Jake One, “Great Sound”

You know, if you’re going to do a skit, this is the way to do it.

J Church, “Cosmonaut”

A cut from the final J Church album, The Horror of Life. By this point, Lance Hahn was already battling the kidney problems that would claim his life the same year the record was released, but the record doesn’t really show any signs of decline. A genius to the end.

The Smiths, “Miserable Lie”

The first Smiths album is the one I really don’t listen to very much at all. I tend to want to belt along with the songs in my best Morrissey impression, and for that, I know the last few albums much better than this one. That’s not a judgment on the quality of it or anything, just a recognition that I listened to The Queen Is Dead in high school enough to know the songs perfectly.

ALL, “Long Distance”

A thing you can say about ALL is how incredibly consistent the sound of the band was across records. The guitar, bass, and drums all sound exactly the same across every record. They had the sound they liked, and they stuck with it.

Girl Talk, “Let It Out”

I know random verses from a bunch of songs just due to their presence on All Day, which is always a little jarring when I hear the songs removed from this context. There’s always a disorienting moment of “why do I know this song?”

Cosmic Analog Ensemble, “Pourparlers”

Set everything else aside: listen to how good this song sounds. Just the quality of the recording, the way the instruments sound, the space between them. It sounds amazing, just incredibly appealing.

Blackalicious, “Jada’s Vengeance”

This is from a label sampler, Quannum Spectrum, featuring the likes of Blackalicious, DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born, Latryx, and Mack B. Dogg. Uh, I guess if you list everybody, it’s not “the likes of”. Anyway, good lineup of artists, so this is a fun little comp. Discogs tells me it’s a promo release, so I have no idea if it’s even findable.

Chokebore, “Coat”

Chokebore was one of the later Amphetamine Reptile bands, putting out three records before that label kind of stopped putting out much stuff. Turns out they actually put out three records after leaving AmRep. I had no idea - I didn’t pursue them beyond the label loyalty, I wonder if they’re good.

Wormrot, “The Darkest Burden”

The unrelenting aggression of grindcore is bracing, a shot of adrenaline that isn’t always what I’m looking for, but when I want it, there’s no substitute. Wormrot’s 2022 record, Hiss, is a great example of it and is in fact one of the records I reach for when I want to scour my brain real good-like.

The Mars Volta, “Eriatarka”

I say this with genuine love, I really do enjoy the Mars Volta, but this is just the most dork-ass band ever, isn’t it? That’s not a bad thing necessarily, but even if you really like the band, it’s impossible to not recognize that the correct location for them is inside a locker.

No Age, “Glitter”

When I got this album on release day, Sonic Boom had some Sub Pop shirts to give away to people who bought it. But by the time I got it, they were down to just, like, toddler shirts. So, in the most [https://www.theonion.com/cool-dad-raising-daughter-on-media-that-will-put-her-en-1819572981](“cool dad raising daughter on media that will put her entirely out of touch with her generation”) moment I’ve ever had, I stuck it on my oldest and then took a photo of her holding the CD (she was baffled but game). I hope I have the photo somewhere, it’s very stupid.

Pigs, “Wrap It Up”

Just bottle that opening guitar sound and sell it by the case, I’ll buy it and pour it directly into my nostrils.

Dodecahedron, “Finale”

Ooh, backwards vocals. So evil! I’m cowering!

Boris, “Riot Sugar”

I’ll never get tired of mentioning this when it comes up: this is from Heavy Rocks. No, not the one from 2002. No, not the one from 2022. The one from 2011, the same year they released three other albums. Nobody has had the career that Boris has had, and very few bands have been harder to keep up with. At any rate, this Heavy Rocks is excellent mid-career Boris, crunchy and pretty diverse, a relatively accessible record but undeniably heavy. And yes, it rocks.

MC Paul Barman, “UNDOING ALONENESS”

Back when MC Paul Barman was just getting going, I remember a lot of thinkpieces coming out about him. Lots of descriptors for him describing him as smart or whatever in a way that in retrospect just strikes me as gross. To his credit, he never seemed to try and court that reputation or try and turn himself into a savior or anything. He just made his debut record, popped up on guest spots every now and again, and mostly kept a low profile. His output wasn’t fast, with his first record in 2002 and this, his third, in 2018. But, overall, it’s fun stuff - off-kilter but entertaining, and worth looking into if you read the hype back in the day but never actually tried it.

The Budos Band, “Ghost Walk”

The Budos Band are brilliant, always worth listening to, but they don’t always do cool. This song, though, is so smooth and cool, a standout from their brilliant first album.

Squarepusher, “Nux Vomica”

Burningn’n Tree is a collection of Squarepusher’s earliest EPs (one not even credited as Squarepusher), along with a few new tracks for the album. As a result of being a collection, as well as being from when Tom Jenkinson was still kind of sorting out what he wanted to sound like, it’s uneven. So it’s interesting stuff if you’re a Squarepusher sicko, but you have a lot of records to get through before you should get to this.

The Flaming Lips, “The Sparrow”

King’s Mouth: Music and Songs is a bit of a return to a previous style for the Lips, sonically sounding a lot more like The Soft Bulletin than The Terror. But it’s also a big concept album, and I think that gets in the way of the songs, and not only that, the songs themselves feel just a bit forced to me. It just all kind of seems like a bit of a blurry copy of their mid-career stuff.