Quarentemo "Maybe"

There is a mechanism inside Quarentemo that allows them to gaze unflinchingly into the pitch black of their psyche and emerge with a beautiful, bittersweet song every time. The frenzied shifts between chaotic rhythm and acoustic reverie mirror their longing for a point in the past when things were more clear. “Maybe next year we'll be better,” they sing. This atmosphere, with its patience and light, adds a sense of freedom to their delivery and allows them to find new wisdom in old worries.

How Many Times Did You See That Band?

So how many times did you see a band?

No one has been to any shows in two months, and we started thinking about how many times we saw specific bands pre-quar.

It started to get confusing for certain bands. So we whipped up this handy list of rules to determine whether it should count as "ONE" show attendance depending on the circumstances.

(For the purpose of this rules list "Band" is interchangeable with "artist" or "performer." You can count comedy or stage performance stuff if you want.)

#1: If you paid...
1. Count as one if you PAID to see any specific band and caught more than one entire song or more than six minutes of a set. We know this seems low, but you paid to see that band and that should count for something.

#2: If you caught the big fest...
2. Count as one if you caught six songs or more than half of a set length at a FESTIVAL and if you chose to be there. This counts for any circumstances including if you were working. Use discretion for what constitutes a festival.

#3 & 4: If you got in for free...
3. Count as one if you attended a non-friend's show as a fan FOR FREE and caught at least SIX entire songs or more than half of the set length. (If you personally asked a band member to add you to a guest list refer to Rule #4.)

4. Count as one if your friends' band(s) got you into their show FOR FREE and you caught their entire set(s) from start to finish. If you missed more than one song or more than six minutes, this probably counts as zero. Use personal discretion.

#5 & 6 & 7: If you worked...
5. Count as one if you promoted, booked, hosted, or worked at an event and experienced an entire set. If you missed a song or didn't feel strongly about the experience, it probably counts as zero. Use personal discretion.

6. Count as one for each non-touring one-off that your band played with another band if you caught six songs or more than half of their set.

7A. Refer to rules #1, 2, 3 & 4 if you attended multiple shows throughout a tour as a fan or friend.

7B. If your band toured with another band or if you worked as part of a touring party, count the ENTIRE tour as ONE regardless of how many days you played or worked together.
- Do not count each show individually. Catching two or more sets on the same tour adds up to only one show for touring party members.
- Count as zero if you toured with a band and never caught an entire set -- even if you missed only one song.
- Festival sets are an exception because you chose to be there. See Rule #2.

#8 & 9: Short performances that count...
8. Count as one if you attended a performance taped or broadcast live for TV or radio regardless of length or number or songs. Use discretion for internet streams. If there wasn't an audience, this might not count as one. Refer to Rule #5 if you were working.

9. Count as one if you saw a public figure making a guest appearance performing at least one entire song with another act.
- Definitely count as one if the guest played on more than one entire song, ie Robby Krieger playing three songs with Creed. (You would have to count it as one for Robby Krieger though; you can't count it as seeing The Doors.)
- Use discretion for guests on one song depending on whether the performance felt substantial.
- Count as zero if someone played less than one entire song, ie NOFX dude screaming lyrics into the mic during Pennywise.
- Count as zero for guest dancing or non-music performance unless they were on stage for a while.

#10: And finally...
10. There are no fractions or decimals. You either experienced a band once or you didn't. Have fun!!

"Lowt (L​)​ive" At Trumbull Day

The world famous Lowt Ide have released their first album in six years.

They are a band who has always been closely associated with "instant stardom."

Lowt Ide never toured, but they released four albums and played one-off shows consistently in Massachusetts and Connecticut from 2000 to 2010.

Their appearances slowed down in the early 2010s. In November 2012, they released a 10-song mixtape. In March 2013, they played what became their last public appearance, MC'ing and performing mini-sets between the bands at a Fort Flesh show in New Haven CT. (They handed out awards to all the bands who played. The awards were made of used CDs and coathangers.)

They announced the album Tag Sale on Facebook in 2010, and it finally saw a release in 2014. They've been on hiatus since then, but they've been posting on their Facebook account once or twice a year and plan to eventually reform.

In the meantime, their discography was posted to Bandcamp in September 2014 to celebrate ten years since their first album, re-released with a "Deluxe Edition" sticker. However, CD2 -- the "Bonus disc" of this Deluxe Edition -- was never completed. The re-release intended to include Lowt Ide's now legendary monumental live set performed at Trumbull Day on June 28, 2003 on the big Trumbull Day stage.

Six years later, quarantine happened, which enabled the project's completion. The tapes were located and remixed, and now this collection can finally see the light of day.

Lowt (L)ive At Trumbull Day is CD2 of the deluxe edition. Due to the long wait, the band have elected to also give this album its own separate release. The set includes several non-album tracks, perhaps most notably "Hair (Brew) Lampshade Ceiling," a song with four movements performed live many times but never included on their studio albums.

It also includes an expanded 3-minute industrial techno version of "Al Gore" and a few unreleased covers, notably an impromptu "Shine" by Collective Soul, and a few covers of local Connecticut bands: Hoveral's "You Got Issues," Ghost Town Riot's "Just Don't Care," and two songs from Splice, "Way" and "Let It Bleed."

Re-live the magic:

The May 2020 Edition of MTVZ with Duck.exe on the cover

MTVZ Issue #23 or #24. We lost count.

