I’ve got bad news folks. You’re stuck with me again. Sad times! If anybody out there wants to have a whack at this thing, I guess just let me know.
This song, with the distant, buried vocals and deliberately thin drums, sounds a lot like an old Crystalized Movements track, which is something nobody else is going to care about. But I think it’s neat! And if you like this, hit up that link and see if you like their stuff.
[Read More]Up For the Down Stroke is the record where George Clinton brought back the Parliament name and it represented the band going big on party friendly funk tunes. It’s the record where they really hit the big time, and the start of their essential records.
Released posthumously, Brainwashed is the final record from Harrison, and the only one I’ve actually picked up. I’m not sure I’m really the audience for this, fundamentally. It’s pleasant enough, but not something I’m going to really throw on.
[Read More]Rising Down is fantastic. But this song is just an interstitial thing.
We’re deep into Moon Ska’s bench here with this band, who released one album in 1997 and then disappeared. It never caught on with me particularly, and I’ve never heard anybody else mention it, so thank you for bringing this one up, shuffle.
MU330, meanwhile, might be obscure today but at least put out multiple albums and I have actually seen them brought up by someone who isn’t me. This comes from Crab Rangoon, which was released right in the middle of their career, and is probably their best record.
[Read More]This merger of King’s blues guitar with the Stax horns, with funk folded in, is just delightful. I need to find some more shit like this. You can add blues to the long list of music that I fundamentally know jack squat about. I’m starting to think I’m not qualified to write a music blog at all!
If you’re going to combine ska and punk, you can’t half-ass it. Full tempo punk with horns, hell yeah! Yeah, this shit’s a laughingstock, but I don’t care. It’s fun! Screw y’all!
[Read More]Five Songs took a little break there. Had to recharge our batteries. It’s a grind getting out here and writing nothing of consequence about music nobody has heard or cares about! Well, we’re back!
A programming note: I’m really tired of doing the “previously"s. I think they’re charming, but they’re also a hassle to put together manually. I’m going to use the tagging on this platform instead. It’ll take a while to convert all the old entries, but this will make it easier for me going forward.
[Read More]There’s sort of a darker edge to this song, with the horns especially, which is fairly unusual among the third-wave bands that were Mu330’s peers. Of course, this isn’t ska, this is rock with horns.
Mostly, I look goofy, funky Beck more than the other versions of Beck, so I’m more drawn to those albums where he lets that side loose. The Information is the followup to Guero (which is one of the ones I like), so I was clearly hoping for more of the same. And, it’s not really the same. It’s not as loose, as spontaneous. But, you know, some of it works. Listen to how beautiful the production on this song is!
[Read More]Look, they can’t all be winners.
Just the other day, we had a pointless bonus track from the reissue of III. Well, here’s another one.
I should play Down Every Road for the kids. I think they might enjoy it.
I wonder what the longest period of time we’ve gone around here without some kind of noise rock? Not long. I wonder if it’s longer or shorter than the time between ska?
[Read More]I had kind of forgotten about this Marnie Stern record, and I’m so grateful that shuffle pulled it up. Check out this song, and then go listen to the rest of the album.
This song is from Killers, which pre-dates Bruce Dickinson joining the band. Overall, the band had a more raw sound during this time period, although the dual guitar attack and galloping bass is still present. I actually really like the album a lot, while recognizing that the band is a bit different of a beast without Dickinson around.
[Read More]I didn’t quite make it all the way through May without missing a day. I didn’t put anything up for 5/7, and I kind of wish I’d managed to hit every day. Well, June is coming up, and maybe I can nail every day in that month! As always, there’s music around here.
At this point, third-wave ska band MU330 has to be the most obscure band that’s been on here three times. It’s pretty funny, I haven’t listened to most of this stuff for a long time, but it’s all come right back to me upon listening again. I can still whistle a fair number of the horn lines. And for that, I’m sorry for anybody near me.
[Read More]A new month for Five Songs! How long will this keep going? I don’t know, but I’ve managed to get past the first couple weeks just fine, so maybe this has some legs. This entry also has a playlist.
Oh man, we just miseed Steel Pole Bath Tub’s “Train to Miami” for this collection. Ugh, such a good song. But rules are rules!
NoFX delivering a super sophisticated message with this song, which can be summed up as “mean people suck”. The breathtaking nuance they display here would be a hallmark of their punk career. Anyway, NoFX is one of those immutable yardsticks of music, a benchmark that you can use to explain other bands. “Yeah, they’re like NoFX crossed with…” or “they sort of sound like NoFX, only they…”. That sort of thing.
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