Frank Black & the Catholics

Dr. Dre, “Mix Tape 2 Track 1”

My understanding is that this is from a mix tape that Dre used to sell at the Compton Swap Meet, which eventually made its way onto the internet. I’ve got three of these things, and it’s a delight to just hear this stuff in its raw form. Enjoy!

Farside, “Search for Ourselves”

Farside is one of the reasons I stopped making playlists on YouTube. I used to find tracks on the service, and if they were missing, I’d upload it to an unlisted video and add it to my playlist. It was kind of useful to have them there, but a problem that would happen is that the content ID system there would flag stuff. Fine, whatever, other people should get any (non-existant) royalties. But sometimes, labels or artists would have songs as prohibited uploads, so I just couldn’t host some songs there. Pain in the ass! Oh, also YouTube is a cesspool.

Frank Black and the Catholics, “I Gotta Move”

A thing I admire about Frank Black is that his songs always sound so distinctly like him. Whether with the Pixies, as a solo act, with the Catholics or whatever, he always sounds like Frank Black. It’s not just the voice, either, it’s his guitar, how he constructs songs, everything. His records might vary in quality and inspiration, but they always sound like they came from him.

The Dramatics, “In the Rain”

A repeat, but happy to listen to it again.

Dirty Three, “Last Horse on the Sand”

Dirty Three are an instrumental post-rock band out of Australia, distinguished primarily by being led by a violinist. I’m actually more into this sort of sound than I was in the late 90s when this album came out, so maybe it’s worth sitting with the band some more. They certainly have a lot of records out there.

Koenjihyakkei, “Angherr Shisspa”

Koenjihyakkei is a band led by Tatsuya Yoshida, the drummer/lunatic in Ruins. It’s an off-kilter take on prog, inspired by Magma, and it’s every bit as unhinged as Ruins ever was. Just with a bigger band. I mean, I suppose I don’t really need to describe it, you can hear it just fine. How would I go about describing this, anyway?

The Mars Volta, “Askepios”

Oh, is this what we’re doing today, shuffle?

Frank Black and the Catholics, “Bullet”

Frank Black went through a couple phases between v1 of the Pixies and v2 of the Pixies. After recording under just his own name, he apparently decided that his band rated a mention, and began recording as Frank Black and the Catholics. To my ears, this was the best phase of his post-Pixies career, and this record might be my favorite of the lot. There’s definitely plenty of the Frank Black madness here.

The Kinks, “Picture Book”

This song is why I started listening to the Kinks, thanks to the cover of the tune by the Young Fresh Fellows on This One’s For The Ladies. It’s such a jam that I went and looked up where it came from, and I was glad I did. It’s such a good album! The Kinks - check ’em out!

Waxahatchee, “Air”

Waxahatchee has been one of the most consistent bands in indie rock over the last bunch of years. Each album just doesn’t miss. This is from Ivy Tripp, which is the first album I heard, and it’s very good.

Nice set of songs today. I am not posting this on Twitter today because I’m boycotting today in support of the #WomenBoycottTwitter protest going on.

Dumptruck, “Watch Her Fall”

Underground pop act Dumptruck was a favorite of college radio before I really listened to that sort of music, and I eventually gave them a listen after hearing so much about how great they were. They were made out to be The Band That Should Have Made It. And I like them, but I don’t have the connection to them that so many folks who were there seem to have. This comes from the only album I have, Haul of Fame, a retrospective compilation of their entire career that I recommend checking out.