The latest edition of MTVZ is here. We are suspecting that this is right around "the big moment" we've been waiting for, which is that we have successfully located everything in the history of Youtube that is worth including in MTVZ. Like we're almost there anyway.

But we also think that when it gets close to "yeah that's it, we found everything" is also around the time when MTVZ will start to get really bizarre, which is what has happened here. This isn't necessarily "the best" MTVZ of all time but it is very strange, even for MTVZ.

Scroll through and you'll see what we mean.

Also NEW NEWS FOR MTVZ Subscribers:

So for some fucking dumb reason, Google and Youtube decided it would be a brilliant idea to add a feature that asks "ARE YOU STILL WATCHING?" about once per hour. This is extremely dumb and bad because it defeats the purpose of MTVZ, whose tagline is "MTVZ: Leave It On." So we can no longer "LEAVE IT ON" for longer than an hour without having to physically pick up the remote and hit the "YES" button (at least not while leaving it on with Roku or Firestick or Chromecast or whatever you use).

It's almost as if Youtube and Google know that people are taking matters into their own hands by curating their own personal "best of"s which is something that Big Tech hates.

Big Tech hates when their human/robot curation machine cannot entirely control what you see. They want you to only see the "next" video in their cue, algorithmically programmed by their Most Googly -- people who probably think Meme Appetit is funny. (Btw Meme Appetit is one of the thousands of recently launched painfully unfunny meme accounts set up by people trying to make money by creating memes who don't seem to have a basic understanding of why memes "meme." Bon Appetite Test Kitchen people are all very nice and cool and they deserve better than this.)

These 12 Reissues From The 2010s Brought Some Serious Heat

2010s Starter Pack Albums:
| #61 - #41 || #40 - #21 || #20 - #1 || Reissues |

Tracks 2008-2018:
| #129 - #99 || #98 - #65 || #64 - 37 || #36 - #1 |
We weren't going to do this today, but we checked Bandcamp on a hunch, and...

Surprisingly, almost all of them are actually there. So why not? Let's do this now.

We're certain the commodification of "nostalgia" had a lot to do with the surge in reissue quality throughout the 2010s, but also TMK is pro-archivist. Despite what Rolling Stone Magazine had to say about it, the best reissues of the 2010s weren't just re-packaging Sgt Pepper with the 12 best sounding outtakes of "Strawberry Fields."

Here they are...

12. Various Artists Sky Girl: Compiled by Julien Dechery and DJ Sundae
Reissued July 8, 2016 // Melbourne, Australia
(Efficient Space)



11. Viper You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack
Reissued 2017-2018 // El Dorado, Arkansas, USA
(Chamber 38 / Rhyme Time)




10. Various Artists Ork Records: New York, New York
Reissued October 30, 2015 // New York City, USA
(Numero Group)



9. Hüsker Dü Savage Young Dü
Reissued November 10, 2017 // Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
(Numero Group)



8. Donnie & Joe Emerson Dreamin' Wild
Reissued June 12, 2012 // Fruitland, Washington, USA
(Light In The Attic)



7. Sleep Dopesmoker
Reissued May 7, 2012 // San Jose, California, USA
(Southern Lord)

[Note: This refers to the official vinyl and digital reissue with tracklisting of "Dopesmoker," "Holy Mountain" and "Sonic Titan."]


6. Sebadoh Bakesale: Deluxe Edition
Reissued June 14, 2011 // Westfield, Massachusetts, USA
(Sub Pop)

https://www.subpop.com/releases/sebadoh/bakesale_deluxe_edition

5. Can The Lost Tapes
Reissued June 18, 2012 // Cologne, West Germany
(Mute)

http://mute.com/can/the-lost-tapes-out-now

4. Aby Ngana Diop Liital
Reissued September 2, 2014 // Dakar, Dakar, Senegal
(Awesome Tapes From Africa)



3. Les Rallizes dénudés Heavier Than A Death In The Family
Reissued 2010 // Kyoto, Japan
(Phoenix Records)


| Stream |

2. Floor Below and Beyond
Reissued March 30, 2010 // Hialeah, Florida, USA
(Robotic Empire)

[Note: This is a complicated reissue. A 2-disc portion of this package is a comp titled Sight & Seen that has its own separate Bandcamp page.]


1. Ata Kak Obaa Sima
Reissued March 3, 2015 // Kumasi, Ashanti, Ghana
(Awesome Tapes From Africa)



Some bonus reissues...


Various Artists Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984 (2012)

My Bloody Valentine EP’s & Rarities 1988-1991 (2012)

Radiohead [minidiscs hacked] (2019)

Helium Ends With And (2017)
https://store.matadorrecords.com/ends-with-and

Soundgarden Echo Of Miles (2012)
https://www.soundgardenworld.com/music/albums/echo-of-miles-scattered-tracks-across-the-path/

Francis The Great Ravissante Baby (2015)


Jaap Blonk Flux De Bouche (2016)
[Note: This would have placed top 12 but the reissue is already out of print.]


Lead Belly The Smithsonian Folkways Collection (2015)


Unwound No Energy (2014)


Unwound Empire (2015)



2010s Starter Pack Albums:
| #61 - #41 || #40 - #21 || #20 - #1 || Reissues |

Tracks 2008-2018:
| #129 - #99 || #98 - #65 || #64 - 37 || #36 - #1 |