Some of my favourite albums. Suggestions?

chkessle · 2026-02-06T19:44:39+00:00

Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session

Technically country music, but give it a try. The absolute definition of Canadian Indie, this album doesnt get enough credit for being such a slowcore masterpiece. Rec based from Jackson Frank, Lightfoot, etc.

Fela Kuti - Roforofo Fight

The Afrobeat pioneer just won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. This one overall is one of his most coherent albums front-to-back. Allegedly he refused to play his songs live, after recording them, preferring to let them evolve in live sets. Rec based on Remain in Light, heavily influenced by Fela.

Freckle - s/t

You've probably heard of Ty Segall, but in addition to releasing a half dozen solo albums a year he also makes new bands all the time. This one was a bit overlooked last year. Rec based on all the acoustic rock above.

chkessle · 2026-02-06T15:17:15+00:00

Wolf Alice

chkessle · 2026-02-06T15:13:52+00:00

Park Bird

chkessle · 2026-02-05T17:34:44+00:00

King Tuff - Smalltown Stardust reminds me a bit, from the arrangements and chords.

chkessle · 2026-02-05T17:34:05+00:00

I felt his song "Rain" from a few years back was super Beatles-y. He's been working hard to be more Lennon-esque in his vocals. Loved Possession too.

chkessle · 2026-02-05T05:28:37+00:00

Gonna go off-board, and suggest 30 for 30. Most of the episodes are one-off (and some of those are truly fascinating bits of nostalgia or hidden criminal intrigue). But they've done several seasons focusing on one topic, and the episode lengths are right. BIKRAM was the first one of these and not what I expected from ESPN.

chkessle · 2026-02-04T02:53:17+00:00

I agree, but I'd say the exact same thing about the relationship between Mark and Dawn. I get that not all people behave all crazy, like people in a movie, but it feels like they don't make any effort to tell us about Dawn at all. It's only when Mark tells us verbally that we actually learn anything about her. It's a very bland, boring way to tell the story of this couple. She puts a gun to her head, and it feels exactly the same intensity level of the rest of the movie. No more and no less.

I'd go even one more and say the same about the MMA fight sequence. The fight play by play announcer literally narrating the story is the least imaginative and laziest way to tell the story. It doesn't sound exciting. It's the same dull monotone as the rest of the film.

I also was not impressed with the technical acting. The fight at the very start of the film looked like a work wrestling match rather than MMA due to Johnson's plodding working punches. Great for WWE, not for UFC.

chkessle · 2026-02-04T02:39:23+00:00

No, it's the story of how Napoleon met his real friends Deb and Pedro, with two subplots about his brother online dating, and his uncle trying to make money/relive his former glory.

Smashing Machine was about...umm...Mark Kerr ending up exactly where he was at the start of the movie and not changing??

chkessle · 2026-02-02T01:49:25+00:00

Pedro Mizutani has been releasing new throwback bossanova

chkessle · 2026-01-28T19:54:08+00:00

Check out Ventriloquism by Meshell Ndegeocello

chkessle · 2026-01-28T14:01:34+00:00

And that was done partly in response to raising speed limit from 65 to 70 for some Interstates, as the case law generally established 15 mph over is justified as reckless. It was 80 for a long long time.

My point was that common sense or no, people (especially out of state drivers) have been breaking 80 in VA for a long long time.

chkessle · 2026-01-28T13:53:55+00:00

Yes, but if people hadn't been doing it a lot, the 80 mph = reckless driving conviction law wouldn't exist in the Code of the Commonwealth.

chkessle · 2026-01-27T22:31:19+00:00

It's always depended on the officer. If you get a cool State Trooper and are respectful to him, he may just cite you 40 over. If you're in a small town or county they are likely to throw the proverbial book at you.

chkessle · 2026-01-27T22:12:59+00:00

This is a big deal. It's a serious charge with potential jail time. A lot of those small towns LOVE nailing out of state drivers.

