Fall Out Boy

The Avalanches, “The Divine Chord”

A thing I admire about Johnny Marr (who guested on this song) is that he’s cheerfully helped on about a zillion things in his post-Smiths career, and they’re pretty all over the map. And he seems happy to do it. Good for him!

Mastodon, “Stargasm”

I’ve tried on multiple occasions to love The Hunter, and I just haven’t gotten there. It’s not that it’s bad or anything, but I dunno, I just want them to be more elaborate than this. Although it’s pretty funny to call this tune as not elaborate.

Fall Out Boy, “Saturday”

Pop punk is one of those genres that never really changes or evolves, and just relies on sappy emotion and snappy songs. You really need to nail the catchy songs and the energy or it’s going to come across as limp or manufactured. When done right, though, it’s delightful. That said, the first couple Fall Out Boy records totally nail it, so happy for this to come up.

Conjurer, “Blood and Thunder”

Conjurer followed up their excellent 2018 album Mire by doing a couple of collaborative records in 2019. They put out Curse These Metal Hands (which is great!) with Pijn, and then the record with today’s track, Conjurer x Palm Reader. It’s, uh, a split with Palm Reader. It’s just a four-song EP, with Conjurer contributing this cover of Mastodon’s song along with a cover of Slipknot’s “Vermillion”. It’s certainly an inessential record, but fun enough.

Rapeman, “Monobrow”

The disconnected guitar skronk at the front of this song is weirdly something that kind of sticks with me. I think because it kind of lays bare what noise rock kind of sounds like when its stripped of all the layers. And, of course, when the rest of the band joins in, it’s thunderous magic.

Claw Hammer, “Three Fifteen”

I guess we’re going to open all the songs today with a lil’ guitar wank. OK by me!