Gas Huffer, “Nisqually”

The first song from the first Gas Huffer full-length, it sets the tone for what they’re trying to do: straight-ahead garage rock with zero pretension. Although they were contemporaneous with grunge and from Seattle, they were doing something more parallel to that stuff, as there’s not really any metal at all in this sound.

Sweet Baby, “Year after Year”

More garage rock! This is from Hello Again, a comp that includes an album from Sweet Baby and an album from the successor band, Brent’s TV. It’s pretty good, but one of the virtues of this kind of music is that it gets to the point and gets out of the way. And, well, 40 tracks of it is not getting out of the way.

Pinback, “How We Breathe”

Well, that’s very pretty.

Here Lies Man, “Collector of Vanities”

A side project of Antibalas folks, Here Lies Man plays a meld of Afrobeat and psychedelic rock, often to pretty solid effect. This is from their latest, Ritual Divination, which pushes a little more towards the rock end of things, so depending on your preferences it’s either the place to start or the place to end up.

Black Moon, “Enta da Stage”

Black Moon’s 1993 classic, Enta da Stage, could not have been released at a worse time to get attention. The synthesis of the jazz-inflected beats of Native Tongues and the street rhymes of New York City would have been massively influential had it not landed at roughly the same time as Midnight Mauraders (showing how far these kinds of beats could be taken) and Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (showing how far these kinds of rhymes could go). Nevertheless, the album is a serious banger.

Chaos A.D., “Generation Shit”

Chaos A.D. is an Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher), releasing a miscellaneous pile of tracks from his early years. It doesn’t show the same kind of sophistication of his later recordings, and honestly, it’s an easy skip. This is probalby the worst track on the album, though, so don’t totally judge on this song.

The Beatles, “Dear Prudence”

One of my simultaneously dumbest and proudest moments in Rock Band was five starring this song on the drums and vocals and the same time…except I whistled the entirety of the vocal track. Not bad!

Spanish Love Songs, “Routine Pain”

I missed the first couple Spanish Love Songs albums when they came out, because I’m an out of touch loser. So this is the first song I ever heard from the band, and it’s simultaneously a seriously impressive tune, totally affecting, and frankly kind of hard to listen to. I think this record is amazing and also I just can’t handle listening to it very often.

The Mr. T Experience, “Bridge to Taribithia”

Thoroughly enjoyable instrumental from Our Bodies Our Selves, one of the stronger mid-career MTX albums.

Claw Hammer, “Uncontrollable Urge”

This song is a serious jam, even when it’s a very straightforward cover of the song. I’ve decided that I really like having Claw Hammer’s album length cover of Devo’s first album in the library just to increase my chances of hearing the tunes.

The Streets, “Who Got The Funk?”

Is…is it the Streets?

The Grifters, “Covered With Flies”

I periodically see “forgotten bands of the grunge era” and similar articles, because I’m old and I read old person things. Those articles invariably dig up one or two interesting bands (Love Battery, say), four different Pearl Jam predecessor bands, and then a couple bands that always sucked but the writer saw in a club early and thus has an irrational fixation on them. And you know who nobody ever mentions? That’s right, the Grifters. Who ruled and are now forgotten.

ALL, “Honey Peeps”

By the time they hit 1997’s Mass Nerder, ALL was on their third singer across seven albums, but the band still basically sounded the same. This was finally the album where I realized that I was very much done with them. The previous record (Pummel) had some awful lyrics, and I really wasn’t sure why I picked this one up. Kind of force of habit, really. At any rate, with the Descendents also having been resurrected by this point, ALL really served no purpose.

Mix Master Mike, “Positive Contact (Mario C remix)”

This is a remix of a track from Deltron 3030, the great left-field hip-hop classic featuring Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Dan the Automator. Mix Master Mike took that and turned it into this remix, which…isn’t as good as the original. Oh well!

Artie Shaw, “Frenesi”

When my oldest started playing the clarient, I decided to try and pick up something which might inspire her, so I grabbed this compilation (The Essential Artie Shaw). And while I don’t think she cared about it at all, it’s a perfectly enjoyable listen.

Benton Falls, “Sad Like Winter Leaves”

We don’t get a ton of emo around here. Not because I dislike it, but I think mostly because when emo has had its various peaks, I was kind of listening to other stuff, and sort of missed out on a lot of it. I’m definitely the target audience! I’ve sat in a completely dark room listening to Slint’s Spiderland, which is extremely My Emotions Are Hard To Handle. At any rate, I generally like emo, and Benton Falls’ two albums are really very good. And: special shout-out to that song title. That is TREMENDOUS hustle right there. Primo sad boy shit.