Band of Horses

fIREHOSE, “Blaze”

fIREHOSE’s swan song was Mr. Machinery Operator, their second major label release and one produced by J. Mascis. And I think you can really hear Mascis’s influence on the record, especially on this track. It’s still fIREHOSE, but it’s much rougher, much muscular in an obvious way. I have to suspect that the grunge movement had to have had some influence on the band as well. To my ears, it’s not an entirely comfortable pairing. fIREHOSE always sounded so agile, and the fuzzier, more rugged production seems to conceal a little of that agility. I don’t know if the band felt the same, but this was it for the band. Overall, to my mind, they have two great albums and three good ones, which is a good tear by anybody’s standards.

At some point, these things are just going to be wholly unrelated to the music. I wonder if I’ll have the good sense to stop? Who knows? MUSIC

Freeway & Jake One, “Money”

As we talked about last time, Freeway’s always had good taste in producers. For The Stimulus Package (great name!), he teamed up with Seattle’s Jake One, and the result was my favorite album of his.

Why yes, I am kind of a Seattle homer, why do you ask?