A repeat!
It seems like a concept that would be kind of evergreen - ska up some jazz standards, add a few originals, off you go. But somehow, it had diminishing returns? Each album worked a little less than the previous one, and by the third, it was down to just “fine”. It’s fine! But that’s all.
Goddamn!
[Read More]Just a classic punk gallop here from the Melvins, with Jello’s warbling shout in fine form. Delightful stuff.
Those muted horns coming in at :32, that’s just lovely on top of this languid groove. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it agian: we need more horns in music. Gimme some grindcore with a trombone tearing it up. Some hardcore with someone on a trumpet blaring along beside it.
[Read More]I never write checks, so this blog is the only thing that I write the wrong year on after the calendar filps over.
A stone-cold classic.
A lovely EP from 2020, Fondue Party continues a string of winners from Polyrhythmics. That sax solo is delicious, I love that they gave it so much space.
Damn, this album turned 20 today. I still think of it as the “new” Dre release. And there’s been a more recent Dre record!
[Read More]Quasimoto is one of Madlib’s many aliases, and probably the most unhinged of his various projects. The production in particular is spastic, with sounds popping in and out in unpredictable ways, giving the proceedings a lurching feel that is diquieting. Combine that with his disaffected, helium-accented flow, and it’s just a very strange record. Really good, though.
The first Tortoise record is a landmark in post-rock, representing an approach to making music with guitars and drums that would help inspire lots of following bands. I don’t think it’s their best record, but it’s excellent stuff, and it’s easy to see why this album got people excited.
[Read More]Oops! All harmonies!
Holy Fuck play a sort of instrumental rock that, in its use of primitive electronics and hypnotic grooves, has more than a little in common with krautrock. It’s really delightful stuff, a recognition that some blips and a bitchin’ beat will take you a long ways.
I think the last couple times Idles has come up, I’ve mostly waxed on about how punk this record is. And, you know - it really is. There’s an immediacy and urgency to this that really calls back to the spirit of punk. This is one of those albums that just gets better the more you listen to it.
[Read More]This is from a 1992 EP, also called The Longest Line, so from the White Trash, Two Heebs, and A Bean era. This is basically my favorite era of NoFX, probably due to how old I was at this time. There’s no real reason for anybody to really care about this EP though.
This is from an EP also, the 2013 release My Bed Is A Boat. Unlike the NoFX EP, though, I can heartily recommend this. It’s not so much that it’s notably better than any other Slackers, but that basically everything they’ve released is good.
[Read More]Stupid Beatles! It’s not my birthday! Or this blog’s birthday, which is a day off of mine! I can’t put them in charge of anything.
When you make really elaborate song or album names, it can easily tip over into pretension or tweeness. Andrew Falkous does a really good job with it, though. I mean, this album is called Love Letters In The Age of Steam. That’s really good!
[Read More]Innerspeaker seemed universally beloved, so I went ahead and picked it up. And I like it fine, but it doesn’t really blow me away. It doesn’t really stick with me particularly, so I like it while it’s on, and then totally forget about it later. Like, this song: it sounds good, but it also kind of sounds like a billion Elephant 6 bands.
Track from the most recent Polyrhythmics album, Caldera, which is excellent as always. The compositions are getting more ambitious as they go along, which you can really hear on this song.
[Read More]I sometimes wonder if I’m going to look back on all the instrumental funk and soul that I listen to these days and think how a lot of it has aged poorly, in the same way that so much of the third wave of ska has aged poorly. But then I remember, none of this shit got popular, so it’s all good! And it allows me to get my horn fix without feeling like a dope! (I still love ska, though.)
[Read More]The beat that 9th Wonder put together on this track is smoking hot.
This song makes more sense if you watch the accompanying video for it. But, uh, I’m not sure if I’d worry too much about it. Also, I think we’ve had this song before, but looking through all these entries to confirm that is a hassle. Uhhh, I’m going to say we did?
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