The Du-Rites

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.

Whiskeytown, “16 Days”

Ryan Adams’ first foray into country, the first Whiskeytown record is alt-country only in the sense that it wasn’t made for pop-country radio. Other than that, it’s a country record in every sense. It’s a pretty good record, but I don’t find it as compelling as other alt-country acts, so it doesn’t get played very often.

The Du-Rites, “The Mean Machine”

Among the many reasons to love the Du-Rites is that they produce a steady stream of singles, which all consistently smoke. This is the a-side to one of those 7"s, and come on, that’s tasty.

Renegade Soundwave, “Murder Music”

I will always group Renegade Sounwave with Pop Will Eat Itself in my brain, and it’s almost impossible to separate them. But, if you’ve heard both bands, I think you can hear what I’m hearing. If you cannot, don’t tell me! I don’t care!

Silkworm, “Garden City Blues”

My library of bands I could compare people to back when I picked up this album in 1994 was fairly limited, and my big thought when I listened to this was “geez, Pavement much?” And, I suppose in my defense, this song still sounds pretty Pavement-y to my ears. That description sells Silkworm very short, of course, but when this was the first song on the record, I’m going to go ahead and let Young Josh off the hook.

Skinny Puppy, “Killing Game”

This is what passes for a tender song from Skinny Puppy. It works probably way better than it should, which really shows how good cEvin Key and Dave Ogilvie were at their jobs. Last Rights was the last album from them before they went on hiatus, and it’s an excellent one. I haven’t actually listened to any of their records after this one, I wonder if they are any good.

Sorry about the second song in the playlist. You’ll see when you get there.

People Under The Stairs, “You”

From Stepfather, an album that featured some pretty experimental songs, distinguishing itself from its more straightforward predecessors. “You” is built around a nice, conventional funk sample, though.

Front 242, “Tragedy (For You) [Instrumental]”

To the extent Front 242 ever had a “hit”, it was this song, briefly a staple of a certain sort of dance club. And just in case you wanted to hear that industrial dance beat more clearly, they helpfully provided an instrumental remix on the inevitable 12" single of the song, along with six more versions of it. Say what you want about the purveyors of industrial dance, but they got their money’s worth out of any song that got traction.