The Flaming Lips

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Sand”

Every now and again, Neubauten will make a song that’s relatively conventional. And you still end up with a creepy torch song like this one, complete with strangled half-falsetto and tribal drumming.

Built to Spill, “Revolution”

Before going on their tear with their last three albums in the 90s, Built to Spill released Ultimate Alternative Wavers. It forms the missing link between the Dinosaur Jr. tribute of the Treepeople to the extended twisted pop of their next few records. There are plenty of things to like on this record, and it’s easy to see how Martsch evolved from here, but it’s not their best work.

They Might Be Giants, “The Mesopotamians”

A lethally catchy song, I’ll be humming this for the next several days. I feel like The Else gets really kind of ignored in the TMBG catalog. By that point, they were really kind of becoming known as a kids’ band, and they just slipped in this really lushly produced thing right in the middle of three kids’ albums.

[looks at “kids’”] That looks wrong. I think it’s right? Ain’t gonna look it up!

Benton Falls, “Sad Like Winter Leaves”

We don’t get a ton of emo around here. Not because I dislike it, but I think mostly because when emo has had its various peaks, I was kind of listening to other stuff, and sort of missed out on a lot of it. I’m definitely the target audience! I’ve sat in a completely dark room listening to Slint’s Spiderland, which is extremely My Emotions Are Hard To Handle. At any rate, I generally like emo, and Benton Falls’ two albums are really very good. And: special shout-out to that song title. That is TREMENDOUS hustle right there. Primo sad boy shit.

Eugenius, “Breakfast”

The Vaselines’ leader, Eugene Kelly, formed a new band (called Eugenius) that got plenty of attention due to Kurt Cobain’s cheerleading for the band. Well, for the Vaselines, anyway. At any rate, that’s how I ended up with this album (Oomalama). And, well, it’s fine. It’s power pop, and plenty tuneful, but hard to get too excited about.

Sloan, “Before I Do”

Meanwhile, if you’re going to listen to power pop, you might as well just listen to Sloan instead. You can’t wave your hands without hitting a “they should have been big!” profile of Sloan, so I’ll save the space here. I’m not Canadian, so I’m not legally allowed to write that story anyway. Twice Removed is fantastic, anyway.

Boris, “Flower Sun Rain”

This comes to us from Smile, the US version, because Boris being Boris, there are different versions of this record with different track lists for different countries. I’m not a completist on this, and so I’ll just declare the US version is the best (inasmuch as it is the one I have). But enough of that, is it a good album? Of course it is, Boris doesn’t make bad albums. It’s more on their noisier side, coming on the heels of their most accessible record, but I like the noise.

The Flaming Lips, “Turn It On”

I tend to listen to the albums from Soft Bulletin on more than anything, but that’s kind of a mistake. The Ronald Jones albums (he left after Clouds Taste Metallic) are a different beast than the more symphonic stuff later, but that extra crunch goes really nice. This is a great tune! Now, if you go prior to In A Priest Driven Ambulence, you’re really getting some dodgy stuff, but this era (this is the opener to 1993’s Transmissions From the Satellite Heart) has lots to recommend it.

The Emotions, “I Could Never Be Happy”

Late period Stax single here, which you can hear in that much more 70s funk sound. And of course, the production at this point is much richer than some of the earlier stuff.

The Slackers, “Feed My Girl Ska”

This comes from the 2007 album Boss Harmony Sessions, which is sort of a bit of an odd record from them. They have some originals, some arrangements of other people’s songs, and some songs written by other folks from the band than Vic Ruggiero. It’s tied together with an intro and outro by “Boss Harmony”, which I think is one of King Django’s (Skinnerbox) many aliases. At any rate, the Slackers are great, so this is a pleasant listen, but it’s not one of their top tier records.

The Flaming Lips, “Once Beyond Hopelessness”

This is from the Lips’ Christmas On Mars, the soundtrack to their movie project, and it’s very much a soundtrack. As a result, it feels disconnected when you’re just listening to it, and it doesn’t really do a whole lot for me. The Lips can sometimes tend towards the abstract to begin with, and this album goes very far in that direction.

Arrested Development, “People Everyday”

This was the huge Arrested Development hit, featuring a hook borrowed from Sly and the Family Stone and a fun storytelling vibe. This album was huge, driven by this single, and then got completed wiped out by Dr. Dre taking gangsta rap to the top of the charts with The Chronic. At the time, critics lamented that this album represented a path not taken, but I think that really erases the direciton rap had already been heading. So instead, this is just kind of a footnote.

clipping., “Nothing Is Safe”

There was probably a time in my life when I would have regarded clipping. askance. I’ve long been OK with noise in my music, having picked up an affection for industrial as a teenager that continued forward with noise rock, various gnarly forms of punk, etc. And, of course, hip hop has been a staple of my listening for even longer. But for a long time, I thought I didn’t like pretension in music. It led me to avoiding things like prog rock, various forms of art rock, all kind of ambitious music for a long time. Or, at least, things that were ambitious in particular ways that set me off.

Ice Cube, “No Vaseline”

Ice Cube ended the explosive Death Certificate with a savage diss track on N.W.A, one that N.W.A wasn’t able to remotely respond to. They kind of didn’t really even try. While the homophobia in the song makes it jarring to listen to these days, I still can’t help but admire how hard Cube went at his former bandmates.

Firewater, “Some Strange Reaction”

I was pretty bummed out by the dissolution of Cop Shoot Cop, another band that seemingly was destroyed by a major label contract. The marriage of the punishing rhythms and samples of industrial dance with Tod Ashley’s emotional lyrics and delivery was something pretty special. Luckily, Ashley didn’t wait too long to start up a new project which would quickly surpass Cop Shoot Cop. The first Firewater album, Get Off The Cross, We Need The Wood For The Fire, set the template for the rest of the band’s career. Borrowing bits and pieces from all sorts of music traditions, but centered around Ashley’s cynical world view, he described the band as a “wedding band gone wrong”. This is the first song on the first album, and what a way to kick things off.