Anything On Your Mind?
We finally wind back to the previous century. ♫ So tonight, I’m gonna blog like it’s 1999 ♫
1999 was the last year of what I think of as post-college. I was living in an apartment, I was still with my first real job out of school, and I was mostly spending my time just hanging out with friends and playing tabletop games of various kinds. Megan moved out to Seattle in 1999, and the apartment I was in got pretty cozy (aka very tight) at that point, but other than that, this was a pretty carefree time in my life. I was investing some time in trying to learn to cook at this point in my life, with mixed results initially, but you have to start somewhere. I had a couple of books that I mostly worked from. One was Cracking the Coconut, a gift from a friend, which seemed like it was really kind of beyond my skill level. I remember making one recipe from it that asked for shrimp paste, which was the first time I’d encountered the stuff, and I ended up with a big tub of it. It had a lid, a sheet of plastic, and then a layer of wax sealing it in. Upon breaching it, the smell was…bracing. We made the curry (it was not great, which was my fault, I’m sure), and then the tub lived in our fridge, lurking in the back, making us wonder what to do with it. (I mailed it to a friend, because I had access to free postage at work and it seemed like a thing to do. He was confused. I also once used said free postage to mail a slice of cake to another friend. Free postage was fun!)
I did have a very fun trip that year, paid for by work, that involved giving a talk at Embedded Systems Europe in Maastricht and a half a day of consulting in Aalborg, and surrounding those two things with some tourist stuff. Turns out lots of stuff in Denmark is closed in November, though. Still a fun trip, even if it’s one I remember mostly for the things we couldn’t see.
Especially before Megan’s arrival, my evenings were mostly spent with games and music, which means I expect to be pretty on top of the chart. Hmm. Only ten. Although again, I know I had that Neurosis record. I guess I lost a chunk of their stuff at some point? I suppose I have some Neurosis records to pick up.
What Are You Listening To, Josh?
A sampling of albums that I’m playing regularly, whether older ones or newer ones. Just the things that I think are worth highlighting, and maybe you’d enjoy.
Royal Astronomy, μ‐Ziq
μ‐Ziq is Mike Paradinas, and he’s been making albums for ages, even up to present day. I think most people seem to like Lunatic Harness or Tango N’ Vectif best from his records, and they’re both great, but I actually like this record the best from him. There’s more variety to it, there’s more atmosphere with all the orchestral noises, there’s more changes in pace on it than those other records. Paradinas ranges a fair bit across electronic music instead of keeping the gas floored like a fair number of electronic artists at this time.
(NB: Paradinas does have a Bandcamp, but this album isn’t available on it for some reason. I guess have a spin with Lunatic Harness instead?)
EEVIAC: Operational Index and Reference Guide, Including Other Modern Computational Devices, Man Or Astro-Man?
Man Or Astro-Man? banged out a series of ten or so albums through the 90s of (mostly) instrumental surf rock. They were incredibly consistent during that time, with the albums being pretty uniformly good. But “uniform” can also be a bit of a problem with a band whose style doesn’t evolve much and is also very prolific. Things can blend together a little bit. I don’t actually own every MOA-M record, for instance. But I do enjoy the ones that I have, and this is the one that I play the most often. (Probably Experiment Zero is next.) If a band that is trucking in classic sci-fi imagery and playing reverbed out instrumental rock sounds appealing, give them a spin.
As the World Burns, Arsonists
There’s a certain novelty attached to this record, at least for me, as it’s a straight-up rap record released by indie rock stalwarts Matador Records. Matador had just released a Superchunk record (Come Pick Me Up) and was about to release a Jon Spencer Blues Explosion album (Xtra-Acme USA), so to have this thing drop in-between those really twisted my head back in the day. But it’s not just a novelty, it’s an extremely fun record. Like the Jurassic 5 record from last time, the Arsonists had a big crew and did a lot of swapping on the mic. Also like J5, they did all the production within their group, so all the beats were perfectly suited to the verses. It’s not as much of a throwback sonically, but it’s still a worthy listen.
Keeping 1999 Going
More! More!
