The Dirty Nil, "Undefeated"

The Dirty Nil is one of those bands where I can't really decide how much I like them. I usually enjoy them when I'm listening to it, with a kind of fun mix of hard rock and punk. It sounds pretty great! But then when I stop, I'm not sure I have a strong desire to listen to them. Then again, on the third hand, I have bought their last three albums, so I dunno, maybe that's telling me something. (That something is that I'm a big dummy.)

Less Than Jake, "24 Hours in Paramus"

Want proof that I'm a dummy? The Scooby Doo "buhh?" noise at the beginning of this track makes me laugh every time. Doesn't matter how much I've heard it, and I've listened to this album a lot. Hell, I went back and fired up a second time just now and it's still funny. "Noise funny" is often as far as my brain fires.

Lustmord, "Godeater"

Lustmord is the project of Brian Williams, one of industrial's true OGs. He worked with SPK in the early 80s, did some work with Coil, Throbbing Gristle, and was otherwise one of the people who built that entire scene. He also, like fellow SPK alum Graeme Revell, started doing soundtrack work, which is unsurprising for all the old industrial guys given how effective they were at creating atmosphere with their music. There's a lot of the music underground that learned from those industrial bands, and Lustmord is one of those architects.

What's more impressive is that he's still out there. This piece comes from his 2022 record, The Other. As you can hear, he's still making very atmospheric stuff, with this being a 22 minute slow burn. If this sounds good to you, go and do some archaeology with the old industrial artists, you might find some great stuff there. Just spending some time with Lustmord's discography might be a place to start.

Cherry Poppin' Daddies, "We'll Always Have Paris"

Man, I do not like having to type that band name. And look, I know that this band is just a punchline to most people, along with entire brief-lived swing revival. And sure, it all looks extremely goofy in retrospect. But a few things to keep in mind. First, the swing revival was fun. I caught some shows from this band, and they were an absolute gas. Occasionally sophomoric lyrics aside, their albums were also a fun time. And especially at a pretty self-serious time in music, a band that clearly was just having a good time was a nice tonic.

Second, this band also wasn't just a swing revival band. Yes, obviously, they played some swing, and their hit album (which really just gathered their swing and swing-ish tunes from their albums) was clearly aimed at the fad, but they also obviously made other stuff as you can hear.

I don't think they need a big, deep critical reexamination or anything. But a scene that is widely derided is often just people thermostatic reaction to reign in something new and unusual. It's a fundamentally reactionary thing. You should always be skeptical of any narrative that a given scene in music was meritless. Always side with the fun.

Crimpshrine, "Another Day"

(track 1!) Well, we're all over the map now, aren't we? Crimpshrine are one of the legendary bands of the East Bay punk scene and ended up influencing basically every band there directly or indirectly. Aaron Cometbus of course created his influential zine and played in Pinhead Gunpowder. Jesse Michaels and Tim Armstrong of Operation Ivy (and the latter, Rancid) did time in the band. Jeff Ott started Fifteen, Paul Curran was in Mosula, and of course all those bands helped influence everybody else. Crimpshrine has been cited as an influence by Green Day and Jawbreaker, among others. They're just one of the bands that helped turn the East Bay into one of the great incubators for punk .

Oh, the music was good too. Remember - side with the fun. Kinda the polar opposite of that Lustmord track.