One Year, 100 Albums: #69 No Use For a Name - Leche Con Carne!

No Use For a Name Leche Con Carne!, 1995

I came to No Use For a Name all at once, really. They were on the first Fat Wreck Chords comp I ever bought (Volume 4: Life in the Fat Lane. Purchased because I was buying all the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes songs I could find) with "Coming Too Close" which was on More Betterness in 1999.

Quick Fun Fact: I thought that Leche Con Carne! was the album that immediately preceded More Betterness, but I was wrong and I found that out when looking up their discography for this post. Making Friends was released in between them in 1997. So, I guess we're always learning new ways we're wrong.

ANYWAYS

So, it wasn't like there was a No Use album that was a beacon of truth and hope in a time of darkness or anything. It was more of a "This is a band that's good. They have a bunch of albums" situation.

But I always come back to this one. I think it's because it sits on the sweet spot between their rougher past and their more polished future. There are fast punky songs, sure, but they're songs with pop sensibilities and hooks and messages and just...all of it. It also helps that two of my favorite No Use songs are on this album (see below). And the 80's cover medley secret track at the end certainly doesn't hurt one bit.

If I was a betting man and I wasn't me, I would have put all my chips on my picking Hard Rock Bottom for this list. It's the first "new" No Use album I heard and it was introduced to my by a cute girl and accompanied a couple of us on some road trips and all of that. And it was a close race between these two albums. But in the end, it's the classic feel that won me over this time.

Lead singer Tony Sly died in July 2012 and I was surprised by how saddened I was. When I stop to think about it, his voice and presence WAS a beacon of truth and hope in a time of darkness.

It makes watching a fun, silly video a little bittersweet, seeing him just being goofy with his buds.

And here are the aforementioned favorite tracks. These are two of my favorite tracks out of all of the No Use stuff I've ever heard.

No Use For a Name - Justified Black Eye (my friend Riley (who has come up on these posts before) thought that it was "Justified Black Guy" for a while when he first heard it in high school)

No Use For a Name - Straight From the Jacket (this might be my favorite No Use song of all time)

You can buy Leche Con Carne! at Amazon, Amazon MP3, iTunes, and directly from Fat Wreck Chords

I'll also include the Amazon link for a recently released tribute album with the profits going to The Tony Sly Foundation, which I *believe* helps out his family. But I can't find a lot of info about it.

2012 Artists of the Year Countdown

I don't normally take this job lying down, but, fun trivia fact, I recorded this entire episode lying down....wait, I really hope that, at this moment, you're not thinking to yourself (or SAYING OUT LOUD!) "Yeah. It shows." But I don't think it does.

This is always an easy episode to record because I know these artists so well. Of course I do! They're the Artists of the Year!

2012 Artists of the Year Countdown

***Featuring***
Barenaked Ladies
The Beatles
Blink-182
Dessa
Doomtree
Green Day
New Found Glory
No Use For a Name
P.O.S
Smashing Pumpkins

What We Did During the Storm: A Podcast

So, last Monday (not LAST Monday, the LAST last Monday...the Monday when....it was October 29th) Sandy was hitting the east coast and my sister and I were bored. So we decided to make a podcast over the phone. I think it went pretty well. We had a very eclectic mix of songs and had a fun time talking about lots of different things related and unrelated to music!

Off the Charts #6: Sister/Rain

***Featuring***
Beach House
The Beatles
Gogol Bordello
No Use For a Name
P.O.S
Panda Bear
Smashing Pumpkins
Sufjan Stevens
Wu Tang Clan

Russian Roulette (Blog Version) - 3rd Round

Well, it's appropriate that today is my wife's last day of responsibilities at school and our Russian Roulette song is a punk song from Fat Wreck Chords heroes No Use For a Name. I am not too worried about this song getting me in trouble. Punk rockers are on our side, right? :)

This album is a fast-paced rocker that's perfect for the first days of summer. Get the whole thing, listen to it, and wreck your living room.....or someone else's living room.....ok, maybe leave the living room alone.

No Use For a Name - Leave it Behind from Leche con Carne! (buy from Amazon) or (buy from the label!)

Watching the Lost finale and posting to my blog...what an age we live in!!

