HYLI Vol XXVII: Cynic and Wilco
Andy sends Patrick some prog-metal from Miami and Patrick sends Andy some stuff from Chicago's finest
Hello, it’s me, Patrick. I’m back home after being in Maryland, Virginia and New York City for the last week and change. It was fun. I’m glad I’m home and I missed my pup and kitten. They rock. Y’all got pets? What are their names? I love them dearly. Anyways, my friends in Camp Trash dropped an album while I was gone. They’re a real band and you’re in it. Check it out here, it rocks.
Cynic - Focus
Andy: Continuing to ride the “Florida Is Great At Death Metal and Therefore Not A Totally Useless POS State” I submit the Prog-Tech-Death Metal band Cynic for the court (Patrick: ?). Formed in Miami and intermingled with Death and Atheist, Cynic‘s debut album is undeniably one of the most influential albums in metal. Guitarist Paul Masvidal was offered a permanent spot in Death and was like “nah I’m good” and dropped this absolute heater. Great jazz-inspired progressive metal with vocoder robot vocals. I’ve always said metal should have more robots (Patrick: I’m robot free).
Focus has been extremely influential in many of today’s genre leaders - The Contortionist, The Faceless, Obscura, etc. They all owe Masvidal a pint or a high-five or a royalty check or whatever.
I’ve known Pat for a decade-plus and I still, literally, have zero idea whether he will enjoy something or not. His preference never follows any sort of pattern so it’s impossible to know his thoughts before you show him something (Patrick: thanks). He hated Necrophagist and loved Igorrr, a band I would have put money on that he wouldn’t like. So, really, who knows. It’s always an exciting spin of the wheel. He might be like “This shit sucked, I don’t need robots in my elevator jazz metal,” or be like “I fucking loved this it is my favorite thing that Andy has ever shown me.” Who knows (Patrick: I know)! Hope You Like It!
Patrick: So, uhh, Between the Buried and Me really own these guys their whole vibe huh? I fucking loved this (Andy: got ‘em). Jesus. Maybe my favorite thing that Andy has shared in one of these? I absolutely loved the way the vocals mixed the heavy vocals with the weird, machine-like vocals. These dudes could shred too.
It seems they have a lot of other albums. Are they good (Andy: eeehh)? I could see this being a deal where they dropped a heater with a debut and then made some boring-ass watered-down shit that no one likes. Jesus, man. What am I doing here? Sorry for the drive-by. That was rude, but it does seem like that tends to happen with prog-metal bands.
I could listen to this constantly. I won’t because that’s deranged, but yeah, this absolutely rocks. “How Could I” is such a good closer. I love the way it seemingly ends in the middle of a lyric line. That’s such a cool thing. Did Veil of Maya (band) steal their name from the opening track here (Andy: Yes)? What a bunch of unoriginal hacks. I Like It a Lot.
(Andy: remember when you talked shit about me asking too many questions🤔)
Wilco - A Ghost Is Born
Patrick: For most of my adult life, two things for me have been true: a) I love the band Wilco and b) I’ve had a lot of bad and annoying panic attacks. To start with the former, they were a band that, obviously, has been big worldwide but were very big in Chicago, the city where I grew up. I first got into them in between 2004’s A Ghost is Born and 2007’s Sky Blue Sky, probably my two favorite albums by the band. They kind of perfectly mix a lot of the varying genres I’m into while adding their own spin. During that time period, in which I went from mid-teens to late-teens, I was learning how to play guitar and Jeff Tweedy’s work on A Ghost is Born and Nels Clines’ on Sky Blue Sky broke my brain. Have y’all heard “Impossible Germany?” (Andy: I have not) Jesus Christ (Andy: sorry).
As for the panic attacks, they kind of started in that time period too. I remember my first one happening when I was like 16, in 2005, and thinking I was having a heart attack and couldn’t breathe. Come to find out, my heart was fine and my brain was messed up. Around the time I got into Wilco and started having these panic attacks, I remember reading some interview with Tweedy where he said he had them too. I thought, “wow, maybe I’m not crazy, if this dude can deal with these and make A+ music.” Obviously, that’s kind of a dumb high schooler’s brain way of thinking about it, but whatever. On A Ghost is Born, Tweedy was recording the album as the sole guitarist during a time where he was going to rehab to ween himself off painkillers that he took to deal with his migraines and panic attacks. He even described the solo on the track “At Least That’s What You Said” as a “transcription” of one of his panic attacks. It was nice to see he recovered from addiction on Sky Blue Sky. I’m kind of more rambly this week than normal but, basically, this is one of my favorite bands, my favorite record by said band, and one that made me feel incredibly seen. “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” might be a top 10 song ever for me. I love this album. Hope You Like It.
Andy: Way to put the fucking pressure on me. Like, what if I came out and was like “Wilco sucks and this album sucks and you suck.” Then I’d have to be berated by you for the rest of my life for not liking good music. I don’t know if it’s suprising to anyone who reads this but I literally have never heard a Wilco song. I know nothing about Wilco other than the main guy is named Jeff Tweedy because Bert Kreischer (Patrick: who?) talks about him a lot.
Anyway, sorry, I didn’t hate it. I liked it a good bit more than last week’s Gangs of Youth record. I don’t think it needs to be 1 hour and 7 minutes long but what can you do. The ““““solo”””” on “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” rocks me so hard (Patrick: yes, man). More people should just fuck around and make noises with guitars. “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” is my favorite track and I had that opinion before Pat said it was his so I’m NOT COPYING HIM. That song is a significant tier above the rest of the album (Patrick: “Hell is Chrome” and “Muzzle of Bees” are both right there but I’ll take what I can get).
I warmed up to this a lot quicker than other things Pat has sent me. I don’t love it but I definitely enjoy it. I feel like a lot of this album goes pretty hard. I’ll keep it in my library and throw it on when it’s nice and sunny and I’m happy and black metal doesn’t quite fit the vibe. I liked it.