Only Death is Certain:

Companion Playlist-2015

This playlist isn’t quite as heavy with emotional baggage as a lot of my other ones as I was in the midst of a pretty productive and playful period of my life. As usual with these old Workin’ Nights playlists, they contain a lot of songs that aren’t on Spotify so they can only be listened to through the WN hosted playlists found Here . I realize that hardly anyone actually listens to these things but I find it to be a nice exercise in recollection so I don’t really care, listen at your leisure and please enjoy.

SIDE A
01  Coneheads (feat. Cal) - I Used to be a Cheesepuff
This is maybe the apex of egg punk? Arguably the two most recognizable progenitors of the “genre”, Coneheads and Lumpy. I don’t know that I will ever really revisit either of these bands because now it just feels like a very time and place moment that lost importance and relevance to me very quickly. I have a very low threshold for silliness in art and i don’t think this passes the piss test anymore for me.

02  Devo - S.I.B. (Sweilling Itchy Brain)
Speaking of silly, Devo hits the most perfectly tasteful level of it for me. This is one of the most important bands to ever exist for me and i still have such a reverence for their brand of low-brow intellectualism and deeply biting social critique. Long live the brilliance that is Devo.

03  The Grifters - Hate
This song was introduced to me by a cover of it from Larva Lu, one of the most unique people I’ve ever known. I wish I had access to her take on it in some digital format to share with you but, alas, it only exists on the cassette it was released on. “But other than that I can’t complain”. Here’s the only video I could find of Larva on Youtube:

04  Marion Black - Listen Black Brother
I think this came from one of the Numero Group Eccentric Soul compilations? Its such a slow powerful groover. Need to get back to digging deeper into all of those old obscure soul singles…

05  Q - CQP
The homies. Played some of their first shows with them and was just enamored and charmed right from the start. Took these kids on their first ever tours when they were just little teenagers and got to watch them blossom into one of the weirdest and most remarkable local hardcore bands ever, we even used their drummer for a couple shows and covered this song live in Life Like. Their singer Austin Roberts Toldeo became such a phenomenal photographer and I highly recommend checking out his work at the link. Make America Q Again!

Austin and I wrestling on the floor during a Life Like set while I had a broken wrist


06  Fear - Let's Have a War
I will always proclaim that this is one of the punkest records ever made, its so rawly sarcastic, vitriolic, nihilistic and funny on so many levels and it does not give a FUCK what you think of it. They never reproduced this perfect mixture again and the technical proficiency and songwriting complexity is unrivaled to this day in my opinion. Even though its not in this particular song “But the suburban scumbags, they don’t care, they just get fat and dye their hair” will forever be one of my favorite lyrics in punk.

07  Rudimentary Peni - The Evil Clergyman
One of the weirdest and most baffling bands of all time. I bought this record with the first paycheck I ever received, knowing virtually nothing about it other than that it was a Crass Records band that was supposed to be very anarcho-political. Boy was I thrown for an absolutely confounding fucking loop! This was created at the height of Blinko’s institutional delusional mania and wow is it apparent.

08  Voight-Kampff - Last House on the Right
I think this single of ours had just come out so I threw it on here to unshamelessly promote it. Out friend Benny Hernandez, Chicago hardcore/punk/post-punk legend, was very unhappy when we didn’t play it live on our last tour. In classic VK fashion we toured Europe playing these songs even though the single was not ready in time for us to tour with it and thus sank pretty quickly into obscurity. I think this was the beginning of me really trying to unravel my childhood trauma lyrically.

09  Mobb Deep - Hell on Earth (Front Lines)
Tha Infamous. One of the hardest rap outfits to ever exist and just icons of this era of New York hip-hop. Relentless and unapologetic, the Mobb reigns supreme!

10  Fred Friction - I'm Goin' Blind
A local St. Louis legend who is amazingly still kicking around with his spoons faithfully strapped to his thigh at all times. I love these lyrics so much and they just perfectly encapsulate Fred and his wry sense of humor and self-deprecation.

