Don Caballero

Don Caballero, “The Irrespective Dick Area”

Don Caballero came back after a six year absence with Damon Che once again leading things from his drum kit. This is the second of the studio records from this configuration, and while good, it doesn’t really reach the heights of previous Don Cab records. The pyrotechnics can be pretty fun to listen to, though.

David Bowie, “Suffragette City”

Maybe my most listened to Bowie song - either this or “Space Oddity”, probably. Why? Because both are available in Rock Band, so I’ve played them a bunch.

Ne’er-Do-Wells, “Skybolt X-66”

Rock ’n’ roll! Straight outta the 50s! Or 1993, whatever.

Don Caballero, “Room Temperature Lounge”

From Singles Breaking Up, Vol. 1, which is a singles comp, as you could probably guess. Kind of hard to believe that you can consider this song and the previous one (separated by a mere four years!) as both being products of the 90s rock underground.

They Might Be Giants, “All Time What”

2015-2018 was an extremely productive period for TMBG, with a flurry of albums driven in part by a revival of the Dial-a-Song project. Of that burst of records, the gem is I Like Fun, a record loaded with catchy tunes, but also some pretty fun song structures. This isn’t one of the killer tunes from it, but even as one of the lesser tracks, it still has that big horn arrangement and is a good time.

Queens of the Stone Age, “Un-Reborn Again”

This comes from the most recent QotSA album, Villains, where they worked with producer Mark Ronson. The result is a little bit of a different feel to things. It’s a slick, glossy record, full of moves that I would characterize as more glam than anything else. This song is a great example, this is just all shiny, swaggering glam. It’s not an unfamiliar aesthetic in the QotSA catalog, but it’s definitely to the fore on this album. I do appreciate that they’re willing to change things up, so I like it a lot. They don’t have to keep re-making Songs For the Deaf, I can just go listen to that if I want to.

Irata, “Weightless”

I don’t really remember where I heard about this record, 2019’s Tower, but this rocks. But there’s some real Torche vibes going on here, and that’s a fine thing. This is good! I like this! Nice work, past Josh!

Don Caballero, “You Drink A Lot Of Coffee For A Teenager”

Hey, this past Memorial Day (I know this, because I’m writing this entry ON Memorial Day and I thought this today), I was thinking “huh, my oldest is at the age when I picked up a coffee habit”. So, yeah, I sure did drink a lot of coffee for a teenager. Mostly while playing cards in diners. An excellent pursuit that I heartily recommend.

Labi Siffre, “I Got The…”

This is from the 1975 album Remember My Song, a record that became famous due to sampling (especially in Eminem’s “My Name Is”). As with so many of these great old funk records, it’s a delight that it was resurrected by interest in the source material, because it’s absolutely incredible. I mean, yes, the break that Dre flipped is astounding, but listen to this entire thing. The temperature in this room dropped about ten degrees when this kicked on, it’s so cool. And, for real, look at this album cover. Goddamn!

That’s month four of hitting every day! Woooo!

Mr. T Experience, “I Just Wanna Do It With You”

Too late, Mr. T Experience! Valentine’s Day was two weeks ago! What are you even doing!

Don Caballero, “Our Caballero”

Singles Breaking Up is, indeed, a singles comp. Pittburgh’s instrumental maestros put everything into their singles, so the comp is a solid album, if maybe not quite as coherent as their records due to not being recorded at once. You can do a lot worse than this record!

The Range, “1804”

The Range makes electonic pop, mostly, but the interesting bit is that the vocals are sampled off tracks from YouTube. It gives the entire album a little bit of a strange feel, but one that is welcome to offset all the shiny, shimmering music.

Ruder Than You, “Skahall Connection”

So, yeah, this is from an album called Horny for Ska. The management would like to apologize.

Clinic, “Welcome”

A cut from Clinic’s second album, it retains the same chilly, distant tone that the first record had, while kind of cleaning things up a little bit. It’s still a strange, off-kilter record. Especially the use of those vintage keyboards, which always lends an otherworldly feel to their songs.

Prince, “All The Critics Love U In New York”

Somehow, 23 years before their first record, Prince laid a pretty savage burn on LCD Soundsystem.

Jawbox, “Meathook”

Jawbox put together a comp, My Scrapbook Of Fatal Accidents, which gathered together most of their non-album releases in one place. There’s some solid stuff on it, and I recommend it for Jawbox fans. What we have here is one of the real oddities, a cover of the Cure’s “Meathook”, which serves best as a companion piece to their cover of Tori Amos’s “Cornflake Girl”.

Super bitchin’ day today.

X-Ecutioners, “3 Boroughs”

Built From Scratch really is just a fantastic name for an album.

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, “Insatiable Two”

I love the Trail of Dead, but can we just talk about the album cover. That is some middle school-ass shit right there! I’m gonna bet without looking that it was done by either a band member or a family member of the band.

Nice one today!

Yautja, “for naught”

Kind of math-rock, kind of death metal, this kind of hybrid makes me happy. Which it probably shouldn’t! This comes from the EP Songs of Lament, the followup to their excellent Songs of Descent. Both are worth looking into.

Bathory, “Shores in Flames”

Bathory were black metal pioneers, with the singer Quorthon’s strangled croak setting the template for black metal vocalists that persists today. The primitive recording and washes of guitar noise also formed one of the pillars of the genre. But, not content to provide some of the building blocks for one type of metal, Bathory re-invented themselves. The album prior to this one started experimenting with breaking out of the template, but Hammerheart showed that the template was gone. This song is the opener of that album, featuring Quorthon actually singing, and the songwriting now was focused on the epic rather than the squalid. And, indeed, Bathory had now invented the subgenre of Viking metal which, yes, is a thing. Bottom line: there aren’t very many bands that have ever been as metal as Bathory, and there aren’t very many bands more influential on the genre.