Cabin Corner

I was going to try and do a bigger review on this, but I've been drunk all week. Fluids is doing great stuff and if I heard this earlier it would have been on the top 20 list. Surprised I missed this since I really liked their 2019 release. I've been listening to this a lot lately. Electronic and brutal death metal doesn't seem like it goes together, but Fluids make it work. They got a split coming out tomorrow. I'm psyched. Nasty stuff. Crank it and flip-off your calendar. Happy New Year.  •Rating: 9.8/10 •Label: Dispozable Media •Release: May 1, 2020 •Genre: Brutal Death Metal •Full-length' Bandcamp

Merry Christmas! The day is finally here with this final review of the 2020 Cabin Corner Christmas Special. And what an album to go out on. I already loved this album going in. This has been on my table every holiday season since I picked it up several years ago. It's a fighting contender with A Charlie Brown Christmas as one of my favorite Christmas albums. Classic renditions of holiday hits on nothing but organs and chimes. Beautiful, warm, and inviting. If I could slap this on repeat throughout the entire day of Christmas I would. Perfect for Christmas morning gift opening and enjoying a glistening holiday ham during Christmas dinner. Hell, it's even perfect for after supper caroling as a lyric sheet is printed on both sides of the insert sleeve for a sing-a-long. I really do enjoy everything about this Christmas album. The gold and red simplistic cover, the comfort of the organs and chimes, the fact that it's just called, "Merry Christmas." It coming on red vi...

Happy Christmas Eve! After the letdown of True Value's Happy Holidays (9), I was kind of nervous about this one being called "...My Country At Christmas." What dirt was I going to pull out of this one? I was hopeful, and the answer was luckily none. Although this was a letdown in the sense that it's a church choir album when I thought it was country, it was refreshing after Happy Holidays. As the back of the record tells me, this Duluth, Minnesota based choir was acclaimed in both contests and concert performances. I have to agree that this is a very good sounding choir. The soothing tone and warmth that was only elevated by the record pops made me feel very relaxed. A little too relaxed. To wave off the Z's I decided to get some gift wrapping done while this puppy turned. It was the perfect soundtrack to creasing that paper and snapping that tape. This album was chosen because of the black-metal vibes the black and white trees give off. With that, it does tend to...

Oh boy...   A very generic collection of Christmas songs varying in classical, jazz, and a little country from the 60's/70's. Mediocre renditions of holiday "favorites" across the board, making it decent background music for perusing the aisles of a True Value in search of a last-minute gift for that handy person in your life. While getting through the slog of this compilation I  hopped on the phone and discovered that two of the tracks on this thing are by people who have appeared in a Tim Burton movie. Robert Goulet ("Silver Bells") was in Beetlejuice and John Davidson ("The First Noel") was in Edward Scissorhands. As my research continued while the needle scraped through the grooves I also learned that my least favorite track on this thing, "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," is by an anti-gay-rights activist, Anita Bryant. This discovery really spoiled the already bitter taste of this holiday album, knocking it down substantially. It...

Out of the dozens of Christmas records I've collected from thrift shops over the years this one stood out because of the comfy cabin artwork which I found fitting for the first review of this series on this page.   A whimsical and playful classical sound throughout this thing. Sometimes even a little ominous with deep organ on tracks like "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." The strings and horns work beautifully off each other and many songs build to an almost cinematic swell. The warm, cheerful, and nostalgic feel on this record makes it perfect for the holiday season.  •Rating: 8.7/10  •Release: 1959  •Lable: RCA  •Genre: Christmas/classical  •Full-length/black vinyl George Melachrino and his Orchestra - "Christmas Joy" Cabin Corner Christmas Special Playlist

 Cabin Radio (Week-01) Playlist Comix - "Touche pas mon sexe" Trees Speak - "Sleep Crime" Stellar West - "Penny" The Cell Phones - "Kelly" Amadou & Mariam - "Masiteladi (feat. M)" ShrapKnel - "Tempest (feat. Curly Castro, PremRock) Charley Pride - "Distant Drums" Apocalypse Quest - "Vibe Check" Night Demon - "Empires Fall" Nina Simone - "Com' By H'Yere Good Lord" Freddie Chavez - "They'll Never Know Why" Ash County Sluggers - "Little Mouths" Slotface - "Telepathetic" Orbital - "Belfast (Live)" Living Legends - "2010 (feat. 3MG) Willie Thrasher - "Wolves Don't Live by the Rules"

Cabin Corner Christmas Special Playlist Now that the massive batch of my favorite albums from the year are out of the way it's Christmas-time, my friends. I'll be doing a few reviews of Christmas albums from my collection and the Cabin Corner Radio (found in story and highlights on Instagram page) will be nothing but alternative Holiday jams until the big day. Hunker down, get yourself a nice hot cup of cocoa (maybe even a little spicy eggnog🤫), and let's enjoy this very unconventional holiday season together.   Skål!  

