Helium

Goblin Cock, “Something Haunted”

I’m sorry, nothing I’m going to say is going to change anybody’s mind here. Either you were 100% in when you heard the name “Goblin Cock” or you were not.

Helmet, “Pure”

As Helmet moved further away from their Amphetamine Reptile days, their sound just progressively got cleaner and cleaner. I mean, it’s still distorted guitars and all, but it was all kind of clockwork stuff eventually. Whether it was triangulation to try and capture a bigger audience or not, I think it didn’t serve them too well. This song is a pretty good example, this would have been much noisier in earlier days, with maybe a big squalling guitar solo or some wild screeching or something. Instead, there’s just kind of a few yells from Page Hamilton, and that’s more or less it. I can’t exactly call it tame, not really, but it’s…domesticated?

Helium, “XXX”

Amazingly, despite having Mary Timony show up here with Ex Hex, Wild Flag, Autoclave, and even as a solo artist, we’ve never actually had her show up with the band she’s most famous with, Helium. That ends today! If you couldn’t tell with my following her career across five different acts (maybe the most of any artist in my library!), I’m a huge fan. And I really do love her later work, but Helium is my favorite of her bands. It’s indie rock, yes, but the songs are really interesting and just so well done. I think this song speaks for itself, though.