The Needle Drop

A Noise Rock Odyssey

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For this month's genre playlist, we've put together a little something for those of you who prefer your rock music dissonant and in shambles. Here's a sprawling set of 21 noise rock tracks we dig, lasting an hour-and-3/4. That's just a case of tinnitus waiting to happen, so we wanna take the opportunity to remind you to protect your ears! (Honestly this playlist isn't extremely abrasive throughout, but it's a message that can't be stated enough.)

As always, you'll probably come up with things we omitted. In particular, there are some intriguing noise rock artists on Tzadik, whose catalog isn't on Spotify; nor is Dope Body's. They would have been fun additions, but we hope you enjoy what made the cut!

Great Albums: August 2015

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A roundup of Anthony's favorite releases of this past month:

1. Destroyer - Poison Season
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOAxs...
Listen: http://www.theneedledrop.com/articles...

2. Ghost - Meliora
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTyql...
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOrXK...

3. FKA Twigs - M3LL155X
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn9tZ...
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYU3j...

4. Cattle Decapitation - The Anthropocene Extinction
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dc-p...
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8t8g...

5. Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCwJf...
Listen: http://www.theneedledrop.com/articles...

6. Lianne La Havas - Blood
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emyn3...
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFic-...

Honorable mention to DOPE BODY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjORa...

Mark Kozelek Starter Pack

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2015 has been a very busy year for singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek - since the release of Universal Themes (his seventh album with Sun Kil Moon), he has announced a new EP and spoken word project due out in October via his Caldo Verde label, as well as a full-length collaboration with post-metal act Jesu slated for February. Kozelek formed his first band, Red House Painters, in 1989 and hasn't seen much use in taking a break; his output has only picked up over the years. How he has managed to put out an emotionally resonant album almost every year of the past couple decades is beyond me. It's clear he loves and lives for music-making, but when you're writing songs that are sentimental and empathetic to the devastating degree he is, you've gotta figure it'd be exhausting. Yet it's hard to tire of it as a listener when Kozelek does well to complement the sentimentality and melodrama with a new approach to composition each time, marrying his lyrics with everything from elegant acoustic fingerpicking to lumbering hard rock grooves. He aims for an emotional reaction and I'll be damned if he doesn't get one from me every time. Hopefully this playlist brings you a few good cries and laughs, too.

-Austen

The one glaring omission this time is something from Sun Kil Moon's debut, Ghosts of the Great Highway. It isn't on Spotify, so this song will have to stand on its own (which shouldn't be a problem):