Back in April 2020 during Covid lockdown, I decided to listen to a bunch of Anime Aliens albums and write about them. I listened to - and wrote a whole buncha words about - the first 15 or so on their bandcamp. What I wrote is below.
As of December 31, 2024 there are 142 albums posted on their bandcamp. You can listen to them all at https://animealiens.bandcamp.com/
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Anime April with the Anime Aliens
Since somebody decided it was April, I decided to listen to every Anime Aliens album I could find and write far too many words about all of them. I spend a whole lot of time digging deep into the catalogs of musicians and I figured if I could spend a buncha time doing that over the last year with folks like African Head Charge,Steve Reich, VoiVod, Steve Lawson, Arrington deDionyso, Celtic Frost, Sharon Jones, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, The Work, Barbecue Bob, Bush Chemists, Evan Ziporyn, and The Ex (always, The Ex), I could turn that focus a little closer to home and pay deep attention to what Anime Aliens are doing. Cuz they are really fuckin neat. And since one of the ways I think and process what I am hearing is to write, I decided to write about it. A lot.
There’s a handful of bands Anime Aliens gets compared to, and yet, I freely admit that as someone who only listens to jazz banjo, greasy grindviolence, and dubious dub, I have no idea what most of these bands they are compared to actually sound like. Meaning I realy couldn’t pick one of those bands’ songs out of an alt-rock hits lineup if you punched me in the nuggins. My sonic mental reference points for Anime Aliens are: R. Stevie Moore, and a super-humble Andrew WK, but that doesn’t even begin to tell the story that Charles Passarell is telling. Nor does what you are about to read, and yet, here we are, faced with...
An Awful Lot of Words About A Whole Bunch of Albums, Almost All of them by Anime Aliens
Sucker Punch -
Feels like an album in 3 parts - Kicks off with the stirring guitarz instrumental “Intro” before smashing into two fantasy rockers and then reigning things in with the explanation that “Life is Like A Pop-Up Book” before entering the middle third of the album which is my favorite -- kicks off with Skit 1: In Flux - an emotive keyboard instrumental then starts rockin hard with the sounds of someone who can’t figure out Minecraft, struggles with Peeing in public, and then goes acoustic to ponder future baldness, then the song “Lack” which is filled with unrestrained insecurity over a chunky bass line and just as you think things are gonna get really bleak and sad, another fist pumping thumping total rocker decrying Love (for) The Sun and then this powerful third of the album is capped off by Skit2-En Mouvement - more great ambient layered keyboards. The album finishes up with a return to heavy rockin in the hilarious real-life game play of “I Spy”, a pondering of sanity with dueling acoustic and electric guitars, and then the only song over 2 minutes on the album - the great “80s Metal” that simultaneously celebrates old metal cassettes you play in the car and manages to slide from soaring guitar solos into some really chunky and fabulous mind-bending 90s psych/alt/noise rock explorations to end the song before you get to cool down with the final 18 seconds of Bald instrumental guitar. A great listen all the way through with a definite highlight coming in the middle but a solid album from beginning to end. (Released in 2017, originally recorded as a demo, but then the demo became the album and it works just fine that way.4 out of 5 Minecraft blocks.)
