Einstürzende Neubauten

Run The Jewels, “Blockbuster Night, Pt. 1”

El-P and Killer Mike first got together on the latter’s R.A.P. Music, which is an amazing album. When they announced a full collab, the first Run the Jewels record, I was pumped. And it was excellent, some of El-P’s best production ever (to that point), and it was just a great time all around. And they stuck with it, and somehow Run the Jewels 2 found another level. It’s pissed off, righteously so, and funnels all that rage into focused, punishing tracks. One of the best hip hop records ever.

Albert King, “Crosscut Saw”

A repeat! I think we’ve actually had it at least twice before. Still smokes, though.

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Good Morning Everybody”

God, the opening of this song is so menacing. This is from Grundstück, the second supporter-only album that they released in 2005, back when crowdfunding was still something pretty far out of the mainstream. They successfully funded and released a series of albums, relying primarily on word of mouth to find folks and doing payments directly. The resulting albums were no compromise, they’re full-on Neubauten records and this one in particular is excellent.

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Sand”

Every now and again, Neubauten will make a song that’s relatively conventional. And you still end up with a creepy torch song like this one, complete with strangled half-falsetto and tribal drumming.

Built to Spill, “Revolution”

Before going on their tear with their last three albums in the 90s, Built to Spill released Ultimate Alternative Wavers. It forms the missing link between the Dinosaur Jr. tribute of the Treepeople to the extended twisted pop of their next few records. There are plenty of things to like on this record, and it’s easy to see how Martsch evolved from here, but it’s not their best work.

Bim Skala Bim, “Chief Inspector”

A big part of the ska scene in the late 80s and early 90s was an active trade in compilations. It allowed bands to get their music out and prime the audiences for touring, which is where bands built up a following. One series of comps was the Mashin’ Up The Nation series, which this was part of volume 2 of. It’s an unusually raw track for Bim Skala Bim, but a lot of the songs on these comps tended towards the raw, because many of them were low budget or live.

Johnny Cash, “Cocaine Blues”

If you’ve got a blog, just a-read it to me.

Ivy Sole, “You Don’t Know My Name”

Ivy Sole is out of Philadelphia, and this song comes from her excellent debut Eden. I came across this record thanks to one of the Bandcamp spotlight emails, which are always a good source of learning about artists.

Ernie Hines, “Electrified Love”

Ernie Hines’s Electrified was a somewhat forgotten album released on Stax in 1972 until it was resurrected by hip-hop producers, which brought it to new audiences. It’s a fine album, and this lead track gives you an idea of what you’re in for.

Claude Fontaine, “Pretending He Was You”

Claude Fontaine’s self-titled 2019 album is a mix of reggae and a few other musical styles, such as the bossa nova of this track. It’s a charming record, helped considerably by her hiring Jamaican musicians who are deeply familiar with the music as her backing band. It’s an album that could easily have come off as inauthentic, but ends up working quite well.

Czarface & Ghostface Killah, “Powers and Stuff”

Czarface is Inspectah Deck (from the Wu-Tang Clan) and Esoteric, here teaming up for an album-length collaboration with Ghostface. As with most of Wu-related records, it’s very listenable, because the formula is so strong. Ghostface is great, of course, and the Czarface MCs are solid, so this ends up being a fun album.

Intronaut, “The Pleasant Surprise”

I’ve engaged in a fair bit of introspection around progressive metal around here. I suspect it’s because the music is sufficiently ambitious that it invites us to engage with it seriously and think about it. Today, instead, I’m going to take a step back and try and instead answer a different, much more visceral question with regard to this song, instead of the usual navel gazing: does it rock? Reader: this song rocks.

Thou, “Sifting”

Thou released a bunch of stuff in 2020. One of them was a compilation of Nirvana covers that they’d released in various other places, gathered together as Blessings of the Highest Order. This, of course, is the last song from Bleach, and it’s a real punisher here. The entire album is a good time.

Head of David, “Bugged”

Head of David is notable mostly for inspiring a bunch of other bands, not to mention being Justin Broadrick’s proving ground for the sound he would later refine as Godflesh. As for the band itself, a lot of their stuff sounds pretty leaden, but this track is pretty good.

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Nagorny Karabach”

Alles Wieder Offen (“All Open Again”) represents Neubauten fully completing their new model of creating albums. In 2002, Neubauten wanted to get themselves total creative freedom to create the music they wanted, without any label interference. They managed to get 2,000 people signed up at $35 a piece, which was enough to fund some sessions. Those recordings would turn into Supporter Album No. 1, which I have a copy of somewhere around here. However, the band turned to Mute records to turn it into a full release (Perpetuum Mobile, which re-worked some of the songs from it), which allowed them to fund a tour.

Led Zeppelin, “Since I’ve Been Loving You”

I dunno, I’ve just got a feeling, I’m not sure this band is really gonna ever make it big.

James Brown, “There It Is”

Awwww hell yes, if we’re going back, let’s get the Godfather of Soul! I always wonder a little bit with Brown, if his music sounds so fresh because so much of it was refreshed by hip hop making use of it. I don’t think so, but it’s also impossible for me to listen to this stuff totally clean.