Sebadoh

Chris Farren, “Red Wire Blue Wire”

In a fine concept for an album, Death Don’t Wait (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is a soundtrack for a non-existent spy movie. I’m already a sucker for spy music, so I enjoy this quite a bit.

Melvins, “Night Goat”

There are definitely moments on Houdini where the idea of the Melvins breaking big in the wake of Nirvana and Soundgarden didn’t seem quite so crazy. This song, for instance, would seem to me to be perfectly palatable to the grunge crowd. The record didn’t really break big, because even its most marketable moments are pushing the boundaries for a mainstream crowd, but at least you can kind of see the outline of an idea here.

Versus, “Shower Song”

Nice drums on this tune! This is from the second Versus record, and it’s a more muscular tune than I remember them putting out. I’ll be honest, I haven’t listened to Versus in decades (outside of the tracks that show up here), and it’s kind of interesting reflecting how bands collapse down into stereotypes in our memory. Versus is a pop band in my brain, but this is pretty rockin'.

The Coup, “Get Up”

The Coup got together with one of their peers on this one, Dead Prez, combining two of the most political acts in hip hop at the time for one great track. I don’t know what else there is to say, they’re both bringing their A-game. Also, I love it when rappers imitate sirens, always a good move.

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, “Where’d You Go?”

This is the first Bosstones song I ever heard, when I saw it on 120 Mintes back in probably summer of 1992. I really enjoyed it as a total change of pace from what I was listening to at the time, but didn’t go back and visit the band under later, after I’d found the Specials, and started teaching myself about ska. It’s still a charming little tune, it’s hard to resist the big horns.

Lupe Fiasco, “The Emperor’s Soundtrack”

There’s something so grandiose about Lupe Fiasco’s stuff. The beats are so layered, and they’re structured in a way to feel really huge, and the production of the rest of the track reinforces that massive impression.

Sebadoh, “Junk Bonds”

A Jason Loewenstein song from Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock, which is a comp of tracks from a couple import EPs. Like a lot of material from them at this time, it’s a schizophrenic record, but that’s also part of the appeal of the band. Tracks like this threw the tender material into even sharper relief.

Krallice with Dave Edwardson, “Rank Mankind”

For their seventh album, Krallice brough in Dave Edwardson (Neurosis) to change things up. It’s still very much a Krallice record, with all the dizzying ideas that entails, so Edwardson mostly just kind of inflects the proceedings some. He gives the vocals a certain visceral grounding that gives this all a little bit more of a gutteral feel, as opposed to the sometimes purely cerebral feel of Krallice. The band is incredible as always, and this album rips.

Xzibit, “Just Maintain”

Before he was a tv host, before he was an ubiquitous (and now old) meme, before he was a famous rapper who appeared in video games, Xzibit was a promising young rapper who put out a couple albums that were pretty good. This is from the first of those records, from 1996, sounding every inch like it was from 1996.

Blue Meanies, “When We Were Queens”

I kind of poke fun at the Blue Meanies here quite a bit, because, well, they just doesn’t appeal to me much any more. But the horns sound pretty good here!

Godflesh, “Pulp”

When Streetcleaner was released, people would lump it in with grindcore, because Justin Broadrick cut his teeth in grindcore progenitors Napalm Death. But this isn’t grindcore, not the way we understand the genre today. Listen to yesterday’s Piss Vortex track again (it’s only thirty seconds!) to remind yourselves of what we think of grindcore. Instead, this really is either slowed down industrial metal (given the drum machine driving the proceedings) or more like doom. Either way, this is a touchstone for numerous heavy bands, who look to the plodding, punishing rhythems of this record for inspiration on how to make something really heavy.

Rocket From The Crypt, “Guilt Free”

The essential insight of Rocket From The Crypt, that garage rock is even more fun with a saxophone involved, is an elemental truth of music. It’s a lesson that more bands should learn.

The Mr. T Experience, “Our Days Are Numbered”

Like, this is a perfectly good song. But, let’s add a sax and see how it smokes!

Helmet, “I Know”

I’m going to avoid the obvious joke of saying this song needs a sax. It absolutely does not. It just needs to be cranked to tooth-rattling volume to be perfect.

Killdozer, “New Pants and Shirt”

This is the opener of Twelve Point Buck, a pounding exercise in downtempo noise that really is a statement of purpose for the band. It can be a bit much in extended doses, and my copy of this album is actually a double album with Little Baby Buntin’, which is a lot of Killdozer at once.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, “Bellbottoms”

Extra Width was truly mind expanding for me, a record that I played over and over, and one of the sole things that kept me sane during one stretch of a summer job that involved pulling staples from telephone poles 40 hours a week for an entire month. And when I got Orange, slapped it on, and this thing melted my face? I couldn’t believe that they managed to top it. Thank YOU very much, JSBX!

Czarface & Ghostface Killah, “Back At Ringside”

Czarface is Inspectah Deck, 7L, and Esoteric, making the sort of superhero/villain inspired hip-hop that MF Doom and Ghostface used to make. So, of course, they have teamed up with both Doom and Ghostface, which makes all the sense in the world. Ghostface managed to outshine the other folks on this album, but it’s still kind of a fun romp.

The Olympians, “Sirens of Jupiter”

The Olympians are a Daptone act featuring a remixed set of the same kind of usual suspects, with members of the Dap-Kings and Menahan Street Band, among others. They’ve put out just one album thus far, and it’s a fine slab of instrumental soul, if not at all groundbreaking. If you need more of that Daptone sound, you can certainly do a lot worse.