Cypress Hill

The Afghan Whigs, “Matamoros”

The Afghan Whigs wrapped up their first incarnation with 1998’s 1965, and Greg Dulli moved on to other projects - primarily the Twilight Singers, but other things like the Gutter Twins album with Mark Lanegan. It wasn’t that the band blew up, but they just decided to stop making albums. A reunion gained momentum in the early 2010s, and a new album eventually emerged from the band in 2014. Obviously, Dulli is the most important member, but John Curley rejoined him, meaning half of the original lineup was back. Good enough!

Cypress Hill, “Hand on the Pump”

It’s kind of incredible that a song as weird as this one made as much of an impact on popular culture as it did. Not that it doesn’t smoke, it does, but everything from the odd vocal loop, to B-Real’s nasal vocal, to the squeaky noises all over, to the sing-song chorus is off-kilter. It’s fantastic stuff! Just odd.

Common, “Black America Again”

The title track from Common’s 2016 album, he used a lot of guest artists on the record, with the biggest one on this track. Stevie Wonder sounds great, as always, and Common in general turns in a fine performance across the whole album. I think it’s his best record since Be.

Gorillaz, “New Genious (Brother)”

Gorillaz, the band featuring Damon Albarn (Blur) and Dan “The Automator” Nakamura (Dr. Octagon, Deltron 3030, others), is one of the weirder success stories in popular music. The icy, detached compositions don’t scream out “radio success”, and the big radio hit of “Clint Eastwood” was a particularly strange song to get huge. This song is a typical example of what you find on the record, which is interesting primarily by managing to not really sound like anything else.

125 entries in this series and counting. Is everybody still having fun? I am! Also: I have music for you!

Craw, “Drugs”

You know, I should really be backing more music on Kickstarter. The Craw reissue project is one of my very favorites among things I’ve backed on the site.

Elliot Smith, “Ballad of Big Nothing”

Indie rock genius Elliot Smith here with a song from his best album, Either/Or. Discussing his biography always makes me sad, given his tragic early departure at 34, possibly by suicide (it was never definitively ruled a suicide). And there I go, starting to discuss his biography. Well, Either/Or is one of the triumphs of the 90s, and is just a tremendous album front to back.

Nice grab bag today. Also, have I mentioned my game is out? It is! Pick up Fox in the Forest from any good hobby store, or online, or wherever! OK, ad is over.

Joanna Newsom, “Cosmia”

Joanna Newsom made a lot of waves in the indie music community with Ys, a folk album driven by Newsom’s harp work and her bizarre vocal style. I picked it up to check it out for myself, and I couldn’t ever really get past the vocals. Listen for yourself, this track is a good example of what’s going on with her music.

You know what I should do in these intros? I should probably just mention new music I’ve picked up recently. christian fitness has a new record that I just picked up, and it’s good so far. And I bought the new album from Nightbringer, a black metal album that I’m looking forward to diving into.

As always, we have today’s songs!

Cypress Hill, “Valley of Chrome”

When they first started out, Cypress Hill was something really strange, with super squeaky beats based around dusty jazz samples and the odd nasal flows of B Real. The first two Cypress Hill records are unique and a lot of fun, although, um, fairly limited lyrical content. By the time we hit this, their fifth album, they were really kind of on fumes. This was a double album, with one rap record, and the other being a rock crossover. It didn’t exactly go well. Rap/rock crossovers seldom do. The rap disc is better, but still won’t make you forget the first two albums. This song, needless to say, is from the rock one.