Posts

Propagandhi, “Stick the Fucking Flag Up Your Goddamn Ass, You Sonofabitch”

Preach it, Propagandhi! Used to crank this tune driving around Spokane with the windows down, which was probably less risky in 1995 but not without risk.

The Gabriel Construct, “Ranting Prophet”

This is a progressive metal project led by Gabriel Lucas Riccio with help from a bunch of guest artists, and it’s a real trip. I suppose you can tell from this track if you’re going to like this thing or not. I admire the ambition of it, certainly.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, “Hell”

This, from Xtra-Acme USA, is kind of a sketch of a song, but it still cooks pretty good. I mean, just one good “weeeeeeeeeeellllllll” from Spencer is enough to get me going.

Pile, “appendicitis”

There’s some other song that I can’t quite put my finger on that the intro to this song reminds me of. I feel like the guitar tone is very Black Francis, but I’m not entirely sure what song it’s trying to trigger for me. Once you get into the meat of the song, though, that feeling of reminding dissipates.

Ne’er-Do-Wells, “Skybolt X-66”

Rock ’n’ roll! Straight outta the 50s! Or 1993, whatever.

Don Caballero, “Room Temperature Lounge”

From Singles Breaking Up, Vol. 1, which is a singles comp, as you could probably guess. Kind of hard to believe that you can consider this song and the previous one (separated by a mere four years!) as both being products of the 90s rock underground.

They Might Be Giants, “All Time What”

2015-2018 was an extremely productive period for TMBG, with a flurry of albums driven in part by a revival of the Dial-a-Song project. Of that burst of records, the gem is I Like Fun, a record loaded with catchy tunes, but also some pretty fun song structures. This isn’t one of the killer tunes from it, but even as one of the lesser tracks, it still has that big horn arrangement and is a good time.

The Nation of Ulysses, “Cool Senior High School (Fight Song)”

Back in the day, there were troglodytes on Usenet that hated the Nation of Ulysses for being too arty, too pretentious, just too much. How stupid is that? This shit rocks, people are dumb.

Death Cab For Cutie, “I Will Follow You Into The Dark”

OK, you’ve all heard this song a billion times, on radio stations, as various crappy covers, and as the background music to a weepy scene on a middlebrow TV drama. So, whatever. What I want to talk about is this bit from the Wikipedia entry on the song, which I went to go look at to see how high this thing charted (which I no longer care about).

Tricky, “Brand New You’re Retro”

Maxinquaye is one of the three pillars of trip-hop, along with Blue Lines and Dummy. What’s striking about all three records, besides them all being great, is kind of how dissimilar they all end up feeling. There’s a murky darkness at the core of them all, but they take different paths to get there. Tricky is probably the most hip-hop of the three, although the swirling noise is still pretty distinctly foreign to the hip-hop of the time.

Yo-Yo Ma, “Suite no. 4 in E-flat major, BWV 1010: I. Prélude”

These pieces, which come up occasionally, really don’t make a lot of sense in isolation. Shuffle is good at some things - surprises, shaking up your routine, serendipity - but is bad at an album like this.

The Meters, “Africa”

Rejuvenation is my favorite album from the second Meters phase of life. The grittier, mostly- or all-instrumental Meters of the first few albums had changed into a brighter sound, with vocals and more bounce. Still incredibly funky, of course, but a different feel. Generally, I lean towards the earlier sound, but this album is undeniable.

Iron Chic, “My Best Friend (Is a Nihilist)”

Had I encountered this when I was 17, I’m sure I would have adored it. As it is, I like it just fine, but I’m also far more likely to listen to the punk that I encountered when I actually was 17. It’s nothing personal, we just make emotional connections with this kind of thing when we’re young.

Alarmist, “Expert Hygiene”

squints Jazz fusion? Elaborate post-rock? Post-math-rock? Math jazz?

Lungfish, “My Fool Heart”

I’ve kind of run down Lungfish often enough here to make it clear that I’m not a big fan, so I won’t rehash it. I do wonder occasionally (usually whenever they come up here) if I’m missing something by not going for their later albums and seeing if my opinion would change.

And then I realize that I do have a couple later albums, and had just forgotten that they existed. Whoops! I already answered this for myself.

Kid Koala, “The Fundamentals”

Floor Kids is the game soundtrack that Kid Koala did, because it’s not enough for him to be a musican, composer, and artist, it was time to work on a game also. It’s a fun rhythm game around breakdancing, and I recommend it, and of course the soundtrack is a good time.

The Skoidats, “Running Riot (live)”

A cover of the song by Cock Sparrer, in case you couldn’t make out the intro. Uh, not a whole lot else to say here.

The Beautiful South, “Liars’ Bar”

Yeah, not the best choice here for a band where the delightful vocal performances are such an important part of their sound.

Madvillain, “Operation Lifesaver aka Mint Test”

A thing about Madvillain which is always impressive is that a lot of these tracks are pretty short, often under two minutes, but they feel fully realized and don’t at all feel skimpy. They’re just so packed with ideas that even a brief track is satisfying.