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They Might Be Giants, “They’ll Need A Crane”

This song is a great example of how John Linnell is capable of writing a bouncy, charming song that nevertheless has a melancholy core to it. He usually bangs out at least one of those on each record, and there’s always some turn of phrase in them that really sticks with me. “There’s a restaurant we should check out / where the other nightmare people like to go / I mean nice people / Baby wait / I didn’t mean to say nightmare” just runs through my head all the time. Lincoln is real good, y’all.

It was wobbly a few times there, but another month in the books. As always, thanks for sticking with me here!

BIG|BRAVE, “Do.No.Harm.Do.No.Wrong.Do.No.Harm.Do.No.Wrong.Do.No.Harm.Do.No.Wrong”

If you were just given the data above, the name of this song and the name of this band, I wonder how close you’d get to guessing that it sounds like this kind of abrasive drone? I think I’d guess something pretty outré, at any rate, so I might get pretty close to “early Swans, I guess?” But that’s easy for me to say, I already knew what this sounded like.

Black Eyes, “Deformative”

Always enjoy songs that sounds like somebody set the wrong speed on the turntable.

Filibuster, “Fat Cat”

Well, here’s a real rarity for you. This album came out in 1995, pretty early in the third wave of ska, and I had totally forgotten about it until now. I can usually pull up some details about all these forgotten third wave acts, your Articles and Los Hooligans or whoever, but folks? I got absolutely nothing. Not bad, though!

Johnny Cash, “Cocaine Blues”

If you’ve got a blog, just a-read it to me.

Ivy Sole, “You Don’t Know My Name”

Ivy Sole is out of Philadelphia, and this song comes from her excellent debut Eden. I came across this record thanks to one of the Bandcamp spotlight emails, which are always a good source of learning about artists.

Ernie Hines, “Electrified Love”

Ernie Hines’s Electrified was a somewhat forgotten album released on Stax in 1972 until it was resurrected by hip-hop producers, which brought it to new audiences. It’s a fine album, and this lead track gives you an idea of what you’re in for.

Renegade Soundwave, “Murder Music”

I will always group Renegade Sounwave with Pop Will Eat Itself in my brain, and it’s almost impossible to separate them. But, if you’ve heard both bands, I think you can hear what I’m hearing. If you cannot, don’t tell me! I don’t care!

Silkworm, “Garden City Blues”

My library of bands I could compare people to back when I picked up this album in 1994 was fairly limited, and my big thought when I listened to this was “geez, Pavement much?” And, I suppose in my defense, this song still sounds pretty Pavement-y to my ears. That description sells Silkworm very short, of course, but when this was the first song on the record, I’m going to go ahead and let Young Josh off the hook.

Gorilla Biscuits, “High Hopes”

Gorilla Biscuits were one of the most influential hardcore bands, and their self-titled record set the stage for Start Today, which inspired tons of followers. This song, from that self-titled record, is a good example of how they were still pretty raw, but you could really hear the potential. Because this is still pretty straight-forward, it’s aged pretty well.

Prefuse 73, “Expressing Views is Obviously Illegal”

The third Prefuse 73 record, Surrounded by Silence, found Scott Herren starting to really branch out from the micro-samples and glitchy stuff that really made his name. He had a bunch of guest rappers on the record and generally tried to broaden his sonic palette. That said, there were still plenty of tracks that sounded like his classic sound, like this one.

The Shins, “New Slang”

I sort of mentally lumped the Shins in with a bunch of other indie bands (like Death Cab) as being “fine, but not for me”. Who had the time to differentiate all these bands? It wasn’t actually until I found “For A Fool” on Rocksmith and had such a good time playing it that I paid more attention, and hey - turns out I actually really like the Shins. We wander into the music we like through a lot of different ways, and it always pays to keep your ears open.

Pixies, “Here Comes Your Man”

A classic. Also a member of the group of songs where I can play both the bass and drums for it.

Fugazi, “Waiting Room (version)”

Another classic! Sounding like my dorm room in here today. Except this isn’t from 7 Songs, it’s the demo version from First Demo, which is a huge amount of fun if you’re a big Fugazi fan. Which I am!

Andrew Bird, “Polynation”

Goddamn! Really hitting some of my favorite artists here! However, this is a just a little interstitial tune from Break It Yourself.

Claude Fontaine, “Pretending He Was You”

Claude Fontaine’s self-titled 2019 album is a mix of reggae and a few other musical styles, such as the bossa nova of this track. It’s a charming record, helped considerably by her hiring Jamaican musicians who are deeply familiar with the music as her backing band. It’s an album that could easily have come off as inauthentic, but ends up working quite well.

Czarface & Ghostface Killah, “Powers and Stuff”

Czarface is Inspectah Deck (from the Wu-Tang Clan) and Esoteric, here teaming up for an album-length collaboration with Ghostface. As with most of Wu-related records, it’s very listenable, because the formula is so strong. Ghostface is great, of course, and the Czarface MCs are solid, so this ends up being a fun album.

Intronaut, “The Pleasant Surprise”

I’ve engaged in a fair bit of introspection around progressive metal around here. I suspect it’s because the music is sufficiently ambitious that it invites us to engage with it seriously and think about it. Today, instead, I’m going to take a step back and try and instead answer a different, much more visceral question with regard to this song, instead of the usual navel gazing: does it rock? Reader: this song rocks.