The Weekend -
Just one song. I guess it was gonna be on a comp. Ended up hanging out all lonely on the Nandcamp. Kinda the perfect song for “shelter in place” and an excellent one minute sample of all that Anime Aliens are - crunchyloud guitar opening into sweet acoustic bit singing “This Weekend were stayin in, we’re gonna have two days of sin...”, drums kick in and then guitars sweetly solo that harmony thing they do on on top, and then back to the heavy riffs that opened it and boom it’s done and it makes staying inside all the time almost seem like a good idea. (recorded in 2018, posted in 2020, I would guess after the comp it was supposed to be on fizzled or not - if you wanna figure out if you like Anime Aliens without spending time listening to a dozen albums, this isn’t a bad place to start, 5 out of 5 bite sized snack items)
RocknRoll Sorcery
Great magical album art on this one that feels a little more loose and lo-fi. Like it was thrown together and it says it was “recorded on a whim” and it feels like it, but not in a bad way. This is a solid album, gets off to a fine start with songs explaining how cabbage grounds you and helps you address reality rather than fantasy escapism, to songs about the awesomeness of shorts. The shorts song and a later song paying tribute to Styx have a delightful punk bite, while other songs really emphasize the cool Anime Aliens layers of guitar in an almost summery leisurely manner. One of the sweet things about this is that the vocals are right on top - not buried in the mix, so you can really hear his enthusiasm for shorts, Styx, cabbage, and Dollar-Tree wine. There’s some sadness in the mix cuz there always is (Frown in A Wedding Gown”), but also some beautiful tributes to caring about people more than the little stuff - “What I want more than a new tattoo is the respect of someone like you”. Midway through is a chiptuney piece “(Intermission)” that totally works and makes me want to hear more ricocheting Anime Pong sounds. A “Head Metal” appears here helping to stretch this into stirring prog territory with layers of guitar that reach deep inside of you Closes with a killer 3+ minute track - the longest song on the album by over a minute - “Cigarettes” which sums up everything that is so great about Anime Aliens - tying together a bunch of sonic threads that somehow all works perfectly - starts with a short indie rock bit with lyrics about tearing up cigarettes shifting to recognizing the limitations of memory before some sad as fuck keyboard takes the place of words then the dueling guitar harmonies blast out before there is a chunky breakdown that could open up the pit except then the song almost ends but out of nowhere comes a fuzzy floating guitar lead then two guitar leads dancing together as things carry on for a bit with more dueling guitars and then the feedback splits your ears and the song goes away and you want to hear it again cuz so much good stuff just happened in that three minute song that started off being a little indie rock folksy tune about tearing up cigarettes. It’s super cool. (released in 2018, on my wedding anniversary which is probably just a coincidence, 3.5 out of 5 thrift store Styx albums).
OKAY
First thing I notice is that this sounds BIG. Way more produced and the guitars sound massive. It feels different and it’s got more punk and metal which charms me. It hits right away in the intro which quickly moves from acoustic guitar to heavy fast riffin and then the leads hit. Second track gets me excited cuz it’s called Infinite Submission Hold so I figure it must be a tribute to the late great fabulous anarcho-emo-experimental-punk band Submission Hold, but it’s not. However, it’s a rocker about the futility of existence - which isn’t quite as good, but that’s okay.. That futility theme runs throughout this album on both big and small levels (particularly related to work), but ultimately is overcome by the message that we need to keep on truckin and in the wonderful closing track - more on that later. So yeah, overall, the sound here is mostly massive - not the bedroom recording Anime Aliens, but more like ARENA RAWK Anime Aliens - fists will be pumped by listeners here.One song is called, “Too Heavy”, but it’s really not, the tone here is just right for the moment. There’s a confidence in this recording that I don’t always hear - and I dig it - although I also love the moments where lack of confidence is an underlying theme. There’s heavy heavy riffs and 4 fuckin “Head Metal”s (9-12) the short instro guitar pieces that push Anime Aliens into prog territory. Some of the songs here are a little longer - a number of them topping two minutes - but still plenty of shorter pieces of all sortsa sound to keep things interesting. “Zack’s Wicked Bus” is one of the ragingest Anime songs I’ve heard.. There’s also what sounds to me like a BIG pedal love going on here - some of the sounds squeezed outta guitars sound new to my old ears - like the great lead riff in “Automation” - what is he playing through?!?! It sounds big and cool and new and fresh and this album just rips in so many places. And just when you think it can’t get any heavier, the heaviest track of all drops at the end and it is just a beautiful piano and perfectly strained vocal take on Kermit’s “Pictures in My Head”. Deeply impactful stuff that has to be heard - a complete surprise and a perfect end to this album that brings a ton of power and emotion to the Anime Aliens catalogue. (Released 2019, 4.5 out of 5 Kermits)
LIVE KDVS
Released as a tape (and on Bandcamp), this captures a full band 3-piece version of Anime Aliens Live in Studio A on the fabulous - and momentarily missed - KDVS. I’m usually not a big fan of live recordings as the drums and vox often dominate and can make everything else seem a little thin. That happens here, and the single guitar - rather than the layers of the studio stuff can make it seem, at times, that something is missing. On the other hand, you get to hear some real live nifty guitar trickery and at times the layers of effects really thicken the whole stew. This one is a nice survey of the Anime Aliens backcatalog superhits and there are some great songs here many of which are highly influenced by television. Long ago, I determined that the ideal Anime Aliens song length is somewhere between 37 seconds and 2 minutes and 23 seconds, and only 3 of the tracks here fit in those parameters, so I am am missing the little off-handed snippets, random stabs of creativity, and succinct brilliance that permeates so many of their albums. It’s all a bit more straightforward sounding like a 90’s influenced indie garage rock band jamming out at the Pus Cavern. There is a sweet spot they hit about midway through their set when they kick into a quick take on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme, move into the powerful “Bookbag” and “Guitars Too Loud” which point to guitar shredding as a means of coping in the modern age and have the most riffingly ripping riffs on this thing, and then wind things down sweetly with the more pensive and slightly more restrained (at least til the last minute), “Goodbye, Blue Monday” closing things out on a slightly gentler and sadder note (or flurry of notes). There’s a second side to this recording which is a nearly 30-minute interview they did on KDVS that you probably won’t listen to more than once but does provide some background on the band and other pursuits and is full of those classic KDVS DJ ums and ahs as they try to interview a band they probably just heard for the first time ever. It’s awkward and cute at times if awkward is your thing. (Released in 2018, 90.3 outta 108 Megahertz in honour of our wounded turntable heads although since I wrote this they are back on the air playing archived shows).
