Snoop Dogg

Hüsker Dü, “Divide and Conquer”

A thing that is easy to forget about Hüsker Dü is how ridiculously productive they were in their salad days. Zen Arcade, New Day Rising, and Flip Your Wig all came out within a 14 month period, a rate of output that’s even more impressive when you remember that Zen Arcade was a double album. Adding to the awe here is that all three records are bangers, with New Day Rising being my favorite hardcore record (which I’ve definitely never said about any other album!). Flip Your Wig somehow is the weakest of the three, and it’s great! It’s a little lighter, a little poppier, but it’s still full of energy and is probably a bit easier to get into than the other two.

The Afghan Whigs, “Neglekted”

I always wonder a bit about song titles like this one. What does the spelling here represent? It’s not a common alternate spelling or anything, so what was it that they were choosing to capture here? A mystery that might be solved with some simple searching, but I choose to just let it remain a question instead.

Dag Nasty, “Circles”

Founded by Brian Baker of Minor Threat, Dag Nasty took the hardcore of that band in a more melodic direction, folding in some of sound of the Descendents, with whom they toured. In fact, if you took the midpoint of those two bands, you get pretty close to Dag Nasty.

Valentine’s Day! Let’s do a special!

The Twilight Singers, “Candy Cany Crawl”

No! That’s the wrong kind of candy! Stupid randomizer.

Snoop Dogg, “Candy (Drippin’ Like Water)”

That’s the wrong kind of candy also! Starting to think that “candy” is mostly used as a metaphor in songs for other things than, you know, candy.

The Spinanes, “Kid in Candy”

First, before we examine the candy content of the song, let’s just take a moment and just marvel at how much fun it is to listen to Scott Plouf go on the drums. And Rebecca Gates is always a marvel. What a pleasure.

As I stagger out of 2021, this thing has been more challenging to keep as a daily thing. I suspect that at some point in 2022, I’ll probably miss an update and break my streak. And furthermore, I might have to step back the frequency a bit to provide some room for other creative projects. I still haven’t decided, but this is the time of year for reflection, I suppose. I would like to spend more time learning the bass. I’d like to make more progress on a game design. It’s hard to get too far with those when I keep up with this blog at this pace.

Sweet Baby, “Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby Baby (I Love You)”

I wonder if there was discussion about the correct number of “baby"s in the title, or if they just went with the line from the song and called it good.

UGK, “Life is 2009”

I don’t normally list the “featuring” in the title lines here, but it’s important that you all know that this features Oakland legend Too $hort, so of course this rules. I suppose you could have figured that out on your own. Well, whatever!

Tame Impala, “Desire Be Desire Go”

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.

Polyrhthmics, “Lord of the Fries”

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.

It’s Thanksgiving! I wrote this way ahead of time! Happy turkey day! I hope everybody gets stuffed and your families do not fight!

Fugees, “Fu-Gee-La (Sly & Robbie Mix)”

The Score is a masterpiece, one of the great records in rap history, but I do find the remixes of “Fu-Gee-La” at the end of the album largely unnecessary. I’d rather just listen to the original of it instead.

Snoop Dogg, “Imagine”

More or less every Snoop album after Doggystyle has been kind of, uh, shaggy. He often sounds like he’s mailing it in at least a little bit (and sometimes more than a litte), and Tha Blue Carpet Treatment is no exception. That said, it’s still one of the better albums he’s put together. It would probably be even better cut down to half its length, but Snoop is still very charismatic, so it’s a pleasant listen.

Here’s today, but check out the bonus song I link down below.

The Goats, “Rumblefish”

The second Goats album seemed like it was chasing the trends of early 90s rap, with plenty of stabs towards rock, jazz, and other types of hybrid styles. It doesn’t hang together particularly well, and it’s mostly forgettable. There are some fun moments on the album, but overall, it’s a miss.

They Might Be Giants, “Someone Keeps Moving My Chair”

The opener to the second side of Flood, the album that really put the group on the map. And while it has some truly great tunes on that first half, my HOT TAKE here is that the second half is only so-so. It’s that second half that puts this album nowhere near the top of my favorite albums from TMBG.

Stick with this, it gets good.

Negativland, “The Copyright Law (Part 2)”

The opener to the second disc of the bootleg/semi-official Negativconcertland, and while I think live albums are mostly pointless, a live album of Negativland (which had a big mixed-media audio/visual show) is extra pointless. Feel free to skip this one, y’all.

Snoop Dogg, “10 Lil’ Crips”

The Blue Carpet Treatment had multiple moments where Snoop didn’t sound totally sleepy, which means it’s one of the better late career albums for him. And then I looked, and he’s had, like, a billion albums since that one. So, this is now kind of mid-career.

Sorry about the flakiness in posting over the past week. I’ll try not to make a habit of it. Today’s playlist!

The Dead Kennedys, “D.M.S.O.”

This, from the Kennedys’ final album Bedtime for Democracy, is a pretty atypical track from them. Far from their usual blazing hardcore attack, we’ve instead got something that sounds more like a noir-ish song. Of course, Jello Biafra’s usual sarcasm and unique delivery are still present. The Kennedys were a staple of my high school years, and a lot of their work has held up pretty well over the years, but this is their least essential studio album.