Bim Skala Bim enjoyed covering classic rock warhorses over their career, songs which are really kind of ideal targets for this kind of thing. Any dork who will get upset about a cheeky cover of Cream of Pink Floyd is really showing their ass. Anyway, this is fun, sure, why not?
Upon proofreading, I’m leaving the “Cream of Pink Floyd” typo in there, because it’s delightful. Yes, I proofread these, dammit.
[Read More]Silence is a Dangerous Sound: A Tribute to Fugazi is a huge comp, featuring a bunch of bands each doing one Fugazi tune. The interpretations range from pretty faithful to pretty decomposed, as is de rigueur for this sort of thing. I think you have to be a pretty big Fugazi dork to enjoy something like this, but I am one of the biggest, so it’s fun. Most of the pleasure is in doing the Leonardo DeCaprio pointing meme at the songs (metaphorically speaking), but whatever, stupid fun is still fun.
[Read More]The final Let’s Go Bowling album, Stay Tuned, feels a little like they were finally letting the commercial winds blow them along towards rock. While their previous records had been pretty traditional, this one definitely feels more of a piece with the other ska bands who were hitting it big. But, of course, by 2000 the commercial appetite for ska was collapsing, so if it was a bid for fame, it didn’t really work out. My least favorite of the four records I have from them (there’s apparently a debut out there that I’ve never heard).
[Read More]Hmm, gotta say this song hits a little different than it used to.
Yet another live-in-studio thing! Two yesterday, another today. This is from John Peel Sessions, the progenitor of all these projects. Well, not this particular one, the John Peel sessions in general. John Peel loved David Gedge, so Cinerama did a bunch of these things (as did the Wedding Present). This session actually preceeds the release of Va Va Voom, and this song would end up as their debut album opener. If you’re a huge Cinerama fan, it’s fun to hear things in an earlier form.
[Read More]Tad Hutchison is really smokin’ on the drums on this tune, friends! I was going to say that this is from the last Young Fresh Fellows album, Tiempo De Lujo, but no! Turns out there was one last year, exciting!
I was going to say that Unsteady is one of the lost gems of the third wave, having put out two outstanding, unique albums that combine a sort of carnival atmosphere with a jazzy take on ska. But, uh, that song title is not great. Listening carefully, I think it’s an attempt to be clever, there’s no malice here, but yeah.
[Read More]It’s been a while since we’ve had a track from this record. This is from the Ork Records: New York, New York compilation from the Numero Group, which captures the early punk label Ork and the early New York punk scene. There’s a ton of really strong material here, and even the stuff that’s not great is at least energetic. Just a tremendous compilation.
Proudly communist rap group Consolidated did everything they could do to try and piss off the troglodytes. In this case, pulling in the Yeastie Girls to guest on the track and rap about oral sex was a move that was pretty far out of the norm for 1992. Given how stiff they usually were on the mic, the guests make this one of the more memorable songs on this record.
[Read More]Oh, hell yes. The piano! The swinging drums! Those horns! Goddamn, y’all.
I have a pretty simple opinion on the Police: first three albums yes, last two, no. It’s really kind of that simple. The energy of the punk-influenced early stuff had finally dissipated entirely by the final album, which was chock-a-block with Dad Rock. That’s not to say that I can’t enjoy bits of it, but I just don’t find myself wanting to listen to it either.
[Read More]Back in those music salt mines, bringing you more sparkling treats!
(NB: the last track is only on Bandcamp - I didn’t upload it to Youtube, because that seemed kind of dodgy.)
Nancarrow is one of the most avant-garde artists in my entire collection. An American who fled the US fearing persecution as a result of his activities in the Spanish Civil War, he lived in isolation in Mexico. While there, he took to composing for the player piano, which enabled him to create incredibly complex compositions that a human player wouldn’t be able to perform. Many of his compositions strike you as alien when you listen to them, because he was able to create so many layers and strange patterns within his work. A bunch of his works were collected into a single volume, Studies For Player Piano, Vols. 1-5, which is what I have. I used to play his stuff on the air at WRCT occasionally, when I felt like my audience needed to be weirded out a little bit.
[Read More]I hope people are listening to all of the songs that I’m posting here, including the ones that I’m suggesting are not for me. They might be for you! They might suck! Only one way to find out. Speaking of, here’s today’s playlist. Listen to it all! Or don’t. I’m not your boss.
Richard Lloyd was part of Television, who made one of the all-time great punk albums, Marquee Moon, but I haven’t really paid any attention to any of his solo career. This song comes from an outstanding compilation, Ork Records: New York, New York, which Numero Group recently reissued. It’s a document of the very early New York punk scene, and I cannot recommend it highly enough if you have an interest in that whole era.
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