This is ostensibly a cover of the Green Day song. This was a gift to us, I think, a while back. And I suppose you can see the intended joke here - it’s lulliby music! But also Green Day! Har! But overall, this is so far from anything resembling the original that you’d probably have to explain it to anybody to attempt to convey the levity. Please try to slip it in-between the giggle-snorts.
[Read More]It’s a little hard to describe Flying Lotus accurately. “Electronic” feels wholly inadequate. “Fusion” is accurate, yes, but also feels like it’s not really highlighting what he’s fusing. There’s lots of jazz and experimental electronic music here, some funk…just kind of lots of everything. It’s great! But hard to describe. Luckily, you can just listen to it.
I don’t always have a ton to say about bands. The Mekons were good!
[Read More]Dodecahedron is a black metal band that plays in the very dissonant end of the pool like a bunch of my favorite metal bands. It’s all murky noise and ugly churn, warty and unpredictable. They only have two albums out, and I’ve only got this one based on a positive reivew I read somewhere, but I like it pretty well.
Almost seems wrong to put this in the same genre of black metal as Dodecahedron, doesn’t it? I mean, there are blast beats and tremelo picking, I guess, but there’s something resembling melodies here, not to mention some clean singing, strings, and other non-grim shit. If you played this to somebody who had no exposure to modern metal, it would at least make some sense. Dodecahedron? Not so much.
[Read More]Goin’ with a theme today!
Now, seriously, what’s the point of a Sleater-Kinney song without Janet Weiss?
Very early material from Andrew Bird, when he was still recording with a band credited as His Bowl of Fire. This version lasted for three albums, with the first two albums staying pretty close to a hot jazz formula like you hear on this track. The third album found the band adding some more rock influence, to great effect, leaving the first couple albums as just sort of a fun dead-end. He does have many of his strengths on display here, though, especially his great vocal delivery, the maserful violin, and the dynamic songwriting.
[Read More]The opening of The Moon & Antarctica, “3rd Planet” sets the expectation that Modest Mouse had moved beyond the sound of The Lonesome Crowded West to a little bit more of a melodic place. While this is still unmistakably the same band, it’s a cleaner, more mature sound. It suits them very well, and the album fulfills the promise of this first song.
Another cut from Soul of a Nation, this falls squarely into music I’m not qualified to talk about. But goddamn, just listen to that!
[Read More]Long running punk duo No Age fill out their sound by using the occasional sample, which helps keep things a little fresher than the formula might otherwise result in. At this point, six albums in, they’re really getting by on the strength of their strongwriting, but that songwriting is keeping up. This is from their 2020 album Goons Be Gone.
The Toasters were one of the key bands of the third wave, as they not only got things rolling very early and blazed a trail for other bands in New York City to follow, but they ran the most important label of the third wave, Moon Ska. Early on, the Toasters didn’t have as much punk in their sound, as this track from 1988 demonstrates.
[Read More]The alchemy on this song of the durms and that slow bleat on the keyboard is kind of magical. This entire album is chock full of fun pop rock.
Does it get cornier than this? It does, once I tell you that this album is called Horny For Ska.
Early Motown here, from 1962. Pretty by-the-numbers, but pleasant enough. This was actually the B-side, so it makes sense that it’s not totally a barn burner.
[Read More]Mudhoney is never really going to sound mature, not with Mark Arm sounding like he does. But as they went along (this is from their seventh album), they picked up a lot of moves that make them sound so much more put together. I mean, this is pretty damn melodic for a Mudhoney tune! There’s noise here that doesn’t come from a guitar!
Hey, speaking of mature, the lyrics to this are really a model for how to handle sensitive subjects carefully.
[Read More]The bass tone for Future of the Left always sounds like a million bucks. And they wisely make sure that it stays up front plenty so we can all enjoy the hell out of it.
This album, The Century of Self, marked the point where I kind of lost track of Trail of Dead. Not because I stopped liking the music - they’re still their normal bombastic selves here, making huge, emotional tunes - but just because sometimes we just fall off of bands. I think that maybe I wasn’t hearing a lot of evolution in the band, and I kind of had heard what they had to say. That’s maybe unfair, but there’s not a lot separating this from the previous three records.
[Read More]There was a decent sized indie rock scene in Champaign-Urbana in the late 80s/early 90s, with Hum, the excellent and forgotten Steakdaddy Six, Honcho Overload, and the Poster Children all emerging to varying levels of success. Of that group, the Poster Children had the most success at the time, signing to Sire and producing a string of well-received albums. Hum is probably the one with the best enduring reputation (especially given a comeback), but the Poster Children still hold up today as well-executed indie rock.
[Read More]