Here it finally is, the fifth and final chunk of my favorite albums from 2020. I love putting these together and I hope you enjoy viewing them.  Starting today we go into the Cabin Corner Christmas Special . Nothing but alternative Christmas jams from now until the big day. • Whethan - "Fantasy" - 10/16 Big Beat Records • clipping. - "Visions of Bodies Being Burned" - 10/23 Sub Pop Records • Butchered - "Wax Pathetic" - 11/20 (self-release) • Joan of Arc - "Tim Melina Theo Bobby" - 12/4 Joyful Noise Recordings

Fourth batch of 4 from the 20 albums that really hit me from this year. List is in order of release dates and will be split into 5 parts. • Napalm Death - "Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism" - 9/18 Century Media • Sunken - "Livslede" - 9/18 Vendetta Records • Jackie Venson - "Vintage Machine" - 10/1 (self-release) • Underdog Upperhand - "Confrontational" - 10/2 Brown Bear Records

Third batch of 4 from the 20 albums that really hit me from this year. List is in order of release dates and will be split into 5 parts.  • END - "Splinters from an Ever-Changing Face" - 6/5 Close Casket Activities   • Bagdadski Vor - "Колхида" - 7/7 (self-release) • Hole Dweller - "Flies the Coop II" - 8/13 Dungeons Deep Records • Sweeping Promises - "Hunger for a Way Out" - 8/14 Feel It Records

Second batch of 4 from the 20 albums that really hit me from this year. List is in order of release dates and will be split into 5 parts. • NNAMDÏ - "BRAT" - 4/3 Sooner Records • Southern Belle - "Wild Wheat" - 5/4 Brown Bear Records • Jeff Rosenstock - "NO DREAM" - 5/20 Polyvinyl Record Co. • Backxwash - "God Has Nothing to Do with This Leave Him Out of It" - 5/28 Grimalkin Records  

Here they are, the first batch of the 20 albums that really hit me from this year. List is in order of release dates and will be split into 5 parts. • Poppy - "I Disagree" - 1/11 Sumerian Records • Sallow Moth - "The Larval Hope" - 1/15 Dead Red Queen Records • Kvelertak - "Splid" - 2/15 Rise Records • New Primals - "Horse Girl Energy" - 3/20 Learning Curve Records Attachments  

The first ep/demo from Finnish band Tomb Mold. "Planetary Clairvoyance" was one of my favorite death metal albums of 2019, so it's nice to go back and indulge in those gritty beginnings. Can't really go wrong with that old school death metal sound in my book. •Rating: 9/10 •Release date: February 12, 2016 •Label: self-release •Genre: death metal •Demo/EP https://tombmold.bandcamp.com/album/the-bottomless-perdition

Beautifully layered electronic stuff. Very relaxing. I could put this on repeat and vibe out for hours. A pretty impressive journey from start to finish. •Rating: 9.8/10 •Release date: July 1, 2014 •Label: Midwest Collective •Genre: electronic/ambient/synthwave •Full length https://music.midwestcollective.us/album/odyssey

Making these lists are tons of fun, but challenging all the same. If I ever find a bottle with a genie in it I think one of my wishes would be to have the power to listen to everything ever released. Anyway, here are 9 albums I really liked from this year that fought to the end. My favorite tracks to each of these will be on the Cabin Corner playlist found in bio. Bandcamp links provided below. /// • Crow Bait - "A Wild and Wailing Thing" /// • Deftones - "Ohms" /// • Sparks - "A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip" /// • Chicken Happen - "Maybe In the Problem" /// • Xibalba - "Años en Infierno" /// • Stellar West - "Mortal Wombat" /// • Domus - "Lucid Dreaming" /// • Werendia - S/T /// • Akhlys - "Melinoë" /// Bandcamps: Crow Bait /// Chicken Happen /// Xibalba /// Stellar West /// Domus /// Werendia /// Akhlys