Samiam

Conor Oberst, “Get - Well - Cards”

Conor Oberst is known primarily as the guy fronting Bright Eyes, a band that I never got into. Like, I don’t even have one of their albums in the collections. No real reason, mind you. Hell, they might even be a band I’d like. So, how did I end up with one of his solo records? Excellent question! Uh, well, I’m VERY stupid, and incredibly impressionable. So, I’m sure at some point I read a positive review and thought to myself “maybe it’s time to try out some of this guy’s music”! What do I think? I honestly had forgotten I owned it.

Back to Five Songs!

Don Drummond, “Jet Stream”

I was actually listening to this album (the excellent Don Cosmic, a compilation of a bunch of his Studio One tracks) in the car today, and was marveling at the warmth of the record. There’s an alchemy in the way this stuff is recorded, the ambient studio noise enhancing the intimate feel of it. It sounds like Drummond and his band are just playing for you, right in your room. Or head. Whatever. I kind of poke fun at vinyl guys, because how could you not, but there is a legitimate thing to having some of the organic noise of the recording come through as you listen.

Today!

Dale Crover, “Hillbilly Math”

Here we find Dale Crover playing one of the most straightforward rock songs that he’s probably ever been involved with. I guess you can see how this might not really be a Melvins song, and I’m not sure it’s really necessary, but whatrever, it’s totally fine.

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, “Such Is Love, Such Is Life”

We’re in 1963 with this song today. Frankly, Smokey is sounding a little Chipmunk-y on this song, making this a little less than the best from him.

Pretty happy with today’s set. La Gritona is exactly the kind of band I had hoped to highlight here.

Atmosphere, “When The Lights Go Out”

Atmosphere with Doom and Kool Keith guesting? That sounds amazing. Does it live up to it? Well, Doom is great! Solid song, overall.

Samiam, “Mr. Walker”

Been a few months since we’ve heard from melodic punk rockers Samiam. This song comes from their fifth album, You Are Freaking Me Out, the last of what I consider to be their peak albums (along with Billy and Clumsy). This stuff is just musical comfort food to me.

I think it’s been a bit since I’ve mentioned tools, so I’ll bring them up. The key thing I’ve been using to upload music is this MP3 to FLV converter. There are a bunch out there, but the others I’ve tried have been flaky or slow. This one has the tremendous advantage of pulling the cover art from the tags on the MP3, which saves a step of finding separate cover art. It also has the advantage of not being flaky or slow.

It’s D-Day! Let’s listen to music!

Samiam, “You Looking At Me”

Bay Area pop-punk that was part of that lively scene, best known for producing Green Day. At their best, during the Billy/Clumsy/You Are Freaking Me Out peak, they wrote great anthem-like songs that were just flat out fun to listen to. This is a song from their first album, before they were really fully polished, but you can hear their later potential.