Stubborn All-Stars, “Lieutenant”

The first Stubborn All-Stars record definitely had their laid-back ska groove going, but I think they took it up a notch on the next record. That said, if you’re looking for something pretty traditional, bordering on rocksteady, you can do a lot worse.

The New Bomb Turks, “Never Will”

After an absolutely raging debut record, the New Bomb Turks followed it up the next year with another ripper full of garage punk. It’s pure adrenaline, with sawtooth guitars and snotty vocals leading the way. Alas, they’d land on Epitaph for their subsequent records, and the cleaned up version of the band isn’t quite as fun.

Destroyer, “Every Christmas”

This is the earliest Destroyer record that I’ve heard, I haven’t gone any earlier than this one. This album is very much a Destroyer record, full of Dan Bejar’s elaborate melodic pop and winding lyrics. I think he’d largely keep getting better, as his style of music pretty much always benefits from additional craft.

Badly Drawn Boy, “This Is That New Song”

Meanwhile, despite mining a similar vein of music, Damon Gough’s stuff didn’t get better as time went on. So, I suppose it doesn’t always work that way, and the lesson as always is I’m an idiot.

Boogie, “Save Me”

God only knows how I heard about this, which is the debut from Boogie but was self-released. Therefore it’s a surprise that it found its way to my old, out-of-touch ass. It’s good, though, kind of sunny with the beats and with contemplative lyrics.

Webbed Wing, “Perfect”

I think this is a record that a friend told me about, maybe they knew someone in it? I’m having trouble recalling, but they’re from Philly, so it’s a decent bet. Anyway, assuming that that’s correct, you all should get this!

The Mortals, “Hangin’ On”

The Mortals played garage rock, like a lot of the Estrus Records bands, but with a little bit more of a greasy edge to things. The reverb and sneer on the vocals give things a twist from just playing it straight up.

Steady Ernest, “Promises”

There’s a live-in-studio feel to this tune that suits it well. There’s a presence to the horns, they feel organic, and it works well.

Bricks, “History of Lies”

I think this might be a repeat, but I’m gonna be honest - it’s a little hard to tell with Bricks songs. Let’s check.

OH MY GOD, this is the fourth time this song has come up! And we’ve never had another Bricks song from this record. This is the first tune, so that feeds into my pet theory that the Plex randomizer prefers the first track of albums.

DJ Q-Bert, “Two”

This is a track from Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik, where Q-Bert pretty much goes out of his mind. Some of the finest turntable work around, I highly recommend this whole record.

Atmosphere, “Yesterday”

Goddamn, I’m a sucker for a loop built on a piano riff. Here, “Love Finds Its Own Way” by Gladys Knight & the Pips is the source, and the resulting beat is a thing of wonder. I just can’t get enough of this.

Gang Starr, “Take It Personal”

DJ Premier is one of the best to ever do it, and Daily Operation captures him near the top of his form. His beats are spare but bracing, with everything having a purpose, which is to hit hard. Guru is similarly direct, without a lot of embellishment, leading to a record that sounds almost businesslike. That’s not a complaint or anything, it’s nice to hear something that takes itself seriously and has the chops to back it up.

Swingin’ Utters, “Here We Are Nowhere”

A while back, I wrote some code to pull data from Discogs for my collection to see what year albums were released for another project that I was working on. That project might still see the light of day! But I’m wondering if there’s some way I could pull data for genres. Discogs doesn’t have genre tags in their structured data, but I could scrape the band description for specific words, I suppose. It would be neat to see what percentage of my collection is, say, punk.

The Queers, “I Like Young Girls”

There are a lot of questions raised by this blog, most of them unanswerable. Foremost among those questions is “why do I have so many damn albums from the Queers?”

American Music Club, “Patriot’s Heart”

After ten years apart, during which Mark Eitzel pursued a solo career, American Music Club got back together in 2004 for a new album, Love Songs for Patriots. Not only did they pick up where they left off, they really picked up earlier than that. I like it better than San Francisco, and maybe better than Mercury. I think it has a little more vigor than those two albums, although that’s always kind of a relative thing with a band this downbeat.

The Avalanches, “The Divine Chord”

A thing I admire about Johnny Marr (who guested on this song) is that he’s cheerfully helped on about a zillion things in his post-Smiths career, and they’re pretty all over the map. And he seems happy to do it. Good for him!

Mastodon, “Stargasm”

I’ve tried on multiple occasions to love The Hunter, and I just haven’t gotten there. It’s not that it’s bad or anything, but I dunno, I just want them to be more elaborate than this. Although it’s pretty funny to call this tune as not elaborate.