Night Soil Man

Black Flag, “Loose Nut”

We’ve had this song before, and I told the store about how I bought it at random after deciding I should probably hear some Black Flag. That was the sort of thing we did in those days, when the Usenet wasn’t really searchable in any useful way, and you had to rely on either word-of-mouth, college radio, or magazines to learn about stuff. I would just take a flyer on records, because that was what you did. Sometimes it worked out, sometimes you ended up with a so-so Black Flag record.

Two two twenty two. Neat date!

Guided by Voices, “Hot Freaks”

Bee Thousand, the Guided By Voices breakthrough record, isn’t really notably different from their previous records. It’s as ramshackle and distracted as their previous albums, with the same penchant for memorable melodies floating in as frequently as they stagger out. Just as soon as a tune gets going properly, it’s on to the next. The hit rate on this album is higher than the previous records, so it’s probably the apotheosis of their early approach. After this, they’d slowly start getting more professional, so if you want the raw shit, this is your starting point, and then you can work backwards as far as you can stand.

Fun set of songs today, with some obscure but worthy music popping up. Listen in, won’t you?

Gob, “Censorshit”

More pop-punk out of Vancouver from the 90s! Yes, this is basically the same stuff you’ve heard before, even several times during this column. I don’t care, I like it! As with most punk bands that are trading mostly on energy, the first Gob record is the best (Too Late, No Friends in this case).