Boards of Canada

The Apples in Stereo, “IV. From Outside, in Floats a Music Box”

Were it not for the presence of “floats”, this would be the kind of title you might find on a really pretentious prog album. I guess “twee” and “pretentious” are just two sides of the same coin.

The Men, “Ridin’ On”

After a couple albums of mellowing out some, The Men kicked it back into aggressive garage rock mode with Devil Music. It’s my favorite mode from them, so I was very happy to hear them bring it back. The more mature sounding stuff was fine, but I generally am happier with mayhem in my rock.

The Magnetic Fields, “The Way You Say Good-Night”

You know, the only Magnetic Fields record I’ve ever heard is this one. There are a lot more, and I have no idea if this record is an outlier in their sound or not. When they started making records, I wasn’t into this sort of music, and I just never looped back to check it out. I guess I’ll just keep the mystery alive. They could sound like Meshuggah or whatever on their other records, and I’ll never know.

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!

Five Songs took a little break there. Had to recharge our batteries. It’s a grind getting out here and writing nothing of consequence about music nobody has heard or cares about! Well, we’re back!

A programming note: I’m really tired of doing the “previously"s. I think they’re charming, but they’re also a hassle to put together manually. I’m going to use the tagging on this platform instead. It’ll take a while to convert all the old entries, but this will make it easier for me going forward.

Some good stuff today.

Pond, “Wheel”

My favorite bands to highlight here are those that haven been largely forgotten, maybe because they were on the periphery of their scenes, and never really left the kind of critical mark that makes future listeners discover them among the thousands of bands of the past. Portland’s Pond is a great example of that. Pond began making records for Sub Pop during the height of grunge, with their first album coming out in 1993. It was a great time to get discovered, yes, but it was also a hard time to stand out among all the bands chasing fame. Like Flop, Pond just got lost in the suffle, and they deserved better. Their first, self-titled album was, yes, pretty grungy, but it was also tuneful in ways that hinted something greater to come. And their second album, The Practice of Joy Before Death, fulfilled that promise. Fantastic songs, great, jagged guitars, just an amazing record. One of my very favorites to come out of the entire grunge scene. They recorded one more fantastic record, Rock Collection, for a major label before breaking up. All three albums are worth your time.