Heavy Boy.
One of the best of the Anime Aliens’ albums. Exceptionally mixed sound by the massive staff at Earthtone Studios highlighting that which should be highlighted. Everything sounds just so great on this recording. Great, great songs following a formula of quick little lovely lyrics addressing life followed by great layered guitarwork and songwriting and instrumental explosions. Two of the first songs are walloping, thoughtful Head Metal tunes and then it’s just great song after great song. Real-life observations on stuff we can all relate to - feeling uncomfortable talking to people, burning yourself on a flatiron, chipping teeth, loving heavy metal like a kid, trying not to kiss people you care about when sickness is in the air (amazingly prescient for these times), going to work, getting stuff done - it’s all damn sweet and thoughtful and totally human and perfectly delivered and filled with some of the best Anime Aliens’ jams out there. Ripping guitar leads on top of delicious hooks with occasional bits of acoustic sweetness. Wraps up with a hilarious shoutout song that doesn’t suck (most shout-out songs suck but this has wit and humour and love and inside jokes and then wraps up with a mind-melting sonic barrage). This album rules from beginning to end. It’s full of some of the best of the best of Anime Aliens and the mix and production are just so tasty. Great album and a perfect place to fall in love with this band and I’m not just saying that cuz “Heavy Boy” is one of the nicknames for the cat who adopted us who usually goes by “Coach” which is short for “PE Coach” so named by my kids because “he’s white, he’s fat, and he’s got a grey butt.” (Released 2018. 5 out of 5 pedestals.)
DIP
This was the album that started me doing this. This was released in the middle of last month and I started listening and was just hooked at the simple and complex brilliance of it all. At that point, t had been awhile since I had really listened to Anime Aliens (I have subsequently more than made up for that error) and this album convinced me that it made a lot of sense to spend most of April just listening to Anime Aliens’ albums over and over and to really hear what was there. And there is so much, here, there, and everywhere. This album is stupidly genius and is really two different albums - one is Guitars Too Loud in its infinite incarnations and then the other is perhaps a more typical (!?!?! - that word doesn’t fit Anime Aliens really). The 2nd-9th songs are a great Anime Aliens mix. Sweet songs about Litterboxes and Sunhats and self-doubt and possibility and walking dogs and TV. What I dig about these songs is the heavy is a little bit heavier, the drums a little poundier, more oomph in speed and power, and yet there’s plenty of breathing room. There’s a bit more - and next level - acoustic guitar work - the only Head Metal on this album (#13) is a pretty dazzling acoustic workout and the acoustic pops up elsewhere with impressive and unexpected results. Pretty much every song in this part of the album is solid with the highlight for me being the great “DinoKnights” which is a fine song about battling dinosaurs that starts with an absolutely lethal open this pit up stompin breakdown - always start your song with the breakdown - and then veers into a great late 70sartypunk verse before going into heavy psych leads back to verse and back to breakdown where the mosh just takes over and then it’s fades out and you realize you just heard the best song you have ever heard about DinoKnights. And those songs are only half of the album cuz the other half is one of the best Anime Aliens songs of all time played over and over. “Guitars Too Loud” opens the album - and it is a heavy rifftastic ripper of guitar loudness that is probably the best Anime song over 2.5 minutes. It’s more than 5 minutes long - that’s fuckin ridiculous - but those 5+ minutes rule. Which is good. Cuz the last 6 songs on this album are another half dozen versions of the same Guitars Too Loud song. Some have extended dueling guitar workouts with famous local shredders, there’s some experiments with noise and raprock, the highlight for me is the searing sax version with guest AMP that takes the term “dad rock” to a whole new and powerful level. The last Guitars Too Loud (Megamix) shoves em all together in a blender and is a mess but a good kinda mess. It’s a really good thing that Guitars Too Loud is a rad song full of rad riffs cuz this album has 7 versions of it and nearly 40 minutes of what is essentially the same song (with lots bonus flourishes), in addition to an albums worth of other great Anime Aliens songs and it is wonderfully stupidly brilliant and inane and about as perfect of an Anime Aliens album as there could be. Great album. Get it. You could hate it a lot or love it. It’s kinda your choice. (Released 2019, 5 out of 5 really loud guitars.)
