Posts

NoFX, “I Wanna Be Your Baby”

A misfire from this record, I just really don’t want to hear Fat Mike singing this, you know?

Unsteady, “Breaking Up”

A real treat! Unsteady put up a handful of unreleased tracks onto the web in 2001 or so, and I managed to grab them and hang onto them for forever. They never released a followup to their masterful Double or Nothing, so these four tracks are the only things we have. More than I think anybody else in the third wave, they’re the band that I wanted to hear more from. Alas.

Dr. Ring-Ding & The Senior Allstars, “Bad Company”

I wonder what the Junior Allstars sound like?

The Orb, “Close Encounters”

I think last time, we talked about ambient, and how it doesn’t always work that well for me. Well, let’s see if anything has changed, because we have ten minutes of it to listen to together! I’ll see you on the other side, if I’m still awake.

Death Grips, “Spikes”

What’s the opposite of ambient? Anyway, I’m awake now!

Polvo, “Bridesmaid Blues”

I just looked and realized that Cor-Crane Secret, the first Polvo album, is missing fromy my library. I’m not sure where it went, I absolutely had the CD back in the day. Lost? Never got ripped? Dropped on the floor during one of the library’s migrations from place to place? Who knows? But thanks to the magic of Bandcamp, I can replace it. And Shapes, which was also missing. It’s Polvo day here!

The Magnetic Fields, “Meaningless”

Pretty sure this is a repeat!

The National, “Afraid of Everyone”

This is also a repeat!

(That’s a lie, I just don’t want to figure out anything to say about the National. Don’t want to make people mad!)

La Gritona, “Jack Passion”

La Gritona were a noise rock band out of Boston, active in the second half of the 90s, who put out one album and some EPs before ending things. And they smoke, all heavy skronk and yelling, exactly the kind of stuff that’s up my alley. But I had no idea they existed, because by the time their album came out in 1997, I was out of college and slowly losing touch with music. Luckily, their entire catalog was compiled together into a re-release in 2010, where a postiive review brought it to my attention. And maybe this will bring them to someone else’s attention, because this stuff rules.

Nicole Willis & the Soul Investigators, “Light Years Ahead”

With the strings here, this is reading very “late Stax” to me, or perhaps Curtis Mayfield. Interestingly, it’s an era of soul that for the most part hasn’t seen as much of a revival as earlier Stax or Motown. I’m not sure why that is, exactly, although perhaps the lusher arrangements are just harder to put together for independent artists.

The Queers, “Drop The Attitude Fucker”

You first, the Queers!

The Beatles, “I’m So Tired”

Big same, Beatles.

DJ Krush, “Jikan no Hashi 2”

Do I need to hear “Jikan no Hashi” for this song to make sense?

Abstract hip-hop artist DJ Krush’s 1996 MiLiGHT featured a bunch of collaborations, resulting in a bit of an uneven record. But at the heart of it are always his jazzy beats, so it’s still a pleasant listen.

The Skunks, “The Chairman”

Well, that’s pointless.

Made it to May! Seemed like April lasted for double the usual days this year.

Minus the Bear, “Lotus”

I’m not sure I would have placed this in the past, but you know what? I’m getting some pretty heavy Yes vibes off of this.

The Bruce Lee Band, “Mr. Hanelei”

Sometimes, I wish I was enough of a professional to click onto my own tags and read what I’d already written about bands. But, I’m not, so I have to rely on my own crummy memory. I don’t want to repeat the same stories about bands, but I also don’t want to work any harder than I do for this thing. So here we are, I’m writing nonsense and you’re left with a meta comment here instead of something useful. Or even “useful”. Well, anyway, the song is over!

Kid Koala, “Drunk Trumpet”

“Drunk Trumpet” appears on Kid Koala’s first record, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and this is a fun live version of it from Live From The Short Attention Span Audio Theater Tour. As always, Kid Koala is a gas.

Jay Dee, “Pause”

Before his legendary Donuts, J Dilla’s first record under his own name was Welcome 2 Detroit, part of the first set of records for BBE’s Beat Generation series. Dilla’s record is probably the second best of that group, after Pete Rock’s, and if you haven’t looked it up but enjoy his other work, you should.

Skalpel, “Quicksilver”

Love me a good jazz/DJ thing.

Destroyer, “The Bad Arts”

Streethawk: A Seduction was the first Destroyer record that I heard, and this was the song that I heard on that record that really got me going. Something about how spare a lot of the song is, just his voice and either a simple groove or his guitar, just works super well. A delightful tune.

Cherubs, “Sooey Pig”

You know, it would have been just fine with me if that first thirty seconds of formless guitar noise just kind of kept going. I have objections with the rest of this crawl, mind you. But I love me a good wad of meandering feedback.

Death From Above 1979, “Black History Month (Josh Homme remix)”

After the explosive success of You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine, a remix record was hustled out the door. I didn’t realize it was a remix record, I just saw it in Sonic Boom here in Seattle and thought “neat, a new DFA record!” Friends, it wasn’t a new record, not really, and is as pointless as any other remix record.