#11 Album of 2014, Guilty of Everything by NOTHING

I shoegaze a lot.  I shoegaze when I'm not even staring at my shoes and I'm guilty of shoegazing when I'm not listening to music of said genre.

I enjoy thinking and often find an unparalleled feeling of joy when I'm riding around the waves of my inner thoughts.  

When I listened to this album by the band NOTHING, there was something nice about finding a cozy place to think while being surrounded by familiar soundscapes. 

This album and artist isn't for everyone, but you should sleep on this record either.  They had a number of buzz worthy performances at SXSW and they've won me over through repeated listens.

This album was the reason I put together a top 20 this year...  I didn't want to commit to a list without acknowledging this album in some manner.

Songs you should listen to whilst starring at your shoes

• Nothing – Hymn to the Pillory
• Nothing – Dig
• Nothing – Somersault

There's a number of versions of this on vinyl - my favorites are the white ones with dollops of black splash in the center of it.  I think they also released it on Pink for breast awareness too.

Nothing - Guilty of Everything

So I had this album recommended to me last week by my friend Jackie...  she got around to seeing them at SXSW and suggested I check them out.   When i saw the album cover, I immediately thought of Wire's PINK FLAG album and wondered if they would in turn have a similar sound.

View fullsize

Nothing sounds nothing like Wire, which is neither a good or bad thing.  I would quickly describe their sound as shoegazey, but there's something tempered about the delivery of their sound.  The fuzz never grows louder than a low roar and I would describe their vocal delivery as beautiful and melodic.  In some ways it kinda reminds me of cross between SDRE and Calla with a pinch of other British shoegazer influences... 

It's a pretty solid record.  Here are a pair of suggested tracks:

• Nothing – Dig
  
• Nothing – Bent Nail
  

Artists: Nothing
Album: Guilty of Everything
Producer: Jeff Zeigler
Label: Relapse Records
Recorded: ?

Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar

Participated in an overnight project for work last night...  assisted with the migration of a production server to a virtual environment.   The work was equal parts stressful and inconvenient...  but it did however provide time to listen to music while waiting for systems to backup or restore.

Settled on spinning Marilyn Manson's - Antichrist Superstar.   An artist I learned about my freshmen year of college.  I'll never forget my friend Omar coming up to me to show me the event listing in the Metro Times.  A demonic looking guy who was rumored to commit suicide onstage on the 15th of October at the State Theater.

I told Omar that I would attend the show if he could figure out a way to get there.  Neither of us had cars on campus...  so getting around the City (that we really didn't know just yet) was a pain in the ass.

I didn't catch Marilyn Manson on this tour, but did see him on the Mechanical Animals tour about 2 years later.

Antichrist Superstar, in my opinion is Manson's finest hour.  The album is heavily influenced by its producer - Trent Reznor - which is no knock on the their other work, it's just an obvious observation.

For some reason, I didn't recall the tracks on this album running so long...  I also didn't think that the album would be such an enjoyable listen after all these years.  (nearly 20 years old)

Stand Out Tracks: 

• Irresponsible Hate Anthem
• The Beautiful People
• Tourniquet
• Wormboy
• Angel With the Scabbed Wings
• 1996
• The Reflecting God

Artist: Marilyn Manson
Album: Antichrist Superstar
Producer: Trent Reznor, Dave Ogilvie, Marilyn Manson, Sean Beavan
Label: Nothing
Recorded: Nothing Studios