Castle Invaders
An EP of songs that didn’t end up on the Heavy Boy album. Like that album, these songs were recorded at EarthTone Studios so the sound is big and full and pro sounding - with loud fuzzy guitars and clear vocals. This is a pretty straightforward release with a bit less of the typical Anime Aliens quirk. Four solid 3-minute fuzzy guitar alt rock songs with a brief anime-theme acoustic interlude. Every song here is solid with some nifty soloing if that’s your bag, catchy hooks, lyrics filled with self-questioning. It all feels like a laid back rocker, one of the best examples of the Anime Aliens self-fulfilling the self-identified tag of “Slacker Rock”. This would be a good companion album to the (relatively) straightforward Live KDVS tape cuz it’s got a different batch of songs with a much bigger sound. If you are into fuzzy 90s altrock with impressive guitar leads and are a little scared of the weird, this is a good place to jump in. If you worship the weird, you might want to wade in elsewhere as this is good, but lacks a little of the “vision” that makes other Anime Aliens albums so adorable. (Released 2018. 4 out of 5 slobs, 3 out of 5 jerks, averaged to 3.5 out of 5 gondolas.)
Bummering
Oh this one is a delight. Quick and to the point. Starts off with pounding grungy instruments, moves into a Head Metal (7) that suggests an answer to the question of “how many guitars can you layer into a 30 second song?” Vocals appear - in a brief four line verse about being distracted - in the great “Space Cadet” that opens with a great psych doom riff and just pounds on from there. Next Trapt tribute is another fine brief instrumental with more great pounding drums, feedback, and a grungy as fuck guitar and dripping leads, closes out with a slower and more melancholic song with a weepy but fuzzy lead that is sounds both sad and confused in all the right ways. This album is quick - 5 songs, a little more than 6 minutes, and it does everything it needs to do. If the kids still could put out 7” ep’s this would be perfect for one, OH wait, the kids still do and you can buy this on sweet 7” vinyl directly from the band. I love the heaviness and fuzziness of the recording and the drums sound fantastic. It’s like a big old great garage record record in a little space and a little time. One of my faves. (Released 2018, 5 out of 5 rolls of duct tape in a variety of colours and tones).
Radical Riffage
The phenomenal cover art and the opening track suggest we might be witnessing the 2nd coming of Bards of Fantasia - which is only problematic because there’s only like 3 people who would know what that refers to AND Bards never really went away, so how could there be a 2nd Coming? Irregardless, the fantasy element is strong in this one. Bards are referenced whether consciously or not. There is a song called “Galloping” that totally gallops although the drums kinda do a less than gallop, but they are trying. There’s a Ninja Warriors song that has some wild guitar noise soloing going on and enough feedback to make a sandwich. There’s “Head Metals 5 & 6” which bring the guitar to the front and center and are really quite pretty. The bass throughout this does bass things that are simple but that I really like, The last song, “Goblin Castle”, wraps it up perfectly and is like one of those Rush songs that took up an entire album side but is only 3 minutes long and the annoying vocalist called in sick with laryngitis. There is a bit of a homegrown low-budget 80s metal feel to this which you will either fall in love with or you won’t. But I found it super endearing and familiar,and yet not quite sounding like what you’d expect (which I like). Upon further listens, and I am listening to all of these A LOT by the way. I realized this is a pretty perfect mashup of lo-fi bedroom pop and 80s hair metal with virtually no vocals. So you are either gonna love it for what it is or not. I dig it. How much of that is just cuz I feel like I am clever cuz I “get” it (when in fact, I might not get it at all), I don’t know. (Released 2018, 4 out of 5 radical riffs cuz the riffs are really radical).
