Strange Ways

Non Phixion, “Legacy”

This is from the comp Fat Beats Compilation, Volume 1, a nice release from 2001 of a bunch of cats going mostly pretty old-school. Yes, there are multiple DJ Premier tracks on the comp. It’s a fun record, worth just settling back and nodding your head along to.

Death Cab For Cutie, “Grapevine Fires”

As always, I can’t really tell Death Cab records apart, other than Transatlanticism. This is not that record, so I dunno, it’s from Photos About Narrow Voting Plans or whatever. It’s fine, I enjoy this just fine! I’m just going to forget it shortly. This is probably a me problem.

De La Soul, “Church”

After the lackluster Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump and the uneven AOI: Bionix, I was wondering if De La Soul were done. The answer was answered definitively by the next album, The Grind Date: no, they were not done. At least part of that was the production they got on the record, with good work from folks like J Dilla, Mad Lib, and 9th Wonder (who is on this track). It’s not groundbreaking in the way their early work was, but it’s a just a solid record all the way through.

Here’s today’s music.

Channels, “$99.99”

We’ve encountered J. Robbins before, with Jawbox and Office of Future Plans. Channels is yet another of his post-Jawbox projects, and occupies a very similar space. What all of his bands, from Jawbox on, share is a similar focus on the same fundamentals: tightly wound songs, melodic choruses, fantastic drumming, and a certain essential artiness. Personally, I love it, and a new album from him is always a treat.