La Gritona

Charles Mingus, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”

Ladies and gentlement, the pilot has illuminated the “JOSH IS NOT QUALIFIED TO TALK ABOUT JAZZ” light, please return to your social media app of choice and return your seats to the upright and locked position.

Boris, “Hama”

Amplifier Worship is the first studio album from Boris if you ask them, because they consider Absolute Go a single. It’s a 60-minute single, mind you, but it’s still a single as far as they’re concerned, so this is the first album. And it’s a banger, the first in a very long string of fantastic albums. I’m not sure Boris really redfined anything, or set a template for other bands to follow or anything. They’re just consistently great across decades. That’s all.

The Magnetic Fields, “Meaningless”

Pretty sure this is a repeat!

The National, “Afraid of Everyone”

This is also a repeat!

(That’s a lie, I just don’t want to figure out anything to say about the National. Don’t want to make people mad!)

La Gritona, “Jack Passion”

La Gritona were a noise rock band out of Boston, active in the second half of the 90s, who put out one album and some EPs before ending things. And they smoke, all heavy skronk and yelling, exactly the kind of stuff that’s up my alley. But I had no idea they existed, because by the time their album came out in 1997, I was out of college and slowly losing touch with music. Luckily, their entire catalog was compiled together into a re-release in 2010, where a postiive review brought it to my attention. And maybe this will bring them to someone else’s attention, because this stuff rules.

Super bitchin’ day today.

X-Ecutioners, “3 Boroughs”

Built From Scratch really is just a fantastic name for an album.

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, “Insatiable Two”

I love the Trail of Dead, but can we just talk about the album cover. That is some middle school-ass shit right there! I’m gonna bet without looking that it was done by either a band member or a family member of the band.

I’m back!

Fog, “Pneumonia”

What do you get when you cross lo-fi indie rock with turntablism? You get Fog, pretty much, with this song sounding like Silkworm ran into Kid Koala. Which is a solid pitch! This kind of hybrid really only works when the constituent parts are good, and mostly, this album succeeds on that basis. I had kind of forgotten about it, honestly, and I’m glad shuffle dug it up.

Good one today!

Queen, “The Prophet’s Song”

I’ve made the comparison before, but I don’t know if I’ve made it here or not: power metal is just Queen played fast. All the over-the-top theatrics and corn are there in spades. Sure, there are usually fewer elves in your average Queen song, and there are more wheedly-weedly solos in power metal, but nevertheless, they’re basically the same.

Sharon Jones, “Pick It Up, Lay It In The Cut”

The first Sharon Jones record was rawer than what would follow, which is A-OK by me. Not to say that all of her records aren’t great, but there’s something about the filthy sound of those drums that gets me going.

Pretty happy with today’s set. La Gritona is exactly the kind of band I had hoped to highlight here.

Atmosphere, “When The Lights Go Out”

Atmosphere with Doom and Kool Keith guesting? That sounds amazing. Does it live up to it? Well, Doom is great! Solid song, overall.

Samiam, “Mr. Walker”

Been a few months since we’ve heard from melodic punk rockers Samiam. This song comes from their fifth album, You Are Freaking Me Out, the last of what I consider to be their peak albums (along with Billy and Clumsy). This stuff is just musical comfort food to me.