Apathetic Wonderland
I so dig the title on this. That’s the name of the Theme Park the live version of Anime Aliens should be playing 3 sets a day on the stage right before the Mad Magician’s pissed off illusion show. That being said, I am not sure I get this one. Which kinda may be the point. A lot of it makes me think of when that 2nd or 3rd or 4th wave of punk (depending on who you ask) in the mid 60s went from garage snarl into psych and folk meanderings. Always seemed like they went from singing about wanting to taking drugs and have sex to actually taking drugs and having sex and they lost their edge a bit in the process (in more ways than one). Not that I’m opposed - necessarily - to a laid back vibe (or drugs or sex) - but musically it often doesn’t thrill.. Something just doesn’t quite reach me as well on this one - it feels more randomly thrown together.. There’s some acoustic folky sweet lovey dovey songs here, some languid psych/prog experiments and some quality Anime guitar squawl, but the parts feel a bit more disjointed than usual -- which may be the point that I am just not getting. I usually love how the disparate parts of an Anime Aliens album make some weird grand sense to me - that’s part of the beauty of the “band” for my ears and brain, but I just don’t feel the connection here. Which may be the point, or my problem. Maybe you should listen to this and prove me wrong. Overall, this is one I will probably listen to less than the others- which is funny cuz its one of just a handful that I own in a physical - not bandcamp - form - in this case, a cassette that indicates is is the 5th of 10 - which may also be a joke but maybe not. All that being said, there is some really good stuff on here - “Life on a Highway” has a delightful rockin riff that is pretty much the entire song which works for me and the “Cow Song” lyrics still make me laugh everytime I hear them and I like to see how far my chuckle lasts into the proggy outro and “Screaming from the Rooftops” is one of my favorite Anime Aliens songs which doesn’t really sound at all like early Husker Du but makes me think of early Husker Du at band practice jamming after listening to Yes , so I don’t know why this just doesn’t connect with me even through repeated listenings. Is it because I have been listening to Anime Aliens stuff every day this month and this is around the 10th album I have dug deeply in? I don’t know. I like it. I just don’t like it quite as much. Although, I will say, one of the BEST things about this album is the drum sound. The snare on this thing snaps in a way that most recordings just can’t achieve. Truth is I kinda hate most modern recorded drum sounds and think they sound ⅓ as stupid as autotune. Everybody recording right now should hear the snare sound on this album and learn how to do that, cuz it fuckin rules. (Released 2018, 3.5 out of 5 Matt Lauer’s with at least ½ a point coming from that rad ass snare sound).
Anime, Bloody Aliens
Great cover art. Great title. I vaguely recall a Vice special about the band where it was mentioned that they only released albums so they’d have something to do with all the late-night album title/cover art brainstorms. Well, glad this one made it past the brainstorm because this is a fabulous album. I really hear it as two ep’s cushioned by the intro and two brief spoken word sketches. The first chunk - songs 2-4 starts off with piano into a melancholy guitar lead and then some acoustic guitar comes in and right when you think you are on the road to adult contemporary, a blast of feedback followed by pounding drums takes you back to the guitar lead. Some psych guitar swirls lead into the next song - probably the best one on the album - the total riff rockin exploration of our common humanity of riding on harleys out of black holes to steal souls - the near thrash break in this one absolutely rules and just as the song starts to fall apart it rebuilds as a offbeat noise jazz jam that gets overwhelmed by feedback and brings the song right back to it’s logical rockin ending. One of my fave Anime Aliens song of all time. So far. The song rips and has so much going on and leads right into the great “Barbies and Rainbows” a thoughtful song about gender and rocknroll that speaks to the power of ponies AND Lita Ford. Great song, great lyrics and a perfect companion to this little chunk of album. Little bit of a Merch Table sketch to get you settled in for the next flurry of brilliance - Her Car, Sputnik - which is another of the best Anime songs as it open with an absolute ripping punk riff and great distorted vocals that show you that Anime Aliens could be the best garage punk band out there if they wanted, but there’s other things to do - like throw laser sounds and harmony leads and feedback experiments and pledges of allegiance of rock n roll - and then follow it up with a tasteful and funny acoustic fingerpicking tribute to Norman Blake interlaced with feedback. On this one, all those pieces just fall into place together and make you think about music a little differently - there’s stuff here that maybe shouldn’t work together but it does and it creates a new concept of song that is different and effective. The great lyrics, the powerful riffs, and the willingness to play with noise make this one of the best of the Anime Aliens albums I’ve heard. (And at this point, I’ve heard a few). (Released in 2019. 5 out of 5 Barbies).
