Motown

Tidy list today!

christian fitness, “love letters in the age of steam”

I really enjoy tom-heavy drum beats like this. Yeah, I wouldn’t want it for every song, but for the occasional tune, bring it on. Also, this song gets in and out in two minutes. Nice work!

Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, “Third Finger, Left Hand”

I gotta say, you can count your fingers differently and really change the intent of this title by quite a bit! This isn’t the best song from Martha Reeves, when it comes down to it. It’s pretty predictable and a little too syrupy. Not unpleasant, but not great.

Today’s tunes!

J Church, “Lines”

One of the great things that punk is able to do when it’s on is produce a short song that nevertheless is complete and satisfying. This thing clocks in at 1:40 and you’d hardly notice that it’s not the usual three minute pop song. Lance Hahn was able to pull this off time after time, in way that should shame so many people out there writing rock songs.

A repeat today, so you all know what that means. SIX SONGS BABY

De La Soul, “Pain (Radio Edit)”

Feels like we’ve had this song on here before. (looks) Yeah, we have. I have to fix all the tagging/index stuff around here.

Neutral Milk Hotel, “You’ve Passed”

The focus for Neutral Milk Hotel is on In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, but On Avery Island is very good as well. It’s maybe a little more predictable, a little more just pure indie pop, but Jeff Magnum knows what he’s doing here.

I was at Shut Up & Sit Down Expo over the weekend, and it was fun, although I think that that was mostly because it was a getaway weekend for Megan and I. But, it was a good pretext to get out of town! Also, somebody asked me for my autograph. Super cool!

Today’s tunes.

Ministry, “I Prefer”

We’ve now gone back in Ministry’s catalog far enough to reach their first good album. The flaccid synth-pop of With Sympathy and stilted semi-aggro synths of Twitch had finally metastasized into the aggressive Land of Rape and Honey. This, arguably, is the most industrial of their albums, with less of the metallic riffing of their later stuff but all of the mechanical pounding you might want. I haven’t listend to this in ages, I should give it a spin.

Six songs today!

Belle & Sebastian, “Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John”

From Write About Love, a mostly forgettable album, but this is one of the songs that sticks with me from it. There’s not a whole lot to it, musically, but it’s certainly pleasant.

Jr Walker And All Stars, “Cleo’s Mood”

You don’t find that many instrumental soul tracks like this in the Motown catalog, but here we are with a sweet little tune from 1965.

Don’t have a ton to say today!

The Goats, “The Boom”

The Goats were an underground rap act out of Philadelphia, notable for using a live band during their second album, from which this song comes. Musically they would have fit in with the Tommy Boy acts of the time, such as House of Pain. Overall, the first album was pretty charming, and the second one kind of dragged. Honestly, I can’t remember listening to this stuff for probably 20 years.

Today!

Dale Crover, “Hillbilly Math”

Here we find Dale Crover playing one of the most straightforward rock songs that he’s probably ever been involved with. I guess you can see how this might not really be a Melvins song, and I’m not sure it’s really necessary, but whatrever, it’s totally fine.

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, “Such Is Love, Such Is Life”

We’re in 1963 with this song today. Frankly, Smokey is sounding a little Chipmunk-y on this song, making this a little less than the best from him.

Six songs today! I should probably just automatically skip everything with Jay-Z in it.

The Slackers, “Real War”

I don’t listen to Close My Eyes very much. Primarily because the second song on it, “Old Dog”, really kind of upsets em. It’s a good album, though, and I really should listen to it more often. Here, we catch the Slackers going into dub some, which they do every now and again.

Skip track 3.

NoMeansNo, “You’re Not One”

I was just listening to Wrong today, and was reminded of how awesome it was. Folks, check it out! In the meantime, here’s NoMeansNo kicking off the In The Fishtank project, which was a project where an independant label invited bands to record an album in just two days in the studio. Occasionally a couple bands at the same time! NoMeansNo are pros, so of course it sounds great.

Do you love Five Songs?

Screeching Weasel, “You’ll Be In My Dreams Today”

It probably says something about me that I own a lot more Screeching Weasel than I do the Ramones. Specifically, it says how old I am.

Jay-Z, “I Know”

One of Jay-Z’s strengths is how he has a bunch of different flows that he uses on different songs. Unlike some rappers, including plenty of famous ones, he always seems to change things up to really play along with the beat. And Pharrell Williams put together a great one here.