Ghostface Killah

James Brown, “I Got You (I Feel Good)”

There’s a certain strange thing that goes on in my head around timelines. This song was first released in an early version in 1964, and it absolutely does not seem like it should be contemporaneous with, say, A Hard Days Night. Or Eddie Holland’s “Just Ain’t Enough Love” to pick an example of what Motown was up to at this time. As a consequence, the timelines for funk and soul are just completely disconnected in my brain from those of rock. I can get the progressions of both straight in my head, within their own milieu, but when I think about what they were each doing at the same time, it just doens’t fit, like a miscut jigsaw.

Black Flag, “Loose Nut”

We’ve had this song before, and I told the store about how I bought it at random after deciding I should probably hear some Black Flag. That was the sort of thing we did in those days, when the Usenet wasn’t really searchable in any useful way, and you had to rely on either word-of-mouth, college radio, or magazines to learn about stuff. I would just take a flyer on records, because that was what you did. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes you ended up with a so-so Black Flag record.

Ghostface Killah, “Run”

On The Pretty Toney Album, Ghostface really broke out from the shadow of the Wu-Tang Clan. Not that he transcended it or anything, but this record is really off on its own thing, it doesn’t really sound like a Wu-Tang record. Other than Ghostface’s presence, of course. But I think that’s a good thing, it’s enabled him to have a great career, with no real barriers to where he wanted to go. Because of that, it’s probably my second favorite Ghostface record.

Gas Huffer, “Crooked Bird”

As Gas Huffer moved into the middle of their run, they added a little touch of sruf. A little more reverb takes us in a slightly different direction on their garage rock. Still very recognizable as Gas Huffer, mind you, but they didn’t just keep re-making Janitors of Tomorrow either.

Jr. Walker & the All-Stars, “Shotgun”

Goddam, listen to that recording. The compression on everything just adds so much to the urgency of the track. It’s so sweaty!

Alejandro Escovedo, “Chelsea Hotel ‘78”

Escovedo is one of those artists that has had a long recording career, and someone whose name I’d seen in a bunch of places, but I didn’t really know anything about him. I picked up what was, at the time, his latest record…and still don’t really know much about him. It’s good, but didn’t really grab me all that much either.

Wilco, “One and a Half Stars”

Ode to Joy is the latest Wilco album, from 2019. It comes after two solo Jeff Tweedy records, which I thought were better than the previous couple Wilco records. So, is it more like Warm (good) or Star Wars (bad)? More good than bad, I think? It’s not top-tier, but it’s a solid record.

The Wisdom of Harry, “Unit One”

I will look up little biographical details on acts when I’m doing this, to make sure I’ve got years right, or to spell names correctly, or whatever. And in the process, I’ll see some of what others have written about bands sometimes. When I did that for the Wisdom of Harry to check when this album came out (2000, which was earlier than I remembered), I noticed that the writer there compared this band to Mogwai, My Bloody Valentine, and Catherine Wheel. Uh.

Nots, “Rat King”

Their 2016 album, Cosmetic, is a relatively short record, but it makes up for it with the energy it has. I’m always down for some noisy punk, especially if it’s willing to get kind of strange, so of course I was always going to like this.

J-Zone, “Edit These”

Well, I would have played this on the radio for my audience of, like, four.

Ghostface Killah, “Mighty Healthy”

Supreme Clientele is widely regarded as the best Ghostface solo album, which I guess I have trouble arguing too much with. It also demonstrated that Ghostface could thrive even without the RZA doing all the beats, as he only had a few songs on the record. It’s still an extremely Wu-Tang-sounding recording, which of course is a good thing, but on later albums Ghostface would explore his sound more. But still, it’s just a great record, and still sounds fantastic today.

Ghostface Killah, “The Champ”

This production from Just Blaze (you can tell it’s him because he announces it in the track, in his his trademark understated manner) needs to be played at maximum volume to be properly appreciated. Just trust me on that.

The Spinanes, “72-74”

Been a while since we’ve had The Spinanes, the duo of Rebecca Gates and Scott Plouf, who put out three albums in the 90s before disbanding. Defined by Gates’s lovely songs and a generally spare sensibility that ran contrary to the prevailaing approach in rock (especially for a Seattle band), this stuff holds up really well today. This is from the third and final Spinanes record, Arches and Aisles, which has the biggest arrangements on it, but is still pretty uncluttered.

Mombu, “Orichas”

Mombu!!! [honking intesifies]

Bedhead, “The Unpredictable Landlord”

You know, a thing I do very little here is look at the lyrics of songs. That’s largely because I don’t really pay any attention to them. I like that they’re there, and I even learn to sing along to songs, but I don’t really pay any attention to what they’re saying mostly. Is lyrics blindness a thing?

Russian Circles, “Kohokia”

So, whatever! Let’s lose the lyrics! Thanks, Russian Circles! This song is about…uh, [googles Kohokia] a Russian Circles song.

The Emotions, “I Could Never Be Happy”

Late period Stax single here, which you can hear in that much more 70s funk sound. And of course, the production at this point is much richer than some of the earlier stuff.

The Slackers, “Feed My Girl Ska”

This comes from the 2007 album Boss Harmony Sessions, which is sort of a bit of an odd record from them. They have some originals, some arrangements of other people’s songs, and some songs written by other folks from the band than Vic Ruggiero. It’s tied together with an intro and outro by “Boss Harmony”, which I think is one of King Django’s (Skinnerbox) many aliases. At any rate, the Slackers are great, so this is a pleasant listen, but it’s not one of their top tier records.