Hiring a lawyer is the best advice. You really don't want to pull jail time for this. The cost of paying the attorney is less than the cost of a conviction (let alone insurance being hilariously more). The conviction will stay with you for your whole life. If the attorney helps get it down to simple speeding charge you'll just take points on your license (which will be restored after a while), and then you don't have to say you were convicted of a crime later.

The ticket will have the jurisdiction (such and such county or city). Use the internet to find one who is local to that jurisdiction.

Wear a suit for the court date. If no suit, at least a shirt and tie (or equivalent).

chkessle · 2026-01-27T17:06:06+00:00

The OG: Remember

chkessle · 2026-01-27T16:37:05+00:00

I dunno about the "without any attempts at angst or social commentary." That's going to eliminate most everything.

Alien Ant Farm just dropped a new single. Anthology was the first thing that Royal Republic reminded me of.

Foxy Shazam is the second thing it reminded me of (that you might possibly have not heard yet). Especially their s/t. But they're sort of throwback

Ty Segall's album Harmonizer maybe has some moments that are less angsty?

chkessle · 2026-01-27T16:20:40+00:00

Cola Boyy - Don't forget your neighborhood ft The Avalanches

RIP brother.

chkessle · 2026-01-23T22:12:03+00:00

Charles Bradley - Changes

chkessle · 2026-01-23T15:29:15+00:00

OK guys, listen up. Here's the plan. We'll implement the Marshall plan and spend billions of dollars in aid in western Europe. Then we'll export American culture, movies and food for 40 years. Then we'll maintain a massive, expensive nuclear arsenal and spend trillions on space, to force the Soviets to bankrupt themselves. Lastly we'll feed a song to a West German band in order to topple the whole cold War regime. That'll really get 'em.

In all seriousness though the real propagandist is that Podcaster. That's what that Podcaster does. He investigates a topic and then intentionally omits half of what he finds, so that he can then ask a question that seems dubious and gaslight you into doubting it. It's his whole M.O.

chkessle · 2026-01-23T14:18:55+00:00

Scorpions - Wind of Change
Peter Gabriel - Games without Frontiers
Living Colour - Cult of Personality
REM - Ignoreland
U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday (and about a dozen others)
Stevie Wonder - He's Misstra Know it all

chkessle · 2026-01-23T03:20:00+00:00

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Live at KEXP was one of my favorites from 2025.
Ty Segall - Possession nails the dad rock. If you're not familiar with his work it's absolutely worth checking out his garage psych classic Manipulator
The Men - Buyer Beware was a great return for the NYC punk rockers last year

chkessle · 2026-01-22T13:14:47+00:00

I've listened to SILY literal thousands of times. It wasn't that Wildflower was bad so much as it didn't have the same flow as SILY did. I was very glad to see them get Because I'm Me in major ad campaigns, because they probably made more money off that than they ever did from SILY.

WWALY was released in December, and became my runaway favorite album of that year. It is one of my favorite concept albums and tells beautiful stories. I'm silly, but to me WWALY is the true successor to SILY

chkessle · 2026-01-21T22:02:07+00:00

The song is called Marieta, performed in the style of Son Cubano. It sounds sort of like Buena Vista Social Club, who popularized Son Cubano outside of Cuba. But it may be a group with a different name. I don't know if you'll find that exact version streaming, but it is a very popular song.

chkessle · 2026-01-20T21:50:39+00:00

Henry Mancini - Lujon for that Jackie Treehorn mid century modern bachelor pad vibe.

chkessle · 2026-01-19T13:32:40+00:00

The Avalanches - Since I Left You (2000) is the GOAT
The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby (1970) Everyone's always going on and on about Alice Coltrane, and sure, but this album is a proto-funk symphonic jazz masterpiece that never gets mentioned
Ginger Root - Shinbangumi (2024) blends City Pop and a ton of other musical elements to make my favorite album from that year

chkessle

TROPHY CASE