Pigs

Pigs, “Wrap It Up”

Just bottle that opening guitar sound and sell it by the case, I’ll buy it and pour it directly into my nostrils.

Dodecahedron, “Finale”

Ooh, backwards vocals. So evil! I’m cowering!

Boris, “Riot Sugar”

I’ll never get tired of mentioning this when it comes up: this is from Heavy Rocks. No, not the one from 2002. No, not the one from 2022. The one from 2011, the same year they released three other albums. Nobody has had the career that Boris has had, and very few bands have been harder to keep up with. At any rate, this Heavy Rocks is excellent mid-career Boris, crunchy and pretty diverse, a relatively accessible record but undeniably heavy. And yes, it rocks.

NoFX, “Please Play This Song on the Radio”

I did, in fact, play this song on the radio, which is the sort of thing you can do when you’re holding down the 3 AM-7 AM slot on a Tuesday for a grand total of, like, four listeners. Safe harbor, baby! Anyway, 17yo Josh thought this was a hilarious bit, and absolutely worthy of inflicting on the poor bastards cramming for their thermodynamics final and were just hoping for something to keep themselves awake. I hope hearing the word “shithead” on the radio gave them just a little bit of a jolt.

Andrew Bird, “Pathetique”

Bird Songs collects all three of Andrew Bird’s early records, when he was still recording as Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire. The first two records, Oh! The Grandeur! and Thrills, have a very old-timey feel, very similar to what the Squirrel Nut Zippers were making. The third record, The Swimming Hour, was really his breakthrough record, melding his older sensibility with more modern songwriting, with pretty special results. If you haven’t heard the records, this collection is a monster deal. If you, say, already have all three records and then pre-ordered this compilation without knowing what it was, it’s less of a bargain.

Pigs, “Bug Boy”

Side project of Unsane bassist Dave Curran, it’s easy to see the lineage here. This is just pure noise rock in the NYC form, all splattered riffs and yelling. So, yeah, of course I like this. Both Pigs albums are totally worth listening to if you’re a noise rock person.

Iron & Wine, “Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car”

Iron & Wine is one of those acts where I always enjoy listening to his stuff, and simultaneously have trouble distinguishing it. If you asked me what made this album (The Shepherd’s Dog) different from his other work, I’d have to kind of shrug a little bit. It’s all good, but it’s tough to say what my favorite is.

Look, they can’t all be winners.

Sebadoh, “Red Riding Good”

Just the other day, we had a pointless bonus track from the reissue of III. Well, here’s another one.

Merle Haggard, “If We Make It Through December”

I should play Down Every Road for the kids. I think they might enjoy it.

Pigs, “Bet It All On Black”

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?

I think there’s something goofy about the shuffle algorithm they’re using at Amazon. I’ve seen it pick the same song from the same band multiple times, and for now, I’m treating that as a glitch and reloading things. I don’t consider that cheating. I have to bring you all novel stuff!

Forest Swords, “Panic”

Hey, something pretty new! This was released less than a month ago. Forest Swords makes atmospheric music that invariably sounds like a soundtrack pretty much at all times. I haven’t had that much time to delve too deeply into this new album yet, but I like what I hear so far. The horn at the end of this song in particular sounds great.