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Today!

Melvins, “Skweetis”

This is how Stoner Witch opens. I put this on when it came out, and just thought “holy shit, this is going to crush my head”. And it did. My head remains crushed to this day.

Chris Clark, “Don’t Be Too Long”

And then my head became uncrushed. Thanks, Motown!

Deathspell Omega, “Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Deathspell Omega turn out to be Nazi shitheads, and you should not in any way patronize them. I’m leaving the original text here, but fuck these guys.

Six songs today!

Murs, “3:16”

The beat that 9th Wonder put together on this track is smoking hot.

They Might Be Giants, “Can You Find It?”

This song makes more sense if you watch the accompanying video for it. But, uh, I’m not sure if I’d worry too much about it. Also, I think we’ve had this song before, but looking through all these entries to confirm that is a hassle. Uhhh, I’m going to say we did?

All frequent fliers today!

Public Enemy, “Lost In Space Music”

This comes from Man Plans God Laughs, which is deep into the long run of somehwat undifferentiated albums that Public Enemy has been making for years and years now. They’ve lasted long enough and produced enough records that they have way more non-peak albums than they do peak albums. Which is kind of a bummer. It’s also hard for me to fairly evaluate most of these these records. They’re competing with such indelible memories.

Good set today.

Modest Mouse, “Autumn Beds”

From a later EP from the band, No One’s First, And You’re Next, these are songs that were largely left off of Good News For People Who Love Bad News and We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank. If you’re looking for more songs that would have fit into those albums, this EP is worth looking into.

Sleater-Kinney, “Oh!”

Another good song from Sleater-Kinney which I will undoubtedly totally forget the tune for after the song has finished.

Today!

The White Stripes, “Suzy Lee”

From their first, most primitive record, the White Stripes nevertheless still sounded like themselves right from the beginning. Some of that is Jack White’s distinctive yelp, some of that is the spare blues, some of it is the plodding drums. But they’re instantly recognizable.

Crudbump, “England (Last Year)”

It takes somebody pretty sharp to write something this aggressively dumb.

Bob Marley, “Gonna Get You”

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m crediting everything to Bob Marley even when it’s credited to him and the Wailers. I’m erasing the Wailers just to make my categorization easier. That makes me shitty. Always nice to listen to Marley, Wailers or no.

Sorry we’ve missed a couple days around here. I’m gonna lie and say it’s not going to happen again. All good now! Here’s today.

Tricky, “Demise”

We’ve heard from Portishead and Massive Attack, and now it’s time to hear from the other giant of trip-hop, Tricky. Tricky’s debut, Maxinquaye, ranks up there with Dummy and Blue Lines as one of the masterpieces of electronic music from the early to mid 90s. Alas, this does not come from Maxinquaye, but from the much later Angels With Dirty Faces, which is only so-so.

Today!

Gaza, “Skull Trophy”

Gaza, out of Salt Lake City, played a brand of metal that crossed a bunch of arbitrary genre boundaries, usually a combination of sludge and doom. I recognize that these kinds of categorizations are deeply unhelpful for folks unfamiliar with metal, and yet I provide them anyway. It’s loud and angry! It sometimes slows down to a drag along ala doom, and is often centered around big riffs, like sludge. And has a lot of shouting.

Good stuff today!

Devo, “Uncontrollable Urge”

The first track from the first album, here’s how Devo first planted their flag. And listen to how sharp they sounded right out of the gate! My god, this is such a tight song. For people of my age, who really only knew Devo as the weirdos who did “Whip It”, discovering that they had such great songs in their past was a real shock.

A Motown artist! A fake Motown artist! Big Business playing with two bands!

Mayer Hawthorne, “The News”

We’ve heard from Mayer Hawthorne before with Tuxedo, but here he is with his solo act. Hawthorne, who grew up in Ann Arbor, Michegan, not far from the home of Motown, didn’t really intend to be a soul revivalist. He made some songs mostly as a goof, but attracted attention from them, with legendary hip-hop label Stones Throw initially thinking that they were authentic, lost 60s singles. A full-length album followed, with Hawthorne following through on the promise of authentic sounding soul. Only, you know, with swearing. As his career has moved forward, he’s moved away some from the pure Motown revival, but my favorite of his albums is the one this song came from, How Do You Do, which is very much a revival record.

Great set today!

Hüsker Dü, “Somewhere”

One of the greatest bands of the 80s rock underground, Hüsker Dü took a big leap forward with this album, the sprawling double album Zen Arcade. They went from a (great) hardcore band to a band that explored the limits of what hardcore was capable of. Along with their contemporaries and label mates the Minutemen, Hüsker Dü seemed capable of just about anything. By refusing to be constrained in any one style, Hüsker Dü inspired countless future bands to keep exploring and keep moving rock forward. Zen Arcade is one of the key albums in understanding the evolution of the American rock underground.