We have another Bandcamp embed here, so the YouTube playlist only has four songs instead of the usual five. I assume you’ll all survive.

YACHT, “The Denver Nuggets”

Whimsical electronic music, sounding here like nothing so much as a video game song. I used to keep a list of albums to check out in a document that I carried around in various electronic devices (Palm OS represent!), and sometimes albums would make their way onto it and stay for a really long time until I found them. This was before most everything was instantly available digitally. I remember Y.A.C.H.T. getting on that list and staying there for so long that I couldn’t remember why they were on there or what they purportedly sounded like. I was somewhat nonplussed upon finally finding the record at the old Easy Street Records in lower Queen Anne.

Back from a hectic weekend, with camping and a charity gaming tournament, where we collectively raised more than $110K for Treehouse. Which is amazing! I think the antidote will be some nice, calming songs.

(get ready for five songs of extreme metal)

Dead Rider, “The Blue Flame”

An experimental rock band started after the end of US Maple by Todd Rittman. US Maple was dedicated to deconstructing rock as far as it would go and still have it be rock music, and Dead Rider retains some of that sensibility. They also feature a saxophone, a relative rarity among bands these days. I would say, if you’ve gone through US Maple’s discography and still want more, this band is a good place to move to.

When this posts, I’ll be at the charity gaming tournament The Gauntlet, probably losing at Caylus and Ponzi Scheme. Should be a good time! While it’s too late to donate to my team, it’s never too late to donate to the fine folks at Treehouse. Here’s today’s playlist.

Crystalized Movements, “By Unseen Hands”

Psychedelic noise band Crystalized Movements was mostly Wayne Rogers, seeing how far guitar noise could take him. By the time they hit their last album, Revelations From Pandemonium, they were at the top of their form. At the time, I remember thinking that that album was the best record of 1994, a year that included amazing albums from Drive Like Jehu, Portishead, Nas, Jawbox, Jawbreaker, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Green Day, among others. I wouldn’t hold that opinion today, probably taking the Nas record first, but it still says something. This track is from an earlier album, where you can hear that psych/pop/noise aesthetic really starting to coalesce.

Post-rock, rap, stoner rock, whatever the hell the Flaming Lips are…this is a good cross-section of the kind of music I listen to. Check it out!

M83, “Let Men Burn Stars”

Fitting alongside bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor in the “post-rock” bucket, M83 plays mostly instrumental music that always sounds like the soundtrack to something. In some ways, this stuff is kind of shameless emotional manipulation, but if you just ignore that and let yourself be manipulated, it can be fun. This is a bit of a throwaway track, though.

Without fanfare, I’ve been doing this more than a month now. I think I’ve missed two days. Not bad! I think I’ll keep going for now, I’m still having fun. Here’s today’s music!

The Couch of Eureka, “I Got The Boom”

This is a track from a Lookout Records sampler called Heide Says, released in 1996. Despite being on Lookout, this sounds more like a song from a Dischord band than the typical pop punk of Lookout. I actually like this track a fair bit, and don’t really remembering noticing it when I got this sampler.

Yesterday, I actually briefly had six songs in the post. I only discovered it when I was going to put the entries in the index. I have one job! I only need one hand to count! Anywhere, here’s today’s random count of songs (hopefully five!).

Preston School of Industry, “History of the River”

When Pavement broke up, Stephen Malkmus went solo (later adding a backing band called The Jicks), and Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg founded Preston School of Industry. He put out two records under that name, neither reaching anywhere near the heights of Pavement (but, to be fair, neither has Malkmus). They’re both decent records, but they’re missing the spark that really elevated Pavement.

In most of these playlists, I try and find the actual version of the song I’m listening to. But, if I can’t find it exactly, I’ll go with something close, because I don’t think it’s necessarily that important that it matches exactly, and I don’t want to go through the hassle of uploading if I don’t have to. I hope that’s OK with folks! Here’s today’s playlist, which does feature one of those “close enough” tracks.

Would anybody be interested in weekly summaries, or merged playlists of this stuff, or a “best of” thing periodically? I’m not sure if I want to do it or not, but it might be interesting. I’m also unsure if people want me to throw in random related songs onto these playlists or not. As always, I await your deafening silence down below. Accompany that silence with some tunes!

Ooh, we had our first repeated song today! MU330’s “Tune Me Out” showed up again. I’m going to skip it, because repeating songs is not what this project is about.

I’ve made the decision to try and just embed Bandcamp stuff directly here, in cases where the track isn’t easily available on YouTube. I could upload it, but since Bandcamp embeds well, I think this will work fine. Let me know if that’s too big a hassle! Your playlist today (but note, Kröwnn is down below!)

Kröwnn, “For the Throne of Fire”

Any metal track that begins with a quote from the Conan movie is really leaning into the camp. And this track sounds exactly like you’d expect a metal track starting with a Conan quote to sound. It’s pretty much just overt Black Sabbath worship. I mean, come on, the band is called “Kröwnn”. The proper place to be writing about this band is on the side of a van. I mean, look at that album cover! There’s a wizard on it!

Driving on through Sunday! Even though I’m actually writing this on Friday! Time is confusing! Music is forever!

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Trinklied”

We haven’t hit Neubauten proper yet, although we did encounter Alexandre Hacke with his work with The Unsemble. Einstürzende Neubauten (literally, “collapsing new buildings”) is sort of the prototypical industrial band, as opposed to industrial dance. They make use of noise, atypical percussion, and the sounds of industry to make challenging music. Early in their career, it was about noise and chaos. Towards their mid-period, there was a steer towards more recognizable rhythms and even, yes, some danceable stuff. Later on, things moved more towards ambient compositions. Always, though, their music and art has had an edge, and they’ve always been one of the most interesting bands working. They even did crowdfunding way before the crowd did, way back in 2002.