Serpent Column, “Pantheoclasm”

The other day, Plague Rages Podcast was complaining that there’s no great term for this sort of band, which isn’t really death metal, not tech death, just really out there, chaotic, and dissonant. I proposed “omnicore”, and honestly, that’s not such a bad term.

Queens of the Stone Age, “Tangled Up In Plaid”

Lullabies to Paralyze is a record that kind of ties together the strands of their previous albums. It kind of picks up the psych of Rated R, the musculature of Songs for the Deaf, the stoner vibes of the self-titled, and pulls it all together into a single record. It’s a consolidation of their skills that allowed them to kind of tie a bow on period of their career, allowing them to really go nuts with their next record.

Archers of Loaf, “Web In Front”

This is the version from Seconds Before the Accident, the posthumously released live album. Archers of Loaf always toiled in Pavement’s shadow, relentlessly drawing comparisons to them. But they were not imitators, and their four studio albums are all excellent work. “Web in Front” in particular is a masterpiece, just a tremendous rock song, and one of those songs that I need to listen to sometimes and nothing else will do.

Nitzer Ebb, “Control I’m Here (live)”

I mentioned the other day that I kept up with the proliferation of Nitzer Ebb releases for a while, and this is a good example of what a pain in the ass that was. When they started picking up some momentum after Nine Inch Nails brought a lot of attention to the genre, the label decided to try and pick up some buzz for Ebbhead by releasing a live EP. But did they just release a live EP? Oh my, no. They released it in two separate discs you had to buy, with the first one including a slip case that would fit the second one. Did they release both halves at once to make it easier to pick up? Of course not! I did find both halves, and frankly, it’s just a live EP and totally not worth tracking down.

Gift of Gab, “Rat Race”

You know a song is banging when I’m nodding this hard along with it, even just listening to it on one shitty earbud.

Wilco, “Either Way”

The opener of Sky Blue Sky, and it’s one of my very favorite Wilco songs. There’s that breezy organ in the background, the little chord change going into the chorus, there’s kind of a fakeout after the second chorus where he drags it out and it seems like it’s going to crescendo to a huge bit but turns into just a pleasant solo. It’s a bright, optimistic sounding song, but there’s so much subtlety to it, it rewards a close listen.

BOXING DAY. I am not doing a special today.

Cosmic Analog Ensemble, “Camille 3000”

Cosmic Analaog Ensemble is the work of a single person, Charif Megarbane, who uses his band to explore different genres and styles. With Les Sourdes Oreilles he’s really going after what I’m going to call soundtrack funk - the sort of thing that seems like it should be in a gritty 70s movie. This entire record sounds like a lost David Axelrod record, and that’s a high compliment. If you like this track, you should pick up the whole album, it’s all of this quality.

CHRISTMAS DAY! TIME FOR A SPECIAL!

Vince Guaraldi Trio, “My Little Drum”

Oh yeah, Christmas music baby! This is from A Charlie Brown Christmas, a perennial favorite. What makes it such a lasting record is that it’s not insulting to its listeners. It doesn’t lean on treacle or anything to get the point across, and so you don’t get tired of hearing it.

Vince Guaraldi Trio, “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”

Even when it’s going super traditional, it just turns in a lovely rendition of the song and doesn’t drag it out or anything. It’s pleasant!

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, “Simmer Down”

Ska-Core, The Devil & More is an EP with mostly covers released in 1993, notably primarily for this nice cover of a Marley tune. Other than this, it’s far from an essential release.

Uncle Tupelo, “Sandusky”

March 16-20, 1992 might be the Uncle Tupelo album that has aged the best. I’m not sure it’s my favorite, I don’t think it’ll ever displace No Depression. But the stripped down, acoustic production suits the material so well, and the traditional songs they picked to go with their originals all mesh so well. I truly wish we could have gotten a few more of these before things fell apart.

Pink Floyd, “Is There Anybody Out There?”

In a different potential project of mine, I was looking at albums released in 1979, and it’s pretty amusing that the same year in rock produced London Calling and 154 and also The Wall. I know rock is pretty dead as a commercial prospect these days, but it’s just kind of fun to consider that those extremes were commercially viable in what was ostensibly the same genre once upon a time.

Sunless, “Spiraling Into the Unfathomable”

There’s a sort of genre of bands like Sunless who kind of approach metal from a similar direction, but don’t seem to have a consistent name for their subgenre. Bands like Gorguts, Portal, Pyrron, and others are extremely dissonant and technical, but there’s not so much of the wheedle-wheedle-whee solo pyrotechnics that characterize tech death. So, as a descriptor, I kind of go with dissonant death metal, and that seems to work OK. As an ill-defined subgenre, though, I quite like the stuff.

Belle and Sebastian, “The Stars of Track and Field”

The opening to my favorite Belle and Sebastian record, and therefore one of my favorite records period. We listen to a lot of really rancid shit around here, all grind this and noise that, and broadly engage deeply with the ugliness of music. The jagged edges and novel noises keep things fresh and surprising, and there’s an exhilaration in listening to that kind of stuff that is a consistent pleasure. But, at the same time, it’s also worth balancing all that savagery with something from the beautiful end of things, a reminder that music can lift spirits.