Machines of Loving Grace

Rancid, “Ruby Soho”

As an unabashed Operation Ivy guy, I was always a little disappointed with Rancid. They always just seemed a little more dour, a little less tuneful, and a little less fun. That said, the album of Rancid’s that I like enough to listen to pretty often is …And Out Come The Wolves. Just listened to it earlier today, actually!

Clem Snide, “I Got High”

This song is from The Meat Of Life, which I think is the better of the two albums from the second incarnation of Clem Snide (the other being Hungry Bird). It’s a warm, comfortable album, with the usual sweet (and subtly dark) songs from Eef Barzelay. It’s not the album to start with, but it’s a solid record.

Bergraven, “Ekot av bikt”

Black metal band out of Sweden that I otherwise know nothing about. I ended up with this from a blind sampler from Hydra Head Records. It’s got more melody than a lot of black metal going on here. I dunno, this is the first I’ve listened to this since I first got it, I think! Write your own review!

Bim Skala Bim, “Popcorn”

Bim Skala Bim checks in here with a little bit of an oddity from their final album, Krinkle. This is a cover, a version of synth pioneer Gershon Kingsley’s song. Bim Skala Bim didn’t often go for these sorts of covers, and didn’t record too many purely instrumental songs, so this is kind of a treat.

A bit of a mixed bag today. Too bad we missed the Amon Tobin track that immediately followed these!

Arsonists, “Blaze”

Underground rap act out of Brooklyn, Arsonists are odd simply for the fact that they signed to legendary indie rock label Matador for their two records. The two turned out to be excellent, with the group itself doing all the production as well as the rhyming, which is always a pleasure. I can’t really think of any other rap artists who ended up on Matador off the top of my head, so this remains just a fascinating experiment for the label.