Lupe Fiasco, “The Emperor’s Soundtrack”

There’s something so grandiose about Lupe Fiasco’s stuff. The beats are so layered, and they’re structured in a way to feel really huge, and the production of the rest of the track reinforces that massive impression.

Sebadoh, “Junk Bonds”

A Jason Loewenstein song from Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock, which is a comp of tracks from a couple import EPs. Like a lot of material from them at this time, it’s a schizophrenic record, but that’s also part of the appeal of the band. Tracks like this threw the tender material into even sharper relief.

Army of Juan, “Late Night Dining”

I wonder how many ska-punk bands put out one record in 1997 and were never heard from again? I’m sure there have been comparable fads in music, but it’s hard for me to think of something quite comparable in my lifetime, where a style peaked so hard and petered out so quickly. Grunge wasn’t the same - the peak lasted longer, and a number of the grunge bands continued being popular even post-peak (like Pearl Jam), not to mention important bands still being revered today (such as Nirvana).

Foetus, “Clothes Hoist”

Foetus released live albums pretty often, which were usually pretty good. The live show was often more direct and noisier, driven by having a live band making a racket. So it’s not just a re-hash of the album tracks, making them good listens if you like Foetus. This is from Boil, and the track is originally from Hole.

Antipop Consortium, “Splinter”

I got totally lost in the rhymes in the first verse.

Another month in the books! Still hanging in there on the daily grind, but it’s definitely been a little more wobbly.

Leprous, “Alleviate”

Like clockwork, Leprous puts out a record every other year, and with each passing album, they just get more and more theatrical. Is this even metal any more? I don’t think so! This is some serious theatre kid rock at this point. Doesn’t stop me from buying each of these records, mind you.

Nitzer Ebb, “Control I’m Here”

That Total Age was more towards the industrial end of industrial dance, with more clanking machines in the sound, and Showtime found them pushing a little more melody in things and varying their arrangements more. This comes from the album in-between, Belief, where they kind of blended those two approaches, and arguably made their more interesting record. There’s a risk in industrial dance in ending up in parody, but this album is so direct in its intention that it feels pretty good.

Melkbelly, “LCR”

LCR is also the name of maybe the worst board game that has achieved any substantial success. I don’t know how many copies it has sold, but LCR is an embarrassingly bad game design that has been successful enough to appear in stores for years and years. Just appalling shit.

Zeke, “Rid”

Around here, we have a love for pure, hard-charging garage rock that cannot ever be sated. There is no quantity of fast riffs and shouted vocals that will slake our thirst. So, add Zeke to the pile of bands that have attempted to satisfy our hunger, but we need more.

Matthew Sweet, “Divine Intervention”

When someone says “power pop”, this is the song that pops into my head. I know that there are plenty of other bands that really defined the genre, and that I should be thinking of them. But I don’t. It’s this song.

Juggaknots, “Liar, Liar”

I found the Juggaknots after falling in love with Prince Paul’s A Prince Among Thieves, where Breezly Brewin just kills it. So I went to track down more of his stuff, and sure enough, the Juggaknots also rule.

Pond, “Filler”

As always: not the Australian band, but the grunge-adjacent band from Portland. And also, as always, I’ll recommend all three Pond records as being some of the finest from the grunge scene, peripheral as they were. This tune is off their worst album, but it’s still a solid slab of rock.

P.D.Q. Bach, “The Preachers of Crimetheus: Ballet in One Selfless Act, S. 988: I. Prologue (Bottomless Sorrow; Topless Gaiety)”

There’s a referential thing going on in most P.D.Q. Bach albums, where he’ll call back to figures and bits from prior in the album, and listening to single tracks kind of blunts what he’s up to. So I’ll just recommend sitting down with an album (this one, 1712 Overture & Other Musical Atrocities is a fine choice) and sitting with it.

Think Tree, “Everything Is Equal”

This is extremely college radio circa 1991. If you wanted to know what that sounded like. (Nobody should.)

Portishead, “The Rip”

Portishead put out an absolute stone-cold classic in Dummy and a fine follow-up, Portishead, before disappearing. Nobody really sounded like them then, despite plenty of people trying. But, surprisingly, they weren’t actually done. 11 years after their second, they put out Third, and there’s still nobody sounding like them. The album isn’t really the same cinematic trip-hop that they used to make, instead blazing their way into a brand new direction. I’m not even really sure how to describe it, honestly. I guess it’s just experimental rock? For a band that was always an outlier, Third is the outlier-iest.

Neat! Lookit all the twos!

The Supremes, “Baby Love”

I don’t usually have a ton to say about these iconic Motown hits, based on my assumption that people have all heard them a thousand times and are intimately familiar with them. But I’m not sure how true that is, as I reflect on it. Did the generation after me have oldies stations on in cars, restaurants, and other public places as they grew up? I’m not sure, and it’s possible this stuff is more novel. Well, anyway, enjoy!