Mono

Mudhoney, “In My Finest Suit”

Ever the self-sabotaging band, Mudhoney found themselves on a major label during the grunge gold rush and released Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, one of the least grunge-y records they ever released. Sales were not great, and by 1995, Kurt Cobain was dead and the grunge bubble was collapsing. So, of course, they headed back and released one of their MOST grunge-y records, My Brother The Cow. This song, for instance, would have sat comfortably on their self-titled record without anybody really noticing stylistic problems.

Blue Scholars, “Cornerstone”

The lead-in to the The Long March EP, this really tells you what to expect on this record. And, honestly, this is an extremely generous EP - 9 tracks, 35 minutes, that’s plenty of material for a full LP.

Blackalicious, “On Fire Tonight”

Aw, hell yeah, hip hop day! This comes to us from Imani, Vol. 1, released in 2015 after a 10 year break between records. Alas, there is no Vol. 2 (yet?). There’s actually some similarity in approach between Blackalicious and Blue Scholars, with both broadly approaching hip hop from a sort of modernized throwback stance, if that makes any sense. [reads what I wrote] It does not make sense.

Seam, “Shame”

I love EPs! I miss rooting around in record stores and coming across them, because they were often a surprise. It doesn’t happen very much any more, or at least, I don’t come across them very often. Probably just means I’m out of touch. I’m very old!

Anyway, this is from the Kernel EP, but this song is just an alternate take of a song from Headsparks, so this EP is pretty inessential. Buuut, I do miss EPs.

Lots of new folks today.

Clem Snide, “Accident”

For some reason, “alt-country” as a label always kind of irritates me, even though the thought it’s expressing (country music that stands distinct from the popular variation) is directly analagous to alternative rock, which doesn’t bother me. The lesson, as always: I’m dumb. Anyway, Clem Snide (named after the character from Naked Lunch) is absolutely alt-country. Propelled by Eef Barzelay’s passionate singing and Jason Glasser’s multi-instrumental prowess, Clem Snide cranked out five outstanding albums in the late 90s and early 2000s, starting with this record (You Were A Diamond) up through 2005’s End of Love. They started to lose some steam after that, but at their peak, they were incredible. I mean, just listen to this!