Couch Slut, “The Mouthwash Years”

That ascending chord progression in this track, on the heavily distorted guitar, is a perfect summation of noise rock. Just really nails it.

Mattiel, “Sent It On Over”

Mattiel’s first, self-titled, debut record made a lot of noise among music critics on its release. And it’s easy to see why, it’s a very confident record with a ton of style. It certainly sounds like its own thing, and I think a lot of critics (and me!) prize music which finds its own path. But, all that said, I don’t know that I really care for it. It doesn’t really stick with me, and I don’t find myself wanting to explore it that much.

Built to Spill, “The Plan”

Built to Spill’s three album run culminating in Keep It Like A Secret is one my very favorite peaks of any band, ever. Doug Martsch’s songs were all incredible, there was heart, catchiness, tons of surprises, it’s just incredible stuff. Not only that, but they were able to pull off tight pop songs and epic tunes with equal aplomb. My favorite is actually the middle record, Perfect From Now On, which is…uh, perfect. But they’re all tremendous records.

Wolves in the Throne Room, “Face In A Night Time Mirror - Part 1”

All four of the songs on the debut album from Wolves in the Throne Room go over 12 minutes. Although it’s very black metal, even from the beginning there were a lot of non-standard moves. The clean vocals on this track, for instance, not to mention the pastoral interlude. Metal has always played around with folk, and there have been other bands that have merged the sounds, but Wolves in the Throne room do a better job of that sort of thing than most.

Black Flag, “Loose Nut”

When I finally got around to listening to Black Flag, I didn’t really know much about the band other than they were a legendary hardcore band, and that was kind of it. I wandered into a record store and just bought one of the records, this one, kind of at random. Little did I know that outside of the classic Damaged, their discography is kind of a mess. Loose Nut doesn’t seem to be anybody’s favorite Black Flag record, coming as it did during an extremely productive time for the band, with all the records in this period suffer a bit from kind of stretching things out. At this remove, I’m still of that opinion. Damaged and My War are the ones breaking new ground, and the rest of them are pretty hit-or-miss.

Pallbearer, “Over & Over”

This song comes from the 2016 single Fear & Fury, which was released after their breakthrough record, Foundations of Burden. It was a wise piece of striking while the iron is hot. Pallbearer plays doom metal, heavy and reliant on plodding tempos, and managed to kind of crossover by being fairly accessible due to the clean vocals. This stuff is pretty good, and I like it in the right mood, and Pallbearer does it as well as anybody does.

Boris, “Flower Sun Rain”

This comes to us from Smile, the US version, because Boris being Boris, there are different versions of this record with different track lists for different countries. I’m not a completist on this, and so I’ll just declare the US version is the best (inasmuch as it is the one I have). But enough of that, is it a good album? Of course it is, Boris doesn’t make bad albums. It’s more on their noisier side, coming on the heels of their most accessible record, but I like the noise.

They Might Be Giants, “Birdhouse In Your Soul”

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

When I die, and you cut my brain open (which I’m sure somebody will), you’ll hear a tiny echo of this song.

Devo, “Be Stiff”

From their landmark Freedom of Choice, which is a hell of a rock album, the one where they added enough synth pop into their sound to break through. But ignore “Whip It”, subtract it from the album, and the album would still smoke.

Rancid, “Time Bomb”

I sincerely wish that Rancid made more songs like this. It’s just such fun! Who is against this? Other than Rancid, I mean.

Mudhoney, “No End In Sight”

Have we had a lot of Mudhoney recently? It seems like we have. I’m not going to check, though, that would be against the Mudhoney Creed. Which I just made up.

Anyway, not going to analyze this one too deep, this is just a pure ripper in the classic Mudhoney mode. I’ll shut up and you enjoy it.

False, “Saturnalia”

The opening to the 2015 album from False (called Untitled, the same as their first EP, because fuck you!), featuring their blend of black metal with other elements like thrash. The stretch around 1:30-2, for example, is pretty thrash-y. The middle section of the song is pretty doom-y. These kinds of passages are a nice change of pace from just the crush of black metal.

Hüsker Dü, “Chartered Trips”

Hüsker Dü’s 1984 double-album Zen Arcade was a monumental landmark in the rock underground. It’s hard to really call it a hardcore album at this point, it’s really moved far beyond it, but so many bands after this would try and sound this good. Everything is still super loud, but the songwriting has stretched much farther than the first couple records indicated they were capable of.

The Avalanches, “Running Red Lights (feat. Rivers Cuomo & Pink Siifu)”

The anarchic and sweet pop of the Avalanches is usually at its best when it’s barrelling along, swirling and shimmering. You know when it is not at its best? When Rivers Cuomo shows up for some reason.

New Order, “All The Way”

I think Technique is the record when New Order really shook off the last vestiges of Joy Division. It’s fully a bouncy pop record, danceable and charming. Because of that, it’s probably my favorite record of those outside of Movement.