Joyce Manor

The Good People, “Windows Down”

We’ve had the Good People on here before, and it’s always nice to hear them. The Summer EP absolutely nails its purpose, this is totally music to roll around bumping loud with the sun shining.

Gift of Gab, “E2Mtro”

Rest in power, Gift of Gab.

Magic Hour, “Lower”

We had the Crystalized Movements the other day, featuring a tune from their swan song, Revelations from Pandemonium. After that band broke up, Wayne Rogers hooked up with Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang (Galaxie 500) to form Magic Hour…which kinda sounds like Crystalized Movements. The name of this record (No Excess Is Absurd) really speaks to Rogers’s tendency to just go over the top on fuzz. Fun record, though.

A hazard of this project is that I won’t always have much to say. Sorry about that! At least I have music for you.

Claw Hammer, “Caravan”

Claw Hammer was a bit of a strange band in the underground of the 90s. For starters, their first album wasn’t really their album. It was just a cover of the entirety of Devo’s first album. Jon Wahl sang in some kind of demented John Fogerty meets Joe Strummer kind of howl. They sounded like a blues band crashed into a punk band and decided they liked it that way. Through it all, they clearly were just doing their own thing. They were often exasperating, but sometimes brilliant.

Excellent, punk leaning set today.

Joyce Manor, “Eighteen”

I don’t think there’s been any period of time after the punk explosion where there were not bands making pop punk of some variety or another. You can basically draw an unbroken line from, say, Stiff Little Fingers up through the bands of today. So, here’s Joyce Manor, very much in that classic pop punk tradition. And it’s fun!

christian fitness, “other men’s wives”

Andrew Falkous with another track from his solo act, which really does pretty much just sound like Future of the Left. Which I mentioned last time, but whatever.