Dag Nasty

The Afghan Whigs, “Neglekted”

I always wonder a bit about song titles like this one. What does the spelling here represent? It’s not a common alternate spelling or anything, so what was it that they were choosing to capture here? A mystery that might be solved with some simple searching, but I choose to just let it remain a question instead.

Dag Nasty, “Circles”

Founded by Brian Baker of Minor Threat, Dag Nasty took the hardcore of that band in a more melodic direction, folding in some of sound of the Descendents, with whom they toured. In fact, if you took the midpoint of those two bands, you get pretty close to Dag Nasty.

Wilco, “Bright Leaves”

Wilco returned from hiatus for 2019’s Ode to Joy, although their hiatus only lasted three years, which is like a normal inter-album pause for many bands. Anyway, the album kind of feels like it’s looped back to The Whole Love in terms of the song construction - setting aside the (relative) noise of Star Wars and the sort of confessional feel of Schmilco (this track notwithstanding). Is it good? Well, I think it’s good, but maybe not great. It’s not an essential Wilco record, but I like it just fine.

A couple of sweet hip-hop beats today.

Quasimoto, “Blitz”

You can just hear the dust on the vinyl on that drum loop. And that sax! My god, for a short track, this is just great. Madlib is a genius.

G.E. Smith & The Saturday Night Live Band, “Sloozy”

I can just picture the faces G.E. Smith is pulling while playing this song. Which led me here, for pictures of guitarists making faces. Also, apparently G.E. Smith is a big Trump supporter, as I learned from the search “G.E. Smith making faces”.

Pretty rugged set today. Starts off soft, but doesn’t stay there.

Big Ass Truck, “Return to Thermopolis”

I encountered Big Ass Truck when their first record showed up at WRCT while I was working there. How was I not going to play a band called Big Ass Truck? Turned out to be a funk record, and I somehow ended up with not only that record but the followup, Kent. I’ll be honest, I haven’t thought about these guys in a long, long time. Maybe I should listen to one of the records again, see how it’s aged?