All

ALL, “Long Distance”

A thing you can say about ALL is how incredibly consistent the sound of the band was across records. The guitar, bass, and drums all sound exactly the same across every record. They had the sound they liked, and they stuck with it.

Girl Talk, “Let It Out”

I know random verses from a bunch of songs just due to their presence on All Day, which is always a little jarring when I hear the songs removed from this context. There’s always a disorienting moment of “why do I know this song?”

ALL, “Honey Peeps”

You know, I never really gave this album a real shot. The previous album seemed so sour and included some really bad lyrics, so after buying this one due to inertia, I never really engaged with it. This is a decent tune, though. I wonder what I’d think if I went back and gave it a whirl at this point. It doesn’t make the lyrics go away, though.

The Afghan Whigs, “Neglekted”

I always wonder a bit about song titles like this one. What does the spelling here represent? It’s not a common alternate spelling or anything, so what was it that they were choosing to capture here? A mystery that might be solved with some simple searching, but I choose to just let it remain a question instead.

Dag Nasty, “Circles”

Founded by Brian Baker of Minor Threat, Dag Nasty took the hardcore of that band in a more melodic direction, folding in some of sound of the Descendents, with whom they toured. In fact, if you took the midpoint of those two bands, you get pretty close to Dag Nasty.

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.

The Magnetic Fields, “Two Kinds of People”

There are two kinds of people: those with the patience to pick through 69 Love Songs to find the good bits, and those who cannot be bothered.

The Skatalites, “Woman A Come”

The Skatalites didn’t often have a vocalist working with them, but pretty much every case I can think of, it’s delightful. This comes from the Foundation Ska collection, which is the best single spot to get on the Skatalites train. And everybody should be on that train.

Good one today.

All, “Vida Blue”

Even on their later albums, All could still sometimes summon up some nicely soaring power pop stuff. I mean, this is basically just Cheap Trick, but whatever, Cheap Trick is fun.

Sonic Youth, “Dirty Boots”

Meanwhile, this is basically what it sounds like when Sonic Youth tries to play a pop song. This is the song that opens Goo, and it lets you know that the band has not fallen off at all from Daydream Nation. There are some bands and albums that are unmistakably at their time, and they only really make sense when viewed within their original context. Then there are bands like Sonic Youth, who at their best sound totally outside of time, as fresh now as when they first made this record [checks] almost 29 years ago? Goddammit, I’m old.

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.

Playlist is here.

Dr. Dre, “Talking To My Diary”

Depending on if you count the record The Aftermath as a Dr. Dre album or not, Dre has either made either two or three albums in the 24 years after The Chronic was released. That level of output has rendered each of those records an event. What makes it even stranger is that Compton, the most recent of those records, was supposedly made in just a year. While nothing has ever matched The Chronic, Compton is excellent, and this closing track finds Dre in a meditative mood. Given how brief his solo discography is, and how important he is to the development of the genre, all of his work is worth listening to. But, you know, not right now, because apparently this track can’t be posted on YouTube. I guess we’ll do six songs today.

Look, they can’t all be winners.

Sebadoh, “Red Riding Good”

Just the other day, we had a pointless bonus track from the reissue of III. Well, here’s another one.

Merle Haggard, “If We Make It Through December”

I should play Down Every Road for the kids. I think they might enjoy it.

Pigs, “Bet It All On Black”

I wonder what the longest period of time we’ve gone around here without some kind of noise rock? Not long. I wonder if it’s longer or shorter than the time between ska?

Today’s music.

Coil, “Who By Fire”

Peter Christopherson is one of the true innovators of underground music, performing as a member of industrial/noise pioneers Psychic TV and Throbbing Gristle. He then went on to become part of Coil, a band dedicated to electronic music in all its forms. Coil worked with an impressive list of collaborators over the years, and their career is hard to describe. While usually lumped in with industrial acts, usually due to the company they kept, Coil was much more organic and human than most of industrial music. It usually made them all the more unsettling as a consequence. Coil tended to explore the underbelly of human existence, and their lyrics were usually pretty unflinching and often pretty out there.