Anime Aliens vs. Pink Frank
This is what I believe, the kids these days refer to as a “Concept album” although it is not really an album (but it could be). The concept here is a split record with two bands -- Anime Aliens and Pink Frank - but both songs play at the same time. If you wanted to, you could listen using headphones with just one ear and hear an individual band, but really why would you want to do that when instead you can hear two bands at once. Imagine living in a house where your bedroom is right between two bedroom-pop roommates and they always play at the same time with you sitting in the middle hearing both of them when they only hear and play their own songs. That is a little bit what this was like. It’s only 3.5 minutes long which is either good news or not. I have listened to this probably more than anyone should and probably more than most people every will, especially with both bands playing at once and it gives me a sense of having a bad - although not nightmarish dream - you know one of those agitated, kinda irritating dreams that you wake up from sorta cranky - and the dream somehow involves John McCrea of Sacramento hardcore titans, Cake. He’s not falling out of trees or anything, he is just present in the dream and you wake up going, “what was that all about?” So that’s what it sounds like to me. I did listen (repeatedly) to the individual sides in each ear. The Pink Frank one is a kinda homebrrewed indiefolkpsych song with a persistent drum machine. In the other ear, Anime Aliens packs in 3 songs - of course. A very quick and beautifully titled, “Coconut Water in A Monster Truck”, a succinct guitar workout in the form of a Head Metal (8 if you are keeping track), and then the sleeper of the whole recording - the song, “I Can’t Sing” which addresses an underlying tension in all of the Anime Aliens albums - and I would argue part of what makes them so great. It is clear in a dozen ways that Charles thinks he’s not a very good singer. Sometimes he buries the vocals (like here), sometimes he just throws out a quick couple lines before the instrumentation. Sometimes the vocals are quiet or strained or feel and sound awkward. That vocal hesitancy is a small part of the brilliance of Anime Aliens and that tension is explored here - should Anime Aliens not make music because the singer is self-conscious about his singing?!?! Should the great lyrical ideas - like “Drinking Coconut Water in a Monster Truck” be abandoned for fear of lack of vocal skills??!?!? Of course not! Part of what makes Anime Aliens so great is the vocals - and the hesitancy to sing as well - which leads to unconventional song structures and all sorts of room for guitar awesomeness and part of the humble brilliance of the whole project. “Do my words not matter” if someone can’t sing? “I guess not.” Killer ending. Suitably buried in all of the mayhem of this mix. This is kinda a dumb and wonderful concept that holds so much truth deep down. Took me about 17 listens to get to where I could really appreciate this and I’m not sure I need to hear it again. But, then again, I am listening again right now. So, I guess I do.
By the way, if they wanted to fully exploit the “Concept” this really should have been a double album of both bands songs played at once with a big ugly gatefold cover.
(Released 2019., 3.5 coconut waters out of 5 cuz that’s how long this thing is in minutes).
The First Two Years.
“Demo” tracks mostly with a full band (bass/drums/guitar) from 2016-1017. There’s 30+ songs here and much more of a straight indie garage rock sound here. Not unlike the KDVS tape, but sounds better and is like 4 times as many songs. Straightforward stuff and less of the Anime Alien experimentationz and oddities that I have found so attractive over listening to all these albums. There’s a shitton of cool songs and riffs here, and there’s a lot that only surface here as well some delightful surprises. The guest spot by Emma Simpson and the very sweet male/female vox duet sound totally unlike anything else done under the moniker Anime Aliens, and it is a super sweet song.
