Chris Lawhorn

Here’s today!

Bruce Springsteen, “Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?”

Have I talked about Springsteen before? I’m not gonna look. And nobody is going to tell me!

Uh, I don’t listen to a lot of his stuff. I only own this album. I dunno, you can’t keep up with everything! Don’t tell me about him!

Hell yes, look at that insight.

The Skatalites, “Black Sunday”

After the second wave of ska fired up, led by Two-Tone Records, interest in the first wave bands increased. The Skatalites, the greatest of those first wave bands, got back together in 1983 and recorded an amazing live set, featuring their entire original lineup, minus the sadly deceased Don Drummond. While I think the outstanding compiliation Foundation Ska is probably slightly better on balance due to its historical value, the release of that live set (Stretching Out) is more coherent and is their best album that was recorded as an album.

Today is not the most coherent set.

Wu-Tang Clan, “The M.G.M.”

A repeat! Six songs today, people!

Gorguts, “Nostalgia”

This comes from Obscura, a landmark album in death metal where Gorguts explored how dissonant and downright strange they could make a metal album. This kind of unhinged musical exploration is where I’ve always found my favorites in death metal, and this kind of spastic noise really has as much in common with the avant garde as it does with traditional metal. This kind of thing can take a bit to absorb, as it’s disorienting to listen to at first, but I find it all really interesting.

Soul, a couple rap songs, some metal, and an electronic artist cutting up Fugazi. What could be better?

The Olympians, “Pluto’s Lament”

I don’t think we’ve talked that much about Daptone Records around here. Daptone is a retro soul label out of Brooklyn, releasing records by Sharon Jones, The Budos Band, Charles Bradley, and many others. While most of the artists on the label are very retro in sound, it usually still sounds pretty fresh in no small part because a lot of these types of music kind of disappeared from the music scene for a while.