(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 78: The Thankful Aftermath

I’m exhausted, tuckered out from lack of sleep, work stress, having my son home, and getting through the Thanksgiving family madness. I’m also back to writing regularly, and ready to go once again for the daily new release catch-up that I started last December. So think of today’s playlist as a laid back, “get ‘er done” one, though I will always stand behind the music selected. I got a fresh pot of coffee and a (for now) empty/asleep house, so let’s get to it.

ChrisNovember 29, 2025Leave a comment

deer hoof's noble and godlike in ruin album cover

Vinyl

Deerhoof: Noble And Godlike In Ruin (2025)

Is there a good place to start with Deerhoof? I always confused them with Deerhunter, a band I discovered around the same time, but my only experience with the San Francisco quartet was their 2007 release Friend Opportunity, an album I barely remember except as “weird.” Almost 20 years later I made the impromptu decision to try again. Enter Noble And Godlike In Ruin, their latest critically acclaimed record in a delightful light green vinyl. It’s still weird, but in a way the intervening 18 years of listening have prepared me. Still, there’s a part of me that feels unequipped to explain why now I can find a lot to enjoy in its anarchic chaos.

ChrisNovember 27, 2025Leave a comment

kiyoshi sugimoto's babylonia wind album cover

Vinyl

Kiyoshi Sugimoto: Babylonia Wind (1972)

Would you look at that? Japanese jazz that’s NOT on Three Blind Mice or East West Records. Earlier this year saw the vinyl release of Babylonia Wind, the 1972 record from guitarist Kiyoshi Sugimoto and his quintet. Beautifully packaged as part of the Deep Jazz Reality series from Universounds, the Tokyo record shop and reissue label run by Yusuke Ogawa, it’s another hidden gem in the early 70s jazz rock revolution. I don’t know if I’m equipped to compare how this fares with a lot of what was on the rise at the time: this isn’t Miles Davis levels of fusion and jazz rock, but Sugimoto’s guitar is definitely wailing with a rock god fervor over the course of the album’s five tracks.

ChrisNovember 26, 2025Leave a comment

Vinyl

Militarie Gun: God Save The Gun (2025)

If you had told me a year ago I would be loving a bunch of young, hungry bands the “kids” of today were into, I guess I wouldn’t be that surprised: after all, I’ve been loving The Dirty Nil since discovering their brand of loud, in-your-face pop punk. But the sheer volume of these young bands, and the strength of their music gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, rock is coming back. Case in point: Militarie Gun, whose second (or third depending on how you count) album God Save The Gun was recommended to me by my friend Sean, who wasn’t even alive when I started dating my wife. It’s a terrific, heart-on-sleeve rock album that straddles the swagger of garage rock with pop punk and indie with a bellyful of hardcore/emo themes.

ChrisNovember 25, 2025Leave a comment

Vinyl

Julie: My Anti-Aircraft Friend (2024)

I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way…especially if you’re teaching them by way of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. That’s what I hear when I listen to julie, a trio out of Los Angeles who have taken the gospels according to Moore and Shields to heart, and crafted in My Anti-Aircraft Friend a fun and vibrant debut full-length that works for what it is: a catchy and frazzled indie rock gem, slightly flawed and wearing its influences in each facet of its cut, but sincere and earnest in how it goes about it.

ChrisNovember 24, 2025November 24, 2025Leave a comment

The 9C Files, Vinyl

The 9C Files: Magic Pie’s Maestro

Gather round, ye men and women of the heavy. For I have news to share, of the mighty return of Magic Pie, and the veritable cornucopia of virtues that lay within the band’s first album in six years, the masterful Maestro, filled to the brim with incredible guitars, catchy anthemic melodies and soaring choruses and…and…did I mention how great the guitar playing is? Because holy bovine, my friends, the guitar playing is majestic. Too often we turn to extreme music to mirror and reflect how we feel. Well, right now I need music that lifts me up, makes me cheer and rock and smile and feel like there is joy in the construction of a righteous racket. And my friends, my stalwart brethren in metal arms, these Norwegians do just that.

ChrisNovember 23, 2025November 12, 2025Leave a comment

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Author: Chris

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 78: The Thankful Aftermath

Deerhoof: Noble And Godlike In Ruin (2025)

Kiyoshi Sugimoto: Babylonia Wind (1972)

Militarie Gun: God Save The Gun (2025)

Julie: My Anti-Aircraft Friend (2024)

The 9C Files: Magic Pie’s Maestro