Hüsker Dü, “Divide and Conquer”

A thing that is easy to forget about Hüsker Dü is how ridiculously productive they were in their salad days. Zen Arcade, New Day Rising, and Flip Your Wig all came out within a 14 month period, a rate of output that’s even more impressive when you remember that Zen Arcade was a double album. Adding to the awe here is that all three records are bangers, with New Day Rising being my favorite hardcore record (which I’ve definitely never said about any other album!). Flip Your Wig somehow is the weakest of the three, and it’s great! It’s a little lighter, a little poppier, but it’s still full of energy and is probably a bit easier to get into than the other two.

Senyawa, “Menuju Muara”

Indonesia duo Senyawa are avant garde in just about every possible way. They play homemade instruments. The music is experimental. The album was released by a bunch of different labels across the globe with no ownership rights to any of them, to challenge the way music is distributed today. And it’s truly unusual stuff, with a sensibility that is at odds with a lot of what I listen to. I genuinely enjoy listening to things that surprise me, so I really like this record.

Ed Hall, “Luke Flukenstock”

After yesterday, it’s nice to get some noise rock in here to offset that kind of thing. Variety is the spice of life, after all, and around here, loud rock is salt. Uh, or something like that. I’m saying it’s a lot of what we do get around here? So it’s salt, the biggest component of the spice mix? I think analogies work best when they’re laborious and opaque, how about you?

The Miracles, “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me”

Even over the course of just a few years (this is from 1962), the Motown sound evolved very rapidly. That’s not to say anything wrong with this, it’s delightful, but Motown moved really fast, and by 1965 they would be in a pretty different place. I mean, “Nowhere to Run” is from 1965.

The Beatles, “Good Day Sunshine”

Man, Revolver was really revolutionary! (For the record, this is from 1966, after that Martha & the Vandellas ripper.)

Autolux, “Becker”

Hm. What is this? I like it! I don’t remember buying it, that’s all. I suspect I picked it up in a sweep of year end lists and then forgot about it. It’s good! Looks like there’s a connection with Failure here, but I don’t know if that’s why I got it. Anyway, enjoy!

Krallice, “Set”

This is from Krallice’s 2020 release Mass Cathexis. Cathexis is one of those words that must disproportionately appear in a metal context - it sounds badass and nobody knows what it means. I mean, I’ve never seen it outside of a metal context! But I must be misremembering things, it looks like only three albums with the word in it, and 12 songs, none of which I’m familiar with other than this album.

The Clash, “I Fought The Law”

The US release of The Clash had a different track listing than the original release, swapping in some songs from UK singles onto the album in place of some of the weaker tunes. Overall, it’s probably a better version of the record, with “I Fought The Law” being one of the additions to the record.

Gas Huffer, “The Rest of Us”

Gas Huffer spent three albums in the majors…well, the high minors, with albums out on Epitaph. But then they went back to their roots: Estrus Records, Jack Endino on the boards, and back to wall-to-wall garage rock. The return to their basics suited them well, it’s a strong record, although I suppose nobody really listened to it. I guess it’s relative: their last Epitaph record has 25 ratings on Rate Your Music, compared to 7 for this album. So, nobody really listened to either of them. It’s a shame, Gas Huffer was good!

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Stella Maris”

Ende Neu felt like a bit of a reset for the band, which makes some sense after one of the founding members departed. There’s a lot more things on here that you’d characterize as songs, even nice ones. That’s not to say that it’s conventional, just that the surface of it is pretty conventional. But as always, Neubauten is in the details, and it’s a good album after you dig in, although they’d get more comfortable in this new format on subsequent records.

Big Audio Dynamite II, “The Globe”

Well, this is quite a time capsule, isn’t it? This whole early 90s thing of guitar dance music really didn’t age especially well, although at this point, there’s a certain goofy try-hard charm to this, with all the little samples and bits floating in and out.

Swallowed, “Black Phlegm”

Silly Swallowed. Black is for bile, not for phlegm! That’s colorless! Metal bands should really know medieval medicine better than this.

The Roots, “The Show”

While I really like their later work, Rising Down is probably the last record I consider a truly great Roots record. It’s hard to say it’s their best, given how much I love Things Fall Apart and Game Theory (and Phrenology), but if it’s not quite there, it’s very, very close. It’s super focused and the band knows exactly what they’re doing. It feels like it didn’t get a ton of attention, but it should have, it’s awesome.

The Afghan Whigs, “The Spell”

After a sixteen year hiatus, the Afghan Whigs got back together, meaning Greg Dulli decided to start recording music under that moniker. I think there are some shared folks with 1965 besides him, hard to tell from Discogs. Anyway, the music post-hiatus seems like it continues on a straight line from where they left off, but as if they kept making albums in the meantime. If that makes sense? That is, if there were four albums missing in-between and they kept evolving in the same direction, you’d end up where they are now.