We did it. Well, I did it. I got through the 12th annual Hooptober marathon, reviewing 31 films with only one re-watch, and I ALSO finished the 900-page biography of the Grateful Dead, complete with deep dives into their studio discography (well, up to Blues for Allah, anyway) with detours to some of their best live documents. Now it’s November and I have stacks of CDs and vinyl arranged according to 2025 releases and older box sets and reissues I want to try and get through before the end of the year. So despite the massive stacks of album in the queue, this does feel like a calm. So let’s get into this week’s playlist, half of which are new releases and the other half is more of the stuff recently arrived in Consuming HQ.

• Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – “Salsa Verde”
• Geese – “Trinidad”
• My Bloody Valentine – “Angel”
• Yellow Eyes – “The Thought of Death”
• Frost* – “Day and Age”

Pogo Rodeo is the second full length this year from Australia’s Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, one of the few good bands I was introduced to from my too-long subscription to the VNYL record club (terrible service despite it’s good beginnings)…I recall hearing about Geese from my friend Baxter back in 2023 with 3D Country, and now my friend Dan is raving about their new album Getting Killed so that’s my homework for the weekend sorted…My Bloody Valentine isn’t new, but since all their major albums are no longer on streaming services I burned my copies of their albums and have been listening to the EP collection so here’s a sample of that…

What IS new – and a welcome surprise – is the return of Yellow Eyes, one of the first bands I saw live when I got heavily back into the metal community about a decade ago. Their new album is a HUGE improvement over the last one, maybe my favorite of theirs now…Speaking of favorite things, one of my favorite discoveries last year was the progressive rock of Frost*, whose Life In the Wires was a Best of 2024 record. So I went back and got their previous album, 2021’s Day And Age and guess what? I love it.

• Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo – “Behold A Pale Horse”
• The Watch – “Hatred of Wisdom”
• First of October – “Liberation”
• Agitation Free – “Ala Tul”
• Renaissance – “Things I Don’t Understand (Live at the Academy of Music 1974)”

Complementing my newfound joy of Chat Pile is their new collaboration with Hayden Pedigo. It’s a different, more atmospheric sound, one that invites deep headphone listening…You’d be forgiven for thinking The Watch is something Peter Gabriel tossed off when he was still shedding the Genesis vibes from his music, but this is an Italian band that over the last decade or so has been putting out some solid early Genesis inspired prog…Who is First of October? It’s the lightning combination of YouTube creators Rob Scallon and Andrew Huang, which get together each October 1st and create an entire album from scratch in 12 hours. This is their seventh album, which means they’re been a band for one whole week (you can watch them record it here)

We’ve played krautrock progenitors Agitation Free here before, probably in anticipation of the arrival of their debut album Malesch. Welp, that was premature, because the order got canceled but my friends over at LaserCD got another copy in and it’s safe and sound in my stash now…Finally, another LaserCD purchase: I’ve been getting more into Renaissance, the Yardbirds offshoot that turned into one of the biggest progressive rock bands of the 70s thanks to the incredible pipes of Annie Haslam. This track is taken from their 1974 performance at the Academy of Music, and felt like a good closer for the week.

Be safe, be good to each other. See you next week.