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Today’s play list!

Otis Redding, “She Put The Hurt On Me”

There’s so much to love about this song. The rubbery bass especially on the chorus, the interplay between the horns and the organ, and of course Redding’s always great vocal performance. It’s hard to pick Redding’s best record, but I think I’d take Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary Of Soul as first among equals.

Your Old Droog, “Help”

One of my favorite discoveries from 2017 was Your Old Droog’s second album, Packs. Coming out of the East Coast, his vocals frequently are compared to Nas, which makes sense in terms of delivery, and the beats on his record have a sort of psychedelic feel to them. When I first heard it, it reminded me a lot of Edan, which turns out to be for good reason as he worked with Edan on a couple of tracks (including this one). The overall feel is just square in my wheelhouse.

Confidential to Megan: there’s a playlist on Plexasaurus Rex for today! For the rest of you, you have to first put up with my crap for about 25 years, and then you can have a private playlist. In the mean time, you can at least get the YouTube-ized version.

Pussy Galore, “Dick Johnson”

There are lots of moments, especially on Dial ‘M’ for Motherfucker, where Pussy Galore presented the vision which Jon Spencer would bring to full fruition with the Jon Spencer Blue Explosion. There’s a pretty straight line from this song to the tunes on the first JSBX album, for instance. Those are also invariably the most interesting Pussy Galore songs.

A bit scattered today.

Dog Faced Hermans, “Love Is The Heart Of Everything”

“Anarchist” is always kind of an interesting descriptor when applied to a band. For whatever reason, there are some bands where that’s called out for them, and I’m sitting here thinking that I’ve pretty much liked every band I’ve ever encountered that has been described as anarchist. The Dog Faced Hermans, for instace. I’m looking at this list of anarchist-punk bands from Wikipedia (of course there’s a list on Wikipedia), and it’s pretty bitchin’, even if I question the inclusion of some bands. Black Flag! The Dead Kennedys! Napalm Death! NoMeansNo! Propagandhi! That’s some good shit, y’all.

Today’s tunes!

J Church, “Lines”

One of the great things that punk is able to do when it’s on is produce a short song that nevertheless is complete and satisfying. This thing clocks in at 1:40 and you’d hardly notice that it’s not the usual three minute pop song. Lance Hahn was able to pull this off time after time, in way that should shame so many people out there writing rock songs.

I don’t have a ton to say today.

Game Theory, “Exactly What We Don’t Want To Hear”

You know, you should all thank me that I haven’t yet made a “it’s time for some game theory!” joke! Or “joke”, really. Uh, until now, I suppose.

The Spinanes, “Meridian”

There should be more rock duos, in my opinion. The Spinanes don’t suffer from the spare instrumentation at all. It gives more space to focus on the individual elements of the band, which is totally OK with me! I wonder what Rebecca Gates is up to these days? Probably shouldn’t look. Never learn anything, that’s my motto.

Took a little break over the holiday. Why not! Anyway, I’m back, let’s see what we get!

Tenement, “Crop Circle Nation”

Not bad! Tenement play melodic punk, I suppose you’d call it, although it’s really stretching the work “punk” pretty far. I guess it’s just kind of “rock” at this point. If you were to guess where they’re from, you might guess the Midwest, given the long pedigree for this type of music in that area. And you’d be right! You’re so smart, person who doesn’t exist!

Pretty much a mess today.

The Gabriel Construct, “Arrival In A Distant Land”

At what point does a prog rock album cross the border from rock into something else? How far can you stretch rock before it breaks? These aren’t questions being asked directly by Gabriel Riccio, who is the force behind this album, but those questions are certainly present. This is a concept album about…something, I dunno. It’s all very high concept. Let’s put it this way: this is the opening track to the album. This is how it kicks off. So clearly, he’s not going for accessible here.

I dunno, feels like we’ve had a good mix recently. Today is no different.

Sebadoh, “New Worship”

Sebadoh’s Sub Pop debut, Smash Your Head On The Punk Rock, would prove to be a transitional album. Taking the sprawling, brilliant mess of III and at least partially taming it, the focus and professionalism that Sebadoh started exhibiting here would eventually result in much more coherent albums. This period is my favorite one of the band, as I like a little chaos in my music, so when they mostly worked that stuff out of their sound, I stopped paying as much attention. So, the three album stretch from III through Bubble and Scrape is where I mostly listen.

Here’s today’s tunes.

Action Bronson & Statik Selektah, “Cocoa Butter”

Action Bronson bubbled up from the underground after making the transition from chef to rapper. After breaking his leg, he decided to try making his hobby into his main career, putting together his debut Dr. Lecter, a fun album full of energy, food metaphors, and tons of rhyming. It’s an entertaining listen, but it remained to be seen if Bronson would move past the Ghostface worship. His next album, Well-Done, a collaboration with Statik Selektah, answered that question: no. No, he would not.

Today!

Clem Snide, “Donna”

Long time reader/listeners (both of you!) know that I’m a huge Uncle Tupelo stan, but my favorite alt-country album isn’t one of theirs. It’s probably Your Favorite Music, Clem Snide’s second album. Thanks to their willingness to stretch out and leave space for Eef Barzelay’s intimate delivery and elliptical lyrics, the entire album manages to create a mood of melancholy without really giving you a specific reason for it. It’s a little disorienting that way, but then you get to the end, and you want to give it another spin.