Desert Island Top 10 w/ rules...

[Slosh]

And a special mention for one that's been in very heavy rotation lately ...
Signal To Trust - Golden Armour (I'd say that Sloshy and Mason and Stoney and some of you other mathy but melodic guitar lovers, Crazy Rhythms Feelies meet the Daydream Nation Sonic Youth-type rock fans should hear this, even if it does borrow a little more than it should from Albini's Shellac mold, with a bit of that early Clean sound too, all taking it back in an incestuous path toward the VU, but stopping closer to those Wire heads, but I know that most of you already have heard these guys, and I just need to pay more attention ... http://archive.audioreview.com/10/0EF95646.php ... do a ctrl-A to highlight text for contrast)

Funny, but when Rae was street-teaming Folklore (no, not the 16 Horsepower album) I happened to get in a conversation with someone at a record store and described it as The Dismemberment Plan mixed with Shellac. And I thought I was the weird one

Since I'm here my DIDs (of the moment):

Spoon - A Series Of Sneaks
The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
Grandaddy - Sumday
Stephen Malkmus - Face The Truth
Les Savy Fav - Inches
Pinback - Summer In Abaddon
Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World
Radiohead - OK Computer
Sepultura - Chaos AD (need my metal fix)
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha (Yeah, it's new. Yes, it is that good.)

NP: Wilco (live boot)

[Davey]

Pinback - Summer In Abaddon

Yes you was, but that is a fine pick that just gets better with age. had it spinning a couple times lately myself, because you know it's way too short so you have to sppin it at least twice, and it quickly gets me into a biorhythmic groove cycle that's pretty hard to quit. Coconut juice, cool tradewinds, mostly naked island girls, and some Summer in Abaddon .. ah, angel of the abyss, could do much worse

[Davey]

Yes you was, but that is a fine pick that just gets better with age. had it spinning a couple times lately myself, because you know it's way too short so you have to sppin it at least twice, and it quickly gets me into a biorhythmic groove cycle that's pretty hard to quit. Coconut juice, cool tradewinds, mostly naked island girls, and some Summer in Abaddon .. ah, angel of the abyss, could do much worse

Just to reiterate, what a great record. Listened again this morning, and it sounded better than ever. And not just musically, it is a pretty nice sounding disc too. Not nearly as heavily compressed as most modern stuff, and a good foundation.

The final track comes from out of nowhere, and is a sharp contrast against the more somber and contemplative tracks before it. It couldn't have been a more perfect ending. A steady rock n' roll drum figure breaks into action. Guitars pound alongside it. Confidence and activity is at its apex. There is one last moment of reluctance ("Too scared to look at what I hear outside") and then the screamed-out chorus puts everything to rest: "Protect. Embrace. Engulf./Remember the summer in Abaddon." Prompting us to remember our times of darkness so as to never revisit them. A call to "Release the riggings" is sounded, and the journey into (and out of) Abaddon is over.

When you turn the page after the lyrics for "AFK", you are met with the photo I mentioned at the beginning of this review. However, instead of a staircase leading down into a dark underground, the staircase is leading up into the open, and a promising blue sky hangs overhead. What Pinback have created here is an album to fight off that lack of motivation that sometimes curses us all. They've created music to soothe those moments of disappointment in our lives, and something to calm the restlessness of that hour before your shift at work. Looking back at what I've written, I realize I've done a hell of a lot more than I originally intended. But then, I suppose that's the point of Summer In Abaddon.

9.0 / 10

http://www.scenepointblank.com/reviews/355

[Rae]

[i]The final track comes from out of nowhere, and is a sharp contrast against the more somber and contemplative tracks before it. It couldn't have been a more perfect ending. A steady rock n' roll drum figure breaks into action. Guitars pound alongside it. Confidence and activity is at its apex. There is one last moment of reluctance ("Too scared to look at what I hear outside") and then the screamed-out chorus puts everything to rest: "Protect. Embrace. Engulf./Remember the summer in Abaddon." Prompting us to remember our times of darkness so as to never revisit them. A call to "Release the riggings" is sounded, and the journey into (and out of) Abaddon is over.

I have nothing really to add except that I concur with the assessment of that last track as ass-kicking. Best out-of-nowhere rocker since Bedhead's "Psychosomatica".

~Rae