i'm adding Rush to this in-progress list of (Hank's) favorite bands:

Misfits
Craw
Descendents
The Band
Colossamite
Hoover
The Jesus Lizard
The Wipers
Black Sabbath
The Melvins
Steely Dan
Rush
Dazzling Killmen
Clutch
Fugazi
Morbid Angel

i'm at work, so i will just name several albums.

Gorguts - Obscura
(any fan of technical death metal must hear track 3. consummately fucked up.)

Death - Individual Thought Patterns

The Claudia Quintet - Semi-Formal
(from the totally other direction. smooth and sly, fusionish.)

go see Shot X Shot at Bowery Poetry Club tonight (Tuesday, 11/22).

four bands i'd like to add to the list, bringing the pantheon to 15:

Dazzling Killmen
Clutch
Fugazi
Morbid Angel

early technical death metal is where it's at, or where some of it is at. reissues of Atheist records are excellent (i especially recommend Elements; more info here) and i've been enjoying Cynic's Focus and Death's Individual Thought Patterns. some super-chopsy stuff; very beautiful too and even though the lyrics are often pretentious, i appreciate that they at least try to convey positive messages. Elements is actually a tribute to the, uh, elements and a diatribe against pollution, while Death songs are all about Chuck Schuldiner's emotions and his observations are more poignant than you'd think. i dunno, that stuff is far more intriguing than the pointless satanic crap spouted by Deicide. one could accuse Morbid Angel of similar driveling, but at least the lyrics are more poetic and not so goddamned literal ("Kill the Christian"--ok, fine). am also discovering Slayer a little bit. they've never been one of my favorites, but they deserve huge props for groove and speed and heaviness. first two songs on Reign in Blood slay.

Darin Gray at the Stone tomorrow (Sun, 11/20). you gotta pay your respects to this guy: Dazzling Killmen and Grand Ulena, not to metion On Fillmore and a million other things. one of the finest musicians in America. more info here.

also Sicbay's Suspicious Icons is the best album of the year and Sicbay is just fucking brilliant. Nick Sakes from Dazzling Killmen and Colossamite doing rockin' pop songs--pretty, but edgy and enormously catchy.

off the top of my head, the eleven best rock bands ever:

Misfits
Craw
Descendents
The Band
Colossamite
Hoover
The Jesus Lizard
The Wipers
Black Sabbath
The Melvins
Steely Dan

favorite songwriters, excluding the ones in the above bands (seems like a cliched selection, but you can't fuck with these):

Neil Young
Bob Dylan
Will Oldham
Joni Mitchell
Paul Simon (who i think might be the best)

favorite jazz composers:

Monk
Andrew Hill
Booker Little
Ellington
Wayne Shorter

*****you can see Stay Fucked this coming Tuesday at the Wreck Room with Jazz Handzz and Destructo Swarmbots. see our Myspace page for details. we will playing as a duo, something we haven't done for ages. just me and Joe with the wind in our hair on the alkali flats. we will--i believe--have copies (kind of demo-ish, but copies nonetheless) of our new CD for sale.
*****
saw Muhal Richard Abrams last nite. all hail to him and his gorgeous, searching piano solo. fairly hot big band action as well, the standout soloist being the awesome Marty Ehrlich.

most important is that our show at Capone's on Sunday was intensely fun. this was due in large part to our many friends in attendance. thank you Danny G., Kaben, all of Goodnight Gunfight (!), Kevin, Eliza, Conrad, Lauren, Russ and Will for hanging out. thanks to John from Dirty Churches for setting the thing up (and playing!) and to People for playing and to Grnbrg for the snare drum.

Saturday night was Hudson, NY at a pimped-out teen center. gratitude to Deaddeaddeath for inviting us and to the NY State Trooper for the moustache ride. Archaeopteryx came with us and they are The Best.

quick recap of all those shows i saw:

10/21 - Hella at Nokia
amazing. new four-piece lineup is definitely a good idea-compelling arrangements of chestnuts and stuff from Church Gone Wild/Chirpin Hard, which continues to grow on me.

10/21 (later) - Dysrhythmia and Arctopus at Lit
Colin Marston is a force. Dysrhythmia has never sounded tighter or heavier; can't wait for their new record. Arctopus was overwhelmingly good as usual, and it seems as though more and more folk are starting to notice.

10/22 - Ball Governor at Tommmy's
one of the most versatile and kinetic free-jazz bands in the city right now. not to downplay the amazingly quick-witted blowing of Russell Baker (trumpet), but Will Glass is a true marvel on the drumkit--he plays as nimbly as a spider walks, or something.

10/23 - Melvins at Webster
Melvins w/ Biafra sucked, mainly b/c Biafra is intensely tiresome. Melvins set w/out Biafra on the other hand was massive. Dave Stone on bass, and he held it together just fine. anyone interested in heavy rock MUST hear "Hooch" and "Night Goat" played live in their lifetime. easily the best heavy band active, if not ever.

10/26 - Zach Hill blowout at N6
extremely disappointing, though less so b/c i didn't expect too much. i had seen Zach Hill improvise before and he doesn't seem to listen or react at all; he just goes. regarding the Zach/Kevin Shea duo conducted by Brian Chase: BC intended to guide the improvisation through hand signals and diagrams, but that all went out the window within minutes. watching Zach Hill play is an unequivocal marvel, but watching him obliviously drown out Kevin Shea, a world-class percussionist and improviser, and essentially ignore the conduction of another great drummer was just depressing. Sugriwa set was wonderfully weird, but i couldn't stick around for part two of the blowout. i dunno, i love a lot of Zach's music (Hella, of course, and the Holy Smokes record, which i think is completely brilliant), but his dabbling in improv really bothers me. i could be wrong, but it just seems like a "because i can" thing, which is very much a drag.