Jan Jelinek, “If’s, And’s and But’s”

I honestly think that Jan Jelinek might be the artist I can consistently identify the fastest in my collection. That glitch is just so recognizable. Also, love the grocer’s apostrophe’s here!

Crunt, “Unglued”

Been a while since we’ve had them here. (checks) We’ve never had them here! Crunt were a side project of Kat Bjelland (Babes in Toyland), Russell Simins (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion), and Stuart Gray (Lubricated Goat). They produced one album, which rips, but that was it unfortunately. It’s basically totally forgotten at this point, but it’s a good time.

Bad Brains, “Re-Ignition”

Greatest hardcore band during the 80s has been a common argument through the years. A lot of the time, it comes down to a preference between the east coast (Minor Threat), the west coast (Black Flag or the Dead Kennedys), or the midwest (Hüsker Dü). I know I first encountered this argument on Usenet in 1991, and it hasn’t really stopped. But if you asked for the best hardcore album, there was often an extra one that people would mention. I Against I didn’t exactly fit the mold of those other bands, and given how many other genres get blended in here, I’m not sure it totally qualifies as a hardcore album. Kind of the same way I’m not sure that the Minutemen qualify. Nevertheless, it’s a hell of an album, and I can understand why people put it in the company of so many other classics from the 80s.

Frederick Knight, “Trouble”

Hell yeah, that’s the stuff.

Front 242, “Gripped By Fear”

This is from a remix EP called Mixed By Fear, containing remixes of songs from Tyranny For You. It’s every bit as forgettable as that sounds, and is incredibly inessential.

El Michaels Affair, “Easy Access”

This is a repeat! It smokes, but we’ll do a sixth song today.

Mombu, “Stutterer Ancestor”

We just had a Mombu track the other day, so enjoy another track of their chaotic drum and bari sax styling!

Calexico, “Fake Fur”

The Black Light is the album where Calexico became CALEXICO. The dusty desert aesthetic was in full flower on this album. The recording is soaked in reverb, there’s tons of space for the atmosphere, and it’s just a lovely experience. It’s not their best album, because they would marry this sound to better songwriting on later records, but this is still a fun album.

Elvis Costello, “Crawling to the USA”

This comes to us from the bonus second disc from the This Year’s Model reissue. The bonus material on a lot of these types of reissues can be pretty dodgy, but Costello’s songwriting in this period was so strong that even the leftovers are pretty darn good. I mean, this is an excellent tune!

RJD2, “Sell The World”

I think we’ve had a couple tracks from The Horror by now, which is kind of a companion EP/remix project to go along with Deadringer. Unlike a lot of these kinds of revists/companion pieces, it’s very much a worthy release in its own right and not just riding the coattails of another album.

Vaz, “Chartreuse Blues”

Why, it seems like just the other day that I got really fired up about Vaz and Hammerhead. And here they are, back for another tune. “Tune”? Blast. Whatever! Love this stuff.

Valentine Six, “Always Is My Name”

Here’s a little bit of an oddball. Valentine Six put out one album in 1997, full of this kind of lounge-y sort of thing. Clearly more than a little Tom Waits in the DNA here, maybe just a little bit of Nick Cave. It’s pretty good, and I haven’t thought about this band in ages.

Morrissey, “He Knows I’d Love To See Him”

Like lots of other people, I was curious to see what the various members of the Smiths would get up to after that band broke apart. I picked up a couple of Morrissey’s EPs, and honestly, didn’t really follow him from there. I mean, yeah, this is clearly a Morrissey song, but I guess I had enough of him from the Smiths’ albums?

Jungle Fire, “La Kossa”

Jungle Fire, out of LA, play Afro beat and funk, clearly heavily inspired by the usual folks like Fela Kuti and James Brown. Nothing wrong with that! Anyway, this is from their 2017 album on Colemine records, and I really appreciate the drama of this. There’s a lot of Kool & the Gang that I hear, and that works for me.

Lee Alan, “Set Me Free”

Look, not every single Motown put out during their heyday was a slam dunk. But even the goofier ones are still short, at least.

Bell Witch, “Suffocation, A Burial: I - Awoken (Breathing Teeth)”

First things first, that is a MAGNIFICENT name for a metal song. A roman numeral, a parenthetical, just all kinds of extra junk. Spectacular.

At any rate, the other day I referred to Pallbearer as the standard bearers for doom metal, but I think that’s maybe not quite right. They’re probably the most popular, but Seattle’s duo of Bell Witch is probably more critically acclaimed. A lot of that praise comes more from their 2017 release (Mirror Reaper), but this from 2015’s Four Phantoms gives a good idea of what the band is about. The microgenre they play in is called funeral doom, and you can see why.

Squarepusher, “Dust Switch”

Music is Rotted One Note is such an incredible album. I am always blown away by it. I recognize that’s not insightful, but it’s where we are.

Trumans Water, “Speeds Exceeding”

I think I’ve mentioned before my early 90s experiment of finding a band like They Might Be Giants (there’s no such thing). Trumans Water was one of the bands mentioned sometimes on Usenet (that’s one of the places people yelled at each other about their opinions before Reddit and Twitter existed) as being broadly similar, so I picked up Spasm Smash XXXOXOX Ox & Ass. And, it’s not really anything like TMBG. I suppose I can sort of squint and see some of the same restless experimentation, but without the eclectic arrangements, good natured pop sensibility, and gentle humor, it’s not really at all the same thing.

New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble, “Haitian Fight Song”

This version of the great Charles Mingus song is actually the version that got me to go look up Mingus and learn more about him and buy a bunch of his records. It’s such a great song.

Pallbearer, “Atlantis”

This is the a-side from the Pallbearer single from 2019 on Sub Pop. Thanks to their 2017 record, Foundations of Burden, breaking free from the metal press and getting broader attention, Pallbearer have become the standard bearers of doom metal. But there are certainly times that Pallbearer doesn’t sound like doom metal so much as just plain ol’ heavy metal. Which is totally fine! They sound good, and there’s nothing wrong with just heavy metal.