We Are The Romans, Botch
As always, I’m a homer, and that extends to bands that are from Seattle-adjacent places. So Botch, out of Tacoma, definitely qualify for the homer treatment. Botch only released two albums, with this being the second, before breaking up (and the members went on to do a bunch of other stuff). But for a band that didn’t last long, they did seem to have quite a bit of influence on other metalcore bands. This album certainly seems to get brought up a lot, at any rate. But even aside from whatever influence they may have had, it’s just a fun listen, with all the characteristic lurching around and changes of direction that metalcore is good for but not getting too far up its own ass. I’m truthfully not that much of a metalcore guy, but this one is an excellent time.
A Prince Among Thieves, Prince Paul
Prince Paul is an absolute legend. From his work with Stetsasonic, to all of his essential production work with people like De La Soul, the Gravediggaz, and others, to his own work under his own name and Handsome Boy Modeling School, he’s just been everywhere. I highly recommend What Had Happened Was, Open Mike Eagle’s podcast, and the first season was all Prince Paul. Anyway, I think his finest moment is actually this album, a rap opera themed around the rapid rise and fall of a young MC. It has themes of friendship, betrayal, and Kool Keith acting like a nut. The list of guests is endless and they all nail it, the story is fun, the skits in-between are a good time, Breeze Brewin’ is outstanding as the lead voice on the record, I just can’t say enough nice things about this album. All that and a perfect parody of “Steady Mobbin’”.
Tasty Bits & Spicy Flicks, Easy Big Fella
I feel like I need a ska record in here to really paint an accurate picture of the stuff I was listening to in 1999. But by this time, the third wave was faltering quite a bit. Moon Ska Records, the most important label of the scene, was wobbling quite a bit and would shortly be defunct. The backlash had started and was well underway, and things were just pulling back across the board. Some bands who released very good records had follow-ups that were steps back in 1999 as well (like the Pietasters, Mephiskapheles, or Skavoovie & the Epitones). As a result, there aren’t really that many records from this year that I still listen to. One of them, the Skalars’ Change Up, is absolutely fantastic and is also one I mentioned a few months ago, so I’ll just let it be. It’s really excellent, though.
Instead, I’ll mention my second favorite ska record from this year, from Seattle’s own Easy Big Fella. It did come out on Moon Ska, but as I said, that label soon collapsed and I don’t think anybody outside of Seattle really found out about them. And probably not that many people here, truthfully. But I really like it a lot - it’s basically a party record, and it’s just breezy, horn-y fun. Good luck finding it, but some kind soul made it into a Youtube playlist.
Five Random Songs
Yes, it’s the “classic” five random songs format. It’s been told before on this blog many times, but basically, on an old forum, people would post the last five songs their shuffle pulled up. I liked it, so I made it into a blog. And now, here we are.
“Charade”, Unsteady
Oh, just you wait, I’ll be writing about this album in 1997 for sure. Wait, probably not, I just wrote about that record a little while ago. Well, whatever. One of my favorites from the third wave!
“Plank”, The Rudiments
Five Random Songs: Oops! All Ska!
“Time Will Tell”, Bob Marley & the Wailers
Well…close enough.
“Never You Change”, Toots & the Maytals
I swear, I’m not doing this on purpose.
“Westside Story”, The Game
Dammit, The Game, not now, we had a thing going!
Josh, What Are You Doing Here?
I’m just writing about music. A structure like this blog helps me get my thoughts out, and it’s a way for me to explore my own music collection through various lenses. My sincere hope is that some folks out there find some new music they love. That’s all I’m up to. Sincere thanks to everybody who sends me feedback, with news that they’ve found a new favorite especially fun for me. There’s no monetization, no metrics, no ads, no promos, no nothing. Just some static web pages, some links, and my scribbling. If you want to support it, just shoot me a note! Thanks for reading.
Some Better Places To Learn About Music
Check these folks out, you’ll learn more for sure. In no particular order: To The Teeth, Wolf’s Week/Plague Rages, The Devil’s Mouth, Burning Ambulance, Lamniformes Cuneiform, Hex Records, See/Saw, Starkweather, Treble Magazine, The Quietus, Stereogum.