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The Psychic Paramount: America’s greatest current rock band, no questions asked. More than so many flake-out noise combos or whatever, these guys seriously go for it with their playing, pushing themselves into new, unprecedented worlds of heaviness. Not like heavier than everything before, but certainly heavy in a new way. I dig on Times New Viking and some of the other neu-no-fi rockers that are running around the nation today, but PP manage to sound blown out and perfect and hi fi and overwhelming in a way that no bedroom rocker could dream of. Hmm now that I think of it, this is exactly what Black Flag’s “Process of Weeding Out” would be if it was seriously impeccable instead of awesomely questionable.

Marion Brown “Sweet Earth Flying”: I cannot get enough of this fucking record. The best of fusion’s polytonal, Rhodes-heavy expansiveness is perfectly cut with some truly free post-fire music out-jazz. Brown was such a sick melodic player… a cool follow up to the promise of Ornette Coleman’s proto weirdness. And the piano solo is so beautiful, definitely the best Debussy-vibin’ I’ve heard this side of Monk’s catalogue.

The Bug “London Zoo”: This gets heavy play in the van, duh. “Pressure” was my shit, but this is so much thicker and more intense. Some people declared it boring, but I think they just missed the emotional complexity and creeping dread that runs through the whole album. There’s a lot to unpack here, and some sick bass to boot. Serious.

Notorious B.I.G. “Ten Crack Commandments”: I mean, this is so obvious but fuck it. There are few things as nice as finishing a show with some serious rap music, and this one is a true top contender. Funny as fuck, especially when he makes fun of you for thinking you can employ a functioning credit system with crackheads. Psht forget it, indeed.

Thank You: We are touring with them, and they are great. The This Heat reference gets thrown around a lot when talking about this band, and I can see it in a sense. Well, pretty much just for that track “Horizontal Hold,” like if you took that and ran with it, adding whatever the fuck you felt/feel like along the way. Few bands today are going with sound fundamentals as hard as these guys are; churning and explosive, totally beautiful.