Gorilla Biscuits

Screeching Weasel, “My Brain Hurts”

I poke fun at Screeching Weasel pretty often when they come up here, mostly because their formula most didn’t change over the course of a zillion albums. But their early albums are still a lot of fun - just cheerful, energetic punk. There’s nothing at all wrong with this formula when it’s hitting.

Mission of Burma, “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver”

This song is one of the pillars of post-punk, a template for so many following bands. That’s the reason this still sounds fresh more than 40 years later, because it was groundbreaking at the time, and bands still try and sound like this.

Mac DeMarco, “The Way You’d Love Her”

Like a lot of people, I first encountered DeMarco with Salad Days, which is a charming, reverb-soaked album full of ringing guitar tone and low-key songs. It’s really enjoyable in the right mood, but I have to say that for me, the rewards declined pretty quickly. It’s not that Another One is bad or anything, all the charms of the other album are present. It’s just that I don’t really listen to it much, it’s sort of redundant for me.

Pardoner, “Silly String”

There’s something extremely early 90s about Pardoner’s sound on this track. It sounds like a lost track from a C/Z Records band, or maybe like some old Dinosaur Jr. track from the vault. That, of course, means I’m totally delighted by it.

Marvin Gaye, “Pride and Joy”

A single from 1963, with some jaunty piano really driving things here. A real charmer!

Gold Class, “Life As a Gun”

EXTREMELY post-punk stuff here out of Australia. There’s sort of a Discord feel to the guitars, and almost a Joy Division feel to the singing, which is a pretty potent combination. This is from their first album, It’s You, which is a pretty solid record.

Superchunk, “Mower”

Unlike with OutKast, I have a lot of trouble picking my favorite Superchunk album. No Pocky For Kitty was the first album I bought, and it’s top notch, and it’s a sentimental pick. Here’s Where The String Come In has Superchunk at their best blend of their energy and more mature songwriting, and it’s a fantastic record. And then there’s On The Mouth, today’s album, which is just rock solid back-to-front. I think it’s probably my most frequent pick, but I really do swap around quite a bit.

Gorilla Biscuits, “High Hopes”

Gorilla Biscuits were one of the most influential hardcore bands, and their self-titled record set the stage for Start Today, which inspired tons of followers. This song, from that self-titled record, is a good example of how they were still pretty raw, but you could really hear the potential. Because this is still pretty straight-forward, it’s aged pretty well.

Prefuse 73, “Expressing Views is Obviously Illegal”

The third Prefuse 73 record, Surrounded by Silence, found Scott Herren starting to really branch out from the micro-samples and glitchy stuff that really made his name. He had a bunch of guest rappers on the record and generally tried to broaden his sonic palette. That said, there were still plenty of tracks that sounded like his classic sound, like this one.

Mephiskapheles, “Satanic Debris”

As a statement of purpose for a band, it doesn’t get a whole lot stronger than this one. From the opening backwards masked vocals, to the dark lyrics, the subtle distortion of the guitar lending some additional menace, to the hallmark solo trading, you just have a perfect encapsulation of the (wonderful) Mephiskapheles aesthetic. The odds that a band named Mephiskapheles would turn in one of the finest albums of the third wave seems slim, but God Bless Satan is legitimately a treasure.

Today!

Queens of the Stone Age, “You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire”

This is one of those songs where that little opening background riff will just pop into my head and stay there for hours and hours, just looping. It’s not unpleasant! This album just smokes, front to back.

Gorilla Biscuits, “(Untitled Hidden)”

I think I’ve introduced this old-ass straight-edge hardcore band before, so instead, I’ll just mention that they contributed personnel to Quicksand, which we heard from yesterday. As for the track itself, on my copy of Start Today, there is a series of little sub-10 second “songs” which are indistinguishable and unnamed. And, because of stupid tech limitations, I can’t tell which one this is. So, I’ll do another song today.

I already know the first record I’m going to buy tomorrow: new Pyrrhon album! WOOOOO! Pyrrhon makes totally insane atonal noise, which I adore. Super fired up about it! Here’s today’s noise!

Ghostface Killah, “Theodore”

This track is from Bulletproof Wallets, which stands out among Ghostface’s discography as a bit of a misstep. It mostly feels pretty flat, and while his next album would be quite a bit better, this is one that you can pretty easily skip.

See, this batch of tunes is a good example of the kind of thing I wanted. Obscure Seattle ska band! Old-ass straight edge hardcore! More of that stuff! Here’s your eclectic bunch of tunes for today.

Easy Big Fella, “Joey & Ranma”

The third wave of ska even reached Seattle. There aren’t really any bands other than Easy Big Fella that I listened to back in the day that were part of that scene here, but they were a good one. The last two albums in particular, Eat At Joey’s and Tasty Bits and Spicy Flicks (both on Moon Ska) were very strong, and good examples of what the third wave could do well when it was on.