Posts

Jesus Jones, “The Devil You Know”

After the enormous success of “Right Here, Right Now” carried Doubt everywhere, Jesus Jones was faced with the prospect of following up a massive hit, a task which has broken many bands. The followup came a couple years later, and Perverse achieved nowhere the same level of success. Partly, those two years hurt. Partly, it was due to the pop music world having moved on to other shiny objects. It certainly didn’t help when one of the biggest bands associated with the scene, the Stone Roses, remained adamantly MIA. But for the last part, it was due to Perverse being not a terribly likable album. The shiny, crowd-pleasing stuff just wasn’t there. It’s very electronics focused, an emphasis on only one half of the Madchester formula, but it winds up feeling imbalanced. It’s really almost trending towards industrial dance, but kind of falls into an uncanny valley.

Robustos, “My Little Suede Shoes”

The bands that got famous in the third wave of ska were those that took the second wave and went further towards punk. No Doubt, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, folks like Goldfinger, Save Ferris, a bunch of others, they all leaned heavily on rock to make the sound more appealing to a broader audience. But that left out a bunch of other bands who drew more on the first wave and the original sounds, and who didn’t get the attention. Those are the bands that I mostly continue listening to these days. The Robustos are one of those forgotten bands, who played just straight ska, without mixing stuff in, and this album (Introducing…The Robustos) is a good listen.

Gnarls Barkley, “Gone Daddy Gone”

It takes a lot of guts to cover anything from the sui generis Violent Femmes. It’s such a beloved album, and such an iconic set of performances, that you’re very much always going to be compared against perfection. I think the only way to go would be to really re-imagine the songs, but Gnarls Barkley doesn’t do that. So, uh, I’d rather just be listening to the Violet Femmes.

Monorchid, “A Was For Anarchy”

Monorchid features two alumni from post-hardcore band Circus Lupus, which will be immediately obvious to anybody who listened to Circus Lupus. This comes from their second album, Who Put Out The Fire?, and it’s a solid chunk of DC post-hardcore. Post-harDCore? If I were to rank this against the Circus Lupus records, I’d probably put it behind Solid Brass and ahead of Super Genius.

Jan Jelinek, “Universal Band Silhouette”

Boy, some songs today that would have been really fast picks for me on “Name That Tune”. The glitchy warmth on the first part of this track is instantly recognizable as Jelinek, in the same way that Chris Thomson’s yelp is instantly recognizable.

The Solids, “Over The Sirens”

Guess how many people are in this band? Correct, two! That places them square in one of the major interests of Five Songs: Loud Rock Duos. They’re not as outre as someone like Lightning Bolt, they’re more towards the Big Business end of things. Only the one record from them, though.

Pavement, “Two States”

You ever wonder how often you’ve listened to albums you love? Slanted & Enchanted was released in April of 1992, and I bought it the day it came out. I think I probably listened to it a couple times a week for the first year or so, and then maybe once a week on average for the rest of my time in college, and then maybe every other week for the next decade. And then down to maybe…once a month? For the next fifteen years? Let’s add that up - have I listened to this album 400 times? Jesus.

NoFX, “The Longest Line”

This is from a 1992 EP, also called The Longest Line, so from the White Trash, Two Heebs, and A Bean era. This is basically my favorite era of NoFX, probably due to how old I was at this time. There’s no real reason for anybody to really care about this EP though.

The Slackers, “Stereo On”

This is from an EP also, the 2013 release My Bed Is A Boat. Unlike the NoFX EP, though, I can heartily recommend this. It’s not so much that it’s notably better than any other Slackers, but that basically everything they’ve released is good.

Monobody, “Raytracing”

Monobody is an instrumental math rock band from Chicago, with a couple of albums so far. This is from the second, Raytracing. Their music has more than a little bit of jazz fusion going on in things, and is definitely more towards the cerebral end of math rock.

Coalesce, “Cowards.com”

Hey, it’s the other end of math rock! Always enjoyable when songs from the late nineties have web references in them.

The New Year, “Half A Day”

We just had The New Year on, uh, the New Year, so I won’t go over it again. Slowcore! It’s pleasant!

Marlowe, “The Places We Stay”

Marlowe is producer L’Orange and Solemn Brigham on the mic, here with a little instrumental track from their first, self-titled album. It’s a solid record, recommended particularly if you like L’Orange’s production. It turns out there’s a second album from them, I’m going to pick that up right now.

Miles Davis, “Pharaoh’s Dance”

Bitches Brew didn’t create the category of jazz fusion, but basically everything in the genre after it builds on it.

Uh, or so I’m told.

The Men, “Dreamer”

Brooklyn quartet The Men returned to their earlier sound and approach with Devil Music, producing a ripping set of ten songs that clocks in at a little over a half hour. We’re softies around here for this kind of garage punk, so of course this is a delight.

The Jam, “All Mod Cons”

Title track of the first of their essential albums, and just a quick little gem. I wonder if I could learn this bass line?

Ice Cube, “The Bomb”

AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted is really a hybrid album, with the vintage Bomb Squad production married to Ice Cube’s flow. It’s a little bit of an awkward fit at times. Both artists are, of course, legends for a reason and some of the best ever at what they do. And it’s a great album, but I think Cube’s following couple albums bring things together a little bit better.