SWANS

Soundgarden, “Swallow My Pride”

A collision of early grunge elements here! This is from the second Soundgarden EP, Fopp, from 1988. It’s a time when Soundgarden was still figuring out who they were, and their sound was still mostly a melding of hard rock and garage rock and wasn’t yet what would be recognizable as grunge. But it goes further than that! This song is actually a cover of Green River, the proto-grunge band from the mid-80s that would spawn both Mudhoney (Mark Arm and Steve Turner) and Pearl Jam (Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament). The elements that would make up grunge were starting to come in to focus even in 1985, when Green River recorded this song, with Steve Turner’s filthy riffs in particular being a building block of the genre. The music made by these bands wasn’t quite yet divorced enough from hard rock, didn’t have quite enough of the grime or the muscular confidence that would allow them to break into something new. But it was coalescing.

Tackhead, “Ticking Time Bomb”

Is industrial funk a thing? There are bits and pieces of Tackhead that remind me of industrial, but it’s also very electro-funk. At the time I encountered this, I wasn’t sure of the combination, and it sounds incredibly of its time at this point, but I think I might be better inclined towards it today. I dunno, maybe I’ll spend some time with the record.

The Aquabats!, “Robot Theme Song”

Yup, that’s a robot theme song.

Dasher, “We Know So”

Here’s a rarity: Dasher is led by Kylee Kimbrough, who sings and plays drums. Pretty neat! It’s sorta post-hardcore, sorta noise, and is a fun record.

Swans, “The Wolf”

So, this little song leads into the centerpiece of double-album The Seer, the 32-minute epic “The Seer”. Michael Gira manages to capture drama in a way very, very few people manage in music. He doesn’t sound cheesy or overwrought, because his music can carry the weight he places on it. This stuff is best experienced in album form, but it’s an amazing record.

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'.

Television, “See No Evil”

There have been bands as cool as Television was when they released Marquee Moon, but I’m not sure there have been any cooler.

SWANS, “In My Garden”

On Children of God, Jarboe’s contributions to the band were placed much more at the center of things. The transition from the sound of nihilist, crushing despair over to spooky, creepy despair was thus complete. This era of the band is probably my least favorite, but that’s mainly just due to how much I like some of their other periods. As always, SWANS are never less than interesting and frequently much more than that.

Think Tree, “Everything Is Equal”

This is extremely college radio circa 1991. If you wanted to know what that sounded like. (Nobody should.)

Portishead, “The Rip”

Portishead put out an absolute stone-cold classic in Dummy and a fine follow-up, Portishead, before disappearing. Nobody really sounded like them then, despite plenty of people trying. But, surprisingly, they weren’t actually done. 11 years after their second, they put out Third, and there’s still nobody sounding like them. The album isn’t really the same cinematic trip-hop that they used to make, instead blazing their way into a brand new direction. I’m not even really sure how to describe it, honestly. I guess it’s just experimental rock? For a band that was always an outlier, Third is the outlier-iest.

Swans, “Half Life”

It’s stuff like this, from the early Swans career, that really drives home how appropriate the “no wave” label was for this. It just oozes nihilism.

Mos Def, “Mr. Nigga”

From Mos Def’s great first solo record, part of one of rap’s highest peaks, albeit a short one. This track is bolstered by Q-Tip appearing on it, driving home the song as a spiritual successor to A Tribe Called Quest’s “Sucka Nigga”.

The streak is alive!

New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble, “Low Blow”

This is from the second New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble record, Low Blow. To recap, the NYSJE was assembled from a bunch of folks from various bands in NYC, including the Toasters, the Scofflaws, and one member of the Skatalites. They play a mix of originals and compositions by other people, with this being one of the originals. All three albums are solid, and I recommend them.

Altar of Plagues, “Feather and Bone”

Altar of Plauges didn’t last very long, producing three albums, but the last two of those are masterpieces of metal. Fusing black metal with post-rock aesthetics, rooted in a willingness to let a song stretch out and breathe, I’d actually recommend the third Altar of Plagues album (Teethed Glory and Injury) to someone who wanted to give uncompromising black metal an honest try. However, I actually think their second record (Mammal, which gives us today’s track) is slightly better. It’s just a lot to take in, with only four tracks, the shortest of which is 8:17. But if you have the patience, and meet it on its terms, it’s brilliant stuff.

Blue Scholars, “Cornerstone”

The lead-in to the The Long March EP, this really tells you what to expect on this record. And, honestly, this is an extremely generous EP - 9 tracks, 35 minutes, that’s plenty of material for a full LP.

Blackalicious, “On Fire Tonight”

Aw, hell yeah, hip hop day! This comes to us from Imani, Vol. 1, released in 2015 after a 10 year break between records. Alas, there is no Vol. 2 (yet?). There’s actually some similarity in approach between Blackalicious and Blue Scholars, with both broadly approaching hip hop from a sort of modernized throwback stance, if that makes any sense. [reads what I wrote] It does not make sense.