, and there it silently sat on my iPod hard drive until now, popping up on album shuffle for the first time ever, and hey, it's pretty goddamn heavy. I might just put it in a trio of 'killer biker psych private press classics I happened to discover in 2009,' along with the Fraction and Circuit Rider albums. (If you think the first song is good but a little soft, stick around for at least track three "Satan.")

Still not blown away but I like this Deerhunter album better than Microcastle, which is the only other one I've heard, and probably will ever hear. Really like the vocals on "Vox Humana," for example, and the songs do have a general cottony dreaminess that I could probably get used to. Cotton doesn't really stick, though, does it... actually "Slow Swords" is a killer instrumental, and "Weird Era" is a nice Dead C-style improvised amp barrage... OK, I'll keep this one for now...

Dave E getting heavy a capella: "An unmade grave and a guy named Dave/and out of the sky flies a love that will never die." That Locrian 7" is holding up well too, as far as heaviness goes.