Five months in a row of a daily updates every single day. I can’t keep this up forever, but I’m hoping the consistency is nice for folks out there. (looks at analytics) Well, a few of you, anyway.
Gauche is a supergroup featuring members of Priests and Downtown Boys, playing new wave music in what sounds like nothing so much as an updated B-52s. I’m not really a huge new wave guy, but it’s hard not to have fun listening to rhythms this infectious.
[Read More]Music Of My Mind was the album where Stevie Wonder found another gear. He was a one-man band at this point, and he had really mastered writing a complete record. From here through Songs in the Key of Life, there was nobody better, and that five album stretch might be the best anybody has ever made.
I’m not going to say anything revelatory about this song or album, so lemme just say that this song is such a goddamn blast in Rock Band, both on the drums and singing. Both at the same time is fuckin’ hard, though.
[Read More]There’s a ruthless, efficient logic at the heart of 400 Blows. The find their groove, riff, or idea and just hammer away at it. It’s not that they’re robotic or simplistic or anything, but they recognize that repetition has a power of its own, and are unafraid to make use of it. It’s the sort of music you can disassemble an engine to.
[Read More]Badmotorfinger was the big leap forward for Soundgarden, where they married the murky hard rock homage of their early stuff to clean enough productions and songs to really appeal to a broader audience. And, carried forward by the contemporaneous releases of Nevermind and Ten, that broader audience found them. Soundgarden had always had potential to be a big band, as the core of that Sabbath/Zeppelin sound had a built-in appeal to a bunch of folks, and they would be one of the breakout acts of the grunge scene.
[Read More]Don’t have a ton to say today!
The Goats were an underground rap act out of Philadelphia, notable for using a live band during their second album, from which this song comes. Musically they would have fit in with the Tommy Boy acts of the time, such as House of Pain. Overall, the first album was pretty charming, and the second one kind of dragged. Honestly, I can’t remember listening to this stuff for probably 20 years.
[Read More]A Motown artist! A fake Motown artist! Big Business playing with two bands!
We’ve heard from Mayer Hawthorne before with Tuxedo, but here he is with his solo act. Hawthorne, who grew up in Ann Arbor, Michegan, not far from the home of Motown, didn’t really intend to be a soul revivalist. He made some songs mostly as a goof, but attracted attention from them, with legendary hip-hop label Stones Throw initially thinking that they were authentic, lost 60s singles. A full-length album followed, with Hawthorne following through on the promise of authentic sounding soul. Only, you know, with swearing. As his career has moved forward, he’s moved away some from the pure Motown revival, but my favorite of his albums is the one this song came from, How Do You Do, which is very much a revival record.
[Read More]Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant was Belle & Sebastian’s first real misstep as a band. Stuart Murdoch ceded a lot of songwriting control to the rest of the band, and the results were not super inspiring. There are some highlights on the record, and I still like it, but there are also too many so-so songs on the album. This song, the opener, is one of the highlights though.
[Read More]Still haven’t missed a day yet this year!
I think Ghost’s skits just kept becoming less comprehensible as time went on. They’re not even really skits any more. There appears to be no bottom to the gibberish. Anyway, this is from More Fish, which isn’t as good as Fishscale. But still a decent album. Good song once it actually gets going.
The Seattle grunge scene wasn’t really the only game in town at that time. While those acts became nationally famous, there were other robust rock scenes in town at the same time. Estrus Records was at the center of a garage and surf revival, including bands like the Mono Men, Gas Huffer, Man Or Astro-man?, and today’s act, the Mortals. This is pretty nuts-and-bolts rock, but played with plenty of energy, so that’s welcome. The second Mortals record, Bulletproof, is probably their best.
[Read More]Scarface is one of the elder statesmen of rap, having gotten his start with the Geto Boys, who terrified the hell out of mainstream white America back in the day. After leaving them and going solo, he’s had a long string of solid records, sometimes rising above that level and making something great. He’s also someone who has had the respect of everybody in hip-hop, bridging even the east coast/west coast beef when that was going on. This song comes from The Fix, one of my favorites of his.
[Read More]As I mentioned last time, Plaid was around for a long time, but I only picked up a couple of albums. I feel like you can really only deeply know a few genres, and electronic stuff has gotten squeezed out of my brain for no good reason. I’m sure I’ll go on a binge at some point.
I’ve always loved Mike D’s drum break in this song. I should try and play it. That’ll probably bug Megan proper!
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