The Apples in Stereo

Meanwhile, happy birthday to me! I’m going to see what shuffle got me.

Steady Earnest, “Rumors”

From Take It! Take It! TAKE IT!, this is a great horn line in this song. I’m OK with my present so far, shuffle!

KC Bowman, “Matterhorn”

We’ve had a couple of Lawsuit songs recently, and now KC Bowman will make more sense. You can really hear the similarity in the songs (Bowman was one of the songwriters of Lawsuit). I do miss the rest of the band, but I’m happy that Bowman made another album.

Some music for you!

Booker T. and the MGs, “Time Is Tight”

Always love it when Booker T. and the MGs show up. This is from early in volume 2 of the Stax compilations.

Melvins, “Magic Pig Detective”

Stoner Witch was one of the trio of albums that the Melvins made for Atlantic, as part of their most accessible period. So, of course, right smack in the middle of it is an abstract piece of pure noise leading off a track. Because Melvins. Anyway, Stoner Witch is magnificent, and I highly recommend it.

Today starts out as slow as it gets, but don’t worry, that part doesn’t last long.

TV On The Radio, “Black”

Yes, it’s another 15 seconds of silence. TV On The Radio is, thus far, by far the clubhouse leader in “Most Annoying Contributions to Five Songs”.

(NB: I searched for “fifteen seconds of silence” and put that in the playlist instead of, you know, TV On The Radio’s fifteen seconds of silence. Think of it as a cover version.)

I kind of feel like I should give a Jim Anchower-style apology here for disappearing for a while, but the truth is, I was traveling and didn’t queue up any entries for while I was gone. Sorry about that! Back into the music mines with me, though!

The Microphones, “I Am Bored”

That was not the triumphant, rockin’ return I was hoping for. Oh well. Live by the shuffle, die by the shuffle. Anyway, I like the breakdown at the end of this song.

Tons of new releases that I picked up this week!

• Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Luciferian Towers
• METZ, Strange Peace
• The Du-Rites, Greasy Listening
• Wolves in the Throne Room, Thrice Woven
• Moses Sumney, Aromanticism

I think that’s it? Sometimes I get confused about what releases when, because I pre-order things when I hear about them. I haven’t had a chance to listen to them all yet, but that Du-Rites record is tight, and the Moses Sumney record is fantastic. Meanwhile, it’s all rock of various stripes today.

Pretty cool stuff today.

Amon Tobin, “Proper Hoodidge”

It feels like we’ve had Tobin before, but the mighty and infallible Five Songs Index says no, so here we are. Tobin is probably my second favorite electronic artist after Squarepusher, with Supermodified being my favorite album of his. It’s sometimes difficult to say what he does differently from others. I suppose, fundamentally, that there’s more of a sense of narrative with his songs. He seems to be going somewhere with his stuff, and sometimes electronic music can seem a little unfocused or aimless.

Some authentically old music, and some music that wishes it was older than it is.

Craw, “Eidolons”

I really cannot emphasize how happy it makes me that there are folks that are going back into our past and bringing bands to our attention. Craw’s revival via Kickstarter is one great example, but also labels like Light in the Attic and Numero Group are doing great work. There are so many amazing bands who might have not gotten a fair shake the first time around, and finding them is fantastic. Anyway, Craw is really good!

Just missed “Scentless Apprentice” by Nirvana. I guess we’ll have to wait for another day for my indisputable Nirvana album rankings. Alas. Well, here’s today’s music, anyway.

Sleater-Kinney, “All Hands on the Bad One”

Sleater-Kinney is a little bit of a strange one. I always enjoy them thoroughly while they’re playing, and then everything disappears from my brain afterwards. Sitting here, I can’t really call up the tune for any of their songs, despite having listened to them a lot. I like them! I’ve listened to them a bunch! And yet, they’re still invisible inside of my brain. Strange.

Just wall-to-wall rock today, except for the bonus track. These things are going to happen! On another note, I stuck in some analytics to see how many of you are reading this. Something like a dozen. Not bad! As always, listen along with me, won’t you?

An admin note: the Dillinger Four track has been excised from YouTube on copyright grounds before, and when I tried to upload it, they rejected it again. Because of that, I’ve done a sixth song here, so there’s still five in the playlist.