The Fall

Mogwai, “Friend of the Night”

The other day, I mentioned that Rave Tapes wasn’t my favorite iteration of Mogwai. Mr. Beast is more my speed - it’s more conventional in a lot of ways, but it’s more lyrical. You know, in an instrumental kinda way.

The Fall, “Clear Off!”

Folks, this is the accessible version of The Fall.

Lustmord, “Dark Awakening”

There are two Lustmords on Metallum, neither of which appear to be this band. Looking closer, this is on Hydra Head Records, and so this must have been from the big grab bag that I bought from them. There was a lot of stuff in there, which I faithfully ripped, but there was so much of it all at once that I know I didn’t pay attention to all of it. So, no, I’m not certain I’ve listened to this before.

New Bomb Turks, “Girl Can’t Help It”

Pissing Out The Poison is a compilation of the early 90s singles and miscellaneous appearances by the New Bomb Turks. As that’s their garage-iest period, this is my second favorite release by them. As you would expect from a comp, it’s pretty uneven, but they’re always bashing away, so it’s never boring.

Floor Baba, “Neon Sands”

There’s kind of a Prefuse 73 feel to this track, with the way that the bass line sounds kind of inverted in parts of it, and the initial spastic rhythms. As the track evolves, it kind of loses that feeling, but it’s kind of a fun connection to make at first.

The Fearless Flyers, “Under the Sea / Flyers Drive”

A lot of covers like this one are basically just to generate the Leo DeCaprio pointing meme - excitement at recognizing a thing and little else. The Fearless Flyers (Cory Wong and Joe Dart of Vulfpeck, Mark Lettieri of Snarky Puppy, and Nate Smith of a whole bunch of jazz projects) are great enough players that it’s fun to listen to them add their flourishes here, but it’s still essentially a disposable track.

Jan Jelinek, “Universal Band Silhouette”

Sounds like being slowly dipped in warm syrup.

Jean Grae & Quelle Chris, “Gold Purple Orange”

Goddamn, Jean Grae absolutely kills it on this track. Somehow, she always startles me when she comes in, and then my skull melts.

Dance Hall Crashers, “Beverly Kills”

A lot of the Dance Hall Crashers songs were really not super inspiring or anything. And really, the point of the band is just listen to the harmonies and vibe. Isn’t that pleasant?

Happy birthday to me! I’m…more than 4 years old.

Labradford, “S”

There’s a lot I like about Labradford, and Mi Media Naranja in particular. And then it kicks of with “S”, that beautiful reverbed out guitar…and then you get that high pitched tone. And it drives me crazy. I wish it weren’t there! It’s unpleasant!

clown core, “flat earth”

I came across clown core through their absolutely insane videos (here’s the one for “flat earth”). But honestly, this kind of thing is really right up my alley. Sure, it’s avant-garde as hell, but it’s also goofy, the drumming is extreme, it’s noisy. Good stuff!

SIX SONGS

Buck-O-Nine, “Tear Jerky”

I often wonder at the functioning of the human brain. I frequently have trouble using the correct “M” name for the various folks and dogs who live in this house with me (in my defense, I’ve never used the dog’s name for one of the humans, but that time is probably coming). But I can still whistle along to the horn lines of forgotten ska records. Good use of gray matter there!

Not a ton to say today.

James Brown, “It’s A Man’s World”

So, uh, sometimes the sexual politics of Brown’s music wasn’t great. You know, it happens. I’ll just observe that Brown had a co-writer for this song, Betty Jean Newsome, which is kind of interesting.

(NB: on Star Time, this track has the above name, not “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World”))

Fugazi, “Public Witness Program”

I don’t want to take too much away from the majesty of this pure slab of punk, so just enjoy.

Music!

The Beautiful South, “The River”

Another relatively toothless song from the later period of the band. I can’t wait for some early tracks to show up.

Melvins, “The Mechanical Bride”

Another tune from the “double duo” years, when they had an extra drummer to augment their usual trio. This comes from (A) Senile Animal, a great album. One of the many thing I love about the Melvins is their use of space. Yes, they can just crank out headbangers, but they’ll often leave plenty of space for menace to build up, for the drums to breathe, for the compositions to evoke a mood beyond “GRRRRR”. (That mood is “GRRRR…(pause)…GRRRRRRRR”.)