Neat! Lookit all the twos!
I don’t usually have a ton to say about these iconic Motown hits, based on my assumption that people have all heard them a thousand times and are intimately familiar with them. But I’m not sure how true that is, as I reflect on it. Did the generation after me have oldies stations on in cars, restaurants, and other public places as they grew up? I’m not sure, and it’s possible this stuff is more novel. Well, anyway, enjoy!
[Read More]Another classic Motown tune. I wish I could set up all my music streaming to just inject periodic Motown songs into whatever I’m listening to. Having a Four Tops song pop up in the middle of some Neanderthal death metal record would be pretty excellent.
I like the choral bits in this, and the well placed additions to the piano. It’s a lovely piece.
[Read More]The Flavor Flav joint on It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back is the scar that sets off the perfection of the rest of the album perfectly. As a little goof, it’s fine, but it’s a trifle compared to the rest of the thing. It’s not inevitable that Flav’s songs will always be like this, not in a world with “911 Is A Joke”, but he’s just goofing on this one. I mean, he just starts making mouth noises on it.
[Read More]This track was originally the A-side of a single, and it was later pulled onto the compilation Sink. It’s a fantastic example of the mid to late 80s stuff that Foetus was up to, this kind of noir-inflected, orchestrated industrial noise stuff. There’s something familiar about this song, with gestures towards obsolete but recognizable types of music. But it’s all arranged in disquieting ways, like a musical Frankenstein’s monster, all bolts and dead flesh arranged in a groteque parody of life.
[Read More]As Gas Huffer moved into the middle of their run, they added a little touch of sruf. A little more reverb takes us in a slightly different direction on their garage rock. Still very recognizable as Gas Huffer, mind you, but they didn’t just keep re-making Janitors of Tomorrow either.
Goddam, listen to that recording. The compression on everything just adds so much to the urgency of the track. It’s so sweaty!
[Read More]Lots of Mary Wells recently, which is OK by me!
Music From The Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle is one of the key documents of the indie pop underground from the mid-90s. Although it hasn’t retained the level of enduring fame as In The Aeroplane Over the Sea, it’s very much a peer to that one. The record nerds who went nuts over Neutral Milk Hotel at the time were already nuts over Olivia Tremor Control.
[Read More]It’s a trifle, but it’s a very sweet one.
We like to goof around with me not knowing shit about jazz around here, but I know so, so much less about blues.
Those trash can drums, disorganized but confident vocals, and primitive grooves are all hallmarks of Pussy Galore that Jon Spencer would carry forward and refine in JSBX, but even the neolithic version is plenty of fun.
[Read More]The capstone of maybe the best run of any artist, ever, Songs in the Key of Life is a sprawling double album covering an incredible amount of ground, both musically and lyrically. Wonder tackled social issues and spiritual ones, found time for some gorgeous pop songs, funk, just about everything under the sun. And he just pulls it all off with aplomb.
Symphonic tech death metal band Spawn of Possession had several albums, but I’ve only listened to this one. And mostly, it kind of drove home that this kind of symphonic stuff really isn’t my bag.
[Read More]I never write checks, so this blog is the only thing that I write the wrong year on after the calendar filps over.
A stone-cold classic.
A lovely EP from 2020, Fondue Party continues a string of winners from Polyrhythmics. That sax solo is delicious, I love that they gave it so much space.
Damn, this album turned 20 today. I still think of it as the “new” Dre release. And there’s been a more recent Dre record!
[Read More]Killdozer were not a joke band. But they were a band that was never really being serious, with Michael Gerald’s vocal delivery on this thing being a good example. Why is he singing like this? Because it’s silly. Does it make the song silly? Well, not really? Kinda?
Beck, on the other hand, is clearly a joke act.
OK, I’ll let the listener decide if this is a joke act.
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