Jay Farrar -

Five Songs, 3/23/2021

Posted on March 23, 2021 | Joshua Buergel

9353, “East of Sudan”

This is really pretty avant-garde for the punk scene of 1984. I mean, sure, there were plenty of post-punk bands working in kind of adjacent spaces, but this is still pretty far out there.

Imarhan, “Ehad Wa Dagh”

We’ve had Imarhan on here before, but as always, I feel kind of inadequate writing about bands from other cultures that I’m not familiar with. Sure, I can write about, say, punk bands from the US plenty, but I guess I’m not really up to the task of writing about a rock band from Algeria, esepcially as they’re clearly blending their own influences with those of rock. It’s very cool stuff, though.

Five Songs, 11/24/2019

Posted on November 24, 2019 | Joshua Buergel

Jay Farrar, “Different Eyes”

If you’re wondering what the difference is between a Son Volt record and a Jay Farrar record, the answer is “not much”. This album (Sebastopol) was recorded after the very good Wide Swing Tremelo, and honestly, you could scramble up the track listings between the two and not really think anything was off. That makes this album also very good, just so I’m clear.

Deerhoof, “Son of Sorn”

You can see where Deerhoof earns the name “noise pop” on a song like this. It’s about a third aimless noise, a third pounding rhythm, and a third sweet but fractured pop song. They don’t always explore all three of those in the same song, but this is a compact little package of what Deerhoof is about.