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Today!

Joe Lally, “Reason to Believe”

Joe Lally was, of course, bassist for the incomparable Fugazi, and one of the biggest reasons why the bass is one of the instruments I choose to butcher. All of the members of Fugazi have pursued various projects in the wake of Fugazi’s break (I choose to pretend that it’s just a really long pause), with one of the first being Lally making a solo record, There to Here. This is how that album opens, and it sets the tone for what you might hear. It’s fairly experimental in feel, with a lot of differences between songs, and a musical approach that varies from sparse to lush. While there are other post-Fugazi projects I like more (the Evens, the Messthetics), this is still an interesting album.

I’m back!

Fog, “Pneumonia”

What do you get when you cross lo-fi indie rock with turntablism? You get Fog, pretty much, with this song sounding like Silkworm ran into Kid Koala. Which is a solid pitch! This kind of hybrid really only works when the constituent parts are good, and mostly, this album succeeds on that basis. I had kind of forgotten about it, honestly, and I’m glad shuffle dug it up.

Emerald City Comic Con today! I’ve been going every year, since the oldest was around four, because it’s nice to just kind of check out what’s going on in comics. It’s not really ever been my hobby, I’ve only dabbled in it. But it’s an adjacent hobby to my biggest, tabletop gaming, and it’s just fun being in that atmosphere. Being crammed into the convention center with all those people is less than awesome, but it’s still one of my favorite annual rituals.

Today!

Goldfinger, “Answers”

I was all set to make fun of Goldfinger here as a bunch of flash-in-the-pan trend chasers, as their 1996 debut (which has this song) hit in 1996 right around the commercial peak of the third wave, and this album was even on a major label. But you know what? Unknown to me, these guys made seven albums! That certainly demonstrates a certain dedication that really takes the air out of my planned jokes. So I take it back, take it back, take it back.

Well, it starts out pretty well.

Boards of Canada, “Smokes Quantity”

A little bit ago, when Seattle was pretty snowed in, I trundled in to work, and my travel mug popped open in my bag. Everything was soaked, ruining a nice deck of cards, a notepad, and, oh yeah, my work computer. Most of the IT offices were closed, due to snow, but I found the closest open one and headed down. The three guys in there seemed kind of bored and happy for something to do. I mentioned that I liked what they were listening to, mentioning Boards of Canada by name, and they lit up. Next thing I know, I’m included in their joking around, we’re talking about music, and I had a pleasant little afternoon instead of what could have been a lousy day. Thanks, Board of Canada! You made me seem almost kinda cool for a brief period!

Today!

Apathy, “The Grass Ain’t Greener”

I know that this is dumb of me, but I still find the idea of a rap album exploring the darker side of Connecticut kind of hilarious. And, you know, there’s plenty of material there! The album itself is very good, and Apathy did a bunch of the production himself, which is always fun. This song wasn’t one of the ones he did himself, though.

I’ve now posted almost five hundred playlists on this thing. This is indisputably one of them.

DJ Krush, “Intro”

Uh, yup, that’s an intro.

Danny Brown, “Juno”

Danny Brown kicks off The Hybrid with a song called “Greatest Rapper Ever”, which is exactly the kind of hubris I like to hear from rappers. The album followed several mixtapes, and put Brown towards the front of Detroit’s rap scene. The album itself is plenty of fun, carried forward by Brown’s relentless energy.

Today’s tunes!

Queens of the Stone Age, “The Way You Used To Do”

2013’s …Like Clockwork never really grabbed me (despite extensive critical acclaim), so I was pretty delighted that 2017’s Villains got me pretty fired up. Mark Ronson helped to sharpen things up, and the whole thing feels pretty glam-y and fired up. This song, for instance, is just razor sharp, from Homme’s guitar tone to the vamp of his lyrics.

Today!

The Beatles, “Two Of Us”

This is from the Let It Be…Naked reissue that was put out in 2003, where they (I assume mostly Paul) revisited the songs and stripped away most of the Phil Spector stuff. It’s most noticable on the songs that originally had all those strings, but overall, it’s a superior version of the album, as it lets the songs shine through more and just has less farting around on it.

Pretty fun one today.

Mastodon, “North Side Star”

Mastodon released Cold Dark Place in 2017, an EP of miscellaneous songs that were recorded during the sessions for Emperor of Sand and Once More ‘Round The Sun. Like most leftovers EPs, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, but basically fits in well with those albums. If you really want more latter day Mastodon, you can do worse than this record. For instance, you could buy an album from a totally unrelated band. That would be a bad move!