Daft Punk

David Bowie, “Heroes”

I know that as an underground rock dork, and a fan of experimental music, I should really regard Heroes (or at least the Eno years) as Bowie’s peak. But I just can’t do it. Gimme the Ziggy Stardust stuff first, please.

Daft Punk, “Revolution 909”

Daft Punk’s first LP (Homework) took house music and brought it to disco, and by resurrecting that sound of the 70s, managed to sound fresh. I think they’d do a lot more with the formula later, but this is where it started.

Prince Paul, “Psycho Linguistics (Convergent Thought)”

Before his masterpiece, A Prince Among Thieves, Prince Paul released an uneven first solo record, Psychoanalysis: What Is It?. There are some good tunes on it, but a lot of kind of self-indulgent meandering, so it’s probably not worth pursuing too much unless you’re very curious.

Thantifaxath, “Eternally Falling”

Thantifaxath have only made one album, Sacred White Noise, but it’s a banger. It’s black metal, but it uses a ton of atmosphere to generate a consistently creepy tone without just relying on howling fury. The ability to dial it back manages to throw the chaotic moments into greater contrast. Mastery of dynamics is such an important thing for all bands, but especially extreme metal bands. Keeping everything on 11 all the time just results in fatigue.

Stephen Malkmus, “Discretion Grove”

Do you detect a little echo of “Wounded Kite” there in the aborted first bit of song on this track? No? Just me?

The Suicide Machines, “Our Time”

No, we’re leaving the “Days Since Last Listless, Anonymous Third Wave Song” sign alone on this one. There’s nothing listless about this! The Suicide Machines are very much a chip off the Operation Ivy block, and the energy here carries them plenty far.

Today!

Daft Punk, “Give Life Back To Music”

As a teenager, I took it for granted that disco sucked. Everybody knew it sucked, right? It was shiny and for dancing! I didn’t really interrogate the reasons why there was a cultural backlash against disco, it was just a thing that happened, and obviously it had to happen to pave the way for what followed. It took a while for me to really think about it. Why were so many people so dead set against disco? That they were willing to not just dislike a genre but adopt hating it as part of their identity. And, of course, the penny finally dropped one day: disco was a haven for people outside the rock mainstream, a place where gay folks, people of color, and just loads of diverse folks could be accepted and be themselves. It was a scene that wasn’t just welcoming of these differences, but embraced them. So, of course it had to go. People couldn’t just ignore it if they didn’t like it. That scene had to be destroyed.

OK, let’s see if we can do better than that low energy thing yesterday. Whatcha got, shuffle?

Dawnbringer, “Nobody There”

Pure heavy metal revivalism, Dawnbringer has decided to see if they can just play this stuff totally straight and manage to not sound totally cheesy. Do they pull it off? Well…I don’t know. It’s reasonably well done, I guess, but by and large I’d pretty much rather just listen to Sabbath. Decent for an occasional change of pace.

Today’s music!

Eddie Floyd, “I’ve Never Found A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)”

I get itchy when we go too long without a Stax track. This is one of Eddie Floyd’s biggest hits, later covered by Al Green on his magnificent Let’s Stay Together.

400 Blows, “A Man of Many Words”

There have been multiple bands called 400 Blows (all named after the Truffaut film, one presumes), but this is the noise rock one from California. This song comes from Black Rainbow, and is full of this kind of start/stop fun and yelling. Good times!