Queens of the Stone Age, “Un-Reborn Again”

This comes from the most recent QotSA album, Villains, where they worked with producer Mark Ronson. The result is a little bit of a different feel to things. It’s a slick, glossy record, full of moves that I would characterize as more glam than anything else. This song is a great example, this is just all shiny, swaggering glam. It’s not an unfamiliar aesthetic in the QotSA catalog, but it’s definitely to the fore on this album. I do appreciate that they’re willing to change things up, so I like it a lot. They don’t have to keep re-making Songs For the Deaf, I can just go listen to that if I want to.

Sloan, “Deeper Than Beauty”

Sloan are a rarity, a band who clearly should have been big in America, but instead settled for a long and celebrated career in Canada. This stuff, really smart power pop, absolutely could have broken through at basically any moment, and just kind of never did. If you like this sort of thing at all, this album and One Chord To Another are must-listens.

Yo-Yo Ma, “Suite no. 1 in G major, BWV 1007: III. Courante”

I feel too dumb to even type out that song title, much less listen to this.

Mantar, “Eternal Return”

I long ago ran out of stuff to say about Mantar, so let’s just have a close listen to this. The shift up to the double-time drums fifty seconds in is nice. And a nice change in the gallop shortly after the vocals kick in. There’s a restlessness here, where they’re refusing to totally settle into a groove, which is kind of nice. Although sometimes the fun of music like this is a nice punishing rhythm. Views differ, apparently even in my head!

Run-D.M.C., “Raising Hell”

I’m sure I’ve told the story before, but Raising Hell was the first album I remember buying for myself. I heard “Peter Piper” on the radio while we were driving to Pullman, WA, and I was entranced. I didn’t know exactly what that was, but I memorized the name of the act, and later found the cassette tape and bought it for myself. There was a certain excitement in buying a record with a bad word in the title, as well as just the unknown of not really knowing what to expect from it. I loved it, of course, and I still listen to this album to this day. While I didn’t become a music hound right away, this was my first step down that path, and will always hold a special place for me.

Slapstick, “She Doesn’t Love Me”

Yesterday, I mentioned I don’t listen to Pegboy much any more, and it’s largely because I’ve stepped away from most of the melodic punk I used to listen to. When I put on a punk record, I usually go for something a little more upbeat and poppy these days. Something like this! And of course, Slapstick had horns, the other thing from yesterday. And sure enough, I actually have listened to this record recently.

Lando Chill, “The King Of Salem”

This album is apparently inspired by the book The Alchemist, which I have not read, so I learned that only from reading about the record. That probably means I’m not really cool enough to be listening to this album, honestly.

Killdozer, “Richard”

The sample here at the front, about the cash value of carcasses, really sums up the aesthetic of Killdozer quite succinctly. There’s that sort of working-class Midwestern thing, the reveling in the grim details of existence, the sort of incongruity of Killdozer’s sound and sense of humor, all of it.

The Busters, “Candy”

The Busters are from Germany, which was a little bit of a hotbed of two-tone-styled ska in the late 80s/early 90s before the third wave really got rolling. The Busters were never serious about anything, and sometimes the goofiness could get grating. It’s well-done for what it is, but it doesn’t really quite connect with me.

Wire, “Start To Move”

I go through phases where I listen to lots of certain bands, like I suspect lots of people do. There are also some bands that never really fall out of rotation, and Wire is definitely on that list. I’m never sorry to spin this stuff.

They Might Be Giants, “Nanobots”

The title track of their 2013 album, which was the second album of a little renaissance from TMBG. Post-children’s albums, they put together two outstanding records, bursting with ideas and shimmering tunes. Join Us ranks in the first ranks of their albums, and Nanobots isn’t far behind. I think their next couple albums suffered a bit from attenuated creativity, as the Dial-a-Song project seemed stretch them a bit thin, but these two albums are really top work.

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Sand”

Every now and again, Neubauten will make a song that’s relatively conventional. And you still end up with a creepy torch song like this one, complete with strangled half-falsetto and tribal drumming.

Built to Spill, “Revolution”

Before going on their tear with their last three albums in the 90s, Built to Spill released Ultimate Alternative Wavers. It forms the missing link between the Dinosaur Jr. tribute of the Treepeople to the extended twisted pop of their next few records. There are plenty of things to like on this record, and it’s easy to see how Martsch evolved from here, but it’s not their best work.

Kid Koala, “The Observable Universe”

Oh, sure, “music to draw to”, huh? Well, what about music to blog to? How come nobody ever writes that? Huh?

U.S. Girls, “Rage of Plastics”

I’m not sure how U.S. Girls flew under my radar for as long as they did. They’ve been around for ages, and on paper seem to be right up my alley. And check that wailing sax! And yet, I haven’t gone back and explored other records, because I am a sloth.