Classic Spins with Dizzy Mystics

Dizzy Mystics

Every so often, the St. Louis Blues (CURRENT STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!) sometimes take on this hockey team from the middle of Canada.

Winnipeg.

Whenever I hear the name of that fair city, I'm reminded of the tunnels below the streets because the place is so damned cold.

Yet people still live there, but hey, St. Louis is so damned hot and we still live here right?

If you don't like my waxing poetic about their home, check out their latest album on BANDCAMP. 

While, we're on the topic though, let's get down with their classic spins.

1. My favorite kind of album is the concept album. The Wall is my absolute favorite. Beyond the amazing songs, it has spectacular nostalgia for me. What's your favorite one and why?

Kyle (Singer/guitarist) - There are so many. I guess I'll choose what hit me the hardest when I first heard them, and that would be a tie between Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta, and Blood Mountain by Mastodon. 

Frances the Mute takes a lot of digging. There is a lot of back story behind it beyond just hearing the album. The lyrics are like a morbid labyrinth. There are ghosts in Cedric's words, dying to tell their story. 

Once you get some of the backstory, his words start to terrifyingly unravel. The music that backs it all up is like having a near death experience on acid, watching a mariachi band play rock instruments hopped on speed, but it's a good time. Cedric wails like a madman as well.

Blood Mountain is just an absolute riff fest. Such a fun listen. The story that flows over the album is more of a fun/fantastical RPG video game, or a metal comic book. The artwork on the album has to be the perfect example of visual representation for the sound. 

The whole physical album experience of it sucks you in. It's definitely a clench your fist/air guitar/goofy riff face/windmilling hair type of album.

2. My very first album was Live Evil b Black Sabbath. Since then I've had a strong affinity for the live record, even if they're a bit fake. KISS set the bar with Alive!. Surely, it was fake, but it's got the best concert feel of any one.

Tell me about your favorite live record?

Kyle- Live albums weren't too huge on my album listening experience. Being newly exposed to Pearl Jam in grade 6, after being blown away by Yield, I purchased Live on Two Legs. That's one I got to know up and down. 

Frank Zappa and The Mothers - Roxy and Elsewhere is a special live album since it was full of songs not released on other studio albums, and amazing quality for a live recording. 

Some of my favorite Zappa cuts are on there as well.

3. There are a great number of records I've turned to for my moods. What do you listen to when you're angry? Sad?

Kyle - At a truly awful and enraging point in my life, the only true anger therapy I've felt from music is Deftones - Around the Fur.

For sadness, Radiohead- A Moon Shaped Pool helps to feel at ease with sadness.To turn sadness to happiness, most Grateful Dead seems to help.

4. One of my friends laughs at me, routinely, for loving the Misfit Toys of albums by major bands. Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed, Carnival of Souls by Kiss, Diabolous En Musica by Slayer, etc. 

What's the strange one that you love?

Kyle - I don't know if there are any outright abominations that I truly enjoyed beyond the comedic value. 

I read that for some reason Primus fans really disliked The Brown Album, but that's one of my favorites.

Tales from Topographic Oceans by Yes really does have some moving moments, but I can't deny that a lot of it is pretty pretentious and ridiculous.

5. It's almost fashionable to release live versions of albums or re-record the old ones. King Diamond is releasing a concert with Abigail front to back. Roger Waters has done The Wall twice. Which ones do you have in your collection?

Kyle - Rush completely remixed and mastered their 2002 comeback studio album Vapor Trails due to it being very gritty, raw, and overblown. 

But after hearing the cleaned up version, I realized the emotional ties I had to its rough original self. The first draft is one of their best for me.