this is a genre that i can get into a little bit when it's rough around the edges, as this is. they shouldn't be calling themselves a grunge band, but it's messy enough to pass as math-ish. more to the point is that it's high energy, and kind of manic.

it's just hardly worth going all the way to hazel park on a random sunday for an hour to see it.

tell them to try to find a venue closer to downtown next time.

https://vermontbandohio.bandcamp.com/album/i-didnt-think-wed-make-it-this-far-ep

so, big business is in town soon. are they actually any good, though?

when were they here last? last year? i can't remember, exactly, but i remember that, the last time we went through this, i decided they were a little too cock-rock for my tastes, and without many redeeming qualities. contrary to the popular misconception, which appears to have been constructed by sheer idiots, i actually have a pretty strong aversion to rock music that originates in the male gonad area. maybe it's because i'm not particularly interested in compensating, but it just leaves me bored. i digress.

the thing is that there's enough of an intersection here with adrenaline-driven noise rock that i may find some reason to go, if i listen to it a few times. i doubt it, though; this is a stretch for me, from first principles, and something i would, under most scenarios, actually prefer to avoid. it's only very loosely peeking into my sphere of interest.

i'm at track five, and, in fact, pretty bored by it. but, we'll let it run.

if i don't comment further, you can be pretty sure it's a no.

https://bigbigbusiness.bandcamp.com/

i would never actually identify as goth, though.

i'm at most a "cherry goth", which is a term that has largely fallen out of use, and refers to a softer, gentler and girlier type of goth.

i'm really just a punk.

and, it's funny...

...because when i first started listening to swans around 1998-ish, that's what everybody said: they didn't get good until jarboe came in, don't listen to the stuff from the 80s, everything before burning world is just noisy shit, etc. their fan base was mostly goth/industrial types, and that was more or less the consensus position.

nowadays, the swans fan base seems to be mostly composed of like bro-ish dudes that think their high point was raping a slave.

it's a total reversal.

people are confused on this point.

when i say i'm a big swans fan, and i am, i mean the period from about 1990-1997.

i actually have very little interest in 80s swans.

i posted about this earlier and called it generic, but the thing i'm drawn to about it is how swans-y it is.

i don't expect to make it all the way to hamtramck tomorrow. but, if it was a little closer, it might be more likely to get to it.

https://silenceinthesnow.bandcamp.com/album/levitation-chamber