Back in town, so hopefully I’ll be able to start posting these during the day again. Today’s tunes!

Melvins, “Your Blessened”

What gives a band longevity? How are some bands able to just keep going for forever, while most flame out after only a few albums (or even one)? It’s not just creativity, although the Melvins certainly have shown plenty of experimentation. They also have a certainly Melvins-y formula that they’ve applied plenty. Tt still manages to sound fresh and interesting. You listen to a song from Bullhead and a song from, I dunno, Hold It In, and you hear so many things that are similar. But I’m still happy to listen to them. What is the formula that King Buzzo and Dale Crover have discovered?

Still on the road! Still posting music!

Smashing Orange, “All Girls Are Mine”

Part psychedelic pop, part shoegaze, Smashing Orange are a largely forgotten act which probably deserves better. If you’re looking for washes of fuzzy guitar and pop melodies, you can do a lot worse. Apparently few enough people have ever written about them that I actually got a random person writing to me a while back, referencing a review I wrote for a Usenet group ages ago, asking if I had any bootlegs or live performances or anything. Alas, I did not.

Posting from the road! Are we going to get road trip music? Probably not.

DJ Krush, “Chie No Wa”

I should listen to more Japanese hip-hop. Anyway, DJ Krush is mostly instrumental, but here we have some rhyming. I’ve got a couple of his releases, and they’re pretty entertaining, if not quite the top of the pile for DJ records. Allmusic tells me this album is actually a mixtape of stuff he did with other artists?

At some point, these things are just going to be wholly unrelated to the music. I wonder if I’ll have the good sense to stop? Who knows? MUSIC

Freeway & Jake One, “Money”

As we talked about last time, Freeway’s always had good taste in producers. For The Stimulus Package (great name!), he teamed up with Seattle’s Jake One, and the result was my favorite album of his.

Why yes, I am kind of a Seattle homer, why do you ask?

Another repeat today, this time that same Dr. Octagon track. The more I do this, the more I think Amazon’s randomization thing is pretty wonky. Oh well. Today’s tunes!

The Housemartins, “I’ll Be Your Shelter”

Speak of the devil! Here’s the Housemartins taking on Luther Ingram’s “I’ll Be Your Shelter”. As with most of their covers, it’s thoroughly enjoyable (as is the original). Basically, soul music rules.

This song appears on both London 0, Hull 4 as well as the rarities/singles roundup Now That’s What I Call Quite Good, which are both outstanding.

My first repeat song today. I decided I’m going to skip repeats, because they’d be boring. Here’s your minty fresh songs for today.

Kendrick Lamar, “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe (Remix)”

This remix was included as a bonus track at the end of Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, at least on the version I bought. Complete with unnecessary Jay-Z verse! Anyway, this album is fantastic, and as I mentioned last time, is part of an unbroken winning streak. I think Lamar is the closest person we have to George Clinton working today.

Really happy to get more Neubauten in here, that’s some good working music.

Foetus, “Mighty Whity”

This song, from 1995’s Gash, makes me wonder exactly how you get Sony to distribute a song about killing whity, all set to a grinding slice of noise and a jaunty trumpet line. But thank goodness somebody figured it out! The whole album is very good, by the way.

Freestyle Fellowship, “Dedications”

Just a little interstitial track in the middle of To Whom It May Concern…, over a Delfonics sample. Good record, though.

Been a little while since we’ve hit any ska. Fixed that today! PICK IT UP, PICK IT UP, PICK IT UP!

The Scofflaws, “Spider On My Bed”

Another New York third-wave band, the Scofflaws were distinguished by…well, let’s be honest, nothing. But, they had solid chops, were amusing without being too smug, and wrote some good songs, so they’re worth a go. This is from Ska In Hi-Fi, their best album, featuring as it does odes to nude beaches and William Shatner.

Was camping this weekend with no network access, so I deprived everybody of music. Sorry! It’s a shame there’s no other way to listen to music! Anyway, here’s your relief.

Outkast, “Take Off Your Cool”

Outkast, at the top of their game, was breathtaking. Up through Stankonia, they were just incredible. At then, 2003 saw them release Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, two solo records just packaged as one release under Outkast. And for the first time, they were really showing some cracks. Big Boi’s Speakerboxxx was outstanding, while Andre 3000’s The Love Below was uneven at best. He delivered the standout hit (“Hey Ya!”), but most of his album is frankly a mess, wandering around too much for me to truly love it. This song, a collaboration with Norah Jones, is a good example - it doesn’t really go anywhere.

Sorry about the flakiness in posting over the past week. I’ll try not to make a habit of it. Today’s playlist!

The Dead Kennedys, “D.M.S.O.”

This, from the Kennedys’ final album Bedtime for Democracy, is a pretty atypical track from them. Far from their usual blazing hardcore attack, we’ve instead got something that sounds more like a noir-ish song. Of course, Jello Biafra’s usual sarcasm and unique delivery are still present. The Kennedys were a staple of my high school years, and a lot of their work has held up pretty well over the years, but this is their least essential studio album.