PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey, “My Beautiful Leah”

Is This Desire? is the album that really completed PJ Harvey’s transition from kickass rock artist to just plain ol’ kickass artist. Yeah, broadly, this is still a rock record, but she started doing so much more. The arrangements incorporate so much more beyond just stardard rock instrumentation, the songs range much wider, and the whole thing is so much more sophisticated. That’s not to say that the first couple records aren’t brilliant, they are, but this is just a different beast.

Pete Rock & CL Smooth, “For Pete’s Sake”

From the stone-cold classic Mecca And The Soul Brother, this song is typically excellent. Every song on this record hits hard, it’s incredible.

PJ Harvey, “Ascending”

squinting Yeah, I suppose that this IS an ascending track, isn’t it?

Thantifaxath, “The Bright White Nothing at the End of the Tunnel”

Sometimes, you just want black metal, unadulterated by other genres. We don’t always have to mix it up with everything else! Thantifaxath does that well, and this hits the spot.

Jungle Fire, “La Kossa”

Jungle Fire, out of LA, play Afro beat and funk, clearly heavily inspired by the usual folks like Fela Kuti and James Brown. Nothing wrong with that! Anyway, this is from their 2017 album on Colemine records, and I really appreciate the drama of this. There’s a lot of Kool & the Gang that I hear, and that works for me.

Lee Alan, “Set Me Free”

Look, not every single Motown put out during their heyday was a slam dunk. But even the goofier ones are still short, at least.

Panopticon, “Blåtimen”

Panopticon, the band that is actually just Austin Lunn, gained attention with Kentucky, where Lunn merged his love of Appalachian folk music with his love of black metal and produced an amalagam of the two, creating one of the most distinctive and interesting black metal albums ever. A couple albums down the road from his breakthrough, and he was still playing both of his loves. The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness is a double album, and unlike Kentucky, it’s more two halves rather than a melding of the two styles. There’s a midpoint in the double album where it switches from the black metal to the folk. Lunn is an expert at both, so as long as you’re OK with both styles, it’s a great record. This, uh, is from the black metal half.

Does it seem like I’m getting flakier with this things? I think I’m getting flakier. Whatever. I’m back!

Floor, “The Key”

This song is only 46 seconds. I really wish it were longer.

Crimpshrine, “Rearranged”

Crimpshrine didn’t last long as a band, producing only one album and a smattering of EPs, singles, and compilation appearances. All of that latter material got collected into a single comp, The Sound Of A New World Being Born, which is an excellent document of the early Bay Area punk scene. As that scene would end up being hugely influential over rock, and Crimpshrine would be one of the key bands to help form that scene, this album is kind of like a glimpse into the future. Well, the past now. Whatever.

Damn, good one today.

PJ Harvey, “Hair”

Last time we heard from PJ Harvey, we got “Sheela Na Gig” from Dry. That song smokes, of course. And this is the song right after it on that album! What I’m trying to say here is that this record is amazing.

Ne’er Do Wells, “Green Blooded Love”

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but there was a period of time where I bought more or less everything Lookout Records put out. This wasn’t a great policy. Aside from ending up with considerably more pop punk than I needed, there was some pretty low wattage stuff down roster on that label. This album being a good exhibit. This is from a split LP, and as you can hear, this is just straight ahead vintage rock. It’s inoffensive, but also pretty unexciting.

Yay for year end roundups! First one I’m looking at is The AV Club’s roundup and their ballots. So far, I’ve already picked up two records, Infinite Wave by Vagabon and The Incessant by Meat Wave. Fun! Today’s music!

Isaac Hayes, “Walk On By”

Oh my. With the untimely passing of Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes became probably the most important artist at Stax, writing and contributing to innumerable hits. He was also, of course, a tremendous performer in his own right, with songs like this being a great example. This appeared on the album Hot Buttered Soul, which is just tremendous.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve listened to “!!!!!!” by The Roots, which is the song I get if I go to all my songs and hit play without turning on shuffle. I’ll probably get really confused if and when I ever hit it legitimately. Here’s today’s tunes.

Johnnie Taylor, “I Ain’t Particular”

I kind of wish I was a better historian of these old soul records. I’m mostly familiar with the big names, but I can’t tell you anything much about a lot of these folks. It’s a shame, as I’m sure there’s some great stories for many of them. Well, at any rate, this is from the first Stax/Volt collection, coming at the very end of the Atlantic run (this is actually the last track from that set).

Back from a hectic weekend, with camping and a charity gaming tournament, where we collectively raised more than $110K for Treehouse. Which is amazing! I think the antidote will be some nice, calming songs.

(get ready for five songs of extreme metal)

Dead Rider, “The Blue Flame”

An experimental rock band started after the end of US Maple by Todd Rittman. US Maple was dedicated to deconstructing rock as far as it would go and still have it be rock music, and Dead Rider retains some of that sensibility. They also feature a saxophone, a relative rarity among bands these days. I would say, if you’ve gone through US Maple’s discography and still want more, this band is a good place to move to.