SIDE B
11  T.S.O.L. - Wash Away
I remember hearing this record for the first time and feeling wildly confused, both as to how it was considered punk and as to why I couldn’t help but love it. The insanely corny keyboard tones in the bridge, the melodramatic lyrics, the shambolic vibe of the song that feels like its gonna fall apart at any moment but never does, what’s not to love?

12  George Harrison - Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let it Roll)
Just hits you right from the start with that soft guitar and subtle piano, doesn’t it? One of the few songs on this record that doesn’t have the way over-the-top Phil Spector overproduction on it, instead its pleasantly odd and over saturated with tones and vibes. I’ve often been desperate to be able to hear this record without the Spector wall of sound.

13  Hurula - Sluta Deppa Mig
I’ve loved every project Robert Hurula has ever been involved with, from The Vicious to Masshysteri to his first couple solo records, it seems now he’s evolved into some weird Swedish pop-star and I’m not quite feeling his musical output any longer but I still respect the hell out of him for his prolific songwriting abilities. He came to see VK when we played in Uppsala, Sweden and I was actually too star-struck to have a conversation even though that never really happens to me and we had played with him before in the states.

14  Fat Joe - The Shit is Real
”The fuckin shit is real”, need I say more? The New York Puerto Rican rap god himself, larger than life and hard as hell. This is an obscure FJ tune that my old friend Andrew Diaz put on a rarities hip-hop compilation he made for me years ago that I still listen to on the regular.

15  Crass - Contaminational Power
One of the most overlooked songs from one of my all-time favorite bands. I believe Crass are one of the most important bands to ever exist and I had so much fun getting to cover this in a Crass cover band for a Halloween set.

16  Drunks With Guns - Enemy
Arguably the most degenerate band to ever come out of St. Louis/Western Illinois. This song is the perfect companion to the days when I feel like I hate fucking everything for no legitimate reason. “K-SHE is the enemmmmyyyyyyy!”. All the legends are true whether they’re true or not! The singer Mike Doskicil invited me to come watch a Columbus Blue Jackets game with him in Ohio and I aim to fulfill that invitation one day.

17  Bastard - Dear Cops
A classic banger out of Japan, I think this was the height of my cop hating cause, ya know, fuck em, right?

18  The Proletariat - Options
Criminally underrated Boston punk band. I love everything about how shitty, reedy and tinny this sounds right down to the paper bag sounding snare drum. I’ve always wanted to cover this song.

19  Life Like - Destruction Vice
This was the only song that Brandon Arscott ever wrote for us during his brief stint as our bassist and the “Brando, rest in peace” intro. on the actual 7 inch recording of it will always haunt me now that he has tragically passed on. This has always been one of my favorite songs we had because of how simple, dumb and slow it is. I wrote the lyrics after doing a two week long poetry tour through the east coast and Canada in the dead of winter with two straight edge vegans who were addicted to record collecting and gourmet coffee shops, so its my unfair and brutal criticism of their lifestyle choices that I seemed to be tortured with throughout every single day of that tour. Here’s a live video of us playing it at Bonerville in St. Louis among fireworks in 2015:

20  New Order - Truth
One of the oddest tracks on NO’s debut LP and one that has always intrigued and mesmerized me by how moody and strange it feels. I still love listening to this record as a documented evidence of them finding themselves and evolving from the loss of Ian and JD.

21  Skinny Puppy - Love
Probably my favorite ever SP song from their early days, a surprisingly unabrasive and, dare I say, pretty offering. I reluctantly went to see them maybe in this same year because a co-worker had given me free tickets and I was so pleasantly surprised to see their insane live show. Here’s a video I took from it:

22  Brian Eno - Golden Hours
Favorite Eno record and it always makes me think of my wife Pearl because I think I texted it to her from the road on some tour I was on. “I can’t see the lines I used to think I could read between”

23  Danzig - Sistinas
Ole Glenn getting rarely sentimental. Say what you will about the guy but man he really does have a beautiful voice and his first 3 solo records are some of my favorite sounding recordings ever created.

Thanks a lot for reading this far and going on this journey with me. I hope you actually listen because these carefully curated playlists really are a little view into my world and thoughts, a subtle offering of myself to you all.

XO JWS