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Black Moon, “Enta da Stage”

Black Moon’s 1993 classic, Enta da Stage, could not have been released at a worse time to get attention. The synthesis of the jazz-inflected beats of Native Tongues and the street rhymes of New York City would have been massively influential had it not landed at roughly the same time as Midnight Mauraders (showing how far these kinds of beats could be taken) and Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (showing how far these kinds of rhymes could go). Nevertheless, the album is a serious banger.

Chaos A.D., “Generation Shit”

Chaos A.D. is an Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher), releasing a miscellaneous pile of tracks from his early years. It doesn’t show the same kind of sophistication of his later recordings, and honestly, it’s an easy skip. This is probalby the worst track on the album, though, so don’t totally judge on this song.

The Beatles, “Dear Prudence”

One of my simultaneously dumbest and proudest moments in Rock Band was five starring this song on the drums and vocals and the same time…except I whistled the entirety of the vocal track. Not bad!

Spanish Love Songs, “Routine Pain”

I missed the first couple Spanish Love Songs albums when they came out, because I’m an out of touch loser. So this is the first song I ever heard from the band, and it’s simultaneously a seriously impressive tune, totally affecting, and frankly kind of hard to listen to. I think this record is amazing and also I just can’t handle listening to it very often.

The Mr. T Experience, “Bridge to Taribithia”

Thoroughly enjoyable instrumental from Our Bodies Our Selves, one of the stronger mid-career MTX albums.

Claw Hammer, “Uncontrollable Urge”

This song is a serious jam, even when it’s a very straightforward cover of the song. I’ve decided that I really like having Claw Hammer’s album length cover of Devo’s first album in the library just to increase my chances of hearing the tunes.

The Streets, “Who Got The Funk?”

Is…is it the Streets?

The Grifters, “Covered With Flies”

I periodically see “forgotten bands of the grunge era” and similar articles, because I’m old and I read old person things. Those articles invariably dig up one or two interesting bands (Love Battery, say), four different Pearl Jam predecessor bands, and then a couple bands that always sucked but the writer saw in a club early and thus has an irrational fixation on them. And you know who nobody ever mentions? That’s right, the Grifters. Who ruled and are now forgotten.

ALL, “Honey Peeps”

By the time they hit 1997’s Mass Nerder, ALL was on their third singer across seven albums, but the band still basically sounded the same. This was finally the album where I realized that I was very much done with them. The previous record (Pummel) had some awful lyrics, and I really wasn’t sure why I picked this one up. Kind of force of habit, really. At any rate, with the Descendents also having been resurrected by this point, ALL really served no purpose.

Mix Master Mike, “Positive Contact (Mario C remix)”

This is a remix of a track from Deltron 3030, the great left-field hip-hop classic featuring Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Dan the Automator. Mix Master Mike took that and turned it into this remix, which…isn’t as good as the original. Oh well!

Artie Shaw, “Frenesi”

When my oldest started playing the clarient, I decided to try and pick up something which might inspire her, so I grabbed this compilation (The Essential Artie Shaw). And while I don’t think she cared about it at all, it’s a perfectly enjoyable listen.

Benton Falls, “Sad Like Winter Leaves”

We don’t get a ton of emo around here. Not because I dislike it, but I think mostly because when emo has had its various peaks, I was kind of listening to other stuff, and sort of missed out on a lot of it. I’m definitely the target audience! I’ve sat in a completely dark room listening to Slint’s Spiderland, which is extremely My Emotions Are Hard To Handle. At any rate, I generally like emo, and Benton Falls’ two albums are really very good. And: special shout-out to that song title. That is TREMENDOUS hustle right there. Primo sad boy shit.

Pigs, “Bug Boy”

Side project of Unsane bassist Dave Curran, it’s easy to see the lineage here. This is just pure noise rock in the NYC form, all splattered riffs and yelling. So, yeah, of course I like this. Both Pigs albums are totally worth listening to if you’re a noise rock person.

Iron & Wine, “Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car”

Iron & Wine is one of those acts where I always enjoy listening to his stuff, and simultaneously have trouble distinguishing it. If you asked me what made this album (The Shepherd’s Dog) different from his other work, I’d have to kind of shrug a little bit. It’s all good, but it’s tough to say what my favorite is.

Eugenius, “Breakfast”

The Vaselines’ leader, Eugene Kelly, formed a new band (called Eugenius) that got plenty of attention due to Kurt Cobain’s cheerleading for the band. Well, for the Vaselines, anyway. At any rate, that’s how I ended up with this album (Oomalama). And, well, it’s fine. It’s power pop, and plenty tuneful, but hard to get too excited about.

Sloan, “Before I Do”

Meanwhile, if you’re going to listen to power pop, you might as well just listen to Sloan instead. You can’t wave your hands without hitting a “they should have been big!” profile of Sloan, so I’ll save the space here. I’m not Canadian, so I’m not legally allowed to write that story anyway. Twice Removed is fantastic, anyway.