I simply love this show. So much.

Anywho, on to some music. First, some bracket action!

Round 1d:

1. Kanye West vs The Suicide Machines

Kanye West - Champion from Graduation
The Suicide Machines - Did You Ever Get a Feeling of Dread? from A Match and Some Gasoline

2. Bad Religion vs No Use For a Name

Bad Religion - Requiem for Dissent from New Maps of Hell
No Use For a Name - Part Two from Keep Them Confused

Happy Voting! Please vote!

In other news, Weezer has released their Red album. And it's certainly an improvement from their recent efforts. Maladroit was ok. But the Red album almost makes a Blue Album/Pinkerton-esque showing. I'm going to post one track, but I'm saving my favorite track for the end of the year. The funny thing is that I've read some negative reviews of that very track...more on that later.

But here's the track.

Weezer - Troublemaker


Finally, I'm going to start a new feature on this crazy thing. I'm thinking of calling it CP B-sides!

Basically, I will use this feature to allay the anxiety of wanting to post more songs to the Contrast Podcast than I'm allowed to. For instance, this week was Babies. And I submitted this:

Alan Wilkis - Bad Mamma Jamma from Babies Dream Big

but I wanted to submit this, too!:

Barenaked Ladies - Baby Seat from Maroon

and now everyone can enjoy both of them! Hooray Internet!

OK everyone! Have a great week or so!

Brackets

Ok. So NCAA Basketball March Madness is pretty much over now, but I decided I wanted to try something related to tournament brackets. The classic rock station that we occasionally listen to at work is having a battle of the bands with this tournament bracket and everything. So that's what I'd like to do too.

I'm a part of this website called Last.fm that keeps track of music that I listen to on my iPod or computer. And so, using the chart that it has for the Artists I've listened to most, I have made up a bracket of my own. It's really neat, but I don't think you get to see it yet. First, I'm going to gauge the interest in this endeavour with something of a pre-tournament set of match-ups. There are some positions on the bracket that are ties (basically, I've listened to two or more artists the same number of times) and so we're going to pick who gets those positions right now.


RULES FOR SAMPLE SONGS (Pre-tournament and Round 1):

For the first two contests, I will be posting songs from the contestants' most recent LP (not including greatest hits, live, or B-sides collections) that I own. Round 2 will have a different set of rules.


Oh, and the winner of the whole thing will have an entire post devoted to them including a playlist created by yours truly that you can download and burn to a CD in memory of the time we've spent together! Awww.

OK. So here are the pre-tournament match-ups and their sample songs:

1. Fall Out Boy vs. Sufjan Stevens
Fall Out Boy - You're Crashing, But You're No Wave from Infinity on High
Sufjan Stevens - Decatur, or, Round of Applause For Your Stepmother! from Come On Feel the Illinoise

2. Outkast vs. Blink-182
Outkast - Idlewild Blue (Don't Chu Worry 'Bout Me) from Idlewild
Blink-182 - Easy Target from Blink-182

3. Coheed and Cambria vs. Catch-22 vs. Taking Back Sunday
Coheed and Cambria - Feathers from Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV: Volume 2: No World For Tomorrow
Catch-22 - So Cold from Dinosaur Sounds
Taking Back Sunday - My Blue Heaven from Louder Now

4. Jack Johnson vs. Sublime
Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static from Sleep Through the Static
Sublime - Jailhouse from Sublime

5. Alanis Morissette vs. MxPx
Alanis Morissette - Everything from So-Called Chaos
MxPx - Well Adjusted from Before Everything and After

6. Ben Folds vs. The Get Up Kids vs. Foo Fighters (Now, that's Ben Folds (solo) not Ben Folds Five)
Ben Folds - You to Thank from Songs For Silverman
The Get Up Kids - Martyr Me from Guilt Show
Foo Fighters - Let It Die from Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace

7. Descendents vs. Linkin Park vs. No Use For a Name
Descendents - I Won't Let Me from Everything Sucks
Linkin Park - Given Up from Minutes to Midnight
No Use For a Name - Bullets from Keep Them Confused


So, take a listen if you don't know the artist, leave a comment with your votes and I guess the voting will close at like 11 pm EST on Monday. Thanks in advance for participating!