Claude Fontaine, “Pretending He Was You”

Claude Fontaine’s self-titled 2019 album is a mix of reggae and a few other musical styles, such as the bossa nova of this track. It’s a charming record, helped considerably by her hiring Jamaican musicians who are deeply familiar with the music as her backing band. It’s an album that could easily have come off as inauthentic, but ends up working quite well.

Czarface & Ghostface Killah, “Powers and Stuff”

Czarface is Inspectah Deck (from the Wu-Tang Clan) and Esoteric, here teaming up for an album-length collaboration with Ghostface. As with most of Wu-related records, it’s very listenable, because the formula is so strong. Ghostface is great, of course, and the Czarface MCs are solid, so this ends up being a fun album.

Intronaut, “The Pleasant Surprise”

I’ve engaged in a fair bit of introspection around progressive metal around here. I suspect it’s because the music is sufficiently ambitious that it invites us to engage with it seriously and think about it. Today, instead, I’m going to take a step back and try and instead answer a different, much more visceral question with regard to this song, instead of the usual navel gazing: does it rock? Reader: this song rocks.

Skinny Puppy, “Killing Game”

This is what passes for a tender song from Skinny Puppy. It works probably way better than it should, which really shows how good cEvin Key and Dave Ogilvie were at their jobs. Last Rights was the last album from them before they went on hiatus, and it’s an excellent one. I haven’t actually listened to any of their records after this one, I wonder if they are any good.

U.S. Maple, “Rice Ain’t Afraid Of Nothing”

A thing about U.S. Maple is that they frequently sounded like they were playing three different songs at the same time. It legitimately sounds like they got their wires crossed while playing, but then it kind of comes into focus and you realize it was all deliberate. It’s very difficult to sound this chaotic on purpose.

Metallica, “Confusion”

Metallica’s throwback to their heyday began with 2008’s Death Magnetic, but 2016’s Hardwired…To Self-Destruct is the record that really brought things back. There’s no way for Metallica to really capture the fury of Master of Puppets at this point in their career, but they can certainly try and write songs in that vein. It’s certainly a decent album, but it kind of lacks a spark. There’s monster riffage all over the album, but it just doesn’t sink its hooks in.

They Might Be Giants, “Critic Intro”

This is the intro to Giants Jubilee, which is a comp album containing b-sides, EP tracks, and demos from the early years of the band. While there are some fun things on here, it’s really only for completists.

SPK, “Retard”

Uh, sorry about the song title here. I don’t really know what to do about this kind of thing, so I just leave it as is and trust my audience. Anyway, SPK were an industrial noise act led by Graeme Revell, who would go on to a long and successful career scoring films. Like a lot of early industrial acts, the ugliness was the point. There was little attempt to make this stuff appealing, it was all created as a way to get emotional reactions from people.

Consolidated, “This Is A Collective”

You know, if Consolidated had gotten rolling now instead of back in the early 90s, there would have been some Serious Discourse about them. Not just engaging with the politics of the band, but also probably a bunch of stuff around if what they are doing is cultural appropriation. I’m making up this whole thing and still making myself mad!

Ryan Porter, “The Psalmist”

Given how much I like ska and the horns in soul music, it should surprise nobody that this kind of thing is absolutely my jam.

Mary Timony, “Poison Moon”

This is Mary Timony’s first solo record, and you can kind of hear some pointers towards where here work would head, both with Wild Flag and Ex Hex. There’s more of a new wave feeling to some of this, and less of the indie feel of things. It’s a transitional record, but still very good.

LCD Soundsystem, “call the police”

LCD Soundsystem noisily retired in 2011, making a big deal out of their last show at Madison Square Garden and then riding off into the sunset. Until, of course, they returned in 2017 with a new album. New York, I Love You, But You’re Getting Ripped Off.

Boris, “Spoon”

2011 was an insanely productive year for Boris, with four albums showing up that year, all of them being unusual in some way from their standard. To the extent that Boris has a standard. Anyway, this is from New Album, which continues in the grand tradition of Boris albums being named things that are a pain in the ass (one of the other 2011 albums was called Heavy Rocks, which is the second time they’ve named an album that). At any rate, New Album is sort of a remix, with much of the material here being reworked songs from Heavy Rocks (2011) and Attention Please (another of the 2011 releases). If this is all confusing, welcome to the Boris discography!

Can-i-bus, “Get Retarded”

Hoo boy.

Steroid Maximus, “Quilombo”

Love that upright bass! We’ve had Steroid Maximus before, but this is one of J.G. Thirlwell’s (Foetus, Wiseblood, Manorexia, Clint Ruin, etc) many aliases. Steroid Maximus is all instrumental, tending towards jazz and cinematic stuff. It’s excellent, and this track gives a great sense for what you’d be in for.

The Slackers, “Don’t Forget The Streets”

From the excellent 2008 album Self Medication, this is as good a self-summary of the band as they’re likely to serve up. By the time they hit this album, it was clear that the Slackers were survivors. They started during the boom years of the third wave, and then endured the collapse of their first label, the implosion of the scene, and the derision of music fans. And through it all, they kept cranking out great tunes.

Rocket From the Crypt, “Shy Boy”

We had a track from this album just a couple days ago, and I guess my opinion hasn’t changed in those two days. Still a good record, still not totally put together. This riff is a classic RFTC riff, though.

Firewater, “Another Perfect Catastrophe”

Nice of shuffle to give us a saxophone after hitting us with a sax-less RFTC track. This is a good example of their “wedding band gone wrong” aesthetic right here.