Superchunk

Arab Strap, “Flirt”

Folks, the streak of metal is over!

I wonder what proportion of my music library is various genres. I think just plain “rock” probably dominates, but I’d love to know what percentage is metal, rap, soul, ska, or whatever else. I wish I could trust the genre metadata on things.

Superchunk, “100,000 Fireflies”

This b-side comes to us from the “The Question Is How Fast” single. Superchunk took singles seriously from the beginning, all the way down to releasing actual 7" singles at a time when not many bands were doing that. As a result, their b-sides were always pretty good. Happily, they’ve done a good job of collecting these things together (this one makes it to Incidental Music: 91-95).

Superchunk, “Precision Auto”

Superchunk’s No Pocky For Kitty is one of the records that really busted up my listening habits and helped broaden my tastes. That sounds stupid for someone that listened to a fair bit of punk prior to this, but it was pretty much all California punk. At any rate, I adored that record, and had high hopes for the followup. This is how it started, and my head was blown clean off.

Conjurer, “Blood and Thunder”

Conjurer followed up their excellent 2018 album Mire by doing a couple of collaborative records in 2019. They put out Curse These Metal Hands (which is great!) with Pijn, and then the record with today’s track, Conjurer x Palm Reader. It’s, uh, a split with Palm Reader. It’s just a four-song EP, with Conjurer contributing this cover of Mastodon’s song along with a cover of Slipknot’s “Vermillion”. It’s certainly an inessential record, but fun enough.

The Police, “King of Pain”

“King of Pain” is the first song I can recall reading the lyrics sheet for in order to try and figure out what was going on in it (the lyrics sheet didn’t help much). While I’m fully on board with digital delivery for music, and I’m happy to not fill my house with CDs and stuff, I do think that there are certainly small pleasures lost without the physical packaging.

Mastodon, “Black Tongue”

With Crack The Skye, Mastodon had kind of reached the end of an exploration, into very prog-y songwriting. In a lot of ways, it mirrored where Metallica had reached with …And Justice For All, and with both bands, the next album represented a real break in style. In Metallica’s case, it was driven by tragedy, with Cliff Burton’s tragic death. In Mastodon’s case, it seemed to be driven by just a desire to move in a new direction. The Hunter, the album in question, is not their best work. It’s still very good, but I personally find the epic stuff from their previous albums more engaging. It’s not until Emperor of Sand that I’m not back fully on board.

We finish on a couple of great notes here.

They Might Be Giants, “B19 Spare The Rock (bumper)”

It’s a bumper that was included with a Dial-a-Song download package. Not much else to say.

Descendents, “Coffee Mug”

And this song from the Descendents isn’t a whole lot longer than that bumper! The Descendents were fueled by coffee, including what they called the “bonus cup”, described by Bill Stevenson: “We took ⅓ of a cup of instant coffee grounds, added some hot water, threw in about 5 spoonfuls of sugar, and proceeded to play 10 second songs. The Bonus Cup became a part of everyday Descendents life”.

Another year-end roundup, this time from NPR. Meanwhile, another good set today. I feel like shuffle has been doing well for a little while.

Bim Skala Bim, “Shoes”

I’m surprised we haven’t seen Bim Skala Bim yet. One of the earliest bands of the third wave, arguably early enough to not be part of the third wave at all. They certainly reached their peak of fame during the third wave, though. With a stable lineup and an approach much like the 2 Tone second wave acts, they produced a solid series of records throughout the late 80s and 90s. This comes from Tuba City, their second album, which somehow got miscategorized in my collection with this album art:

Back in those music salt mines, bringing you more sparkling treats!

(NB: the last track is only on Bandcamp - I didn’t upload it to Youtube, because that seemed kind of dodgy.)

Conlon Nancarrow, “Study No. 2a”

Nancarrow is one of the most avant-garde artists in my entire collection. An American who fled the US fearing persecution as a result of his activities in the Spanish Civil War, he lived in isolation in Mexico. While there, he took to composing for the player piano, which enabled him to create incredibly complex compositions that a human player wouldn’t be able to perform. Many of his compositions strike you as alien when you listen to them, because he was able to create so many layers and strange patterns within his work. A bunch of his works were collected into a single volume, Studies For Player Piano, Vols. 1-5, which is what I have. I used to play his stuff on the air at WRCT occasionally, when I felt like my audience needed to be weirded out a little bit.

Sorry I get sloppy on the weekends sometimes. I need to figure out the automated post capability on this thing. Or, not. Nobody looking through the archive is ever going to notice! And nobody is going to look at the archive! Whatever, here’s some songs.

Superchunk, “Not Tomorrow”

The attributes that made Superchunk one of the truly great bands were all present on the debut album. The catchiness, the energy, the tight songs, and the sheer fun were all there, and showed what the band would turn into. But it’s all just a little sloppier, and a little muddier, and just not quite firing on all cylinders yet. The next album would be the big step up, but the debut album is still a worthy listen.

I hope people are listening to all of the songs that I’m posting here, including the ones that I’m suggesting are not for me. They might be for you! They might suck! Only one way to find out. Speaking of, here’s today’s playlist. Listen to it all! Or don’t. I’m not your boss.

Richard Lloyd, “Connection”

Richard Lloyd was part of Television, who made one of the all-time great punk albums, Marquee Moon, but I haven’t really paid any attention to any of his solo career. This song comes from an outstanding compilation, Ork Records: New York, New York, which Numero Group recently reissued. It’s a document of the very early New York punk scene, and I cannot recommend it highly enough if you have an interest in that whole era.