I’m not sure what I expected for this, like was this just gonna be endless jamming and experimentation or half-finished songs. No, this is over an hour of straightforward alt/pop/punky/folky/emo/psychy rockers. Much closer to the live Anime Aliens experience (with a little bit less wild guitar flailing/harmonizing here) and very much a live sound. The drums are up front but not too loud, and the singing has more confidence and loudness here, in part cuz he is probably trying to be heard over the band.It’s good, and normal people would probably be drawn to a lot here, but it resonates and fascinates me a little less than their other stuff. And yet, this is way better than I thought it would be and ended up listening and paying attention to this more than I thought I would. There’s a lot of good stuff here even if it does remind me of the 90s for better or worse. It’s kinda amazing how many songs have been written under the name “Anime Aliens” in just the last few years (rumoured to be over 150, or so I heard). (Supposedly released in 2016, but contains songs recorded in 2016/17, so there may be some time travel at work. 3 out of 5 soda flutes).
(guitar solo)
Good titling if you want to fuck with Alphabetization. This is a new one. Released March 30 of this year. This came out after I decided I would spend April listening to all the Anime Aliens I could find, yet just before April started, but it’s one of the last things I am listening to. This feels like it is a “quarantine” album. Random musical thoughts thrown together to pass the time. It starts out with a Thin Lizzy cover that will make Thin Lizzy worshippers - of which I am not one - really happy until they realize it’s only 20 seconds long - which will make non-Thin Lizzy worshippers - of which I am one - kinda happy. It’s also got a pretty much by-the-book cover of the Vapors “Turning Japanese” which is cool and all, although it would have been way hipper to cover any one of the other songs the Vapors wrote like “Trains” or “Magnets” (although ICP already took care of that for us). There’s a 6 minute song about the Eric Andre show, which is either 5 minutes too long, or 7 minutes too short, that sweetly speaks to the power of media/art to speak directly to you and make you feel less alone in the world during your teen years. It ends with a funny acoustic song about Sarah Palin being from outer space. And, there’s a couple of Head Metals (14 and 15) nestled around the real hit of the album - “Cyndi Lauper” - one of my fave Anime Aliens songs (so far). Rippin track with great lyrics about, well, how great Cyndi Lauper is, with an awesome crescendo where the vocals barely rise above the noise to declare, “She’s all love and no hate!” (or maybe “It’s all love and no hate” - either way or both - it works to great effect). Overall, it doesn’t hold together great as a full album for me and a lot of it feels kinda sluggish- like maybe the quarantine is slowing time down or Anime Aliens are devolving into lethargic dad rock. Time will tell. (Released like 3 weeks ago in 2020 3 out of 5 Eric Andre episodes)
Bonus Content:
Otaku Technician
And speaking of quarantine albums, this is NOT an Anime Aliens album, BUT it may have been created by one of the main members of Anime Aliens - perhaps the mainest member - during Shelter-in-Place. Perhaps as a challenge to see what would happen if they decided to create a badass death metal album. And, yeah, they created one hell of a badass death metal album. I don’t feel like typing out all the really long song titles, but they are in the best death metal song title tradition with a twist (ok here’s one: “Thomas the Tank Engine’s Nucleotide” and here’s another, “Sacrococcygeal Sweetarts”). The whole thing is fuckin stupidly great - in the way the at the best and stupidest death metal can be. And yeah, it’s funny, but some of the stuff on here absolutely destroys. If you were wondering if the shredding Anime Aliens guitar interplay can transform into the siqqqqqqest fuckin death metal riffs, the answer is, “Well, yes, my friend, they really do. Quite a bit, in fact.” If you are wondering if those siqqq riffs can handle being co-housed with some delightfully over-the-top 80s hair metal leads. The answer is assuredly, “Yep.” 10 songs in about 10 minutes (minus samples), which is enough time to figure out how you feel about those vocals. Do you hate hate them, or is that hate love, or maybe love hate, or even love love them? Irregardless, they are something special. But it’s the guitars that just rule the day here. Layers of raging and wailing and grunting guitars on top of some impressive drumming that is somehow able to keep up. This just kinda fuckin rules a lot. I hope this band plays a ton of shows at On the Y in May.(Released April 2020, 5 out of 5 Weeaboos with Walking Pneumonia)
That’s it, Unless Anime Aliens put out a new album this morning. You could probably hear all of this stuff here....
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