The Beatles

Kool & the Gang, “Funky Man”

The second Kool & the Gang record was a live album, including a couple tunes from the first record, but mostly otherwise new songs. They followed it up with another live record with more new material, which was an interesting move. Anyway, both live records rule, like all early Kool & the Gang material.

The Beatles, “Please Please Me”

It’s pretty fascinating that the band went from this to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in just four years. I guess that sort of rapid evolution can happen when you release nine albums in those four years.

The Beatles, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, blog goes on!

The Du-Rites, “Bite It”

A thing that must be a delight about being an instrumental funk band is coming up with song titles. “Bite It”, that’s outstanding!

Eagles of Death Metal, “Secret Plans”

Heart On finds the Eagles of Death Metal not exactly taking things seriously, but taking things more seriously than the previous records. The previous albums sounded totally like tongue-in-cheek satires, albeit well-executed ones. This one feels more like it’s a genuine love letter to glam rock than it is a send-up of it. I’m not sure I like it better, though.

Intronaut, “The Pleasant Surprise”

I’ve engaged in a fair bit of introspection around progressive metal around here. I suspect it’s because the music is sufficiently ambitious that it invites us to engage with it seriously and think about it. Today, instead, I’m going to take a step back and try and instead answer a different, much more visceral question with regard to this song, instead of the usual navel gazing: does it rock? Reader: this song rocks.

Medeski, Martin and Wood, “Hey-Hee-Hi-Ho”

If my search is to be trusted, there are about 102 blog posts on this site indicating that I don’t know shit about jazz. Sad that I’m so ignorant, given that I actually listen to a fair bit of it.

Calexico, “Black Heart”

My favorite Calexico record. If this song doesn’t grab you, I’m afraid to inform you that you’re hopeless.

Therapy?, “Nausea”

Therapy? was a band that kind of got tagged with an alternative metal label during the early 90s. It kind of makes sense - this isn’t as gritty as grunge, and it’s not robotic enough for industrial metal, but it also doesn’t really have any markers of any of the genres of metal going at the time. This is from Nurse, a record that got them signed to a major label. It’s a decent record, although I’ll confess I haven’t thought about this band in ages.

NoFX, “Six Pack Girls”

Another track from the bootleg Maximum Rocknroll, which wasn’t authorized by the band and contains a bunch of pretty poor quality stuff. Not great!

Claw Hammer, “Uncontrollable Urge”

This is such a good song, goddamn. Claw Hammer really nails it, too. Uh, not a lot else to say here, really.

The Ocean, “Pleistocene”

I’ve meditated on pretension here before, so I’ll spare you all that guff again. But just for a moment, please admire the hubris involved in naming your album Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic. It’s a really good album, though, so whatever.

Kings Destroy, “W2”

You know, there just aren’t that many metal songs about tax forms, so let’s enjoy this one.

The Beatles, “Here Comes The Sun”

I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s been a while: it’s really disorienting listening to the Beatles with only one headphone in. I recommend it!

Big Black, “Dead Billy”

This song comes from the first Big Black release, Lungs (later collected with a couple other EPs on The Hammer Party). While it shows off Steve Albini’s dark sense of humor, the rest of his sound is still extremely embryonic here. This was a solo effort by him, and the lack of other contributors also helped produce the spare tunes.

The Beatles, “It Won’t Be Long”

With The Beatles is easily my least listened to album from them. It’s kind of hard to construct the thought process that would lead me to throw it on, honestly.

House of Rhythm, “Rudi”

There’s more than a little first wave in House of Rhythm, making them something of an outlier from the rest of the third wave of ska. That’s a common comment you’ll find on a lot of the third wave bands we get here, and that’s because I tried to seek out the ska bands, rather than the ska-punk and ska-adjacent stuff.

The Beatles, “Birthday”

Stupid Beatles! It’s not my birthday! Or this blog’s birthday, which is a day off of mine! I can’t put them in charge of anything.

christian fitness, “all ghosts to medicine counter four”

When you make really elaborate song or album names, it can easily tip over into pretension or tweeness. Andrew Falkous does a really good job with it, though. I mean, this album is called Love Letters In The Age of Steam. That’s really good!

The Beatles, “Eleanor Rigby”

This song might be my favorite for making up bogus new lyrics: “Joshua Buergel / Sits on the couch trying to think of a bit / Noone reads iiiit”

Oneohtrix Point Never, “Sleep Dealer”

Hot take time: Replica is real fuckin’ good!

…

I’m being informed that this take is ice cold.

The Exceptions, “Trailer Park Girl”

While The Exceptions are not remotely in the top tier of third wave bands, this is still plenty enjoyable, and you don’t have to just listen to the top bands in a genre. Well, you can do whatever you want. Except when you listen to this blog!

Pyrrhon, “Forget Yourself”

From Pyrron’s EP released after their second album, this is a good example of their hyperkinetic technical death metal. This is a short record, but they pack a lot into the thirteen minutes.

Common, “Go”

Common’s discography is uneven, but the high points are outstanding. I probably would take Be as my favorite, the Kanye West-helmed record which represented a bit of a comeback after the so-so Electric Circus. This was after Kanye West had become a star, but before he had become a megastar, and his ego didn’t get in the way here. The record is warm, full of soul, and has Common at the top of his form.