Dog Faced Hermans

Elvis Costello, “Turpentine”

I have largely ignored Costello’s work past his salad days. Imperial Bedroom is more or less the last of his records I regularly listen to. No real reason for it, honestly, I just kind of feel like I have enough Costello. I broke that rule of thumb with Momofuku, his 2008 release, after I heard it was banged out in a matter of a few weeks. I thought the urgency might be fun to listen to. And, it’s fine? It’s a Costello record, there’s nothing wrong with it. But I still just go back to his earlier records.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, “Hell”

This, from Xtra-Acme USA, is kind of a sketch of a song, but it still cooks pretty good. I mean, just one good “weeeeeeeeeeellllllll” from Spencer is enough to get me going.

Pile, “appendicitis”

There’s some other song that I can’t quite put my finger on that the intro to this song reminds me of. I feel like the guitar tone is very Black Francis, but I’m not entirely sure what song it’s trying to trigger for me. Once you get into the meat of the song, though, that feeling of reminding dissipates.

A bit scattered today.

Dog Faced Hermans, “Love Is The Heart Of Everything”

“Anarchist” is always kind of an interesting descriptor when applied to a band. For whatever reason, there are some bands where that’s called out for them, and I’m sitting here thinking that I’ve pretty much liked every band I’ve ever encountered that has been described as anarchist. The Dog Faced Hermans, for instace. I’m looking at this list of anarchist-punk bands from Wikipedia (of course there’s a list on Wikipedia), and it’s pretty bitchin’, even if I question the inclusion of some bands. Black Flag! The Dead Kennedys! Napalm Death! NoMeansNo! Propagandhi! That’s some good shit, y’all.

Good stuff today!

Devo, “Uncontrollable Urge”

The first track from the first album, here’s how Devo first planted their flag. And listen to how sharp they sounded right out of the gate! My god, this is such a tight song. For people of my age, who really only knew Devo as the weirdos who did “Whip It”, discovering that they had such great songs in their past was a real shock.