I missed yesterday, which is going to happen. Unlike when I was trying to maintain a perfect streak of daily posts as long as I could, this go around, I'm going to write when I feel like it. Which should be most days, I think, but not every day. I'm doing this for fun!

Bedouine, "Nice and Quiet"

(track 1!) Nice and quiet, indeed. Bedouine is a Syrian folk singer who drew a ton of critical attention with this record, which is what led me to pick it up after appearing on a couple of year-end roundups. I don't remember which ones exactly. It wasn't Pitchfork or Stereogum. Nor The Quietus. Well, who knows. Anyway: this isn't really in my wheelhouse, musically. But every now and again I do try and sample from well-regarded stuff from this end of the pool, because sometimes I'll latch onto it. Did this one take? Ehh, not really. It's fine, it's pretty. I just don't find myself seeking it out.

The Gentle Waves, "Let The Good Times Begin"

(track 1!) This is Isobel Campbell, who was part of Belle & Sebastian up through Storytelling, and then left to pursue her own career. I have recently talked about my habit of trying out occasional pretty music (the paragraph above), and so I won't repeat myself. So, let's ask, did this one stick? Ehhh. It's fine, it's pretty.

Flaming Lips, "Okay I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand"

(track 1!) I know I've talked about Zaireeka here before, but it's been years probably, so let's have another spin. Somehow, after In A Priest Driven Ambulance, an admittedly great record, Warner Bros. decided to sign the Flaming Lips to a major label contract during the post-Nirvana frenzy. The recording of the next record, Hit To Death in the Future Head, was reportedly a total shit-show. Way over budget and apparently featuring things like mic'd up toilets, the album was indisputably an early Flaming Lips record: often brilliant and frequently obtuse. It also ended with 29 minutes of formless noise.

Anyway, they were on thin ice. Some personnel changes (Ronald Jones and Steven Drozd joined the band) resulted in Transmissions From the Satellite Heart, which somehow spawned a hit (at least, of sorts) with "She Don't Use Jelly". Due to what I presume was a clerical error, the song even ended up on an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 (and, more importantly, Beavis and Butthead). That bought the band enough sales and credibility that Warner Bros. didn't drop them. Which would eventually lead, in 1997, to one of the most baffling major label releases of all time.

The Lips had been experimenting with "boombox orchestras" and "parking lot orchestras", experiments where they took a bunch of cassette tapes and played them simultaneously across a bunch of players simultaneously. They took this concept and somehow talked their label into releasing a home version of it: Zaireeka would be released as a set of four CDs, intended to be played simultaneously in a room to give you stereo effects times four. To describe this as inconvenient is really selling it short.

I actually did this once, rounding up three portable players and bringing them into my living room, where my stereo was. Dutifully, we all pressed play at the same time, and the synchronizing bits on the first track came out in the order we expected. Nice! The music played, it was fun, and then we made a discovery: CD players definitely all play at different rates. So by the time we got to track two, we were out of sync, so we had to try and re-sync each track. Was it worth the effort? I enjoyed our listening party, but I also ripped the four CDs and flattened all four layers into one to listen to it on one CD.

Norska, "Samhain"

(track 1!) Norska is a side project of some members of Yob, the doom metal titans from Oregon, so that was enough for me to give the disc a spin. This is more on the sludge metal end of things, but it's pretty well done for all that. Some surprising moments of just straight up tunefulness in here. Also, the track name of "Samhain" is delightfully goofy.

Operation Ivy, "Knowledge"

(track 1! ok, something is definitely wrong) Operation Ivy's album, Energy, is still one of the best-titled records of all time. The music on it is pretty good. What legends.