Kid Koala, “Drunk Trumpet”

“Drunk Trumpet” appears on Kid Koala’s first record, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and this is a fun live version of it from Live From The Short Attention Span Audio Theater Tour. As always, Kid Koala is a gas.

Jay Dee, “Pause”

Before his legendary Donuts, J Dilla’s first record under his own name was Welcome 2 Detroit, part of the first set of records for BBE’s Beat Generation series. Dilla’s record is probably the second best of that group, after Pete Rock’s, and if you haven’t looked it up but enjoy his other work, you should.

Skalpel, “Quicksilver”

Love me a good jazz/DJ thing.

Destroyer, “The Bad Arts”

Streethawk: A Seduction was the first Destroyer record that I heard, and this was the song that I heard on that record that really got me going. Something about how spare a lot of the song is, just his voice and either a simple groove or his guitar, just works super well. A delightful tune.

Cherubs, “Sooey Pig”

You know, it would have been just fine with me if that first thirty seconds of formless guitar noise just kind of kept going. I have objections with the rest of this crawl, mind you. But I love me a good wad of meandering feedback.

Death From Above 1979, “Black History Month (Josh Homme remix)”

After the explosive success of You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine, a remix record was hustled out the door. I didn’t realize it was a remix record, I just saw it in Sonic Boom here in Seattle and thought “neat, a new DFA record!” Friends, it wasn’t a new record, not really, and is as pointless as any other remix record.

Zeke, “Action”

There are times when I think we should just ban all rock songs longer than two minutes. If you can’t get your point across in two minutes, go play some jazz or something, loser!

Atmosphere, “Besos”

I typed this first as “Beos”, and then thought, huh, I wonder what a veteran hip-hop duo was doing writing a song about a near-forgotten niche operating system. You all should be thankful I’m not going to even attempt a verse here.

Bananagun, “Mushroom Bomb”

A thing I can recommend as a solid move is to befriend some people in Australia, and then get some music recommendations from them. You’ll get plenty of stuff that you never otherwise would have heard, and if my experience is anything to go by, they’ll be absolute delights - the people, and the bands.

The Supremes, “You Can’t Hurry Love”

Surprised there’s not a parenthetical in this title. I mean, even a “(You Can’t) Hurry Love” or something, come on, it’s like they’re not even trying.

Television, “See No Evil”

There have been bands as cool as Television was when they released Marquee Moon, but I’m not sure there have been any cooler.

SWANS, “In My Garden”

On Children of God, Jarboe’s contributions to the band were placed much more at the center of things. The transition from the sound of nihilist, crushing despair over to spooky, creepy despair was thus complete. This era of the band is probably my least favorite, but that’s mainly just due to how much I like some of their other periods. As always, SWANS are never less than interesting and frequently much more than that.

Richie Hawtin, “Aliens Don’t Boogie”

I’m never really sure how to credit this record. It’s Richie Hawtin putting together a mix record, so do I credit him? Or the artist that did the original track? I choose the former on purely utilitarian grounds, which is that if anybody listening to this wants to hear more, they’re going to do better looking up Hawtin than they will the original artist (Thor, in this case. Not the Norse god.)

Joe Lally, “Day Is Born”

The first track to Lally’s second record, giving a good idea of what sort of bass-forward tunes you can expect to hear from him. If you’ve listened to Fugazi’s instrumentals, you’ll have a decent picture in mind also, even though Lally does sing.

House of Lightning, “James Brown”

Part of the Floor family tree, House of Lightning shares members with Floor and, as you can hear, aesthetics. If you’re looking for more stuff in that vein, of really big riffs and melodies and some clean singing, you’re in the right spot.

Mule, “I’m Hell”

Hi Hell, I’m Dad.

Cannibal Ox, “Iron Galaxy”

It’s difficult to overstate how much this album sounded like the future when it came out. And while it sort of does represent a path not taken in hip-hop, at least by the mainstream, I suppose it did eventually find full flower with El-P’s work with Run the Jewels.

Atmosphere, “Stopwatch”

Mi Vida Local, Atmosphere’s 2018 record, continues their pattern of staying in the realm of the personal. Slug continues to mostly contemplate and explore his life in his lyrics. Supporting that, Ant’s production relies more and more on live instrumentation, giving again a more organic feel to things. It’s a decent album, but I’m not sure it stands out from their other 2010s work.

Skavoovie & the Epitones, “Blood Red Sky”

We had the Skatalites yesterday, and now we hear another take on the genre thirty years later. And you know what? This stuff whips also, horns rule.

Olivelawn, “Hate”

San Diego’s Olivelawn released a couple albums in the early 90s, with this one sounding like a Seattle record mostly because it was recorded in Seattle in 1992 by Jack Endino. Very, very grunge. Anyway, it’s pretty good stuff if you’re looking for something a little off the beaten path with those 1992 vibes. Half of this band would go on to form Fluf, who banged out four excellent records in the 90s also.