Boris

Boris, “Spoon”

2011 was an insanely productive year for Boris, with four albums showing up that year, all of them being unusual in some way from their standard. To the extent that Boris has a standard. Anyway, this is from New Album, which continues in the grand tradition of Boris albums being named things that are a pain in the ass (one of the other 2011 albums was called Heavy Rocks, which is the second time they’ve named an album that). At any rate, New Album is sort of a remix, with much of the material here being reworked songs from Heavy Rocks (2011) and Attention Please (another of the 2011 releases). If this is all confusing, welcome to the Boris discography!

Boris, “Furi”

The first Boris album I encountered was Akuma No Uta after reading a good review of it online somewhere, and I was blown away. To have “Introduction” get followed by two absolute rippers like “Ibitsu” and today’s track, from the same band, I was just in love. Boris has paid that love back with a ton of classic records, many of them better than this album. But it’s still one I return to again and again, because your first album is often special with a band.

Lucious Jackson, “Strongman”

When the Beastie Boys took the leap to playing their own instruments with Check Your Head, they also started expanding the reach of their label, Grand Royal. Lucious Jackson was one of the artists that they signed, putting out their first record, Natural Ingredients. It made a fair bit of sense, as the sensibilities of Lucious Jackson fit in well with the more funk/soul elements of the reinvented Beasties sound. Despite critical acclaim, the record never really seemed to catch on, but it still sounds pretty good.

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.

Here’s today.

Benton Falls, “Trail and Terror”

I’ve always been a little fuzzy on the genre “emo”. I’m old enough that it’s come around multiple times as a genre label, being applied to bands ranging from Rites of Spring to Touché Amoré. And it seems like the only thing really tying all these various scenes is some kind of punk sensibility married to heartfelt lyrics. Benton Falls usually gets described as emo themselves, but to my ears, this is pretty much just post-punk. But it’s good post-punk! If this is emo, so is Jawbox, is what I’m saying. And I don’t think anybody has described Jawbox as emo. (OK, somebody certainly has.)